america has been at war with herself for a very long time. many americans refused to see it- and indeed still do. but there is hope sometimes that we will come to see each other as simply fellow human beings. no color, gender, religious affiliation, sexual orientation (for lack of a better term), etc. i am proud to say that president obama and his family are leading the way on that front.
i am disappointed that amazon is not. i buy quite frequently from amazon and link to it often. i will not be doing so until and unless amazon changes its current book rating system and policy to end the recent discrimination. in the meantime, i fully expect many crazies to cheer amazon's decision and deride the president. and that should give all of us pause.
if you would like to sign the petition demanding amazon to state why they have decided to pull lgbt literature and not heterosexual literature of similar genres- please go here
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy#signatures
Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Tuesday
Thursday
The Mad Pride Movement: PART I
A shift is taking place among the mental health population and society is beginning to take notice. In the Sunday Times May 11 edition, an article by Gabriella Glasser discusses the Mad Pride movement; an attempt by those who feel stigmatized by mental illness to reclaim the concept of madness, very much the same way that the Gay Pride movement has reclaimed the concept of queerness.
Madness has historically been a reason for isolation, cruelty and even death for those who suffered from unknown or misunderstood conditions we now know as psychiatrically based, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (manic-depression).
We’ve come a long way in understanding these conditions, rendering once medically accepted procedures such as lobotomy and antiquated electro-shock therapies (EST) illegal. Pharmaceutical companies have developed increasingly effective medications to treat even the most stubborn forms of psychiatric illness.
If I may be allowed to do a bit of reclaiming of my own, where we still have a long way to go is in the misinformation, attitudes and prejudices of society toward those who are mad. Further and more importantly, mad people should be but are not often protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Discrimination is alive and well in the workplace, on college campuses and in the mental health delivery system itself.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 5.7 million Americans over the age of 18 have the mood disorder called bipolar illness. Another 2.4 million are classified as schizophrenia, which is considered a thought disorder. A few; a very few, are beginning to come out of the closet, as gays have done in record numbers in recent years. In so doing, they hope to tell the world that their disability is a part of who they are and that despite it, they can lead productive and even inspiring lives.
The idea of madness and living an inspiring life is not a new idea. Those of us who have been inspired by the likes of Beethoven and Van Gogh (bipolar “guesses”), or Jack Kerouac (schizophrenic), probably have learned or guessed that their madness contributed to their genius.
The mad pride movement is exciting in that it attempts to demystify mental illness, not just among the talented and gifted but among regular people who are living among us productively, creatively and now, just beginning to do so with pride and dignity as well.
One such person is Elyn Saks, a University of Southern California law professor who has learned to live with and accept her schizophrenic illness and psychosis. Her memoir The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness was only published after Ms. Saks received tenure at USC. Even in an academic setting, where one could assume people are better educated about mental illness, Dr. Saks felt she had to keep quiet until she was guaranteed a place in academia.
Mad pride parades and events are a good start toward embracing the uniqueness and fundamental humanness of people with mental illness, certainly, but additionally society must face the facts. The sheer numbers of people diagnosed with mental illness means that we encounter many people throughout our lives who may not be “normal” psychologically.
As a society, we have to begin to understand mental illness as a medical situation with psychological and social manifestations. Even cancer has those implications. The fear that accompanies perceptions of mental illness are thus ingrained because we fail to see that the mind, as creative and essential to human survival as it may be, can fail us in very much the same way as a kidney or a heart; except that it cannot be replaced. It must be maintained, nurtured and respected. For some, drugs do wonders in achieving this aim. For others, as the mad pride movement illustrates, seeking normalization through drug therapy feels intrusive if not altogether invasive. Just as some people choose not to treat a tumor with radiation, some people with mental illness choose alternatives to chemicals through a balanced and conscious life, exercise, diet and talk therapy.
Reclaiming one’s madness is a form of taking control. Ironically, taking control of one’s life is perhaps the sanest thing anyone can do.
Wednesday
Suffer The Forgotten And Faceless
(Updated below)
The following constitutes mainly a repost of something I've written last year, along with new commentary added. The reason for this is simple: there has been zero development on the matter since last year.
The following constitutes mainly a repost of something I've written last year, along with new commentary added. The reason for this is simple: there has been zero development on the matter since last year.
