Category Archives: human rights

Redskins Owner Starts Charity So That You’ll Forget About the Racist Team Name – The Wire

Crippling poverty and institutional racism are both bad things, and just because eradicating poverty is more urgent than changing a racist team name does not mean that the latter issue ceases to exist. This is, of course, not even broaching the idea that poverty and racism might somehow be intertwined.

via Redskins Owner Starts Charity So That You’ll Forget About the Racist Team Name – The Wire.

Irish activist and sex abuse survivor becomes unlikely papal adviser, demands accountability

“There’s no point in my mind of having gold-plated child-protection programs in place if there’s no sanction for a bishop who decides to ignore them,” Collins said by telephone from her home in Dublin. “The reason everyone is so angry is not because they have abusers in their ranks. Abusers are in every rank of society. It’s because of the systemic coverup.”

via Irish activist and sex abuse survivor becomes unlikely papal adviser, demands accountability.

The dependent generation: half young European adults live with their parents | Society | The Guardian

An Italian family eating their meal. In Italy, 79% of young adults were living with their parents in 2011, according to Eurofound. Photograph: Ingolf Hatz/ Ingolf Hatz/zefa/Corbis

Almost half of Europe’s young adults are living with their parents, new data suggests – a record level of dependency that has sobering social and demographic implications for the continent.

via The dependent generation: half young European adults live with their parents | Society | The Guardian.

“The fundamentalists that strike Christians also threaten the local Imam”, said the apostolic administrator of Mombasa – Fides News Agency

“I do not know who committed the attack against the Evangelical church, but most probably it was committed by a group of fundamentalists”, says to Fides Agency His Exc. Mgr. Emanuel Barbara, Bishop of Malindi and Apostolic Administrator of Mombasa, where yesterday, March 23, an attack was carried out against the evangelical Church of Likoni, during the Sunday celebration.

“I was not in Mombasa, but I was informed immediately over the phone by my collaborators about what had happened”, says Mgr. Barbara. “According to what I was told, a gunman came shooting out the back door of the church, while the other two accomplices were at the main door to prevent the faithful to escape. Four people died on the spot and 21 were injured”. According to local media, two of the people admitted to the hospital died later.

“The area of Mombasa is considered the stronghold of an Islamist movement of secession” adds the Bishop. “These groups even threaten the local Imam, accused of being moderate”.

“In Kenya – continues the Bishop – it is believed that these groups are funded by some businessmen in Mombasa. The majority of the members of these groups are young people from Somalia, but there are also local youth who shoot and kill just for money, not because they are religious fanatics”.

“Pray for us and especially for the conversion of the hearts of these young people, so they do not commit violence”, concluded Bishop Barbara. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 24/03/2014)

via “The fundamentalists that strike Christians also threaten the local Imam”, said the apostolic administrator of Mombasa – Fides News Agency.

Dennis Banks Calls for the Reinvigorating of the American Indian Movement

To reinvigorate AIM, Banks, 77, has called for a national and international gathering of AIM families, chapters, support groups and individuals to meet during the first week of October 2014 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

“It’s an invitation to a lot of people to come together to reinvigorate AIM. We have to have a voice. With where we are today, we should be more professional and be issuing statements on Native issues, such as ICWA,” Banks commented to the Native News Online.

“The Green Bay chapter of AIM will be hosting this meeting,” Banks said. “I have AIM chapters asking me all the time why AIM is not meeting on these issues. As a matter of fact, it was the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate grassroots group that has been pushing for this.”

via Dennis Banks Calls for the Reinvigorating of the American Indian Movement.

Continued Intimidation of Sri Lankan Civil Society

Continued Intimidation of Sri Lankan Civil Society.

The United States is concerned by intensifying pressure on Sri Lankan civil society and human rights activists. We are especially concerned by the detention of well-known human rights defenders Ruki Fernando and Father Praveen Mahesan after they made inquiries regarding the arrest of another activist. While it is encouraging that Mr. Fernando and Father Mahesan have since been released, they continue to face harassment by security forces. We are also aware of reports that additional human rights groups are being targeted for investigation by security forces.

Caribbean States Want Reparations for Western Europe Slave Trade – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Can countries be held responsible for crimes they committed hundreds of years ago? That’s a question on the minds of some legal experts following an agreement last week between the heads of 15 Caribbean nations to hold former colonial powers, including the United Kingdom and France, accountable for the “lasting damage of slavery.”

via Caribbean States Want Reparations for Western Europe Slave Trade – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Erdogan’s great patriotic war – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Erdogan’s great patriotic war – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Dead give away that someone has not more ideas to make government work for people – become super patriotic: The film begins dramatically: A Turkish flag flies beautifully, high above Istanbul from atop a colossal pole. A scary-looking man in a black suit and black gloves walks menacingly toward the pole, takes out a metal bar and breaks the mechanism for raising and lowering the flag. The flag begins to fall in slow motion as citizens watch in shock and horror. At that moment, Erdogan’s voice is heard reciting a passage from the Turkish national anthem:

Friend! Don’t let scoundrels into my country!
Shield with your body, let this shameless invasion stop.
Days which God has promised to give you will dawn;
Who knows, maybe tomorrow, maybe sooner than tomorrow.

Woohoo! Like It’s 1849: Latinos Are the Majority in California | TakePart

This month, 39 percent of residents—more than 14.5 million people—identified as Latino, making them the most populous racial or ethnic group in California for the first time since it became a U.S. state in 1850. That’s slightly more than the 38.8 percent of residents who identify as white. Latinos significantly outnumer Asian Americans (14.9 percent) and blacks (7.2 percent) in the Golden State.

via Like It’s 1849: Latinos Are the Majority in California | TakePart.

Breaking: Army General accused of sexual assault gets reprimanded

Frankly, I can’t believe Sinclair got off so easy — I mean, the judge even ruled he could remain in the military if he wanted to! – based solely on what he copped to. He admitted to harming his mistress, saying, “I failed her as a leader and as a mentor and caused harm to her emotional state.” He admitted to having improper relationships with multiple other female officers. Again, in his own words: “It was my responsibility to ensure that these officers were protected and promoted and I failed them as a leader.”

And he clearly created a hostile environment. During testimony, a lieutenant recounted a party where soldiers in Sinclair’s unit mocked the affair in a raunchy skit where a character who was clearly supposed to be his mistress offered Sinclair’s character oral sex. There’s a reason that having a relationship with a subordinate is considered to be a grave abuse of power in the military — though you wouldn’t really know it from this outcome. As the captain’s lawyer said, Sinclair not only hurt her and her career but “did great harm to his unit’s good order and discipline, morale, and cohesion.”

You’ll recall that a couple weeks ago, Senator Gillibrand’s legislation that would have moved the decision to prosecute cases of sexual assault from the chain of command to an independent prosecutor was fillibustered. Senators claimed that they’d done enough on this whole military rape epidemic and the Pentagon could handle it. This case was seen as a litmus test for that — and frankly I’m unconvinced.

via Breaking: Army General accused of sexual assault gets reprimanded.