On soccer violenceAre racism and anti-Semitism an integral part of soccer, as recent events in France seem to suggest? What about known examples of England and Holland? Racist slurs there are so common among the fans that the language they use barely registers. For the longest time researchers of sports and violence have been claiming that tolerance of violence connected to sports will ultimately lead to physical violence, assaults and worse.
As reported by the
New York Times and many other outlets, this is exactly what happened in France. Extreme right-wing fans of a Paris St. Germain team started violence that led to one of them being shot by a policeman. The fans' reaction, predictably enough, was to blame the policeman. Needless to say, he was protecting another youth from the fans' violence.
Violence is routine in European soccer games and racism and anti-Semitism are an acceptable part of it. Something is now going to have to be done - at least in France.
It is the fans, who are violent - so stop blaming the policeman!
Nigerian women raped by soldiers - no punishmentsAccording to a
human rights report and as reported by all
major networks, Nigerian soldiers are raping and sexually assaulting women whilst the government fails to do anything to counter these acts. No punishments have been meted out so far and even the police have admitted that sexual violence is a problem within the security forces.
According to the recent report, police are routinely using rape as a means of intimidating whole communities and also to extract confessions. Precisely because the rapists are from the security forces, most victims are too afraid to report their acts. Victims are not only grown-ups but even small children and elderly women.
Amnesty International has taken steps to campaign against these policies and strongly condemns president Obasanjo's inaction on the issue. As a police workshop was recently organized to discuss sexual violence these efforts may start to bear fruit - a step to the right direction has been taken.
Violence against women - a worldwide human rights issueAs Hillary Clinton remarked:
"Violence against women is not a female issue. It is a human rights issue".Worldwide, as if an epidemic, women are facing not only discrimination but supression of rights and even state sanctioned violence, as reported by
Amnesty International . In Western societies, home is the most dangerous place to a woman - a female victim of violence is more likely to be the victim of her boy-friend, husband or other relative than a victim of random act of violence.
In many other, non-Western countries, female refugees and immigrants are vulnerable to all sorts of abuse. War-time brings out the worst in people, and during wars women are routinely being raped and violated - not only by the enemy but the stressed out males of their own society as well. Most crimes against women will not be investigated at all and in many countries law is flawed, thus offering practically no protection to a woman. Regarding domestic abuse in these countries, the more patriarchal the society, the more likely domestic violence is to be hushed up. Often then police will not even get involved in what they claim to be family or private matters.
Here are some figures from the Amnesty International:
- At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in her lifetime. This figure comes from a study based on 50 surveys from around the world.
- More than 60 million women are “missing” from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.
- Every year, millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and strangers, by employers and colleagues, soldiers and members of armed groups.
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Violence in the family is endemic all over the world; the overwhelming majority of victims are women and girls. In the USA, for example, women account for around 85 per cent of the victims of domestic violence.
- The World Health Organization has reported that up to 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners.
As we are just celebrating a day to stop violence against women, I urge you to go to the
Amnesty web site and sign their petition to stop violence against women. You can also get involved in your local community or start a group against domestic violence. This one is certainly a global problem that touches every race, religion and societal class. You cannot know if it will touch you one day! Therefore, it is everyone's moral duty to do something about it.
Silence comes at a price"
You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as ruthless and barbaric, as your most hostile critics have claimed". Litvinenko on Putin just hours before his death.
Litvinenko died of a radioactive poisoning, as reported all over the news media. But we remember him. Putin didn't succeed in silencing him because his death was broadcast all over the world and no one will forget the terrible death he died. Putin can control and silence one man but not everyone. Litvinenko's memory will survive because such an act of injustice and inhumanity as his poisoning cannot be forgotten - not ever.
How on earth in the modern world of free flow of information can Putin do these things, and literally get away with murder? Is it because of Western complacency only? Is it because of an existing conspiracy of silence whereby everyone knows something awful is happening but no one mentions it? If that is so, then not only Putin but also Western politicians have killed all of those journalists and other who died mysterious deaths recently. How can the EU invite Putin to festive meetings and not to think of all the courageous people he had killed? What about those languishing in his jails? Why are our leaders silent about all this when they meet Putin?
