Damien Holland: May 2015

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Yesterday I was shamed on social media for feeding my son in public.

DH: I saw this story appear on my Facebook feed, recently, and I just have to share it with you. I'm removing the lady's last name, though, because even though she wants her story to be public removing a person's last name is normal practice for me. Besides, I think her point is far more important than who she is specifically.

It's from America and Britain, mainly, that I am seeing people -- i.e., most of them conservative men -- saying, online, that they are "disgusted" by the sight of a woman breastfeeding her child in public. Most of these complaints center around restaurants.

I think "disgust", though, is too strong a word to use over a woman simply feeding her child. If it makes you uncomfortable that's your own problem, I think, and as this is a totally subjective matter you can like it, dislike it, or be neutral about it like I am.

Complaining about a woman breastfeeding her child in a restaurant is like complaining about people you deem ugly wearing bathing suits on the beach. It's not your place to impose your views and make people feel bad over something like this. Now if she was changing the child's diaper in the restaurant and not in the restaurant's bathroom I would agree that it's disgusting.

Yesterday I was shamed on social media for feeding my son in public.

I have been contemplating what to do about it ever since, so here it is.

This picture was taken, without my knowledge, of me feeding my son at TGI Friday's in Terre Haute, IN.

The man who took this picture was a complete stranger to me, he was sitting 3 tables away from us with his young daughter.

He snapped the photo and then put it up on social media (Facebook and Instagram), many of the comments that followed were nothing less than harassing and shameful to, not only me, but every past, present, and future nursing mother.

Over the course of a couple or hours it was taken down and reposted multiple times before it was finally deleted.

I was really very hurt by this act, because I was in no way bothering him, so what gave him the right to shame me?

After I found out his name I

In this Feb. 22, 2014 file photo, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, is escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City following his capture overnight in the beach resort town of Mazatlan. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File) | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Every week, The WorldPost asks an expert to shed light on a topic that's making headlines around the world. Today, we speak with investigative journalist Anabel Hernández.

As one of Mexico’s leading investigative journalists, Anabel Hernández has dedicated the past decade to investigating her country’s drug war -- one of the most dangerous projects a reporter could ask for. Her 2010 book Los señores del narco, translated into English as Narcoland, detailed the extensive government corruption that allowed Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and his Sinaloa cartel to become one of the most powerful criminal enterprises in the world.

Working in partnership with journalist Steve Fisher at The Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism , Hernández has also been at the forefront of one of the leading investigative reports into the case of the missing 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers college who were attacked by Mexican police in September.

Hernández spoke with The WorldPost about the misconceptions surrounding Mexico’s drug war, the role the U.S. plays in Mexico's violence and why we shouldn’t assume that drug cartels are behind the disappearance of the missing 43 students.

Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández is seen during a press conference in Mexico City, Nov. 30, 2010. (ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images)

(revenge) Bully hit in the face with a glass bottle

DH: "Revenge" is actually one of my favorite subjects. Revenge is a way of showing someone, or showing the world, that power doesn't necessarily always get its way. Sometimes power gets reversed. So no matter how much money you make or how physically tough you are, or how many people you've already killed, just remember that. You are not indestructible and without fault.

Angry father boards school bus and threatens kids bullying his daughter who has cerebral palsy

I know that threatening anyone, let alone kids on a bus, is morally wrong. But at the same time my heart is with this father who would give his life, his reputation, his everything to protect his daughter. Modern society is not yet equipped, legally, in terms of dealing with the profound psychological effect childhood bullying has on children. It's hard to codify an appropriate law to prevent bullying without infringing on peoples' freedoms (false accusations would be made, for example).

Friday, May 29, 2015

Washington DC officials block Muhammad subway cartoon

Transport officials in Washington DC have blocked plans by an American free speech pressure group to have a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad displayed on the subway.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative wanted to display the cartoon, which won first prize at an event in Texas.

