People Matter (Lapis Lazuli)

March Across the Land

2011-12-23T14:05:00.001+01:00

By Linda Clifford

Free Bradley Manning!

2011-12-16T15:42:00.000+01:00

(Graham Nash, James Raymond sing a song in support of Bradley Manning: Almost Gone, the Ballad of Bradley Manning).

Free Bradley Manning!
Tomorrow is his 24th birthday, today he makes his first court appearance since having been in prison for 1 1/2 years.

Democracy Now today has an item about this court case and about Bradley Manning, icluding an interview with Daniel Ellsburg, the "whistleblower" of the Watergate-affair.

West Coast port shutdown announcement video (from Occupy Oakland)

2011-12-12T13:30:00.000+01:00

Saluut aan de mede-Byzantinologe

2011-11-29T15:05:00.003+01:00

Lia, vriendin van lang geleden, inspirator en mede-Byzantinologe uit Groningen, zou vandaag jarig zijn geweest. Helaas overleed ze in 2010. Ik zocht haar laatst om weer contact te maken na 20 jaar. Helaas vond ik toen haar overlijdensbericht.

Voor velen en voor mij is ze een warme, inspirerende persoon geweest die veel betekend heeft voor ons leven. Tot ziens, Lia, dank je.

Zie ook hier, en de website gewijd aan Lia van Midden.

Eenmaal terug uit Groningen, en afgestudeerd, hebben we (de Amsterdammers, niet verbonden aan de UvA, maar aan de RUG) met haar in gedachten het Onafhankelijk Byzantinologen Overleg (OBO) opgericht, op haar verjaardag (29 november 1991). Lia ging haar eigen weg, en ik heb het aan de OBO verbonden tijdschrift Gouden Hoorn gestart, weliswaar niet in de "glossy" stijl die zij voor ogen had, maar geheel zelf gemaakt, hand-made.

Thans ben ik bezig de inhoud van website, die verdwenen was, te archiveren op de nieuwe site.

Ik herinner me nog de eerste kennismaking met Lia: in Nijmegen, bij een bijvak dat we alle-twee hadden gekozen, elk een studente Byzantinologie van een andere universiteit. Zij was zo enthousiast over de studie in Groningen, dat ik, met een zeer armzalige studie aan de UvA zonder enige pit of inspiratie, besloot te "emigreren" naar Groningen. Het was een goede beslissing, en Lia heeft mij zeer gesteund.

De studies bestaan niet meer, Gouden Hoorn als tijdschrift is gearchiveerd, zelfs Lia is er niet meer, maar de herinnering aan haar leeft voort, haar energie en sprankel hebben anderen leven gegeven. Iets beters kan een mens niet geven.

Billy Bragg plays at Occupy Edinburgh

2011-11-15T20:36:00.000+01:00

November 14th, 2011

Brotherly Love

2011-11-14T14:11:00.000+01:00

Terry Callier: Brotherly Love (People Get Ready)

In case you think that I was embittered, because of what I wrote earlier today...

Terry Callier once sang a duet with Paul Weller (Brother to Brother); I like to post this semi-uplifting song from the Style Council though:

"A new recession"

2011-11-14T10:27:00.001+01:00

The newsreader really said it, with an uncritical tone that indicated he had no clue to what he was saying. That there has been a recession, a crisis since years for those seeking a job, did not seem to occur to him.
Yes, the job "market", that is the "market" in crisis since forever it seems.

In Holland there are hardly any jobvacancies in the library-sector (nowadays it is called "information management" to make it sound more highbrow and tech), let alone in academic work, research (only sciences maybe), higher education, editing, translating. These jobs are vanishing due to non-investment. Where do we all go to? What is an "account manager"? Can I become one, being a Byzantinist with lots of librarian-job-experience?

Also, there is no employer who will take someone and offer "development". I have never been offered to develop myself to a higher position, and if I tried by applying for a vacancy, I was turned down repeatedly. Now I believe I am just not suitable for boring data-entry jobs, boring contentless management functions, or any other job available on the shrinking "job market."

What about getting an education? Well, by the time I finish re-educating myself (after 20 years of schooling!), the "job market" will have changed again. Besides, who will pay the tuition fees? And as a matter of fact I am studying, but it is not easy to do when during the day I do my boring contentless data-entry job, which will stop in March of next year.

What about "starting your own business"? Hmm, in what? How do I invest? In this time of "a new recession"? With banks not lending?

High time for some more pro-active protesting (soon I will have enough time at hand), or maybe emigrating to where there is enough work? But where to?

Deze Middag is Mede Mogelijk gemaakt door: Mauro

2011-11-02T23:37:00.000+01:00

Met excuses voor de belaberde foto's, ik had alleen mijn oude telefoon bij me! Onbegrijpelijk dat we niet één iemand hier kunnen, nee, willen laten, omdat hij niet uit de EU komt? Belachelijk en schaamteloos!

David Rovics: We're gonna Stay Right Here!

2011-10-13T15:38:00.000+02:00

Don't Mourn, Organize!

2011-09-22T09:18:00.003+02:00

Well, I do mourn and feel sad and send my sympathies to the family, loved ones and supporters of Troy Davis.

We have to also remember this:
Here are Troy’s words relayed earlier yesterday:

“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I’m in good spirits and I’m prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I’ve taken my last breath. Georgia is prepared to snuff out the life of an innocent man.”

As many of you, I too feel very sad and shocked that innocence is not enough to stop a state-issued murder from taking place. It is even harder for people with an innocence claim to "prove" their innocence, as Troy Davis himself said. You can not just admit to something you did not do or partake in!

It is clear that the so-called justice system is not protecting the innocent, nor helping those who are victims of crime. 'It' seems at the moment to be working to enhance the chances for the careers of politicians and for those who want to move "upwards" in the judiciary and the "law enforcement"-branche...

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!

2011-09-21T10:33:00.000+02:00

Save Troy or anyone else from death row! Abolish the death penalty worldwide! Justice, not vengeance!

A message from Troy Anthony Davis
September 10, 2011
(received via email)

Troy was found guilty of murdering a police officer 19 years ago, based upon the testimony of 9 witnesses. Today, 7 of those 9 have recanted their testimony entirely, and there are enormous problems with the testimony of the remaining 2 witness accounts. There is NO OTHER EVIDENCE. The murder weapon was never found. There is no DNA to test. Troy is scheduled to die by lethal injection on September 21, 2011.

To All:

I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith. It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.

As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy. I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.

I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.

So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.

I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,

“I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!

16 september 1973

2011-09-14T13:03:00.001+02:00

Poem by: Victor Jara: Somos Cinco Mil

The "I AM TROY DAVIS" e-blast campaign

2011-09-13T11:29:00.003+02:00

Batch 8

Batch 10...

The "I AM TROY DAVIS" e-blast campaign (Batch One) Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis

The "I AM TROY DAVIS" e-blast campaign starts with you!

Call 404-913-3767 and with passion say "this is (your name) from (your location in the world) and I Am Troy Davis!" A real-time developing compilation of the drops placed over dope music will be e-blasted every 12 hours on U.S.R. Press League and facebook until September 21st, Troy's scheduled date of execution, which this campaign is against.

Additional things one can do include:

1. Organize rallies in your area

2. Set up teach-ins

3. Sign the Amnesty USA petition, asking the GA Board of Pardons & Parole to grant Troy clemency, and forward it to others :

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=12970

4. Set up vigils

5. Call Georgia Governor Nathan Deal's office and ask him to grant Troy Clemency (404)656-1776

6. Call Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles ask them to grant Troy Clemency (404) 656-5651

Finally, learn more about Troy Anthony Davis at
http://troyanthonydavis.org/

Let' Go...

If you support this campaign, always click the "download" link to save the song to your computer for continuous enjoyment. Also, click the "send to friends" link to tell a friend about this campaign.

For further information, instrumental submissions, campaign ideas, praises, or critiques, the email address is unitedstatesofrhythm@gmail.com.

Another gift from an incarcerated friend

2011-08-30T02:12:00.001+02:00

Visiting people at the Ohio State Penitentiary...

2011-08-22T16:58:00.000+02:00

Some leftovers from two great visits. Depressing yet uplifting. We have to hold on to each other for dear life...

Another present from another incarcerated friend

2011-08-18T20:57:00.000+02:00

It was not even my birthday!

A present from an imprisoned friend

2011-08-14T11:33:00.000+02:00

Let's hope the Good Luck associated with this four leaved-clover is with Harry...

Vigil for Bradley Manning! Amsterdam August 1st

2011-08-01T11:14:00.002+02:00

Vigil for Bradley Manning!

On Monday August 1st at noon, the Catholic Worker Amsterdam organizes a vigil in front of the American consulate at the Museumplein in Amsterdam. We will commemorate the sufferings of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and demand the immediate release of Bradley Manning. We will offer a petition to the American consul general, mrs. Ruterbories, and blow our own whistles in solidarity with Bradley Manning.

Info at noelhuis@antenna.nl and http://catholicworkeramsterdam.wordpress.com/

or phone 06-30295461.

Billy Bragg on democracyNow.org

2011-07-29T15:57:00.001+02:00

Here is a link to the story and video.

Don't lose hope, no condition is permanent (Biafran Saying)

2011-07-15T12:49:00.000+02:00

Ain't Got No... I've Got Life, van Nina Simone.
Ik draag dit op aan de dapperste, wilskrachtigste en standvastigste man en kameraad die ik ken. Die na 27 jaar elke maand daarvan, op tijd, de huur te hebben betaald uit zijn huis gegooid is, omdat een corporatie vond dat hij er niet genoeg sliep. Met hulp van "buren" (geen naasten).

Gelukkig waren er veel meer Mensen, Engelen, Goden die hebben geholpen hem te redden.

"Verlies niet de hoop, geen toestand is blijvend."

Cuts in The Netherlands in Graphics

2011-07-04T23:30:00.000+02:00

Joint Strike Fighter: 7,6 billion, Art Budget: 0,49 billion

Source: Mediamatic

Support the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike!

2011-07-04T12:44:00.004+02:00


Rashid Johnson who is in the red Onion supermax, made this symbolic drawing for support of the Pelican Bay Hungerstrike participants Another collective hungerstrike by prisoners in the USA is underway. This time it is in the Pelican Bay State Prison, California, which is notorious for its human rights abuses. I remember the correspondence I had a few years back with one prisoner in that supermax prison ("SHU") well. His poetry was very well written, so sad of tone though. He also used to mention Dante's Inferno a lot. He had grown up since longtime, and he was a gentle and balanced, grown up man in his letters. Why they kept him there, is beyond anyone who is rationally minded. He did not want to "debrief" (or "snitch"): tell the authorities about his fellow prisoners, which gang they were said to belong to. And as long as he did not want to betray his fellow captives to those who held them captive, they kept him there, or in another SHU-type prison. No one fares well by keeping human beings locked up in small cement blocks with no windows, for 23 to 24 hours a day, with no programs and hardly any human contact. The world is worse off with this type of prisons, keeping people for years on end in these harsh conditions, some are even released from a supermax without any assistance. So please support the hungerstrikers, those who want to change the ways they are being kept (would you not do the same?) by giving their lives. In a nonviolent way. In the name of Humanity and Decency and Respect for Life. Because we all have to rehabilitate each other, in order to create a safer and better world. For more information: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

Solidariteit met onze Griekse zusters en broeders

2011-06-29T22:32:00.001+02:00

Cleaning up after the teargas

Vandaag was het de tweede dag van een 2-daagse algemene staking in Griekenland gericht tegen zware bezuinigingen, een totale uitverkoop van de overheid, om opgelopen schulden (aan Franse en Duitse banken) te kunnen betalen. De Gewone Griek wordt uitgeknepen omdat buitenlandse banken geld leenden dat ze beter niet hadden kunnen uitlenen.

Xenofoob gezeur van Nederlanders over "luie Grieken" is dan ook een regelrechte aanval op onze mede-Europeanen, met wie wij solidair zouden moeten zijn.

Nederland wordt steeds wereld-vreemder, steeds meer op zich, bang voor "vreemden." Xenofoob, een mooi Grieks woord.

Hierbij wat links met meer info:
Occupied London heeft op hun blog vandaag updates over het door de mensen bezette plein en omgeving, Syntagma.

DemocracyNow had een verslag op hun tv en radio-uitzending door Aaron Maté vandaag over hoe de mensen de militaire politie ertoe bewogen te stoppen met traangas. Ik heb wat foto's van hun tv-beelden gemaakt, hieronder zijn ze te zien. Lees hun verslag onder de link.

tear gas used by the Greek riot police: made in Pennsylvania, USA


People were cleaning up the Syntagma square after the police left

Saturday Music

2011-06-18T22:27:00.000+02:00

The Meters: Cissy Strutt. For Saturday...

20 juni: vlaggend protest tegen vredesvlag

2011-06-16T19:00:00.000+02:00

Van: Omslag

UTRECHT/DEN HAAG - Kerk en Vrede voorzitter Henk Baars verschijnt op maandag 20 juni 2011 voor de Haagse kantonrechter, omdat hij geen gehoor gaf aan de opdracht van een agent niet met een Vredesvlag langs de route van de Veteranendag 2009 te staan. Vanaf 09:45 uur is er een picketline op de stoep van de rechtbank, om hem te steunen. Locatie: Paleis van Justitie, Prins Clauslaan 60, Den Haag.

Op Veteranendag 27 juni 2009 organiseerde Kerk en Vrede een alternatieve veteranendag “Gedane zaken nemen een keer” - over de omgang van de Nederlandse politiek en samenleving met militaire conflicten uit het verleden. Vaak ook nog over de ruggen van de destijds uitgezonden militairen.

Toen de veteranen langs de Boskantkapel, de plaats van samenkomst, marcheerden, stonden deelnemers aan deze bijeenkomst met regenboogkleurige vredesvlaggen langs de kant van de weg. Zij werden verordonneerd die vlaggen weg te halen en toen ze dat niet (onmiddellijk) deden, werd Henk Baars beboet.
Daarbij werd hem en andere deelnemers door een politieman toegevoegd: 'Dankzij deze mensen hebben wij nu vrijheid van meningsuiting. U moet die vlag direct weghalen.' Hij zag de tegenstrijdigheid tussen beide opmerkingen kennelijk niet in: uit dankbaarheid voor de vrijheid van meningsuiting moet de vredesbeweging die dag maar even haar mening voor zich houden.

De politieagent heeft geen enkele (andere) reden aangevoerd waarom het verwijderen van vredesvlaggen langs de route van een militaire optocht gewenst was. Daarom beschouwt Kerk en Vrede deze verordening als een flagrante schending van de - overigens niet door militairen - bevochten vrijheid van meningsuiting, reden waarom zij deze zaak heeft laten voorkomen. Kerk en Vrede wordt ondersteund door Mr. Meindert Stelling, die meer processen heeft gevoerd tegen ontoelaatbare inperkingen van demonstratievrijheden.
Kerk en Vrede roept zoveel mogelijk mensen op om op maandagochtend 20 juni a.s. vanaf 9.45 uur met een regenboogkleurige vredesvlag te demonstreren op de stoep van de Rechtbank in Den Haag. Mensen die (nog) geen vredesvlag hebben, kunnen er ter plekke één aanschaffen of dat vooraf doen bij Kerk en Vrede.

Voor foto's en achtergronden: www.kerkenvrede.nl

Borssele II Hupsakee: teken petitie tegen kernenergie-centrale Borssele II

2011-06-16T10:52:00.000+02:00

Teken hier.

Tekst:
BORSSELE II, NEE !

Met het aantreden van het kabinet Rutte lijkt er vrij baan te zijn voor de komst van nieuwe kerncentrales. De plannen van de aandeelhoudersclub ERH en van het Zeeuwse energiebedrijf Delta met hun franse partner EDF zal volledige medewerking krijgen van het huidige kabinet.

