Israeli Nuclear Whistle Blower Returned to Solitary Confinement
--Amnesty.org--
18 June 2010

Amnesty International has accused the Israeli authorities of subjecting jailed nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by holding him in solitary confinement.

The 56-year-old, who spent 18 years in prison for revealing details of the country's nuclear arsenal to a UK newspaper in 1986, was sent back to jail for three months on 23 May on charges of contact with a foreign national, and almost immediately placed in solitary confinement. Amnesty International has called for his immediate and unconditional release. "Mordechai Vanunu should not be in prison at all, let alone be held in solitary confinement in a unit intended for violent criminals," said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East Programme.

"He suffered immensely when he was held in solitary confinement for 11 years after his imprisonment in 1986 and to return him to such conditions now is nothing less than cruel, inhuman or degrading." Vanunu is held in Ayalon Prison in central Israel. His lawyer revealed to Amnesty International that he has been placed in an isolated cell, ostensibly to protect him from other prisoners. (cont...)

Peru may be a melting-pot nation, but it has deep-set racial prejudices
Page last updated at 16:42 GMT, Sunday, 13 June 2010 17:42 UK
By Dan Collyns
BBC News, Lima


There is a saying in Peru - "el que no tiene de Inga tiene de Mandinga" - which means every Peruvian has either some indigenous or African blood. It is an often-quoted proverb used to explain the country's blend of races. Racial mixing began mixing with the Spanish conquistadors who overran the Inca Empire in the 16th Century, and continued with successive waves of African slaves, indentured Chinese labourers and migrants from Japan and Europe.

The phrase speaks of a melting-pot nation but does not hint at Peru's deep-set prejudices. The country has socio-economic gaps along race lines and its inherent, if subtle, discrimination can mean an indigenous woman may only ever work as a maid; a black man may only ever aspire to be a hotel doorman. This is the kind of everyday racism which dictates the lives of many Peruvians.

Reinforced stereotypes

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to ending this racism is the fact that it is simply seen as a joke. Daniel Valenzuela foresees a day when Peru has a black president. Complain and people will chide you and ask: "Where's your sense of humour?" And, by and large, most Peruvians don't complain; they just go along with it. Racial stereotypes are reinforced on a daily basis in the media. Tabloid newspapers use crude sexual innuendo to describe a black congresswoman in a way they would not dare refer to a white member of parliament.

They compare a black footballer to a gorilla when he loses his temper on the pitch. And on prime-time Saturday night television, the country's most popular comedy programme abounds with racial stereotypes with which the audience are so familiar they scarcely question what they are watching. (cont...)

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. - Mark Twain

If desires fly by like shadows,
If vows are empty words,
Is it worth it to live in this fog of delusion,
Is it worth it to live if the truth is dead?

Does one need eternity for useless striving,
Does one need eternity for deceptive words?
What is worthy of life lives without doubts,
A higher power knows no bonds.

Knowing one's own higher power,
Why wail on about childish dreams?
Life is just an exploit, and the living truth
Shines like immortality in moldering graves.

If desires fly by like shadows
by Vladimir Solovyov

France: to deprive of citizenship for polygamy?
Tatyana Gonik
--bbcrussian.com--, Paris
Friday, June 11, 2010, 11:13 GMT 15:13 MCK

French Interior Minister Brice Hortofe promises to change the Civil Code of the country and make more flexible the deprivation of French nationality. "I will not allow any cheaters insulted all those who honestly works, pays taxes and social really wants to become a Frenchman," - said Minister of Internal Affairs. The statement was made immediately after the French began an investigation into Lesa Hebbadzhi, famed throughout the country due to the number of wives, children and the amount received Socio benefits.

35-year-old native of Algeria won the French passport 10 years ago, entered into a formal marriage with a resident of Nantes. It appears, however, that in addition to the legal spouse have Hebbadzhi there are three civilian wives who live nearby, and a total of - 13 children. Today the situation has changed somewhat: in June with many children his father was born the 14th child. (cont...)