We, voters and citizens, must demand and tell our leaders:
Time to stop the silence and act.
Illegal immigration to EuropeThis Wednesday a high-level political meeting was held in Libya to discuss the problem of illegal immigration from both African and European perspectives. There is no way discussion on the topic can be avoided anymore. Europe has indeed turned into the land of opportunity to countless poor. Despite the dangers of illegal immigration thousands are willing to try. Many are easy prey to smugglers who never intended to help them in the first place. People literally starve or freeze to death, as victims of modern day slavery.
Lately and increasingly Libya has become part of the problem. Authorities in that country were not ready for immigrants, who try to reach Europe through Libya. New trafficking networks are increasingly concentrating on Italy. Now then this first conference including both European and African leaders tried to address both the issue of immigration but also the poverty, as its main reason.
Despite the talks, that is what remains, only talks. No one has an easy solution to a problem that in my mind includes also Europe's falling birth rates. If almost zero children are being born in many countries, immigration will be the only eventual long-term answer to a massive labor shortage among other things. But it is far from being a problem free answer, on the contrary, its problems are many and well-known.
For a long time a kind of denial and silence has been the European answer when in fact measures would urgently have been needed. Not anymore.
But what will Europe do?
Another Gemayel killedBashir Gemayel was elected president of Lebanon in August 1982. That was the start of the count-down to his murder - by the Syrians, of course. On September 14, he was killed -predictably enough - in a powerful explosion. The hope of Lebanon, as his supporters had called him, was dead. Shortly thereafter his brother Amin was made the president but never managed to do what his brother had set his mind to accomplish.
Now another murder of another Gemayel has just been reported by the
newsmedia following a string of murders of various Lebanese anti-Syrian politicians. Inside Lebanon the followers of Gemayel are pointing an accusing finger at Hizbollah, clearly in cohorts with the Syrians, clearly guilty as charged. The terrorist organization has nearly succeeded in destroying the country.
All of these events are related. Recent Hizbollah war against Israel was supported by Syria and Iran. As the recent
UN report indicated, not only flow of weapons came to Hizbollah from Syria and never stopped, but also actual fighters. Suddenly all the Israeli claims that - apart from the Hizbollah's Katyusha fire on Israeli cities - justified the war, seem completely plausible. Suddenly the UN confirms the flow of weapons to Lebanon. Peace-keepers may seem and hear no evil but even Lebanese civilians have recently confirmed to the
media their full knowledge of the ongoing weapons' smuggling. Still, especially the French troops are most concerned about the Israeli flights over the territory.
The international peace-keepers are not lifting a finger against Hizbollah. Lebanese army is not doing anything either. It would however be in the best Lebanese interests to expel Hizbollah and become an independent country - independent from Syria that is. Otherwise the country will become entangled in another war against Israel. Nothing but destruction will be gained by Lebanon from such a war. Many Lebanese already see what is going on.
Isn't it time for the world to take a more decisive stand against Syria and definitely against Iran?
Haven't there been enough statements - isn't it time of action?
The man looking into Politkovskaya's murder poisonedAs reported by all major networks and newspapers, the former Russian KGB agent
Alexander Litvinenko is critically ill in a London hospital following poisoning apparently by the lethal thallium. Writer of the book "
Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within", he has long been a thorn at Kremlin's side. But even more so now that he is investigating the murder of
Anna Politkovskaya. (For more details on her murder of October 7 see my postings from October 2006).
Kremlin already reacted to attempted murder / poisoning allegations denying the story as ridiculous.
How ridiculous can it be when in today's Russia journalists are practically routinely being silenced by killing? To choose to be a journalist in Putin's Russia is an act of courage, if not down-right suicidal...Opposition politicians are taken into prisons and media outlets closed under make-up charges of conspiracy or tax evasion, as a matter of course.
To accuse Putin of this then is ridiculous?
