Rebel Up! Soundclash (#15)
Diasporic sounds from the global underground..... a global culture mashup of rougher world music and visuals, without borders! (mestizo, gypsy, old skool roots, roughness from Africa, latino cuts, rhythms from Arabia, Asian pop and gritty electronics. Everything!, and worldy mashed) with various dj's, armed with a musical manifesto.....
Allow me to explain: When I lived in the Netherlands, I discovered a radical little event once a month in Amsterdam called Rebel Up! Soundclash. I always danced my soul out with others in this great painted space with cheap beers and djs that i dug juxtaposing serbian horns with other beats, and the music against videos of nature, funny and beautiful things, art, women, psychadelic colors. I'm still on the email list, thus snippets of the past are in my now. This event of which I cherish memories continues and changes- and creates change, each month raising money for different great people deeds and organizations. Ooh, I wish I could go!
"Feel like hearing tunes from the freshest South American style?
Now's the time, Rebel Up! Soundclash finally presents a Nueva Cumbia special!
and a special guest too; DJ Pinchado from Buenos Aires!
His tropicalist cut ups of crunchy cumbia's and slow rebajadas will make the dancefloor shake and swoon into a tropical sizzle! Hear snippets below...
http://www.myspace.com/djpinchado
Since Colombia is the cradle of the cumbia, this special night will be in aid of a Colombian foundation, named Juconi (www.juconi.nl). We will support the Micro Empresas project, where poor single working mothers receive support in setting up their own little business through practical education. This way they can start working from home instead of leaving their children behind every day for a far away and mostly underpaid job. This will prevent their children from ending up on the street and gives them and their family a chance for a better future.
We hope to see you at OCCII for some lush latino action!! Better not miss it, it's gonna be the best tropical underground party of the summer...
Saturday, 23rd of August @ OCCII, Amsterdam ( http://www.occii.org/)
Amstelveenseweg 134 (tram #1 (stop Overtoomsesluis) or #2)
doors open 22:30 till late, 4 Euro fee. Profit goes to charity!"
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
US Drug Policy at Home and Abroad
Yesterday at work a resident came home high. When my co-worker told her she would have a drug test today she ran. She is still AWAL. And she has a history of drug use that goes beyond cannibus, so there is reason to be concerned. But I can't get out of my head the large population of non-violent prisoners in the sprawling unjustice system that we have with profits growing annual increasingly for private detention firms; that students of great potential are denied financial aid because they smoked marijana (in legal jargon age 18+ drug felon); and the government perpetuates this violence upon the people it is supposed to protect by telling us pot is illegal and terrible, saying little of alcohol, which provokes and even kills.
Two other resources on the same topic:
1. http://tv.mpp.org/shorts/the-human-cost-of-marijuana-prohibition-part-2/
2. : oh the damage we're wracking at home and abroad: in colombia and mexico too
"Plan Colombia Heads for Mexico
May 28, 2008 by Stephen Lendman
It's called "Plan Mexico," or more formally the "Merida Initiative," and here's the scheme. It's to do for Mexicans what Plan Colombia has done to that nation since 1999, and, in fact, much earlier. Since then, billions have gone for the following:
-- to establish a US military foothold in the country;
-- mostly to fund US weapons, chemical and other corporate profiteers; it's a long-standing practice; in fact, a 1997 Pentagon document affirms that America's military will "protect US interests and investments;" in Colombia, it's to control its valuable resources; most importantly oil and natural gas but also coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, silver, emeralds, copper and more; it's also to crush worker resistance, eliminate unions, target human rights and peasant opposition groups, and make the country a "free market" paradise inhospitable to people;
-- it funds a brutish military as well; already, over 10,000 of its soldiers have been trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) - aka the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia; its graduates are infamous as human rights abusers, drugs traffickers, and death squad practitioners; they were well schooled in their "arts" by the nation most skilled in them;
-- it lets Colombia arm and support paramilitary death squads; they're known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC); for more than a decade, they've terrorized Colombians and are responsible for most killings and massacres in support of powerful western and local business interests;
-- it funds drug eradication efforts, but only in FARC-EP and ELN areas; government-controlled ones are exempt; trafficking is big business; laundering drugs money reaps huge profits for major US and regional banks; the CIA has also been linked to the trade for decades, especially since the 1980s; after Afghanistan's invasion and occupation, opium harvests set records - mostly from areas controlled by US-allied "warlords;" the Taliban's drug eradication program was one reason it was targeted; Colombia's drug eradication is horrific; it causes ecological devastation; crop and forest destruction; lives and livelihoods lost; large areas chemically contaminated; bottom line of the program - record amounts of Colombian cocaine reach US and world markets; trafficking is more profitable than ever; so is big business thanks to paramilitary terror;
-- it's to topple the FARC-EP and ELN resistance groups; Latin American expert James Petras calls the former the "longest standing (since 1964), largest peasant-based guerrilla (resistance) movement in the world;" it's also to weaken Hugo Chavez, other regional populist leaders and groups, and destabilize their countries; and
-- it supports the "Uribe doctrine;" it's in lockstep with Washington; its policies are hard right, corporate-friendly and militarized for enforcement.