Iran protests: One-man video channel that is a thorn in Tehran's side
Mehdi Saharkhiz shames regime with mountain of online footage showing its violent suppression of opposition
Matthew Weaver --guardian.co.uk--
Friday 11 June 2010 17.57 BST


Until his father was arrested, Mehdi Saharkhiz had little to do with Iranian politics. But since the arrest in the aftermath of the disputed elections last July, Saharkhiz, a 28-year-old graphic designer living in New Jersey, has poured all his energies into a one-man internet video channel that has captured crucial moments of the country's unrest.

Saharkhiz has become the source for dramatic mobile phone footage of the demonstrations and their violent suppression. As independent mainstream media has effectively been banned from Iran, it is these amateur clips that have perhaps best documented what has been happening in the country – and they have been a major irritant to Tehran. No one has broadcast more of these videos than Saharkhiz. Since last June's election he has uploaded more than 2,600 separate clips to his much-watched YouTube channel, onlymehdi.

Covert footage of protesters being shot, beaten, run over and executed will be significant in what happens next in Iran, he argues. "These things can't be hidden any more. People are now showing these videos to friends who don't have access to the internet. So huge numbers of people are figuring out what really happened." (cont...)

Alexandria the Farthest (Khujand, Tajikstan)
--wiki--

Alexandria Eschate (Greek Ἀλεξάνδρεια Ἐσχάτη, Latin: Alexandria Ultima, English meaning "Alexandria the Farthest") or Alexandria Eskhata was founded by Alexander III of Macedon (commonly referred to as Alexander the Great) in August 329 BCE[1] as his most northerly base in Central Asia.

The city was also located around 400 km (249 mi) west of the Tarim Basin, today's region of Xinjiang in China, where the Yuezhi, an Indo-European people were established. There are indications that Greek expeditions were led as far as Kashgar in Xinjiang. According to the Greek historian Strabo, the Greeks "extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni" (Strabo XI.II.I), possibly leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BCE.

The descendants of the Greeks in Ferghana may be the Dayuan (lit. "Great Ionians") identified in the Chinese historical record of the Han Dynasty, starting with the embassies of Zhang Qian around 130 BCE. If so, they were the actors of the first major interaction between an urbanized Indo-European culture and the Chinese civilization, which led to the opening up the Silk Road from the 1st century BCE. (cont...)

Jack Johnson, Gone

Broken Bells- The High Road

Iran executed 16 year old girl in 2008
Thursday, 27 July 2006, 19:01 GMT 20:01 UK
--bbc.co.uk--

A television documentary team has pieced together details surrounding the case of a 16-year-old girl, executed two years ago in Iran.

At the time of Atefah's execution in Neka, journalist Asieh Amini heard rumours the girl was just 16 years old and so began to ask questions. To teach others a lesson, Atefah's execution was held in public "When I met with the family," says Asieh, "they showed me a copy of her birth certificate, and a copy of her death certificate. Both of them show she was born in 1988. This gave me legitimate grounds to investigate the case."

So why was such a young girl executed? And how could she have been accused of adultery when she was not even married? Disturbed by the death of her mother when she was only four or five years old, and her distraught father's subsequent drug addiction, Atefah had a difficult childhood. She was also left to care for her elderly grandparents, but they are said to have shown her no affection.

In a town like Neka, heavily under the control of religious authorities, Atefah - often seen wandering around on her own - was conspicuous. It was just a matter of time before she came to the attention of the "moral police", a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, whose job it is to enforce the Islamic code of behaviour on Iran's streets.

Secret relationship

Being stopped or arrested by the moral police is a fact of life for many Iranian teenagers. Previously arrested for attending a party and being alone in a car with a boy, Atefah received her first sentence for "crimes against chastity" when she was just 13. Although the exact nature of the crime is unknown, she spent a short time in prison and received 100 lashes. (cont...)

TeaParty.org Founder Labels Obama With Racial Terms
Mark Potok on May 28, 2010
--splc.org--

Dale Robertson, the vitriolic founder and president of TeaParty.org, blasted out a mass E-mail today that seemed meant to convince doubters that his movement is, after all, racist at its core. Attacking President Obama for traveling home to Chicago for the Memorial Day weekend — rather than staying in Washington to lay a wreath in Arlington Cemetery as many presidents have done — Robertson falls into a string of contemptuous and racially charged terms.

