The international community’s excuse for failing to prevent the genocide in Rwanda was that they did not know what was happening until it was too late. A feeble, disingenuous defense which was discredited and lambasted by those who raised the alarm but were met with deaf ears, such as General Dallaire.
The words “Never again”, like the victims of the first genocide this century, in Darfur, have no worth, hold no significance and imbue no moral compulsion to act. Despite the genocide convention (1948) compelling us to intervene to prevent genocide and instructing us that failure to do so makes us complicit, still the UN remains on the sidelines, occasionally adding fuel to the genocidaires’ fire but never, never invoking its duty to protect the beleaguered, butchered civilians of Darfur and increasingly Southern Sudan.
The international community’s policy on Sudan seems to be that of silence. Whether it’s the rape of 200 women in girls in Tabit or the bombing of an MSF hospital a few days ago, say as little as possible and it’ll all blow over.
Excerpts from the MSF press release:
“A hospital operated by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was directly targeted in an aerial bombing in Sudan on January 20, forcing the suspension of medical activities, MSF announced today [22 January 2015]. The hospital, located in the Nuba Mountains village of Frandala in the South Kordofan region of Sudan, was bombed by the Sudanese Air Force (SAF). Repeated and targeted bombings in the region prevent the safe operation of medical activities, depriving the local population of lifesaving care...
“Approximately 150 patients and staff were in the hospital when a SAF fighter jet [almost certainly a Sukhoi-24 air-to-ground attack plane] dropped a cluster of 13 bombs, two of which landed inside the hospital compound. The others struck just outside the hospital fence. One MSF staff member and one patient were injured. The property also suffered damage... [The Mother of Mercy Hospital was also attacked by a fighter jet from Khartoum's air force, identified from its profile by Dr. Tom Catena, surgeon at the hospital, as a Sukhoi-24—ER.]
The eminent Sudan scholar, Eric Reeves, had this to say:
“If we want moral clarity in understanding the Khartoum—as opposed to the political "complexities" adduced whenever the regime is the subject—then let us look to Frandala. This deliberate bombing attack on an MSF hospital, by an advanced military jet aircraft, is the very face of the Khartoum regime. It is what the world should see when it looks at these men. Instead, the feckless Europeans, with only a couple of exceptions, accept the legitimacy of the regime and several have done substantial commercial business with it, at least before the collapsing Sudanese economy made the regime's ruthless survivalists even more desperate to do whatever it takes to maintain their monopoly on national wealth and political power. In the process they've made further commercial investment highly unlikely, and the economy will sink even more quickly”.
When I asked a Sudanese friend how she felt about the increasing attacks on schools and hospitals and the international community’s silence, she said:
“They will say nothing. They will do nothing. They do not care about us. Our children are being killed and no-one cares”.
If we allow our hearts to harden in the face of genocide, look away when we should bear witness and remain silent when we should speak up, what hope is there for humanity?
Saturday, 24 January 2015
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
I am Not Charlie. France's Mantra of Equality, Liberty & Brotherhood, Like "Free" Speech, Has Been Exposed as a Lie.
The following was published in today's Independent Voices:
I was giving a lecture shortly after 7/7 when a participant arrived late. He had been jumped on by a gang of “skin heads” who shouted Islamaphobic obscenities while beating the crap out of him, ending with “Go home Paki”? He was a cockney atheist but, to be fair, he was flaunting a deep tan at the time, which, under the circumstances (media whipping up hatred of any one “foreign looking”), was foolhardy.
The Paris killings were barbarous and my heart goes out to the victims’ loved ones. There is no justification for murder. There is however a duty to properly debate critical societal events. The attribution of heroic status to the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo ignores the role it may have played in normalising xenophobia in France. It has ironically served to close down debate and fails to acknowledge the fact that freedom of speech comes at a cost.
As someone who believes that the pen is mightier that the sword and who engages the potent properties of satire, I also accept the (ethical) rules of its engagement. Mockery as a tool to hold a mirror up to the powerful, is legitimate and strengthens democracy. Wielded against the marginalized and disenfranchised minority however, it’s cruel, divisive and its proponents threaten the democratic principles they claim to uphold.