Plan Colombia turned the country into a dependable, profitable narco-state. Business is better than ever. Violence is out of control and human rights abuses are appalling.
It gets worse. Two-thirds of Columbians are impoverished. Over 2.5 million peasant and urban slum dwellers have been displaced. Thousands of trade unionists have been murdered (more than anywhere else in the world), and many more thousands of peasants, rural teachers, and peasant and indigenous leaders have as well. Paramilitary land seizures are commonplace. Colombian latifundistas profit hugely. Wealth concentration is extreme and growing. Corruption infests the government. Many thousands in desperation are leaving. Colombia's "democracy" is a sham. So is Mexico's. Plan Mexico will make it worse. That's the whole idea, and it's part of the secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership - aka the North American Union.
It's planned behind closed doors - to militarize and annex the continent. Corporate giants are in charge, mostly US ones. The idea is for an unregulated open field for profit. The Bush administration, Canada and Mexico support it. Things are moving toward implementation. Three nations will become one. National sovereignty eliminated. Worker rights as well. Opposition is building, but moves are planned to quash it. That's the militarization part.
Business intends to win this one. People are to be exploited, not helped. That's why it's kept secret. The idea is to agree on plans, inform legislatures minimally about them, get SPP passed, then implement it with as few of its disturbing details known in hopes once they are they'll be too late to reverse.
SPP is ugly, ominous and hugely people destructive. Hundreds of millions in three countries will be affected. Others in the region as well. Plan Mexico is a contribution to the scheme. Below is what we know about it.
Plan Mexico - Exploitation Writ Large
The plan was first announced in October 2007 as a "regional security cooperation initiative." It's to provide $1.4 billion in aid (over three years) for Mexico and Central America on the pretext of fighting drugs trafficking and organized crime linked to it. FY 2008 calls for $550 million for starters with about 10% of it for Central America.
In fact, Plan Mexico is part of SPP's grand scheme to militarize the continent, let corporate predators exploit it, and keep people from three countries none the wiser. Most aid will go to Mexico's military and police forces with its major portion earmarked back to US defense contractors for equipment, training and maintenance. It's how these schemes always work.
This one includes a menu of security allocations, administrative functions, and special needs like software, forensics equipment, database compilations, plus plenty more for friendly pockets to keep our Mexican cohorts on board.
After failing on May 15, House passage will likely follow the Senate's approval on May 22 - below the radar. It's one of many appropriations tucked into the latest Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental funding request, and its purpose is just as outlandish. It will militarize Mexico without deploying US troops. It will also open the country for plunder, privatize everything including state-owned oil company PEMEX, give Washington a greater foothold there, and get around the touchy military issue by allowing in Blackwater paramilitaries instead to work with Mexican security forces.
Only privatizing PEMEX is in doubt thanks to immense citizen opposition. Thousands of "brigadistas" were in the streets, protesting outside the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, as lawmakers considered ending PEMEX state-control. They paralyzed debate and brought it to a halt - temporarily putting off a final resolution of this very contentious issue. Big Oil wants it. Most Mexicans don't. The battle continues. Mexico's military may get involved.
The US State Department describes them as follows:
-- ...."impunity and corruption (in Mexico's security forces are) problems, particularly at the state and local levels. The following human rights problems were reported: unlawful killings; kidnappings; physical abuse; poor and overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency in the judicial system; (coerced) confessions....permitted as evidence in trials; criminal intimidation of journalists leading to self-censorship; corruption at all levels of government; domestic violence against women (often with impunity); violence, including killings, against women; trafficking in persons; social and economic discrimination against indigenous people; and child labor."
Mexico's military fares little better with promises Plan Mexico will worsen it. President Calderon now deploys troops around the country. People fear them when they come. They're purportedly against drugs traffickers, but that's mostly cover. Their real purpose may be sinister - a possible dress rehearsal for martial law when SPP is implemented."
