I’m on a news letter mailing list for Care2Causes. What I love about it is how many different topics and stories they cover across a vast range of social world concerns. Here are a few of the ones I read in detail.

First on the agenda. Urinals shaped like a women’s mouth. Funny? Or Offensive.

I have a feeling that most people would laugh it off and say anyone offended by it is making too big of a deal. But displays like this are being protested all over the world.

As the article says:

More than 600 women are victims of sexual violence every day. We don’t need to add this “art” to the cadre of violent sexual images we see daily as if they are no big deal.

What do you think?

Next up, with all the news coverage on the BP oil spills, other similar environment spills and explosions are taking a back seat, but they’re still there.

A blowout at a shale oil well last Thursday in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, demonstrates once again, the dangerous nature of the American addiction to fossil fuels. The well shot gas more than 75 feet into the air, polluting the surrounding water and took crew just over 16 hours to control it. While in comparison, this may be nothing to the millions of barrels of oil leaking into the gulf, but it is one more example of why we need to turn to more sustainable energy sources.

The article explains a little more about what shale oil is and even mentions our Pride and Joy ( >< ) here in Canada, the Alberta tar sands.

Sheldon and Komor cited Canada’s tar sands, closely related to oil shale, production as an example. When the international community met in Kyoto to create goals to reduce GHG emissions, Canada pledged a six percent reduction by 2012. Since then its emissions have increased 26 percent, “largely as a result of tar sands productions.” Presently, Canada is one of the top emitters of GHG emissions.

If you’d like to know more about Tar Sands, here is a fantastic video that shows us why it isn’t the answer.

Oh Canada.. so misguided…

Any who moving along. In the spirit of the article I wrote this morning over coffee, here’s one more take on the Helen Thomas situation. It makes me feel a little better that the majority of articles I’ve read about this have been similar to my own thoughts.

Steve Weiss thoughtfully responds to these concerns at Mondoweiss: “Now this gutsy, plucky character who for me embodied what the real spirit of US journalism is and should be, far more than stenographers-of-power Press Corps colleagues in their prime, meets an undignified end to her career, with ignoble reactions…To the rest of the world this will just add to the perception of hypocrisy and double standards applied to people who speak up about the Israel government’s reprehensible actions. The shift of focus from the core of the issue of military occupation to an off-the-cuff remark — which I think just reflects her growing anger — will be noted.”

Turning towards another on going hot topic these days, racism.

A biracial student in an advanced honors class was removed and placed into an regular class because the teacher claimed she had allergic reactions to the girls hair product.  Is it important to note that she was the only student of color in this class? Is it also important to note that she was moved to a regular class with predominantly African American students? How must this poor girl feel? Already mixed up in a mixed up world facing social pressures to look pretty and straighten her hair.

For people who are defending the teacher, because everyone has allergies, and some people do, i will fully admit it. I’m highly sensitive to scents as well. But to those people, then my reply is this; the teacher should have handled the situation with more tact. She should have privately addressed her concerns with the Principal and the parents and given a chance to the student to change her hair product, or change the teacher even! Bah.

I don’t understand where the hate comes from in people who are racist. Is it the fear of the unknown? It is an insecurity? Is it guilt over what their ancestors have done?

I’ll end with an uplifting article written by Roger Ebert titled “How do they get to be that way?” Roger is someone who also has a hard time understanding where the hate comes from.

I believe at some point in the development of healthy people there must come a time when we instinctively try to understand how others feel. We may not succeed. There are many people in this world today who remain enigmas to me, and some who are offensive. But that is not because of their race. It is usually because of their beliefs.

That brings me back around to the story of the school mural. I began up above by imagining I was a student in Prescott, Arizona, with my face being painted over. That was easy for me. What I cannot imagine is what it would be like to be one of those people driving past in their cars day after day and screaming hateful things out of the window. How do you get to that place in your life? Were you raised as a racist, or become one on your own? Yes, there was racism involved as my mother let the driver wait outside in the car, but my mother had not evolved past that point at that time. The hard-won social struggles of the 1960s and before have fundamentally altered the feelings most of us breathe, and we have evolved, and that is how America will survive. We are all in this together.

