A Passion to Understand

Denial

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:26:03 PST

Rwandan Genocide, originally uploaded by daveblume

I’ve started reading A Time for Machetes: The Rwandan Genocide - The Killers Speak. I’m just reading the opening pages where the killers speak about how they were rounded up and organised to kill. I am overwhelmed by a sense of denial. Not in the political sense but the psychological sense; the sense where a dying person reasons that they feel fine or a mother refuses to believe her child is dead after exiting air from the lungs causes the vocal chords to sound. I am thinking that these seem like such reasonable, normal, nice people and even though I have studied the Rwandan genocide for years now, I find myself hoping that they are not the killers, that the story is going to work out differently.

But it won’t. I have already read Into the Quick of Life: The Rwandan Genocide - The Survivors Speak which I reviewed earlier on this blog and which had an incredible impact on me: On Rwanda: my passion and the need to know. I know what is going to happen and yet it is so horrific that the normal human reaction of denial in the face of death or dying is occurring, my mind’s attempt to protect me from the unimaginable horrors ahead.

I’ll be sure to review the book once I am done. I am currently months behind in my book reviews but will try to catch up soon.

Khmer Rouge Trial Update

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:19:38 PST

[Image Source]

Link: More Khmer Rouge leaders could face trial [CBC]

As inconceivable as it may seem, there are only five former Khmer Rouge leaders currently under investigation for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In early September Lars Olsen, legal spokesman for the UN-backed tribunal, said that more former Khmer Rouge leaders could be brought to trial as judges had given prosecutors the power to launch further investigations.

This was met with bitter opposition from Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen as he has been clear in his desire to limit the trials to the five original suspects. Hun Sen has threatened to end UN participation in the trials if prosecutors dig deeper and critics have said that this is because the suspects are now his political allies.

Hun Sen even sunk so low as to claim that pursuing more suspects could spark civil war in the already fragile country. Estimates now place the death toll from executions, disease, malnutrition and overwork during the Khmer Rouge regime at 1.7 million people or 20% of the total population at the time. To limit the prosecutions to just five people is insulting as it is and Hun Sen’s attitude reeks of a cover up to me.

Do I believe it is relevant to go over these leader’s 30 years after the fact? Well, we still go after SS members 65 years after the fact, so yes, I do believe it is relevant. The pain and legacy of the Khmer Rouge may be less immediate to us in the West but reparations are equally as important.

From TRIAL:

Kaing Guek Eav

Better known as “Duch”, Kaing Guek Eav has been detained in a Cambodian military prison since 1999. He was in charge of the notorious S-21 prison and was instrumental in the torture and murder of 12,000 Cambodians. He formally accepted responsibility for his crimes in March 2009 and apologized for his actions. Duch’s trial is currently underway and reached headlines recently when his defence objected to a request from the prosecution to apply charges of joint criminal enterprise: Defence weighs in on controversial doctrine [Phnom Penh Post]. Final arguments are expected later this month.

Thirith Ieng

As Minister of Social Affairs and Head of Democratic Kampuchea's Red Cross Society, Thirith Ieng was instrumental in organising the massive purges of the Khmer Rouge movement and various policies that caused great suffering. She was arrested in November 2007 and charged with crimes against humanity. Her first court appearance was in May 2008 at the pre-trial hearing of her appeal. She has not been in court since and investigations are still underway.

Ieng Sary

Known as "Brother number 3", Ieng Sary was the deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Khmer Rouge government. He carried out some of Pol Pot’s most atrocious campaigns and implemented the massive purges. Ieng Sary was charged with genocide and sentenced to death in absentia in 1979 but this conviction was not recognised by the international community. He was pardoned by the king in 1996. He was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2007 and arrested along with his wife. Many people have questioned why someone pardoned by the king was re-arrested but he was arrested on different charges.

Khieu Samphan

Khieu Samphan was commander-in-chief of the Khmer Rouge and first became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence when they took over in 1975, moving on to become President. He put Pol Pot’s theories into practice and cleared the cities of their inhabitants, thus provoking the human tragedy in which up to 1.7 million people perished. He was arrested in November 2007 and was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Nuon Chea

Designated “Brother number 2”, he headed the Permanent Committee of the Central Committee, which was in charge of labour, social welfare, culture, propaganda and formal education (or Conscience work). In 1976 he was acting Prime Minister and then from 1976 to 1979 was President of Assembly of Democratic Kampuchea. After Pol Pot, he was the most powerful member of the regime and was the key ideologist. He was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity and arrested in September 2007. An order was passed in September 2009 authorising his continued detainment.

Up to date information on the trials can be found at Cambodia Tribunal Monitor.

Right and wrong

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:51:42 PDT

I must apologise for being somewhat remiss in my blogging of late. Sometimes when I am doing research for a post, I come across such poison and vitriol that it makes me sick to my stomach. Like a rabbit in the headlights or a moth to a flame however, I am drawn to read these accounts and it just saps away my blogging energy.

That happened as I was researching the Srebrenica Massacre. It shocks me to this day that people can deny that a massacre occurred. In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered and between 25,000 and 30,000 women and children were removed from the area.

Burial of 610 identified Bosniak civilians on July 11 in 2005. killed by Serb forces during Srebrenica Genocide [Image Source]

Since the Genocide Convention was created in 1948 at the end of World War II, there have been only two events that have been deemed to have constituted genocide. Those events are Srebrenica and Rwanda. Srebrenica was the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. People who deny that this massacre happened or who claim that it was somehow justified make me sick. Genocide and holocaust deniers are simply poison.

Instead of linking you to the article that has me so upset, I will link you to an article about it on the excellent Srebrenica Genocide blog: Carlos Martins Branco Has No Credibility. I also found the Wikipedia article on the massacre to be especially useful. It is my erstwhile intention to spend some time at a future date going through the Balkan conflict.

Last weekend, I was quite pleased to get this blog onto Blogged.com and I dutifully clicked on the “South Africa” tag to see what I could find there. I was sickened by the racist, white supremacist, vile and hateful blogs that I found there. There are loads of lovely blogs about South Africa but lots of not so lovely.

I believe that racism is a weakness. I believe that simple-minded people find it difficult to expend the mental energy required to view people as individuals and so they view the world in generalisations. When simple-minded people feel threatened or inevitably inadequate, I believe they resort to racist behaviour and overly aggressive behaviour. They try to harm with words and they call people vile and insulting names to hide their own feelings of inadequacy and failure. Unfortunately, being a coward does not necessarily imply a lack of action and all two often these people will engage in violent and equally cowardly attacks or simply spread their vitriol to anyone who will listen.