Putin's smug conduct, media silencing and worse is not the worst part of this story however. The worst is the Western compliance with him. There is a complete lack of moral judgement when it comes to him, and acceptance of "special Russian democracy" that makes me sick. Human rights, as Europe wants to have it, have to be respected by everyone else whilst nothing is expected from the Russians. I bet this poisoning attempt will never be solved.
It makes me sick to think that European politicians are in bed with Putin!
Don't buy Spanish tomatoes! / No a tomates de Espana!Province of Almeria in southern Spain. Blazing hot sun. In the winter terrible cold.
A year ago there was a slum there, actually not even a slum. Huts built of card-board boxes and old plastics, people sleeping inside poisonous gasses of the huge green-houses. People brought to work in Spain in the many orchards and vegetable cultivations. A year ago a story appeared about their exploitation in the Finnish daily's
Helsingin Sanomat monthly attachment. A story about poverty, lack of homes, beatings, and worse, by local Spanish youths when the mood struck them. Following the story's appearance, the slum mysteriously disappeared, as huge bulldozers came and completely flattened out the place.
But the journalists went back to look for their interviewees. It turns out that although they disappeared from sight but not from Spain. Some of them now live in the sewage canals, inside the dirty and poisonous pipes. About 1400 African immigrants are still there. They cannot enter the towns' cafes or restaurants but they are expected to do the dirty work with minimal pay. The atmosphere in Spain is anti-immigrant perhaps more than ever before. A legalization campaign was started but apparently only so all the illegals could be found. No one, but simply no one, could possibly have all the documents necessary for legalization. It has been suggested that it is indeed Spanish government's policy to keep enough illegal immigrants in the country just so the dirty work gets done. They are being maltreated with the government's permission.
Following the Finnish newspaper's expose of a year ago, Finnish MEPs (Members of European Parliament) submitted a written inquiry to the European Council and the European Commission about the issue. Answers were evasive, such as "each Member State decides about its own immigration policies".
Yes, the issue is complicated. Should more immigrants be allowed in if this is the way they are being treated? Is this not shameful and racist? Is this not more shameful than closing the borders? The people, who brand as racist anyone suggesting that a limit should be put to the immigrants' numbers, don't seem to care about the exploitation that goes on in Europe when there are no limits! Finally, in the case of Spain, how come Zapatero can devote his energies to peace initiatives when his own house is so clearly out of order?
Until this issue is being dealt with:
No to Spanish tomatoes!
Another model dead of anorexiaWhen Spain banned models below BMI 18 from its fashion shows earlier this year, the industry was shocked. (BMI below 18.5 is considered anorexic by WHO). But model Luisel Ramon paid with her life for the thinness obsession: she died of heart failure in August: heart failure that was obviously connected to her low weight. Now another Brazilian model, Ana Carolina Reston, just died as a result of anorexia. Growing criticism of the use of anorexic models is certainly in the air as reported by various
news sources around the world. The 1.72 cm tall Reston for instance weighted only about 40 kg - a weight suitable to a 12-year old according to the doctors.
Why are female models so thin when male models look rather good in a normal sort of way? Why do they have to look anorexic if the end customer is a normal woman? Is the whole fashion industry business yet another example of male cynicism and abuse of the female form? Should someone look into the fact that some of today's top models come from very poor backgrounds and their work supports whole families? Would these girls be willing to take on any dangerous chances just to earn a living? Who decides how much they should weight?
The only good development is that London's Fashion Week may ban below 18 BMI models too.
Undoubtedly, these dead models will be forgotten soon. No one remembers their names. That is why I wrote their names here - after all they died for something, didn't they? They died for the fashion industry!
What a banal way to leave this world.
Why battered women should seek help quicklyOf course, it seems self-evident that a woman should quickly escape an abusive partner and seek help for herself. On the other hand, we all know that things don't work out like that. A battered woman has lost her self-confidence and feels worthless. Often that, and not social pressure, is the primary reason she chooces to stay with the abuser whether he be husband or boy-friend.
