Friday, January 30, 2009
The reactionary right-wing politics of the Gaza demonstrations, by Francis Chartrand
Israel's offensive in Gaza is in the tradition of the US-British slaughter of Iraqi conscript soldiers retreating from their occupation of Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf war in 1991. An American soldier described that as "like shooting fish in a barrel". So in Gaza now.
Israel has immense technical superiority over Hamas. And the Hamas "fish" swim in the "waters" of a densely-packed civilian population. At least a third of the casualties, maybe far more, have, inevitably, been "civilians".
The demonstrations all over Britain since the Israeli offensive on Gaza began on 27 December have been heavily fuelled by justified outrage at the human cost to the Palestinians of what Israel is doing.
The disproportion between the damage being inflicted on Israel's people and what Israel is doing to the Palestinians of Gaza makes it seem beside the point that this is a two-sided war, that Hamas is waging war on Israel too. The slaughter in Gaza cancels out awareness of everything else.
The coverage in the press has focused heavily on the slaughter, on the horror, and on the number of civilians being killed in Gaza. So have the nightly images on the TV screens.
The Guardian and other media have done most of the work in conjuring up the demonstrations; and the "left", especially the SWP, have done much of the organising for the demonstrations.
But the politics of the demonstrations have been provided by the Islamic chauvinists. In terms of its politics - support Hamas, support Arab and Islamic war on Israel, conquer and destroy Israel - the big demonstration on 10 January in London was an Arab or Islamic chauvinist, or even a clerical-fascist, demonstration. Their slogans, their politics, their programme, echoed and insisted upon by the kitsch left, have provided the politics of the demonstrations, drowning out everything else.
The clerical fascists have politically hegemonised the demonstrations to an astonishing degree. These have not been peace demonstration, but pro-war, and war-mongering, demonstrations - for Hamas's war, and for a general Arab war on Israel.
Calls for a general Arab war on Israel have been the rhetorical stock-in-trade of George Galloway back as far as the demonstrations against the then-upcoming war on Iraq in 2002-3. On Saturday 10 January in Londo many placards portrayed Arab heads of state, depicting them as traitors for not going to the aid of the Palestinians.
In their political slogans and chants, the dominant forces on the demonstrations have been not only against what Israel is doing in Gaza now, but against Israel as such, against Israel's right to exist. Opposition to the Gaza war, and outrage at it, only provide the immediate justification for the settled politics of seeking the root-and-branch extirpation of Israel and "Zionism".
Such politics have long been a central theme of "anti-war" demonstrations, but my strong impression is that they are bolder, cruder, and more explicit now than they have ever been.
On 10 January SWPers on loudhailers chanted: "Destroy Israel". The chant "From the river to the sea/ Palestine will be free" - demanding an Arab Palestine that includes pre-1967 Israel - was pretty pervasive. Placards called for "Freedom for Palestine", which, for Arab and Islamic chauvinists and kitsch-left alike, means Arab or Muslim rule over all pre-1948 Palestine. It implies the elimination of the Jewish state, and since that could be done only by first conquering Israel, the killing of a large part of the population of Israel.
Placards denouncing Arab leaders for not attacking Israel - amidst the chants and other placards - meant more than just attacking Israel to relieve the pressure on the people of Gaza.
Placards equated Israel with Nazism, and what Israel is doing in Gaza with the factory-organised systematic killing of Jews in Hitler-ruled Europe. Placards about 60 years since the Nakba - though not many of those - complemented the chants about "Palestine... from the river to the sea" and pointed up their meaning.
The dominant theme, "stop the slaughter in Gaza", understandable in the circumstances, could not - in the complete absence of any demands that Hamas stop its war - but be for Hamas and Hamas's rocket-war on Israel. Even the talk of "the massacre" subsumed Hamas into the general population, and was one variant of solidarising with Hamas, its rocket war, and its repressive clerical-fascist rule over the people of Gaza.
Talk of "genocide" in Gaza implied an absolute equation of the people of Gaza with Hamas, and absolute solidarity with Hamas.
Even the most visible Jews on the Saturday 10th demonstration - Neturei Karta, a Jewish equivalent of Hamas, who for religious reasons want to put an end to Israel - fitted into the general clerical-fascist politics.
On the January 3rd demonstration, a group of political Islamists near me, some with faces covered by scarves or balaclavas with only eye and mouth holes, pointedly raised their fists and started to chant Allahu Akhbar (God is great) as we passed the House of Commons.
Platform speakers on Saturday 10th nonsensically equated Israel - pre-1967 Israel too - with apartheid, and told us that Israel could be eliminated as apartheid white rule was in South Africa.
