Catégorie : World People

Linked with The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

Rebecca MacKinnon (born 1969) is a former CNN journalist who headed the CNN bureaus in Beijing and later in Tokyo, before leaving television to become a blogger and co-founder of Global Voices Online. She is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Center and lives in Hong Kong. From 2004-06 she was a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (full text).

Watch her video: Video: Rebecca MacKinnon on Online Journalism, Oct. 16, 2007.

Read: Thomas Friedman gets the middle finger in the Middle Kingdom, Sept. 9, 2007.

Find Rebecca MacKinnon’s Google video-search.

Listen to her audio on CDN.

.

Rebecca MacKinnon – USA

Look at her personal blog.

Read: Chinese Cell Phone Breaches North Korean Hermit Kingdom, February 3rd, 2005.

DIGITAL AGE – Are Bloggers as Trustworthy as Mainstream Media? by R. MacKinno, 28.54 min., 26.03.2006.

She says (about China and the internet): There’s a real contradiction that’s difficult to explain to the West and the outside world about China and about the Internet. On the one hand, you have a lot of efforts – and fairly successful efforts – to control content on the Internet and control what people can access, yet on the other hand, you have this contradiction that at the same time the space for conversation thanks to the Internet has grown tremendously in China », MacKinnon told the Foreign Correspondents Club. (full text, Sep 27, 2007).

Read: Hong Kong, GV Editor Oiwan Lam faces court battle over Flickr photo, by Rebecca MacKinnon, July 16th, 2007.

Continuer la lecture de « Rebecca MacKinnon – USA »

U Win Tin (born March 12, 1929) is being held prisoner in Burma / Myanmar because of his senior position in the National League for Democracy (NLD) and for his writings. Arrested in July 1989, he has spent the last 17 years in prison. U Win Tin is serving a 20-year sentence on charges including « anti-government propaganda. »

One of the reasons for his detention is his attempt to inform the United Nations of ongoing human rights violations in Burmese prisons. At 76 years of age, he is in a poor state of health, exacerbated by his treatment in prison, which has included torture, inadequate access to medical treatment, being held in a cell designed for military dogs, without bedding, and being deprived of food and water for long periods of time … (full text wikipedia, last modified 3 January 2007).

He writes: « As long as the black stripes on the yellow background are vividly painted, the tiger is still a tiger » … (full text).

.

U Win Tin – Burma

Read: One photographer killed and six journalists in jail: Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association condemn the poor state of press freedom, Sept. 25, 2007.

Recently, on August 18, 2007, a public meeting was held in New Delhi under the aegis of the Convention for the Restoration of Democracy in Burma to reiterate solidarity with the struggle for democracy in Burma and demand the immediate release of veteran Burmese journalist, U Win Tin … (full text, Sept. 26, 2007).

Read: TIMELINE – 45 years of resistance and repression in Myanmar, Sept. 27, 2007.

U Win Tin, a journalist, was for years editor-in-chief of a Mandalay-based newspaper called Hanthawaddy, until it was shut down by General Ne Win for running too many articles critical of his regime. In 1988 he established, briefly, the Burmese Writers’ Association; from the beginning he was a leading figure in the National League for Democracy, and an important adviser to Suu Kyi. For these crimes, and ostensibly for harbouring a girl who had had an illegal abortion, he was sentenced to 20 years; he has now been imprisoned for 18, since 1989.

He too has gone to great lengths to keep writing, making ink out of brick powder from the walls of his cell, writing with a pen made from a bamboo mat; now 77 years old, he has, according to PEN, had two heart attacks, lost most of his teeth, and is suffering from diabetes, spondylitis, and a hernia. (Guardian, Oct. 12, 2007).

Read: South Block’s Indifference to Burma’s Struggle for Democracy, Oct. 5, 2007.

Continuer la lecture de « U Win Tin – Burma »

Kurt Julius Goldstein and Peter Gingold, the Auschwitz survivors named as plaintiffs in the litigation against the Bush family, are 91 and 89 years of age respectively. Mr. Goldstein claims to have mined the coal for Consolidated Silesian Steel – coal that fueled furnaces where armaments were made, coal transformed into oil, gasoline and airplane fuel for IG Farben that due to patent arrangements benefited the German war effort, coal for trains to transport Jews to the camp, and coal for the ovens to burn them after they were gassed. Mr. Goldstein said from his hotel room in New York, « Genocide is not forgivable and cannot be swept under the rug. » (full text, scroll down to ‘The Bush/Nazi Connection’).

