Category Archives: human rights

Doris Matsui, Congresswoman Born in Internment Camp, Responds to Trump – The New York Times

The circumstances are different — Roosevelt rounded up citizens; Mr. Trump wants to bar Muslim visitors — but the motivation is the same, she said: “It is fear of the unknown that would drive people to fear-mongering and then outright bigotry.”Ms. Matsui’s husband, Robert T. Matsui, who spent 26 years in Congress and was succeeded by his wife after he died in 2005, was a sponsor of the 1988 redress legislation. He was 6 months old when his family was uprooted from Sacramento, limited to one suitcase a person, and shipped north to the Tule Lake segregation center on the border with Oregon, one of the 10 internment camps.As the House was about to give final approval to the apology and reparations in August 1988, Mr. Matsui said in a speech from the House floor that the acknowledgment of wrongdoing “demonstrates the true character of America in a way that the whole world can recognize.”The votes in the House and the Senate were bipartisan, though more than half of Republicans in the House and nearly half in the Senate opposed the measure, despite Reagan’s endorsement. Opponents objected to the cost and the precedent of paying reparations, and to second-guessing decades-old actions taken during wartime.The opponents included some Republicans still in Congress or prominent in national politics, among them Mitch McConnell, now the Senate majority leader; Senator John McCain of Arizona; and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio, who was a member of the House and is now running for president.

Source: Doris Matsui, Congresswoman Born in Internment Camp, Responds to Trump – The New York Times

Syria’s Most Vulnerable Live a Hard Life in Jordan’s Refugee Camps · Global Voices

I had also wondered why some families would choose to leave the established gated refugee camps set up by the Jordanian government and UNHCR, and opt to live in the informal tented settlements with barely any support. I learned that life in the gated camps wasn’t much of a life either. They were overcrowded, offered only limited job opportunities and were generally not safe. Those living in them often feel trapped, unsafe and desperate—though by moving outside the camps they were mere exchanging one set of hardships for another.As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year, and as the situation deteriorates and becomes more desperate for Syrian refugees, their hope of returning to Syria is starting to fade. After my time among Syrians who have sought refuge in Jordan, I understood why some choose to risk everything and cross hazardous waters to find better living conditions in Europe. The driving force is job opportunities and an extra income that they could send to their relatives back in Syria, and, moreover, the hope of a securing a better future for their children.

Source: Syria’s Most Vulnerable Live a Hard Life in Jordan’s Refugee Camps · Global Voices

Israel attacks West Bank college twice in one week | The Electronic Intifada

The Israeli army attacked the Palestine Technical University in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem twice this week.Nine Palestinians were shot Thursday as Israeli soldiers tried to suppress a protest on the campus. On Monday, five students had to be hospitalized for gunshot wounds.Known as Kadoorie, the university has been subject to a series of such attacks since early October, when students began organizing marches against the Israeli occupation.Live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas have all been fired by Israel during the attacks.Twenty students have been detained so far, the International Solidarity Movement stated last week.None of the students has been released.Military campThe university is located next to the massive wall that Israel is building in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, Israel confiscated 200 dunums (50 acres) from Kadoorie to build the wall and another 23 dunums (5.5 acres) for a military training camp within the campus.Israel has also established a military checkpoint at the university’s entrance. The attacks have been so severe that the university has had to close on occasions.Students have also reported that Israeli soldiers have pointed their guns directly at them, giving the impression that the soldiers were about to open fire.When a number of students responded to such threatening behavior in October by throwing stones and fireworks at the military training area, the Israeli soldiers fired large quantities of tear gas into the university.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBw1rIhIC5s

Source: Israel attacks West Bank college twice in one week | The Electronic Intifada

Easy Access To Firearms, Main Cause Of Shootings In The U.S. | La Prensa San Diego

According to a new study made public by the U.S. Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been three hundred and fifty-five shootings in the U.S., most of them in public spaces. The last fifteen years have seen the worst massacres in the country’s history. Most of them have been perpetrated by teenagers, for reasons never to be known, but easy access to firearms in the U.S. has been the common denominator leading to these events.Fifteen thousand people are killed by firearms annually in the United States; according to statistics, eighty-eight percent of its population owns a gun or some other firearm, and political analysts believe that gun ownership has become a part of U.S. culture. The ensuing political debate has come to the point that President Barack Obama has spoken in favor of amending laws the law in order to keep these tragedies – such as the one in San Bernardino, which took place at a rehabilitation center last Wednesday, December 2nd, when a young Pakistani couple ended the life of fourteen people, and left over two dozens more injured – from happening again.

