End of Summer

Hey everybody,
I'm sure some of you are already in school, but I'm still at home waiting to go overseas. How is everyone? cheers

Field Trip

For all of you who didn't make the field trip...it was an interesting dialogue between the film maker and author of Standard Operating Procedure who were both being interrogated by a British person.  All three had egos that could be felt from the back row.  The author, Philip Gourevitch, articulated his argument much better than the over-weight Errol Morris who casually peppered his speech with pithy statements(questions) like "Now the question remains, was this a war on terror ...or a war of humiliation?" Not that 'war on terror' is a good description of whatever the fuck we're in Iraq for but I'm fairly certain we didn't invade an already turmoil ridden country in order to strip people of their steadily diminishing dignity. The Bush regime is stupid, not sadistic. 

Also, there was a haggard looking, violently irritating middle aged man seated diagonally to our left who clapped every five minutes. Loudly. Obnoxiously. He should have been tortured. 

I think this is sort of off topic but it does pertain to human rights...this guy had been storing his daughter in his basement after convincing his wife that she had run away. he was using her as a sex slave. they had 4 kids. the oldest one, 19, contracted some sort of sickness that demanded hospital care...going to the hospital was the first time she had seen the light of day. and then he was caught, obviously. 

thats really, really fucked up. 

Questions for Errol Morris

Hello- I stumbled accross the following interview with Errol Morris this morning, and thought I would include to provide a preview for what we might see on Tuesday. http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002873 The questions are informative and help to form an idea of Morris' intentions in making the film, and his general philosophy... Yes, is another Harper's link; if you didn't check the last one out: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/05/0082030 a tight ditty about 'SOP' and E.M.
Though I don't know the specifics of the forum that we are planning on attending, it might be cool if we could all brainstorm our own questions. Though this might be difficult to do without seeing the film--just a thought.

Again the Harper's account info is Gawainlefras, password: hosiery

Abu Ghraib Photos prison photos

This is a link that I found that has the photos for the Abu Ghraib prison torture, some of the photos are pretty disturbing but would be a great topic of debate on either the blog or in class.  http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=8560.

justice dept justifies interrogation w/out geneva convention

This article from The New York Times, which discusses interrogation techniques outlined by the CIA, was published on Sunday. "Letters Give CIA Tactics a Legal Rationale" focuses on the ability of the executive branch to step outside the bounds of the Geneva Convention. The letters which were sent from the Justice Dept to Congress on March 5 clarifies "that the administration has not drawn a precise line in deciding which interrogation methods would violate that standard, and is reserving the right to make case-by-case judgments."

This article which is very relevant to what we've been discussing and is similar to what is being discussed in the Ethics of Torture is very interesting. In tonight's reading (The Ethics of Torture) the reader is told of ways in which the government might try to take advantage of their ability to ignore the Geneva Convention and human rights laws, and with these letters you can see it happening and how the government is trying to justify it. I really recommend this to anyone who found the ethics of torture very interesting.

Guantanamo Bay pics

After researching for Guantanamo bay information i found this site with pictures of Guananamo bay and what the prision looks like. None of the pictures show faces of people but shows what cells look like etc. Check it out, it looks pretty bad.

http://www.theatlantic.com/slideshows/guantanamo/

Just so everyone knows...if you feel like posting about Women in the US Military Draft, go to Goodwins Post below this and check out the comments....it sort of started there rather than in a new post. 

The Fog of Abu Ghraib

Hi all-
Although the status of the proposed field trip is not final, I think a little pre-reading about "Standard Operating Procedure" would not be overly prudent. I know what you're thinking: "Goodwin, where could we find such information on the film?" Well, I found a really interesting review of the film, including analysis of the film maker's, Errol Morris', in depth of the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib. The review is entitled "The Fog of Abu Ghraib: Errol Morris and the 'Bad Apples'" by W.J.T Mitchell, and is on page 81 of the May's Harper's magazine. A copy can be located in the library or online at http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/page/0083. From the review, "SOP" sounds amazing (mind the political bias) and hope that this trip comes through.
Cheers.

