The 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held in Chicago, Illinois. August 28, 1968 came to be known as the day a “police riot” took place. Wikipedia
27 Jul 2013
Tutu says he cannot worship 'homophobic' God
South African peace icon Desmond Tutu has said he would rather go to hell than worship a homophobic God, likening the fight against gay prejudice to the anti-apartheid struggle. Tutu made the comments on Friday at the launch of a United Nations gay equality campaign in Cape Town.
"I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place," the retired archbishop said. "I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this," he said, condemning the use of religious justification for anti-gay prejudice.
26 Jul 2013
Honor The Treaties
A few years ago, Aaron Huey journeyed to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to photograph members of the Oglala Lakota Nation. The disarming stories of deceit, heartbreak, and violence he heard there changed his life forever. (Featuring Shepard Fairey)
Upworthy.com - Reelhouse.org - Aaron Heuy Ted Talk: America's native prisoners of war - www.aaronhuey.com
25 Jul 2013
24 Jul 2013
36 Photos From Russia That Everyone Needs To See
It’s a scary place for LGBT people in Russia right now. 35 more photos on BuzzFeed
23 Jul 2013
The Meaning of the Brazilian Protest Movement
Last month's protests swept through Brazil's cities, bringing hundreds of thousands onto the streets to protest rampant political corruption, declining government services and rising public costs. Contrary to the rosy economic picture that the World Bank and the IMF have tried to paint over the past decade, Brazil's growing discontent with the neoliberal model is now on full display. Find out more in this week's GRTV Backgrounder on Global Research TV.
22 Jul 2013
Doctor refuses to give woman the pill because she had 'not done her reproductive job' by having at least four children
A young New Zealand woman was refused the birth control pill because she had not yet done her 'reproductive job'.
Melissa Pont, 23, said her family practitioner, Dr Joseph Lee, would not renew her pill prescription, instead lecturing her on a baby's right to live and on using the rhythm method, an unreliable family planning technique that involves having sex only at certain times of the month.
The New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) says a doctor who refused to prescribe the contraceptive pill to a Blenheim woman was within his rights, but that it was wrong to share his views on the matter. Radio New Zealand
Israeli parliament approved the deportation of 40,000 Bedouin from their land
In order to Judify the Naqab, the south of Israel, Israel initiates a unilateral plan to confiscate Bedouin land. Most of the Israeli public remains indifferent.
Putin Declares Himself Dictator
Putin’s actions are those of a dictator, who substitutes repression for lost popular support. In his first two terms, he enjoyed high popularity ratings and could tolerate a moderately free press. His 2011 imperious declaration that he would return to the Presidency and the demonstrations that followed revealed that the Russian people simply want him gone. As a leader with failing public support, he can only remain in power by using force and repression that gets worse by the day.
The amount of political repression in Russia today is about equal to that in Myanmar under military rule. The United States and other countries ostracized Myanmar and imposed sanctions. Although Ambassador McFaul expressed his regrets after the Navalny ruling, the Obama administration, in its ludicrous hope for Russian “reset” concessions, avoids any statements that might upset Vova, or “Little Vladimir” as the Russians derisively call Putin.
Is it not time, for the Obama administration to speak up? What more is needed? I guess we should keep quiet. Any day now Vova will help out on Iran, Syria, North Korea, or even not rub our face in it with Snowden. In the meantime, capital and its best people flee Russia. The goal of Russia’s best and brightest is to get themselves and their families out of repressive Russia before it is too late.
Syria civil war could last 'multiple years'
David Shedd, the deputy director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, did not advocate any form of intervention by the United States or its allies, saying that was up to policymakers.
But his bleak assessment of the dangers posed by the Islamist al-Nusra Front and al-Qaeda's Iraq-based wing, as well as the prospects for a prolonged conflict, could bolster advocates of greater involvement by the United States and its allies. Addressing the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Shedd said he counted at least 1,200 groups in the opposition. He said many of the groups were preoccupied with strictly local grievances, like a lack of potable water in their villages.
"Left unchecked, I'm very concerned that the most radical elements will take over larger segments" of the opposition groups, Shedd said, strongly hinting at the need for some kind of outside intervention. He said the conflict could drag on anywhere "from many, many months to multiple years," and that a prolonged stalemate could leave open parts of Syria to potential control by radical fighters.