The "left" and the ex-left were heavily represented on the platform on Saturday 10th. Andrew Murray of the Communist Party of Britain (chairing), Tariq Ali (the rich "fun revolutionary" of long ago, all suffused in a grey-white tinge as if he had been dug out of the freezer, the ghost of anti-war demonstrations past!), Tony Benn, George Galloway, and Jeremy Corbyn spoke. Lindsey German, convenor of the Stop The War Coalition, wore a vivid red coat, but that was the only thing red about either her or the platform.
No criticism of or even distancing from the Arab or Islamic chauvinism or Islamic clerical-fascism of so much of the demonstration. Only one-sided anti-war war-mongering - pro-Hamas; demanding, in different degrees of boldness and clarity, the end of Israel. Craig Murray, a former British diplomat, made the most clear-cut demand for the rolling-back of 60 years of history and the elimination of Israel.
There was no criticism of the Arab and Islamic regimes other than for their "treason" to the Palestinians in not making war on Israel. And no reference whatsoever to the Israeli working class or to the idea that (even if in the not-near future) the Arab and Israeli workers should unite.
Thus, the "left" was entirely hegemonised by the politics, slogans, and programme of Arab and Islamic chauvinism and, explicitly, of the clerical fascists of political Islam.
The current demonstrations have had a six to seven year build-up, during which that "left" has promoted the politics of Islamic clerical-fascism, and even its organisations, the British Muslim Initiative and the Muslim-Brotherhood front, Muslim Association of Britain. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The "left", from outside the mainly-Muslim communities in Britain - it is still very much outside: the evidence is that the SWP has gained very few recruits from Muslim backgrounds from its half-decade of accommodating to Islam and posing as the best "fighters for Muslims" - has done all it can to push the youth of the Muslim communities behind Islamist political and religious reaction. It has courted and promoted the forces of political, social, and religious reaction within those communities. Instead of organising anti-war movements on the basis of secular, democratic, working-class, socialist politics, it has organised an "anti-war" movement on the basis of the politics listed above.
Instead of advocating and building working-class unity on ideas and slogans such as "black and white - Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, atheist - unite and fight", kitsch-leftists have made themselves into communalists, the best "fighters for Muslims". On the political basis of Muslim communalism, no working-class unity could conceivably be built.
Instead of helping the secularising, rebellious youth of the Muslim communities to differentiate from their background, instead of using the anti-war demonstrations to give them a focus broader than their starting point, the kitsch-left has "related" to the communities as such, and to the conservative and reactionary elements within them - including clerical-fascists - and that has helped those right-wingers to control, and the political-Islamist organisations to recruit, the youth, including women.
It has to be said here that the flood-tide of world-wide political Islam has worked and is working against separating large forces of youth from Islamic reaction. The predominant form of "rebelliousness" there seems to be against assimilating, "moderate" forces, and for political-Islamist militancy.
Even so, much could have been done. Instead the kitsch-left committed political hara-kiri, coloured itself Islamic green - and helped ensure the domination of conservative, reactionary, Islamic-chauvinist politics in the Muslim communities.
Two seemingly contradictory things dominated the demonstration. The politics of Islamic chauvinism and clerical fascism gave it its political character - an Islamic chauvinist demonstration in which the forces of the kitsch-left sunk their identity, rather as the crazily ultra-left Stalinist German Communist Party in the two or three years before Hitler came to power sunk its own identity into fascist-led concerns with "liberating" Germany from the Treaty of Versailles.
And... it was a heavily a-political demonstration. A large part of the demonstrators, perhaps the majority, have not sifted through the politics of the Israeli-Arab conflict, considered the options, studied the implications of slogans, and made deliberate choices, but react "raw" to the horrors of the Israeli offensive in Gaza and take the slogans, ideas, and programmes stamped on the demonstrations by the Islamists and their "left" allies as things given.
For instance, "Freedom for Palestine", for many of the marchers, does not mean that they understand what the slogan means to those who raise it: Arab rule over all pre-1948 Palestine, slightly encoded. "Free Palestine", to such people, probably means freedom for the Palestinian-majority areas - Gaza and the West Bank.
The predominance of clerical-fascism on the demonstrations is in part a result of this political underdevelopment. The precondition for it - for making people who react "raw" into demonstration-fodder for clerical-fascism - is the politics of the kitsch left vis-a-vis political Islam.
The demonstrations have also been undisguisedly anti-semitic, more so than ever. Placards equating Zionism and Nazism and about Israel's "Holocaust" all have implications way beyond Israeli politics and Israel itself. Calls for a boycott of Israeli goods, understandable enough on the face of it, were pretty much central. The main argument against such a boycott is that it is an indiscriminate weapon against all Israelis, and that it would quickly become a targeting of Jews everywhere, in Britain too. A small event on 10 January illustrated the point: a Starbucks café was attacked by some of the demonstrators seemingly because some people thought that it is owned by Jews.