Pope Speaks Out in NY

The NY Times reported on Pope Benedict XVI's speech on Friday in which he insisted that human rights must be the basis for ending war and poverty. This speech which took place before the General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York took the tone of the Pope's other references to human rights issue in the fact that he made no specific references to human rights violations. In one of his most striking points the Pope said that, "every state has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights." The importance of this point lies in the UN General Assembly's current deliberation over whether or not they want to instate the right of the outside world to intervene in situations where nations fail to shield their own citizens from atrocities. I thought this article was really interesting because of the way the Pope used his power to speak not to speak to the general public about this issue, but because he took it straight to the UN. I'm very interested to see what effect his words have on their upcoming decisions.

"In Speech Pope Urges Promotion of Human Rights"

article

i didn't find any article that gives me strong feeling but i found an article that was about a seemingly korean professor's opinion and skimmed it. One interesting point he made was that "the laws didn’t apply to Mr. Bush because he is commander in chief." and i thought it's a disputable point even if i don't really care whether law should apply or not.

The url is
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/opinion/04fri1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Guantanamo Bay

Omar Khadr, a 21, detained in Guantanamo bay has been there since 2002 when he was 15 years old. He is a canadian citizen who was accused of war crimes in Afghanistan. Omar was charged of alleged murder for throwing a grenate at a US sargent as well as consiracy, providing support for terrorism and spying. Since 2002 he has had abusive interrogations and been through solitary confinement. He said that he was "shackled in painful positions, threatend with rape and used as a human mop". Most children at Guantanamo have been given basic rights such as rights to special housing and education, but Khadr has had no access to education or other rehabilitation assistance. Khadr's legal counsel will argue against the US commisions and are trying to have his trial moved to a international tribunal. For more check the article....

Election 2008, woohoo

Hi all; For those of you prolonging the homework assignment due tomorrow, I recommend the following websites to help lighten your load. While it is always possible to manually scroll through each candidates websites, (i.e. http://www.barackobama.com/index.php, http://www.hillaryclinton.com/?splash=1, or http://www.johnmccain.com/) finding a brief and accurate synopsis on specific issues can be somewhat difficult. Obama's "A Blueprint for Change" is 64 pages long! As such, I have found what I feel the is the best website for a side by side comparison on candidates and issues of their respective candidacies. Check out http://www.globalsolutions.org/08orbust/compare that has an awesome comparison tool for up to three candidates (the website still includes 21 candidates from January) on issues including Darfur, International Criminal Court/Criminal Law, Iraq, Millennium Development Goals, Iraq, Torture, and the United Nations. Barack 2008! Cheers.

Olympics Controversy

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/09/torch.protest/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

This is an interesting article about the Olympics. I dont know if anyone has been following the current debate and protests with the Olympics but i personally think that it is ironic because the Olympics are supposed to be something of unity and they are just causing a lot of protest, arguments and upset.

Infidel

Over spring break I read the book Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a target for terrorists and has to have body gaurds follow her around after writting this book and The Caged Virgin. The book is so controversal because she questions her religion, in the Quran it says that men and women are equal however from her experiences she notices that this is not true. A female can not get in a taxi or buy something at the market unless a male is present, her and her family were stuck at an airport because security wouldn't let them leave unless a male was there with them. It was very interesting and I learned a lot of things about Islam. For instance men and women usually live in seperate parts of a house. They do not eat or pray together. It also helped me with my blaine, she was genitally mutilated by force when she was five years old. I would recomend this book to everyone in the class, it was very interesting to hear her life story and her views today.

Torture

In the current section on war and things surrounding conflicts I think it is important to discuss the subject of torture during wartime.  Recently there has been a lot of heated debate on the issue and whether it should be used as a way to gain intelligence in situations of national security.  The decision to no longer use a technique know as water boarding was recently overturned by the White house and is now considered acceptable under the circumstances of danger to national security.  This I think is a good decision because in the International Declaration of Human Rights it states that everyone should uphold their own rights as long as they do not infringe on others.  In this case I think that it is nessecary for governments to use torture in the situation that the tortured person has intelligence that could be used to help keep the rights of the general population secure.  Therefore I think that in these cases torture should be allowed.

