All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Britain’s concentration camp in Palestine | The Electronic Intifada

During 1936, a major revolt against Britain and its support for Zionism erupted in Palestine. The authorities responded with a policy of mass incarceration.In June of that year, Arthur Wauchope, the British high commissioner in Palestine, received a telegram from London officials. The officials informed him about a parliamentary query on “what steps are to be taken” to provide “reasonable conditions at Sarafand concentration camp.”A British military base had been installed next to the village of Sarafand al-Amar on Palestine’s coastal plain and was, in Wauchope’s view, a “healthy locality.”Wauchope tried to depict the camp positively by noting that it had been approved by an unnamed director of medical services and that access to tobacco was “unrestricted” and “facilities are given for daily exercise.”Wauchope was less rosy in a letter he sent to the Colonial Office in London the next month. He acknowledged that one of the two sections in the camp had “no water closets and bathrooms.”

Source: Britain’s concentration camp in Palestine | The Electronic Intifada

VIDEO: ‘Make our planet great again’ – Macron rebukes Trump (in English) for ditching Paris climate deal – The Local

 

“Don’t be deceived about climate. There is no plan B, because there is no planet B,” Macron said.Referring to Trump’s idea of redrawing the 2015 accord, he said, in the French version, “we will not in any way renegotiate an agreement that is less ambitious” than the present one.

Source: VIDEO: ‘Make our planet great again’ – Macron rebukes Trump (in English) for ditching Paris climate deal – The Local

Trump Pulls out of Climate Deal, Western Rift Deepens  – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Still, it is likely that none of the G-7 heads of state and government expected the primitive brutality Trump would stoop to when announcing his withdrawal from the international community. Surrounded by sycophants in the Rose Garden at the White House, he didn’t just proclaim his withdrawal from the climate agreement, he sowed the seeds of international conflict. His speech was a break from centuries of Enlightenment and rationality. The president presented his political statement as a nationalist manifesto of the most imbecilic variety. It couldn’t have been any worse.

Source: Trump Pulls out of Climate Deal, Western Rift Deepens  – SPIEGEL ONLINE

The Fake News Photos Justifying the Return of Martial Law to the Philippines · Global Voices

Wrong photos. Wrong Countries. Some officials of the Philippines defended the martial law declaration in Mindanao by posting photos of the Vietnam War, Thailand’s 2014 coup, and the Honduran police.

Source: The Fake News Photos Justifying the Return of Martial Law to the Philippines · Global Voices

The NYPD Claimed Its LRAD Sound Cannon Isn’t A Weapon. A Judge Disagreed: Gothamist

The backpack-sized LRAD 100x used by the NYPD in 2014 can emit sounds up to 137 decibels, according to marketing materials. Exposure to sound levels over 85 decibels can cause hearing loss, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.”This is force, and the kind which could be used excessively,” Judge Robert Sweet wrote in a decision. Sweet threw out some of the claims, but allowed the lawsuit to proceed, and strongly suggested that those blasted with the LRAD seem to have a case.”Literally the city argued that loud sounds can’t constitute a use of force,” lawyer Gideon Oliver told Gothamist. “At the bare minimum, the judge has clarified that this isn’t factually or legally correct and that should guide the police department going forward.”

Source: The NYPD Claimed Its LRAD Sound Cannon Isn’t A Weapon. A Judge Disagreed: Gothamist

We Need to Fix Racism in Our Institutions, Not Black Hair

When institutions racially discriminate against women because of the texture of their hair, black girls are kept from school and women are denied access to professional advancement opportunities. Racism extends beyond hair texture too, compounding to create a system in which black girls are generally disciplined more aggressively and at higher rates than their white counterparts. Black girls do not misbehave more than other students, yet they are suspended from school more frequently than white girls. According to a report by the NAACP and the National Women’s Law Center, “under-resourced schools, disparate discipline practices, gender-based violence and harassment, and lack of support for pregnant and parenting students […] further compromise educational outcomes for African American girls.”

Source: We Need to Fix Racism in Our Institutions, Not Black Hair

The Silencing of the Hillary Clinton Supporter | Dame Magazine

Over the past many months, I have spoken with many middle and lower-middle class women, who shared stories with me about why they voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, including a 34-year veteran school teacher who is so news-obsessed, she has her friends text her news alerts while she’s on vacation, and a 24-year-old college student who “kind of liked” Bernie until she realized that the U.S. was one of the few civilized countries that had never had a woman leader. We’ve seen the millions of women who took to the streets the day after the inauguration. We’ve learned that it’s older women who make most of the calls to Congress, and we have heard that nearly 13,000 women want to run for office since Hillary lost the election. All this while the media has mostly ignored the 90 percent of Black women—many of them lower, working, and middle class—who voted for Hillary. And yet, six months later, the media continues to fixate on the white working-class voters who didn’t cast theirs for her in the autopsy of the 2016 election.

Source: The Silencing of the Hillary Clinton Supporter | Dame Magazine

Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump | Literary Hub

The man in the white house sits, naked and obscene, a pustule of ego, in the harsh light, a man whose grasp exceeded his understanding, because his understanding was dulled by indulgence. He must know somewhere below the surface he skates on that he has destroyed his image, and like Dorian Gray before him, will be devoured by his own corrosion in due time too. One way or another this will kill him, though he may drag down millions with him. One way or another, he knows he has stepped off a cliff, pronounced himself king of the air, and is in freefall. Another dungheap awaits his landing; the dung is all his; when he plunges into it he will be, at last, a self-made man.

Source: Rebecca Solnit: The Loneliness of Donald Trump | Literary Hub