Source: Easy Access To Firearms, Main Cause Of Shootings In The U.S. | La Prensa San Diego

For God and country: more U.S. pastors seek political office in 2016 | Reuters {American Taliban on the march under cover of Christianity – next – revive and create new inquisition – when will they come for you?}

Since 2012, about 900 preachers from evangelical fundamentalist churches across the United States have made recordings of politically infused sermons and sent them to the IRS. The federal tax agency, which declined to comment, has yet to take any action.Lane and his network of pastors say they are well within their rights to bring politics into the church. “The founding fathers never meant for the church not to participate in government,” said Lane. “They meant for the government not to interfere with the church.

Source: For God and country: more U.S. pastors seek political office in 2016 | Reuters

Man Screams “How Do You Feel About ISIS?” During Anti-Muslim Assault In Herald Square: Gothamist

http://www.dailymotion.com/widget/jukebox?list=%2Fplaylist%2Fx40zg8_Gothamist_gothamist-films

An unhinged man allegedly attacked an employee at a Herald Square eatery Monday night after unleashing a torrent of anti-Muslim venom, a tirade which was apparently sparked because he didn’t get his French fries.

Source: Man Screams “How Do You Feel About ISIS?” During Anti-Muslim Assault In Herald Square: Gothamist

ArtLeaks | It is time to break the silence!

Daniel T’Seleie, from the Dene First Nation, Canada, said:“In the Arctic, we are seeing severe impacts from global climate change, simultaneously we are defending our traditional homelands and culture  from aggressive assaults on sacred and important subsistence use areas, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. How are we to survive if the fossil fuel industry, companies such as ENI and Total continue to impede our rights? They are committing climate genocide on us, there is no way that we can allow corporations continue to generate a social license to operate by sponsoring our cultural institutions such as the Louvre.” . The Italian oil giant, Eni, has been widely criticised by environmentalists over its plans to drill in the Arctic [4] and Total was challenged just last year over its decision to purchase a shipment of Arctic oil, shortly after it had publicly declared it had no interest in Arctic oil extraction [5]. Total also has projects in the Canadian tar sands, one of the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels [6].Ragnhild Freng Dale from Stopp Oljesponsing Av Norsk Kulturliv (Norway) said:“We know that the COP is not on route to give us the deal we need to stay within a safe limit of global warming. Oil companies like Total and Eni have business plans to keep drilling for more fossil fuels in ever riskier places, when the climate science is clear it needs to stay in the ground to protect current and future generations from runaway climate change. We need to separate our cultural institutions and the climate negotiations from oil companies’ influence.”

Source: ArtLeaks | It is time to break the silence!

Chicago’s Mayor Demands Sweeping Police Reform – The New York Times

“Nothing less than complete and total reform of the system and the culture that it breeds will meet the standard we have set for ourselves as a city,” Mr. Emanuel said before the City Council, striking a contrite tone far different from the swaggering persona he is known for and even choking up at points during his speech.

Source: Chicago’s Mayor Demands Sweeping Police Reform – The New York Times

To folks who finally care about Trump

I think it’s absolutely bomb (unapologetically using my favorite circa 2003 adjective despite being Muslim) that so many feminists I’ve never or rarely seen say something about Islamophobia are now saying something about Islamophobia. I just think it’s also absolutely terrifying that it took Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. for so many people to reach this breaking point. If Trump is what made you realize that “enough is enough,” I say better late than never. I just hope you know that we reached enough long ago. I hope you’ll make sure to point out that what we’ve had enough of can’t just be Trump and his well-supported idea of banning Muslims from the country.It has to include a White House which thinks “Trump should be disqualified,” but said little about mass shootings on Sunday and lots about scary brown terrorism and people (i.e. my relatives who the White House will continue to bomb overseas).It has to include a Dick Cheney who thinks “Trump goes against what we believe in” but that water-boarding and sexual violence as torture, the murder of millions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Gitmo do not.It has to include a J.K Rowling who thinks “Trump is worse than Voldemort” but Israel’s occupation and theft of Palestinian life and land? Less so.It has to include a Hillary Clinton who thinks “Trump is prejudiced and hateful” but the surveillance, detention, and deportation of Muslim Americans after the Patriot Act she still defends is super race-neutral and loving.It has to include a media empire which thinks we shouldn’t be banned from the country per say, we should just be routinely dehumanized and exclusively called terrorist.It has to include the feminists that think Trump’s comments are despicable, but celebrated women being able to enter combat positions last week (to kill Muslims as effectively as men can).If Trump is what made you realize that we’ve crossed a line, I say better late than never. I just hope you know that we crossed that line long ago.

Source: To folks who finally care about Trump