FIJI

This is completely random besides being related to human rights. The other day in aesthetics Mr. Greenwood brought up a current human rights issue in Fiji. Apparently in the last six years there has been a major upheaval in government- the old one was overthrown and the new government is highly predjudiced against all non-Fiji natives or natural citizens. A friend of Mr. Greenwoods- a student- was the only one in her family who was allowed to leave the island as new laws were created preventing non-natives from owning buisnesses, then aquiring more property, then owning any at all, then taking money out of the bank etc, to the point where her family and thousands of other non-natives are literally trapped, both physically and financially. Just something to call attention to, especially since it just illuminates how oblivious we can be to other parts of the world. I had absolutely no idea that this was going on, and it has all been in the last six years. 

Writing Conference Schedule

Please post a comment claiming the time you would like. All conferences will take place in Burton unless you and I agree otherwise. I have some unanticipated conflicts this week, so I am less available than I had hoped I would be -- as a result, I have made our normal class time available for two conferences. Those of you who can schedule your conferences during free periods, please do so! Everyone should please show up at some point during Monday long period to pick up the reading and new syllabus.

Monday, 4/7
8:30 am Molly
9:15 am Goodwin
1:25 pm Nick

Tuesday, 4/8
Connell off campus

Wednesday, 4/9
1:00 pm
1:45 pm
2:30 pm
3:15 pm

Thursday, 4/10
8:30 am
9:15 am Leisy
2:15 pm Jane
3:00 pm
3:45 pm
4:30 pm Will
5:15 pm Devin
9:15 pm Anna
10:00 pm Beau

Friday, 4/11
3:15 pm Brian
4:00 pm Phoebe
4:45 pm Isabel
5:15 pm Hannah

Geneva Conventions

The idea of having a support system for all wounded soldiers is not exactly out of the box thinking, but the fact that this guy Henry Dunant came up with the idea in 1859 is pretty revolutionary. The Red Cross is a pivotal support system in war zones because if all those wounded and sick go untreated, the death tolls in war zones would be much more extensive. I think the most important aspect of the Geneva Conventions, however, is the recognition of all those affected by war who do not participate in the hostilities (civilians). It is important to protect the rights of civilians and do as much as possible to keep them safe from the hostilities because they already have some of the liberties taken away by war time.

war pictures

If anyone is interested, here is the link to an article about the pictures we discussed in class today. It turns out the pictures were published on the cover. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4964024/


also, here are the links to the actual pictures. at least two of them.

http://www.apfn.org/APFN/soldiers-coffins.jpg

http://slapnose.com/images/blog/0404/0404_coffins400x496.jpg

I think that it is a good thing they were published. They depicted the truth (anti-war and/or memorial).

Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq

So at the end of the reading there were suggestions for the government of iraq, the military forces, and the NGO's that are involved in the country, and as nice as all of these suggestions were, I found them to be rather unfeasible. I mean first, what government of iraq? and how much respect will the troops really gain for the citizens and their property and "essential infrastructure".

Also did anyone else hear about how mccain confused sunni and shite in a speech last week in iraq??? (what?)

In Class Thingy

Hey guys, so I guess no one really seemed too motivated about returning to discussion on the wiki. It also appears that little discussion has occurred on the blog as well. Below is the proposed draft resolution 2.1 which we will be voting on today:

The Asian Summit on the Rights of Women and Children,

Recognizing the growing issue of both human trafficking and prostitution that exist in high frequencies throughout greater Asia;
Noting with great concern the colossal violation on human rights that has for too long been ignored by members of the international community;
Hoping to bring an end to the gross injustice that is human trafficking and prostitution;
Calls for the stricter enforcement of international borders, so as to reduce the number of trafficked humans;
Declares prostitution as illegal and a punishable offense;
Proposes internationally adopted ‘zero tolerance policies’ that will address the
issue of human trafficking and prostitution with judicial zeal;
Stresses the need for better and more consistent education for women, in hope that more educated women will be at less of a risk for human trafficking and exploitation;
Suggests the implementation of a system aiding the safe deportation of previously trafficked person, current illegal aliens, to their country of origin;
Suggests further, as part of the previous clause, that rehabilitation and reeducation facilities for victims of human trafficking and similar exploitation be instituted in countries of destination.