But what about the people in those cars? They don’t breathe that air. They don’t think of the feelings of the kids on the mural. They don’t like those kids in the school. It’s not as if they have reasons. They simply hate. Why would they do that? What have they shut down inside? Why do they resent the rights of others? Our rights must come first before our fears. And our rights are their rights, whoever “they” are.

(ps. this should have been posted on the 9th!)

In light of the recent witch hunt against Helen Thomas, I’ve been thinking a lot about hypocrisy lately. I’ve been thinking about what people can and can not say.

How can we accept Rand Paul, an elected official talking about how he would have fought against the civil rights act that granted all people equal rights? And how can we have a journalist talking about how businesses have the right to discriminate and be racist and it barely breaks the media sound barrier?

How can we accept Fox News at all? And the racist, sexist and homophobic likes of Glen Beck/Sarah Palin/Bill O’Reily and so on?

How can we have an ex-president of the United States opening talk about the use of torture in an un-apologetic way, stating he would use it again and I only saw it on a few news site? He calls it a “dunk in the water”.  I’d love to see someone water board Bush and then we’ll see if he can talk about it in such a glib manner.

How can we live in a world where a Prince of England can make racist and homophobic comments and at worst, get sent to a “diversity camp”?

On May 4th, Democracynow! had an exlusive interview with Jeremy Scahill, who obtained a rare audio recording of a recent, private speech delivered by Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, to a friendly audience in January.

The audio also reveals Prince at his best, offering himself up as a cultural imperialist. When asked if he ever worried about not having protection under the Geneva convention, Prince replied: “Absolutely not, because these people, they crawled out of the sewer and they have a 1200 AD mentality. They’re barbarians. They don’t even know where Geneva is, let alone that there was a convention there.”

And nothing has come of these recordings. In fact, this story received the least amount of press of any of the incidents I’ve linked above.

All of these are just a few small examples of the kind of disgusting hypocrisy that exists. These hateful men and women can cry “free speech” and incite hatred and violence at will, but an 89 year old women with a career spanning decades in which she was the very example of journalistic integrity can’t share her thoughts? For her comments she deserves to be smeared and her life long work dismissed?

I’m not condoning what she said, but neither am I judging her. I’ve spent less than a year fully immersed in the news informing myself about the situation in the middle east and I get so worked up I can barely stomach the Israeli Propaganda machine so apparent in the main stream media. After 60 years of watching this happen, and alone standing against the darkness searching for truth, can you really blame her? The whole of Israel didn’t even exist when she was born. It was a country called Palestine. And over the last 60 years it has been taken over and the original inhabitants violently uprooted. And that is fact. That’s not me being anti-semitic. That’s the truth.

I’m surprised at how many people are not aware of how Israel came to be. I meet a lot of people and in discussion, their knowledge of the situation somehow begins with Arabs attacking the Jewish State. I show this map to people, and i can see them looking at it in confusion. How did the little the colors completely flip?

I look at this map… and I can’t understand how they world thought it was ok to give a whole country away to a group of different people. And not only that, but to leave the occupiers in charge of the remaining inhabitants to use them, and abuse them and take everything they have.

If any other group of religious people, Wiccan’s for example, wanted to move to a piece of land dear to them, (let’s say Scotland for example), kick out all the original inhabitants, create their own state and then violently occupy the rest, the world would freak out. Just reading that sentence is laughable. No one would even seriously consider the example. But that is exactly what happened here.

What is with the iron clad grip that Israel holds on the world? And isn’t it about time we start questioning it?

..is sit in awe at the horrific state of the world when I read the headlines for the days news.

Starting close and personal, last night at eight o’clock, a young teenage boy was stabbed at the bus stop in front of my work place.   He died a few hours later.  As I walked into work today, listening to music and bopping along, I didn’t even notice the flowers taped to the tree marking the spot where he was so brutality attacked.  The man who did the stabbing apparently turned himself into the authorities right after his actions.  There is no news as to whether he knew his victim or whether it was a random act of violence.