Een onverstandige keuze

De geplande investeringen van 4 miljard euro voor een kerncentrale waarvan er wereldwijd nog geen enkele draait, zorgt voor een verdrukking van echte groene energie zoals zon-, wind- of getijdenenergie. Voor het afval wat nog 240.000 jaar gevaarlijk blijft, is er geen definitieve oplossing. Bovendien is een kerncentrale helemaal niet nodig ! Nederland exporteert meer energie dan we importeren, naar verwachting tot na 2040. De plannen voor kerncentrales zijn dus voor het exporteren van goedkope stroom op een al bijna verzadigde markt !

Teken ook tegen de komst van nieuwe kerncentrales !

Kiezen voor een kerncentrale is onverstandig omdat;

Er is geen behoefte aan een nieuwe kerncentrale, sinds 2009 exporteert Nederland meer energie dan dat wij importen en de verwachting is dat dit zo blijft tot na 2040. ( CBS/Tennet & ECN )
Een nieuwe kerncentrale is dus voor het exporteren van goedkope stroom naar het buitenland, maar onze buurlanden zitten ook niet stil. Duitsland plaatste in 2010 voor 7500 MW aan zonnepanelen, dat is anderhalve keer meer dan de huidige kerncentrale bij Borssele !
Het transport van kernenergie via electriciteitsmasten en hoogspanningskabels zal zorgen voor landschapsvervuiling.
Het opgewarmde koelwater wat in de Schelde wordt geloosd zal bijdragen aan een veranderende biotoop, vissen en schelpdieren zullen verdwijnen.
Zeeland is een europese trekpleister als het gaat om rust, ruimte, polderlandschappen en natuur. Een reputatie als Europees nucleair-afvalputje kan enorme schade betekenen voor het Zeeuwse imago en de toeristensector.
Er bestaan nog geen werkende kerncentrales van het type dat men wil bouwen, het is dus nog maar de vraag of de techniek in de praktijk toepasbaar blijkt
Er zijn enkele EPR-type kerncentrales in aanbouw maar de bouw loopt verre van voorspoedig. De projecten kampen met grote kostenoverschrijdingen en constructieproblemen. Recent hebben zowel de Britse als de Finse veiligheidsautoriteit hun zorgen geuit over het ontwerp van de veiligheidssystemen van de EPR.
Een kerncentrale levert constant energie en zal dus variabele duurzame energie verdringen.
Nederland wordt een minimaal percentage minder afhankelijk van olie en steenkool, maar de voorraad uranium is volgens de Verenigde Naties ( bij huidig gebruik ) nog maar voldoende voor 40-60 jaar.
De delving van uranium, de brandstof van kerncentrales, zorgt over de hele wereld voor ernstige gezondheidsproblemen. Verontreinigd water en bergen met uraniumafval zorgen voor aangeboren afwijkingen in de omliggende dorpen, waar de gemiddelde leeftijd niet boven de 30 jaar uitkomt.
Kernenergie is niet CO2-vrij, van de bouw tot en met de ontmanteling produceren zij zo'n 65% CO2 van een gasgestookte centrale.
Kernafval blijft 240.000 jaar een gevaar voor mens en milieu.
De opslag van kernafval is slechts voor 100 jaar geregeld, lange termijn oplossingen zijn er niet. Dat wil zeggen dat de opslag geldt voor minder dan 0,0005% van de totale radioactieve duur

Poetry from Peter

2011-06-09T11:08:00.000+02:00

I've enjoyed reading Peter Ediger's poetry about world affairs, nonviolence and what it means in the world today. So I post some of his words here, but it is better to go to his page on the Pace e Bene site and read them for yourself, here.

The bin Laden Legacy

All this time
we were looking for him
out there
unaware
that he was
right here
[read the rest here]

And another poem by Peter Ediger:

The Temptation in the Libyan Wilderness

March 28th, 2011 - by Peter Ediger

In these days the Spirit is leading the people of nonviolence into the Libyan desert to be tested. The tempter comes to them saying, “If you are people of compassion, support the freedom fighters in Libya with your bombs to avoid a humanitarian disaster.” The people of nonviolence are answering, “It has been truly said, ‘Violence begets more violence.”

Then the tempter is saying, “Did not your prophet the Mahatma Gandhi advocate violence in the face of a madman?” And the people of nonviolence are replying, “You shall not take the words of your prophets out of context.”

Then the tempter is showing them all the revolutionary winds blowing in the area saying, “if you play your intervention cards right, you will see democracies rising all over the globe.” And the people of peace answer, “Violence is not the way to democracy.”

Gil Went Back Home

2011-05-29T20:33:00.000+02:00

Back Home

Op LaLa's Repertoire zou staan...

2011-05-25T16:16:00.000+02:00

Als ik zangeres was geworden, zoals ik al aankondigde in de vijfde klas lagere school (excuses aan Juf Verpalen voor de onrust die ik veroorzaakte in de klas met deze mededeling...), dan zou dit lied op mijn repertoire staan:

March across this land, door Voices of East Harlem. Ik draaide dit in de versie van Linda Clifford in diverse venues hier in De Stad:

I will not obey

2011-05-24T16:11:00.000+02:00

Utah Phillips teaches us on anarchism.

Utah Phillips: I will not obey.

The first text in an Ani diFranco mix...

De buitengeslotenen zijn in opstand

2011-05-20T11:47:00.000+02:00

Griekenland, Spanje nu.
Vertaling overgenomen van de opstandwatcher en krisis-analist:

"De buitengeslotenen zijn in opstand"

"Ontsla ze"

"Dat kan niet, ze hebben geen werk"

"Kort ze op hun uitkering".

"Kunnen we niet, die krijgen ze al niet"

"Verniel hun huizen"

"Onmogelijk, die hebben ze niet"

"Dan zijn we verloren"

But I get up again

2011-05-06T13:02:00.001+02:00

Voor alle activisten die met tegenslagen te maken krijgen (tot ziens in de kroeg!):

Chumbawamba: Tubthumping (I Get Knocked Down)
Met dank aan mijn favoriete mede-strijder.

Zalig Pasen bij de Nevada Test Site - Happy Easter at the Nevada Test Site

2011-04-25T01:07:00.000+02:00

Johnnie Bobb with the flag of the Western Shoshone Nation

Fr Jerry Zawada did the Easter Liturgy

(to be continued)

New sign will welcome visitors to the Western Shoshone Nation at Mercury, Nevada

2011-04-24T00:24:00.001+02:00

MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Saturday, April 23, 2011

Veterans For Peace

John Amidon

John Amidon (center) and Johnnie Bobb (right)

The Nevada Test Site was recently re-branded the Nevada

National Security Site. On Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011

a new sign (picture attached) will welcome visitors to the

Western Shoshone Nation at Mercury, Nevada.

Contacts:

Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council

Johnnie Bobb @ 775-964-2210

Veterans For Peace - John Amidon @ 518-312-6442 (cell)

Nevada Desert Experience - Jim Haber @ 415-828-2506 (cell)

What: A new sign for Mercury, Nevada, and civil resistance to the illegal occupation of the Western Shoshone Homeland and nuclear weapons.

When: Sunday, April 24, 2011 10:15 AM

Where: Nevada National Test Site, Mercury, NV

Who: Members of Veterans For Peace, the Western Shoshone,Nevada Desert Experience, Code Pink, and concerned citizens who support justice for the Western Shoshone and nuclear abolition.

Why: How is the war economy working for you, Las Vegas and how will you like the nuclear waste that the US government will once again try to shove down your throats at Yucca Mountain? The illegal occupation of the Western Shoshone Homeland has brought nothing but misery, disease, hatred and distrust to the world with the development of nuclear weapons. It is time to wake up. Time is running out. Let us hope we can learn from Japan. Restoration of the Western Shoshone Homeland will beginning the process of restorative healing which is so deeply needed. John Amidon (center) and Johnnie Bobb (right) in attached picture.

###

At the Goddess (Sekhmet) Temple, Nevada

2011-04-16T02:45:00.000+02:00

Flowers in the desert...

Cactus at Cactus Springs

Above us only sky...

Wake voor Iraniër Kambiz Roustayi: voor een humaner asielbeleid

2011-04-09T14:18:00.001+02:00

Van: Stop Racisme en Uitsluiting

Zondag 10 april a.s. wordt op de Dam om 15.00 uur een wake gehouden voor de Iraniër Kambiz Roustayi die zichzelf woensdag op deze plek in brand stak en een dag later overleed aan zijn verwondingen. Zijn herhaalde asielaanvraag was onlangs afgewezen. Deze wanhoopsdaad legt het onmenselijke asielbeleid van Nederland bloot. Ter nagedachtenis van Roustayi wordt een krans op de plek neergelegd waar hij zichzelf in brand stak.

Roustayi verbleef al tien jaar in Nederland. Hij vluchtte uit Iran omdat hij anti-regeringsgezinde publicaties op zijn naam had staan. Terugkeer was geen optie, omdat hij er vanuit ging dat hij zou worden opgepakt, gemarteld en opgesloten.

Roustayi staat niet op zichzelf. Te vaak verkeren vluchtelingen in eindeloze procedures, waardoor zij nergens een normaal leven kunnen beginnen: niet in hun land van herkomst waar zij hun leven niet zeker zijn, en niet in Nederland, waar zij van de wereld zijn afgesloten in asielzoekerscentra.

Een land als Nederland kan niet zomaar tien jaar, of zelfs een heel leven, van mensen ontnemen door een inhumaan, inefficiënt asielbeleid. Een land als Nederland kan niet mensen uitzetten naar een land waarvan ieder mens met een gezond verstand weet dat het daar onveilig is.

De wake, die ongeveer een half uur zal duren, wordt georganiseerd door Vrouwen tegen Uitzetting en Platform Stop Racisme en Uitsluiting. Advocaat Jelle Klaas zal spreken.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Voor contact:
zie www.stopracisme.nu

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English from Radio Netherlands Worldwide:

Netherlands failed to help self-immolation victim

Published on : 8 April 2011

On Wednesday, Kambiz Roustayi set himself on fire on Dam Square in Amsterdam’s city centre. A day later the 36-year-old Iranian died of his injuries. A friend of his, Parvis Noshirrani told Dutch television that Mr Roustayi talked about committing suicide when they were in an asylum centre together. But he received no help from the Dutch authorities.

“He was fed up with the situation. Roaming the city, sleeping in the streets. No status, no travel documents, no future. If he had returned to Iran, he probably faced the same fate. He was scared of being arrested and executed,” Mr Noshirrani told current affairs programme Nieuwsuur.

Pressure
Mr Noshirrani had to break the tragic news to Mr Roustayi’s family in Iran. His self-immolation was filmed on mobile phones. Mr Roustayi had been in the Netherlands for 11 years and expected to be deported. He fled to the Netherlands after he says he published articles in Iran which the authorities disapproved of. His requests for asylum failed each time.
Mr Roytayi’s lawyer Frank van Haren saw that his client was under severe mental pressure.

“He would look at me for a long time. Sometimes he would interrupt a conversation in which we were being positive by saying, ‘Do you really believe that?’ There were all kinds of signs.”

Responsibility
Mr Roustayi announced he was planning to commit suicide at a meeting with civil servants on 25 March at the asylum centre. But his friend Mr Noshirrani says he was not taken seriously and was not given help. Earlier this week, he wanted to jump in front of a train, but his friend persuaded him not to.
Mr Van Haren is also very critical of the Dutch authorities: “The authorities may be right to reject an asylum request and deport an asylum seeker, but if he is still here after eight or ten years and you see him deteriorating, and become mentally finished, only physically okay, there comes a time when the authorities have to take responsibility. You cannot just show someone the door.”

Legal assistance
Mr Roustayi’s act of desperation had a clear goal, says Mr Noshirrani. “He wanted to save other lives by ending his own. There are plenty of people in asylum centres, there are plenty of people who are deported without mercy.”
Immigration and Asylum Minister Gerd Leers called Mr Roustayi’s death ‘very tragic’, but says all the procedures were followed correctly and that the man was given proper legal assistance.

Second death
The Iranian embassy in The Hague says it is regrettable that an Iranian citizen abroad finds himself in such a difficult position that he kills himself. The Netherlands should in their words improve the ‘unacceptable situation of immigrants’. The embassy says it’s the second death in a week. It is not clear who the first case was. The Iranian embassy was unavailable for comment this morning.

Foolish Children on behalf of Mistreated Parents

2011-04-03T19:54:00.002+02:00

From: A Pinch of Salt:

A minute silence dedicated to your mother who died due to care provided in an old people's home - a gripping experience.
One of the organisers of the manifestation tells it with tears in his eyes. He had heard my story on national radio. We arrived a bit too late at the manifestation to be present for the silence..

Dwaze kinderen, foolish children - the phrase refers to the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, called Madres locas by their adversaries supporting the military regime - these foolish children demonstrated for the first time against the abominable state of care for the elderly or disabled in so-called care homes in the Netherlands.

I should hesitate to mention it, having heard that conditions are worse in most British care homes. But then again, if that is so, stand up and be counted and raise your voices.

Back in the Netherlands: hearing about someone's mother who was sedated by unknown "prescription" drugs, who was wheeled to the mortuary where she eventually died of hypothermia - you are not supposed to call it murder... but how else should you call it?

As for me, I still do not know what was done wrong with my mother. It is bad enough to have to deal with so-called care managers, inhouse gp's without any real knowledge or capability, first the phone call about her death on Saturday morning and a few hours later a second call: "Cannot you take IT away, IT is getting smelly".
"We have our planning to work by", reply after we noticed that all her earthly possessions had been robbed from the room where she died. They had allegedly been demolished but some pieces could be found back and others presumably were put on ebay or elsewhere by your friendly care workers.
So my mother died according to plan.
I will not tell the full story, especially since there are still so many questions about her death.

[If you read Dutch: the story can be found here (to be read in reverse order) and here (reverse order again).
The organisation behind the manifestation: here and here where an English translation is provided sometimes.]

But "mistakes were made, we offer an apology, please give your bank account number" says the new CEO of the Care Corporation, tastefully called Osira, combining Catholic, social democratic and humanist houses in one corporation. As if the robbing of tangible pieces of memorabilia (amongst which my own wedding picture) can ever be expressed in money.

That is why we were in The Hague, near the government buildings, as Foolish Children.
And we shall be there again every first Saturday of the month. And who knows - it may be the Dutch equivalent of Tahrir Square somehow, some day...

Osiris, the Egyptian god of death and resurrection - in the highly probable case you did not get the distaste of the name "Osira".

BBC World Service No Longer Broadcasting in The Netherlands!

2011-03-31T21:38:00.000+02:00

Dear BBC,

After having listened to the BBC World Service on the radio for decades, suddenly there was nothing, no program anymore, as of March 28th. We searched the internet only to find that the programs are still being made, but are not being broadcast/transmitted anymore, they are only on the internet!
We are very much upset by this turn of events, as we consider BBC World Service one of the best radio stations (even though we thought News Hour sounded more and more like a U.S. News Hour), and we do not know what to do now, place a laptop with internet where the radio is, to wake us up? We do not have such a connection in the bedroom, and it is far more complicating than a simple alarm radio.

We gather that it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that made this "cut", but we beg you to please switch on the transmitters again! We can not bear to listen to "golden oldies" or "provincial news". we feel nearly forced to listen to the Chinese World Service that broadcasts loud and clear on the mw, but in the morning this too was not available.
Thank you.

PS We found out that we need a radio with Long Wave in order to listen. So out goes the new radio alarm clock!

London: March 26 National Demo

2011-03-26T13:13:00.001+01:00

Today in London: March 26 March. You can follow this via twitter, I am following them via @LondonStudent, and there are blogs like the London Student Journalism Support Network (LSJSN): lsjsn.wordpress.com.

More bloglinks at: en.wordpress.com/tag/march-26-national-demo.

And UK Uncut: http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/

And the PCS Union: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/campaign-events/march-26-liveblog.cfm

Oscar Romero

2011-03-24T15:14:00.000+01:00

31 jaar geleden op deze dag werd aartsbisschop Oscar Romero vermoord in de kerk waar hij voorging, in El Salvador, door het leger, dat werd gesteund door de Verenigde Staten van Amerika. Hij nam het altijd op voor de armen en onderdrukten in de samenleving.

