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).