Two other resources on the same topic:
1. http://tv.mpp.org/shorts/the-human-cost-of-marijuana-prohibition-part-2/
2. : oh the damage we're wracking at home and abroad: in colombia and mexico too
"Plan Colombia Heads for Mexico
May 28, 2008 by Stephen Lendman
It's called "Plan Mexico," or more formally the "Merida Initiative," and here's the scheme. It's to do for Mexicans what Plan Colombia has done to that nation since 1999, and, in fact, much earlier. Since then, billions have gone for the following:
-- to establish a US military foothold in the country;
-- mostly to fund US weapons, chemical and other corporate profiteers; it's a long-standing practice; in fact, a 1997 Pentagon document affirms that America's military will "protect US interests and investments;" in Colombia, it's to control its valuable resources; most importantly oil and natural gas but also coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, silver, emeralds, copper and more; it's also to crush worker resistance, eliminate unions, target human rights and peasant opposition groups, and make the country a "free market" paradise inhospitable to people;
-- it funds a brutish military as well; already, over 10,000 of its soldiers have been trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) - aka the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia; its graduates are infamous as human rights abusers, drugs traffickers, and death squad practitioners; they were well schooled in their "arts" by the nation most skilled in them;
-- it lets Colombia arm and support paramilitary death squads; they're known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC); for more than a decade, they've terrorized Colombians and are responsible for most killings and massacres in support of powerful western and local business interests;
-- it funds drug eradication efforts, but only in FARC-EP and ELN areas; government-controlled ones are exempt; trafficking is big business; laundering drugs money reaps huge profits for major US and regional banks; the CIA has also been linked to the trade for decades, especially since the 1980s; after Afghanistan's invasion and occupation, opium harvests set records - mostly from areas controlled by US-allied "warlords;" the Taliban's drug eradication program was one reason it was targeted; Colombia's drug eradication is horrific; it causes ecological devastation; crop and forest destruction; lives and livelihoods lost; large areas chemically contaminated; bottom line of the program - record amounts of Colombian cocaine reach US and world markets; trafficking is more profitable than ever; so is big business thanks to paramilitary terror;
-- it's to topple the FARC-EP and ELN resistance groups; Latin American expert James Petras calls the former the "longest standing (since 1964), largest peasant-based guerrilla (resistance) movement in the world;" it's also to weaken Hugo Chavez, other regional populist leaders and groups, and destabilize their countries; and
-- it supports the "Uribe doctrine;" it's in lockstep with Washington; its policies are hard right, corporate-friendly and militarized for enforcement.
Plan Colombia turned the country into a dependable, profitable narco-state. Business is better than ever. Violence is out of control and human rights abuses are appalling.
It gets worse. Two-thirds of Columbians are impoverished. Over 2.5 million peasant and urban slum dwellers have been displaced. Thousands of trade unionists have been murdered (more than anywhere else in the world), and many more thousands of peasants, rural teachers, and peasant and indigenous leaders have as well. Paramilitary land seizures are commonplace. Colombian latifundistas profit hugely. Wealth concentration is extreme and growing. Corruption infests the government. Many thousands in desperation are leaving. Colombia's "democracy" is a sham. So is Mexico's. Plan Mexico will make it worse. That's the whole idea, and it's part of the secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership - aka the North American Union.
It's planned behind closed doors - to militarize and annex the continent. Corporate giants are in charge, mostly US ones. The idea is for an unregulated open field for profit. The Bush administration, Canada and Mexico support it. Things are moving toward implementation. Three nations will become one. National sovereignty eliminated. Worker rights as well. Opposition is building, but moves are planned to quash it. That's the militarization part.
Business intends to win this one. People are to be exploited, not helped. That's why it's kept secret. The idea is to agree on plans, inform legislatures minimally about them, get SPP passed, then implement it with as few of its disturbing details known in hopes once they are they'll be too late to reverse.
SPP is ugly, ominous and hugely people destructive. Hundreds of millions in three countries will be affected. Others in the region as well. Plan Mexico is a contribution to the scheme. Below is what we know about it.
Plan Mexico - Exploitation Writ Large
The plan was first announced in October 2007 as a "regional security cooperation initiative." It's to provide $1.4 billion in aid (over three years) for Mexico and Central America on the pretext of fighting drugs trafficking and organized crime linked to it. FY 2008 calls for $550 million for starters with about 10% of it for Central America.
In fact, Plan Mexico is part of SPP's grand scheme to militarize the continent, let corporate predators exploit it, and keep people from three countries none the wiser. Most aid will go to Mexico's military and police forces with its major portion earmarked back to US defense contractors for equipment, training and maintenance. It's how these schemes always work.