**********
The No Land's Men
August 16, 2007
No - the title is not a mistake, nor a typographical error of the term "No man's land". This is about real human beings who find themselves without a land to call their own for the sole crime of having been wrongly imprisoned at Gitmo.
As of the month of August, 2007, some 80 Guatanamo Bay detainees have been cleared of all charges with regards to terrorism, as well as having been definitely established as constituting no threat whatsoever to the security of the U.S.A.
Yet they remain Gitmo detainees.
Furthermore, Army officials expect about 70 more of the remaining other 360 detainees to be likewise cleared.
Yet, most of them will also remain Gitmo detainees.
Why? Because no one wants them.
You see, once detainees are cleared of charges and whatnot, then the U.S.A. has the responsibility of transferring them to a terre d'acceuil (welcoming country) where they will not be tortured, mistreated or executed. This is in fact a matter of stated policy:
August 16, 2007
No - the title is not a mistake, nor a typographical error of the term "No man's land". This is about real human beings who find themselves without a land to call their own for the sole crime of having been wrongly imprisoned at Gitmo.
As of the month of August, 2007, some 80 Guatanamo Bay detainees have been cleared of all charges with regards to terrorism, as well as having been definitely established as constituting no threat whatsoever to the security of the U.S.A.
Yet they remain Gitmo detainees.
Furthermore, Army officials expect about 70 more of the remaining other 360 detainees to be likewise cleared.
Yet, most of them will also remain Gitmo detainees.
Why? Because no one wants them.
You see, once detainees are cleared of charges and whatnot, then the U.S.A. has the responsibility of transferring them to a terre d'acceuil (welcoming country) where they will not be tortured, mistreated or executed. This is in fact a matter of stated policy:
"Before it puts detainees on a plane, the U.S. must find a country to accept them. It also must obtain assurances the prisoners will be prevented from attacking the United States or its allies, and will not be tortured or face other treatment that violates international law."
Now, try to put aside the outrageously mendacious irony of these "righteous" proclamations for a moment, especially when considering what actually goes on at Gitmo or the Maher Arar affair (as one example among others), and allow me nonetheless the opportunity to illustrate to you as best as I can the real underlying reason why "no one wants them", thus condemning these fully, unquestionably innocent men to remain stuck in Gitmo.
Take the example of those 22 ethnic Uyghurs from China's Xinjiang region - Muslims one and all. They were transferred to U.S. custody by Pakistani bounty hunters after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, thereafter branded by the U.S. military as enemy combatants and consequently shipped to Gitmo. All the while, they maintained that they were en route to Iran and Turkey in order to seek refugee status in these Muslim countries - because Uyghurs are harshly persecuted in China. It was not until early 2005 that they were finally given a chance to defend themselves, whereby a (secret) military tribunal determined that they posed no threat to the U.S.A.
The problem came when U.S. officials sought to transfer them to another country - after all, they could not be sent back to China where they would be most certainly persecuted. Western countries were approached to grant these innocent men asylum, but all so approached refused - including Canada. Albania accepted to welcome five of the twenty-two back in 2006 - and those five are currently living in squalid conditions. The remaining 17 still languish to this day in Gitmo. There is no information available on whether the U.S. approached Turkey or (gasp!) Iran as well, two of the countries the detainees were seeking to reach initially, or whether the thought of doing so even crossed the obtuse minds of the officials involved in this apparently extraordinarily challenging repatriation process. Then again, perhaps these two countries have indeed been approached, but could not provide "satisfactory" assurances that "the prisoners will be prevented from attacking the United States or its allies".
(Oh-Hum)
Indeed - Heaven forbid that innocent Muslims be repatriated to welcoming Muslim countries - after all, virtually every single one of these countries is complicit in one way or another with radical Muslim terrorists, right? And forget about welcoming such people in the U.S.A. proper - if only as a small gesture of reparation for the horrific and brutal injustice perpetrated upon them - because, apparently, more Muslims are not wanted.
Another example of such utter injustice provides further evidence to support my suspicions that the whole "challenging" aspect of repatriating innocent Muslim Gitmo detainees lies primarily with intellectual sloth-driven fear, mistrust and/or outright bigotry: about ten days ago, Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked for the transfer of five (innocent/cleared) Muslim British residents held at Gitmo, whereas his predecessor, Tony Blair, would not accept the detainees because they were not citizens proper.