Lees (en luister) hier naar een kort item dat DemocracyNow hieraan weidde vandaag. Zie ook SOA-Watch voor acties en informatie over de geschiedenis en gevolgen van de (VS) Amerikaanse terreur in Midden- en Zuid-Amerika.

Come to the Sacred Peace Walk!

2011-03-22T21:32:00.000+01:00

More information:
Sacredpeacewalk.blogspot.com, or Nevadadesertexperience.org

We Are One

2011-03-22T12:01:00.002+01:00

I had not heard this song by Terry Callier before, so beautiful!
We Are One.

Another one by Terry Callier: Fix the Blame:

OK I need some more! Look at me now!

Keep the faith! ;-)

Amigo Smiley

2011-03-16T10:07:00.000+01:00

Somehow this song came into my head again (or, it has never left!) and it makes me smile:

Amigo, by Black Slate

R.I.P. Smiley Culture!
Schooltime Chronicle

Madison, Wisconsin: Tractorcade for Dignity and Humanity

2011-03-12T19:07:00.001+01:00

Live stream about the large gathering/demonstration today in Madison, WI.

Watch live streaming video from theuptake at livestream.com

And when this live stream is over, we can just think back with this photo...

Welkom bij OsiraGroep Sint Jacob: Het riekt er naar gebrek aan zorg, het 'protocol' gaat over lijken

2011-03-08T12:52:00.016+01:00

Rond half 2 op zaterdagmiddag gaat de telefoon. Iemand wiens naam ik niet versta, die weekeinde-hoofd bij Sint Jacob / OsiraGroep zegt te zijn, wil van mij weten wanneer ik het lijk kom ophalen, "het gaat namelijk rieken. Dat is niet aangenaam voor de familie."

Ik ben de schoondochter van "het lijk."

Natuurlijk hadden we al lang op die morgen van 12 februari de begrafenis-onderneming gebeld, en dat meldde ik aan het Hoofd. In mijn naïviteit ging ik ervan uit dat een bejaarden-instelling als St Jacob wel raad weet met dit soort situaties ("ze hebben toch een soort koelruimte?" vraagt mijn moeder ongelovig. Ja dat zou je denken!). Hoofd mopperde tegen mij dat de contactpersoon (Dochter) niet opnam. Tja is dat vreemd? Sommige telefoons die in gesprek zijn krijgen automatisch een voicemail, dat is al een aantal jaren zo. Zou het Hoofd wel op de hoogte zijn van moderne telefoons? En is het niet wonderlijk dat iemand die net te horen heeft gekregen dat haar moeder is overleden, misschien anderen moet bellen? Waarom heeft Hoofd niet meteen uitgelegd bij de melding van het overlijden wat de gebruikelijke procedure is? Wij halen niet dagelijks een overledene op.

Twee weken later staat het sterfbed van mijn schoonmoeder er nog net zo bij op die kamer, onafgehaald. Er staat ook nog steeds een po, nog vol.

Fijn voor de nabestaanden!

"Het lijk" is natuurlijk diezelfde middag van de melding van overlijden weggehaald door PC, en we hebben het begraven. Op 17 februari.

Op 7 maart komen we voor de laatste maal langs om voor te bereiden dat we een kringloopwinkel de rest laten ophalen. Tot nu toe zijn we niet gebeld door het Hoofd van de afdeling, "Felia" of "Velia" S., die, naar het lijkt, zich gedeist houdt. Toch wat schaamte over de manier waarop er over onze moeder/schoonmoeder is gepraat? Toch een besef van begrip, medeleven? Ze wilden namelijk ook dat we het zeil dat we 2 weken voor haar dood hadden laten leggen door een vloerbedekkingszaak, omdat Mevrouw volgens Hoofd Felia/Velia wel genoeg zorg kon krijgen om daar in die kamer zelfstandig te kunnen wonen, (ondanks haar diabetes type 1, ondanks dat ze in een rolstoel zat, een delier bleek te hebben en terugkerende longontsteking en blaasontsteking) weghaalden.

De tijd die Mevrouw in die zelfstandige kamer zat, bleek na 10 dagen "tijdelijk", "op proef" te zijn.... Hadden we dan niet nieuwe gordijnen en zeil moeten laten aanbrengen? Zou ze weer naar een andere afdeling moeten? Wat zou er mis zijn in Sint Jacob / OsiraGroep dat ze haar niet konden diagnosticeren? De arts, Jaap W., was een zeer vage man die geen enkele uitleg bleek te kunnen geven aan ons over haar toestand. Maar toen we om half 10 op vrijdagavond de 11de februari werden gebeld door een andere arts, of we Mevrouw naar het ziekenhuis wilden of toch daar laten sterven, toen pas bleek de ware ernst van de situatie. Op de avond voor haar heengaan. Toen pas kon iemand ons uitleggen wat er werkelijk allemaal gebeurd was. Onze conclusie was dat de "zorg" bij Osira gewoon tekortgeschoten was voor haar, dat ze eigenlijk niet veel tijd en moeite hadden genomen om diagnoses te stellen, en om de zorg aan haar behoeften aan te passen. Dat verplegend personeel heel anders tegen de zaken aankeek dan de arts, die naar onze mening faalde om iets van de ernst van de situatie aan ons uit te leggen, en die zich naar het schijnt liet bepraten door verplegend personeel (zie ook het stuk in Het Parool en de Volkskrant hierover met commentaar).

Mevrouw, mijn schoonmoeder, zat in Sint Jacob / OsiraGroep door toedoen van het VU Medisch Centrum. Ze zat daar eigenlijk in een soort ziekenkamer voor revalidatie van een amputatie. Ze had derhalve nooit een huurcontract. Er is nooit echt beslist dat ze daar zou gaan huren, ook al betaalde ze wel huur. Ze had haar eigen huurwoning nog, en de eerste maanden werd er geen knoop doorgehakt dat ze daar zou blijven.

Toen er eindelijk een knoop was doorgehakt, viel ze en brak ze haar heup. Naar het Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis. De breuk viel mee, ze moest in revalidatie... naar Sint Jacob / OsiraGroep, waar ze in een soort ruimte met andere rolstoelers zonder enige kwaliteit van leven de tijd doodde. Dit duurde zo'n 3 maanden. Haar bloedsuikers waren door het personeel niet onder controle te houden. Ze zijn niet echt gewend type 1 ("Juveniele diabetes") te regelen... Ze kreeg hierdoor ook steeds meer last van ontstekingen, hetgeen weer een rede was voor schommelende bloedsuikers.

Door deze situatie (ze hadden haar ook een tijdlang een soort anti-depressivum gegeven) verzwakte ze erg, en raakte ze in een delier. Dit laatste had ze jaren eerder gehad, en we begrepen daar wel iets van. Alleen had niemand ons ditmaal gezegd dat ze weer een delier had.

Dus: met een delier, diverse ontstekingen, in een rolstoel, met zwaar schommelende bloedsuikers (van 26 mmol/l naar 1 op een dag) kon ze toch zelfstandig wonen? Oh het was op proef?
Wie beslist er eigenlijk wat, in Sint Jacob / OsiraGroep?

Er was dus geen huurcontract. Toen we op 7 maart de restanten van wat er in haar "nieuwe" kamer stond kwamen halen, was de kamer al leeg! Alleen haar telefoon en een verfkwast lagen er.

Felia en een ander Hoofd mompelden iets van "dat het in het huurcontract stond dat een kamer binnen 10 dagen ontruimd moest zijn." Maar het bed, de po dan? Die stonden er 2 weken later ook nog! Hoezo pijnlijk voor de familie? En er was helemaal geen huurcontract... De Hoofden zeiden ook dat ze vaak hadden gebeld, maar dat ze nooit iemand aan de lijn hadden gekregen. Maar toen "het lijk" moest worden verwijderd, wisten ze ons wel te bellen (wij waren niet de contactpersoon). Uit het regelmatig afluisteren van voicemail bleek niet dat er iemand van Osira had gebeld. Wel had de familie het Hoofd geprobeerd te bellen, vier maal, om aan te geven wanneer we zouden langskomen, en om te vragen voor wanneer de kamer leeg zou moeten zijn. Maar het Hoofd was er nooit.

De spullen zijn "vernietigd", werd ons verteld door een soort uitsmijter met zijn handen in zijn zakken. De tv? de foto's? De ets? De nieuwe halogeenlamp? De andere dingen van waarde voor de familie?

Het klinkt meer naar huisvredebreuk en diefstal. In elk geval is het onzorgvuldig, onprofessioneel (Sint Jacob / OsiraGroep had ook schriftelijk kunnen verklaren wat de procedure was) en schaamteloos.

Nog een citaat: "We hebben volgens de protocollen gehandeld," aldus een van de Hoofden. Volgens ons kan Sint Jacob / OsiraGroep het woord ZORG nog eens toevoegen aan de Protocollen. Zorg in de zin van bezorgdheid, begaanheid en de daarbijhorende acties.

Oh en nog geen enkel blijk van medeleven of zelfs maar een gecondoleerd, van de OsiraGroep en zijn Hoofden... Iets te verbergen soms? In elk geval niet hun schaamteloosheid!

Hier vind je Kamervragen die gesteld zijn door de SP over het functioneren van de Osira Groep afgelopen februari.

Ook interessant, o o wat zijn ze toch allemaal integer in dit land:
http://www.nieuwsuitamsterdam.nl/2011/01/wethouder-moet-ex-werkgever-aanpakken

Over wethouder Zorg Van den Burg (Amsterdam), die voorheen voor de OsiraGroep werkte....

Rapport van de SP over de "Stopwatchzorg" bij Osira (januari 2011).

Nog meer klachten over OsiraGroep hier en hier, hier en hier (Parool).

Lees ook hier een verhaal van een Ervaringsdeskundige (misschien moet de OsiraGroep hem eens betaald advies vragen!).

Nog een klacht waaraan door de directie van Sint Jacob en de OsiraGroep aandacht moet worden besteed is dat de nachtportier is wegbezuinigd, en dat de Hoofdzuster 's nachts alles alleen moet doen: van medicijnen toedienen tot deuren openen, telefoons aannemen, enz.
Tenslotte:
Zorg moet niet geprivatiseerd worden, zorg is niet voor winst! Het is niet integer om geld te verdienen aan oude, zieke, kwetsbare mensen!

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Links die verzameld worden betreffende slechte Osira zorg:

http://ouderenbescherming.nl/nieuws/1054-redactie.html#comment-418 (commentaar bij de EO-uitzending van 13 januari 2011 over Osira)

http://www.couturekrant.nl/nieuws/10-anyhow/275-eo-reportage-hoe-lang-duurt-een-hap.html
(Couturekrant over de EO-reportage en de intimidatie, jan. 2011)

http://www.krapuul.nl/blog/29461/laat-het-pikken-van-lijken-maar-aan-osira-over/
Krapuul.nl: Laat het pikken van lijken maar aan Osira over, 9 maart 2011)

http://dwazekinderen.blogspot.com/
Zaterdag 2 april 2011 Manifestatie "Dwaze Kinderen" | Plein Den Haag van 14.00 tot 16.00 uur. 'Dwaze Kinderen' is de belichaming van verzet van familieleden tegen de misstanden in de ouderenzorg.

Links via Ouderenbescherming.nl

Stop the degrading and the greed

2011-03-03T11:30:00.001+01:00

Watoto from the Nile: Letter to Lil Wayne

Click here to go to their page on their label.

Ik houd van mijn land

2011-02-21T12:48:00.000+01:00

Aida El Ayoubi: Ik houd van mijn land

You'll See Glimpses...

2011-02-11T16:13:00.000+01:00

Ian Dury heeft al lang geleden aan ons verteld hoe het leven onder een Verlicht Dictator eruit zal zien:

You'll See Glimpses...

Rai!

2011-02-08T20:22:00.002+01:00

Even wat fijne muziek van lang geleden, een oude hittip van mij toen ik nog een piraat was:

Cheb Khaled: RaHa Mrida (ca 1987)

Egypte

2011-02-04T10:46:00.000+01:00

Ik kan het alleen maar eens zijn met mijn mede-blogger: Nawal al-Saadawi zou een rol moeten spelen (ze doet het nu al door te demonstreren op het grote Bevrijdingsplein in Cairo) in een nieuw Egypte, en de Nederlandse TV herkende haar niet eens!

Hier een artikel met delen van een lezing die Dr Al-Saadawi uitsprak vorig jaar in Kopenhagen op Internationale Vrouwendag.

Hier een interview met haar in The Global Dispatches.

Hieronder nogmaals de tekst van mede-blogger Christianarchie.

De Egyptische Simone de Beauvoir

"De Egyptische Simone de Beauvoir," zo werd zij ons voorgestelde en haar naam heb ik op dat ogenblik niet geweten. (Ingewandsproblemen kondigden zich aan bij het bezoek aan haar woning, dus ik acht mij redelijk vrijgepleit).

Haar betoog kwam er kort weergegeven op neer dat de eerste voorwaarde voor vrouwenbevrijding in de Arabische wereld, en de gehele "Derde Wereld", bevrijding van het imperialisme was.

Nawal al-Saadawi, zij is na dat bezoek in 1976 pas echt bekend geworden in "het Westen". Niet zo bekend dat zij herkend werd door de Nederlandse televisie, die haar in beeld bracht op het Bevrijdingsplein in Caïro, blijkbaar als "zomaar een oude vrouw". Maar ja, Nederland...

Op BBC World Service zei zij dat zij op het plein blijft totdat Moebarak weg is en dat hij berecht behoort te worden. Zij zou een goede kandidate zijn voor interimpresidentschap - maar dan zou het imperialisme ook echt verslagen moeten zijn. Het ziet er nog niet naar uit.

More uprisings?

2011-02-03T10:16:00.003+01:00

Against oppression:

BBC: Yemen protests: 20,000 call for President Saleh to go

Al Jazeera English: Calls for weekend protests in Syria:

"However, many of those writing comments on Facebook appeared to be Syrians living abroad calling on their "brothers" at home to protest.

Sources in Syria told Al Jazeera they doubted that the calls for protests would really result in much action on the ground.

"I think the day of anger will turn out to be no more than a day of mild frustration," one journalist told Al Jazeera.

"There's no appetite for regime change in Syria as there has been in Egypt for a while. The president isn't hated as much as [Hosni] Mubarak, or seen as out of touch. Also, the local context is very different ... and the poverty rate is significantly lower in Egypt." ", according to the article on the website of Al Jazeera English.

"Calls for protests in a number of Middle East countries are circulating on Twitter, including Yemen, February 3, Algeria, February 12, Bahrain, February 14 and Libya, February 30." (hmmm Feb 30?)

The Revolution will be Live

2011-01-29T11:03:00.001+01:00

Update: ... still is live here.

... on Al Jazeera English, for example. Which The Raw Story provides on its website.

Gil Scott-Heron, apologies for the ads in this youtube video!

One Planet

2011-01-27T16:17:00.002+01:00

From: Artificial Eyes Blog

Read more updates here, amongst others.

Organiseer, staakt, frustreer en saboteer!

2011-01-21T14:57:00.001+01:00

Vandaag demonstreren studenten in Den Haag tegen verhoging van collegegeld en andere veranderingen in de hogere opleidingen.

Vragen:
Waarom moet er altijd iets veranderd (niet verbeterd) worden aan onderwijs?

Waarom moeten studenten, kunstenaars, arbeiders op cultureel en educatief gebied, zorgarbeiders, enz. betalen voor een financiële krisis die mede is ontstaan doordat banken moesten worden afgekocht en oorlogen moeten worden betaald door ons? We hebben al betaald, we hebben die banken al betaald, we zijn die oorlogen zat, en al de uitgaven waar wij als belastingbetalers geen invloed op hebben hebben we ook al zelf betaald.

Waarom nog meer moeten betalen voor hetzelfde 'product' of een nog slechtere variant? Om het maar eens in "markt-termen" te schrijven. Wie pikt dat nou? Een paar slome studenten die in De Pers werden geïnterviewd vandaag...