This one includes a menu of security allocations, administrative functions, and special needs like software, forensics equipment, database compilations, plus plenty more for friendly pockets to keep our Mexican cohorts on board.
After failing on May 15, House passage will likely follow the Senate's approval on May 22 - below the radar. It's one of many appropriations tucked into the latest Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental funding request, and its purpose is just as outlandish. It will militarize Mexico without deploying US troops. It will also open the country for plunder, privatize everything including state-owned oil company PEMEX, give Washington a greater foothold there, and get around the touchy military issue by allowing in Blackwater paramilitaries instead to work with Mexican security forces.
Only privatizing PEMEX is in doubt thanks to immense citizen opposition. Thousands of "brigadistas" were in the streets, protesting outside the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, as lawmakers considered ending PEMEX state-control. They paralyzed debate and brought it to a halt - temporarily putting off a final resolution of this very contentious issue. Big Oil wants it. Most Mexicans don't. The battle continues. Mexico's military may get involved.
The US State Department describes them as follows:
-- ...."impunity and corruption (in Mexico's security forces are) problems, particularly at the state and local levels. The following human rights problems were reported: unlawful killings; kidnappings; physical abuse; poor and overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency in the judicial system; (coerced) confessions....permitted as evidence in trials; criminal intimidation of journalists leading to self-censorship; corruption at all levels of government; domestic violence against women (often with impunity); violence, including killings, against women; trafficking in persons; social and economic discrimination against indigenous people; and child labor."
Mexico's military fares little better with promises Plan Mexico will worsen it. President Calderon now deploys troops around the country. People fear them when they come. They're purportedly against drugs traffickers, but that's mostly cover. Their real purpose may be sinister - a possible dress rehearsal for martial law when SPP is implemented."
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
As promised, Lizzie speaks to the future of HRTU and Expressions
To all who love Expression Sessions at The Holy Road House in Columbia, MO:
I'm sorry for the delay on our HRTU update. We have been like a ship out at sea and it gets so hectic out here, it's hard to keep up some times.
So, let me get right to it. The HRTU Board has decided to dissolve and withdraw our application for Non profit status because they do not have the resources to hire an experienced Executive Director. They also do not have an active board. HRTU has let go of The Columbia House as an expense. What this means is, those who want Expression Sessions to continue will need to either figure out how to make the HRTU a Community Supported Arts Co-op or expression sessions will have to find another venue. The Co-op was always the concept behind HRTU and I do hope you all will see it to fruition. If the house does not become self sustaining by October, we will have to begin talking about other solutions.
We love everyone and we feel very proud to be part of the Columbia community. We have given much time and resources over the last two years. We hope you will form a group of co-op members and that each individual will commit a yearly house fee. This fee will be used to cover part of the house payment, public use insurance, and maintenence. I don't know exactly what the number is yet, but Adam will be working with us to figure it out. Meanwhile, Bobby and Daniel are planning to join Adam back in Columbia in September. The three of them, plus one or two others, will be paying rent to help cover the mortgage and maintanence. I know they are all looking forward to co-oping with those who are interested.
If you do choose, as a group, to share the responsibility of the house, then it will be made available to those contributing members during allocated hours throughout the week, for rehearsals, massages, meetings, garden meditation, classes, etc.
Please forgive us if this lets you down. We work very hard to create a peaceful collective reality in this world and believe in all of you from the deepest part of our selves. That said, we need to focus on being artists right now. We need to let the HRTU Board make the necessary decisions it must make. The non profit will have to wait until HRTU can afford an executive director and until there is a strong board. In the meantime, HRTU is still an unofficial union of friends, artists, independent businesses and supporters creating a peaceful reality on line, and in reality.
Big love and soul shine to all. Gratitude to Blake, Karla, Althea, Adam, Bobby, Daniel and all of you, for helping us with this transformation.
In trust and solidarity, L
--
if you don't create y*Our reality, y*Our reality will create you
...So, I (Thea) propose that we meet for a community potluck and discussion the first Friday that Adam, Bobby and Daniel are back, which my calendar suggests might be 29 August). I'll follow up with the boys regarding the accuracy of that date but please let me know if that would work for you. Toward a more perfect union!
I'm sorry for the delay on our HRTU update. We have been like a ship out at sea and it gets so hectic out here, it's hard to keep up some times.
