Category Archives: human rights

{Bigger Fail Than Thought!} A Defiant Rancher Savors the Audience That Rallied to His Side – NYTimes.com

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

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“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

via A Defiant Rancher Savors the Audience That Rallied to His Side – NYTimes.com.

Egypt’s diversity test – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Only the Abrahamic faiths are acceptable as openly practiced religions. Believers of other faiths can practice their religions, but only in private, and have to keep their beliefs a secret. Years in courts have only won Egypt’s Baha’is a meager compromise: the right to ID cards with a blank space in the mandatory religion field, instead of being forced to falsely identify themselves as Muslim, Christian or Jewish. Even this victory still faces obstacles on the bureaucratic level. Marriages are not recognized by the state since it only accepts religious, not civil, unions. Paternity, inheritance and other issues stemming from this lack of recognition is a constant legal nightmare that disrupts their daily lives.

via Egypt’s diversity test – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Four Arrested In Williamsburg Beating Of Gay Black Man: Gothamist

Four members of Williamsburg’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community have been arrested in connection with the beating of a gay black man in Williamsburg last December, an incident that has been investigated as a possible hate crime.

The suspects, who allegedly attacked 22-year-old Taj Patterson as he was walking along Flushing Avenue near Spencer Street early December 1, were rounded up by law enforcement officials this week, police said. Two of the suspects were apparently plucked from Israel, where they fled following the attack, the Daily News reports. They are expected to be arraigned later today, and more arrests are likely.

Patterson was walking home alone from a party when he was attacked by a horde of roughly 20 Orthodox Jewish men, who beat him while yelling anti-gay slurs, including, “Stay down, f—-t!” Witnesses said the men all appeared to wearing similar uniforms, leading to speculation that they may have been members of Williamsburg Shomrim, a Jewish neighborhood watch group that patrols the area.

via Four Arrested In Williamsburg Beating Of Gay Black Man: Gothamist.

Nepal Scrambles to Bring Striking Sherpas Back to Mount Everest – The Wire

{Seems now, it is all just about the money, not lives, honoring their friends, or safety.}

As it stands, the Sherpas already made their demands clear to the Nepalese government before yesterday’s walkout. They want substantially more money in compensation to the families of the 16 guides who died last week. Originally, the government offered a sum equivalent to $415. As the AP explains, the Sherpas’ counter offer is just over $20,000. The government responded by increasing the sum to $15,620, still far below what they’re asking. The guides also outlined a number of other demands for the government’s consideration, originally with a Monday deadline. It’s not yet clear what the Tourism ministry is willing to to bring this year’s (very lucrative) season back.

To be sure, a Sherpa vote to walk away from the 2014 climbing season was not taken lightly: the livelihoods of the famed guides depends on the 2-month window each year when it’s relatively safe to make a summit attempt. As the New York Times explains, Sherpas can make $3000-$5000 for a season of work. The average annual income in Nepal is about $700.

via Nepal Scrambles to Bring Striking Sherpas Back to Mount Everest – The Wire.

About the Database | Global Nonviolent Action Database

To provide free access to information about hundreds of cases of nonviolent action for learning and for citizen action. We research campaigns that have reached a point of completion. The cases are drawn from all continents and most countries. People are shown struggling for human rights, economic justice, democracy, national and ethnic identity, environmental sustainability, and peace. To learn more about searching by the issues people are struggling about, go to Issue Clusters.

To make available comparative information that will support researchers and writers to develop strategic knowledge and theory. Each case is presented in two formats: the database file (with searchable fields) and the narrative describing the struggle as an unfolding story. The database supports searches by country, by issue, by action method used, and even by year — there is a case from ancient Egypt, 12th century BCE! Some cases are part of a “wave” of campaigns, such as the “Arab Awakening” of 2011; by pressing each “wave” button one can find cases.

via About the Database | Global Nonviolent Action Database.

Hero Rancher’s Family Has Been On Nevada Land Since Forever Or At Least 1948 -lol

So you remember how Cow Freedom Hero Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy’s family has been on the land that they stole fair and square from the Indians since the 1870s and therefore all of his rights to graze his cattle predate any dumb “Bureau of Land Management” or “grazing fees” or “federal interference in Our Freedom”? Some bright smartasses at Las Vegas Teevee Station KLAS decided, very unfairly we should add, to go and look in the Clark County records, just to be communist troublemakers, and they discovered that in reality,

Clark County property records show Cliven Bundy’s parents moved from Bundyville, Arizona and bought the 160 acre ranch in 1948 from Raoul and Ruth Leavitt.

Water rights were transferred too, but only to the ranch, not the federally managed land surrounding it. Court records show Bundy family cattle didn’t start grazing on that land until 1954.

There is almost certainly a very good logical explanation for those records that doesn’t involve Cliven Bundy being a goddamned liar, and we can hardly wait for Fox News and Sean Hannity to find it.