The 10 January demonstration shows that political Islam now has a serious political presence in Britain. Nor can socialists and secularists draw comfort from the experience in the first half of the 20th century when superstition-riddled Jewish communities quickly assimilated and generated large-scale left-wing commitment by secularising Jews. The heavy political-Islamist politicisation of the Muslim communities is not something specific to Britain, nor is it simply a movement of oppressed people.
The Muslim communities are part of a world-wide movement which includes states and some of the richest people on earth (in Saudi Arabia, etc.) This world-wide movement is, in political terms, very reactionary. It is not likely that it will soon shed its present reactionary character.
The serious left has to find ways of supporting the Muslim communities against racism, discrimination, and social exclusion, without accommodating politically or socially to their reactionary traits, and without falling into the suicidal idiocy of pandering to Islamic clerical-fascism. Involvement of Muslim workers and youth in the labour movement, combined with militant labour-movement commitment to defending the communities against racism and discrimination, is our chief method here.
Our keynote politics have to be of the type of "black and white, unite and fight", not the adaptive Islamic communalism that has reigned on the left for the last decade. Within that general approach we must fight Islamic clerical-fascism and help its opponents in the Muslim communities.
The kitsch-left has a lot to answer for over the last decade. There is no way of measuring exactly what could have been done to wean sections of Muslim youth away from political Islam, but if the "left" - in the first place the SWP - had maintained a principled working-class socialist, internationalist, secularist stand, and combined that with defending Muslims against racism and discrimination, for sure more people of Muslim background could have been won to socialism. The clerical fascists would not have had the virtually unchallenged political ride they have had, and still have.
It has to be said here that the flood-tide of world-wide political Islam has worked and is working against separating large forces of youth from Islamic reaction. The predominant form of "rebelliousness" there seems to be against assimilating, "moderate" forces, and for political-Islamist militancy.
Even so, much could have been done. Instead the kitsch-left committed political hara-kiri, coloured itself Islamic green - and did its best to help ensure the domination of conservative, reactionary, Islamic-chauvinist politics in the Muslim communities.
It has done everything it can to boost Islamic clerical fascism, promote it, and render it politically respectable in the labour movement. We are probably far from seeing the full consequences of the politicisation of sections of the Muslim communities under clerical-fascist hegemony that has taken place and continues now.
Link
Labels: Communism, Francis Chartrand, Human mistake, Islam, Religion and fanaticism, United Kingdom
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Rudd condemns Islamic cleric Samir Abu Hamza's comments on sex
KEVIN Rudd has demanded a Melbourne Islamic cleric apologise for reportedly telling male followers they can force their wives to have sex, and hit them if they're disobedient.
The Prime Minister said Samir Abu Hamza's comments had no place in modern Australia.
During a 2003 lecture also posted on the internet last year, Mr Hamza told followers that under Islamic law, men could demand sex from their wives, the Herald Sun reported.
Despite Australian laws requiring consent, it was impossible for a man to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex, he said.
He also reportedly said that Islamic law allowed men to hit their wives as a last resort, but were not allowed to leave them bruised or bloodied.
Mr Rudd said Mr Hamza should apologise.
“Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia - under no circumstances,” he told reporters in Hobart.
“Under no circumstances are other forms of violence, physical violence, acceptable towards women in Australia nor are they acceptable in my view to mainstream Muslim teachings.
“Australia will not tolerate these sort of remarks. They don't belong in modern Australia, and he should stand up, repudiate them and apologise.”
In the lecture, titled The Keys to a Successful Marriage, Mr Hamza mocks Australia's sexual assault laws that require consent for sex between a man and his wife.
“Amazing, how can a man rape his wife?” he asks.
Mr Hamza, a cleric in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg, told the Herald Sun a man could hit his wife on the hand or leg, but not on the head.
Link
Labels: Australia, Francis Chartrand, Islam, Religion and fanaticism
Great Britain - A deadly terrorist threat to prison if the guardians did not hide his presence, by Marie-Eve Marineau
He has a good chance to win ...
A deadly terrorist Al-Qaeda has sparked outrage after threatening to sue under the Act on the rights of the people if the prison guards do not veil in his presence.
Kamel Bourgass, 33, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 after stabbing to death the brave Special Branch officer Stephen Oake during a police raid.
Not only Bourgass now recruiting members to his cause twisted in Wakefield Prison, but he also claims that the custodians unveiled infringe his human rights.
He jokes in bad taste on the posthumous bravery medal awarded to DC Oake, saying it had been made with the metal from my knife. "
The Algerian was preparing an attack on ricin, a deadly poison, against Great Britain when Detective Oake, a father of three children aged 40, arrested.