If there is something you want to add or remove, either post it (boost your online grade) or just bring it to class. I have enjoyed doing this mock summit meeting so far, although I think it would have been better if the summit was our only academic focus and we could likewise divert all our time and efforts to it rather than give it a small fraction of our efforts like we have been doing. I think this week has been crazy for all of us, and the product of our labors for this summit is not equal to that which we are capable of given rest and reliquished of stress. Nonetheless, it has been a good show and I look forward to our next one.

wiki?

we arent posting on the wiki are we? i cant find anyone's post?

Children & Poverty

An interesting Op-Ed piece appeared in the New York Times this morning, responding to a new study that shows the long-term developmental effects of poverty on children. I'd be interested to know, does this new science affect how we think about the American ideal of social mobility? What new problems does this raise for the improvement of education in developing nations, where poverty rates are much higher?

Dut Deng's Visit

I would just like to thank all of those who got Dut Deng to our campus. I really enjoyed his speech and what he had to say last night in school house. I think the entire school reacted very well to the whole situation and seems like everyone is willing to help him. Now that everyone has a taste of what is going on in Sudan i think it would be a good idea to do another fundraiser for Sudan, instead this time we support Dut Deng and his clinic. I would be willing to help with this one of someone would like to help me organize it. Maybe a jeans day or something this spring?? If anyone has any ideas let me know. I feel that the campus would be much more supportive now that they have met an actual lost boy. Again thanks to those who brought Dut Deng.

Children's Rights

Seriously great link. If you need any information about children's rights anywhere in the world basically you can find it here. Stumbled on it...really good resource.

CRIN: Child Rights Information Network

One Child Policy

Though I have not quite yet decided what position to take on the one-child policy, there are a few problems with it that the article did not address that I feel should be brought up and considered.

1. wouldnt the increase of unregistered females in the create an idyllic setting for trafficking and prostitution? just to tie it into our other discussion--

2. it even further degrades the status of women in the country, as they are hidden away as babies for not being the 'correct' or more desireable gender.

3. if the policy is not phased out and a serious shortage of labor occurs in the next few decades, wouldnt that put children as well as the already endangered elderly, at risk? the children may have to begin working at a younger age in order to make up for the deficiency, and care for the elderly would rapidly decline. (if you wanted to take the other position though, i suppose you could argue that people could go to china to find jobs, though that could mean a potentially harmful influx of immigration and an entierly different set of problems that encompass that issue)

just some things to thinkk about.

Cognative Dissonance and the Hypocrisy?

On Thursday I made the argument that it was a waste of an education for women to recieve graduate and postgraduate degrees if they are don't actualize their training in the work force. Now granted: I know I am wrong. I do recognize the contribution of women both in the economic sphere as well as in the domestic. I also recognize that these spheres are equally valuable, and are all too often separated in conversational topics. Childcare is equally valuable to any other profession. I wholly accept this. Furthermore, I understand an education is a safety net that grants women indepedence from a spouse; also recognizing that women are not always mothers and can work both before and after children. My problem lies deeper than this in a set of cultural baggage that I didn't know I had. Growing up, every friends mom and evey woman to drive me in a car pool had at least a B.A. and often a graduate degree in business of law. Having seen this since early childhood, I subconsciously formed the opinion that these women were not actualizing their capabilities as many of them now with grown children do not work. Greenwich has scarred me, I'm sure in more ways than this. The reason this really troubled me is because I intend to receive a higher education and also intend to have children whom I intend spend significant time raising. Thusly, I asked myself "if I feel this way, am I not viewing my future education as a waste?-- at what point would it be a waste? am I a hypocrit?" I spent half of class on Thursday thinking about this, and after class asked G, what's the deal with my head. She used the term 'cognative dissonance' to describe my apparent incogruity in beliefs. Since then, I've a little research on cognative dissonance and think it is an interesting psychological theory that is relative to the study of human rights, especially in our class. Furthermore, I propose that we discuss 'CD' at some point or if not everyone should at least investigate it for themselves.
Regards, Lefras

