Category Archives: human rights

Pope denounces 1915 ‘genocide’ during visit to Armenian memorial – France 24

A sombre Pope Francis, “with pain in my heart,” paid tribute on Saturday to the 1.5 million Armenians massacred in 1915, an event that he has labelled a genocide, risking Turkey’s ire. Francis, on the second day of his trip to Armenia, made an early morning stop at the Tzitzernakaberd, the “Genocide Memorial and Museum,” a towering granite needle flanked by an eternal flame on a hillside overlooking the Armenian capital. There, visibly moved, he took part in a prayer service along with President Serzh Sarksyan and leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Source: Pope denounces 1915 ‘genocide’ during visit to Armenian memorial – France 24

Pushing Limits Archives | KPFA Disability Radio

Pushing Limits 2:30 PM PACIFIC TIME: 1ST, 3RD, AND 5TH FRIDAYS A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. Pushing Limits advances the voices of people who live with disabilities. It is produced by a collective of media makers and activists who themselves live with disability.

Source: Pushing Limits Archives | KPFA

07.08.16 – 2:30PM

Pushing Limits – July 8, 2016

PUSHING LIMITS

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public.

UPCOMING EPISODE

05.06.16 – 2:30PM

Parinda Wanitwat: Living with Food Addiction

PUSHING LIMITS

Parinda Wanitwat

We all know what someone who lives with an eating disorder looks like:  Young, white and skinny!  Right?  But. . . hold on just a minute. In actuality, research says that black girls between 11-14 may have a higher rate of eating disorder behavior than their white counterparts, especially when it comes to binge eating. … Continued


02.05.16 – 2:30PM

State Standards Smack Down

PUSHING LIMITS

Advocate Delores Tejada.

Sometimes, we take accessible buildings for granted; but they aren’t always accessible for people living with disabilities and our rights aren’t always granted.  Every now and then we have to make some noise, show up and be counted, prepare for a smack down… So it was at the California Building Standards Commission last week.  Couldn’t …Continued


01.29.16 – 2:30PM

Madelaine Kelly: Living with Attention Deficit Hyper Activity

PUSHING LIMITS

Madelaine Kelly.  "I put on the cat ears and then forget I have them on but other people look at me and smile.  So, I am surrounded by smiles all day long."

Labeled a difficult child and unable to connect with other human beings, Madelaine Kelly made a cry-for-help suicide attempt before she was twelve.  Today she has a loving family, a successful business and a globe-trotting life style.    Shelley Berman and Adrienne Lauby talk with Madelaine Kelly. Here’s a preview: I started to run when … Continued

Player | KPFA Women Singers with Disabilities – Pushing Limits Eddie Ytuarte

Source: Player | KPFA

Who is Mary Lambert and what does she have in common with Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon,
Rosemary Clooney, Karen Carpenter, and Renata Tabaldi?
Well, these are examples of popular women singers and or composers
who experienced major disabilities in their lives; disabilities which posed barriers
to their art, or spurred or directed their musical careers–or even led to a premature death.
Pushing Limits, the creative voice of disability radio, again will sample some
of the musicians with disabilities who have shared
in contributing to our  broad and varied cultural landscape.
Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon.  KPFA is heard at
94.1 of the fm band.  Past shows are archived at www.kpfa.org.

Humans of New York

“I’ve lost two friends who, like this gentleman, judged themselves harsher than anyone else would – even God. It seems to me that all they had left, was the ability to control their giving up on life as their self-punishment. Their “sin” self-imposed nonsense leads to their death in-place.”

“She committed suicide a week prior to our thirtieth anniversary. Our oldest daughter had died of leukemia a couple years earlier. Holly took it extra hard. We drifted apart. We’d parse our words. Nothing was natural anymore: ‘Do we talk this way?’ ‘Do we laugh at this moment?’ ‘ Do we even have a right to laugh?’ But I still thought we were doing OK. Things weren’t like they used to be. But I still thought things were OK. We rented a hotel room for our thirtieth anniversary. I was supposed to meet her there after work. She overdosed on pills before I got there. I don’t know why she did it that way. She said in her note that she wasn’t angry, but I don’t know why she did it that way. I fell apart. I started drinking a lot and doing cocaine. I lost my job. One day I was giving a presentation after being up all night on drugs, and I just started hallucinating. I thought one of the clients was Holly. I stopped the presentation and started calling her name. The company was nice about it. They gave me a nice severance package. But I gave all the money to my kids. I’ve been on the streets ever since. It’s been eight years. My kids have tried to give me the money back but I won’t take it. I ride the subways at night. If it’s warm enough, I sleep on a bench. I read a little. I write a little. I go to the soup line in the morning. I’m just existing. I wasn’t a good husband. I wasn’t a good father. And now I’m doing penance.”

Source: Humans of New York

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

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

Supreme Court Says Police May Use Evidence Found After Illegal Stops – The New York Times

Justice Sotomayor said the court had vastly expanded police power. “The court today holds that the discovery of a warrant for an unpaid parking ticket will forgive a police officer’s violation of your Fourth Amendment rights,” she wrote. “Do not be soothed by the opinion’s technical language: This case allows the police to stop you on the street, demand your identification and check it for outstanding traffic warrants — even if you are doing nothing wrong.

Source: Supreme Court Says Police May Use Evidence Found After Illegal Stops – The New York Times

Facebook takedown: Social media censorship in Philippines? – IFEX – Two faced Facebook fails users…

News broke on June 1 that Facebook had deleted veteran journalist Ed Lingao’s May 24 post that criticized Duterte’s statement that he would allow the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Lingao said the post was deleted for allegedly violating Facebook’s “community standards.” A follow-up post documenting the comments he received from social media users was also deleted. Lingao posted an edited version of his original post but it was also taken down. Facebook restored it later, apologizing for the “mistake.” Lingao, however, was not the only affected Facebook user. Journalists Nonoy Espina and Inday Espina-Varona were barred from posting and commenting in their own Facebook accounts. Espina-Varona said “some other friends in the media, some artists and social activists” had also been suspended from using their account. The Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines’ (EJAP) official Facebook account, Ejap Pilipinas, was also taken down on June 4 for allegedly violating Facebook’s “authenticity policy.” On June 3, prior to the takedown, EJAP released a statement criticizing Duterte’s remarks about the killing of journalists. Following its removal, the statement circulated in other social media accounts and pages, including that of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).

Source: Facebook takedown: Social media censorship in Philippines? – IFEX