So, let me get right to it. The HRTU Board has decided to dissolve and withdraw our application for Non profit status because they do not have the resources to hire an experienced Executive Director. They also do not have an active board. HRTU has let go of The Columbia House as an expense. What this means is, those who want Expression Sessions to continue will need to either figure out how to make the HRTU a Community Supported Arts Co-op or expression sessions will have to find another venue. The Co-op was always the concept behind HRTU and I do hope you all will see it to fruition. If the house does not become self sustaining by October, we will have to begin talking about other solutions.
We love everyone and we feel very proud to be part of the Columbia community. We have given much time and resources over the last two years. We hope you will form a group of co-op members and that each individual will commit a yearly house fee. This fee will be used to cover part of the house payment, public use insurance, and maintenence. I don't know exactly what the number is yet, but Adam will be working with us to figure it out. Meanwhile, Bobby and Daniel are planning to join Adam back in Columbia in September. The three of them, plus one or two others, will be paying rent to help cover the mortgage and maintanence. I know they are all looking forward to co-oping with those who are interested.
If you do choose, as a group, to share the responsibility of the house, then it will be made available to those contributing members during allocated hours throughout the week, for rehearsals, massages, meetings, garden meditation, classes, etc.
Please forgive us if this lets you down. We work very hard to create a peaceful collective reality in this world and believe in all of you from the deepest part of our selves. That said, we need to focus on being artists right now. We need to let the HRTU Board make the necessary decisions it must make. The non profit will have to wait until HRTU can afford an executive director and until there is a strong board. In the meantime, HRTU is still an unofficial union of friends, artists, independent businesses and supporters creating a peaceful reality on line, and in reality.
Big love and soul shine to all. Gratitude to Blake, Karla, Althea, Adam, Bobby, Daniel and all of you, for helping us with this transformation.
In trust and solidarity, L
--
if you don't create y*Our reality, y*Our reality will create you
...So, I (Thea) propose that we meet for a community potluck and discussion the first Friday that Adam, Bobby and Daniel are back, which my calendar suggests might be 29 August). I'll follow up with the boys regarding the accuracy of that date but please let me know if that would work for you. Toward a more perfect union!
Snapshots of Living
I've been thinking that my blog might be better named "snapshots of living" rather than "ruminations on living." But before making any rash changes, I thought I would share some ruminations, which I have done little of. Here's what's happening in my world:
1. In personal news, my bosses denied me a vacation in Maine with friends, family, human rights activists and the natural world. I failed to follow the policy for requesting vacation (lesson #1 from the real world of work). As such, I have been and will continue to live in the dark shadow of that vacation 6-17 August. I am missing, thinking about Oma, Alicia, Judy, Meliisa, Arcadia National Park... Indeed, I later asked for today off (just have three hours of meetings on Wednesdays) so I could go on my off time, and that too was denied--very clearly a punitive action. An hour before meetings were to begin today, both were cancelled; after all that, you've got to be kidding me!
2. In HRTU news, I spoke with Lizzie yesterday and she's going to try to get me a draft proposal about how the house is going to evolve, become sustainable, financially and otherwise. I am pleasantly suprised that the house will continue to be a progressive community arts space. This information is now posted above.
3. Re HRTU news (ctd), Activist Book Club (ABC) held its first successful meeting on 8/11, Monday morning, at 10:30 am. Four people including myself partook in lively and reflective conversation for almost two hours regarding what are global values and how to actualize them. In synthesis, we talked about the value of:
a) compassion in daily living, that is, treating people like the humans they are
b) breaking the culture of misinformation and silence by acting upon our constitutionally-given responsibility to dissent
c) challenging ourselves to understand the perspective of others, in part by reading across disciplines such that we trip over the assumptions of our own views
d) prioritizing international law over national law (both their merits and pitfals)
e) diplomacy over militarism and our related responsibility to urge our representatives to press for this in national policy
ABC will reconvene at the HRTU house on Monday 8/25 at 9:45 am. Global Values 101 (the book we are reading) is always in the mailbox on the porch and anyone is welcome to stop by and read the first section (intro and three chapters), which is what we will discuss. Please note that you do not have to read the entirety of the section to attend or contribute. I will provide coffee. We will begin by 10 and conclude by noon. If you are unable to attend at that time but would like to join the book club in the future, please contact me with alternative suggestions for meeting days/times.