Yes, there is an extremely high crime rate in South Africa. Yes, white people who previously treated black people like dirt are being targeted in reprisal attacks. Yes, people who are innocent and have done nothing to warrant such attacks are being killed too. Well, here is the thing: no matter how you coat it, the attacks don’t comply with the United Nations definition of genocide. High crime in South Africa affects everyone. One in two women is raped in her lifetime in South Africa but that figure is absolutely misleading. Far, far more black women living in townships and shanty towns are raped than white women living in the plush Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg.

These are crimes committed against the “Haves” by the “Have Nots”; crimes of opportunity and crimes against women by a patriarchal society in which women are nothing. Drugs, alcohol and rising gangsterism play a huge part in the crime in South Africa today and the most vulnerable, marginalised people remain the biggest victims of crime. To imagine that this is a racist issue is to deny the vast majority of crimes that are committed by people that are known to the victims, that are of the same race, community or even family.

Crime in South Africa is out of control and I blame the criminals for that. I also blame the government for not tackling crime, for not reducing poverty, for not creating enough jobs.

Yes, a huge part of the reason for us leaving South Africa was the crime. I knew four people who died of gunshots wounds inflicted to their heads but not one of those situations was the same as the others. To generalise, to claim racism or hate crimes would be to ignore the facts and uniqueness of each of those cases. It would have prevented resolution and understanding. Only in applying one’s mind and in not generalising can you ever grasp what happened and what went wrong: greed and betrayal; a robbery gone wrong; inadequate control of a service weapon and the final one, the one that broke my heart, the rise of methamphetamine use and gangsterism amongst impoverished youths in the Cape.

Perhaps it is more of the moth syndrome but I’d love to know what you think. Even if (or especially if) you disagree with me, tell me about it. Tell me how you feel and why you feel that way. You can answer anonymously but it would be great if you could let me know who you are and if you’re a blogger too.

Cambodia: The Killing Fields 30 years on

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:11:18 PDT

It is almost 30 years since John Pilger revealed the horror of post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia in his film “The Silent Death” which I featured back in May [link]. The Mirror has run two stories to commemorate the anniversary of Pilger’s documentary and they remind me again of the mindless and tragic evil that occurred in Cambodia. I don’t usually read Mirror articles let alone link to them but today I shall make an exception.

Phnom Penh After Khmer Rouge [Image source]

Link: Beyond the imagination of mankind [Mirror.co.uk]

This is an incredibly poignant article written by John Pilger as he remembers arriving in Phnom Penh. I feel as if I could quote the entire article but instead, I will quote two small snippets:

“The aircraft flew low, following the Mekong River west from Vietnam. Once over Cambodia, what we saw silenced all of us on board. There appeared to be nobody, no movement, not even an animal, as if the great population of Asia had stopped at the border. Whole villages were empty. Chairs and beds, pots and mats lay in the street, a car on its side, a bent bicycle. Behind fallen power lines lay or sat a single human shadow; it did not move”

“Today, Pol Pot is dead and several of his elderly henchmen are on trial in a UN/Cambodian court for crimes against humanity. Henry Kissinger, whose bombing opened the door to the nightmare of Year Zero, is still at large” – John Pilger, Mirror.co.uk

Tortured and Killed at S-21 [Image source]

Link: 'They will kill our parents tonight... we must escape' [Mirror.co.uk]

This is the story of Somaly Lun a young Cambodian who lived through the US bombing of Phnom Penh as a child and was captured and sent to work in a Khmer Rouge labour camp as a teenager. Remarkably, she escaped and made it to Thailand and was then brought to the UK by Oxfam’s Marcus Thompson.

The story in this article was so typical of the experiences of families who survived the Khmer Rouge regime and reminded me of the book First They Killed My Father which I reviewed earlier this year. The book has received a lot of criticism as it was written as an autobiography yet contains information the author could not have possibly known or remembered. As with my review of A Long Way Gone though (a memoir of a boy soldier), I still believe these books to be of great value and authentic enough to give a realistic portrayal of conditions in Cambodia and Sierra Leone respectively.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist, Maoist party that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 under the leadership of Pol Pot. They set up a radical form of agrarian communism where city dwellers were forced to leave cities and work on farms. Their murderous regime resulted in genocide - between 850 000 and 1.5 million people died from execution, torture, forced work or starvation, representing between 20 to 25% of the total population.

Human Trafficking Defined

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:08:03 PDT

Image source: Human trafficking, slavery and the sex trade

I found this fantastic table on the US Department of State website and I do hope it is acceptable to reproduce it here for purely educational purposes. The chart was developed by the Solidarity Center and is meant to be a simplification of the 2000 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.

In order for an a situation to be considered an act of human trafficking, it must have at least one the elements listed below in each of the criteria of process, ways / means and goal.

This is especially significant as the ways and means generally refer to an element of force and imply that the individual is a non-willing participant and the goal speaks to the perpetrators’ nefarious and illegal intentions. When we speak of human trafficking in the current sense, we are not talking about refugees banding together to boat their way into a safer country. These are people who are tricked or coerced during the process and are forced into slavery, prostitution or bonded labour on the other side in order to “buy” their freedom or simply save their own life or the lives of their families.

Process

Way/Means

Goal

Recruitment

Transportation

Transferring

Harboring

Receiving

Threat

Coercion

Abduction

Fraud

Deceit

Deception

Abuse of Power

Prostitution

Pornography

Violence/Sexual Exploitation

Forced Labor

Involuntary Servitude

Debt Bondage
(with unfair wages)

Slavery/Similar practices

Source: US Department of State: Human Trafficking Defined

Ancient History

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:33:59 PDT

I wrote this on 31 December 2007. I’m trying to place where I was and what was going on in my mind that made me think of this. I know that our dogs had just come out of quarantine so we were staying home on New Year’s Eve to babysit them during the fireworks. Still, I thought I’d post it now because it speaks to my continued unease at how we just tear up sacred sites and burial grounds in the belief that they were wrong and we are right.

One of the difficulties archaeologists and historians encounter is that if a civilisation did not leave a written history, it is almost impossible to understand that civilisation's buildings or artefacts.

One of the reasons our understanding of the Roman and Greek empires is so rich is because we do have writings of a very high quality. Most of us today know at least a little bit of Latin and we've all heard of Julius Caesar, Troy, Zeus, Thor and so on. Many of our days and months are named after these people (maybe it is better to say "concepts") that existed two to three thousand years ago.

