All posts by nedhamson

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

Syria is the World

Hummus For Thought

The following was initially published on Raseef22. The Arabic translation is out under the title “يحتاج اليسار إلى إعادة التفكير عميقاً، ليس بسوريا فحسب، بل بنفسه أيضاً” and the original (below) will come out next week.


“But then came Syria, and my hypocrisy and the fragility of those ideals became exposed,” wrote Palestinian activist Budour Hassan in her latest brilliant piece entitled “how the Syrian Revolution has transformed me”. For those familiar with the situation in Syria, and in particular with the Left’s reaction to the uprising, Hassan’s open apology is a truly powerful one. The Syrian revolution exposed a lot of inconvenient facts about much of the Western and Arab Left.

There is a lot to unpack here and a single article would not do it justice. Here, I wish to address a certain aspect of the Syrian crisis, namely what ‘we’ can do to address it…

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Strengthened by Sorrow #poetry #art

stand

penned in moon dust

sulk

sadness reign

she clung to covers

tear soaked rain

daily same

dark clouds pushed all hope away

sun always went down

*

long for love

little girls have fears

never clear

thunder claps

no where to hide from sorrow

storm so near

*

unbroken

words never spoken

standing tall

don’t look back

bright is tomorrow’s token

hope is queen

Today’s prompt at Poet’s United – “Resilience”

Photo: “The Sulker” Jacques Villon 1900

Painting from Paul Mellon collection – National Gallery

Jacques Villon  aka Gaston Émile Duchamp (born July 31, 1875 died June 9, 1963) was a French painter and printmaker who was involved in the Cubist movement; later he worked in realistic and abstract styles.

Villon was the brother of artists Suzanne Duchamp, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and Marcel Duchamp. In 1894 he went to Paris to study law, but, once there, he became more interested in art, and he…

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IOC respects doping ban, but opens door to some Russians going to Olympics | Sports | DW.COM | 21.06.2016

Bach also said that demonstrably clean athletes should be able to compete, and under Russia’s flag, not an Olympic or a neutral one. He even added that Russia’s and Kenya’s IAAF exclusions could be subject to appeal – either by individuals or the national athletics federations – saying the IOC would also respect any court ruling rendered in time for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. IOC President Thomas Bach was careful not to say too much, leaving room to maneuver “We respect this decision,” Bach said of the ban, before continuing: “We have been advised today that Russian athletes and maybe the Russian federation could appeal this case in court – so we are awaiting the results of these potential court cases.”

Source: IOC respects doping ban, but opens door to some Russians going to Olympics | Sports | DW.COM | 21.06.2016

Norway court: Grandpa asleep when he assaulted young girl – The Local – Self-delusion and evil results for the victim!

The Sør-Trøndelag District Court ruled that the 50-something man carried out the attack while asleep and thus couldn’t be held accountable.    The case dates back to a 2014 incident in which the man slept in the same bed as his 14-year-old granddaughter. The girl awoke to find her grandfather touching her lower body and then rushed into the bathroom where she called a friend who reported the incident to the police.    When officers arrived, they were able to gather evidence including the grandfather’s DNA on the girl’s underwear and genitals.    The man insisted that he must have done it in his sleep because the first thing he could remember was waking up when his granddaughter stood up to leave the bed.    The court ruled that although it was certain a sexual incident occurred, the man should be acquitted because he was asleep.

Source: Norway court: Grandpa asleep when he assaulted young girl – The Local

Greens swallow hard and vote for stricter immigration laws – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio – Petra Kelly would be weeping over and fighting this delusion!

The Swedish parliament is set to vote on stricter asylum laws today. The Green party sees it as a painful, but necessary move, to stop even stricter proposals going through. The proposed law will make temporary residence permits the rule and during that period, there is virtually no right to family reunion, unless you are able to earn a living here. For the Green Party, the smallest party in government, this has been a painful decision, but a necessary one, says Maria Ferm, who is the party’s spokesperson on migration. “We were afraid that the alternatives would be even worse. You have several big opposition parties in Sweden, who want to close the borders completely and stop migration, and we were afraid that those kind of proposals would be implemented,” she said.

