Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 3 says: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Slavery is evil, slavery is disgusting, slavery is inhuman . . .
Image: www.realhistories.org.uk
The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has held the country of Niger guilty in failing to protect a girl from being sold into slavery. Hadijatou Mani was sold into slavery in 1996 when she was a 12-year old girl to El Hadj Souleymane Naroua, a friend of her mother’s master. She was used as a slave by Naroua for 10 years to do unpaid household and agricultural work and was used as a “wahiya” or a sex-slave and was regularly beaten and sexually abused and was forced to bear three of his children. Shockingly, Mani was jailed for bigamy when Naroua opposed her marriage to another man stating that she had become his wife when he set her free in 2005. The court asked Niger to pay 10 million West African CFA francs (10 million XOF / 15,250 EUR / 19,120 USD / 12,200 GBP / 9.54 lakh INR) as damages.
The case of Hadijatou Mani and her child . . . a body blow to modern day slavery in Africa . . .
Image: AFP
Though the practice of slavery is banned in Niger, Anti-Slavery International estimates that there are around 43,000 slaves in Niger. Read more about this shocking, barbaric and inhuman practice here. Slavery is also widely prevalent in other countries in Africa, like Mauritania and Sudan.
Watch a short video about slavery and an organisation that fights this abhorrent practice in Mauritania :
(If the video does not load, you can watch it here.)
There was something about my blogs that was bothering me. Now I have decided to fix it!
You are welcome to be a copycat!
Image: www.kyle-brady.com
Despite the fact that I try to promote free and open source software and despite the fact that most of the pictures and videos on this blog are not my own, I was trying to protect my posts by copyright Not any longer! Everything on this blog is now COPYLEFTED!
In case anyone wants to copy any post or any part of it, you are welcome to do so without asking me. While it would be great if you could provide a link back to this blog, even that is not necessary. As my blogs are about spreading ideas and thoughts and information, I realise the futility of trying to “protect” them when I want to spread them. I was also inspired by this post on my friend’s blog. Thank you, Axinia!
There is no more copyright,
The name of the game is copyleft,
So go ahead and be a copycat!
A few copyscape buttons may still exist on some posts. I’ll remove them as soon as possible.
How many times have we witnessed this before? A rogue fascist government unleashing genocide upon its own citizens in order to carry out its nefarious aim of ethnically cleansing a minority community while the international community and the United Nations remains a mute spectator? Innumerable times, going by my limited knowledge of world history. Several times after the Second World War, when the concept of human rights, international law and the United Nations were firmly established. Yet the world refuses to learn from history.
The non-violent philosophy of Buddhism has been murdered by those who claim to be staunch Buddhists . . .
Image: tamilnation.org
As the fighting between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tiger rebels intensifies, a terrible humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding. Read my previous post to know more. This post offers video proof of whatever I have stated in my previous post. This is for those who would like to believe the reports of the “mainstream media” which includes newspapers like The Hindu, the famous toilet paper of Chennai which is virtually acting as the mouthpiece of a rogue fascist regime as it goes about its task of carrying out its genocidal agenda. I’ll write more on The Hindu in a later post.
(Warning: The videos as well as the last portion of this post make for some terrible viewing and reading. This is not for the weak hearted. I would NOT recommend it to young children, pregnant women and those who suffer from heart ailments and high blood pressure.)
This is a gut-wrenching video of a school bus that was attacked by the Sri Lankan armed forces:
This is a video of children who bore the brunt of an aerial bombing mission of the Sri Lankan Air Force:
Would anyone brand a child as a “terrorist”?
The rogue government forces of Sri Lanka and barbaric paramilitary forces under the control of the Sri Lankan government are known to indulge in massacres and tortures and dump the mutilated bodies of innocent Tamil civilians by the wayside:
Even aid workers are not spared. Social workers belonging to an NGO taking care of food supplies were just lined up and shot dead, execution style, by the Sri Lankan army:
Like the Nazi criminals who arrested anyone who was a Jew or belonged to some other minority community, the lawless Sri Lankan police in Colombo carry out mass arrests of Tamil civilians:
Not surprisingly, the Island of Terror has one of the worst Human Rights record in the whole world and its crimes go unpunished because they are committed by the state:
In case you have not read about the Nazi concentration camps where barbaric, inhuman forms of torture were carried out, you have not missed much. The Sri Lankan police would put the Nazi criminals to shame when it comes to torturing innocent civilians, even women who are mentally ill:
This is a a statement made by a Hindu priest who has been in prison for nearly a decade in Sri Lanka.