If there are children involved, this is extremely dangerous. As reported in the quality Israeli newspaper
Ha'aretz, 50-80% of children of battered wives also suffer abuse. This abuse can take many forms but is mainly physical or sexual. New research, contrary to what was previously thought, shows that children do not suffer only from the emotional trauma of witnessing the adult violence but often end up as victims too.
Women's organizations have already reacted to the news. According to them, women should take any violence as a warning that their children are facing a dangerous situation. It is no longer a situation of battered wives but of battered children as well. Women must seek help as soon as the violence starts or else not only the destructive the behavioural model but also the trauma and shame will be transmitted across generations.
Unfortunately the research doesn't talk about the perpetrators at all. If a real change is to happen, it is them who need help and urgently too.
Become an online volunteerVolunteering has become a way of life to many; others claim not to have the time. Nowadays there is simply no excuse, as online volunteering has become the new form of giving to charity. As reported in an interesting article by the
New York Times, training is provided online and volunteers only need access to a PC. Whilst in the past online volunteering used to consist of fullfilling simple tasks, nowadays more and more charities and non-profits are dependent on these volunteers and therefore willing to increase the challenges and responsibilities of the jobs.
How does one become an online volunteer? A first step might be looking into sites, such as
onlinevolunteer.org for advice. One can also approach non-profits directly. For instance Pearls of Africa, a non-profit aiding AIDS orphans, functions today compeletely with online staff only. The only question that I might still think of is the lack of human contact. One aspect of volunteering at least for me used to be meeting other interesting people and hearing their stories...
So may be one should be online and offline too :)
Lost city by Andy GarciaI just saw the passionate, dramatic and moving film "
Lost City" by
Andy Garcia about his native Cuba. The music, the costumes, the dances - everything is there. Clearly Garcia has done the film with love; as he says it is indeed the work of his life-time. It left me with unexplainable sadness because that world was so brutally killed and lost forever. Revolution, a beautiful word filled with expectations that should be something positive but in most cases has been only murderous, brutal and vulgar. So in the case of Cuba as well.
What is so remarkably strange is the Western attitude towards
Che Guevara,
Fidel Castro and the revolution. Despite the excesses of this revolution, the many refugees and the more than 20 000 killed, anti-globalization's freedom fighters do not hesitate to carry Ernesto on their shoulders. As if anything anti-American by default was good, Western Europe never really condemned the hostile takeover by the Soviets. One cannot help but wonder if there aren't examples of this attitude around today as well.
Andy Garcia has created a film that shows a world that once existed and a world that will never be. I warmly recommend this film both for its artistic value and its historic content.
TheSmileTrain
Have you heard about this organization? Did you know about millions of children in developing countries suffering from cleft lip and palate? How terrible it must be, on top of malnutrition, to live in shame and isolation because of the terrible look cleft lip creates.
TheSmileTrain tries to help them. They accept donations of any size and give these children surgery.
Once you have seen apicture of such a child, you cannot forget it. So help them!
Belarusian Malady Front youth group members sentencedClearly politically motivated campaign against members of Malady Front has ended by the former being sentenced to prison sentences. In accusing the two sentenced men, Alexandr Kozulin and Dimitri Dashkevich, of running an unregistered organization the Belarusian authorities have clearly showed a political interest in silencing the two in addition to complete disrespect to human rights, including right to a fair trial. Kozulin of course is a former presidential candidate - a fact that makes the political motivation obvious.
The European Union through the Finnish Presidency is asking for access to Kozulin in order to ascertain his situation. International monitors should be allowed to visit him and other political prisoners.
Tax avoiding is hypocriticalAre there bigger problems to discuss? Yes. Is tax avoidance by celebrities - dedicated to good causes - problematic? Yes.
Bono is one of them, as reported in
Slate. He is a good-doer but apparently doesn't want his tax money to finance poor people's social security. It appears that he recently relocated his business from Ireland in order to avoid taxation on royalties. Ireland is one of the poorest Western nations so taxes would certainly help the poor of that country.
Is it easier to sing about the poor far away than help your neighbor who is too close to you? Or is it easier to fundraise than to give your own money?