Thinking about this most recent attack so close to home, and thinking about the brutal string of killings that took place in the UK just recently, along with the brutal killings in China, and the brutal killings on Flotilla… leads me to the inevitable conclusion that this whole world is fucked.  I don’t like to use swear words but really, what else sums it up?

I’ve just finished reading a few pages of comments from the  link i posted just above for the taxi driver,  and you know what disgusts me most? How the stories of the people involved in that have taken a back seat to pro-gun enthusiasts bickering about gun laws.  I see the same old “gun’s don’t kill people, people kill people” nonsense.  I think a better phrase is;  Maybe Guns don’t kill people, but people with GUNS kill people.  I get so annoyed when people point out that some murderers use axes or pencils.  That’s true, but the one BIG difference is that axes and pencils have a primary purpose.  Axes chop down wood, pencils write on paper.  The primary purpose of a gun is to kill people or animals, and it performs that purpose really well.

You know what I’m in favor of? (Besides my number one choice of throwing all guns and weapons into a deep dark pit)

Replacing all bullets with tranquilizers.

Why hasn’t that been considered? With how many accidental deaths that happen in war, on civilians, in the line of fire and so on, knocking someone unconscious seems like a fantastic solution.

Ok, enough of that side track.

Back to the articles of the day!

Naomi Klein, one of Canada’s finest has written an article about the American student who had her eye shot out from an Israeli tear gas projectile.

This photograph, she says, of Emily Henochowicz’s bandaged face needs to be seen by the world.

Like many of us around the world, Henochowicz, a 21-year-old Cooper Union art student, joined protests on Monday against Israel’s outrageous attack on the humanitarian flotilla. But unfortunately, the protest Emily attended was in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and like so many protests in the West Bank, it was violently attacked by the IDF.

According to a report from the International Solidarity Movement, Emily was “hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today.” Sören Johanssen, a Swedish activist standing beside Henochowicz, reported that, “They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.”

Emily is a beautiful artist, who is clearly influence and feels strongly about social injustice. She’s an inspiration to all of us, who stand for light against the dark. Let’s hope she recovers quickly and returns home safe and sound.

Naomi ends by saying this:

She devoted her life to seeing, to witnessing. And for this she lost her left eye.

We owe it to Emily to look at her tragedy—both its physical and its metaphorical implications—as hard as we possibly can.

This is exactly what I mean, when I say that the least, the very least we can do, is bear witness to what is happening in the world. Take it into ourselves, and think about it. Look at how it makes you feel, and don’t be afraid to face the darkness.

This line of thinking leads perfectly into the next article I want to discuss.

Should you shut up about human rights abuses because they are happening far away, to people you don’t know, who have a different culture or colour or creed? There is now a growing movement across the world saying that, yes, empathy should be cauterised at national borders.

If anyone is still reading my blog by now, will you be surprised to learn that I disagree?

In the immortal tone of Cenk, “Of cooooooourse” they want to stop human rights groups from having an opinion across borders. World wide mobilization is the only way to achieve change for those suffering under an oppressive regime. When the government acting out the abuses censor their journalists with gag orders and lock up their progressive activists, who else will carry the mantle? Who else will hear the voices that are struggling past the silence? Groups that make it their business to know. The author cites examples of how governments are trying to end human rights groups work in Israel, Ethiopia and Honduras.

Half a world away, in Honduras, the same arguments are appearing, with the same motives. A year ago, President Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped and forced out of the country by a far-right military clique after making the mistake of mildly redistributing the elite’s wealth to the poor. Fake elections were then held, boycotted by more than half of the population. Now the members of the peaceful National Front of Popular Resistance are being mysteriously murdered across the country, along with the journalists who try to document these crimes.

For a long time I’ve wondered why the differences that divide us (skin color, religion etc), make such a difference to us when we all want the same things in life. Terence McKenna helped articulate it for me in his talks about how culture is not your friend. J. Krishnamurti gave it shape in my heart when he talks about the words that divide us and the fact that underneath it all, we are humans. We are the same. At the root of humanity, as David Korten has so eloquently described, we all have the same values, the same hopes, the same dreams.