Two gunmen were shot dead by police outside the event earlier this month.

Washington transport authorities on Thursday banned political, religious and advocacy adverts on the subway.

The transport authority in the US capital voted unanimously to suspend advertisements it describes as "issue-oriented".

AFDI founder Pamela Geller strongly criticised the decision to ban the advert, describing it as an attack on free of speech.

Ms Geller commented on her website that "rewarding terror with submission is defeat, absolute and complete defeat.

"These cowards may claim that they are making people safer, but I submit to you the opposite. They are making it far more dangerous for Americans everywhere."

The advert calls for Americans to support free speech and features a bearded, turban-wearing Muhammad waving a sword and shouting: "You can't draw me!"

In reply, a cartoon bubble portrays an artist grasping a pencil and saying: "That's why I draw you."
Ms Geller insists the cartoon is a "political opinion" which does not contain any violence.

Her organisation, described by critics as a hate group, has run controversial adverts on subways and buses in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco as well as in Washington's Metro in 2012.

Pamela Geller: America's controversial blogger

A staunch critic of Islam since 2005, she rose to prominence in 2010 through her online opposition to Park 51, a planned Muslim community centre in Lower Manhattan close to the World Trade Center site
Heads the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which has also caused controversy by buying advertising space on buses in US cities, criticising Islam
The 56-year-old describes herself online as a free-speech activist, but her critics denounce her as a "bigot"
She insists the focus of her criticism is chiefly against radical Islam, but has been quoted as saying that "Islam is the most anti-semitic, genocidal ideology in the world"
Speaking of her role in organising the Muhammad Art Exhibit in Garland, she said: "We draw Muhammad because we are free... We draw Muhammad because our unalienable rights are enshrined in the First Amendment."

BBC News
May 29th, 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32925948

While I do believe Pamela Geller is a hate speech advocate she's also correct that people should be able to criticize Islam without fear of violence and being murdered. Some people criticize Catholics / Christians all the time, and make cartoons about Jesus, for example, and while some may find that offensive that doesn't mean those people should be in fear of their lives and prevented from speaking, writing, or drawing.

At the same time, though, where do you draw the line when it comes to hate speech? If a man calls himself a priest of the White Race, for example, and his following grows larger and larger and then, after awhile longer, some of his followers begin murdering people of other races should society just sit there and let the problem continue to escalate? Same goes for if a black man influences black people to assault those of other races -- should society just sit there and let the problem grow?

I think the moderate Muslims and Christians, per se, and the moderate people of all races sometimes need to step in and stop the extremists from harming others. How this should be done, though, can be a complicated issue when you don't know exactly where the line is.

Addendum - Headline of the story and photos sometimes changed to improve or update article content. Text always as originally posted by source.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Final Posts of a Murdered Blogger

“No one with a free mind can limit themselves within the walls of narrow-mindedness,” Ananta Bijoy Das wrote hours before his death.

Earlier this week, as he left for work, Ananta Bijoy Das was ambushed by four masked men outside his home in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Armed with machetes, the men—suspected Islamist militants—hacked Das to death in broad daylight on a busy street in the country’s fifth-largest city.

Das’s crime was that he blogged. A writer critical of religious fundamentalism and enthusiastic about science, his fate matched that of two other men, Avijit Roy and Washiqur Rahman, who were killed in similar fashion in Bangladesh in February and March, respectively, for writing on and promoting secular themes in a country where 90 percent of the population is Muslim.

Allan the rabbit, shortly before he was killed during a live radio broadcast in Denmark on Monday. Credit Radio 24syv, via Facebook

A radio station in Denmark argued Tuesday that it was merely fulfilling its public service mandate to provoke debate when the host of a morning show beat a baby rabbit to death with a bicycle pump this week during a live discussion of animal welfare.

Jorgen Ramskov, the editor in chief of Radio 24syv, a private station supported by fees from listeners, explained in an email that the killing of a nine-week-old rabbit named Allan during a broadcast on Monday was intended to highlight the Danish public’s “hypocrisy when it comes to animal welfare.”