Mr. Bundy just happens to know a hell of a lot more about his family’s history than some dumb piece of paper in a file in the Clark County Assessor’s Office, tell you what:

“I’ve lived my lifetime here. My forefathers have been up and down the Virgin Valley here ever since 1877. All these rights that I claim, have been created through pre-emptive rights and beneficial use of the forage and the water and the access and range improvements,” Bundy said …

“My rights are before the BLM even existed, but my rights are created by beneficial use. Beneficial use means we created the forage and the water from the time the very first pioneers come here,” Bundy said.

The snotty little government-teat-suckling liars at KLAS claim that Bundy has his chronology maybe a teensy bit off, seeing as how his family bought the land in 1948 and began grazing it in 1954, while “The Bureau of Land Management was created 1946, the same year Cliven was born.”

Now who are you going to trust, an American Patriot who denies that the U.S. government has any legitimacy, or some lying land records in a government office that say something different?

For any geneaology geeks out there, KLAS also has a second article detailing Bundy’s claims that his family had been ranching in the area since the 1870s — it looks like his maternal grandparents did have a farm in the area, but there’s no indication that they were cattle ranchers doing useful cattle ranching, and their farm was not on the land that Bundy now owns, nor was it adjacent to the federal land for which he refused to pay grazing fees.

Oh, and the 1998 opinion from a U.S. District Court that determined that Bundy had failed to pay grazing fees, and therefore had no further rights to graze on federal land, also found that Bundy’s family had only been ranching in the area since 1954.

Still, what’s a little embellishment about an extra 75 years of ranching that never happened? The main thing is that the Feds have just totally gotten out of control, right?

via Hero Rancher’s Family Has Been On Nevada Land Since Forever Or At Least 1948.

Urban Foodies and Libertarians Join Forces to Set Raw Milk Free – The Wire

{This has to be the – I’m sorry to have to say this – dumbest exercise of misplaced hipsterism, personal freedom and anti-science. If adults want to risk the illnesses that can come from raw – unPasteurized – milk that’s one thing but to make that same risk for their children or unknowing guests – that’s wrong, goofy, and criminal, or should be.}

Raw milk supporters claim there are boundless health benefits — as long as the milk-producing cows are healthy — including components that strengthen the immune system. But raw milk by definition skips the pasteurization process, meaning the end product could contain E. coli and salmonella bacteria. States are currently allowed to regulate the sale of raw milk within their own borders, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that 75 percent of raw milk disease outbreaks have come from the 21 states where its legal to sell non-pasteurized products. Still, despite the health risks, it sounds a little bit safer than the anti-vaccine movement.

via Urban Foodies and Libertarians Join Forces to Set Raw Milk Free – The Wire.

The Greenwash – NYC Earth Day, Brought To You By Toyota, United, & Con Ed: Gothamist

Today in Union Square from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., the official Earth Day New York will have “Green travel exhibits sponsored by United Airlines.” Free sandwiches. Green product samples and a “Green vehicle runway show and exhibition” sponsored by Toyota. Con Ed is a sponsor, as it was in 1970, but back then there was concern that protesters might “get fired up emotionally and do something besides listen to speeches” [PDF]. In 2014, that concern has been muted by environmental concessions, sound PR, and the NYPD. The planet continues to hurtle towards catastrophic climate change.

via NYC Earth Day, Brought To You By Toyota, United, & Con Ed: Gothamist.

Ukrainian Roma face threats of violence [VIDEO] – UPI.com

Doesn’t take long for Russian Racism to Raise its Ugly head Again! –

Ukrainian Roma are claiming armed, masked men threatened and robbed several of the 150 Roma families in Sloviansk.

“They began shooting here, at the windows,” said Natasha Cheripovskaya as she pointed to her house with shattered windows. “They were in masks, about 15 people. And they had automatic weapons. Some had guns. They started to shoot to provoke fear. They asked for money and gold. We were very scared and said, ‘We don’t have any gold or money.’ Even the neighbors saw this but they are afraid to speak out.”

via Ukrainian Roma face threats of violence [VIDEO] – UPI.com.

Sherpas abandon Everest climbing season after deadly avalanche | World news | The Guardian

Good on them! Nepalese guides on Mount Everest have decided to abandon this year’s climbing season, to honour 16 colleagues killed in an avalanche last week.

The decision throws the plans of hundreds of foreign mountaineers into chaos, with many of them waiting in base camp after paying tens of thousands of dollars to scale the world’s highest peak.

The Sherpas perform essential tasks on the 8,848-metre (29,029ft) mountain, carrying equipment and food, as well as repairing ladders and fixing ropes to reduce risks for their clients.

“We had a long meeting this afternoon and we decided to stop our climbing this year to honour our fallen brothers. All Sherpas are united in this,” one local guide, Tulsi Gurung, told AFP from base camp.

“Some guides have already left and others will take about a week to pack up everything and go,” said Gurung, whose brother is among those missing after an avalanche last Friday killed 13 Sherpas and left three missing, presumed dead.

via Sherpas abandon Everest climbing season after deadly avalanche | World news | The Guardian.