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?)