I do not accept the narrative that the Paris massacres were an attack on free speech. On the contrary, the brutal, tragic, murders were, in my view, indicative of a society wherein “free” speech is seen as a privilege afforded only to those who can afford to buy it. There are 5m Muslims in France, more than in any other European country (except Turkey), yet they are conspicuously absent from the legislature and the media.
In contrast, 60% of prisoners in the country are Muslim and hail from poverty stricken suburbs, where youth unemployment is around 40% (Two of the three Paris killers, brothers Kouachis and Chérif, were orphaned early and having occupied menial jobs, got involved in petty crime ending up in prison where many Muslims become radicalised). Add to the mix the rise of the far right in France and the daily attacks on immigrants, Muslims and blacks, all of which is disseminated by the media and fuels inter community hatred. France’s mantra of Equality, Liberty and Brotherhood has been exposed, like free speech, as a lie.
When I criticized Charlie Hebdo’s original cartoons depicting Islam as being synonymous with terrorism it summoned the charge of “political correctness”, as though it is shameful to avoid “forms of expression that are perceived to exclude, marginalize or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against”, which is the largely forgotten meaning of the term (source: OED). It is disingenuous for those in the media to defend their “entitlement” to free speech for the mere sake of it and to rail against a concept that might render their gratuitous attacks on the powerless and voiceless, as socially unacceptable.
The Paris killers, like those who brutally murdered Lee Rigby in the UK, were deranged, sick individuals. They were terrorists certainly but they are no more representative of Islam than I am of Catholicism.
As well as the unequal distribution of “free speech” and economic resources, there’s another player in the dock. Foreign policy that sanctions torture abroad will always come back to bite. There’s no greater recruiting sergeant for terrorism than torturing innocent civilians. We know from history that if we oppress and deny people their right to self determination, abuse them and deprive them recourse to justice, they will fight back. Whilst the killings in Paris were indefensible and abhorrent, spare a thought too for all the thousands of innocent Muslims in Iraq, Palestine, Darfur and Afghanistan, for example, who have seen loved ones slain but will never receive justice.
A generation of young Muslims throughout Europe are faced with the prospect of long term unemployment, alienation and anger. Inequality and injustice on this scale is a recipe for social unrest. Terrorists are filling a position made vacant in the minds of some of our most disaffected young people by a world that will bail out miscreants in suits but starve our youth of investment, care and any hope for the future. If you have nothing, there’s nothing left to lose.
I was giving a lecture shortly after 7/7 when a participant arrived late. He had been jumped on by a gang of “skin heads” who shouted Islamaphobic obscenities while beating the crap out of him, ending with “Go home Paki”? He was a cockney atheist but, to be fair, he was flaunting a deep tan at the time, which, under the circumstances (media whipping up hatred of any one “foreign looking”), was foolhardy.
The Paris killings were barbarous and my heart goes out to the victims’ loved ones. There is no justification for murder. There is however a duty to properly debate critical societal events. The attribution of heroic status to the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo ignores the role it may have played in normalising xenophobia in France. It has ironically served to close down debate and fails to acknowledge the fact that freedom of speech comes at a cost.
As someone who believes that the pen is mightier that the sword and who engages the potent properties of satire, I also accept the (ethical) rules of its engagement. Mockery as a tool to hold a mirror up to the powerful, is legitimate and strengthens democracy. Wielded against the marginalized and disenfranchised minority however, it’s cruel, divisive and its proponents threaten the democratic principles they claim to uphold.
I do not accept the narrative that the Paris massacres were an attack on free speech. On the contrary, the brutal, tragic, murders were, in my view, indicative of a society wherein “free” speech is seen as a privilege afforded only to those who can afford to buy it. There are 5m Muslims in France, more than in any other European country (except Turkey), yet they are conspicuously absent from the legislature and the media.
In contrast, 60% of prisoners in the country are Muslim and hail from poverty stricken suburbs, where youth unemployment is around 40% (Two of the three Paris killers, brothers Kouachis and Chérif, were orphaned early and having occupied menial jobs, got involved in petty crime ending up in prison where many Muslims become radicalised). Add to the mix the rise of the far right in France and the daily attacks on immigrants, Muslims and blacks, all of which is disseminated by the media and fuels inter community hatred. France’s mantra of Equality, Liberty and Brotherhood has been exposed, like free speech, as a lie.