Audio of the killing during the Danish-language program was made available on the broadcaster’s website.

News of the rabbit’s killing inflamed opinion on social networks, perhaps in part because Asger Juhl, the host who clubbed and strangled the rabbit, was pictured with Allan before and after the killing in two video clips posted on the station’s Facebook page.

In the first clip, Mr. Juhl was seen petting the live rabbit in the studio.

The second clip showed what the station described as meat from Allan’s body cooking on a stove before Mr. Juhl and Kristoffer Eriksen, the morning show’s co-host, ate it.

“At least in Denmark,” Mr. Ramskov said Tuesday, “we seem to regard animal welfare as a nice thing for certain animals — and frankly don’t care when it comes to normal livestock: cows, pigs, lambs, chickens.”

Danes, he added, have a voracious appetite for meat, but “consumers do not hesitate to buy cheap meat in stores without asking questions about the life or death of the animal — meat from chickens, pigs, cows and sheep that have not led dignified or pleasant lives.”

“To take the life of an animal brings about a strong emotional response in vast segments of the public,” Mr. Ramskov noted. “It was important to us that the rabbit would not suffer, and it was put down according to careful instructions by a professional animal caretaker from a Danish zoo.”

Speaking to Britain’s Sky News, he argued: “I think this rabbit had a very decent life. It was taken good care of, it had a nice life and it was killed in a decent way.”

The station’s high-minded description of the debate was perhaps undermined slightly by its choice of Linse Kessler, a Danish reality star known for her enormous fake breasts, to argue the animal-rights case during the show. After Ms. Kessler realized that Mr. Juhl intended to kill Allan, she chased the host around the studio, trying to free the rabbit, but ultimately failed.

In a Facebook update headlined “R.I.P. Little Allan,” translated by The Local, Ms. Kessler said that she understood the point the station was trying to make about the hypocrisy of meat eaters, but still called the stunt “wrong.”

While there was quite a bit of fury online about what quickly became known on Twitter as #Allangate, there was also some support for the station’s point.

Reaction in the Danish press was more positive. The Copenhagen newspaper Politiken featured an interview with Erling Jepsen, an author and former rabbit breeder, who said he was puzzled by the revulsion from some quarters at the live kaninslagtning, or rabbit slaughter.

Mr. Jepsen, who estimated that he had killed perhaps 1,000 rabbits himself, suggested that people who were agitated by the broadcast had no relationship with nature. “It’s the animals who are there for us,” he said. “Not us who are there for the animals.”

Addressing the reaction on its website, Radio 24syv argued Tuesday: “We wanted to expose the vast hypocrisy surrounding our relationship with animals. So far we have succeeded. We wanted and want to have a debate about animal welfare — for all animals.”

For his part, Mr. Ramskov, the station’s editor, observed that there was “a lot of interesting debate going on in social media – at least in Denmark — regarding animal welfare.” He added, “Unfortunately the discussion abroad only focused on the killing of a single rabbit.”

New York Times
May 26th, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/world/europe/danish-radio-station-defends-host-who-clubbed-rabbit-to-death-during-animal-welfare-debate.html

Here's the problem with your "intelligent" debate, guys. People expect the animals that are bred for their food to be treated with "respect", for one thing, and to be killed as quickly and painlessly as possible for another. Hitting a rabbit repeatedly with a bar doesn't constitute "quickly" and "painlessly" to me. Had you used a gun or some kind of automated machine, or a stunning instrument of sorts, I'd understand your argument.

Your including of an animal rights campaigner just because of her sex appeal and killing the rabbit in front of her, by the way, makes a mockery of your wanting to have any serious debate about this at all. For you it's just a game, a show, and not an important issue.