4. I'm working on a book chapter called "Activist Reflections on Globalization, Human Trafficking and War Crimes in the Former Yugoslav Space." (I was suprised and thrilled when ABC inspired talk that closely related to these themes!) The chapter is slated to be published as part of an anthology in 2009. My goal and that of my editor is to have a draft by the end of the summer. I have written and revised the abstract, but I have yet to start the chapter itself. I will write something today! In the meantime, here's some more specifics. Feedback is welcome:
Book Chapter Outline including Methodology
I blazed my activist path to the fight against human trafficking in mid-Missouri between summer 2007 and spring 2008. Opportunities made possible via the Humanity in Action (HIA) fellowship program paved the way for both my engagement with the Balkans and the movement against modern-day slavery. A month-long human rights fellowship in the Netherlands laid the groundwork for one month of informal field research in the former-Yugoslav space as well as a three-month legal internship at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. I consistently utilize my training in feminist sociology and qualitative ethnography. These research approaches implicitly formalize my personal and political goals to contribute to the understanding and advancement of human rights and social justice, locally and globally.
HIA brought me to Amsterdam in June 2007 to study “minority rights as human rights” in contemporary Europe. For the purposes of this chapter, I recognize a minority as any underprivileged group worthy of legal protection and interpersonal attention. Indeed, I depart from the same assumption as the fellowship: that a state cannot declare itself democratic unless it considers minority rights as human rights. HIA charged fellows with understanding the effect of the Holocaust on the modern-day treatment of Dutch minorities. For example, I learned about the asylum seeking process—and was particularly horrified by the compounding nature of this experience for survivors of contemporary genocides. Through my Dutch fellowship studies, I befriended the young, Muslim woman who would later become my host in Sarajevo. This led to a month of personal travel and eye-opening exploration mostly in Bosnia but also through Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.
HIA is also indirectly responsible for my participation in the movement against modern-day slavery. Though I was previously aware of human trafficking, I first recognized it as an issue on which I could have an impact during a July-2007 HIA Poland presentation. The presentation reported the preventative efforts of La Strada, an anti-trafficking group, which faces a future skyrocketing demand for sex workers during a soccer tournament in the summer of 2012. The event will substantially increase the trafficking of the already-thousands of women and children from their Eastern European homes, or origination countries, to Poland, a country of destination and transit to wealthier, Western-European nations. The HIA fellows discussed what engaged citizens like myself could look for and should do to help a suspected victim, being bought and sold for sex against his/her will. When I soon after found myself in the Balkan states of origin on which the presenters had focused, I was too involved in my incipient studies of Slavic culture, history and language to actively take on the challenge of modern-day slavery.
But when I arrived at the ICTY in October 2007, I was exhilarated to have somewhere to focus my indignation about war crimes and other such instances of inhumanity that had gone unanswered for over 13 years. Looking down on The immaculate Hague from an Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) computer on the fourth floor of the United Nations’ (UN) building, I become a cog in the international justice machine. During my three-month internship, I recognized the groundbreaking contribution of international law to individual and government accountability for human rights abuses. Having spent time in the former Yugoslav space, The Hague also helped me comprehend the importance of independent tribunals for the adjudication of crimes against humanity as a clear statement about the unacceptability of ethnic cleansing. Still, I wondered at the unending resources invested in paying western lawyers to live lavishly in the Netherlands as opposed to investing in infrastructure and civil-society building in the former Yugoslav space, itself. At the same time, given the limited resources actually devoted to the Defense, the ICTY’s “justice system” did not appear very just, at all. Most importantly for this chapter, I began to believe that the ICTY was not capable of establishing what Serbia needed in order to achieve reconciliation and closure. Under such circumstances, how can the Balkan states effectively collaborate with their neighbors around imperative transnational issues like human trafficking?
Returning to the United States, I recount my initial difficulty and ultimate success in finding local connections to such international issues. I describe my own contributions to the first annual Stop Traffic Now Anti-Human Conference held at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I also explain the ensuing establishment of a sustainable community coalition of service providers, law enforcement agencies, students, educators and professionals who have come together to identify and help human trafficking victims as well as engage in preventative education. I identify the new imperative for activists of my generation to be uniquely global in their personal perspectives and political action strategies.
Anticipated Findings
Among the most heinous of Serbian genocidal strategies in Bosnia was the use of rape as a systematic weapon of war. The poor, underprivileged rural women who were most likely to fall victim to sexual violence during the war remained equally, if not more vulnerable, to human trafficking after the war. Indeed, previous research confirms that post-conflict regions are an ideal breeding ground for human trafficking. As such, I hope that my story, which connects these two human rights abuses, might provide the basis for more formal research into the retraumatization of rape victims through sexual slavery. A 2005 Save the Children report claims that such rehabilitation programs set up by the international community are "drastically underfunded and often do not adequately address the girls' needs." Ultimately, I hope to increase the funding for an improved model of constructive, feminist intervention for the reintegration of retraumatized survivors as active members of civil society in post-conflict states.