Good on Prime Minister Brown, but bully on Tony Blair.
I also call bully on my own Canadian government for still mendaciously disassembling on the decision to take any of these poor, innocent men who have been ravaged by barbarity.
So, in short: Muslims come to be wrongly detained at Gitmo. Said Muslims are thereafter cleared of any charges and established as being of no threat to the U.S.A. Same said Muslims will not be granted asylum by Western countries (and U.S. allies), while Muslim countries are not likewise approached - apparently. End result: same said innocent Muslims remain incarcerated nevertheless.
Moral of the story: go to Gitmo and become a no land's man.
Oh, sure - innocent residents of Gitmo get to be moved to an "upgraded" part of the prison called Camp Iguana, where they live nine to a hut. They have a recreation room and a view of the Caribbean (oh, goody!). But they are still surrounded by barbed wire and are rarely able to communicate with their families. They still remain in utter limbo.
That. Is. Justice. For. You.
All in the sacro-sanct name of Security.
Doesn't it make you feel so proud and patriotic?
God bless America and God bless Canada, f***ing indeed.
But the ugly truth is that all of us are guilty for our silence and absence of outrage. All of us have been irremediably stained for such a sociopathic lack of basic human decency, empathy, compassion and contrition.
Period.
How's that working out for you?
(Update: 08/16/2007 - While writing this article, news came out that former Gitmo detainee/enemy combatant Jose Padilla has been found guilty-by-jury of terror charges in a Miami court. This clearly illustrates the merits and requirement of a judicial system which provides due process, justice and due punishment (if warranted) - as if we ever needed to be reminded of such a truism in the first place. The whole of my present article remains nonetheless.)
Take the example of those 22 ethnic Uyghurs from China's Xinjiang region - Muslims one and all. They were transferred to U.S. custody by Pakistani bounty hunters after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, thereafter branded by the U.S. military as enemy combatants and consequently shipped to Gitmo. All the while, they maintained that they were en route to Iran and Turkey in order to seek refugee status in these Muslim countries - because Uyghurs are harshly persecuted in China. It was not until early 2005 that they were finally given a chance to defend themselves, whereby a (secret) military tribunal determined that they posed no threat to the U.S.A.
The problem came when U.S. officials sought to transfer them to another country - after all, they could not be sent back to China where they would be most certainly persecuted. Western countries were approached to grant these innocent men asylum, but all so approached refused - including Canada. Albania accepted to welcome five of the twenty-two back in 2006 - and those five are currently living in squalid conditions. The remaining 17 still languish to this day in Gitmo. There is no information available on whether the U.S. approached Turkey or (gasp!) Iran as well, two of the countries the detainees were seeking to reach initially, or whether the thought of doing so even crossed the obtuse minds of the officials involved in this apparently extraordinarily challenging repatriation process. Then again, perhaps these two countries have indeed been approached, but could not provide "satisfactory" assurances that "the prisoners will be prevented from attacking the United States or its allies".
(Oh-Hum)
Indeed - Heaven forbid that innocent Muslims be repatriated to welcoming Muslim countries - after all, virtually every single one of these countries is complicit in one way or another with radical Muslim terrorists, right? And forget about welcoming such people in the U.S.A. proper - if only as a small gesture of reparation for the horrific and brutal injustice perpetrated upon them - because, apparently, more Muslims are not wanted.
Another example of such utter injustice provides further evidence to support my suspicions that the whole "challenging" aspect of repatriating innocent Muslim Gitmo detainees lies primarily with intellectual sloth-driven fear, mistrust and/or outright bigotry: about ten days ago, Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked for the transfer of five (innocent/cleared) Muslim British residents held at Gitmo, whereas his predecessor, Tony Blair, would not accept the detainees because they were not citizens proper.
Good on Prime Minister Brown, but bully on Tony Blair.
I also call bully on my own Canadian government for still mendaciously disassembling on the decision to take any of these poor, innocent men who have been ravaged by barbarity.
So, in short: Muslims come to be wrongly detained at Gitmo. Said Muslims are thereafter cleared of any charges and established as being of no threat to the U.S.A. Same said Muslims will not be granted asylum by Western countries (and U.S. allies), while Muslim countries are not likewise approached - apparently. End result: same said innocent Muslims remain incarcerated nevertheless.