To be honest, I would like this to become an issue and the fans to speak up.
Bono, please, live like you sing!!!
Human Rights Watch: PA fails to protect Palestinian females from violenceAs reported by AP and published in many major newspapers around the world, women in the Palestinian territories are routinely subjected to rapes, beatings and worse violence that goes unpunished. According to the international organization, female victims are sacrificed for family honor and tradition backs up anti-female activities. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics conducted its own survey already a year ago and it resulted that about 23% of women experienced violence whilst only 1% reported it. HRW called upon Mahmud Abbas to tackle the situation urgently.
Responding to the criticism, Abbas's spokesman admitted their weakness in dealing with the male - female violence and mentioned the lenient sentences meted out to male perpetrators as a reason for the continued abuses. Abusers go virtually unpunished and women are forced to marry their rapists. According to HRW there is a small ray of hope, as apparently some Palestinian legislators have signalled their interest in changing the picture.
Saddam Hussein sentencedBy now the whole world knows that Iraq's former dicatator has been sentenced to death. Kurds and Shias have been dancing - albeit looking over their shoulders vary of Sunni revenge. Outside Iraq reactions have varied. According to the official EU Presidency statement, death sentence is not appropriate to Saddam, as it is to nobody. Someone like myself, undecided about the death penalty's justification, can just wonder to whom it is appropriate if not to Saddam of all people.
Perhaps it would have been better if the trial had taken less time. Perhaps the whole Iraqian mess makes it difficult to appreciate the concluding of the trial. Perhaps it is again the banality of evil that Hanna Arendt so adequately described in "Eichman in Jerusalem". Like Adolf Eichman before him, Saddam is now this truly pathetic figure and therefore we cannot match his former crimes to him. Without their uniforms they don't look the part.Hopefully however, a small portion of justice has finally been served for the many imprisoned, tortured and murdered by Saddam and his henchmen.
More than any punishment meted out to Saddam, one hopes for Iraq to stabilize. Unfortunately it doesn't look likely anytime soon.
Hina's murderA beautiful Pakistanian woman was brutally murdered in Italy. As reported in the
Economist at the beginning of September, she had integrated too well. As reported in depth in Oggi, she was a modern working woman, earning a living and living with her Italian boy-friend. That is why her father decided, cold-bloodedly one might add, to kill her. Had it been in the Arab world, her murder would have been lauded if not gone completely unnoticed. But this was Italy - in the heart of Europe.
Hina had been living outside her home for years. She was lured back for a visit by her mother who obviously knew of the male family members intentions. She was buried in their backyard from where her fiancee, looking for her, found her body. Such a waste of her young life, and her family shows no remorse whatsoever!
In Italy her case has been widely publicized, as only one part of a growing trend of various crimes spreading among the large and partly illegal immigrant community. This was only one murder in a short span of time and effectively added to the ongoing discussion on citizenship, its limitations and duties. What is so sad is that Hina is not and will not remain the only victim. If something is not done, the practise of "honor killing" will continue. Forget about cultural sensitivity!
Should these poor women not be protected at least in the European soil?
Children used in Iraq against Coalition forcesAn Iraqi agency working with Iraqi children suffering from pyschological effects of the war, recently reported that the Iraqi insurgents are using children in their fight against the coalition forces. The whole story can be found in an article at
UPI . A member of the Iraqi government denied knowledge of children being used as suicide bombers.
If such use of children will be proved to be true in the future, it will hardly come as a surprise. The Palestinian teorrism organizations have recruited and used a number of children until now. Many of them have been intercepted at the checkpoints by the Israeli authorities before they managed to blow themselves up. What the terrorist organizations don't care for is the fact that the children's lives are in any case spoiled for ever afterwards.
The use of children is cynical and shows the complete lack of value the Muslim society puts on human life. It is also a criminal act and a grave human rights violation. It is also noteworthy that terrorist leaders never offer their own children to such acts...
What will come of the Palestinian and Iraqi children when from such a young age they are being recruited to die?