Tentative Conclusions
Ultimately, I analyze the ways in which the past and present policies of my government have exacerbated human rights problems in the former Yugoslav space. I identify state actions as part and parcel of an all-too-ubiquitous Western conviction that neoliberal capitalism can provide a panacea for the still-ailing Balkans. Given the nature of contemporary capitalism—that money moves without limitation on speed or destination, while people are confined to their birth nation state—I outline various ways in which globalization contributes to the ease and growth of human trafficking across international borders. I argue that capitalism creates a system that reinforces and exacerbates existing inequalities, an unacceptable outgrowth of which is modern-day slavery. The Balkan trail of women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation provides a case example and, in this context, I argue for the roles that we as global citizens can play in what I believe should be the international justice movement of the next generation.
1. In personal news, my bosses denied me a vacation in Maine with friends, family, human rights activists and the natural world. I failed to follow the policy for requesting vacation (lesson #1 from the real world of work). As such, I have been and will continue to live in the dark shadow of that vacation 6-17 August. I am missing, thinking about Oma, Alicia, Judy, Meliisa, Arcadia National Park... Indeed, I later asked for today off (just have three hours of meetings on Wednesdays) so I could go on my off time, and that too was denied--very clearly a punitive action. An hour before meetings were to begin today, both were cancelled; after all that, you've got to be kidding me!
2. In HRTU news, I spoke with Lizzie yesterday and she's going to try to get me a draft proposal about how the house is going to evolve, become sustainable, financially and otherwise. I am pleasantly suprised that the house will continue to be a progressive community arts space. This information is now posted above.
3. Re HRTU news (ctd), Activist Book Club (ABC) held its first successful meeting on 8/11, Monday morning, at 10:30 am. Four people including myself partook in lively and reflective conversation for almost two hours regarding what are global values and how to actualize them. In synthesis, we talked about the value of:
a) compassion in daily living, that is, treating people like the humans they are
b) breaking the culture of misinformation and silence by acting upon our constitutionally-given responsibility to dissent
c) challenging ourselves to understand the perspective of others, in part by reading across disciplines such that we trip over the assumptions of our own views
d) prioritizing international law over national law (both their merits and pitfals)
e) diplomacy over militarism and our related responsibility to urge our representatives to press for this in national policy
ABC will reconvene at the HRTU house on Monday 8/25 at 9:45 am. Global Values 101 (the book we are reading) is always in the mailbox on the porch and anyone is welcome to stop by and read the first section (intro and three chapters), which is what we will discuss. Please note that you do not have to read the entirety of the section to attend or contribute. I will provide coffee. We will begin by 10 and conclude by noon. If you are unable to attend at that time but would like to join the book club in the future, please contact me with alternative suggestions for meeting days/times.
4. I'm working on a book chapter called "Activist Reflections on Globalization, Human Trafficking and War Crimes in the Former Yugoslav Space." (I was suprised and thrilled when ABC inspired talk that closely related to these themes!) The chapter is slated to be published as part of an anthology in 2009. My goal and that of my editor is to have a draft by the end of the summer. I have written and revised the abstract, but I have yet to start the chapter itself. I will write something today! In the meantime, here's some more specifics. Feedback is welcome:
Book Chapter Outline including Methodology
I blazed my activist path to the fight against human trafficking in mid-Missouri between summer 2007 and spring 2008. Opportunities made possible via the Humanity in Action (HIA) fellowship program paved the way for both my engagement with the Balkans and the movement against modern-day slavery. A month-long human rights fellowship in the Netherlands laid the groundwork for one month of informal field research in the former-Yugoslav space as well as a three-month legal internship at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. I consistently utilize my training in feminist sociology and qualitative ethnography. These research approaches implicitly formalize my personal and political goals to contribute to the understanding and advancement of human rights and social justice, locally and globally.
HIA brought me to Amsterdam in June 2007 to study “minority rights as human rights” in contemporary Europe. For the purposes of this chapter, I recognize a minority as any underprivileged group worthy of legal protection and interpersonal attention. Indeed, I depart from the same assumption as the fellowship: that a state cannot declare itself democratic unless it considers minority rights as human rights. HIA charged fellows with understanding the effect of the Holocaust on the modern-day treatment of Dutch minorities. For example, I learned about the asylum seeking process—and was particularly horrified by the compounding nature of this experience for survivors of contemporary genocides. Through my Dutch fellowship studies, I befriended the young, Muslim woman who would later become my host in Sarajevo. This led to a month of personal travel and eye-opening exploration mostly in Bosnia but also through Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.