Nog iets: je studeert aan een universiteit omdat je slim bent, snel kan leren. Als alleen rijken kunnen studeren, dan missen we later als professionals een hoop slimme mensen, en passen we zelf een soort 'brain drain' toe. Mensen die goed kunnen leren en die slim zijn, die moeten naar de hoogste opleidingen, niet mensen die het meeste geld hebben.

Verder: wat moet je anders na school, als je niet naar de universiteit of hogeschool kan? Werken? Maar er is heel weinig werk. Op straat rondhangen?

Er zou eigenlijk een universiteit moeten zijn die bestaat uit docenten en studenten die kritisch leren denken en die zelf hun vergaarde kennis leren toepassen en uitvoeren. Zonder dat het erg veel kost. Laagdrempelig, goedkoop, kritisch, solidair, holistisch, academisch, onafhankelijk.

Ik heb de titel ontleend aan dit stuk in Indymedia. Het blijkt dat studenten al op 17 januari hebben gedemonstreerd, alleen niet onder de paternalistische zegen van de LSVB en de ASVA.

De illustratie komt hier vandaan.

Dank aan mede-blogger, die de studenten-protesten overal veel beter volgt.

Tegen de grijze januaridagen...

2011-01-19T14:03:00.000+01:00

B B met R, Max Woiski

VN: erken Sahar als vluchteling

2011-01-18T14:14:00.002+01:00

Bijgewerkt: Sahar mag van de rechter "voorlopig" in Nederland blijven. Hier een bericht van Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, waarin staat dat ook de terminaal zieke Abiram (8) mag blijven. Alleen de politiek bruine mozartkugel-lookalike wil dat ze "terug" gaan....
--------------------
Gepubliceerd op 18 januari 2011, Leeuwarder Courant

DEN HAAG - Sahar Hbrahim Gel uit Sint Annaparochie moet erkend worden als vluchteling, zegt de organisatie UNHCR van de Verenigde Naties (VN).

De hoge commissaris heeft dat geschreven in een brief die via haar advocaat is doorgestuurd aan minister Gerd Leers van immigratie en asiel en de immigratiedienst IND.

Het veertienjarige meisje uit Afghanistan dreigt samen met haar familie te worden uitgezet. De rechtbank van Den Bosch doet deze week uitspraak in het hoger beroep dat het gezin heeft aangespannen tegen de uitzetting.

Lees meer over het gewicht van deze oproep in de Leeuwarder Courant van dinsdag

Sahar Moet Blijven

2 emmertjes water halen...

2011-01-11T22:40:00.000+01:00

Af en toe ben ik toe aan een liedje van Jacques Brel:

Jacques Brel: Marieke

Ik kwam deze ook tegen op Youtube:

Lais: Twee emmertjes water halen. Wie kent het niet!?

Winter 2010-2011

2010-12-31T16:24:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year!

Gaat de Revolutie Nederland voorbij?

2010-12-27T16:35:00.004+01:00

Bij deze foto van Uniriot: Ontregel de macht!

Democratie: mensen kiezen een parlement en indirect een regering. Die regering maakt er dan zo´n zootje van dat de mensen zich tamelijk bedrogen voelen. Het resultaat is dat de mensen de straat op gaan om de regeerders op hun verantwoordelijkheden te wijzen.

Plutocratie: Banken maken het een land onmogelijk afbetalingen te doen en andere banken of "wereldbanken" moeten dan leningen opleggen aan dat land om die banken af te betalen (Ierland, zie ook hier, Griekenland, enz).

Hier bij Uniriot kan je lezen hoe de mensen in Italie de regering op hun verantwoordelijkheden wijzen. Als democratie niet meer werkt, omdat degenen die aan de macht zijn niet luisteren of alleen naar een groepje dat hen verkozen heeft...

Dan hebben we het peroxide ventje... laat ik daar maar helemaal over ophouden hier, de Nederlandse media hebben hem al erg geholpen met de verkiezingen, met hun gezeur over "links" en andere hetzes...

Wie kan er nog gematigd denken over de Boven Ons Gestelden?

Hoe kunnen we nog respect opbrengen voor mensen die WIJ betalen? Misschien komt het erop neer dat wij hen over een tijdje niet eens meer kunnen betalen?

O ja: Koopt Griekse waar, dan helpen we elkaar! In plaats van vooroordelen uiten over Grieken, zouden wij hen moeten helpen nu hun overheid het laat afweten.

Zie verder:

Counterpunch: Walden Bello over de Griekse crisis en de vooroordelen

Indymedia.org.uk voor het laatste nieuws in heel het VK over anti-onderdrukkende acties (rechter balk).

Kritische Studenten Utrecht

Krapuul.nl

En nog veel meer websites. Eigenlijk is het wel hoopvol, dat er zoveel en zo creatief actie gevoerd is, ook als het resultaat niet behaald is...

Lees maar eens wat de schrijfster van Pip Pip over The Battle of the Books schrijft...

Hier nog een artikel over de politie in Rome die een roman aanvalt...

War is over, if you want it...

2010-12-26T00:54:00.000+01:00

From the London Catholic Worker, via A Pinch of Salt...

War is over, if you want it...

Fairytale of New York

2010-12-22T23:55:00.000+01:00

The Truth is Out There

2010-12-20T13:14:00.000+01:00

Rap News 6 - Wikileaks' Cablegate: the truth is out there

Bradley Manning's health deteriorating in jail, supporters say

2010-12-17T13:32:00.001+01:00

Update: read this post by the blog of Bradley´s lawyer.

The intelligence analyst suspected of leaking US diplomatic cables is being held in solitary confinement

Today is Bradley´s 23rd birthday, but he is locked up in solitary confinement in extreme circumstances. Please go to the website of his supporters to find out what you can do for Bradley Manning.

Heather Brooke
Guardian, Thursday 16 December 2010

As Julian Assange emerged from his nine-day imprisonment, there were renewed concerns about the physical and psychological health of Bradley Manning, the former US intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the diplomatic cables at the centre of the storm.

Manning, who was arrested seven months ago, is being held at a military base in Virginia and faces a court martial and up to 52 years in prison for his alleged role in copying the cables.
His friends and supporters also claim they have been the target of extra-judicial harassment, intimidation and outright bribery by US government agents.

According to David House, a computer researcher from Boston who visits Manning twice a month, he is starting to deteriorate. "Over the last few weeks I have noticed a steady decline in his mental and physical wellbeing," he said. "His prolonged confinement in a solitary holding cell is unquestionably taking its toll on his intellect; his inability to exercise due to [prison] regulations has affected his physical appearance in a manner that suggests physical weakness."

Manning, House added, was no longer the characteristically brilliant man he had been, despite efforts to keep him intellectually engaged. He also disputed the authorities' claims that Manning was being kept in solitary for his own good.

"I initially believed that his time in solitary confinement was a decision made in the interests of his safety," he said. "As time passed and his suicide watch was lifted, to no effect, it became clear that his time in solitary – and his lack of a pillow, sheets, the freedom to exercise, or the ability to view televised current events – were enacted as a means of punishment rather than a means of safety."

House said many people were reluctant to talk about Manning's condition because of government harassment, including surveillance, warrantless computer seizures, and even bribes. "This has had such an intimidating effect that many are afraid to speak out on his behalf," House said.

Some friends report being followed extensively. Another computer expert said the army offered him cash to – in his words – "infiltrate" the WikiLeaks website. He said: "I turned them down. I don't want anything to do with this cloak and dagger stuff."

When the Washington Post tried to investigate the claim, an army criminal investigation division spokesman refused to comment. "We've got an ongoing investigation," he said. "We don't discuss our techniques and tactics."

On 3 November, House, 23, said he found customs agents waiting for him when he and his girlfriend returned to the US after a short holiday in Mexico. His bags were searched and two men identifying themselves as Homeland Security officials said they were being detained for questioning and would miss their connecting flight. The men seized all his electronic items and he was told to hand over all passwords and encryption keys – which he refused. The items have yet to be returned, said House. He added: "If Manning is convicted, it will be because his individual dedication to human ethics far surpasses that of the US government."

House, who met Manning through friends but came to know him only after his detention, said he was committed to his cause. "Like many computer scientists, I identify with the open government issues at the core of this case."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/16/bradley-manning-health-deteriorating?CMP=twt_gu

What´s next, Wikileaks?

2010-12-15T20:10:00.002+01:00

Wikileaks Samba!

Wikileaks explained for us

2010-12-15T17:10:00.000+01:00

Prisoners in the State of Georgia go on strike to demand pay and prison reforms

2010-12-15T09:57:00.000+01:00

This is positive news, I hope the situation will remain nonviolent,and that the prison authorities will listen to the voices of those who have no other ways to speak up for themselves.
With thanks to co-blogger the Prison Abolitionist.

This interview about the Georgia prison strike (and some of the history of the Black Panther Party) is a must-read...Go like the group Elaine is organizing with to learn even more.

-----------------from Democracy Now (December 14, 2010)-----------------

Prisoner Advocate Elaine Brown on Georgia Prison Strike: “Repression Breeds Resistance”

At least four prisons in Georgia remain in lockdown five days after prisoners went on strike in protest of poor living and working conditions. Using cell phones purchased from guards, the prisoners coordinated the nonviolent protests to stage the largest prison strike in U.S. history. There are reports of widespread violence and brutality by the guards against the prisoners on strike. We speak to longtime prison activist Elaine Brown of the newly formed group Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights.

Guest: Elaine Brown, Longtime prison activist and former chair of the Black Panther Party. Her books include The Condemnation of Little B: New Age Racism in America and A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story.

AMY GOODMAN: "Seize the Time" by Elaine Brown, who is our next guest. That’s right.

At least four prisons in Georgia remain in lockdown five days after prisoners went on strike in protest of poor living and working conditions. Using cell phones purchased from the guards, the prisoners were able to coordinate the protests across Georgia. On Monday, Georgia officials confirmed four prisons are still in lockdown: Hays State Prison in Trion, Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe, Telfair State Prison in Helena, and Smith State Prison in Glennville. There have also been reports of prisoners going on strike in several other facilities.

The prisoners say they’ll continue refusing to leave their cells or perform their jobs until they receive better medical care and nutrition, more educational opportunities, payment for the work they do in the prisons. In addition, they’re demanding just parole decisions, an end to cruel and unusual punishments, and better access to their families.

Well, joining us now is the longtime prison activist Elaine Brown. She’s a member of the newly formed group Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights. She’s the former chair of the Black Panther Party. She’s joining us from Berkeley, California. Up until recently she lived in Atlanta, Georgia.

Elaine Brown, it‘s being called the biggest prison strike in U.S. history. Explain what’s happening.

ELAINE BROWN: These men created what is effectively a spontaneous decision by networking with each other and saying, you know, “We’re tired of all of the abuse we’ve been suffering here,” as so many other prisoners before them have said. "We’re going to do something, but the something we’re going to do is not to try to initiate a violent response or initiate violence, but to simply say we will not work until we’re paid," and the other demands and petitions that they have made, as you’ve outlined. And they made a decision that that would be on December 9th.

I have no idea why they picked that date and how they ended up getting perhaps ten prisons involved. But at that point, of course, the guards and the administration became aware of their intention. And so, when they locked down on the night of the 8th, their decision was to not get up. And they didn’t. But the prison pretends, and the administration has pretended, that they locked the men down. But they’re talking about four prisons, and there were probably ten in the initial one-day strike, as it was slated to be. They have refused—we’re in day six, and they are still holding out and saying they will not come out and work unless they can sit down at the table and begin to get their demands met and their issues dealt with.

AMY GOODMAN: Elaine Brown, your son is in the Macon State Prison? He is there, still on lockdown there?

ELAINE BROWN: Not only is he on lockdown, but he’s in the hole right now, because from almost day one or so, I was informed that he was taken off to the hole, deemed some sort of leader. Just for the sake of the record, because somebody asked—well, said, “Well, I understand Elaine Brown doesn’t have a son.” Well, I didn’t give birth to this boy. I have known him for 15 years, and I have been with him for that long, since he was incarcerated and put into an adult facility at 14 years old. And he’s done 14 years now. And so, he is my son for all—in all meaningful ways.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe the conditions in the Georgia state prison system, Elaine Brown?

ELAINE BROWN: Well, I’m sure they’re not very much different from other prisons, I mean, or as the men would say, the chain gang or the camp they’re in. You know, you have overcrowded conditions. There is no activity other than the work tasks that they’re assigned to do. In other words, there’s no real educational opportunities. There’s no exercise. There’s nothing else. The food is bad. They have poor nutrition. They have crowded—overcrowded cells.

A lot of the day-to-day thing, I think the most important part is that, as it was outlined many years ago in a Stanford study conducted by Dr. Phil Zimbardo, one of the most important things is that the constant violence being perpetrated against them by guards, who with their own idle time look to try and instigate an incident here or there, so there’s a lot of screaming, hollering, you know, aggressive behaviors that go on. And so, there’s always some incident jumping off, as it were, and so forth and so on. It’s just a life of idle—idleness and violence and a lack of any basic human condition.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what they do in their work. I mean, among the conditions, the demands of the prisoners are a living wage for work, talking about being a violation of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution that prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude. What are the work conditions? What are they paid? Are they paid? What are they—

ELAINE BROWN: No, in Georgia, they’re not even paid. They’re not paid one dime in the state of Georgia. I mean, the State Department of Corrections would like to say they have some workers that are paid. There are probably some people doing life without parole who work at the Governor’s mansion, maybe 15 of them who might be getting some money. But the prisoners in the state of Georgia are paid nothing at all.

Now, that’s not to say that the prisoners in other states are being paid. They’re mostly being paid a dollar a day to 50 cents an hour. That would probably be the maximum. So they’re not exactly being paid enough money to accumulate anything over the years of their incarceration and maybe come out of the prison with more than the $25 check they give them upon release in the state of Georgia. So, they are not paid one single dime, and they are required to clean the floors, clean the showers, do the yard work, do the dishes, cook the food—in other words, to maintain the prison itself.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m looking at a report out of the Black Agenda Report, and it talks about how there’s no educational programs available beyond GED with the exception of a single program that trains inmates to be Baptist ministers.

ELAINE BROWN: That’s absolutely correct. I believe that’s at Phillips State Prison, and it’s a school out of Louisiana. And I think there are about 20 people even enrolled in that program. So, it’s almost pointless to even mention it.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about how this largest prison strike in U.S. history was organized, sort of redefining the term "cell phone," Elaine Brown.

ELAINE BROWN: Well, you know, a lot of people have been fascinated by this, and I’m glad that you made note immediately that—you know, so many people say, “Well, these guys have contraband." Well, the greatest avenue for their obtaining these cell phones is by sales from guards, and these guards are selling these phones at exorbitant prices. I learned the other day that one guy said he paid $800 to a guard for a cell phone that was probably worth about 50 bucks. So, that’s the first point that has to be made, because people imagine that there’s all this smuggling going on—and there is, but it’s on the part of—in the main, on the part of guards that are inside these facilities.

The cell phone played a part, but the other part was that there are leaders of different factions in the prison, and they were able to sort of discuss what could they do. Instead of fighting among themselves, is there anything that they could do to try to change the conditions of being just constantly bombarded with violent attacks, with, you know, idle time, and so forth and so on? And they—at some point, a number of them just decided, "Well, we just shouldn’t work." And it just became a prairie fire. It was truly the spark that lit the prairie fire. And everybody was saying, “Well, I’m down with that. We’re not going to get up.”

And each group—you know, you have blacks in various subsets, and you have Muslims, you have Mexicans and other Latinos, Hispanics, you have Whites, you have Rastafarians, you have Christians—all of them, for reasons that I cannot explain how they suddenly understood how to be unified, decided, “Yeah, we’re not working, and we’re down with this, and we’re not going to get up, and we’re going to stay united.” And across the prisons, in the various sets, they called each other, sent text messages, and they all agreed to do it. And they agreed on the date, and that was December 9.

AMY GOODMAN: Elaine, I interviewed you a long time ago when your memoir came out, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story. You’re the former chair of the Black Panther Party. Can you tell us a little bit about your life and how you came to be a prison activist today?