The (very longwinded) point is that many people are mistaken in thinking that there were only two or three great empires 6,000 years or so before our common era (BCE) and that most of these empires expanded from the Middle East, China and Mediterranean taking over minor populations along the way and voila! you have the modern world.

This limitation in the understanding of our ancient history is exactly that - because it's not written down (and translated) for us, we simply can't understand the complex and diverse societies that existed thousands of years ago and so we live our lives thinking our modern society is the best; our Abrahamic-based religion is the true and only one; and so we run the whole range of destruction between digging up our ancestor's graves and digging graves for those that we kill in the name of progress, religion, entitlement and economy.

Do we really want to understand?

Child Sexual Exploitation: Silence is Acceptance

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:30:00 PDT

There is a fantastic photo essay on the UNICEF site entitled Silence is Acceptance. It has a really powerful message to tell about the proliferation of child sexual exploitation worldwide and is accompanied by photographs and personal stories of a number of victims and survivors.

UNICEF does a number of thought provoking photo essays and other titles include: Building a world fit for children, The rights of the child - Part I and The rights of the child - Part II. Their site is certainly worth a visit; in fact, the “rights of the child” photo essays gave me goosebumps over every single part of my body. It is a chilling and poignant reminder of how precarious the state of our world’s children that we had to codify and implement such a rights charter.

Gordon Brown’s address to the UN General Assembly

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:05:00 PDT

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressed the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2009. As a citizen and resident of the UK, I’d hoped to jot down my thoughts on his address earlier but you know, life sometimes gets in the way. My post on US President Barack Obama’s speech can be found here: Obama addresses the UN General Assembly.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown addresses the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly

[Photo source]

A transcript of his speech can be found at the Labour Matters site.

PM Brown began his speech by taking account of the global economic crisis and immediately asserting his belief that this is a global crisis that can only be solved by nations working together on a global basis and that growth can only be sustained if it is shared.

It is incredibly curious to me that he would start his speech in such a manner. I am not a fan of Gordon Brown and I find him to be one of the worst leaders I have ever encountered. Precisely because he doesn’t lead, he follows, and he is a man desperate for approval from others. So this opening statement seems to be an attempt to ingratiate himself with the various nations before he begins his address.

Despite what was a weak start (in my opinion) PM Brown then highlighted the main areas that he wanted to address:

climate change
terrorism
nuclear proliferation
global economic recovery
poverty and shared prosperity

While he shared nuclear proliferation, climate change and the economic crisis with President Obama, I found it interesting that he included terrorism and poverty as well.

Climate Change

“If the poorest and most vulnerable are going to be able to adapt; if the emerging economies are going to embark on low carbon development paths; if the forest nations are going to slow and stop deforestation - then the richer countries must contribute financially” - Prime Minister Brown, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

This is so interesting. While Obama was drawing the line and setting boundaries as to how far the US was prepared to go in solving the world’s problems, Brown was diving right in there. He said that proposed financing from the British government, drawn from public and private sectors, would be around $100bn a year by 2020.

Terrorism

Or, more accurately, “Why I continue to support an expensive and futile war in Afghanistan”. He starts off this section by saying that “a safer Afghanistan means a safer world” which sounds good on paper but it doesn’t change the fact that terrorism is still alive and well while innocent civilians and well-intentioned soldiers are getting slaughtered out there.

“It shames us all:

* that the people of Somalia and Sudan are still subject to the most terrible violence.

* that Israel and Palestine have still not found a way to live side by side in security and peace.

* and that for the people of Burma, their elected leader is subjected to a show trial and decades of incarceration.

There is more we can do; there is more we must do. And we must carry forward our efforts to take a more strategic, coherent and effective approach to peacekeeping and peace-building”- Prime Minister Brown, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

I hope it’s okay to quote so much of the speech but I actually did like this section of the Prime Minister’s speech. It was powerful but I fear that he has lumped gross violations of human rights, war time conflict and humanitarian crises under the umbrella term “terrorism”. It is not helpful at all to do that as it implies the legitimacy of one party over another illegitimate and criminal party. I’m virtually speechless (as in, I have no more words to blog) as my mind goes into the ramifications of the use of the term ‘terrorism’ versus genocide, ethnic cleansing, political oppression and state sanctioned persecution. The wording of this section was, as I say, powerful but the issues are sorely muddled in this section of his speech.

Nuclear Proliferation

“Once there were five nuclear-armed powers. Now there are nine, with the real and present danger that more will soon follow. And the risk is not just state aggression, but the acquisition of nuclear weapons by terrorists…

…all nuclear weapons states must play their part in reducing nuclear weapons as part of an agreement by non nuclear states to renounce them. This is exactly what the Non Proliferation Treaty intended. In line with maintaining our nuclear deterrent I have asked our national security committee to report to me on the potential future reduction of our nuclear weapon submarines from 4 to 3” - Prime Minister Brown, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

He started out so well and then he utters that last sentence. Great, should we reduce terrorist’s access to nuclear weapons by 25% (by the same ratio as 4:3) and then see how the world feels about that? What you are saying is that Britain will basically sacrifice a token submarine but you expect the entire states of Iran and North Korea to complete disarm.

Don’t get me wrong, I greatly support nuclear disarmament; I just wish Gordon Brown had not even uttered that last sentence.

Global Economic Recovery

“The great lesson of the last year is that only bold and global action prevented a recession becoming a depression. We have delivered a co-ordinated fiscal and monetary response that the ILO estimates has saved 7 to 11 million jobs across the world” - Prime Minister Brown, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

Okay, I have to say at this point that I'm getting a little tired. Unemployment in the UK is at its highest since 1995 and yet Brown is citing global successes in global economic recovery? It just seems to me that Brown is sometimes unaware of the 2 million unemployed in the UK and the fact that banks are calling in loans left, right and centre. Britons are in for a lot more misery before they start to see improvements.

Poverty

“The unyielding, grinding, soul-destroying, so often lethal poverty I saw in Africa convinced me that - unless empowerment through trade justice is matched by empowerment through free education and free health care – then this generation in sub-Saharan Africa will not have the opportunity to rise out of poverty - and will never be fully free” - Prime Minister Brown, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

After a mixed and at times bizarre address Brown closes by stating that several of the Millennium Development Goals could not be achieved in 50 years never mind the remaining 5 years of the undertaking. This is depressing and morale-destroying in a way that only Gordon Brown can manage but in a way, I do appreciate his honesty. He does end on a high note though by citing the inception of universal free health care in Burundi, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Nepal, Liberia and Ghana and by calling on other nations to do the same. Hmmm, perhaps he could implement that in the UK?