Addendum - Headline of the story and photos sometimes changed to improve or update article content. Text always as originally posted by source.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Dutch cabinet approves partial ban on Islamic veil in public areas

Two women wearing Islamic veils in the Netherlands. If a ban is enforced, people could be fined for wearing the niqab. Photograph: Jerry Lampen/AFP/Getty Images

Schools, hospitals and public transport would be covered by ban, but Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte insists prohibition is not religiously motivated

The Dutch cabinet has approved a proposal for a partial ban on face-covering Islamic veils on public transport and in public areas such as schools and hospitals.

After the cabinet backed a bill by the interior minister, Ronald Plasterk, the government said in a statement on Friday: “Face-covering clothing will in future not be accepted in education and healthcare institutions, government buildings and on public transport.”

The ban would not apply to wearing the burqa or the niqab on the street, only for security reasons or “in specific situations where it is essential for people to be seen”, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, told journalists after a cabinet meeting.

He said: “The bill does not have any religious background.” The proposal will be sent to a panel of legal advisers for assessment.

The government said it had “tried to find a balance between people’s freedom to wear the clothes they want and the importance of mutual and recognisable communication”. It said the cabinet “sees no reason for a general ban that would apply to all public places”.

A previous bill that proposed banning face-covering veils on the street will be withdrawn. It dated from Rutte’s previous government, which was supported by the anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders.
It was agreed that a new bill would be drawn up by the coalition partners of Rutte’s VVD party and the PvdA party when they formed a coalition in 2012.

Those flouting the ban, if it is enforced, could be fined up to €405 (£288).

NOS, the state broadcaster, said that between 100 and 500 women in the Netherlands wore the burqa, most of them only occasionally.

The Guardian
May 22nd, 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/22/netherlands-islamic-veil-niqab-ban-proposal-dutch-cabinet

I'll be damned. So the ban against face covering veils is now happening in this country as well then.

If we go to one of their countries we'd also be expected to follow their culture to a certain extent, though, so I'm not against this.

Not that many women here wear the burka, though (the face covered in addition to everything else to hide a woman's sexual attractiveness).

The burka is the most extreme form and can be seen in Afghanistan -- where even the eyes are hidden by mesh.

Judge John P. O’Donnell with mannequins showing the gunshot wounds to Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

By Mitch Smith and Ashley Southall

CLEVELAND — A police officer who climbed onto the hood of a car after a chase in 2012 and fired repeatedly at its unarmed occupants, both of them black, was acquitted of manslaughter on Saturday by an Ohio judge.

The trial of the white officer, Michael Brelo, following harrowing episodes in communities such as Baltimore, Staten Island and Ferguson, Mo., played out amid broader questions of how the police interact with African-Americans and use force, in Cleveland and across the country.

Officer Brelo, 31, was one of 13 officers who fired 137 rounds at Timothy Russell and his passenger, Malissa Williams, who were killed after a chase through the area on Nov. 29, 2012. Officer Brelo fired his Glock 17 pistol 49 times, including at least 15 shots after he reloaded and climbed onto the hood of Mr. Russell’s 1979 Chevrolet Malibu and the other officers had stopped firing.

Officer Brelo fired his Glock 17 pistol 49 times, including at least 15 shots after he reloaded and climbed onto the hood of Mr. Russell’s 1979 Chevrolet Malibu and the other officers had stopped firing.

By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter - A Russian supergrass was lured to his death by an assassin who tricked him into leaving his English home for Paris where he was poisoned, it was claimed last night.

Alexander Perepilichnyy collapsed and died outside his home on the high security St George’s Hill estate in Weybridge, Surrey, hours after returning from Paris.

According to the latest theory, Mr Perepilichnyy was enticed to the French capital by an associate of a Russian crime gang, who slipped a poison derived from a rare and deadly plant into his food or drink.

During the four-day trip, Mr Perepilichnyy apparently booked two hotel rooms – one at a luxury, landmark hotel and the other at an ordinary three-star hotel. He also spent more than £800 in a Prada designer fashion store, although – adding to the mystery – whatever he bought there he never took home.