21 Jul 2013
Israel Admits Harvesting Organs From Dead Bodies Without Permission
Israel has admitted that in the 1990s, its forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without permission of their families.
The issue emerged with publication of an interview with the then-head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr. Jehuda Hiss. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic, who released it because of a huge controversy last summer over an allegation by a Swedish newspaper that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. Israel hotly denied the charge.
Parts of the interview were broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 TV over the weekend. In it, Hiss said, "We started to harvest corneas ... Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."
The Channel 2 report said that in the 1990s, forensic specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.
Police State USA
A compilation of American news segments and video clips detailing the history of stop and frisk.
Helen Thomas is Dead
Helen Thomas (August 4, 1920 – July 20, 2013) was an American author and news service reporter, member of the White House press corps and opinion columnist. She worked for the United Press and post-1958 successor United Press International (UPI) for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager. She was a columnist for Hearst Newspapers from 2000 to 2010, writing on national affairs and the White House. She covered the administrations of eleven U.S. presidents—from the final years of the Eisenhower administration to the second year of the Obama administration.
Thomas was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents' Association, and the first female member of the Gridiron Club. She wrote six books. Thomas retired from Hearst Newspapers on June 7, 2010, following controversial comments she made about Israel, Israeli Jews and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Mel Smith remembered: 'A gentleman and a scholar, a gambler and a wit'
Mel Smith, the British comedian, writer, actor, producer and film director, known for his long and popular television partnership with Griff Rhys Jones, died on Friday at the age of 60. He suffered a heart attack at his London home.
Smith's deadpan style, along with his lugubrious manner and large build, quickly established him as one of the favourite television performers in the early 1980s.
20 Jul 2013
Alan Turing Must Be Pardoned
Alan Turing looks set to receive a pardon, after the government lent its support to a Bill that would overturn the wartime codebreaker's conviction for being gay. Turing took his own life with cyanide in 1954 at the age of 41 - he had been sentenced to chemical castration for the crime of gross indecency.
The mathematician, one of the fathers of computer science, worked at the British government's Second World War code-breaking headquarters at Bletchley Park. He is best known for having cracked the messages sent by the German Enigma machines and is credited with saving the country from starvation.
Last year the government rejected demands that he be granted a pardon as he had not been wrongly convicted at the time, even if that law no longer existed. "A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence," Lib Dem justice minister Lord McNally said.
US Soldiers Disappear removing 5000 year old Flying Machine from Afghan Cave
What caused the sudden rush of these most powerful leaders of the Western World to go to Afghanistan, this report continues, was to directly view the discovery by US Military scientists of what is described as a "Vimana" entrapped in a "Time Well"
that has already caused the "disappearance" of at least 8 American Soldiers trying to remove it from the cave it has been hidden in for the past estimated 5,000 years.
19 Jul 2013
India's 'people of nowhere'
India and Pakistan won their independence in 1947, but the year also left deep scars by leaving hundreds of thousands without a nation to call their own.
Millions of people migrated and fled their homes during the partition that lead to the formation of the two countries. Even after six decades of independence religious minorities, mostly Hindus, have been fleeing Pakistan and migrating to India, claiming harassment. Some left for better economic opportunities. Most of the families have stationed themselves in India's western state of Rajasthan, which borders Pakistan.
For Halmal Bheel, 54, who had migrated in 2000, settling down in India has been tough. “This is our land, and we are not refugees here," he said. "My father migrated to Pakistan, but our ancestral land and the remains of our old house are still here. So it really hurts when someone calls us refugees or Pakistanis.”
Hindu Singh Sodha, an activist working with Hindu immigrants from Pakistan, said “nobody is bothered about plight of these people. Both central and state government prefer to ignore their situation ... The only thing these people have been demanding is the grant of a refugee status. The government does not want to take the ownership, so as to avoid the provision of basic facilities like food and shelter to the immigrants.”
The Indian government has toughened the requirements to attain citizenship: migrants must now live in the country for seven years before being eligible to become a citizen, up from five years; and the application fee for citizenship has greatly increased.