HIA is also indirectly responsible for my participation in the movement against modern-day slavery. Though I was previously aware of human trafficking, I first recognized it as an issue on which I could have an impact during a July-2007 HIA Poland presentation. The presentation reported the preventative efforts of La Strada, an anti-trafficking group, which faces a future skyrocketing demand for sex workers during a soccer tournament in the summer of 2012. The event will substantially increase the trafficking of the already-thousands of women and children from their Eastern European homes, or origination countries, to Poland, a country of destination and transit to wealthier, Western-European nations. The HIA fellows discussed what engaged citizens like myself could look for and should do to help a suspected victim, being bought and sold for sex against his/her will. When I soon after found myself in the Balkan states of origin on which the presenters had focused, I was too involved in my incipient studies of Slavic culture, history and language to actively take on the challenge of modern-day slavery.
But when I arrived at the ICTY in October 2007, I was exhilarated to have somewhere to focus my indignation about war crimes and other such instances of inhumanity that had gone unanswered for over 13 years. Looking down on The immaculate Hague from an Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) computer on the fourth floor of the United Nations’ (UN) building, I become a cog in the international justice machine. During my three-month internship, I recognized the groundbreaking contribution of international law to individual and government accountability for human rights abuses. Having spent time in the former Yugoslav space, The Hague also helped me comprehend the importance of independent tribunals for the adjudication of crimes against humanity as a clear statement about the unacceptability of ethnic cleansing. Still, I wondered at the unending resources invested in paying western lawyers to live lavishly in the Netherlands as opposed to investing in infrastructure and civil-society building in the former Yugoslav space, itself. At the same time, given the limited resources actually devoted to the Defense, the ICTY’s “justice system” did not appear very just, at all. Most importantly for this chapter, I began to believe that the ICTY was not capable of establishing what Serbia needed in order to achieve reconciliation and closure. Under such circumstances, how can the Balkan states effectively collaborate with their neighbors around imperative transnational issues like human trafficking?
Returning to the United States, I recount my initial difficulty and ultimate success in finding local connections to such international issues. I describe my own contributions to the first annual Stop Traffic Now Anti-Human Conference held at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I also explain the ensuing establishment of a sustainable community coalition of service providers, law enforcement agencies, students, educators and professionals who have come together to identify and help human trafficking victims as well as engage in preventative education. I identify the new imperative for activists of my generation to be uniquely global in their personal perspectives and political action strategies.
Anticipated Findings
Among the most heinous of Serbian genocidal strategies in Bosnia was the use of rape as a systematic weapon of war. The poor, underprivileged rural women who were most likely to fall victim to sexual violence during the war remained equally, if not more vulnerable, to human trafficking after the war. Indeed, previous research confirms that post-conflict regions are an ideal breeding ground for human trafficking. As such, I hope that my story, which connects these two human rights abuses, might provide the basis for more formal research into the retraumatization of rape victims through sexual slavery. A 2005 Save the Children report claims that such rehabilitation programs set up by the international community are "drastically underfunded and often do not adequately address the girls' needs." Ultimately, I hope to increase the funding for an improved model of constructive, feminist intervention for the reintegration of retraumatized survivors as active members of civil society in post-conflict states.
Tentative Conclusions
Ultimately, I analyze the ways in which the past and present policies of my government have exacerbated human rights problems in the former Yugoslav space. I identify state actions as part and parcel of an all-too-ubiquitous Western conviction that neoliberal capitalism can provide a panacea for the still-ailing Balkans. Given the nature of contemporary capitalism—that money moves without limitation on speed or destination, while people are confined to their birth nation state—I outline various ways in which globalization contributes to the ease and growth of human trafficking across international borders. I argue that capitalism creates a system that reinforces and exacerbates existing inequalities, an unacceptable outgrowth of which is modern-day slavery. The Balkan trail of women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation provides a case example and, in this context, I argue for the roles that we as global citizens can play in what I believe should be the international justice movement of the next generation.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Laudable parody on new Republican slogan
An unfortunately accurate picture of the state of my country and fellow citizens (August 2008):
... and me with dreadlocks (spring 2005 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Courtesy of AIS)
See more Adam "Ghost Panther" McKay videos at Funny or Die
... and me with dreadlocks (spring 2005 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Courtesy of AIS)
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Express Yourself Elsewhere
A very quick update: HRTU is going through some serious changes (eg non-for-profit to for-profit) and until further notice, Expressions is on hiatus. My hope is that it will reconvene in some form the Friday after Labor Day. I will let you know when I have more information.
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