The actual names of those affected have been replaced; places and dates have been deleted to safeguard their safety. This is only a condensed part of the full statement from him in order to avoid undesirable consequences to him.
Sri Sankra Iyar Shivaguru Sarma (name changed)
Jaffna
I have (Deleted) children. My wife is Sankari Sarma Shivaguru Sarma (name changed) age (Deleted) . Our children are now aged (Deleted) .
Since 1992 my wife is mentally affected. Doctor (Name Deleted) treated her. Due to Sooriya Kathir attack, we were displaced from Jaffna loosing all over properties and we moved to Kanthasamy Temple in Kilinochchi. Again we were displaced from Kilinochchi due to the Jeyasikkuru attack to Vavuniya from there we went to Colombo in search of a job.
I got employed in a temple (name and address of the temple deleted) as a priest and I was getting my wife treated. On (date deleted) people from TID (6th floor) arrested me on suspicion of having involved in the suicidal attack on (name deleted). In spite of knowing that I am a Hindu priest yet they stripped me naked and started whipping me with wires and hit me with iron rods, S-Lon pipe filled with cement and with broomstick. They cut me with blades, scorched me with burning cigarettes and applied chilly powder and salt on the wounds. This was totally a horrifying and disgraceful experience. (With difficulty he controlled his emotions)
They hung me topsy-turvy by my toes and put chilly powder and petrol in a shopping bag and pulled it over my head thus suffocating me. They snapped my holy thread (Poonool) from my body and crushed it under their boots. They crushed my penis by pressing it into a drawer and scorched it with burning cigarette butts. Even though I am a Hindu priest, they forced me to drink alcohol and eat meat. This caused me to vomit blood. Later they forcibly got my signature against my will on a document written in Sinhalese on (Deleted) and I was handed over to the CID on the 4th floor.
The CID kept me there for 07 months and tortured me severely. It was worse here than before. They inserted a piece of barbed wire through my anus and moved it up and down. Lot of flesh and blood came out. They beat me with a baton and I was bleeding from my head. I felt faintish and became unconscious and when I regained I noted the joint on my left elbow was broken. Here too they tied both my hands behind, hung me upside down by my toes and beat me. I was beaten with 1.044 wires.
ICRC was not permitted to meet me. ICRC was tossed between TID and CID offices. When I said that the ICRC would be reporting to their Head office in Geneva saying that I had been killed, they agreed to allow the ICRC to see me. This was told to me by Ms. Linda from the ICRC. She recorded the details of my wounds.
The temple I worked for threw my wife and children out of the temple and it was her brother, who took care of them and placed them in a lodge. The CID arrested my mentally derailed wife and our two children [then aged (Deleted)] from the lodge on (date deleted). I was stripped and tortured in front of my children and wife. My wife was also tortured without considering that she was a mental patient. Both our children screamed on seeing this. Our children were released after three months and since (date deleted) they are staying in an orphanage. (He broke down when he mentioned the word “orphanage.”)
I was again handed over to the TID for inquiry. I was tortured by them. On (date deleted) a representative from the UNO took my confidential statement, which lasted for five hours. They photographed the wounds on my body. It was a doctor from the UNO who took the photos. On their instructions the DMO of the (Deleted)] Hospital recorded the wounds on my body. I was again handed over back to the CID.
My wife and I were taken out with a 72 hours prior permission from the magistrate on (Deleted) and we were tortured. We were taken out on several occasions for “inquiry” which meant more torture. We were then put in our respective prisons. I came to Kaluththurai prison on (date deleted). We were taken out on the following dates (4 dates deleted) and tortured. When we were presented before the magistrate on (date deleted) and on (date deleted) he ordered that protection be provided to us.