German photo-gallery.

.

Kurt Julius Goldstein – Germany (1914 – 2007)

Kurt Julius Goldstein (November 3, 1914 – September 24, 2007), who survived the Auschwitz death camp and went on to play a prominent role in fighting racism and anti-Semitism, has died, the International Auschwitz Committee said Tuesday. He was 93 …

… Born into a Jewish merchant family in 1914, Goldstein later joined Germany’s Communist Party and was forced out of the country when the Nazis came to power in 1933. He fled to Palestine, then went to fight in an international brigade in the Spanish Civil War. When that war ended in 1939, Goldstein was arrested and later handed to the Nazis, who sent him to Auschwitz. After World War II, Goldstein settled in communist East Germany, where he worked until 1978 as the director of a leading public broadcaster. During those years he also worked for the International Auschwitz Committee, maintaining contact with survivors on both sides of the Iron Curtain and reaching out to young people. (full text).

Search Results for “Kurt Julius Goldstein” on YouTube.
… A year later, the Spanish Civil War erupted and many German Communists volunteered to fight: Goldstein soon joined them.[1] When the Second Spanish Republic collapsed in early 1939, Goldstein escaped across the border into France.[1] As return to Germany was impossible, he was interned and held in Camp Vernet (Dept. Ariege/France). Once France fell, his situation became perilous but it was three years before he was detected by the Vichy French authorities and deported to Germany. On arrival, he was sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where he worked in the coal pits for 30 months.

Continuer la lecture de « Kurt Julius Goldstein – Germany (1914 – 2007) »

Linked with The Narco News Bulletin.

Listen to the 2.55 minutes spanish Interview, of 07.02.2006, with Hollman Morris on the website of Amnesty International, and its english transcript: Colombia is the world’s third most dangerous country for a journalist to work in according to Reporters Without Borders and New York’s Committee to Protect Journalists. Because of this, Colombian journalists censor themselves. They censor themselves in key issues: drug dealing, the armed conflict, human rights and corruption. Journalists in Colombia are giving up investigating and reporting on those issues because they run the risk of being threaten, killed or having to leave the country, as was my case. In June, the 24th of June if I remember correctly, when we were doing a documentary for the BBC in Putumayo, President Alvaro Uribe said that we knew in advance of an attack committed by the FARC in the Putumayo region, that we made deals with the guerrillas and that we had alliances with them. We denied it and even President Uribe had to denied it hours later President Uribe publicized those lies in all media outlets in Colombia. His retraction only appeared on a website, which didn’t have much publicity. In Colombia these kind of accusations and stigmatizations, particularly when I had received threats 15 days before, cost people’s lives. In Colombia people are killed for that. As long as President Alvaro Uribe doesn’t rectify his accusations properly, his words will cause me trouble. The bodyguards that the government gives me are worthless if the President himself says that I deal with the guerrillas. He puts my life in danger with those irresponsible accusations.

.

Hollman Felipe Morris – Colombia

Hollman Morris, producer of the broadcast “ContravÌa” on public channel Canal Uno, a leading expert on the armed conflict and very critical of the government of Alvaro Uribe, received new death threats by e-mail on 27 September. The anonymous writers accused him of being a “guerillero” and an “anti-patriot”. His picture marked with a cross and the words “for very soon” figured on the heading of the message. Morris’s programme has not been broadcast on the first channel for the past two months, because of lack of funds. (full text).

Press targeted with threats, assaults and boycotts in run-up to regional elections. (full text, 28 September 2007).

Continuer la lecture de « Hollman Felipe Morris – Colombia »

Linked with Weekly Ethical Reflection, with Centre for the Study of Human Rights, and with The Missing.

He writes:  » … Today, analysis of any war, rebellion or massacre tends to focus on political motives, who is the guilty party or on the kinds of weapons used. However, when the story extends to the victims, somehow rational argument gets lost to sentiment. If we witness directly acts of armed violence and their effects, logic deserts us; there is something about armed violence that is so profoundly shocking, or dare I say exciting, that it defies objective analysis. Perhaps this is as it should be but if we can look past what shocks us, there sits a health issue like all others – for it is undoubtedly a health issue for the victims – and this invites a preventive approach » … (full text).

.

Robin M. Coupland – England

Robin M Coupland is the adviser on armed violence and the effects of weapons for the International Committee of the Red Cross. He joined the ICRC in 1987 and worked as a field surgeon in Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Angola, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. He has developed a health-oriented approach to a variety of issues relating to the design and use of weapons. A graduate of the Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, UK, he trained as a surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and University College Hospital, London. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985.