Source: Greens swallow hard and vote for stricter immigration laws – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

Midsummer Vigil

Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland

DSC00868

The wall is silence, the grass is sleep,
Tall trees of peace their vigil keep,
And the Fairy of Dreams with moth-wings furled
Plays soft on her flute to the drowsy world.
~Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

DSC00869And as the seasons come and go, here’s something you might like to know.

There are fairies everywhere: under bushes, in the air, playing games just like you play, singing through their busy day.

So listen, touch, and look around — in the air and on the ground.

And if you watch all nature’s things, you might just see a fairy’s wing.

~Author Unknown 

I often walk the gardens in the early morning, taking my tea or coffee with me…and always my camera.

DSC00874It is often in the early morn or at dusk that I find myself in a strange little corner of the gardens, which stretch to three acres and I attempt to capture…

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British man tried to take officer’s gun to kill Trump at Las Vegas rally, police say | US news | The Guardian

A British man has been detained and charged with attempting to seize a police officer’s gun at a Las Vegas rally in order to commit an act of violence against Donald Trump, authorities said on Monday. Michael Steven Sandford was arrested at the Saturday rally after grabbing at the holster and handle of a gun at the hip of a Las Vegas police officer who was providing security at the event for the presumptive Republican nominee. A federal magistrate on Monday found that Sandford was “a danger to the community and a risk of non-appearance” and ordered that he be held without bail, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, who also confirmed that Sandford is a British citizen.

Source: British man tried to take officer’s gun to kill Trump at Las Vegas rally, police say | US news | The Guardian

Car That Crushed Anton Yelchin To Death Was Under Recall For Roll-Away Problems: LAist

LAPD officials told CBS News that the car that killed Yelchin was a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was subject to a Fiat Chrysler voluntary recall of 1.1 million cars over a shifter that led people to mistakenly believe their car was in park. TMZ reports that Yelchin’s car never got the fix. Yelchin’s car was in neutral and still running when his body was discovered, and the coroner’s office has officially ruled his death an accident.

Source: Car That Crushed Anton Yelchin To Death Was Under Recall For Roll-Away Problems: LAist

Bahrain strips top Shiite cleric of citizenship, sparking outrage – France 24 What is there beyond dumb? Bahrain!

Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the kingdom’s Shi’ite Muslim majority, state news agency reported on Monday, prompting protests outside his home and a sharp rebuke from an Iranian paramilitary chief. The move against Ayatollah Isa Qassim comes less than a week after a court ordered Bahrain’s main opposition al-Wefaq group closed, accusing it of fomenting sectarian unrest and of having links to a foreign power, in an apparent reference to regional Shi’ite power Iran.

Source: Bahrain strips top Shiite cleric of citizenship, sparking outrage – France 24

What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man – The New York Times

The year was 1977, and Mr. Cohn’s reputation was well established. He had been Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Red-baiting consigliere. He had helped send the Rosenbergs to the electric chair for spying and elect Richard M. Nixon president. Then New York’s most feared lawyer, Mr. Cohn had a client list that ran the gamut from the disreputable to the quasi-reputable: Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno, Claus von Bulow, George Steinbrenner. But there was one client who occupied a special place in Roy Cohn’s famously cold heart: Donald J. Trump. For Mr. Cohn, who died of AIDS in 1986, weeks after being disbarred for flagrant ethical violations, Mr. Trump was something of a final project. If Fred Trump got his son’s career started, bringing him into the family business of middle-class rentals in Brooklyn and Queens, Mr. Cohn ushered him across the river and into Manhattan, introducing him to the social and political elite while ferociously defending him against a growing list of enemies. Decades later, Mr. Cohn’s influence on Mr. Trump is unmistakable. Mr. Trump’s wrecking ball of a presidential bid — the gleeful smearing of his opponents, the embracing of bluster as brand — has been a Roy Cohn number on a grand scale. Mr. Trump’s response to the Orlando massacre, with his ominous warnings of a terrorist attack that could wipe out the country and his conspiratorial suggestions of a Muslim fifth column in the United States, seemed to have been ripped straight out of the Cohn playbook.

Source: What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man – The New York Times