Moral of the story: go to Gitmo and become a no land's man.
Oh, sure - innocent residents of Gitmo get to be moved to an "upgraded" part of the prison called Camp Iguana, where they live nine to a hut. They have a recreation room and a view of the Caribbean (oh, goody!). But they are still surrounded by barbed wire and are rarely able to communicate with their families. They still remain in utter limbo.
That. Is. Justice. For. You.
All in the sacro-sanct name of Security.
Doesn't it make you feel so proud and patriotic?
God bless America and God bless Canada, f***ing indeed.
But the ugly truth is that all of us are guilty for our silence and absence of outrage. All of us have been irremediably stained for such a sociopathic lack of basic human decency, empathy, compassion and contrition.
Period.
How's that working out for you?
(Update: 08/16/2007 - While writing this article, news came out that former Gitmo detainee/enemy combatant Jose Padilla has been found guilty-by-jury of terror charges in a Miami court. This clearly illustrates the merits and requirement of a judicial system which provides due process, justice and due punishment (if warranted) - as if we ever needed to be reminded of such a truism in the first place. The whole of my present article remains nonetheless.)
**********
So here we are, some one year later - and those poor, stranded souls remain at Gitmo ... still forgotten and faceless.
As I think of them, I also think of those dozens (hundreds?) who have been tortured over the years, thanks to the Bush administration's policy which has ever been supported - if not encouraged and staunchly defended - by pundits, lawyers, justices, politicians, warhawks, chickenhawks and all assorted fear- and hate-driven neocon enablers, supporters and apologists - including all those ostriches who would rather bury their heads in the sand rather than face the awful, ugly truth:
The U.S.A. has become a rogue state which practices indefinite detention and torture.
And who cares if some of those "evil Muslims" die in the process, right? After all, indefinite detentions, secret tribunals andenhanced interrogation techniques torture are valuable means and tools for the defense of freedom, liberty and democracy ...
Thus I ask again: how's that working out for you?
I humbly assume that I will be forgiven if I do not appreciate the "courageous" work done over the last seven years by the Bush administration and its cheerleading supporters - because from where I stand, they have spat upon and irreversibly sullied every precept of human dignity, of human respect, of Humanity, which used to be held as unassaillable and uncompromising, sacrosaint values.
And it doesn't matter however much they try to justify/legalize/spin their actions - for indeed, nothing justifies indefinite detention, secret tribunals and torture.
Nothing.
Period.
Every single one of these fear- and hate-driven incompetents have pushed us from the moral high ground of justice, freedom and human rights into the bottomless precipice of barbarous and savage injustice.
In other words - I have naught but utter contempt for those uncivilized, primitive non-human beings.
And that is how it has been working out for me.
Update (05/15/2008): From Raw Story ... read it and weep. Really. My contempt meter just blew up.
(Originally posted APOV)
As I think of them, I also think of those dozens (hundreds?) who have been tortured over the years, thanks to the Bush administration's policy which has ever been supported - if not encouraged and staunchly defended - by pundits, lawyers, justices, politicians, warhawks, chickenhawks and all assorted fear- and hate-driven neocon enablers, supporters and apologists - including all those ostriches who would rather bury their heads in the sand rather than face the awful, ugly truth:
The U.S.A. has become a rogue state which practices indefinite detention and torture.
And who cares if some of those "evil Muslims" die in the process, right? After all, indefinite detentions, secret tribunals and
Thus I ask again: how's that working out for you?
I humbly assume that I will be forgiven if I do not appreciate the "courageous" work done over the last seven years by the Bush administration and its cheerleading supporters - because from where I stand, they have spat upon and irreversibly sullied every precept of human dignity, of human respect, of Humanity, which used to be held as unassaillable and uncompromising, sacrosaint values.
And it doesn't matter however much they try to justify/legalize/spin their actions - for indeed, nothing justifies indefinite detention, secret tribunals and torture.
Nothing.
Period.
Every single one of these fear- and hate-driven incompetents have pushed us from the moral high ground of justice, freedom and human rights into the bottomless precipice of barbarous and savage injustice.
In other words - I have naught but utter contempt for those uncivilized, primitive non-human beings.
And that is how it has been working out for me.
Update (05/15/2008): From Raw Story ... read it and weep. Really. My contempt meter just blew up.
(Originally posted APOV)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