ELAINE BROWN: Well, it’s pretty—you know, it’s sort of organic, very much like this prisoner strike. You know, we used to say in the Black Panther Party, “Repression breeds resistance.” Pardon me. I was born in the ghettos of North Philadelphia—I was raised, rather, in the ghettos of North Philadelphia. Even though I went to sort of privileged schools and so forth and so on, I was very conscious of that. When I ultimately joined the Black Panther Party at around 24 years old, I knew then that I was fully conscious that the things that I experienced in my life were a part of a larger picture and that I was a part of a group of people who were an oppressed group.

From that point on, the question was liberation. The aspects of our—of liberation and the ending of all exploitation, as we would say it, was just a matter of looking at all the various aspects of our oppression and how it played itself out. In the Black Panther Party, there was a 10-point platform and program that articulated some of the manifestations of our general oppression, talking about lack of education, as a matter of fact, not having enough food and housing. In essence, what we called for was freedom and right of self-determination.

We recognized that our plight was not much different as black people than other oppressed people, and we joined arms and forces with a variety of other groups like the Brown Berets, the Red Guard, the Young Lords, the Young Patriots, and so forth. And then we linked ourselves to the international struggle of people around the world for national liberation in Vietnam, throughout the continent of Africa, and in Latin America, South America. So, we became internationalists.

And I remain that person. So it isn’t complicated to draw the line from that struggle to the struggle of the most oppressed group in America: the prisoner class. The prisoners in this country, as you know, make up the largest prisoner group in the world. America confines more people than any single country at a higher rate and a higher—and the largest number.

Fifty percent of those prisoners, or nearly 50 percent of them, are black men. And so, we have to ask the question, how did that come to be? Either the black men are the only people—when we consider that we black people make up approximately 12 to 13 percent of the overall population and yet almost 50 percent of the prison population, we have to ask the question, is this the result of some genetic flaw in black people? Are we obviously some sort of criminally minded? Or is there something wrong in the scheme of things? Obviously, the latter is what I would say. And so, I’ve committed myself to bringing people out of prison.

I have a very close friend who was a member of the Black Panther Party here in California, who has been in prison since 1969, over 41 years, Chip Fitzgerald. So I helped to organize the Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald. These people have been buried in prison for their political beliefs, and they’ve been buried in prison for their poverty. There are no rich people languishing in the prisons of America. So, there’s a class question. There’s a race question. And this is just a continuation of expressing my efforts or of continuing my efforts toward the goal of the liberation of all oppressed people.

AMY GOODMAN: Elaine Brown, I want to thank you very much for being with us and just ask you a final question about what you expect the outcome of—it was planned as a one-day strike, December 9th, biggest strike in U.S. history in prisons. But with the lockdown continuing in a number of the state prisons in Georgia, what’s going to happen?

ELAINE BROWN: Well, we—this coalition that you have mentioned, the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights, which includes everything from the NAACP national office and the state office to the Nation of Islam and a number of other organizations, All of Us or None, so forth, across the country, we’ve been talking in conference calls over the last two days. We are having a meeting at this point with either the commissioner or deputy commissioner of the Department of Corrections.

We plan on imploring them to first stop instigating the situation and trying to escalate it to a violent confrontation, which is what they are doing by prodding men with everything, turning off the heat, beating people, forcing them out of their cells, turning off the hot water, destroying and trashing people’s property, not feeding them, and so forth and so on, all kinds of tactics to instigate a violent response. So our first goal is to make sure this does not become Attica, although it is not like Attica because the prisoners have not taken hostages or anything of this sort. They are simply not leaving their cells.

AMY GOODMAN: Elaine Brown, we’re going to have to leave it there.

ELAINE BROWN: And then the next step—

AMY GOODMAN: But I thank you very much for being with us.

ELAINE BROWN: Alright, thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Longtime prison activist—

ELAINE BROWN: OK, thank you.

AMY GOODMAN:—former chair of the Black Panther Party. Thank you so much. We’ll continue to follow the Georgia strike.

--------
Also read the reports on SolitaryWatch, in the New York Times, and in other newsoutlets coming forward to publish this story.

From: Solitary Watch - http://solitarywatch.com/2010/12/13/georgia-prisoners-strike-we-locked-ourselves-down/ - Please read it at the site because there are many links in the article to other media resources

Also PLEASE sign the petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/view/tell_the_georgia_department_of_corrections_that_you_stand_with_protesting_prisoners
========
Georgia Prisoners' Strike: "We locked ourselves down."

Jean Casella and James Ridgeway | December 13, 2010 at 3:40 pm

In a protest that appears to be spreading through Georgia's prison system, inmates are striking for better conditions. One interesting facet of this rare prison strike, which reaches across multiple facilities and across racial and factional lines, is the participants' use of self-imposed lockdown to serve their own goals.

Lockdown, in which prisoners are confined to their cells for up to 24 hours a day, is routinely imposed on inmates for punishment or as a "security" measure. In this case, however, prisoners are refusing to leave their cells until their demands are taken seriously. The Georgia Corrections Department's only response so far, ironically, has been to place the affected prisons on lockdown. As the New York Times reported:

“We’re not coming out until something is done. We’re not going to work until something is done,” said one inmate at Rogers State Prison in Reidsville. He refused to give his name because he was speaking on a banned cellphone...

The Corrections Department placed several of the facilities where inmates planned to strike under indefinite lockdown on Thursday, according to local reports. (read the rest here).
***
Demands of those on strike in this press release:

Press Release
BIGGEST PRISONER STRIKE IN U.S. HISTORY
Thousands of Georgia Prisoners to Stage Peaceful Protest
December 8, 2010 Atlanta, Georgia
Contacts: Elaine Brown, 404-542-1211, sistaelaine@gmail.com

Tomorrow morning, December 9, 2010, thousands of Georgia prisoners will refuse to work, stop all other activities and remain in their cells in a peaceful, one-day protest for their human rights. The December 9 Strike is projected to be the biggest prisoner protest in the history of the United States.

These thousands of men, from Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith and Telfair State Prisons, among others, state they are striking to press the Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) to stop treating them like animals and slaves and institute programs that address their basic human rights. They have set forth the following demands:

A LIVING WAGE FOR WORK: In violation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude, the DOC demands prisoners work for free.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: For the great majority of prisoners, the DOC denies all opportunities for education beyond the GED, despite the benefit to both prisoners and society.

DECENT HEALTH CARE: In violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments, the DOC denies adequate medical care to prisoners, charges excessive fees for the most minimal care and is responsible for extraordinary pain and suffering.

AN END TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS: In further violation of the 8th Amendment, the DOC is responsible for cruel prisoner punishments for minor infractions of rules.

DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS: Georgia prisoners are confined in over-crowded, substandard conditions, with little heat in winter and oppressive heat in summer.

NUTRITIONAL MEALS: Vegetables and fruit are in short supply in DOC facilities while starches and fatty foods are plentiful.

VOCATIONAL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES: The DOC has stripped its facilities of all opportunities for skills training, self-improvement and proper exercise.

ACCESS TO FAMILIES: The DOC has disconnected thousands of prisoners from their families by imposing excessive telephone charges and innumerable barriers to visitation.

JUST PAROLE DECISIONS: The Parole Board capriciously and regularly denies parole to the majority of prisoners despite evidence of eligibility.

Prisoner leaders issued the following call: No more slavery. Injustice in one place is injustice to all. Inform your family to support our cause. Lock down for liberty!
http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/blogs/bdixon/GA_InmatesStageHistoricOneDayPrisonStrikeToday

This is the latest:

STRIKING GEORGIA PRISONERS GAIN NATIONAL SUPPORT
Posted on December 14, 2010 by Diane Bukowski

Contact: Kwasi Akwamu (313) 285-8450 Diane Bukowski (313)825-6126

BREAKING NEWS: DETROIT CONTINGENT OF CONCERNED COALITION TO RESPECT PRISONERS’ RIGHTS TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE IN SUPPORT OF STRIKING GA. PRISONERS
TUES. DEC. 14 11:30 a.m. in front of MOUND ROAD PRISON, Mound Round just north of Davison, Detroit; go to http://voiceofdetroit.net/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Detroit contingent to convene Tuesday morning press conference in support of Georgia prisoner protesters

DETROIT – A metro Detroit contingent of the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights will convene a press conference in front of Mound Road Correctional Facility in Detroit at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 14 to urge a halt to, and demand a federal level government fact-finding investigation of reports of, the violent retaliation by Georgia prison officials to a peaceful protest of prisoners across several Georgia prisons.

― A violent response to peaceful protest is intolerable,‖ says Kwasi Akwamu, a Detroit organizer with the nation-wide support group, and a member of the Detroit Chapter of All of Us or None of Us prisoner rights support group. ―This is reminiscent of the 1960s, when civil rights protesters were attacked with dogs, water hoses, and police batons, simply because they staged marches and sit-ins to bring peaceful attention to social injustices in this society.‖

In the single largest prisoner protest to human rights abuses in this country, prisoners at several Georgia state prisons issued a press release on Dec. 8, 2010, stating their intentions to call ―a peaceful, one day protest,‖ that they were ―striking to press the Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) to stop treating them like animals and slaves and institute programs that address their basic human rights.‖

Begun on December 9, 2010, the prisoners’ peaceful protest has been historic in scope and in the unity of thousands of black, brown, white, Muslim, Christian, Rastafarian prisoners, including those at Augusta, Baldwin, Calhoun, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Rogers, Smith, Telfair, Valdosta and Ware State Prisons. For five days, now, these men have shut down all activity at most of these facilities.

― Due to the harsh conditions faced behind bars and the need for prison reform, the men are staying in their cells as a form of peaceful protest. No officials or staff have been threatened and no property has been damaged. These men’s requests are reasonable and in accord with the basic respect and treatment every human being deserves,‖ said Elaine Brown, a social activist and former Black Panther Party leader. Brown is spearheading the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights.

The prisoners are petitioning the DOC for their human rights, including being paid for their labor, provided educational opportunities, decent health care and nutritional meals, a halt to cruel and unusual punishments, and just parole decisions.

While the prisoners’ protest has remained non-violent, the DOC has used violent measures to force the men back to work—under the banner of law, despite the 13th Amendment’s abolition of slavery. At Augusta State Prison, several inmates were brutally ripped from their cells by CERT Team guards and beaten, resulting in broken ribs, one man beaten beyond recognition. At Telfair, the Tactical Squad roughed up prisoners and destroyed all their property. At Macon and Hays State Prisons, Tactical Squads have menaced the men for days, removing some to the ―hole,‖ the wardens ordering heat and hot water turned off. Tear gas has been used to force men out of their cells at various prisons, while guards patrol grounds with assault rifles.

― We self-righteously criticize Third World countries for the brutal mistreatment of their prisoners, yet throughout the United States, including right here in Michigan, prisoners are treated with an increasingly diminished humanity,‖ states Akwamu, a former prisoner. ―We forget that while we allow prisoners to be treated as brutes, the overwhelming majority will someday be back on the streets, in our communities. And what kind of persons can we honestly expect for people so treated to be once they return?‖

The DOC has made itself unavailable to the press and prisoner family members, creating fears that, behind closed doors, the Department will escalate this peaceful protest to a violent confrontation. The Coalition is urging the DOC to come to the table in peace to address the prisoners’ concerns.

More information about the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights can be found on its Facebook page.

Free on Bail, or wait...

2010-12-14T16:40:00.002+01:00

5.44pm: Just to recap: Assange will remain in prison, at least until the appeal is heard.

Follow the story at The Guardian live updates
14 Dec. 2010

I do not understand the opposition to Wikileaks, except maybe from those in power. We pay these people to do their jobs. We pay them, they serve us. So why can't we get the information they find necessary to email each other and give a whole army access to? We as people of a democracy need to know what is going on, in order to be and to stay well-informed ourselves.

Read what Michael Moore wrote about Wikileaks...

Billy Bragg in The Guardian

2010-12-14T10:14:00.000+01:00

My favorite singer, Billy Bragg, who, in these cold snowy days, tours the towns where universities and colleges are, in order to perform and to support the students, writes these words today in The Guardian.

The Guardian

Student protesters: teaching the left's old guard a thing or two

The new generation seems determined to avoid the ideological nitpicking that has for so long blighted the British left

Tuesday 14 December 2010

The student protesters of this winter of discontent are my heroes. Instead of giving up on politicians who failed to deliver their promises on tuition fees, the students have been galvanised into action. Their demonstrations and occupations are the antidote to the cynical bile that is spewed out on internet forums against anybody who dares challenge the notion that free-market capitalism is the answer to all our problems.

The ubiquity of the camera phone among the young has turned every protester into a citizen reporter, capable of accessing images that instantly refute the claims of the authorities. Those same handheld devices allow the protesters to communicate so swiftly that they are able to avoid being corralled by the police and unlawfully detained. They know their rights because they can Google them.

This was supposed to be a generation of slacktivists, willing to stop Simon Cowell from getting the Christmas No 1, but not prepared to take things any further. Instead they have taken the initiative, not waiting for the Labour party or the TUC to tell them what to do, making their own connections with others in society facing painful cuts and demanding that tax avoiders take their share of the pain, too.

From what I've experienced, they seem determined to avoid the ideological nitpicking that has for so long blighted the British left. This is the first generation to have the opportunity to create a form of socialism that is not tainted by totalitarianism. Those of us who fought the Tories in the dying days of the last century should listen and learn.

Hedendaagse Troubadours zingen het nieuws voor ons...

2010-12-12T19:09:00.001+01:00

The ballad of Julian Assange, Emmaus Children

Tacoma, Washington: Plowshares activists were in court for the first day of their trial for entering a U.S. Navy nuclear weapons storage depot

2010-12-08T11:42:00.003+01:00

Update Dec 13, 2010

From the weblog Disarm Now Plowshares:

December 7, 2010, Tacoma, Washington: Plowshares activists were in court for the first day of their trial for entering a U.S. Navy nuclear weapons storage depot.

The trial of the Disarm Now Plowshares five, who entered the U.S. Navy’s Strategic Weapons Facility (SWFPAC), Pacific on November 2, 2009 in a symbolic act intended to bring light to the immoral and illegal nuclear weapons stored and deployed from there, began in U.S. District Court today.

During the morning’s jury selection there was an animated discussion. The U.S. Attorney asked if considerations of the defendants health and age, or the fact that they might be priest or nuns would hamper their ability to render an impartial judgment.

Defendant Susan Crane started her voir dire questions by asking, “Would you have convicted Rosa Parks?” One prospective juror answered that she was not asked to judge the integrity of the law; it is not like the movies or TV. Another answered, “I totally respect the rule of law, but some laws are meant to be broken, and that is how laws are changed. … It is written: ‘Thou shalt not kill, and it doesn’t say there are some conditions under which you would be able to kill.”

Another prospective juror, who is herself a lawyer, called Parks “courageous”, and said she would feel “conflicted” if asked to come to a verdict on her case. There are the facts of the case, she said, and then “there are things in our society that are just wrong. It would be very difficult for me.”

Before the prospective jurors were seated, the defense had attempted to counter the government’s effort to limit their cross examination. The defense asked the Judge to take judicial notice that nuclear weapons are stored at SWFPAC and attempted to introduce documents citing such evidence, but Judge Benjamin Settle stated the they had not yet produced anything from the public record indicating that there are nuclear weapons on the base. The defendants believe that the presence of nuclear weapons at SWFPAC is central to their ability to present any defense.

Opening statements began after the lunch recess. The U.S. Attorney Arlen Storm’s first words were, “This is a case about trespass and damaging government property.” The defendants have a different perspective.

Susan Crane started off her opening statement by introducing the defendants and all the humanitarian work they have done in Tacoma and around the world. She then focused on the three central pillars of their defense: the nuclear weapons at SWFPAC are horrendous; they are illegal; it is our duty as citizens to resist them.

The jury listened attentively as Crane described the medical and environmental effects of nuclear weapons. She tried to convey to the jury that the use and threatened use of nuclear weapons is a war crime, and was interrupted as the prosecutor objected to the reference to international law. Crane replied, “Alright, I’ll go on, but it is hard not to tell the truth.”