And the places where these immigrants live often lack basic necessities like water, good food and electricity. “It is very hard to live in such conditions. We do not get cooking gas connections, electricity connections, and cannot even apply for a driving license. The basic human needs are also not provided to us,” said Gordhan Bheel. “All we want is either a refugee status or grant of Indian citizenship.”
Khushala Ram, 50, who came to India in 2009 on a pilgrim visa and has remained in the country, said: “I will never go back. I came with the hope that the Indian government will accept us with open hearts, but I do not know why they have been treating us as Pakistanis. We are Indians who have come back home.”
18 Jul 2013
Legendary Soul Singer Violently Attacked For Song Dedication To Trayvon Martin
Hours before George Zimmerman walked free in his second-degree murder trial, a white woman assaulted soul singer Lester Chambers for dedicating a song to Trayvon Martin. The woman identified as 43-year-old Dinalynn Andrews Potter jumped the stage, reportedly yelling “it’s all your fault,” right before she hit the 73-year-old singer.
Chambers, once part of a legendary 1960s music group called The Chambers Brothers, prepared to dedicate a civil rights-era song titled “People Get Ready,” changing the lyrics from “people get ready, there’s a train a-coming” to “there’s change a-coming.”
17 Jul 2013
Israel's Sweeping Ethnic Cleansing Plan
A national day of protests and strikes swept Israel and occupied Palestine Monday as demonstrators filled the streets to voice their opposition to Israel's Prawer 'ethnic cleansing' Plan that would forcibly evict and displace up to 70 thousand indigenous Palestinian Bedouins from the Naqab/Negev region in southern Israel. Street protests spread through major Palestinian cities and towns Monday, including Ramallah, Gaza City, Hebron, and Nablus.
A 700-strong protest in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva, under the banner of "The Prawer Plan will not pass," blocked a major thoroughfare and was shut down by police, who arrested at least 14 people.
Palestinian communities shuttered many commercial establishments Monday in a strike endorsed by the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee, but not the PLO. Photos show Palestinian marketplaces sitting closed and empty.
Israel's Prewar Plan, passed in the Knesset in late June, aims to displace tens of thousands of Bedouins and destroy 35 "unrecognized villages," forcing Bedouins into government resettlement villages.
The Adelah Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel says the Prawer Plan, if implemented, would be "the largest single act of forced displacement of Arab citizens of Israel since the 1950s."
16 Jul 2013
Lesbians in Iran: Stories of Persecution and Torture
Iranian lesbians, like their gay brothers, are not allowed to have an existence in Iran. Many are forced by society and by their family to live a lie and marry a man. Women convicted of lesbian sex face flogging or, after conviction for a fourth time, the death penalty. Lesbians have no security of person vis-Ã -vis the government. Each time they are arrested, they risk being raped, whipped, persecuted or even tortured to death. If they are raped by strangers or acquaintances, they and their family members are often reluctant to file a formal complaint because being raped is itself a matter of shame and disgrace. Even when complaints are filed, they do not prosper as the law pertaining to the crime of rape requires four male witnesses to prove the legitimacy of the accusation.
Those forced into marriage by their families experience the trauma of rape every night as a wife’s first duty is to serve her husband’s sexual needs. Under Iranian law, it is lawful for a man to rape his wife. The only unlawful rape of a woman is zena or adulterous rape. Many of these women suffer from depression and other mental and spiritual problems. If their sexuality is discovered by their family members, they are likely to be beaten and abused if not abandoned. Abandonment often means drug abuse and prostitution. Sometimes, lesbian women are forced by their families to consult a doctor, a process which can involve agitation and trauma. There have been cases where a lesbian required hospitalization after being prescribed a dangerous pill used typically for serious mental illnesses. They may even be persuaded to undergo sex-change operation, which can lead to depression, various mental and physical conditions and even suicide.
For lesbians and bisexual women, family and institutional social control may be the greatest threat to their safety and well-being. Research conducted by IRQR in last few years with Iranian lesbians indicates that their families and communities pressure them to repress their sexuality in myriad ways. Their fear of discovery is well-founded. Lesbians whose families suspect them of homosexuality may be punished. A university student in her mid-twenties in Tehran told us that she was barred from leaving their home for there months when her mother discovered she was a lesbian. After which she was under constant supervision and was prevented from communicating outside the family.
Full story on ILGA
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