Gaza: Goldstone Finds Evidence of War Crimes

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:30:00 PDT

Link: Palestinians call for Israel to be 'punished' for Gaza offensive [CNN]

You may notice that of all things in this blog, I have stayed clear of blogging about Israel and the Gaza Strip. I have very strong personal reasons for staying well clear of this debate but this article seems too important to ignore.

I don't want it to be true and I don't want to take sides in this debate. The problem is that I have absolute respect for Judge Richard Goldstone, the man who headed the UN investigation into the conflict that incurred this past December and January in Gaza. He formally presented his findings to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today.

"The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point," Goldstone said Tuesday. "This is the time of action." - Judge Richard Goldstone, UN Human Rights Council, Geneva [CNN]

I first heard about Richard Goldstone when he headed the Commission of Inquiry Regarding Public Violence and Intimidation in South Africa regarding the political violence that occurred during the last years of Apartheid. Known as the Goldstone Commission, this enquiry was instrumental in fostering reconciliation at the beginning of the new democratic administration.

It found what we had known for years being that the political violence in the last years of Apartheid was fuelled by a 'Third Force'; by people who wanted the country to be destabilised and ungovernable, who wanted to derail the attempts at reform and the movement towards ending Apartheid.

Goldstone was also a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from July 1994 to October 2003. The Constitutional Court is the highest court in the country of South Africa. This often fills me with pride as South Africa is said to have the most liberal constitution on Earth and they have as their highest court that which protects their constitution and people's human rights.

During his term at the Constitutional Court, Goldstone served as the chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda from 15 August 1994 to September 1996. It was only later that I would hear from him again, however, and that was when he headed the International Independent Inquiry on Kosovo from August 1999 until December 2001. I bought the full report but was unable to complete reading it as my knowledge was not developed at that time. I hope to give it another try soon.

My question is this: if Judge Richard Goldstone is one of the most respected people on Earth, the one person that has been constant in our investigation of the worst humanitarian crises over the past 20 years, why are we so quick to call his enquiry biased and flawed?

"But Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, questioned the report in strong language Tuesday, calling it one-sided and shameful.

"This report is based on carefully picked incidents, cherry-picked for political effect," Leshno-Yaar said. "The authors of this fact-finding report had little thought about finding facts."

Israel did not cooperate in the U.N. investigation, calling it flawed and biased" - CNN

Like I said, I don’t want it to be true. I think the creation of the state of Israel after the atrocities of World War II was the first major success of the newly formed United Nations and a necessary consequence after the persecution of the Jews but I for one am going to try get my hands on Judge Goldstone’s report and to read his findings.

Entrecard Mutiny in Action!

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:05:36 PDT

I noticed that several of the blogs I visit disappeared from the Entrecard network overnight and I didn’t immediately connect it with the recent changes that Entrecard has made but I think most people have had enough of being messed around. (Entrecard is a blog advertising / social networking site). Whatever its faults, there were a great collection of political and current affairs blogs on Entrecard and I don’t want to lose touch with them. Therefore, I’ve decided to make a list of the political^[1] blogs I’ve been following through Entrecard.

Not all of the blogs below conform to my own political beliefs and I was asked why I would link to blogs of differing beliefs than my own. Well, even though my own views are generally liberal, I find it incredibly useful to read stories from all political standpoints so that I can make up my own mind. So while I don’t necessarily endorse all of the content on all of the blogs below, I do encourage people to visit them and to make up their own minds in turn. Mostly, I just wanted a convenient list so that I could continue visiting people.

Many of these are from memory only now as so many people have left. If I have left you out, please don’t hesitate to shout. (Oh, and if I have miscategorised your blog, then please let me know! I’d just about getting my head around American politics).

I personally haven’t decided whether to leave Entrecard yet or not. I guess time will tell. At the moment, no one is advertising so my hand may be forced!

Liberal

Centre or not determined

Conservative

[1] This is not an exhaustive list of the blogs I follow by any means. There are other political and current affairs blogs in my blogroll and many other blogs listed on my travel and media blogs.

Vietnam War – The Impact of Media

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:55:17 PDT

I'm reading The Girl in the Picture at the moment which is the story of one of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War:

I’m only right at the beginning but this is the first time I’ve read about events such as the Tet Offensive and the Hui Massacre. I’ve become really interested in the role of the media during the Vietnam War and the ways in which the American public were manipulated and played by the media. It makes me very aware of the current media coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan and the massive difference in the news as represented by the different news agencies.

“To see is to believe but in whose context?” – Charlton Heston, Vietnam War: The Impact of Media

The following video narrated by Charlton Heston does have a strong anti-communist bias but I found it quite interesting in that it shows us one thing: we as the public can never know the truth because the media will take images and video footage and make it represent whatever it is they want us to believe. Were the Americans wrong to go into Vietnam? Were they guilty of war crimes, massacres and atrocities? Or did the media completely forsake the American troops, condemning them when the troops and the South Vietnamese needed them most? Well, I guess it depends which news channel you are watching.

Vietnam War - The Impact of Media

Narrated by Charlton Heston (56 mins)

For the record, my own view on the current war against terrorism is that American and British troops are being led like lambs to the slaughter in a war where there are no clearly identified targets or goals and therefore, no chance of ever succeeding. Politicians should stop using young men ad women as their personal pawns and toy soldiers.

What Is A Crime Against Humanity?

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:35:43 PDT

I've just discovered The Pinky Show. Well, I discovered the video I'm about to show you a little while ago but I didn't fully appreciate what The Pinky Show actually is. The Pinky Show is a low-tech animated show that attempts to educate people about misrepresented, supressed or ignored issues. They are a non-profit educational project and they hope to challenge and expand people's beliefs.

This project is very much aligned with my own attempts – to put these issues into a format that people (including myself) will understand; to simplify issues yet still maintain their magnitude and importance.

I found this video at the One Peaceful World blog which is a blog about human rights, international law and conflict prevention among other issues.

In this video, Pinky calls up international law expert Peter Weiss who is vice-president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Pinky asks him what a crime against humanity is and how it differs from a war crime. They also discuss the 'superior orders' defense, torture and the role of the International Criminal Court.

This is a fantastic and educational video.

Obama addresses the UN General Assembly

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:42:58 PDT

The 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on 15 September 2009 and the General Debate opened today. During the General Debate, each member nation has the chance to address the General Assembly. Today's proceedings began with addresses by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-moon and the President of the General Assembly, Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil was next to address the UN General Assembly followed by President Barack Obama of the United States of America.