Obama is going home to spend time with “his homies in the Chicago hood,” writes Robertson, who is white. The taxpayers will be footing the bill for the president to “bump and grind in the hood.” While he’s gone, Vice President Joseph Biden and his wife “will step into Obama’s sneakers” to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Obama, meanwhile, will be “shooting hoops, smoking cigarettes and goofing-off with his homies.”

Robertson, who is a contributor to the right-wing Washington Times’ “Tea Party Report” blog (and is identified there as “the Founder of the modern day Tea Party movement”), has never been a study in sensitivity. He has written that everyone who voted for the national health care reform bill is a “national socialist” — a Nazi, like those who murdered millions in the gas chambers. He says that “illegal aliens” are coming to impose socialism on the United States. But now, Robertson has gone one step further, describing Obama as the kind of person who has “homies” in the “hood,” who wears “sneakers” and “shoots hoops,” and who “bumps and grinds.” We wonder just what type of person Dale Robertson is thinking of.

Turkey's Minorities Oppressed

As we look back at the evolution of Western Philosophy towards Humanism, let us take Pico Della Mirandolla's dissertation Oration on the Dignity of Man as our starting point. Pico begins his case with a observation of man's ability to perform pious acts and acts of pure brute. When a citizens is attempting to find its way through the world of politics and social customs, the task can become rather exhilarating. A proactive approach is necessary, one should prepare themselves for the bright lights that characterize the real world of moral and ethical philosophies. We allow Pico to continue "By confirming the onslaughts of the affections by means of moral science, and by shaking off the mist of reason by means of dialectic, as if washing off the filth of ignorance and vice, let us purge the soul, that the affections may not audaciously run riot, nor an imprudent reason sometime rave. Then, over a soul which has been set in order and purified, let us pour the light of natural philosophy, that lastly we may perfect it with the knowledge of divine things." Affection and reason, tend to become diluted by ignorance and extreme tendencies. If we acknowledge these shortcomings, we are able to acheive a clear mind. This pristine level of consciousness allows you to blend the "light of natural philosophy" with the "knowledge of divine things". This is a hardy undertaking, but the fruit of the idea is found in the process itself. Learning to control your heart, your soul, your mind, for a true understanding of knowledge, wisdom, faith.

Khufiyya movement - a Chinese form of the Arabic "Khafiyya", i.e. "the silent ones" - refers to its adherents' emphasis on silent dhikr (invocation of God's name). The Khufiyya teachings were characterized by stronger participation in the society.

Ma Laichi (Chinese: 马来迟) (1680's-1760'a), also known as Abu 'l-Futūh Ma Laichi, was a Chinese Sufi master, who brought the Khufiyya movement to China and created the Huasi menhuan (Sufi order) - the earliest and most important Naqshbandi (Islamic Spiritual) order in China.

The Black Lips- Short Fuse

Stars - Set Yourself On Fire

South Africa Homeless Ignored in Wake of World Cup

Sammasambuddhas attain buddhahood, then decide to teach others the truth they have discovered.

Paccekabuddhas sometimes called "silent Buddhas" are similar to sammasambuddhas in that they attain nirvana and acquire many of the same powers as a sammasambuddha, but are unable to teach what they have discovered.

Savakabuddhas attain nirvana after hearing the teaching of a sammasambuddha (directly or indirectly). The disciple of a sammasambuddha is called a savaka ("hearer" or "follower") or, once enlightened, an arahant.

Weezer, Only In Dreams (Cowboy Bebop video)

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Chechen government had created "a climate of fear"
--bbc.co.uk/russian--
Tuesday, June 1, 2010, 05:17 GMT 09:17 MCK

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is the situation of human rights and the rule of law in the North Caucasus as "the most serious and complex" in the territories before the Council of Europe. The first conclusions of the PACE, contained in the draft resolution, which is scheduled to make in June to the summer session of the Assembly, relating to Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.

As the authors of the report, which was based on the resolution, the Chechen government support "atmosphere of fear" in the country are continuing disappearance of opposition figures and human rights defenders, and courts ignore the abuse of law enforcement agencies. All this, according to a document, accompanied by the growth and development of the personality cult that is "a shameful phenomenon in democracy."

In Ingushetia, the report drew attention to the "disturbing increase in violence since 2009, while in Dagestan - in the quickening of the attacks, which leads, according to PACE, a tough and lawless actions of the militia. (cont...)