When I criticized Charlie Hebdo’s original cartoons depicting Islam as being synonymous with terrorism it summoned the charge of “political correctness”, as though it is shameful to avoid “forms of expression that are perceived to exclude, marginalize or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against”, which is the largely forgotten meaning of the term (source: OED). It is disingenuous for those in the media to defend their “entitlement” to free speech for the mere sake of it and to rail against a concept that might render their gratuitous attacks on the powerless and voiceless, as socially unacceptable.
The Paris killers, like those who brutally murdered Lee Rigby in the UK, were deranged, sick individuals. They were terrorists certainly but they are no more representative of Islam than I am of Catholicism.
As well as the unequal distribution of “free speech” and economic resources, there’s another player in the dock. Foreign policy that sanctions torture abroad will always come back to bite. There’s no greater recruiting sergeant for terrorism than torturing innocent civilians. We know from history that if we oppress and deny people their right to self determination, abuse them and deprive them recourse to justice, they will fight back. Whilst the killings in Paris were indefensible and abhorrent, spare a thought too for all the thousands of innocent Muslims in Iraq, Palestine, Darfur and Afghanistan, for example, who have seen loved ones slain but will never receive justice.
A generation of young Muslims throughout Europe are faced with the prospect of long term unemployment, alienation and anger. Inequality and injustice on this scale is a recipe for social unrest. Terrorists are filling a position made vacant in the minds of some of our most disaffected young people by a world that will bail out miscreants in suits but starve our youth of investment, care and any hope for the future. If you have nothing, there’s nothing left to lose.
Thursday, 8 January 2015
To Women's Magazines & Ched Evans, I Have This to Say: Yes We Bloody Well Can!
Arguing with inanimate objects is not my thing. It tends to be pretty one sided. Such was the ire invoked by listening to Radio Four yesterday that I found myself yelling “yes we bloody well can” at the car radio. Futile perhaps, but therapeutic nonetheless.
The subject of my wrath was the editor of You magazine, which is part of The Mail on Sunday’s (MoS) “package”. She was a guest on Woman’s Hour discussing the future (or not) of glossy women’s magazines. When asked whether she felt compromised by being part of the MoS news package, she lamented that there are a lot of terrible things happening in the world but alas there’s nothing we (women) can do about them. The good news is that we (women) can at least cook a nice meal for our loved ones (husband & children) & sit back with a nice cuppa afterwards to escape in an orgy of airbrushed surgically enhanced bodies & “aspirational” lifestyle envy (my words not hers).
The message is, don’t worry your little heads ladies. Let men get on with the business of ruling/making a complete hash of the world. I have nothing against hot pots & bake offs (I’m just rubbish at both) & I’m not averse to making do & mending but the fact is, the world needs more women to get involved in news & politics. Women’s magazines that still peddle 1950’s stereotypes have no place in the present, let alone the future.
Yes we bloody well can is my response to the defeatist acceptance of impotence. There’s plenty we can do about the horrible things happening in the world & burying our heads in the sand is not one of them. Our engagement now will determine the legacy we leave our children. Be it climate change, social inequality & oppression (which threatens democracy & acts as a recruiting sergeant for terrorism), it’s all happening on our watch.
What can I, just one individual, do? I hear you ask. Plenty. Take the debacle over convicted rapist Ched Evans, for example. When Sheffield United announced their intention to sign him last year it provoked public outrage. One of those angry individuals set up a petition, then 170,000 other angry individuals signed it. Collectively those simple individual actions resulted in Sheffield United backing down. This powerful democratic tool was employed to achieve the same outcome when Oldham United announced their intention to sign the convicted rapist this week. Again the petition was set up & within days 70,000 individuals, including myself, signed it. One by one the sponsors threatened to pull out of the club if Evans was signed. Oldham United announced today that they would not be signing the convicted rapist after all. Every single individual act accumulates to effect societal change.