Ms.Linda from the ICRC, when she came to see me at the Jail, informed that I should not be tortured. All details of my wounds are with the ICRC.
The details of the torture to my wife:
1. They inserted a banana pod inside her vagina after applying chilly powder on it.
2. They inserted barbed wire inside her vagina and the anus.
3. Women officers stripped her while the males were watching.
4. They slashed all over her body with blades.
5. She was whipped with 1.044 wires.
6. She was beaten with clubs, S-Lon pipe filled with cement, and belts.
7. Her face was covered with a shopping bag filled with chilly powder and petrol.
8. Her head was ducked in a water tank thus suffocating her.
9. She was scorched with cigarettes.
10. They inserted pins under the nails of the fingers.
11. They pushed her on the floor and trampled her with their boots while standing on her.
I too got the same treatment except that I was beaten more severely and brutally. He provides the names of those who tortured them.
When the torture on me was established, the crown council was trying to drag the case by bringing in new witness, which is illegal. There are five solicitors conducting the case on behalf of the state. This is the forth judge conducting my case. In our case the Crown has no proof to establish the allegations against us. They have cross-examined for one and half years. My case number is (deleted). The Human Rights and Development Centre has appointed the solicitor Mr.(deleted) to conduct our case.
“Where can we stay when we are released? Under the present circumstances killings and abductions are going on. Some also die in the prison.
Both of us have become utterly sick of the tortures. We are at a loss to know where to go with our children. Because we were in Jail, no Temple will admit us as priests. No relative will accept us in their fold. My wife who is already mentally ill and our two children will be psychologically affected due to this. We do not know if we can live in peace. Only God can help us” said the priest.
——-Courtesy: www.tamilcanadian.com; Mr. K. Mylvaganam
There are states and then there are rogue states. A rogue state is one that uses various pretexts to unleash genocide against its own citizens and ignores every international law and every norm of civilised behaviour to commit horrible crimes against humanity. While history has been witness to so many genocides carried out in different parts of the world, shamefully, the international community is maintaining a deafening silence on an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place in Sri Lanka.
State terrorism is not new in the Island of Terror . . .
Under the pretext of fighting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an organisation that is branded as a terrorist group by many countries but is regarded by the ethnic Tamil minority in Sri Lanka as freedom fighters involved in a war to establish a free state of Tamil Eelam (தமிழ் ஈழம்), the government of Sri Lanka is resorting to massive aerial bombings of civilian areas and indiscriminate shelling of civilian towns and villages. Schools, orphanages and places of worship are not spared. The media, both local and international is not allowed anywhere near the conflict zone. International aid workers are forced to leave the zones that are in desperate need of food and medical aid. Local aid workers are ruthlessly gunned down. Forced abductions, disappearances and massacres are perpetrated by both the government forces and rogue paramilitary organisations that have the backing of the government. Barbaric forms of torture that would put the Nazi concentration camps to shame are perpetrated on innocent Tamil civilians who are suspected to be sympathisers of the LTTE. Villages and towns are ethnically cleansed and civilians are forced to live under trees and face heavy aerial bombardment. Food, water supply and electricity are deliberately cut off to areas under rebel control. Bridges and roads are destroyed by the government to ensure that no food or medical aid reaches the affected people. The government of Sri Lanka behaves much worse than the Tamil Tiger rebels when it comes to the mass murder of innocent civilians. The police in Colombo resort to mass arrest of ordinary Tamil citizens. While the rogue Government of Sri Lanka asks civilians to flee rebel held areas at extremely short notice, those who seek refuge in the capital are arrested en masse. There is a media blackout by the rogue Sinhala fascist government to cover up its shocking crimes against humanity. International aid workers are worried that a bloodbath is taking place with no neutral monitors in the area. The absence of food and medical supplies in the war zone is leading to a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.
By maintaining a deafening silence, the dumb international community is playing a passive role in the genocide. Except for a few noble human rights organisations and aid groups, there is no one to speak out against the genocide and bring the rogue government of a tiny island state to its senses. Shame on the dumb international community for failing to halt the worst genocide to take place in Asia!
