Category Archives: human rights

Opinion: The gray area in Myanmar′s Rohingya conflict | Opinion | DW | 06.09.2017

A lack of independent information about the conflict strengthens this sharply outlined narrative and is feeding into a global propaganda. Social media is flooded with horrific Rohingya images that aim to prove the crimes of Myanmar’s security forces. But many of these images are part of the fake news machinery.They have been taken from other conflicts and other violence-marred parts of the world for the sake of propaganda. On the other hand, Myanmar’s government headed by de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi denies any wrongdoing and vows to deal with Islamist terrorists strictly. DW’s Rodion EbbighausenA complex situationPoliticians, rights groups and celebrities from all over the world are reacting to the crisis in Rakhine and are calling on the Myanmar government – mostly with noble intentions – to put an end to the violence. But some politicians such as Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Indonesian President Jokowi, Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan are more concerned about their Muslim brotherhood agenda than the Rohingya misery. Thus, these leaders are promoting an oversimplified, stereotypical thinking about the conflict in Rakhine.

Source: Opinion: The gray area in Myanmar′s Rohingya conflict | Opinion | DW | 06.09.2017

Is Doxxing Ever Okay? | Dame Magazine YES!

I don’t “out” Neo-Nazis as a hobby because I dislike “bad behavior online.” I “outed” Neo-Nazis because after I made a joke about owning a gun vaporizer, they put a Photoshopped pig nose on my Twitter avatar, put that picture on their Daily Stormer Neo-Nazi blog, and unleashed a flood of angry white men into my mentions, telling me they hoped I would be raped by black men and kill myself as a result. I “outed” Neo-Nazis because they depend on fear and silence to keep their victims compliant. I “outed” Neo-Nazis because if your fucking kid is a Neo-Nazi, you need to fucking know it, Debbie.

Source: Is Doxxing Ever Okay? | Dame Magazine

IRIN | Hurricane Irma Live Blog Antigua-Barbuda 185mph!

Back in Antigua after surveying the damage in cut-off Barbuda, Prime Minister Gaston Browne has confirmed one infant fatality from Hurricane Irma and said that a “search and rescue operation” is underway in case of more casualties. Fleshing out an earlier statement that 90 percent of buildings had been “decimated”, Browne told local ABS Television/Radio that an estimated 60 percent of the 1,600-strong Barbudan populaton could now be regarded as “homeless”.“What I saw was heart-wrenching, I mean absolutely devastating,” Browne said. The prime minister also acknowledged a league of difference between the 185mph winds that demolished much of Barbuda and the 135mph battering Antigua endured, even though the islands aren’t that far apart. “What is instructive is that a diference of 30-50 miles involving a hurricane can make a major difference,” he said, putting the cost of reconstruction on Barbuda alone at $150 million.

Source: IRIN | Hurricane Irma Live Blog

Trump’s decision to end DACA shatters moral compass of the country – Latina Lista: News from the Latinx perspective

Barring that, this action by Trump is further evidence that his administration is now on a very dangerous trajectory towards the full-throated endorsement of white supremacy – the likes of which we haven’t seen in the open from a sitting president for a century.Trump followed up his weak and insincere response to racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia by pardoning notorious convicted racist Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff, and condoning Arpaio’s abuse of official power in defiance of federal law and court orders. Trump praised those who marched at the University of Virginia with torches shouting “Jews will not replace us,” and, in July 2015, he launched his campaign by saying Mexican immigrants are rapists and murderers.But this action on DACA – to pull the rug out from under almost 800,000 documented immigrants and cast them back into the shadows – is the ugliest act of appeasement so far for the far-right’s white-supremacist goals.It has not gone unnoticed.

Source: Trump’s decision to end DACA shatters moral compass of the country – Latina Lista: News from the Latinx perspective

It Is Not All Religion | salamamoussa

The Fatwa Kiosks are not a harmless bit of nonsense. They are a manifestation of a deeper problem behind Egypt’s recent stagnation and social divisions. There is the widely held belief that religion, appropriately defined, is the solution to many, if not most, ills. The evidence for that belief is scant, and most of it points to the opposite. In his time in Parliament, former President Morsi, thundered against corruption and when running for president claimed that it can all be cured by appointing the pious to office. During his short term the men of his party came ready to grab with both fists in a time-honored, but hardly religious, attitude of “my turn now”. Preachers long urged women to cover up in order not to excite men’s passions. But a woman walking the hot streets of Cairo in the summer of 1967 in a flimsy sun dress could do so unmolested. Today her granddaughter, fully sealed in flowing garments, will all too often run a gauntlet of sexual harassment.