I consider President Obama’s address to be one of the most important as the USA is an extremely powerful nation and the USA are one of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. I hope to concentrate on the speeches by the representatives of all five permanent members of the Security Council as well as the speech by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa as this holds specific interest to me personally (being that I am a South African expat).

My brief overview of the UN General Assembly and Security Council can be found here: The United Nations: an overview.

President Barack Obama addresses the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly

A full transcript of this speech can be found at First Door on the Left.

Obama began by acknowledging that many have come to view America with distrust and scepticism but then went on to list many of the achievements that he has made during his first nine months as president, most notably being the prohibition of torture by the USA. It is interesting that he mentions in this paragraph his order to close Guantanamo Bay which is interesting because the future of the unit remains uncertain just four months away from the deadline as they struggle to make decisions on how to deal with the remaining detainees. I personally felt that this was going to be a broken promise but does Obama’s mention of it mean a renewed commitment or was he just hoping to gain mileage from the promise alone of closing it?

“We’ve also re-engaged the United Nations. We have paid our bills. We have joined the Human Rights Council. We have signed the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We have fully embraced the Millennium Development Goals” – US President Barack Obama, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

I’m left incredibly uneasy by this later statement by Obama. I feel that I want to say something like, “what do you mean that the US wasn’t already part of the Human Rights Council, that they hadn’t already fully committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations?”

There is so much that the United Nations is not achieving, so much that they feel powerless to do and yet they give permanent members of the Security Council the freedom to pick and choose which policies and programmes they will abide by? No, I am sorry. To me that is akin to not abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Geneva Convention.

“This is what we have already done. But this is just a beginning. Some of our actions have yielded progress. Some have laid the groundwork for progress in the future. But make no mistake: This cannot solely be America’s endeavour. Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone. We have sought — in word and deed — a new era of engagement with the world. And now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges” – US President Barack Obama, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

I think this is a very interesting statement. On the one hand, there is a sense that nations look to the USA to solve all of their problems and provide monetary support. There seems to be a sentiment (especially in some British media) that the international and domestic financial crisis will not abate until the recession ends in the US, that improvements cannot be made until the US finds a solution. Obama is saying that nations need to start taking responsibility for their own political situations but he is also saying that nations need to communicate and cooperate in finding global solutions.

On the other hand, there is a extent to which the US has been involved directly in the evolution of certain situations, notably in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is one thing to declare war on a government but what of the people that have been affected by those wars? I’m not saying I have the answer to that but I certainly have many questions. There is also the question of aid and financial support. Aid is never a gift, is it? US aid always provides revenue that is streamed back into the US as American companies and personnel are utilised.

My personal feelings are completely incongruent and dichotomous. I feel that each country should be sovereign and should look after their own problems internally before getting involved in the affairs of others and in the same breath, I wonder what will become of the third world countries that were ravaged by slavery and colonisation if assistance is not provided. Mostly though, I feel that if a country signs an agreement or makes a promise such as the US and United Kingdom respectively did with Zimbabwe, then they should uphold those agreements or promises.

“The choice is ours. We can be remembered as a generation that chose to drag the arguments of the 20th century into the 21st; that put off hard choices, refused to look ahead, failed to keep pace because we defined ourselves by what we were against instead of what we were for. Or we can be a generation that chooses to see the shoreline beyond the rough waters ahead; that comes together to serve the common interests of human beings, and finally gives meaning to the promise embedded in the name given to this institution: the United Nations” – US President Barack Obama, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

It seems that Obama is calling for the United Nations to achieve what they originally set out to achieve, to ignore the politics and the spineless diplomacy that continues to allow genocide, war crimes and perpetual humanitarian crises. If so, I wholeheartedly agree with him. I wonder if this will be the generation to finally get the United Nations back on track?

Obama reiterated the notion that all nations have rights as well as responsibilities and then he introduced four pillars that he feels are fundamental for the future:

non-proliferation and disarmament;
the promotion of peace and security;
the preservation of our planet; and
a global economy that advances opportunity for all people

Obama’s words on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation were powerful yet chilling as he promised to take action on Iran and North Korea if they continue to ignore international standards with respect to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"The world must stand together to demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise, and that treaties will be enforced. We must insist that the future does not belong to fear" – US President Barack Obama, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

Obama went on to discuss the promotion of peace and security and spent quite some time on the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians to great applause from the General Assembly.

“The United States does Israel no favours when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians. And — and nations within this body do the Palestinians no favours when they choose vitriolic attacks against Israel over constructive willingness to recognize Israel’s legitimacy and its right to exist in peace and security– US President Barack Obama, address to UN General Assembly, 23 September 2009 [transcript]

Obama then discussed climate change. It has been reported that China and India totally owned the US yesterday in the UN climate change debate as they promised ‘aggressive’ cuts in CO2 emissions compared with Obama’s simple acknowledgement of an historical failure to act and an undertaking to take action in the future.

Obama then discussed the global economy moving from the current financial crisis to a commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and a commitment to approach the 2010 summit with a concrete plan to make the goals a reality.

President Barack Obama is an excellent orator and I love to read his speeches as they fill me with hope and determination for the future. The problem is that words and excellent public speaking are not going to achieve real change but I do hope to be pleasantly surprised in the future and to witness Obama having made a real difference.

Project 2,996: Rosa Gonzalez

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:56:11 PDT

Today, I remember Rosa Gonzalez, a victim of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11th 2001. I’m writing this today as part of Project 2,996 and you can visit the site to read more tributes to the victims of 9/11. An amazing 1,081 people (so far) will be remembered formally this year through Project 2,996 but the purpose of the project is to let the world know that we will never forget. We will never forget the victims or the loss experienced by their families, friends, communities and indeed, the world.
Rosa Gonzalez was a single mother aged 32 and her 12-year-old daughter Jennifer meant the world to her. She was very much loved by all who knew her and as her brother-in-law Jeffrey said in a tribute to her on the Legacy site, “Rosa was also a beautiful and caring person that certainly did not deserve to die in this way… Rosa was a single mother that really making an effort to better herself and give her daughter the best upbringing possible. Her job with the Port Authority was another step towards success”.