Against this backdrop, there seems to be atleast one Sri Lankan citizen of Sinhala origin to speak out against the genocide. And he is no ordinary Sri Lankan. A doctor by profession, he belongs to the family that has ruled Sri Lanka for the most part of its post-independence history. If you want to hear something that is not a bunch of lies spewed out by the fascist Sinhala government, please spare a few minutes to watch the respected human rights activist, Dr. Brian Seneviratne speak out against the holocaust taking place in the South Asian country:
If you are reading this post, I assume you would not have experienced starvation in your life. Certainly not prolonged starvation that has been forced on you by economic circumstances. But do you know how many people on this planet are facing starvation? Almost a billion! That is nearly one-sixth of the entire human population. Yes, one in every six humans is starving! In a damning report released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in conjunction with Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, thirty-three countries around the world have “alarming” or “extremely alarming” levels of hunger, according to the 2008 Global Hunger Index. The organisation warned against neglecting the fate of starving people amidst the current financial crisis. “Nearly one billion starving people are a scandal for humanity,” Welthungerhilfe head Ingeborg Schaeuble said. “In contrast to the banks, they are not to blame for their misery.”
Hunger is a shame on humanity . . .
Image: http://www.chinapost.com.tw
The problem of hunger is measured in five categories – low, moderate, serious, alarming or extremely alarming. Countries that fall in the low category have an index of less than 5, a score between 5 and 10 is classified as moderate, a score between 10 and 20 is serious, a score between 20 and 30 is alarming and an index of over 30 is extremely alarming.
Among the 88 countries that do not fall in the low category, 33 countries around the world have alarming or extremely alarming levels of hunger and the majority of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Here is the list of countries that do not fall in the low category . . .
Source: IFPRI, BBC; n/a – data not available, * – data not reliable
India fares very poorly in the list and is ranked 66th in the list of 88 countries In other words, India is the 23rd most hungry country in the world. Though the score has improved, India is ranked better than only Bangladesh in South Asia. What is shocking is the fact that 200 million people in India suffer from hunger!
List of Indian states (only large ones) by hunger . . .
Image: http://news.bbc.co.uk
In four Indian states the problem is classified as serious, twelve Indian states have alarming levels of hunger while the situation is extremely alarming in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
The report says “improving child nutrition is of utmost urgency in most Indian states”.
“All states also need to improve strategies to facilitate inclusive economic growth, ensure food sufficiency and reduce child mortality,” it adds.
Clearly, India needs to tackle the problem of hunger on a war-footing if it wants to make any progress. Shamefully, most of the Indian “mainstream media” loves to hate the poor as well as those dare to speak up for them or highlight their plight as it would expose their cheap and sordid yellow journalism. Instead of acting as responsible citizens in a democracy, most of those in the “mainstream media” are preoccupied with the sensational reporting of the most trivial issues. Shame on them!
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was martyred on October 9, 1967. Forty one years later, an image of this Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary, doctor, guerrilla leader, author and military theorist remains the most famous photograph in the world!
Ernesto Che Guevara . . .
Image: Wikimedia Commons
There is so much to write about the most famous revolutionary in the world that I don’t know what to write. So I’ll just mention a few ways in which the icon of rebellion is remembered across the world (taken from wikipedia articles):
Nelson Mandela has referred to him as: “An inspiration for every human being who loves freedom”
Jean-Paul Sartre described him as “not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age.”
Guevara remains a beloved national hero in Cuba (almost a secular saint, to many on the Caribbean island), where he is remembered for promoting unpaid voluntary work by working shirtless on building sites or hauling sacks of sugar. To this day, he appears on a Cuban banknote cutting sugar cane with a machete in the fields. Cuban school children begin each morning by pledging “We will be like Che.”
In his native Argentina, where high schools bear his name, numerous Che museums dot the country and in 2008, a 3.65 metre (12 foot) bronze statue of Che was unveiled in his birth city of Rosario. Che was also voted “Argentina’s greatest historical and political figure.”