Class Recently

I think right now it is more important to talk about the dynamic of our class. There are clearly three distinct groups of people with differing thoughts. Two groups with conflicting ideas and one with more neutral thoughts. I would say that the last three consecutive classes that I have come to, I have left in a furious frenzy because of conflicting ideas. I take responsibility for being a part of the conflicts and I think others should take responsibility as well. If this continues I think everyone will dread coming to Human Rights, and I personally don't want to dread going to a class for the rest of the year. Furthermore, we've been talking about the same idea from different angles which I think only perpetuates the conflict. Our efficiency in reaching some sort of resolution on the topics we talk about has dropped dramatically and now all we do is take shots at each other. I think we should stop having debates because we never reach any kind of practical solution. I'd like to hear what other people think we should do because I don't have a solution to this... I just know there's a problem. Cheers.

Thursday's heated debate

After leaving class, I hod to collect my thoughts and think about how to formulate a response. One thing that I feel is that forcing a belief, no matter western or anything, is not the place for US. If you look into the United States history, our last few wars have been over spreading our beliefs into another culture, therefore affecting their traditions. The current war in Iraq, i don't need to make an argument saying that this war has not been a victory, because it has not been. We are fighting a different culture and trying to change their traditions in order to match ours. The Vietnam war: USA vs. Communism. WWII is a wash because it was us protecting human rights. Persian Gulf was us defending another country after an invasion, and for oil. For these reasons I am not in support of the United States affecting another countries traditions. Correct me if I am wrong, but religious extremists in the Middle East resent the United States', and the rest of the west, involvement in their society. I don't want people around the world to be killed innocently because we changed their culture. Women's education is a great cause, but I feel protection of our people matters as well.

P.S. I'm sure this will generate some heat, bring it baby

Resources for Essay

In responce to Leisy, i found some good stuff on womens rights. If you go to Americanprogress.org you will find plenty of articles on womens rights. Also if you google 'statistics on women working' the first link will take you to the U.S department of Labor, Womens bureau site which has good facts. I dont have much on children yet and if anyone has good links for those sites it would be great. Thanks

Paper due Thursday

I was wondering if anybody has found a source that has good statistics on Women's and Children's rights...
I Kind of found one it looks like it has a lot...but i am not very good at browsing around the website. So if anyone finds anything good please let me know! THanks
and here is mine...
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/asp/user/list.asp-ParentID=60.htm

Athletic Program Cuts in Public Schools In New York

I remember that in class we had a discussion about how horrible the quality of facilities are in New York City public school. This discussion developed into one about the different oppurtunities that one can get by either going to a public school or a private school, and so I followed this up by looking up articles on this and came across this article in the New York Times on the struggling athletic programs in the New York city public schools. This I thought was a good example of how public schools are actually struggling to offer extracirriculars, and something should be done to change this. This is the link: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D91131F936A25752C0A96F958260

Diversity in Public Schools

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E6DD113AF930A25752C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

My article talked about a problem within New Lebenon Elementary school, a public school in Byram, CT. There is an issue with this school in specific becuase the state requires there to be a certain amount of diversity within every school of that district. Becuase new lebanon elementary has 52 percent minority, there is possibility that it could turn into a Magnet school, where kids of majority would enter the school and kids already in new lebanon elementary of minority would leave. This however could be a major violation as the Supreme court ruled that schools on the west coast could not fix schools based on race. I found this to be an interesting conflict and am not sure whether that distric should diversify the school or not.

WIC Fact Sheet

Here is your homework for Monday - thanks to Leisy for the reminder to post it.

You should bring a print or electronic copy of this document to class.

GC

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/stossel/story?id=1500338

Really good article. Its the one i talked about in class which relates to education and competition in pubic schools and more choice for parents of where to send their kids regardless of district etc. f you want we can make this just a start up post if anyone else wants to post their articles from today...

On the Legality of Prostitution (hey, am I blogging right now?)