Jeffrey and his wife took Jennifer in after 9/11. Shortly after the attacks, Rosa Gonzalez phoned her sister Migdalia from the 66th floor of 2 World Trade Center, told her she loved her and asked her sister to take care of her daughter. The New York Times tribute to Rosa quotes her sister Maria as saying, “Of course, Migdalia will take care of Jennifer. We will all take care of Jennifer. The situation is, we have to be strong for Jennifer.”
Rosa Gonzalez was one of seven sisters and she lived in New Jersey. It is clear that everyone who met her was taken by her infectious smile and friendly nature. As P. Martinez says on the Legacy site, “"I met Rosa a couple of years ago when she was working at the Housing Authority. She was always so happy and up-beat, kind and caring… My heart goes out to her daughter, I hope she'll always know what a great mother she had. I'm sorry Rosa that your life was cut so short”.
It is clear that Rosa stood out in the community and people remembered her once they had met her. This is evidenced by the number of people that expressed guilt at escaping from the Twin Towers themselves and their sadness of hearing of Rosa’s passing. I found the comments by her neighbour Cindy to be especially poignant as her grief was clear in her remarks: “It has taken me this long to be able to view this site. Rosa, Maggie and I lived in the same building and I still remember the day I was able to get home and found out Rosa wasn't. Sitting in the apartment with her family, posting pictures, leaving candles and flowers and waiting for any word at all. Although we were not close friends I will always remember the beautiful petite woman that Rosa was. I would give anything to be able to call her again to ask her to turn the music down!! Maggie I will always be here for you if you need me for anything”.
Rosa Gonzalez had been with her friend and colleague Genelle Guzman McMillan as they descended the stairs together and tried to escape from the World Trade Center. They had been holding hands but were separated as the building came crashing down. Genelle was the last person pulled out of the wreckage of the World Trade Center alive.
Rosa was one woman out of so many that died that day but she was a kind, caring and friendly woman who left behind heartbroken family, friends and co-workers and most importantly, her 12-year-old daughter Jennifer. I hope that I have succeeded in paying tribute to Rosa Gonzalez and that her daughter knows that people all around the world are thinking of her and her family on this anniversary of the attacks. Jennifer also left a tribute at the Legacy site: “hi my names jen rosa was my mother she was a very good person i love u and miss u so much we will never forgat u ever”.
I’ll be posting this one day early so as to assist the people at Project 2,996 in logging the names of this year’s participants. They have over a thousand entries to log after all!

The Power of Literacy

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:37:25 PDT

Bloggers Unite is an initiative by the founders of BlogCatalog to generate interest in important issues by getting bloggers to write about a particular subject on one day of the month. I see this as an effort to learn something new and to think about an issue long enough to write something meaningful and worthwhile about it and therefore, it is a valuable addition to my project to learn more about issues in an effort to understand them.

This is especially relevant in this edition of Bloggers Unite as I believe we tend to take literacy and its benefits for granted and struggle to comprehend the effects that a lack of literacy can have. On to International Literacy Day then.

UNESCO and International Literacy Day

In 1965, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) proclaimed September 8 to be International Literacy Day and it was first observed in 1966.

The aim of International Literacy Day is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies.

Although the programme has been running for 43 years, literacy is still a huge problem worldwide. This prompted the United Nations to declare the United Nations Literacy Decade which is lead by UNESCO and runs from 2003 to 2012. The overall target for the decade is to increase literacy rates by 50% by 2015 and this falls in line with the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals regarding the reduction of poverty.

On International Literacy Day each year, UNESCO takes the opportunity to remind the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally. On the UNESCO website, the following chilling observation is made:

“Despite many and varied efforts, literacy remains an elusive target: some 776 million adults lack minimum literacy skills which means that one in five adults is still not literate; 75 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out” - UNESCO

Each year there is a different theme to International Literacy Day and this year the theme is The Power of Literacy.

The Power of Literacy

Literacy is power. Literacy gives individuals the power to make basic choices in their lives and to lead their lives as they want to. That possibly sounds simplistic but a little choice goes a long way.

Image Source

Women and Literacy

Of the 776 million adults that lacks literacy skills, UNESCO notes that two thirds of those are women. That means that around the world, 517 million women are unable to gain skilled employment (if they are permitted to work at all) and they remain powerless to break the cycle of dependence and subservience as they lack the basic skills to empower themselves and make better choices for themselves. Note, I’m not implying that illiterate women make bad choices, I’m simply saying that there are less choices available to them.

This is not just a third world problem either. It applies across societies from Saudi Arabia where women are told what to wear and are prohibited from working or gaining an education to so-called first world countries where a lack of literacy can keep women dependent on a welfare state or working in the most menial of jobs.

The Asia-Pacific Region and Literacy

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) website states that the Asia-Pacific region is home to three-quarters of the world’s illiterate population. They say that illiteracy is both a cause and consequence of poverty, deprivation and under-development. Literacy is not just about reading and writing; literacy gives individuals the tools with which to understand their environment and equips them with problem-solving skills. Literacy leads to improved cognitive functioning and enables people to interact more effectively within their communities.

Think about all the things that we take for granted: voting, banking, reading road signs, following written instructions or using a computer. These are basic necessities that can be made available to individuals through basic literacy but they are part of the world that is closed off to the illiterate.

“[The education of women] acts as a catalyst in virtually every dimension of development and poverty alleviation, with outcomes such as reduced fertility, reduced infant mortality, improved child survival, better family health, increased educational attainment, higher productivity, and general improvement in the nation's economic situation.” - UNESCAP

Literacy and Socio-Economic Indicators

In 1980 the Nicaraguan government embarked on the Sandinista Literacy Campaign as prior to the campaign, between 75% and 90% of the rural population was illiterate. The Literacy Campaign was a resounding success and was awarded the prestigious UNESCO Literacy Award.

The campaign presented a unique opportunity to study the effect of literacy on various socio-economic indicators. “The Impact of Women's Literacy on Child Health and its Interaction with Access to Health Services” by Sandiford, Cassel, Montenegro and Sanchez was published in the Population Studies in March 2005. This excellent study of 4434 women studied the effects of literacy on nutrition and child survival. There were three test groups: women educated through formal primary education, women who became literate through adult education and illiterate and semi-literate women.

Child and infant mortality and malnutrition were found to be significantly lower amongst the adult-educated population than amongst those that remained illiterate.

The significance of this study is that literacy is powerful and improves the lives of those people who gain it. While the study did favour those that had received education earlier in life, the impact of adult-education on formerly illiterate women was significant.

Literacy and Breaking the Chains of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

As mentioned earlier, illiteracy is both a cause and a consequence of poverty, deprivation and under-development. Right across the globe, this leads to a phenomenon known as the self-fulfilling prophecy as the children of illiterate parents come to believe that they will not be able to escape the fate that has fallen upon their parents.

