Tag Archives: Human Rights

My Computer and War in Africa

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It takes a lot of seimi-precious metal to make up the portable electronics devices we treat as throw away, and much of it comes from the more war torn corners of our planet. So this article from Time Magazine was food for thought.

When the film Blood Diamond came out in 2006, people were startled at the alleged origins of the precious stones from areas of bloody conflict and began asking whether the jewels on their fingers cost a human life. Will consumers soon find themselves asking similar questions about their cell phones and computers?
In a report released earlier this week, Global Witness claims that multinational companies are furthering a trade in minerals at the heart of the hi-tech industry that feeds the horrendous civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). (Global Witness is the same nongovernmental organization that helped expose the violence that plagues many of the sources of diamonds.) However, the accused companies, with varying degrees of hostility, deny any culpability, saying Global Witness oversimplifies a complex economic process in a chaotic geopolitial setting.
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Read more in the piece by Elizabeth Dias, on Time.com. The Global Witness report, Faced with a Gun, What Can You Do? is also available online.

A Good Article on Liz Cheney and Her Criticism of Obama on Foreign Policy

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Well this is comforting.  In my RSS feed from The Guardian I found this article by Matthew Harwood analyzing another article by Liz Cheney, daughter of the former Vice-President, criticizing recent speeches made by President Obama on US relations with the rest of the world.  Apparently Cheney has declared herself open to running for political office and it appears her philosophies are very close to those of her father.
So to the extent that familiarity is comforting and better the devil you know than the devil you don’t, we’ll have the possibility of a continuing dynasty including both the Bush girls AND the Cheneys!  Well, at least it will be progress in that the heirs to the dynasty will be women.
Cheney sees the view in simple us v. them terms, just like her father.  Harwood explains,

Her argument is as simplistic as it is ridiculous: Obama doesn’t spread the myth of American exceptionalism and thus engages in historical revisionism, which emboldens our enemies and hurts America. A high-level official in the Bush state department and a ferocious defender of her father’s legacy, Cheney sees Obama’s recent speeches in Trinidad and Tobago, Cairo and Moscow as either “an attempt to push ‘reset’ – or maybe to curry favour” with our enemies.
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According to Cheney, Obama should tell our adversaries:
“America was an unmatched force for good in the world during the cold war. The Soviets were not. The cold war ended not because the Soviets decided it should but because they were no match for the forces of freedom and the commitment of free nations to defend liberty and defeat communism.”

I won’t go on.  Harwood’s article is the thing to read.  It’s good.

A Good Month for Twitter

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Here’s a great collection of posting about Twitter. In part because of the role it played in the crisis in Iran, it is suddenly being talked about everywhere. The Social Networking Weblog has consolidated a lot of the coverage in one posting. mouthsofthesouth.com side effects viagra Kamagra Oral Jelly is one of these well-known treatments that are used when dealing with male impotency. Online stores levitra prices mouthsofthesouth.com which sell forzest are very secure resources for buying these pills at very inexpensive and cheap prices. Always remember that this condition is unavoidable and it is up to the patients to continue with intercourse as long vardenafil cost as they want. I can’t even inform you the number of people I hear from due to this very concern. generic viagra store The most interesting perspective is Iran: Just What Twitter Needed?
Of course what all this coverage of Twitter and other social networking sites is neglecting is the large number of Farsi/Persian social networking sites. But that is for another post.

Amnesty Details Violations in Gaza Assault

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This article from the Financial Times, summarizes the findings of an Amnesty International report on the Israeli invasion of Gaza in January. It is a must read.
The Israeli invasion into Gaza was launched in response to the launching of Qassam rockets into Israel by Hamas.  The report sternly denounces these attacks and

urges Hamas to renounce its policy of unlawful rocket attacks against civilian population centres in Israel and to prevent other armed groups from carrying out such attacks.

While the rockets have killed less than 20 people in Israel, the psychological effect and destruction of property has been devastating. Moreover, the rockets have no guidance system and can only be lobbed indiscriminately, recklessly endangering civilians.
But the bulk of the report’s criticism is directed at Israel for its excessive use of force. It is worth quoting Amnesty’s statement regarding the report at some length.

The scale and intensity of the attacks on Gaza were unprecedented. Some 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians who took no part in the conflict were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.
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Amnesty International found that the victims of the attacks it investigated were not caught in the crossfire during battles between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces, nor were they shielding militants or other military objects. Many were killed when their homes were bombed while they slept. Others were sitting in their yard or hanging the laundry on the roof. Children were struck while playing in their bedrooms or on the roof, or near their homes. Paramedics and ambulances were repeatedly attacked while attempting to rescue the wounded or recover the dead.
“The deaths of so many children and other civilians cannot be dismissed simply as ‘collateral damage’, as argued by Israel,” said Donatella Rovera. “Many questions remain to be answered about these attacks and about the fact that the strikes continued unabated despite the rising civilian death toll.”
More than 3,000 homes were destroyed and some 20,000 damaged in Israeli attacks which reduced entire neighbourhoods of Gaza to rubble and left an already dire economic situation in ruins. Much of the destruction was wanton and could not be justified on grounds of “military necessity”.

The Israeli Army has rejected the report saying it is “unbalanced, and wrongly interprets the law of wars.”
The full text of the report can be downloaded here (PDF).

Moroccan court jails critic of govt drugs policy | World | Reuters

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The progress Morocco has made on human rights an respect for freedom of expression since the death of Kind Hassan II is truly remarkable, but there are times when it slides back and it remains a state in which, ultimately, the monarchy retains ultimate power.  But an article from Reuters on June 24 reporting on what certainly seems to be one of those steps backward.
Chakib El Khayari, a critic of Morocco’s anti-drug policies who alleges corruption in their enforcement, was jailed for three years.

The Casablanca criminal court … said Khayari deposited money in foreign banks without the authorisation of Morocco’s Exchange Office.
“The accused is also suspected of taking sums of money from foreign parties for leading a media campaign aimed at damaging and discrediting efforts deployed by the Moroccan authorities in the fight against drug trafficking,” said MAP.

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An campaign has been launched to secure El Khayari’s release, and information can be found at Freechakib.com.  A report by Human Rights Watch is available online.