Archive for
August 22nd, 2006


Stories

This Week In Palestine: Black & Blue

A small portrait of the translator Naseem Tarawnah · 07:37 · Middle East & North Africa

One week after the Israeli army brutally attacked a weekly non-violent legal demonstration against the wall in the village of Bil’in, August 18th saw yet another black and blue protest. ISM reports that this time the army showed a greater sense of preparation as they added water cannons to their arsenal of rubber bullets and sound grenades. The cannons fired blue colored water on the demonstrators resulting in burns and skin irritation, stirring questions of whether the water had been mixed with chemicals.

ISM Palestine
Photo courtesy of ISM Palestine

While the devastation of Lebanon continues to dominate the headlines many Palestinian bloggers such as Salah Al-Dein are saying “What about Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Territories?” Haitham Sabbah also looks at disengagement and the increase in conflict one year later. In Gaza, Sharifo says that nothing has changed: “…all the infrastructure of Gaza, one of the world's most densely-populated areas with 1.4 million residents, has been destroyed…”

Mohammad from Rafah Today is another resident blogger who has witnessed first hand the crisis taking place (more…)

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Racism in Mexican Football

A small portrait of the translator David Sasaki · 03:17 · Americas

Viewers of this year's World Cup couldn't help but notice the all out anti-racism offensive pushed by FIFA. Given the humiliations long-endured by players of color throughout Europe, the extensive campaign was seen by many as overdue.

Yet despite the newfound awareness, “unfortunately,” writes Raúl Ramirez (ES) of Isopixel, “racism has arrived to Mexican football.”

… en la primera fecha del torneo, los aficionados de Santos Laguna tuvieron algunas actitudes racistas contra el jugador panameño Felipe Baloy al anotar un gol. Un sector de aficionados hacía sonidos guturales que imitaban a un simio cuando el jugador tomaba la pelota. Lamentable sin duda.

Estos hechos pusieron en alerta a las autoridades que están tomando acciones para erradicar este cáncer, las cuáles van desde restar puntos a los equipos en cuyos estadios se den este tipo agresiones, hasta el descenso inmediato a la división inferior.

In the first day of the [Apertura 2006] tournament, the fans of Santos Laguna had some racist attitudes against the Panamanian player Felipe Baloy as he scored a goal. A section of the fans made guttural sounds imitating a chimpanzee when the player had the ball. Deplorable, without a doubt.

The slurs raised a red flag to authorities at task to eradicate this cancer, able to reduce points of the teams in whose stadiums the aggressions occur or immediately demote the club to an inferior division.

(more…)

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Extra-judicial killings in the Philippines

A small portrait of the translator Mong Palatino · 00:58 · Philippines

One of the basis of the impeachment complaint against Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is that she abetted political killings in the country.

Human rights groups have accused Mrs. Arroyo of being the worst human rights violator in the country’s modern history.

Recently, Mrs. Arroyo declared an all-out war campaign to defeat Asia’s longest-running communist insurgency. This policy led to more abduction, harassment and killing of innocent and unarmed civilians in the provinces.

Class struggle bewails the following human rights violation:

“At the top of Order of Battle (of the military) lists are members of legitimate organizations which are known for their critical outlook on the government. There is an attempt to stifle dissent by killing and abducting labor leaders and peasant community organizers.”

Anon Y. Mous is surprised why “evagelical churches are keeping silent” despite the killings in the country. Reds Care is disappointed that even members of the political Opposition also “fell prey to the government’s communist bogey.” Teridon identifies the greatest crime of the present government.

Adarna’s Attic writes about the Supreme Court resolution ordering the military and controversial Major General Jovito Palparan to produce two missing students. Solar Power also has a blog entry on the disappearance of these two young activists. Sarah Raymundo on the entry of Philippine Marines in a state university.

Carol Araullo reacts to the Amnesty International report on the state of human rights in the Philippines:

“Unless (President) Arroyo’s bright boys can find a way to cast doubt on the integrity of Amnesty International’s report, perhaps by labelling it as a product of insidious Leftist propaganda efforts, nothing less than a stop to the killings and punishment of the perpetrators can counter this latest indictment of the Arroyo regime.”

Gerry Albert Corpuz explains why he is not in favor of a government commission to probe political killings:

“We will not cooperate with any Palace-initiated investigation on political killings. We will not deal with the mastermind of the 728 extra-judicial killings.”

Tingog Katawhan links to a news article about children being harassed by agents of the military. Promdi observes that since the state of the nation address of the President (last month), “the killing of activists has occurred on an almost daily basis.”

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