Source: It Is Not All Religion | salamamoussa

My colleague Maria was deported. I saw the void she – and others – leave behind | Nick Nelson | Opinion | The Guardian

Maria’s deportation is the worst possible outcome of an immigration policy that is not about the “rapists” and “criminals” with whom President Trump threatened us during his campaign, but about racist and inaccurate definitions of what it means to be American.Maria’s story makes it crystal clear that Trump’s immigration policy isn’t about keeping Americans safe; after all, it can’t even prioritize actual criminals over skilled healthcare workers who care for underserved patients. Rather, Trump’s policies pander to the worst impulses of a small segment of society who are afraid that a diverse America will leave no place for them.Maria was torn from our community and left a void which many will feel for a long time, in many cases for their entire lives. Nobody feels this more acutely than the three American daughters she left behind.Those of us who were her colleagues and her patients will miss her calm, compassionate competence. And I will miss the illusions I had about my community’s ability to protect our own when Trump’s minions come calling.

Source: My colleague Maria was deported. I saw the void she – and others – leave behind | Nick Nelson | Opinion | The Guardian

Pussy Riot’s Mariya Alyokhina: ‘Politics is not something that exists in one or another White House. It is our lives’ | World news | The Guardian

Alyokhina says she wants to tell the human story of Pussy Riot and correct some misconceptions: “In our case, the propaganda worked at full speed. They called us sacrilegious, whores and everything else.” But she also would like the book to be a call to action. “I want a 19-year-old girl from Argentina who doesn’t know anything about Putin, Russia, Pussy Riot or protest to be able to understand it,” she says. “Everyone has a choice, at every moment in their lives. This [book] is simply an example of how you make choices.”The Russian language version is being unofficially distributed in the same way that so-called “samizdat” literature – banned writing – circulated in the Soviet Union. But Alyokhina wants the English version to inspire an international audience. She makes regular visits to Europe and the US, and believes the election of Donald Trump as US president has made her experience more relevant than ever. “Political art is simply essential for life in the United States right now,” she says. “It’s not just about Trump. It’s about Nazi groups that are calling for people to be judged according to racial characteristics and so on. If you call someone dangerous then it means you are scared of them,” she argues. “You shouldn’t be scared, you need to act.”

Source: Pussy Riot’s Mariya Alyokhina: ‘Politics is not something that exists in one or another White House. It is our lives’ | World news | The Guardian

UTAH OFFICER WHO ARRESTED NURSE OVER BLOOD TEST PUT ON LEAVE

Good police should be supported – bullies and cowboys should not! Police body-camera video shows Wubbels, who works in the burn unit, calmly explaining that she could not take blood from a patient who had been injured in a deadly car accident, citing a recent change in law. A 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said a blood sample cannot be taken without patient consent or a warrant. Wubbels told Payne that a patient had to allow a blood sample to determine intoxication or be under arrest. Otherwise, she said police needed a warrant. Police did not, but Payne insisted. The dispute ended with Payne saying, “We’re done, you’re under arrest” and pulling her outside while she screamed and said, “I’ve done nothing wrong!” He had called his supervisor and discussed the time-sensitive blood draw for over an hour with hospital staff, police spokeswoman Christina Judd said.”It’s not an excuse. It definitely doesn’t forgive what happened,” she said.Payne wrote in a police report that he grabbed Wubbels and took her outside to avoid causing a “scene” in the emergency room. He said his boss, a lieutenant whose actions also were being reviewed, told him to arrest Wubbels if she kept interfering.The detective left Wubbels in a hot police car for 20 minutes before realizing that blood had already been drawn as part of treatment, said her lawyer, Karra Porter. Wubbels was not charged.”This has upended her worldview in a way. She just couldn’t believe this could happen,” Porter said.Wubbels and her attorneys on Thursday released the video they obtained through a public records request to call for change. She has not sued, but that could change, said attorney Jake Macfarlane.Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said that the video was concerning and called the police chief to ask for a criminal investigation.The department is open to the inquiry that will be run by Salt Lake County’s Unified Police, Judd said. Gill’s office will review the findings.In response to the incident, Judd said the department updated its blood-draw policy last week to mirror what the hospital uses. She said officers have already received additional training.

Source: News from The Associated Press

Indian Immigrants in the United States | migrationpolicy.org

Immigrants from India are the second-largest foreign-born group in the United States, after Mexicans. Indian immigrants tend to be far more highly educated and have greater English proficiency than the foreign-born population overall. This Spotlight article offers the latest data on Indian immigrants, focusing on population size, state- and city-level distribution, occupation, educational attainment, and more.

Source: Indian Immigrants in the United States | migrationpolicy.org