Continuer la lecture de « Robin M. Coupland – England »

Defying threats to her life, as UN award-winning Sri Lankan human rights activist she has brought abuses in Sri Lanka to the attention of the international community. (UNESCO).

She says: « I always hope for peace. That hope is what gives me the energy to continue with the work that I do. Even if I don’t see it achieved in my lifetime, I have to continue working for peace and justice in Sri Lanka because that is what my children and future generations who live on this beautiful island will inherit. I don’t believe that people are inherently violent or war-like. I know that it is a wide range of economic and social and political factors that push people to war and to conflict. I believe that as rational and humane beings we have the potential to create structures of non-violent forms of resolving conflict and of living together in harmony ». (full interview text).

And she says: « The human rights framework has enabled us to engage in most times constructive and sometimes very frustrating conversation with organizations like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, that focuses on the protection of refugees and people who are displaced as a consequence of conflict ». (full text).

.

Sunila Abeysekera – Sri Lanka

According to a recent United Nations study, Sri Lanka is the country with the second highest number of disappeared people in the world. And yet there seems to be hardly any debate within the country about human rights violations. Why is this? (full text).

Sunila Abeysekera, executive director of the Sri Lankan rights group INFORM statement to the UNHRC, the number of disappearances and targeted killings in Nepal had dropped dramatically after the U.N. field office was set up there, argued more transparency in Sri Lanka would help much more than short visits from overseas officials and called for UN monitors to Sri Lanka. (full text).

Read: Sri Lanka’s Humanitarian Crisis discussed in Swiss seminar.

Continuer la lecture de « Sunila Abeysekera – Sri Lanka »

Linked with The Advocacy Forum, and with Arnold Tsunga – Zimbabwe.

(From Human Rights Watch): The Royal Nepali Army engaged in killing noncombatants, torturing prisoners, and illegally detaining more than 1,200 Nepalis, gaining Nepal the sorry distinction of having the highest number of reported « disappearances » in the world … (full text).

Human Rights Watch Honors Global Rights Defenders, Lawyers from Nepal and Zimbabwe, Fight for Rights of Powerless, October 11, 2007 – Two courageous Human Rights Lawyers, from Zimbabwe and Nepal, have been chosen to receive the prestigious Human Rights Defender Awards, Human Rights Watch said today. The awards will be presented at dinners in London, Munich, Hamburg, and Geneva in November … (full text).

She says: “Human beings do not have the right to kill another human being, nobody has that right, you have the right to do only good things. Sometimes, I think that I have the right to do the same as they did to my father. My father was chopped into 14 pieces and his body was put in a burlap. We did not even get to see him. They started chopping from his legs. I want to chop them into 14 pieces, but I guess I don’t have that right” … (full text).

.

Mandira Sharma – Nepal

In 2001, Mandira Sharma helped found the Advocacy Forum, a Nepali NGO that has played a crucial role in defending the rights of Nepali people caught in the brutal civil war between Maoist insurgents and the Nepali government. Mandira has focused on achieving accountability for abuses committed by both sides during the fighting. She and her staff of 21 lawyers at her organization filed lawsuits on behalf of victims of torture by government forces, investigated cases of deaths in government custody, and filed numerous habeas corpus petitions to free prisoners illegally detained by the government. Even under constant pressure and harassment, Mandira led the call for the release of thousands of child soldiers believed to be among Maoist troops … (full text).

Read: gender dimensions of the people’s war, International Commission of Jurists.

Continuer la lecture de « Mandira Sharma – Nepal »

Linked with The Centre for Environment and Food Security CEFS, with Hot Spot of NREGA corruption in Orissa (India), with Rural Job Scam – Survey Report on Implementation of NREGA in Orissa, with India International Centre, and with Invisible Genocide Of The Poor.

Parshuram Tamang, a member of the Call of the Earth Steering Committee, is a Professor of Economics at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu in Nepal. Born on 18 February 1952, Parshuram is of Tamang descent from the eastern part of the region – the Tamang people being one of the largest indigenous populations in Nepal.

He writes: « The idea of Second Green Revolution seems to me an old poison in an old bottle with a new label on it. It will kill farmers and destroy family farms at very large scale with « high efficiency ». This is a blueprint for loot, plunder and pillage of not only farmers but entire rural India » … (full long text, 21 February, 2006).

.

Parshuram Rai – Nepal

Read: Nepalese News and Thoughts (only in Hindu script).