The differences between cultures are less significant than what we share. No human being wants to be tortured. No human being wants to be starved. No human being wants to be imprisoned without trial or reason. Even in cultures where these acts are normalised by some, the victims still scream and beg for it to stop. In the moment the torture begins, or the cell door slams shut, the cultural difference disappears, and the basic human desire for dignity and safety is all that remains. It is universal. It is never the “culture” of a torture victim to want the torture to continue.

So as Johann Hari says….

So who are we to talk about Israel or Ethiopia or Honduras? We are humans, like them. Just as people there can – and should – oppose our Government’s crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, we should oppose their governments’ crimes against innocent people. It’s called solidarity. It’s one of the few things that can help the people of Gaza, or the women of Ethiopia, or the dissidents of Honduras now. Instead of sealing ourselves away behind cultural borders, we need more ships carrying hope to suffering strangers.

Now my question is why on earth isn’t this obvious to everyone!?

Moving to another story of The Freedom Flotilla, a man from my city of Victoria, Kevin Neish, recounts his experiences on the MV Mavi Marmara.

Neish said he was on the first deck near the stern of the vessel as the attack began and was about 15 metres from Israeli soldiers who were trying to board, using sound grenades and tear gas. He said the activists and aid workers forced them back.

He later found out that, at the same time, more commandos were rappelling from a helicopter onto the third deck near the bridge.

“When they repelled the folks down below, I understand the machine-guns on the helicopter started to shoot people on the deck,” said Neish.

“I was within 50 feet of the initial attack by the Israeli soldiers. I saw the flash grenades and the tear gas happening right in front of me, but there was no gunfire from the ship. It was attack from the Israelis. And then I was up top and from that point on, it was dead bodies of the Turks coming in and injured bodies of the Turks and the second deck mezzanine area … was literally full of wounded and dying humanitarian aid workers.”

Of course, Israel will expect us to believe their account of events, and assume that the 700 similar accounts are all incorrect. Even an ‘Al Jazeera’ reporter contradicts the official Israeli version. For me, it is important to note that he was held a fill three days before being released, even longer than the rest of the activists who were held between 24-48 hours. This, on top of the fact that all recording equipment was confiscated, and the fact that for the first 24 hours after the attack the only evidence was the information released by the IDF, tells my “spidy” senses that something is obviously up. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Israeli version is nothing but propaganda at it’s finest.

The unfortunate thing, is that it worked, on those who don’t look past the corporate media. Enough people heard the false claims that the people on board were linked with Al Qaeda that the damage was done. Despite the fact that the IDF posted a retraction a few days later, there are now swarms of people who are convinced it was all a group a terrorists. Muslim bashing and hate talks permeate the internet and air waves… and my points that the convoy was made of Parliament members, diplomats, Noble Peace Prize winners, and peace activists fall on deft ears. The only people who believe me are the small % of people who choose to be informed. Everyone else can’t possible be wrong! Bah.

Anyways, I should probably end here.

On a final note, my friend Billy posted this article about the term Feminist on his Facebook and it started a little thread about terms. This is my comment in reply.

I don’t know what term describes me best really. I’m so far out here on the left even progressives look at me askance sometimes. I can’t understand how it’s 2010 and we’re still fighting against racism, sexism, homophobia, and everything else in the world. And there’s so much to take issue with, where does one even start? Some days I rant about violence against women, whether it be domestic violence here in Canada, or acid attacks in Bangladesh. Some days I rant about Palestinians living under a cruel and inhuman occupation. Sometimes I rant about corporate influence on a global scale that’s pretty much the cause of the astronomical amount of poverty in the world. Most days I rant about it all in one breath. So for me, the term feminist is almost too limited. Because yah, I’m a feminist, I’m a humanist, I’m a socialist, I’m an equalist, I’m an “everything and the kitchen sick”-ist? ~_~