In his opening statement, Father Bichsel’s voice shook with emotion as he described his experience in Japan hearing the stories of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He said the greatest gift he brought back from his visit was the commission to “please get rid of these nuclear weapons.”

Bichsel explained the Disarm Now Plowshares state of mind as they entered SWFPAC, where lethal force is authorized. They went “in solidarity with half the people in our world, who are living under authorized lethal force – without food, without housing, without education, without the possibility of employment. The things that they live under – it’s lethal force. And it’s authorized, it’s not just happenstance that they are living that way. It doesn’t have to be that way, and we have the power to change it.”

In his opening statement Bichsel also explained how the consciences of Disarm Now Plowshares have been formed by the people they hope to call as expert witnesses in the coming days: Steven Leeper, Chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation; Angie Zelter, Scottish Plowshares activist and founder of Trident Ploughshares; Dr. David Hall, former president of the Washington State chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility; and Retired Colonel Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department over the U.S. led invasion of Iraq.

On Wednesday morning the trial will continue as the government presents its case.

Here Steve Kelly SJ talks to us about being an active member of the Plowshares movement:

And here is the video of the Seattle Times documentary "Old vs Navy", about the November 2009 action of the Bangor, WA Plowshares, five 60- to 80-year-old religious people who were able to wonder around the Naval Base, where nuclear weapons are being stored for 3 and a half hours, before anyone noticed them. What this case is all about...

`The truth will always win’

2010-12-07T15:39:00.004+01:00

The Australian:

`The truth will always win’ - Julian Assange writes (Dec 7th 2010)
...
"US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates admitted in a letter to the US congress that no sensitive intelligence sources or methods had been compromised by the Afghan war logs disclosure. The Pentagon stated there was no evidence the WikiLeaks reports had led to anyone being harmed in Afghanistan . NATO in Kabul told CNN it couldn’t find a single person who needed protecting. The Australian Department of Defence said the same. No Australian troops or sources have been hurt by anything we have published.

But our publications have been far from unimportant. The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts:

The US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties. Presumably Australian UN diplomats may be targeted, too.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US Officials in Jordan and Bahrain want Iran ‘s nuclear program stopped by any means available.

Britain’s Iraq inquiry was fixed to protect “US interests”.

Sweden is a covert member of NATO and US intelligence sharing is kept from parliament.

The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay . Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian President only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.

In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said “only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government”. The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth. "

Julian Assange is the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.

Business Insider: Payback: Bank That Froze Julian Assange's Bank Account Has Now Been Taken Down By Hackers (Dec 6 2010)

New York Times
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/latest-updates-on-leak-of-u-s-cables-day-9/?src=twt&twt=nytimes

Follow the Live Updates of the US Embassy Cables on the Guardian News site

Killing Fields: the battle to feed factory farms

2010-12-01T22:31:00.000+01:00

http://feedingfactoryfarms.org/

A hidden chain of destruction stretches from the factory farms in Europe to the forests of South America - where huge soy plantations, grown to feed chickens, cows and pigs in Europe, are wiping out wildlife and making climate change worse.

To make way for soy plantations, thousands of people are being forced from their land. Indigenous people are being evicted and forests are being cleared.

This ground breaking film investigates the impacts of growing soy in South America and shows how small scale farming that is good for people and the environment is losing out to big business of pesticides – poisoning rural communities, water sources and nature.

Meanwhile in Europe small scale farming that is good for people and the environment is losing out to big business.

This ground breaking film investigates the impacts of growing soy in South America to feed factory farms in Europe. Our campaign gives people unwittingly caught up in this damaging chain hope that they can break out of it.
---
This documentary was produced as part of the project “Feeding and Fuelling Europe” (raising awareness of the impacts of animal feed and agrofuels for Europe) with financial support from the European Commission, Friends of the Earth England Wales and Northern Ireland, Food and Water Watch, Rausing Trust, Heinrich Boell Foundation and Milieudefensie. The content of this documentary is the exclusive responsibility of the producers and does not reflect the position of the above mentioned funders.

Download the film here.

Ameer Makhoul: Letter from prison: I have a lot of energy to struggle

2010-11-30T10:25:00.000+01:00

ei: Letter from prison: I have a lot of energy to struggle

Ameer Makhoul writing from Gilboa prison, Live from Palestine, 29 November 2010

The following is an excerpt from a letter by Palestinian political prisoner and civil society leader Ameer Makhoul, written in response to a postcard featuring an image of a lighthouse sent by The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof.

A citizen of Israel, Makhoul was arrested in his home on 6 May 2010 and held in isolation and refused a meeting with his lawyers or family for 12 days following the arrest. The Israeli government indicted Makhoul with trumped-up charges of espionage and assistance to the enemy in a time of war, which carries a life sentence.

According to Makhoul, during that time the Israeli authorities used severe interrogation methods that caused him both psychological and physical harm. Last month Makhoul agreed to a plea deal to avoid lengthy imprisonment and now faces a maximum sentence of seven to ten years.The lighthouse, al-fanar in Arabic, is an inspiration. I have built a lighthouse here in jail. It has been built in my mind because I am not allowed to use the space, but my mind is totally mine. Al-fanar became part of my vision and dream for freedom and human dignity. The lighthouse is out of prison, while the role of the anchor is to be rooted and safe. In fact, I need both -- al-fanar to give direction to my vision, while the role of the anchor is to understand where I currently am. I need to be balanced and realistic to act within a totally unbalanced reality. I need to challenge and to change. I need, and we need to change. The anchor is needed in order to act. The lighthouse shows how and where and for what.It is not easy to have both elements, especially to "new" prisoners of freedom. It is defined as new but it is almost half a year that I have been in prison. Several prisoners have already been here 23 to 28 years. So I am relatively new here, but for me every day is a lot of time, with a lot of suffering and reflecting on the reality of being Palestinian in my homeland.

To be proven innocent is totally not accepted by the court. Thousands of cases show that both the rate and the number of Palestinians who have been released as innocents is zero. Palestinians are guilty, it is the only option. The Shabak [Israel's internal intelligence agency, also known as the Shin Bet] monitored and recorded 30,000 of my telephone calls and those in relevant circles; in addition they surveilled all email, Skype, Internet and electronic media. Yet they declared in the court that they have no material evidence.

Read more at Electronic Intifada here...

Brave leaders

2010-11-23T10:59:00.000+01:00

This is a poem I recently came across, written by Voltairine de Cleyre, that sums up why it takes extra bravery for those who lead a state or country, to show mercy upon a prisoner or prisoners, especially when they are political prisoners. More collected poems by Voltairine de Cleyre can be read here.

John P. Altgeld

(After an incarceration for six long years in Joliet state prison for an act of which they were entirely innocent, namely, the throwing of the Haymarket bomb, in Chicago, May 4th, 1886, Oscar Neebe, Michael Scwab, and Samuel Fielden, were liberated by Gov. Altgeld, who thus sacrificed his political career to an act of justice.)

There was a tableau! Liberty's clear light
Shone never on a braver scene than that,
Here was a prison, there a Man, who sat
High in the halls of State! Beyond, the might
Of Ignorance and mobs whose hireling Press
Yells at their bidding like the slaver's hounds,
Ready with coarse caprice to curse or bless,
To make or unmake rulers! — Lo, there sounds
A grating of the doors! And three poor men
Helpless and hated, having nought to give,
Come from their long-sealed tomb, look up, and
live,
And thank this Man that they are free again.
And He — to all the world this Man dares say:
“Curse as you will! I have been just this day.”

Philadelphia, June 1893

Mercy, a strange word?

2010-11-20T22:37:00.000+01:00

Marvin Gaye: Mercy, Mercy me, and What´s Going On / What´s Happening Brother, for Davon and his wonderful supporters. Due to unmerciful minds among the Arizona Clemency Board, Davon (23) has to spend more time in prison while he is seriously ill. Continuing and not giving up, we can soon really get treatment for his Hep C and hopefully we can really seriously get him paroled soon, because a person with Hep C should not be in prison but cared for in a safe environment. Arizona, Free Davon! Mercy!

Please support Sr Megan Rice and Fr Louie Vitale!

2010-11-16T16:45:00.000+01:00

Sr Megan Rice and Fr Louie Vitale will stand trial on November 18th, 1:30 PM, in Santa Barbara, California about their demonstrating for PEACE at Vandenberg AFB in August of 2009.

Please support them by reading and learning more here and here.

Waarom moet een computer zo snel weggegooid worden?

2010-11-15T14:22:00.000+01:00

Annie Leonard: The Story of Stuff met een vervolg: The Story of Electronics (2010), met dank aan mijn mede-blogger. Met geluid! Totdat ook LaLa een nieuwe computer moet kopen vanwege nieuwe updates....

Johann Hari: Protest Works. Just Look at the Evidence -- And Start to Fight Back

2010-11-11T16:30:00.002+01:00

This is an inspiring text by a British journalist.

Johann Hari

Columnist for the London Independent

Posted: November 9, 2010 10:30 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/protest-works-just-look-a_b_781339.html

There is a ripple of rage spreading across America. It is clearer every day that the people of the United States have been colossally scammed. Everyone can see the bankers who crashed the economy are richer and fatter than ever, on taxpayers' cash, and the only people the political class is hurrying to help are the super-rich fund who their campaigns. Yet the rage is being directed by a minority in a totally wrong direction - towards building a Tea Party that is dedicated to stripping away even the pathetically puny regulations on the banks and the rich introduced by Obama. Among most Americans, there is simply a flailing sense of impotence. You are furious, but you feel there you nothing we can do. There's a mood that you have been stitched up by forces more powerful and devious than you, and all you can do is sit back and be shafted.

This mood is wrong. It doesn't have to be this way - if enough of us act to stop it. To explain how, I want to start with a small scandal, a small response - and a big lesson from history.

Here's an example of how a left-wing fightback has begun in Britain - a Coffee Party, rather than a Tea Party. For years now, the massive mobile phone company Vodafone has been refusing to pay billions of pounds of taxes to the British government that are outstanding. The company - which has doubled its profits during this recession - engaged in all kinds of accounting twists and turns, claiming much of its business takes place in ultra-low tax Luxemburg. They owed a sum the investigative magazine Private Eye calculates to be more than £6bn ($9.5bn).

Then, suddenly, the Conservatives came to power and canceled almost all of the outstanding tax bill, in a move a senior figure in the British IRS says is "an unbelievable cave-in." A few days after the decision, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was promoting Vodafone on a tax-payer funded trip to India. He then appointed Andy Halford, the finance director of Vodafone, to the government's Advisory Board on Business Tax Rates, apparently because he thinks this is a model of how the Conservatives think it should be done. At the same time, the Conservatives have announced a cut of £6bn ($9.5bn) to the support given for poor people to be housed, which will drive 200,000 people of their homes in London alone. This is not an isolated incident. Richard Murphy, of Tax Research UK, calculates that UK corporations fail to pay a further £12bn ($19bn) a year in taxes they legally owe, while the rich avoid or evade up to £120bn ($190bn).

After I wrote about this in the British press, many people emailed me saying they were outraged that while they pay their fair share for running the country, Vodafone doesn't pay theirs. One of them named Thom Costello decided he wanted to organize a protest, so he appealed on Twitter - and a big crowd of enraged citizens shut down the flagship Vodafone store on Oxford Street in protest. "Vodafone won't pay as they go," said one banner. "Make Vodafone pay, not the poor," said another. The reaction from members of the public - who were handed leaflets explaining the situation - was startling. Again and again, people said "I'm so glad somebody is doing this" and "there needs to be much more of this." Lots of them stopped to talk about how frightened they were about the cuts and for their own homes and jobs. The protest became the third most discussed topic in the country on Twitter, meaning millions of people now know about what Vodafone and the government have done.

Then the protests became a wave. Across Britain, ordinary citizens went to their local Vodafone store and shut it down. In 21 different places spanning the whole of Britain, the shops have been forcibly closed by protesters.

You might ask - so what? What has been changed? To understand how and why protest like this can work, you need some concrete and proven examples from the past. Let's start with the most hopeless and wildly idealistic cause - and see how it won. The first ever attempt to hold a Gay Pride rally in Trafalgar Square in London was in 1965. Two dozen people turned up - and they were mostly beaten by the police and arrested. Gay people were imprisoned for having sex, and even the most compassionate defense of gay people offered in public life was that they should be pitied for being mentally ill.

Read the rest here.

Also, Johann was interviewed today on DemocracyNow about the protests of the students in London (more than 50,000!) against the raising to unpayable hights of tuition fees. On NNewsnight (BBC TV), Jeremy Paxman tried to make the students look ridiculous, because some had gone into the building of the Conservative Party and they had gone onto the roof. It is a shame that Paxman tried to make a non-news item of 52,000 people protesting, to interview people about unplanned protests.

Over 50,000 Students Protest in London Over Planned Cuts to Education Funding

An estimated 52,000 students took to the streets of London on Tuesday to protest government plans to increase university tuition fees while cutting higher education funding by 40 percent. The demonstration was one of the biggest student protests in decades and the largest turnout against the British government’s austerity measures that were announced last month. We speak with Johann Hari, a columnist for the London Independent.

Read the rest here. Sign to support those arrested.

Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 9

2010-11-10T08:43:00.006+01:00

Remembering Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro Wiwa (October 10, 1941 – November 10, 1995) and the Ogoni 9...

Winners of the Right Livelihood Awards (1994)

"I harbour the hope that in founding the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, in empowering the Ogoni people to fearlessly confront their history and their tormentors non violently, that in encouraging the Ogoni people to a belief in their ability to revitalise their dying society, I have started a trend which will peacefully liberate many peoples in Africa and lead eventually to political and economic reform and social justice."

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Oscar Grant

2010-11-06T18:42:00.000+01:00

A mural of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California.
Read more about Oscar and inequality in the USA, here and here.

Prison is violence and slavery

2010-10-31T23:17:00.000+01:00

A well-written article about the prison system in the USA which summarizes all that is wrong with it, by Jenny Truax:

http://www.jesusradicals.com/the-u-s-system-of-punishment-an-expanding-balloon-of-wealth-racism-and-greed/

Osira Groep-Sint Jacob: Besteed eens ZORG aan de mensen die je huisvest!

2010-10-28T21:02:00.000+02:00

St Jacob, "zorg"-inrichting, gerund door "Osira groep" zal nog een tijd van ons te horen krijgen. Hier weer een stuk over de barre on-zorg die daar heerst. Uit: Krapuul:

Zorg? Ach, morgen is er weer een dag

Nog niet lang van school was ik, ik fietste van werkzaamheden in de binnenstad langs het pand tegenover de dierentuin en het aquarium. Ik zag een meisje aan een raam met een doek, bezig met zemen, haar verschijning beviel mij en in de flits van het langsfietsen bleek het wederzijds. Zij keek terug en wuifde naar mij. De ontmoeting had niet korter kunnen zijn. Maar ik moest er altjid aan denken als ik langs het bejaardentehuis fietste, wat vaak voorkwam. Het pand dat ik associeer met verreweg de kortste liefdesrelatie die ik ooit heb meegemaakt, een Piet Paaltjens-moment..
Nu ken ik het huis van binnen.

Mijn moeder had gangreen aan een grote teen, die werd operatief verwijderd en sindsdien wachtte zij daar in de ziekenboeg – op revalidatie die nooit is gekomen. Het zou denkbaar zijn geweest dat zij terug naar huis was gegaan, maar dan had zij moeten leren traplopen met het aangepaste schoeisel en een teen minder. Het zou gekund hebben.

Maar netjes opgeborgen op de derde verdieping in de ziekenboeg bleek hoe ontredderd zij was geraakt in de periode van de gangreen en de operatie. Zij zou buiten de weg niet meer weten, hoewel het niet eens ver lopen is naar het huis een hoog waar zij officieel nog woont. Verlost van de dagelijkse verplichting van boodschappen doen en maaltijd bereiden.