For overseas readers who aren’t familiar with the Ched Evans case, it’s worth noting that, having served 2.5 years in prison for raping a 19 year old girl, he emerged, not contrite but inciting revenge against his victim. A website has been set up in his name which discloses the victim’s identity & address. She had to change her name & has moved 5 times because of threats made to her by Evans’ supporters. She continues to be persecuted, vilified & threatened & lives in constant fear of reprisals.
In the UK over 85,000 women are raped and 400,000 sexually assaulted every year. Three months ago the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported that rape had increased 29% in the UK & that rape at knife point had increased by 48%. The rape crisis centre warned that these stats, though damning, were “just the tip of the iceberg”. It’s thought that 80% of rapes never get reported. Not surprising when judges make sympathetic overtures to the perpetrators, such as when female judge, Ms Mowat, told a teacher convicted of child pornography offences that she would not criticise him for being attracted to children. David Armstrong, 63, a supply teacher, escaped with a suspended sentence after admitting possessing 4,500 indecent images of children.
Ms Mowat is the same judge who last year indicated that women who drank too much & were then raped had no-one but themselves to blame if they don't get a conviction, on the grounds that they can’t recall exact details in court. As a judge she should know that the legal responsibility is on the defendant to explain how they sought and received consent, not on the survivor to recall every detail.
The objectification of women in the media & advertising contributes to the rape culture. Among comedian Jimmy Carr’s rape jokes repertoire is this side splitter, “What’s the difference between football and rape? Women don’t like football”. Nuff said.
Thanks to the lose the Lads’ mags campaign, several lads’ rags have folded in the last year & those remaining have cleaned up their act. They’re starting to get that their in your face porno representation of women was frankly, uncool. That happened because thousands of individuals signed petitions, wrote letters, or in my case, serially put copies of The Lady or Good Housekeeping (the lesser of evils) in front of all the Lads’ mags wherever I saw them on display.
My rancour at the paralysing creep of apathy is exacerbated by discovering today that my local A&E is on the verge of closure. No consultation, no concerted local political opposition & negligible local media coverage (despite buying the local newspaper I knew nothing of this). It took one hour for an ambulance to take my 6 year old to the nearest A&E after he has injured in a car crash in November (all the while in agony strapped into a hard plastic stretcher & head blocks). That was bad enough, but closing our A&E could mean up to twice that length of time to get to another one. If this closure happens, people in this rural, often isolated community, will needlessly die on route to A&E. Not something that will keep our lacklustre Tory MP awake at night. Fortunately, some angry people have mobilised and formed a campaign group to block the move. Now that I know about it, I'll be supporting their noble efforts. If we don't join forces against expunging critical services on which our families & communities depend, they'll be gone forever & we'll only have ourselves to blame.
If I’ve incited just one reader to get into the bloody well can mindset, I’ll take solace from that. Following the gender based theme, if anyone is bloody well fed up with The Sun’s sexist Page 3, there is something you can bloody well do about it. Join the 216,700 other individuals who’ve signed the No More Page 3 petition at https://www.change.org/p/david-dinsmore-take-the-bare-boobs-out-of-the-sun-nomorepage3
The subject of my wrath was the editor of You magazine, which is part of The Mail on Sunday’s (MoS) “package”. She was a guest on Woman’s Hour discussing the future (or not) of glossy women’s magazines. When asked whether she felt compromised by being part of the MoS news package, she lamented that there are a lot of terrible things happening in the world but alas there’s nothing we (women) can do about them. The good news is that we (women) can at least cook a nice meal for our loved ones (husband & children) & sit back with a nice cuppa afterwards to escape in an orgy of airbrushed surgically enhanced bodies & “aspirational” lifestyle envy (my words not hers).
The message is, don’t worry your little heads ladies. Let men get on with the business of ruling/making a complete hash of the world. I have nothing against hot pots & bake offs (I’m just rubbish at both) & I’m not averse to making do & mending but the fact is, the world needs more women to get involved in news & politics. Women’s magazines that still peddle 1950’s stereotypes have no place in the present, let alone the future.