A French magistrate is understood to have begun an investigation into his possible murder, raising the prospect that Mr Perepilichnyy was poisoned at one of the hotels, in a chilling echo of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, in a London hotel.

Chechen leader Kadyrov lashes out at criticism of the forced marriage of a 17-year-old girl in Russia

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov responded to criticism of the forced marriage of 17-year-old Kheda Goylabiyeva to the republic's police chief, Nazhud Guchigov — who is 30 years her senior — by telling men to "lock in" their wives to prevent them from posting on WhatsApp.

The BBC reports that the Chechen warlord turned key Kremlin ally, who was present at the wedding, said:

"Stop. Behave like Chechens. Family honour is the most important thing. Do not write such things. Men, do take your women out of WhatsApp. Lock them in, do not let them go out, then they will not post anything."

The story has garnered fierce criticism in Russia since the Russian investigative paper Novaya Gazeta reported that Goylabiyeva was being forced to marry a local official. He reportedly threatened her parents, demanding that he marry her on the day of her 17th birthday, May 1, and even warned that he would kidnap Goylabiyeva if she attempted to leave her house.

Photos from the wedding last weekend quickly spread across social media, with commenters noting that the bride-to-be looked devastated throughout and kept her eyes fixed on the floor.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov responded to criticism of the forced marriage of 17-year-old Kheda Goylabiyeva to the republic's police chief, Nazhud Guchigov — who is 30 years her senior — by telling men to "lock in" their wives to prevent them from posting on WhatsApp
.
The BBC reports that the Chechen warlord turned key Kremlin ally, who was present at the wedding, said: "Stop. Behave like Chechens. Family honour is the most important thing.
"Do not write such things. Men, do take your women out of WhatsApp. Lock them in, do not let them go out, then they will not post anything."

The story has garnered fierce criticism in Russia since the Russian investigative paper Novaya Gazeta reported that Goylabiyeva was being forced to marry a local official. He reportedly threatened her parents, demanding that he marry her on the day of her 17th birthday, May 1, and even warned that he would kidnap Goylabiyeva if she attempted to leave her house.

Photos from the wedding last weekend quickly spread across social media, with commenters noting that the bride-to-be looked devastated throughout and

German police torture immigrant prisoners

Prosecutors in northern Germany are investigating alleged cases of police brutality towards migrants in the city of Hanover.

In one case, reported by German broadcaster NDR, a shackled Moroccan man was allegedly forced to eat rotten pork off the floor at a police station.

Earlier, a policeman allegedly bragged on the WhatsApp messaging service that he had made an Afghan man choke until he "squealed like a pig".

The reports have shocked officials.

A police officer's home and workplace have been searched and investigators found a photo on his mobile phone showing a man being held down in a painful stress position.

Witnesses are being questioned over the alleged abuses, according to NDR.

'Inhumane behaviour'

The head of human rights group Pro Asyl, Guenter Burkhardt, said the allegations indicated "an appalling level of racism and inhumanity".

In one WhatsApp message, quoted by NDR, the policeman wrote: "I knocked him away. An Afghan. With an immigration ban. Stuck my finger up his nose. And he choked. It was funny. And dragged him in shackles through the (police) station. It was so great. Squealed like a pig. It was a gift from Allah."

An unnamed police source was quoted as saying "there was often screaming from the holding cells, and when it got too piercing they didn't look into it - they just shut the door, to stop the sound getting out".

The German government official in charge of integration, Aydan Ozoguz, called the allegations "shocking".

She said that if a policeman had actually tortured migrants then the police must "make it absolutely clear that they do not tolerate such inhumane behaviour in their ranks".

Source http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32780030

You cannot shock me about this. I've been reading about this happening for decades across the world. I think the officials are pretending to be shocked.

