Category Archives: human rights

The Cycle of Motherhood | Dorinda Duclos – Night Owl Poetry

A baby cries in the night

A hand gently touches her

A mother’s soothing voice

Comforting, wiping away the tears

A child cries in the night

A mother’s soothing voice

Quieting the nightmare

Comforting, chasing away the fears

A woman cries in the night

Her mother’s soothing voice

Calming and reassuring

Comforting, holding her near

A baby cries in the night

A mother’s soothing voice

A grandmother’s loving touch

As the cycle begins again

via The Cycle of Motherhood | Dorinda Duclos – Night Owl Poetry.

Pardon her Now Gov. C – Pussy Riot Pays Jail Visit To OWS Protestor Convicted Of Assaulting NYPD Officer : Gothamist

Members of Russian protest group/band Pussy Riot offered their support to Cecily McMillan, the protester who was convicted this week of a felony assault on an NYPD officer during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2012. McMillan now faces up to seven years in prison, and the Pussy Riot members visited her at Rikers Island as a sign of solidarity.

McMillan was convicted by a panel of jurors who agreed the 25-year-old graduate student intentionally assaulted Officer Grantley Bovell during a scuffle in Zucotti Park in March 2012, despite McMillan’s claim that she was reacting to an assault on the part of the officer. Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova say that imprisoning McMillan is a mistake. “Society must organize to save Cecily because she’s really a hero,” Alyokhina told the Times. “She is very similar to us. We also did time and went to prison for our beliefs. We see a lot of parallels.”

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova, who served prison time in Russia for their protest efforts, say they spoke with McMillan about her social revolutionary efforts. “She told us about the revolution maybe 20 times,” Alyokhina said. “It’s really very important to her.” Tolokonnikova’s husband Peter Verzilov also visited McMillan, and said she seemed to be staying positive. “She might be the happiest prisoner I’ve seen,” he told Mashable.

via Pussy Riot Pays Jail Visit To OWS Protestor Convicted Of Assaulting NYPD Officer : Gothamist.

Nepalese women torn between slavery in Lebanon and poverty at home | Global development | theguardian.com

When the 39 Nepalese migrant domestic workers spilled out of the arrivals gate at Kathmandu airport last month, many vowed to return to the country in which they had experienced terrible hardship. Some had been beaten and forced to endure slave-like conditions; the majority had been trafficked.

For years, the women lived illegally in Lebanon, with no means to return home after fleeing abusive employers. The country’s stringent kafala system, which binds migrant staff to their boss, meant that when the women escaped, they lost everything: their legal status, passports and wages.

It was only with the help of a local association, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), as well as the Nepali embassy in Egypt (Nepal does not have an embassy in Lebanon), that the women were eventually able to return to home.

via Nepalese women torn between slavery in Lebanon and poverty at home | Global development | theguardian.com.

Jewish extremists vandalize Jerusalem church | Maan News Agency

Vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on a Jerusalem church on Friday, despite Israeli police stepping up security around religious sites ahead of a visit by Pope Francis later this month.

“Price tag… King David for the Jews… Jesus is garbage” was spray-painted in Hebrew on the wall of St George’s, a Romanian Orthodox church near an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

Israeli police said that “Death to Arabs” was found written on a house in the Old City in East Jerusalem, and swastikas were scrawled on the wall of a west Jerusalem apartment.

via Jewish extremists vandalize Jerusalem church | Maan News Agency.

Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi (H. Res. 567) providing for the Establishment of the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi. (H.Res. 575) – GovTrack.us

(Which terrorist attack in Benghazi? There were numerous terrorist attacks in that city with dozens of Libyans wounded and killed, as well as foreigners?The police chief and numerous other government officials have been attacked.

This “investigation” will tell us nothing about how out of control the Benghazi area was and is – it is just looking to lay “blame” at feet of US officials and not with terrorists and will ignore all other killings and violence. And quite simply, there was and is no way that “help” could have gotten there in time to have any effect, even if a US carrier had been offshore. Add to that the refusal to fund increased protection for foreign service personnel by the GOP in the year previous and if there is anyone to blame for US deaths, it would be GOP majority in the House of Representatives!)

 

H.Res. 575: Providing for consideration of the resolution (H. Res. 567) providing for the Establishment of the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi.

Introduced:

May 07, 2014 (113th Congress, 2013–2015)

Status:

Agreed To (Simple Resolution)

via Providing for consideration of the resolution (H. Res. 567) providing for the Establishment of the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi. (H.Res. 575) – GovTrack.us.

Immigration Talk with a Mexican American: So Tired of Republicans, Especially the Evil Ted Cruz!

