h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm going to check out some African news sources for current information, then will post to one place or the other, depending on... well... which place I post to.

Things are looking better for Palestine & Isreal at the moment.
*cautious optimism*

We'll see.

I'm afraid that I have more caution than optimism right now. I just don't trust Ariel Sharon. I consider him a genius at inciting the Palestinian people so he can then justify his actions as "national defense."

IMHO, he is personally responsible for the intifada, which drove the country of Israel to the political right and got him elected to begin with.

http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=2003070117432391

RAMALLAH - "The Palestine National Authority (PNA) on Tuesday called on the world community to immediately intervene to stop a new Israeli settlement plan to confiscate thousands of dunums of the land from three Palestinian villages...."

"Noting that these Israeli measures came immediately following the visit by the United States national security adviser Condoleeza Rice to Palestinian Territory and Israel, he accused the Israeli government of insisting on sabotaging international efforts to revive the peace process...."

Sharon is hard to trust but so are the others. I know we cannot know all but it seems like another area where we are too focused on our (US) desires. I am sure if progress is made it will be bumpy always a step back for every 2 forward at best.

Here are a couple of rights issues-personal favorites of *?*

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16279

Measures taken by the U.S. against Arab and Muslim immigrants after 9/11 have not only failed to protect U.S. security, but may have made it more vulnerable, according to a major report released last week.


Under the reasoning of last week's decision in Overton v. Bazzetta, state corrections departments are almost entirely free to deny prisoners' visiting privileges. Because, in the Supreme Court's view, regulations meant to reduce the number of prison visitors serve the goal of promoting prisons' internal security, they merit only the most deferential scrutiny. Upheld in the Overton case was a regulation that barred prisoners who had twice committed drug infractions from receiving any family visits, including non-contact visits (where inmates see their relatives through a reinforced glass window). Other regulations that were sustained prevented inmates from receiving visits from their siblings, nieces and nephews under age eighteen, and from minors who are not accompanied by an immediate family member or legal guardian.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16278

Off to check out Amnesty Int and the link you left.

University of Washington School of Social Work, 4101 15th Ave NE, 3rd floor, Seattle, WA.
Description: Wednesday, July 9, 7:00pm --
A Radical Roadmap for Peace between Palestinians and Israelis
A critical assessment of Zionism and the Jewish state today, the Palestinian Intifada and the Bush peace plan.

Guest speakers from Ramallah and Jerusalem:
Toufic Haddad - Palestinian-American writer and organizer who was born in Kuwait and has lived in Palestine since 1997,

Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass - Longtime anti-occupation activist, sociologist, and Jewish Israeli feminist. Co-editor with Toufic Haddad of Between the Lines, a radical journal on political and social realities in Palestinian and Israeli societies.

*?* Looks worth listening to, don't know if you know people around there. I got it from the link of O above. I figure it's a long shot but worth a post. I hope the transcripts show up on the web site afterwards.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=7585&Cr=terror&Cr1=

More UN news warnings about how the fight on Terrorism is stepping on rights all over the world including US.

An amazing amount of damage was done to Palestine in 6 weeks time. Sharon claims it is a political war and politics will solve it.

From Palestinians;
Where many busineses and olive farms and newer industries were destroyed and not for the first time.

"There is no business, Everyone is cautious now. Everyone has to think not twice but 20 times before doing business in the Palestinian territories when they see this happen.... Capital is a coward."
(CSmonitor}
Economics will no doubt play a huge part in the political process.

The story of the offering stands as "the most celebrated" and "most combustible" episode. All three religions "have chosen to place the narrative of a father preparing to kill a son at the heart of their self-understanding," he says. Some Jews in medieval times even found courage in the story to kill themselves and their children rather than be forced to convert. Christians see the story as foreshadowing the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Muslims see it as symbolizing total surrender to God, and commemorate it in the Feast of the Sacrifice, the final rite of the hajj.

The most sobering question, however, is whether the offering story serves most as a model for holiness or for fanaticism. Does it play a part in today's suicide bombings? And what is the contemporary import of the Ishmael-Isaac rivalry?

This book looks interesting ,I think I'll try to get it at the library.
Abraham:A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
By Bruce Feiler
William Morrow

Sorry for all the posts,I promise I'm about done. I keep finding good things while looking for the current war stats. I will be gone in a couple days for a week or so. Some are things for me to follow-up on when I get back I hope I do not have news or h2g2 withdrawls!

Nearly two-thirds of Israelis believe that an agreement by Palestinian militant groups to end attacks on Israel for at least three months will fail within a month. A vox pop reveals that one in 10 Israelis expect the agreement to last only a week

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=2749

response to 166

Sadly, the UN Human Rights Commision is currently without credibility. They could shout pure, unvarnished *truth* and not many people would believe them, except those who wanted to hear what they were saying in any case.

Consider this. Libya... yes, *Libya,* holds the chair of that Commision.