For the purposes of making a point, I feel that prostitution should be legalized. This has quickly become a hot topic on the blog (I never knew there was so much drama on the world wide web.) I would firstly like to address the dialogue regarding the children of prostitutes. While sentiments of protecting the children of prostitutes from one day becoming prostitutes does seem noble, Beau and company, the reality of the matter is that keeping prostitution illegal is an ineffective means of achieving this. The naivety attached to this also implies that we wouldn't want the children of prostitutes becoming prostitutes. Now this is fine to say at current, when one can't legally be a ho, but were legalization to occur we would have to shed our preconcieved notions of the sex trade and begin to view prostitution as a legitimate profession, as it would in fact be legitimate. We would have to part ways with the stigma of prostitution that we are so culturally bestowed and transcend our prudent, medieval sexual ideology.(how do I post this, exactly?-- there will be more to come)

Answer to Will's Post

In answer to your question Will, I believe that in order to legitimize and clean up prostitution it is necessary to have those prostitutes that are already infected with STD's be unable to continue working in the profession. In order to do this the government should make all prostitutes go through a screening process before they are allowed to continue to work. This is how our country can insure a safer and legitimate profession.

Legalizing Prostitution

I agree with Beau's point of view and further. I think one of the greatest issues with legalizing prostitution, besides the health problems and the lack of morals, would be the issue of human trafficking. The Netherlands "promotes itself as the champion of anti-trafficking policies and programs, yet cynically has removed every legal impediment to pimping, procurement and brothels. In the year 2000, the Dutch Ministry of Justice argued for a legal quota of foreign "sex workers," because the Dutch prostitution market demands a variety of "bodies" (Dutting, 2001: 16)." (http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/issues/prostitution_legalizing.html). I think that one of the main ideas of legalizing prostitution would be to make the prostitutes seem more legitimate in this world, instead of dehumanizing themselves. However, by legalizing prostitution we know that trafficking uneducated and poor women would occur, which is an incredible level of dehumanization. Again (I made this point in class), while there would be legal prostitutes who would most likely serve the middle/upper class because the prices would most likely be increased, there would still be the presence of prostitutes that would serve the lower classes. Also, what about all the prostitutes who are already infected with STI's, what happens to them?

Syllabus

Is there any way we can get a copy of the syllabus on the blog and maybe some links like the one to the Fagan Article? That would be really helpful I think...

Prostitution

Since thursdays class discussion on Legalizing prostitution i have thought alot about if legalizing prostitution woudl really solve anything. I tryed to connect human rights to our discussion and realized that Prostitution is not just a violation of human rights for that women, but that womens child as well. I dont know the statistics but i bet a prostitutes kid is more likely to become one. THe home enviorment for the daughter of a prostitute cannot be good and i bet that they will be pressured to become a prostitute one day. Prostitution violates the daughters of prostitutes as well as prostitutes themselves.

In Class Article

I have been thinking a lot about the article. I do agree with you Devin, that it is not immoral. I think a lot of it comes down to safety. India has a much lower medical safety level than the States does. I read another article about it and a lot of women are "hiring" surrogate mothers from India because they simply cannot afford the price of it in the US.

I suppose it comes down to a freedom of choice. How far people will go and to what risks they will take to have children.

Surrogate Mother Article

I just wanted to start a thread about this article:

I think that this system, though it has its flaws, is a really interesting solution to a number of problems. I do NOT find it immoral, it is a way to provide, as the article said, much needed extra income for such things as better housing and education. It also opens up more options for parents who cannot have their own children, so really I dont see much of a problem as long as it is done properly. If the paperwork is signed, the medical care is good, especially psycological for the mother, and everyone is ok with it then it could give some really great opportunities to a number of people. so basically im for it.

Ok so the latest update on the speaker:
-We have bumped mrs meigs forward a week so Dut Leek Deng can give the chapel talk that night, it wont be very long at all but it will hopfully get people interested who can come that night to talk to him. So the plan is that earlier in the week we will show the movie and then he will arrive that night in time to give the talk, he will then come to formal dinner and afterwards we will chill, maybe in school house lobby for all of those who want to talk to him and if we get its arranged have food and treats. Then he is going to spend the night and drive back in the morning, with a nice big roll of all the cash we have raised.
-Fundraising will start just about now and anyone who want to help or who has any idea please reply to this post! we need to raise alot, as we have to send him money in advanced to rent a car and drive here.
so everything so far is going well, and hopefully it will get even better