Het zag er juist naar uit dat zij er wel zou blijven in een definitieve kamer. En achteraf was het te voorspellen dat zou gebeuren wat is gebeurd: gevoed met een kalkarm dieet (altijd reden tot klagen maar geen aanwijzing wat er aan te doen) en in feite geen lichaamsbeweging meer – de val en de gebroken heup.
De breuk was tamelijk eenvoudig te repareren maar mijn moeder accepteert geen enkele pijn die vermeden kan worden en weigert iedere oefening in opnieuw lopen.
Dat wordt haar inmiddels gemakkelijk gemaakt. Na enig heen-en-weer-gehannes is zij teruggekomen in het pand waar zij op de ziekenboeg verbleef, nu in de revalidatieafdeling.
Ongeveer dertig mensen in rolstoel verstoppen een ruimte die Huiskamer wordt genoemd. Je moet er wel verblijven want een eigen kamer heb je niet, het geldt als een ziekenvoorziening. De karretjes staan schots en scheef door elkaar en weinigen vertonen neiging tot interactie met wie dan ook. Ik kan het mij ook voorstellen. Mijn moeder had geen enkele behoefte zich te bewegen tussen gekke ouwe mensen tot ze het punt bereikt had dat ze er zelf een werd.

Ik kan het als een zegen zien dat zij doof is nu. De godganse dag staat Radio Holland NL (of iets van dien aard) aan in deze huiskamer, er valt niet aan te ontkomen. Op flinke stahoogte zijn de rode knoppen waarmee verplegend personeel opgeroepen kan worden. Kan er iemand bij? Mijn moeder is voortdurend panisch want het lijkt wel of zij niet ziet dat er mensen in de zaal zitten die misschien wel naar het knopje kunnen reiken. Misschien zou ik ze ook niet willen zien in deze omstandigheden.
Hiervoor zal de vierentwintiguursluier bedoeld zijn. Voor ieder sanitaire bezigheid heeft mijn moeder hulp nodig waar zij naar haar gevoel niet eens om kan vragen.
De slaapkamer is een soort ziekenkamer met wel tien centimeter afstand tussen de bedden. Het is een tweepersoonskamer.
Monter wordt mij verteld dat de volgende dag, vandaag, begonnen zal worden met de revalidatie. Het bleek op een visite van “de maatschappelijk werkster ” neer te komen. “Hoe is de thuissituatie? Wanneer denkt u weer naar huis te kunnen?” Mijn zuster en ik moeten zelf een afspraak afdwingen om een afspraak te kunnen maken (!) met de zaalarts. Er als verantwoordelijk bijlopende mensen op de afdeling zeggen dat het begin van de revalidatie zijn tijd neemt. Het heeft geen haast. Alsof iemand met een afgezette teen en een pen door haar heup, die nu in een rolstoel zit, wel even kan wachten met revalideren. Iedere verloren dag zonder oefening wordt het waarschijnlijker dat het hierbij blijft. Als ik denk aan de dertig rolstoelen in de huiskamer kan ik mij ook niet anders voorstellen dan dat dit de bedoeling is.

Toch is het niet de echte hel, het is een voorgeborchte. In de echte hel, waar ik argeloos een keer terechtgekomen ben, denkende dat ik wel kon doorlopen naar een andere afdeling, wordt voortdurend gegild. Een doordringende urine- en excrementenlucht herinnert ons er aan het bestaan van de kontvodden.
Zou mijn korteflitsliefde er nog werken? Heel onwaarschijnlijk. Zou zij er terecht willen komen? Zoiets wens je een korteflitsliefde niet toe laat staan je moeder.

Zij klampt zich aan mij vast, wil uit haar rolstoel stappen. “Neem me alsjeblieft mee naar huis, laat mij hier niet achter.” Het kan niet.

Monter vertelt de site van de “Zorginrichting” wat u kunt verwachten wanneer u voor St. J. kiest. In het universum van het neoliberalisme kies je er voor met zijn dertigen in rolstoelen opgepakt te zitten in een kleine “huiskamer” waar je onmiddellijk aan brand en het in het nieuws te vermelden aantal doden denkt.
De Volkskrant vermeldt dit, Het Parool dit en hier wordt verlangd naar een bevrijdingsfront.

Happy Birthday Zulu!

2010-10-14T09:58:00.000+02:00

Free Zulu! 34 years in captivity, are you so blind that you cannot see, I said: Freeeeeee Zulu Whitmore! In Angola, Louisiana. Falsely accused.

Niets

2010-10-09T14:29:00.001+02:00

"Niets rechtvaardigt racisme en onwetende en hitserige kletspraat over de godsdienst van velen aan de onderkant van de samenleving, geïmmigreerd of geronseld voor het werk waarvoor de “autochtonen” zich te goed voelden in de jaren zestig of zeventig, of nog steeds."

Krapuul

MILK NOT JAILS Campaign Organizers Arrested in Buffalo, NY

2010-09-29T21:12:00.001+02:00

September 26, 2010 Buffalo, NY – Two MILK NOT JAILS Campaign Organizers were arrested late Saturday night on Allen Street in Buffalo, NY after a successful day of serving ice cream and popular education to the people of Buffalo. Members of the organization were standing outside of a local business when a police officer approached the group with marijuana in his hand, looked at the one African-American in the group, Tychist Baker, and said, “You dropped something.”

Regardless of a lack of evidence connecting the drugs to Mr. Baker, the arresting officer asked for identification from everyone in the group, called for back up and proceeded to frisk Mr. Baker. Lauren M., one of the other campaign organizers, intervened, questioning what she describes as Officer Lorenzo’s unlawful targeting and investigation of the group and was arrested for so-called obstruction of governmental administration. After searching Mr. Baker and finding no illegal substances, the same officer arrested him for unlawful possession of marijuana. One of the other officers called in to provide back up said to Mr. Baker, “If your friend hadn’t acted like a lawyer we would have let you go.”

“Neither standing on the sidewalk nor asserting your rights is illegal,” said Lauren M., MILK NOT JAILS Co-organizer. “A criminal justice system that unlawfully targets people or arrests people who have not committed crimes is unjust, unnecessary, and abusive.”

Mr. Baker, MILK NOT JAILS Co-organizer, said, “Regardless of my positive work in the community, at the end of the day cops still approach me as a criminal because of the color of my skin. Innocent until proven guilty is non-existent in today’s criminal justice system.”

Earlier that day, the MILK NOT JAILS team had traveled to Buffalo from New York City to host an ice cream social with local organizations Prisoners are People Too and the Massachusetts Avenue Project. The team served free ice cream to over 300 people outside of the Frank E. Merriweather Library and introduced attendees to the MILK NOT JAILS campaign, a new statewide initiative looking to create a new urban-rural relationship, one that is not dominated by the prison system.

The two were brought to Erie County Holding Center and released Sunday morning. They must appear before a Judge on October 4, 2010 in Erie County Court.

MILK NOT JAILS asserts, “If rural NY’s economy depends on my habits, I’d rather drink their milk than go to their prison.” It is a political campaign to advocate for criminal justice and agricultural policy reform that will bring about positive economic growth. It insists that bad criminal justice policy should not be an
economic development plan for rural NY.

Milknotjails.wordpress.com

Anchored down in...

2010-09-27T21:05:00.001+02:00

Apparently a fellow Radio 100 DJ... :-)

Wijnoogst

2010-09-19T22:22:00.001+02:00

Een deel van de druivenoogst 2010! Dit jaar waren er niet zoveel druiven en ze werden niet snel rijp door het gebrek aan zon. Hopelijk kunnen we er toch iets goeds mee doen...

Sept 16-19: Global Action Days Announced in Support of Accused WikiLeaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning

2010-09-16T11:06:00.000+02:00

MEDIA ADVISORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Jeff Paterson
press [at] bradleymanning [dot] org
+1-202-640-4388

Global Action Days Announced in Support of Accused WikiLeaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning

Individuals and activists plan events internationally to show support for the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower on September 16-19.

Washington DC, August 24, 2010 — On September 16-19, 2010, activist organizations and individuals will take to the streets to call on the United States government to drop the charges against Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. Manning, 22, has been held in isolation since May, charged with releasing classified documents including a video that shows American troops shooting and killing 11 people, including two Reuters employees, in 2007.

Manning’s imprisonment has resulted in an international outcry, with groups and activists throughout the US and abroad demanding his release and calling for transparency in America’s war policies. Famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg has said that if Mr. Manning is related to the leak, then he is “a new hero of mine.”

The timing of these International Days of Action coincides with the approximate dates of WikiLeaks’ next scheduled document release.

Supporters of Bradley Manning are calling for his immediate release and that all charges against him be dropped, regardless of which person or persons contributed to the release of the WikiLeaks documents. Filmmaker Michael Moore, who joined the Bradley Manning Support Network’s Advisory Board over the weekend, stated: “Whoever is responsible for the Afghanistan leaks is a courageous patriot who should be celebrated for bringing the truth of this war to the American people. Whether or not Pfc. Bradley Manning is the leaker, he must be set free.”

Learn more: http://www.bradleymanning.org/days-of-action/

Trial of the "Creech 14": Judge needs 4 months to study the issues presented

2010-09-15T11:22:00.001+02:00

For immediate release:

Nevada Desert Experience
1420 West Bartlett Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89106
702.646.4814
www.NevadaDesertExperience.org

Voices for Creative Nonviolence
1249 W. Argyle St.
Chicago, IL 60640
773.878.3815
www.vcnv.org

JUDGE DECIDES TO DEVOTE FOUR MONTHS TO STUDYING ISSUES AND TESTIMONY PRESENTED IN “CREECH 14” CASE

Contact: Jim Haber 415-828-2506 (cell)
Kathy Kelly: 773-619-2418 (cell)

September 14, 2010
The “Creech 14” went to trial on September 14, 2010 in Clark County Regional Court in Las Vegas, Nevada. The case originated during a week of demonstrations and vigils in April 2009, when the activists entered Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs to highlight the serious injustice of the U.S. military’s use of drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Crews at Creech control the drones used in these expanding wars, including killing civilians in remote controlled assassination attacks. The protesters were charged with trespassing. Judge William Jansen scheduled the verdict for January 27, 2011.

Judge Jansen allowed the pro-se defendants to call three expert witnesses – former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, retired Col. and former Embassy Official Ann Wright, and Bill Quigley, Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“Targeted assassinations by Predator and Reaper drones,” said defendant Renee Espeland, “must be catapulted into the court of public opinion. I am bound by the law of our land that makes it my duty to stop the killing of civilians and to protect U.S. soldiers being ordered to perform illegal acts.”

The judge limited the defense to questions strictly pertaining to the charge of trespass. However, through carefully crafted questions, the defendants were able to extract several key points from their witnesses:

- Intentional killing is a war crime, as embodied in U.S. constitutional law.
- Drone strikes by U.S. and coalition forces kill a disproportionate number of civilians.
- People have the right, even the duty, to stop war crimes.
- According to the Nuremberg principles, individuals are required to disobey domestic orders that cause crimes against humanity.

Defendant Brian Terrell delivered the group's closing statement. Referring to earlier mention of a classic metaphor used in cases invoking the necessity defense, he depicted a house on fire, with a baby trapped inside. “The house is on fire; the baby is in the house,” said Terrell, “We fourteen are ones who see the smoke, and will not allow a ‘no trespass’ sign to stop us from reaching burning children.” Terrell was speaking about the civilian deaths caused by U.S. drones in Afghanistan.

The Creech 14 include Fr. John Dear, SJ; Dennis DuVall; Renee Espeland; Judy Homanich; Kathy Kelly; Fr. Steve Kelly, SJ; Mariah Klusmire; Brad Lyttle; Libby Pappalardo; Sr. Megan Rice, SHCJ; Brian Terrell; Eve Tetaz; Fr. Louie Vitale, OFM; and Fr. Jerry Zawada, OFM.

---
See also: Las Vegas Sun

Bevrijdingsfront gewenst van Osira Groep

2010-09-10T12:13:00.007+02:00

Mijn schoonmoeder (bijna 88) gaf te kennen in een bezoek gisteren dat ze dit weekeinde moet verhuizen naar een andere kamer (het woord woning impliceert meer ruimte en een zelfstandiger omgeving dan dit, laat staan huis of thuis). Ze zit in een Inrichting, want iets anders kan ik de Oude Mensen Flat van Osira niet noemen.

Osira Groep: Wonen, Zorg en Welzijn.

Wat is zorg? Is het verzorging? Liefdevolle aandacht? Tijd nemen voor de ander? De familie inlichten als de ingezetene moet verhuizen?

Ik denk dat "zorg" sinds de vele regeringen cda en pvda en weet ik veel welke opportunisten er aan de macht zijn, betekent: 10 minuten voor iemand met "zorgniveau 2" ofzoiets. Tijd is geld, en Osira Groep moet verdienen! Aan uw oude moeder! Is dat christelijk (CDA)? Is dat socialistisch (PvdA)? Is dat Liberaal (VVD; D66)? Ik weet niet wat het is behalve dat het immoreel is!

En als iemand mij zegt waarom ga je haar zelf niet in huis nemen, dan zeg ik dit: dat wij allemaal moesten gaan werken komt ook door degenen die aan de macht zijn. Vrouwen kunnen niet meer kiezen thuis of werk, ze moeten wel werken, want van een uitkering leven wordt als een schande gezien, en bestraft met bedreigingen als je er erg lang "in blijft", of je wordt bedreigd met werk dat bestaat uit het plukken van paddo´s (degelijke paddo´s dan), ver weg van huis en familie.

O ja, en krijg maar eens een huis dichtbij haar, op zeer korte termijn! Of dat haar huis wordt heringericht, verbouwd, met een liftje bijvoorbeeld.

Hoe kan je dan op je oude schoonmoeder passen?

Ik wil niet overkomen als het slachtoffer van de politici, maar ik denk wel hoe kan ik mijn schoonmoeder bevrijden uit die inrichting, waar ze de telefoon niet eens fatsoenlijk kunnen opnemen als je informeert naar je familie? Waar ze niet eens bellen dat ze gaat verhuizen, niet over een dag, maar fatsoenlijk over een maand?

Ik heb het al druk genoeg met het liefdevol verzorgen van de "mantelzorgers" (ook al zo´n uitvinding van Balkenende en zijn bende) van mijn schoonmoeder.

Zie ook hier voor een rapport over deze instelling.
Zie ook dit artikel in het Parool...

The big guns: Peace protesters arrested at drone warfare center now face trespass charges

2010-09-08T11:21:00.003+02:00

De Creech 14 komen volgende week voor de rechtbank in Las Vegas. Hier een stuk uit juli met wat achtergronden.

by JASON WHITED
Las Vegas City Life
An upcoming trial for activists who illegally entered Creech Air Force Base to protest the government's use of unmanned aerial vehicles has caught the attention of United Nations officials and could have serious implications for the future of remote-controlled warfare.

In April 2009, 14 activists who had gathered here from across the country illegally entered the base's gates and refused to leave in protest of Creech's role as the little-known headquarters for U.S. military operations involving unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, over Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

Held at gunpoint by Air Force security police until officers from Metro and the Nevada Highway Patrol handcuffed them and took them to the Clark County Detention Center, the activists now face a September trial on misdemeanor trespassing charges.

The activists, whose ranks include members of the local anti-war group the Nevada Desert Experience, had been holding a 10-day peace vigil outside Creech to protest both the use of drones by military and CIA officials and the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani civilians they say have been murdered by the unmanned craft.

Activists said they were gladly willing to risk arrest and prosecution -- and will continue to do so -- in order to alert taxpayers to the U.S. government's taste for this particularly insidious form of warfare now being waged from just outside Sin City.

"It's just something that has clearly made killing so much easier," said Iowa-based activist Brian Terrell, one of the so-called Creech 14 now facing charges. "Removing a combatant from the battlefield has a certain coldness, a weirdness about it. The idea that someone is sitting at a console at Creech and shooting missiles at people half a world away is very spooky."

Spooky, and very possibly illegal, particularly in the cases of hundreds of innocent civilians who've been killed by drones, according to a growing number of international observers.