Then there is this factually accurate from a right-wing source:

http://www.bens.org/sw_ar051702.html

The commission, which is intended to "examine, monitor and publicly report" human rights abuses, includes such not-free regimes as Communist China, with its criminal record on human rights and violent repression of religious minorities.

There are Congo and Algeria, whose security forces regularly torture and murder civilians with impunity. And Communist Vietnam, which continues to stamp out any hint of dissent.

And there is partly-free Russia, whose forces in Chechnya have killed thousands of civilians, left hundreds of thousands homeless and been accused of widespread rape and torture. Of the 10 regimes ranked worst by Freedom House, half - Fidel Castro's Cuba, Moammar Gadhafi's Libya, female-oppressing Saudi Arabia, slave-trading Sudan and terrorist-supporting Syria - have seats on the commission.

It doesn't matter how accurate the Commision's reports are. We still need to consider the source.

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Instead of watching for abuse, members once again watched one another's backs

Hello to both of you, O and Abbi, I'm not able to read and respond as quickly as before as I am reeling with the impact of what I am told I must be ready to teach come Fall. I'm attempting to get in some deep breaths, think rationally about what is on the plate and come up with a logical scheme to somehow create the tools needed to do what I must. Meanwhile there are other opportunities that entice my attention.... Life is rarely simple; it certainly is not black and white.

I've scanned quickly through you posts and am unable to resist offering my two bits. It does not matter that the commissars are less than trust worthy. Their staff may well be. Chances are there is information that is being suppressed but the information that is being shared is likely to be true if not watered down rather than the opposite. Many of the things noted about the member states are commonly held beliefs that no one has tested. Please tell me when and why did we accept these ideas as the absolute and best ways in which to understand such less-than-acceptable nation states. Many of these entities are the results of the withdrawal of political imperialism and are the viciously chewed up slaves of economic imperialism (globalization). That is not to explain away the behavior of the tyrants who rule it is to give you pause so that you may remember who it is that brought you the news about how those nation states are supposed to be and also to remember that their societies are in spite of all the oppression robust and composed of human beings who think and feel just like us. So, don't be as dismissive as you might first feel you are justified to be at first blush.

Then I will tell you a story from the very early '80s when I met an important key member of Israel's polity. I told the woman that the best solution was to aspire to a secular state in which, if the ideal could be met, no one group was ascendant. The two state solution was doomed to failure when it was first mouthed because like it or not this is a civil war with one side inordinately more powerful in every way. It is a wonder that the Palestinians insist on their right to exist given what happens to them each minute of every day.

You are also probably not aware that no Muslim prayer is complete without an entreaty that all the children of Ibrahim/Abraham are safe. Common knowledge about the aspects of these religions is often flawed. I suggest, once, again Armstrong or Esposito.

I feel myself a son of the soil because of where my parents were at the time my mother carried me just as much as a creature of the nation state where I actually drew my first independent breath. Too, I have lived and visited many places and met many people many whom I despair, sometimes very physically, I will never meet again...

The earth is the mother to all of us; perhaps it is because we continue to want to define ourselves lastly as human and first and foremost as Mr. X or Ms. Y of this or that place, may be why there is so much land grabbing, denial of rights and ever ongoing attempts at restriction of access to resources.

http://www.bitterlemons.org
http://www.blah3.com

Thank you for those links, ?. Both of those sites are now in my favorites folder.

"It does not matter that the commissars are less than trust worthy. Their staff may well be. Chances are there is information that is being suppressed but the information that is being shared is likely to be true if not watered down rather than the opposite."

Depending on which contry the information refers to, that is likely to be the case. I doubt that any of the Commission's statements are likely to actually be untrue. Given that Commission's current composition, however, it doesn't have much credibility. As I said in my earlier post, they could shout *truth* from the rooftops and be ignored. If every word coming out of that body is objectively accurate and if that body is balanced in its prioritizing of human rights issues and problems, it doesn't matter. People will still look at the Commission's composition, shrug and move on, seeking more credible sources of information.

"Many of the things noted about the member states are commonly held beliefs that no one has tested. Please tell me when and why did we accept these ideas as the absolute and best ways in which to understand such less-than-acceptable nation states."

I'd challenge the statement that no one has tested those beliefs. There are a fair number of organizations, such as Amnesty International, dedicated to the precise purpose of actively testing those beliefs and accurately reporting the outcome of that testing.

"Many of these entities are the results of the withdrawal of political imperialism and are the viciously chewed up slaves of economic imperialism (globalization). That is not to explain away the behavior of the tyrants who rule it is to give you pause so that you may remember who it is that brought you the news about how those nation states are supposed to be and also to remember that their societies are in spite of all the oppression robust and composed of human beings who think and feel just like us. So, don't be as dismissive as you might first feel you are justified to be at first blush."