Literacy is power and can assist in breaking the chains of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Literacy empowers individuals and gives them access to a greater range of choices. Those educated as adults are better able to support their children and ensure their survival. Basic literacy paves the way for further education and the learning of new skills for both adults and children. Literacy builds communities and ensure that individuals are more productive and that they in turn can continue to support both their families and the community at large.

Perhaps the biggest power of literacy is that it builds a person’s self-confidence and spirit. This power alone can break the cycle and enable people to achieve greater things than their parents were able to achieve. The light that you see in a learner’s eyes, be they an adult or a child, is a light that continues to burn as they master the environment around them.

Visit the UNESCO International Literacy Prize Winners 2009 and see how you can get involved in improving literacy worldwide. Better yet, look up an adult education programme in your neighbourhood and get involved. With just a little time and patience, you’d be surprised at how easy it is to teach an adult to read! With practice and application, it is a skill they will never forget.

Project 2,996 – Last Call for Participants

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:19:03 PDT

An amazing 687 people have signed up to remember the lives of the people that were lost in the 9/11 attacks. This is a great accomplishment and a wonderful increase over the number of people that participated last year. They still need more participants so if you are reading this for the first time, then please consider visiting the Project 2,996 site and volunteer to write a short memorial.

NATO Airstrike Kills Over 40 Civilians

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:27:34 PDT

It is just over ten years since NATO led sustained airstrikes against Serbia and NATO has bombed two hijacked fuel tankers in Kabul today killing over forty civilians. Do we not learn from the mistakes and tragedies of the past?

AFP/Getty Images [source]

Link: NATO airstrike kills more than 90 in Afghanistan [CNN]

In Kabul, Afghanistan today NATO carried out airstrikes on a pair of hijacked fuel tankers. Ninety people were killed, including Taliban militants but reports from Afghan officials say that almost half of the victims were civilians.

The spokeswoman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, Captain Elizabeth Mathias, has claimed that they had believed there were no civilians near the fuel tankers at the time of the attack. It is difficult to know who is telling the truth because Afghan officials might have motives for inflating the number of civilian dead and of course NATO officials are going to say that they believed there were no civilians in the area.

I have a friend who lived in Serbia at the time of the 1999 NATO attacks. Over the years that I have come to know her, I’ve learned that she is just like me. We like the same music, share similar social and political interests and for several years we’ve shared a dream of one day meeting up in her town of Novi Sad.

In the years I have known her, I’ve also come to know about the devastation that Novi Sad experienced during the NATO bombings.

“Devastated by NATO bombardment, during the Kosovo War of 1999, Novi Sad was left without all of its three Danube bridges, communications, water, and electricity. Residential areas were cluster bombed several times while its oil refinery was bombarded daily, causing severe pollution and widespread ecological damage” - Wikipedia

Apart from the immediate injuries and deaths and the continuing suffering due to pollution and environmental damage, there is also lasting psychological damage. The residents experienced almost three months of sustained attacks; that is three months of fear and trauma.

So when Captain Elizabeth Mathias says of today’s attacks:

"Because of the prevalence of reports of civilian casualties, we don't want to be seen as ignoring the situation," Mathias said. "We don't want to wait. If something happened, we want to apologize." - CNN

I have to say that it is not enough. It is not good enough and they have not done enough to protect civilian lives or ensure that human beings do not experience pain, suffering, fear, trauma and loss of life. The human cost of this war has been unacceptable and while I support the men and women that choose to fight for their country, I do hope that one day all parties are brought to account for the deaths and injury to military personnel and civilians on all sides.

“Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-English speaking countries as to those that occur in English speaking countries” – Thou Shalt Always Kill – Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

I just get the feeling sometimes that if we had declared war on an English speaking country such as Australia or even South Africa that maybe people would care. If we were bombing France or Sweden, maybe people would take more notice. This war and the killing of civilians will continue for as long as we think of the Afghan people as somewhat different to us, as somehow less than human.

Maryam of My Marrakesh Travels to Rwanda

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:38:19 PDT

Almost a year ago now Maryam, a human rights and democracy specialist and blogger at My Marrakesh travelled to Rwanda. In a series of searching and poignant blog posts, she told the stories of the people she encountered and the things she learned. This is an amazing set of posts that is colourful and easy to read; not an objective newspaper article or staid historical text but the experiences of one woman reaching out to others.

Click on the thumbnail to visit the first of the Rwanda posts

You can navigate the posts by clicking the links above the post title to go to the next one. If you only read one or two of them, read these two:
Ethnic cleansing Rwanda-style: a story of genocide, while the world looked on
Rwanda's genocide: and Vestine's story

The Horror of 21st Century Sexual Slavery

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:09:43 PDT

Whilst there are legitimate forms of human trafficking, in recent years the term has come to represent the practice of recruitment, transportation, harbouring or receipt of human beings. These people can be willing participants (for example, refugees wanting passage to another land) but they are often abducted or taken by force. Once in the hands of the person receiving them, they are often forced into prostitution or slavery (sexual or otherwise), debt bondage or other kinds of forced labour and involuntary servitude.

"Human trafficking is the second largest organized crime in the world, it has become a larger business than drug trafficking and has generated over US$9.5 Billion/year" - United States Department of State

In his column, New York Times journalist Nicholas D. Kristof wrote a piece called The Evil Behind the Smiles. In it, he discussed the experience of Sina Vann, a girl who was kidnapped at age 13, drugged, used for sexual slavery and beaten and tortured repeatedly.

“I had heard about torture chambers under the brothels but had never seen one, so a few days ago Sina took me to the red-light district here where she once was imprisoned. A brothel had been torn down, revealing a warren of dungeons underneath.

“I was in a room just like those,” she said, pointing. “There must be many girls who died in those rooms.” She grew distressed and added: “I’m cold and afraid. Tonight I won’t sleep.”” - The Evil behind the Smiles [New York Times]

Following this piece, Kristof heard from several readers doubting that conditions were so abusive and saying that many women go into prostitution willingly. There is a huge difference between prostitution and sexual slavery. Prostitutes are paid, slaves are not.

I must admit though, I was also quite naive about sexual slavery and human trafficking at one stage. I was naive about a lot of things until I read Gangs: A Journey into the Heart of the British Underworld by Tony Thompson. My review of the book can be found here. The biggest thing I learned from his book is that crime is not fun or exciting or entertaining. It is destructive and horrible and things like sexual slavery do happen and they destroy the lives of thousands of people.