In the land where he was executed, Bolivia, Che Guevara has been transfigured and “canonised” by the local Bolivian campesinos. No longer is Che Guevara considered as a guerrilla insurgent, but he is now viewed as a “Saint” by locals who had come to refer to him as “San Ernesto de La Higuera” (Saint Ernesto of La Higuera). Accompanying his “Sainthood” came prayers for favours and legends of his ghost still walking the area.
In Bolivia, images of Che now hang next to images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Che’s murdered body is now compared to John the Baptist and in many homes, Che’s face competes for wall space with a host of Roman Catholic Saints. Some rural campesinos now believe that if you whisper Che Guevara’s name to the sky or light a candle to his memory, you will find your lost goat or cow.
For instance, Manuel Cortez says: “It’s like he is alive and with us, like a friend. He is kind of like a Virgin Mary for us. We say, Che, help us with our work or with this planting, and it always goes well.”
Throughout the world, Che is regarded by the youth as an icon. He is the world’s most famous rebel, a man who symbolises the spirit of revolution. Even those who despise Che’s egalitarian ideals and rebellious spirit shamelessly make use of his image to sell their products!
Watch this Spanish song dedicated to el Guerrillero Heroico, San Ernesto de La Higuera, Ernesto Che Guevara . . .
(If the video does not load, you can watch it here.)
Here is the footage of the victorious Cuban revolutionaries, after the overthrow of the infamous military dictatorship of the notorious tyrant Gen. Fulgencio Batista . . .
(If the video does not load, you can watch it here.)
Che was captured in Bolivia while he was leading a revolution in that country. On October 9, Bolivian President René Barrientos ordered that Guevara be killed. The executioner was Mario Terán, a sergeant in the Bolivian army. Moments before Guevara was executed he was asked if he was thinking about his own immortality. “No,” he replied, “I’m thinking about the immortality of the revolution.” Che Guevara also allegedly said to his executioner, “I know you’ve come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.”
Cowards can only kill the icon of rebellion, they can never kill the revolutionary spirit. The spirit of San Ernesto de La Higuera will not leave this planet until the ills that plague the world are cured. El Guerrillero Heroico is simply immortal!
¡Viva la Revolución!
(After reading this, in case you think that I’m a “communist” or a “Marxist”, I can only laugh my heart out at you People tend to be so biased in their views about economic concepts that they get the shock of their lives when they come across someone who is free of bias )
Okay, now that the people of the world in general and Americans in particular, have witnessed the greatest robbery in the history of the world, let us get to know something about how all this happened:
And what does the government (of Wall Street, by Wall Street and for Wall Street) do? It prepares a whopping seven hundred billion dollar (700,000,000,000 USD / 507,520,000,000 EUR / 397,366,000,000 GBP / 73,664,760,000,000 JPY / 33 lakh crore INR) bailout package. With tax payers’ money, of course! When the people protest against this shocking plan and get it defeated in the House of Representatives, it becomes a revised plan by adding some pork. It gets passed by the “people’s representatives” and gets the signature of the President. The amount? A trillion:
Does it have any provision for those who were robbed of their homes and hard-earned money? Of course not! They are always at the receiving end:
What do those unfortunate people do? Left with no choice, they are forced to leave their homes:
But not before expressing some of their anger:
Where can they go? Some of them are forced to live in their vehicles:
While others are forced to live in tents and depend on handouts:
This is the sad fate of those who were hit the hardest by the sub-prime mortgage crisis. This is the shocking reality that they have to face:
There are no guarantees for them in the bailout plan. Their taxes are being taken away from them to reward those who pushed them into the present situation. While they lose their homes and live in their cars and in tents, the corrupt, greedy Wall Street bankers are given a massive bonanza with their taxes so that they can continue to purchase villas on the Spanish coast and châteaux in the French countryside and luxury homes in Monaco. Let’s not forget the secret Swiss bank accounts. Or the luxury yachts, the private jets and the helicopters!
is also widely prevalent in other countries in Africa, like Mauritania and Sudan.
Not any longer! Everything on this blog is now COPYLEFTED! 
That is nearly one-sixth of the entire human population. Yes, one in every six humans is starving! 
People tend to be so biased in their views about economic concepts that they get the shock 
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