I'd actually go further than saying that many of these entities are the results of the withdrawal of political imperialism... I'd say many of them are the direct result of political imperialism. How many people and organizations now considered "enemies" of The West got their initial support and training from Western intelligence and military organizations? From my perspective, tyrants is tyrants, whether they be home grown or installed from afar.

As a side issue, there have been and continue to be a fair number of artifically created countries that exist only because somebody drew some lines on a map and have no common language, no common economic life and no common culture. All too frequently, if such an artificial creation is to be called a country and is to exist under any conditions other than ongoing "civil" war, it *must* be governed by a dictator, the only other alternative being the ultimate subdivision of that country into a multitude of smaller countries that are in posession of the commonalities that make for more natural national boundries.

"The earth is the mother to all of us; perhaps it is because we continue to want to define ourselves lastly as human and first and foremost as Mr. X or Ms. Y of this or that place, may be why there is so much land grabbing, denial of rights and ever ongoing attempts at restriction of access to resources."

And here we are in complete agreement. Until such time as the leaders and inhabitants of the various nations can view themselves as humans who are of location X instead of Location Xers who are human (or simply location Xers, not considering the "human" part of enough importance to be worth mentioning) the conflict and idiocy will continue.

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http://www.muslimwakeup.com/

This is what I had been looking for before vacation
My trip was very good, glad I went.

The site is very much about looking for solutions. Very interesting on my first look ,I'll return there and try to comment soon.

Time for rest & recovery first

What a fantastic site!! I especially liked the Apartheid Israel article.

Thank you.

In return, I offer you links to some other folks who care.

Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace bloc...

http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/

And the bravest members of Israel's military are listed here...

http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp

Off topic from previous posts -still working on those
I promised not introduce another topic until commenting on the last

On matters of corporate globalization
http://www.thisishell.net/updates.html (gives wonderful current links to the below inks & favorites of mine also)
http://www.fair.org
http://www.counterspin.org
http://www.corpwatch.org

http://www.gregpalast.com (observer site,bbc)
The current program is about the secrecy of redisigning-rewriting WTO trade laws, many about reversing protective laws getting in the way of corporate progress. They discuss how the WTO likes to have their meetings places where *hippy* and the images of green haired kids break windows rioting to destruction without formal debate. That gives them the diversion they desire.

Many important decisions including these details are not available in the US. Some facts of meetings have been reported to be protected by US national security - A phrase used with increasing frequency on a wide variety of topics thanks to the Patriot Act powers. It is a friegtning provision that made *certain position & peoples* incomes illegal to report to the public. I have that somewhere in my journal.

Nations have dispersed the info (UK & Africa have )on the WTO 14 meetings and their agenda to divide the world into corporate boundaries to expand their powers and lessen their restraints.

All of the above links have info about this topic. Frieghtning stuffIt seems we are headed quickly towards rule by corps.
The natives here have been considered a corporation of sorts to be delt with.(details in Analiese journal) I recently saw another link to something becoming corporate, wish I could recall. The prisons are becoming private corporations.

About Sharons wall
"It is a tragedy for all of humanity that such forms of oppression
are done against the poor and the defenceless,
all the while the oppressor is heard and believed
as he justifies and cheats other nations and cultures.
And under the slogans of "security" and "terror" the crimes are committed.
How can people give their blessing to this oppressor,
as he acquires the financial support to establish this Wall and to commit his crime."

These are the words of the people in the district of Qalqiliya whose lives have been devastated by the transfer Wall.
Sadly these words "minus the wall" apply to many leaders and peoples.
"0" link http://www.gush-shalom.org/english

I will never forget Arafats face of glee, it's frozen in my mind. That day he was giving blood in support of America after 9-11. He was the happiest I have ever seen him. He looked more like he a martar with the priveledged golden opportunity to spill blood. I have trusted "news" translations less since that day. They said he was offering support, maybe he was.....maybe it's just a feeling and a frozen image in my mind.

The Apartheid Wall (why not call it what it is) is a truly frightening thing. I'm still amazed that the entire world didn't get up in arms when construction on that d*mned thing started. It seems to have as its real purposes 1) the theft of yet more Palestinian land 2) The creation of a segregated Palestinian community - reminiscent of Hitler's Warsaw (and other places) Jewish ghettoes and 3) The economic destruction of the Palestinian people. You'd think that Israelis, of all people, would recognize Fascism and STOP it.

Arafat *had* to enjoy to give blood after 9/11 as much as Fidel Castro *had* to enjoy offering to send observers to Florida in the event of a second balloting for the 2000 presidential election, to make sure that it would be free and fair.

Arafat and Sharon understand each other. They're cut from the same cloth.

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The "other walls" in the world have not been good news. I thought of them as something from past history,i guess not. It is a stark image of how things have not changed.

I think they do understand each other and that IS what the US does not understand!The US acts like they have a communication problem. They communicate quite clearly.

Just like couples with communication problems, they may learn to discuss more clearly and find they are at odds! No guarantee it solves anything but the communication problem.