Yes we bloody well can is my response to the defeatist acceptance of impotence. There’s plenty we can do about the horrible things happening in the world & burying our heads in the sand is not one of them. Our engagement now will determine the legacy we leave our children. Be it climate change, social inequality & oppression (which threatens democracy & acts as a recruiting sergeant for terrorism), it’s all happening on our watch.
What can I, just one individual, do? I hear you ask. Plenty. Take the debacle over convicted rapist Ched Evans, for example. When Sheffield United announced their intention to sign him last year it provoked public outrage. One of those angry individuals set up a petition, then 170,000 other angry individuals signed it. Collectively those simple individual actions resulted in Sheffield United backing down. This powerful democratic tool was employed to achieve the same outcome when Oldham United announced their intention to sign the convicted rapist this week. Again the petition was set up & within days 70,000 individuals, including myself, signed it. One by one the sponsors threatened to pull out of the club if Evans was signed. Oldham United announced today that they would not be signing the convicted rapist after all. Every single individual act accumulates to effect societal change.
For overseas readers who aren’t familiar with the Ched Evans case, it’s worth noting that, having served 2.5 years in prison for raping a 19 year old girl, he emerged, not contrite but inciting revenge against his victim. A website has been set up in his name which discloses the victim’s identity & address. She had to change her name & has moved 5 times because of threats made to her by Evans’ supporters. She continues to be persecuted, vilified & threatened & lives in constant fear of reprisals.
In the UK over 85,000 women are raped and 400,000 sexually assaulted every year. Three months ago the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported that rape had increased 29% in the UK & that rape at knife point had increased by 48%. The rape crisis centre warned that these stats, though damning, were “just the tip of the iceberg”. It’s thought that 80% of rapes never get reported. Not surprising when judges make sympathetic overtures to the perpetrators, such as when female judge, Ms Mowat, told a teacher convicted of child pornography offences that she would not criticise him for being attracted to children. David Armstrong, 63, a supply teacher, escaped with a suspended sentence after admitting possessing 4,500 indecent images of children.
Ms Mowat is the same judge who last year indicated that women who drank too much & were then raped had no-one but themselves to blame if they don't get a conviction, on the grounds that they can’t recall exact details in court. As a judge she should know that the legal responsibility is on the defendant to explain how they sought and received consent, not on the survivor to recall every detail.
The objectification of women in the media & advertising contributes to the rape culture. Among comedian Jimmy Carr’s rape jokes repertoire is this side splitter, “What’s the difference between football and rape? Women don’t like football”. Nuff said.
Thanks to the lose the Lads’ mags campaign, several lads’ rags have folded in the last year & those remaining have cleaned up their act. They’re starting to get that their in your face porno representation of women was frankly, uncool. That happened because thousands of individuals signed petitions, wrote letters, or in my case, serially put copies of The Lady or Good Housekeeping (the lesser of evils) in front of all the Lads’ mags wherever I saw them on display.
My rancour at the paralysing creep of apathy is exacerbated by discovering today that my local A&E is on the verge of closure. No consultation, no concerted local political opposition & negligible local media coverage (despite buying the local newspaper I knew nothing of this). It took one hour for an ambulance to take my 6 year old to the nearest A&E after he has injured in a car crash in November (all the while in agony strapped into a hard plastic stretcher & head blocks). That was bad enough, but closing our A&E could mean up to twice that length of time to get to another one. If this closure happens, people in this rural, often isolated community, will needlessly die on route to A&E. Not something that will keep our lacklustre Tory MP awake at night. Fortunately, some angry people have mobilised and formed a campaign group to block the move. Now that I know about it, I'll be supporting their noble efforts. If we don't join forces against expunging critical services on which our families & communities depend, they'll be gone forever & we'll only have ourselves to blame.
If I’ve incited just one reader to get into the bloody well can mindset, I’ll take solace from that. Following the gender based theme, if anyone is bloody well fed up with The Sun’s sexist Page 3, there is something you can bloody well do about it. Join the 216,700 other individuals who’ve signed the No More Page 3 petition at https://www.change.org/p/david-dinsmore-take-the-bare-boobs-out-of-the-sun-nomorepage3
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