Latinos.

We need to Pay Attention to this Evil Incarnate Cruz.

He hates his own ethnicity.

Evil, Evil Cruz!

Register to Vote in the 2014 Elections.

We have to STOP Republicans.

They threaten to take away our Liberties.

They want to take away Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

They support the 1 percent and HATE us, WE THE PEOPLE!

Latinos… I call on you… REGISTER TO VOTE!

VOTE AGAINST THE EVIL AGENDA OF REPUBLICANS!

San Antonio! I call on South Texas, South New Mexico, South Arizona and Southern California.

REGISTER TO VOTE AND VOTE!

PLEASE VOTE!!! in 2014. VOTE STRAIGHT Democrat.

Do this for ALL OF US!

Do it for the LIBERTIES of AMERICA!

Do if for the AMERICAN DREAM!!!

God Bless America!

God Bless Our President Barack Obama!

God Bless Our Next President, Hillary Clinton!!

via Immigration Talk with a Mexican American: So Tired of Republicans, Especially the Evil Ted Cruz!.

Industrial Agriculture: Too Big to Succeed – Inter Press Service

By the early 1990s, she made the switch to organic farming, minus these inputs and with the assistance of an NGO, the Institute for Integrated Rural Development.

“Chandrakalabai’s story shows us that smaller farmers in the developing world can lessen their input costs and grow organically. If they can then embed themselves in a local food system with a minimum of intermediaries between them and the consumer, they can earn more money and secure a better future,” Elton writes in her book.

The other problem with global industrial food is that single crop farming undermines the soil’s fertility and makes these kinds of operations especially vulnerable to storms, floods and drought, associated with climate change, adds Elton.

She cites how 880 small holders based farming plots in Nicaragua with diverse crops and minus the commercial agricultural inputs managed to survive the catastrophic battering of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. On average these agro-ecological operations retained 40 percent more topsoil after the storm and lost 18 percent less arable land in landslides.

via Industrial Agriculture: Too Big to Succeed – Inter Press Service.

The Gun Report: May 7, 2014 – NYTimes.com

Last Saturday, 26-year-old Stephen Guillermo had just returned from a night of drinking when he tried to enter the fifth-floor apartment he shared with his mother and two younger siblings in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco. But he mistakenly got off on the third floor, and the apartment he thought was his belonged to Amisi Sudi Kachepa, a 68-year-old retired security guard, who shot Guillermo to death.

It doesn’t appear that Guillermo was able to gain entry into Kachepa’s apartment; he was reportedly shot while still in the hall. Kachepa was arrested on Saturday but released yesterday without charge, angering the victim’s family. Yesterday at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors, family members called on prosecutors to file charges against Kachepha.

“His fatal mistake was getting off on the wrong floor,” Emil Guillermo, the victim’s cousin, told the Board of Supervisors. Outside the meeting, he told reporters, “We shouldn’t make it easy for people to use guns without consequences.”

The victim’s family had lived in the apartment for 18 years. Stephen, the family’s breadwinner, was set to graduate from San Francisco State University with a degree in international relations in June.

via The Gun Report: May 7, 2014 – NYTimes.com.

Reaching the Most Vulnerable Survivors of Afghanistan’s Deadly Landslide

Zulfia leads one of those families. She is living now with her five children under a tent distributed by Concern, all of them dressed in the same clothes they were wearing on the day she lost her husband in the landslides. She also lost all her household items and animals.

Jamila, 13, is another. She lost her father a few years ago, and her mother in the landslides. She managed to rescue her four sisters and two brothers. “I am the eldest one in my family now,” she says. “What should I do with my brothers and sisters? How should I look after them?”

via Reaching the Most Vulnerable Survivors of Afghanistan’s Deadly Landslide.

TV journalist accused of attacking police in Guatemala – Reporters Without Borders

But Cabrera rejected this option, resulting in a postponement until 24 June, when she will be required to demonstrate her innocence and the prosecution will not be required to prove her guilt.

“This procedure poses a very disturbing risk of a large fine or even detention for Cabrera, who is accused of carrying out the very attack of which she was the victim,” said Camille Soulier, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Americas desk.

“The case is all the more worrying because the burden of proof has been reversed and she does not benefit from the presumption of innocence. The policemen involved in this case should be thoroughly investigated without delay, in order to shed light on this apparent abuse of authority.”

The attack on Cabrera is symptomatic of the violence that journalists face in Guatemala. The creation of a proper mechanism for protecting journalists is one of the main recommendations of the April 2014 report on Guatemala by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

via TV journalist accused of attacking police in Guatemala – Reporters Without Borders.