Letter to Prime Minister, 3rd September 2007. Dear Pradhanmantri ji, I am writing this letter to you as my last attempt to bring to your notice that it is not the epidemic of cholera but cancer of corruption that is killing hundreds of Adivasis in Orissa’s KBK (Kalahandi- Bolangir- Koraput) region. It may appear as a sweeping and cynical statement. However, I have come to this disturbing conclusion after spending 5 months of sleepless nights and restless days in uncovering the interlinkages between corruption and abject poverty in the KBK region of Orissa … (full text).

He is a human and democratic rights activist and is also one of the leading architects for indigenous movements in both Nepal and Asia. Over the past 30 years his efforts have been instrumental in the:

Continuer la lecture de « Parshuram Rai – Nepal »

Linked with ILGA International Lesbians and Gay Association, with Latest News about Burma, and with UNHRC resolves Burma to allow Paulo Sergio Special Rapporteur.

First to disambiguate: there seems also exist a H E Brig-Gen Aung Myo Min, Deputy Minister for Education, Head of Delegation of the Union of Myanmar, and also U Aung Myo Min, an executive with the government’s mass-movement body, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) in the western delta region. To me it seems there are three different persons.

Executive director of the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, is a 1993 graduate of the Human Rights Advocate Program at Columbia University. He is the first openly gay man among the democratic movement of Burma and has received numerous international awards for his human rights work and lesbigay work, including the 1999 Felipa De Souza award by the IGLHRC and Honour of Courage award from the San Francisco City Board. He has been integrating LGBT rights into the mainstream human rights through HRE awareness activities and involving in the drafting process of the future constitution of Burma. (ilg.org).

Aung Myo Min, director of Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, said: « the use of child soldiers in Burma is rampant not only in the Burmese military but also in ethnic armed rebel groups ». (full text).

.

Aung Myo Min – Burma (in Thailand)

He says also: « The (tody’) demands are exactly the same (as 1988): freedom, democracy but the main difference is that today the whole world has been following the events in the streets. This was not the case in 1988. We had then no way of communicating to the outside world what was happening. At the moment the demonstrations are better organised, the media is better informed and there is an awareness of what this Junta is doing. In 1988 it was the students who led the uprising while today it is the monks … The multinationals should leave the country. They pretend to help the population but in reality they are only keeping the Generals in power. It is these economic partnerships that are allowing the Junta to buy arms from neighbouring countries. The foreign investors should really leave. (full text).

Aung Myo Min also pointed out using the name of ‘Human Opportunities’ instead of ‘Human Rights’ was a human rights abuse excluding the rights concerning government duties in Universal Human Rights Declaration. (full text).

Continuer la lecture de « Aung Myo Min – Burma (in Thailand) »

Linked with Attac weist Versuch zurück, jede Kritik unter Gewaltverdacht zu stellen, and with SOCIALIST POLITICS AND THE CRISIS OF MARXISM.

He says (about Heiligendamm):  » … Increasingly, the G8 has come to show the strength of opposition to globalization and the desire of many people to see an alternative form of globalization to what we have at the moment. This year the issue of climate change will be particularly important, because it is threatening the survival of mankind. I don’t think we can expect the G8 to really take into account the seriousness of this problem. It is an issue that the anti-globalization movement has to put on the agenda, as a worldwide movement. Otherwise, all we will see are more statements on climate change, but nothing will come from them. (full text, May 18, 2007).

Er sagt: « Der Kapitalismus, davon bin ich … überzeugt, kann nicht durch einen ‘endogenen’ Verfall zugrundegehen; nur ein äußerer Stoß von extremer Heftigkeit im Verein mit einer glaubwürdigen Alternative könnte seinen Zusammenbruch bewirken… ». (full text).
Elmar Altvater – Germany

.

Bio on wikipedia: Elmar Altvater (born 24 August 1938) was Professor of Political Science at the Otto-Suhr-Institute of the Free University of Berlin, before retiring on 30 September 2004. He continues to work at the Institute, and to publish articles and books.

As a student, Altvater studied economics and sociology in Munich, and attained a doctorate with a dissertation on « Environmental Problems in the Soviet Union ». At the Otto-Suhr-Institute, he was active in socialist research groups, working with among others Klaus Busch, Wolfgang Schoeller and Frank Seelow, and he gained fame as one of Germany’s most important Marxist philosophers, who strongly influenced the political and economic theory of the 1968 generation of radicals.

Continuer la lecture de « Elmar Altvater – Germany »