"These issues raise questions about the law of war and whether you can target nonmilitary personnel who are not engaged in actual combat," said Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international affairs and politics at Princeton University and the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine.

Falk said he hopes to testify at the Creech 14 trial in September on potential legal problems with the use of drones. He said his work, which has also focused heavily on similar, so-called targeted killings of Palestinian militants by Israeli officials, has convinced him that drone strikes also raise serious questions of potential war crimes by U.S. military personnel.

"There are two fundamental concerns. One is embarking on this sort of automated warfare in ways that further dehumanize the process of armed conflict in ways that I think have disturbing implications for the future," Falk said. "Related to that are the concerns I've had recently with my preoccupation with the occupation of Gaza of a one-sided warfare where the high-tech side decides how to inflict pain and suffering on the other side that is, essentially, helpless."

While few, including activists, would accuse al-Qaida militants of being helpless, critics have charged those who suffer most from American drone strikes are the Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani peasants unlucky enough to live across an entire region now considered a war zone by leaders in Washington, D.C.

Since the United States first used drone strikes in November 2002 to kill an al-Qaida leader allegedly responsible for the 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing, both the military and the CIA have spent billions acquiring squadrons of the craft to target alleged terrorists and insurgents overseas.

Press reports and independent human rights groups estimate American drones have killed hundreds of Afghan and Pakistani nationals since then, souring relations with those two nations. A July 2009 report from the Brookings Institution found that for every supposed terrorist killed by a drone strike, more than 10 Afghan or Pakistani civilians have been killed, a figure that topped 600 at last count.

Activists agreed with Falk that drones dehumanize killing and said that sense of removal will only ensure future abuses by the U.S. military. That's why they came to Creech to protest, activists said.

"They're not only flying drones in Iraq and Afghanistan from Creech, but they're also training people there to fly them. When you stand outside the gates you can see drones taking off all the time there. No one except the military is really sure where all this is leading," Terrell said.

For years, Creech has been ground zero for the government's rapidly expanding use of the unmanned vehicles.

There, amid the high, craggy desert plateaus, pilots with the Air Force's 432nd Wing continuously fly a fleet of more than 100 drones over large swaths of Southwest Asia and beyond -- all from a fleet of nondescript, air-conditioned trailers on this quiet military outpost. Exact details are classified, but base insiders say, at any given time, Creech pilots fly at least 36 unmanned Predators and their beefed-up cousins, Reapers. Cutting-edge satellite technology enables Creech pilots to drop the thousands of pounds of bombs many of their drones carry with barely a two-second delay -- all with the twist of a joystick and the push of a button.

Perhaps if military officials were more careful to avoid killing civilians with drones, activists wouldn't be so quick to sound the alarm, many of them said.

But activists also reserved some of their complaints for Clark County District Attorney David Roger. They said Roger's decision to prosecute them, while not dissuading hardcore protesters from demonstrating in the future, could have a chilling effect on average citizens who decide to demonstrate against this new type of warfare being waged in their name, with their tax dollars.

It's a charge Roger strongly denies.

"We don't have any particular animus toward these protesters, but these citations were submitted to our office, and we felt we could prove [the case] beyond a reasonable doubt," he said.

Activists, however, contend Roger's decision to prosecute the Creech 14 represents a larger pattern at work. Across the country, they said, prosecutors and judges are doing all they can to throw activists in jail in an effort to tamp down a growing domestic anger at the warlike policies of both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Court documents from across the country, and press reports from organizations such as Democracy Now and the Tucson, Ariz.-based Nuclear Resister, do show an increase in the number of protesters now facing charges for anti-war activities. While official figures from the FBI for 2010 aren't yet available, court documents from Fort Benning, Ga., to Lancaster, Penn., show rising numbers of anti-war demonstrators either face charges or are already behind bars for trespassing onto U.S. bases or staging sit-ins at military recruiting stations.

Another problem with the way Roger's office handled the case, activists said, is they almost didn't find out about their upcoming trial at all. They never received a letter or a phone call from anyone at the DA's office alerting them that they were, in fact, being charged.

This problem of gaps in defendant notification has long been reported by defense attorneys across Southern Nevada. It's a problem Roger said has now been corrected.

"We have suffered cutbacks; right now, we have lost about 60 positions, and some of those positions were in our case assessment unit (the office that notifies defendants of pending charges) ... we mail them to defendants at their last known address, but if they've moved, our only alternative is to seek a bench warrant," he said.

Trial or no trial, demonstrators said, neither prosecutors nor drones will dissuade them from staging future protests at Creech.

"People who perform arrest actions or risk prosecution are counseled or coached to be ready for the worst-case scenario," said Jim Haber, coordinator for the Nevada Desert Experience. "But prosecutions like this do reduce the number of people willing to risk it."

And that's a shame, according to scholars like Falk and others. He said protesters like the Creech 14 can have an impact on U.S. foreign policies, particularly in legally and morally nebulous situations like the American drone fleet and the rising number of innocent civilian deaths that result from its use.

"I've analogized [the use of drones] to torture, where the victims have no retaliatory capability. It's why people view torture with a certain moral abhorrence. And while [potential war crimes by the U.S. military] isn't new, as one moves further and further into this domain of one-sided warfare, it's really better understood by the terminology of massacre."

Demonstreer mee voor de sluiting van de bajesboten

2010-09-06T09:04:00.003+02:00

Van: Joke Kaviaar en Indymedia:

Demonstreer mee voor de sluiting van de bajesboten!
Zaterdag 25 september 15.00 u - Zaandam

Sinds 2007 worden er in de Achtersluispolder te Zaandam mensen opgesloten omdat ze geen geldige papieren hebben. Opsluiting leidt bij veel van deze mensen tot psychische klachten. Verhalen van zelfmoordpogingen en psychoses bereiken nooit het brede publiek doordat Justitie deze misstanden in een doofpot stopt. Volgens een anonieme werknemer van Justitie zijn al meer dan eens gedetineerden waarbij tuberculose is geconstateerd op straat gezet zonder dat zij gepaste medische behandeling hebben ontvangen. Mensen die medische behandeling vragen worden standaard afgescheept met paracetamol (ook voor angstgevoelens, slapeloosheid,verkoudheid e.d). Deze praktijken moeten stoppen. Wij eisen niet zozeer betere detentieomstandigheden, wij pleitten voor de vrijlating van deze gevangenen. Het is niet de bedoeling van de migrant om hier vast te zitten, het is een gevolg van corrupte machtsstructuren overal ter wereld.

Wij vinden dat je het migratievraagstuk niet los kunt zien van de huidige economische realiteit. Doordat de elite overal ter wereld op te grote voet wil leven ontstaat er voor veel mensen een onleefbare situatie. Oorlogen om grondstoffen en een roofzuchtig economisch systeem leiden tot grote migratiestromen. In plaats van al onze kennis en kracht in te zetten voor een rechtvaardige wereld, focust onze economie zich op winstmaximalisatie voor een zeer beperkte groep. Enorme bergen wapens worden gemaakt om de winsten veilig te stellen. Vrijheid van bewegen voor iedereen is volgens ons veel belangrijker dan de vrijheid tot overconsumptie van een zeer beperkt deel van de wereldbevolking.

Naast het kritisch nadenken over het migratievraagstuk op wereldschaal is het noodzakelijk dat we ageren tegen de mensenrechtenschendingen die in onze eigen gemeente worden gepleegd. Op de Zaanse bajesboten worden vreemdelingen stelselmatig opgesloten zonder te weten voor hoe lang. Verhef uw stem tegen deze situatie. Wij eisen de onmiddelijke sluiting van de bajesboten in Zaandam. Demonstreer mee tegen het opsluit- en uitsluitbeleid van de Nederlandse staat. Op zaterdag 25 september om 15.00 uur verzamelen wij op het pleintje voor buurtcentrum de Poelenburcht in Zaandam (Weerpad).

Vanaf station Zaandam busnummer 66, 92, 94, uitstappen bij bushalte Weerpad.

Stop de voortrazende waanzin!
Zaanse Anarchistische Groep
Anarchistische Groep Amsterdam
Vrije Bond

www.agzaanstreek.wordpress.com

Demonstration for closure of the prison boats!
Saturday, September 25th, 15.00 h - Zaandam

Since 2007 in the Achtersluispolder in Zaandam people are in prison because they have no valid papers. Confinement leads to psychological problems for many of these people. Stories of suicide attempts and psychosis never reach the general public because the department of Justice covers up these abuses. According to an anonymous employee of the department of Justice more than once prisoners with tuberculosis have been put on the streets without having received appropriate medical treatment. Prisoners who ask for medical treatment are usually just given paracetamol (also for anxiety, insomnia, colds, etc.). These practices must stop. We are not necessarily demanding better prison conditions, we call for the release of these prisoners. It is not the intention of the migrant to be stuck here, it is a result of corrupt power structures worldwide.

We believe that you can not see migration separate from the current economic reality. Because the elite around the world wants to live an unsustainable lifestyle an intolerable situation is created for many people. Wars for raw materials and a predatory economic system lead to large migration flows. Instead of using all our knowledge and strength to work for a just world, our economy is focused on maximizing profits for a very limited group. Huge mountains of weapons are made to secure profits. In our view freedom of movement for everyone is far more important than the freedom of over-consumption for just a minority of the world’s inhabitants.

Aside from critical thinking about migration on a global scale it is essential that we act when human rights violations are committed in our own community. At the prison boats in Zaandam illegal aliens are routinely imprisoned without knowing for how long. Raise your voice against this situation. We demand the immediate closure of the prison boats in Zaandam. Protest with us against the detention centre and the exclusion policies of the Dutch state. On Saturday, September 25th at 15:00 we gather in the parking zone in front of community centre “de poelenburcht” in Zaandam (Weerpad).

From station Zaandam bus number 66, 92, 94, get off at busstop Weerpad.

Stop the raging madness!
Zaanse Anarchistische Groep
Anarchistische Groep Amsterdam
Vrije Bond

www.agzaanstreek.wordpress.com

In het bos...

2010-08-28T11:29:00.003+02:00

In het bos is het windstil, en tijdens deze maand zijn er weinig vogels te hores. De zon dringt door in de open stukjes. de deuren van het huisje staan open en ik kan zo naar buiten stappen in deze rijkdom...

Protest Armed Drone Attacks

2010-08-25T10:31:00.002+02:00

Stormachtig weekeinde

2010-08-23T14:25:00.004+02:00

Vorige week verbrak de vrouw met wie ik een samenwerkingsverband had in de VS haar samenwerking met mij. Zij kondigde aan alleen nog te willen werken voor mensen die in 1 bepaalde staat gevangen zitten (wij beheerden voor elke staat een blog), en dan ook nog van een bepaalde huidskleur/bende. Als Europeaan was ik verbijsterd hoe iemand die zich voordeed als ´libertair´, kon kiezen om alleen bepaalde mensen te helpen, om racistische redenen.

Ja ik weet wel, deze vrouw koos bewust racistische woorden als reactie op een brief, die zij had gekregen van een gevangene van een andere huidskleur dan de hare. Een gevangen persoon die haar belangrijke ideeen had aangereikt, maar die zijn kritiek op haar (en zijn scheldwoorden) moeilijk kon inhouden. Hoe erg zijn woorden ook waren, het is geen reden om terug te bijten met ironische woorden als een soort ´verhuld´ racisme, tenzij ze dat ook meende. Vandaar dat ze uit de kast kwam voor mij en anderen als iemand die zich superieur voelt aan mensen met een andere huidskleur dan die van haar. En dit gebruikte zij als reactie. En tegen mij schreef ze dat ze vond dat de ´broeders´ die zij steunde, met trots hun ariaanse identiteit uitdroegen door een hakenkruis op hun voorhoofd getatoeeerd te hebben... Ook vond ze mijn tegenwerping dat dit een teken van haat was, waaronder velen waren vermoord of waaronder velen hun familie of geliefden hadden verloren, ´nogal gevoelig...`
Kinderachtige, domme reacties van iemand die volwassen zou kunnen reageren, van iemand die beter moet weten. Dat zij die groep wil helpen, nu ja, maar dat zij hun ideologie dan overneemt en gebruikt gaat me te ver.

De 50 blogs (een voor elke staat, die dan documentatie bevat over het gevangeniswezen aldaar), ach, ik heb ze gesloten, het is ook beter onafhankelijk te werken aan een blog dan er 50 te moeten bijhouden, omdat je in een organisatie zit.

Earth Angel

2010-08-19T16:52:00.001+02:00

Dr. Doowop from Michiel Brongers on Vimeo.

Dr Doowop, one of my favorite DJ's in Amsterdam!

The Summer of Last Year

2010-08-13T16:24:00.004+02:00

Enjoy it again!

The Pyramid: Summer of Last Year (1967)

Rally for Bradley Manning

2010-08-09T09:39:00.005+02:00

Please visit the website: Bradleymanning.org

Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst for 27 years: “As an American soldier Bradley Manning took a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” says McGovern. “When he experienced callous disregard for the Constitution and the laws of war, he was able to see that his conscience and his solemn oath warranted precedence over the obligatory promise to protect classified information. By following his conscience in exposing the abuses of war, Manning joins an all-too-rare breed of soldier."

This is the speech he gave during the rally on August 8th for Bradley Manning, who is held in Quantico (VA?), and where the rally, organized by Code Pink, Courage to Resist, and Veterans for Peace, was held:

On Anti-War.com the whole speech was published, so I will publish parts of it here:

We are living in a liminal time, that is to say we live on the threshold. So much that we have taken for granted is passing.

In times like this we must be careful to keep our bearings, lest we come to love the chaos that passes for reality.

This is why we need to honor our brother Bradley Manning. He was not afraid to face the unknown; not afraid to resist the seduction of conformity; not afraid to follow his conscience; and not afraid to give us the wherewithal to distinguish truth from lies so that we, too, can follow our conscience.

The principalities and the powers, including the Fawning Corporate Media, have no hold on citizens like Private Manning, who refuse to live in a moral vacuum.

Bradley Manning dared to mock the falsity parading as reality after our country had a nervous breakdown as a result of 9/11 and the efforts of those who would use 9/11 to stoke our fear.

THAT false “reality” has lost its power, because it cannot live in the light of truth.

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” THAT is the rock-solid truth.

I noticed that this Bible verse was chiseled into the marble wall of CIA Headquarters when I began working as an analyst there in April 1963. That was the same month that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. penned “Letter From the Birmingham City Jail,” including graphic, earthy words in describing our duty to expose deceit and injustice:

“Like a boil that can never be cured as long as it is covered up, but must be opened with all its pus-flowing ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must likewise be exposed, with all of the tension its exposing creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”

What Private Manning is alleged to have done with the help of WikiLeaks is to puncture that boil of injustice and deceit.

Our defense secretary and joint chiefs chairman do not mind the blood on their hands – yes, on THEIR hands – not the hands of Manning or WikiLeaks. The Pentagon chiefs are but cogs in an imperial system; large-diameter cogs, but cogs nonetheless.

They have made their peace with the crimson red on their hands. What they do mind is the pus. Pus stinks – it stinks to high heaven and is more quickly smelled and pungent than blood.

We have no problem with Marines and soldiers who are taught to believe they must surrender their conscience to some kind of noble enterprise. We do have a BIG PROBLEM with those who send them off on missions that make the Charge of the Light Brigade look like a model of military planning.

Worse still, the gun-barrel video that WikiLeaks posted and titled “Collateral Murder” shows the degree to which our own soldiers have been brutalized by so-called rules of engagement that authorize them to brutalize others. Our secretary of defense had not one word of regret about the dozen human beings, including two employees of Reuters, murdered on that fateful day in July 2007 – or about the now-fatherless children who were seriously wounded.

It is THAT kind of thing that needs to be exposed. And it is that video that Private Manning is accused of giving to WikiLeaks.

Read more here at Anti-War.com...

Zomer 2010

2010-08-05T23:53:00.001+02:00

No More Deaths

2010-07-29T15:29:00.003+02:00

No More Deaths: Deaths on AZ Border since Oct. 1, 2009:
153

No More Deaths

Derechos Humanos AZ

Know Your Rights!