So I would never pass judgement on people for their naivety, for not being about to comprehend such evil. The video below is by Kristof too. It is mildly upsetting and may offend sensitive viewers but it is not too graphic.

“Barack Obama’s presidency will symbolise a victory over the long legacy of 19th century slavery. I hope that his administration will do more to tackle 21st century slavery” - Nicholas D. Kristof in The Face of Slavery

Next week I will feature some of the great organisations that are working to overcome sexual slavery and help victims to recover.

An award

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:27:04 PDT

One of my favourite blogs on the Blogosphere is The Modern Historian so imagine how nice it is to receive an award from him!

This "B-I-N-G-O" BEAUTIFUL BLOG AWARD means that this blog is...
B: Beautiful
I: Informative
N: Neighborly
G: Gorgeous
O: Outstanding

Stepterix from The Modern Historian voted me as Informative.

I really appreciate this award and I love that people are reading this blog and finding it informational and informative. I am, however, notoriously shy to pass such awards on so I am going to leave it here with a big thank you!

Get involved

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 11:36:04 PDT

Following on from my post on child soldiers last week, I have decided to feature a post on how you can get involved and help in various areas of the world. You can comment here or email missus.emm [at] gmail [dot] com if you would like your cause featured here and I will put a permanent link to this post in my side bar.

Liberia

Future Guardians of Peace

Help former child soldiers from Liberia in their education and development. This fantastic programme helps former child soldiers reintegrate into their community, continue their education and become meaningful and contributing members of society. They desperately need your help!

South Africa

Children of the Dawn

This is a South African community based programme where you can sponsor an Aids/HIV orphan to be schooled, homed and supported in their own community. At present, Children of the Dawn cares for hundreds of children over six rural communities but they need your help! It costs less than 50p or $1 a day to sponsor a child.

Australia

Smith Family's Learning for Life program

I discovered this over at Jayne's excellent blog Gleeful. This is an Australian programme where you can sponsor a disadvantaged child. They are currently helping 27,000 children and you can sponsor a child for about AU$1 a day.

Uganda: The Unknown Soldier

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:22:08 PDT

I found this fascinating link in the New York Times. Vertigo (an imprint of DC Comics) has released a comic book series called Unknown Soldier. Due for release as a collected edition on 26 August 2009, the series is set in Uganda and is about Dr Lwanga Moses, a Ugandan whose family fled the country when he was 7. He returns as an adult in 2002 and along with his wife Sera, hopes to put his medical skills to use in helping his country overcome 15 years of civil war.

According to the New York Times article, the series is so authentic and factually based that it comes with a glossary and explains the background of the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army and various players in the conflict.

[source]

The first collected volume is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be released next week on 26 August 2009.

The 2,996 Project

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:04:16 PDT

Ground Zero, Manhattan, New York

On September 11th this year, it will mark 8 years since the 9/11 attacks on the US. It has been a long time since I blogged about 9/11 but when I was in New York, I visited Ground Zero and the Tribute WTC Visitor Center. I don’t think I will ever be able to grasp what happened that day but I will never forget it.

Project 2,996 is a project whereby bloggers remember the lives of the victims of 9/11 and not their deaths. I think it is a wonderful and touching initiative and I certainly hope to take place this year. If you are a blogger, please consider going through to the site and volunteering to write a memorial. They really need the support as only 366 bloggers have volunteered so far this year. You can also take part if you don’t have a blog so visit the site for more details (I’d also be willing to host your post if you don’t have a blog).

Dispatches – Terror in Mumbai

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:17:20 PDT

Between 26 and 28 November 2008, the city of Mumbai as subjected to a coordinated and vicious campaign of terror attacks by ten armed members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Islamic organisation from Pakistan.

Ajmal Amir Kasab, the surviving gunman

Dispatches: Terror in Mumbai is a graphic and explosive piece of journalism that tells the story of the Mumbai terror attacks in the words of the victims, families, law enforcement personnel and surviving gunman. Watching this piece, I went through so many emotions including shock, horror and a deep sadness. On the Channel 4 site, they describe the attacks as an atrocity and they were indeed a cowardly and disgusting series of attacks.

The gunmen arrived by boat from Karachi and split up into pairs. They attacked a busy bar, a crowded railway platform, two hotels, two taxis and a Jewish spiritual centre. They fired indiscriminately into crowds and Kasab stated that their aim was to kill people. Simply to kill as many people as they could. At least 173 people died in the attacks and 308 were counted as wounded.

The worst thing about the attacks was that they went into one of the poorest countries on Earth and victimised people who would find it especially difficult to bounce back from the attacks. These were normal people; men women and children of all religions and walks of life, including Muslims. For an organisation that preached the unity of Islam, they sure did a good job at tearing families and communities apart.

Dispatches: Terror in Mumbai is chilling as it shows that the terrorists were basically brainwashed boys who were used and manipulated by their operators in Pakistan for whatever grandiose intentions they had. I abhor terrorism but this film helped me to understand the people behind the attacks, both the pawns and the power seekers.

I’ve embedded the videos below and I would really recommend viewing them. They are extremely graphic and disturbing though and may upset certain viewers.

Liberia: Guardians of the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Emm) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:39:04 PDT

Link: Loving Child Soldiers Back Into Society [Ode]

One of the most horrific effects of war in Africa in the past decade or so has been the use of child soldiers. Despite the criticism that the book has received, I still absolutely recommend that you read Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah if you would like to read an autobiographical account of a child soldier from Sierra Leone.

Today’s post is about former child soldiers from Liberia and the changes they have made since the end of the war in 2003.

Child soldier fighting for Charles Taylor's government [source]

I came across this brilliant website today: guardiansofthefuture.org. According to their front page, Future Generation Guardianship refers to the notion that:

“People who live today have the sacred right and obligation to protect the commonwealth of the Earth and the common health of people and all our relations for many generations to come.

Future Generation Guardianship is one way to do that. It is a new twist on an ancient idea” - guardiansofthefuture.org

The Future Generation Guardians are a handful of former child soldiers that have worked hard over the past six years to rebuild their lives, resume their education and move away from the life of violence, drugs and alcohol that they experienced as child soldiers. They want to talk about what happened to them, build and heal meaningful relationships, help rebuild Liberian society and be of service to their community.

Do visit the touching section featuring stories and photos taken by the children themselves. More photos can be found at the site futureguardiansofpeace.org which also features a section on how you can get involved and help these young people to reform and grow into contributing members of a developing society.