For hundreds of years this kind of thing has been happening because most people refuse to learn about it or resist it. Most people blame the victim and favor the uniform.

Remember the Stanford Prison Experiment?

This is what happens when you give some men (notice I say men -- it is we who mostly cause the violence) too much power. Some men can't handle any power (not even a little bit). Their demon -- be it racism, sexism, homophobia, or some other kind of hatred -- comes out because they know they won't be stopped.

If you give an evil person a uniform symbolizing authority they will commit more evil unless there are checks and balances. Checks and balances, for example, would be chest cameras recording their behavior at All Times and a public committee overseeing the police's behavior.

Islamic State 'seizes Iraqi city of Ramadi'

The Iraqi city of Ramadi has fallen to Islamic State (IS) after government forces abandoned their positions, officials say.

The police and military made a chaotic retreat after days of intense fighting.

But the US refused to confirm the capture, saying the situation was "fluid and contested" and it was too early to make "definitive statements".

Ramadi is the capital of Iraq's largest province, Anbar, and is just 70 miles (112km) west of Baghdad.
A statement purportedly from IS said its fighters had "purged the entire city". It said IS had taken the 8th Brigade army base, along with tanks and missile launchers left behind by troops.

A very well-placed source in the Anbar governor's office told the BBC Ramadi was now under the full control of Islamic State, and all government troops had withdrawn."

"Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had ordered troops to stand their ground, saying he was deploying Shia militia to the city.
But an army officer told the BBC that most troops had retreated to a military base in the city of Khalidiya, east of Ramadi.
Government troops were running out of ammunition and could not repel the massive onslaughts by IS, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Footage posted on social media showed military vehicles speeding away from Ramadi, with soldiers hanging off the sides.
Reports said Iraqi forces fled following a series of suicide car bomb attacks on Sunday.
Four almost simultaneous explosions hit police defending the Malaab district in southern Ramadi. Later, three more suicide bombers drove explosive-laden cars into the gate of the provincial military headquarters, the Anbar Operation Command, officials said.
Earlier, Mr Abadi called on pro-government forces to "hold their positions and preserve them and not allow Daesh (IS) to extend to other areas in Ramadi"."

""There is continuous air cover that will help ground troops there hold their positions while waiting for support from other forces and the Popular Mobilisation Units," he said, referring to the umbrella group for Shia militias.
The militias played a key role in the government's recent recapture of the city of Tikrit from IS, but pulled out of the city following reports of widespread violence and looting.
The loss of Ramadi represents a very serious setback for the government, and Iraqi officials are alarmed, the BBC's Ahmed Maher reports from Baghdad.
However, the Pentagon said that, while IS had the advantage, there was still fighting in the city.
"We're continuing to monitor reports of tough fighting in Ramadi and the situation remains fluid and contested. It is too early to make definitive statements about the situation on the ground there at this time," said spokeswoman Maureen Schumann, quoted by AFP.
Anbar province covers a vast stretch of the country west from the capital Baghdad to the Syrian border, and contains key roads that link Iraq to both Syria and Jordan.
IS reportedly controls more than half of Anbar's territory.
The deputy head of Anbar council, Faleh al-Issawi, told the BBC that more than 500 people had been killed in the last two days of fighting in and around Ramadi, including policemen who had run out of ammunition, and civilians caught in the crossfire.
Some 8,000 people have been displaced over the same period, according to the International Organisation for Migration."

Iraq's largest province, which is Sunni-dominated, was occupied by US forces in 2003. Hostile to the US, fighting quickly broke out between US troops and the region's Sunni insurgents

The worst battle came in 2004, when thousands died as US troops and coalition forces struggled to take the town of Falluja.

Fighting continued in 2005 and 2006 during which time al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) rose to prominence
The US declared victory in 2007 but AQI remained, resuming attacks in 2011 when US troops withdrew

Islamic State and other Sunni insurgents currently control much of the province."

Source

Posted by Damien Holland via Blogaway

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