Bourgass, the first Muslim fanatic to assassinate a British police officer, is in Wakefield prison last few weeks.
But insiders say that it has already begun to preach to prisoners Islamist hatred against the West.
With his long black cloak, he placed guards angry with his disgusting jokes on DC Oake.
A source inside the prison revealed: "It is very violent and aggressive towards staff and he said that the presence of women in the prayer meetings is a violation of their human rights."
"If they are in use, it requires that they wear the veil."
"We were told to monitor it closely because it preaches hatred for prayer meetings." ...
Labels: Human mistake, Islam, Marie-Êve Marineau, Religion and fanaticism, United Kingdom
Bruce Springsteen & Robert Plant
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
US: Steps to End Torture Set a New Course, par Iba Bouramine
(Washington, DC) - US President Barack Obama's executive order to end the use of torture sets a new course for US counterterrorism policy, Human Rights Watch said today. Obama's decision to issue this order within two days of becoming president signals the high priority the new president places on establishing legal and effective counterterrorism policies.
"For years, the Bush administration claimed, ‘We do not torture,' yet approved methods like waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and prolonged exposure to cold," said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. "President Obama's order rejecting such practices is a major step toward restoring America's moral authority around the world."
The executive order on torture issued today sets a government-wide single standard of humane interrogation, ends the use of secret CIA "black sites" for detention, and mandates that the International Committee of the Red Cross be granted access to all detainees held by the US outside of the ordinary criminal or immigration system.
Under the order, all government agencies are required to apply the Army field manual on interrogation - which has been used by the military since 2006 - without exception. The order also prohibits the reliance on any of the Bush Justice Department's legal opinions on interrogation or detention.
"This executive order makes meaningful the US commitment not to torture detainees," Daskal said. "President Obama has rejected the abusive practices of the last seven-and-a-half years."
The order also creates an interagency task force, led by the attorney general, to evaluate the interrogation practices allowed by the Army field manual, "and, if warranted, to recommend any additional or different guidance for other departments or agencies."
Human Rights Watch said that any new interrogation manual should apply a single standard across all government agencies. The manual should be public and include an exhaustive list of approved techniques that all follow the "Golden Rule" standard.
"Today, Obama made huge strides to put US counterterrorism policies on a legal and effective course," said Daskal. "He should now categorically reject the illogical claim that the standard for humane and effective treatment somehow varies across agency."
The order does not address the legality of what is known as rendition to torture - the practice of illegally transferring a person to a country where he or she faces torture or persecution - and instead leaves review of that practice to the task force as well. The best known case is that of Maher Arar, a dual Canadian-Syrian citizen arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy airport in September 2002, flown to Jordan, and then driven across the border to Syria, where he was detained in a tiny cell for almost a year and tortured repeatedly.
Human Rights Watch said that Obama repeatedly condemned the practice of rendition to torture on the campaign trail, and urged him to put an end to this illegal practice as well.
An executive order on Guantanamo, also issued today, sets January 2010 as a date certain for the prison's final closure, suspends the use of military commissions, and puts in motion a review of the detainees' files.
Another order creates an interagency task force to review detention and interrogation policies going forward. A fourth order mandates a review of the fate of Saleh al-Marri, a Qatari who was on the eve of trial for credit card fraud when he was declared an "enemy combatant" and transferred to a naval brig in South Carolina in 2003. He has been there ever since.
"At the end of the review period, we hope and expect that Obama will either return al-Marri to federal court or order his release," said Daskal.
Link
Labels: Human Rights Watch, Iba Bouramine, United States
DRC: ICC’s First Trial Focuses on Child Soldiers, by Renata Daninsky
(Brussels) - The International Criminal Court's (ICC) trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, scheduled to begin on January 26, 2009 in The Hague, marks an important stage in efforts to establish responsibility for the use of children in military operations, Human Rights Watch said today. Another Congolese warlord sought by the ICC, Bosco Ntaganda, remains at large.
Lubanga, the former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia who operated in the district of Ituri in northeastern Congo, is charged with enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 as soldiers and using them to participate actively in combat between September 2002 and August 2003. Lubanga's UPC forces also carried out widespread killing, rape, and torture of thousands of civilians throughout Ituri, though to date the ICC has not charged him or any other member of the UPC with such crimes.
"This first ICC trial makes it clear that the use of children in armed combat is a war crime that can and will be prosecuted at the international level," said Param-Preet Singh, counsel in Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program. "Lubanga's UPC also slaughtered thousands, and those responsible should be held accountable for these crimes as well."
Lubanga's trial was originally scheduled to begin in June 2008. However, the judges of the trial chamber unanimously decided to stay the proceedings - suspending the trial - because the prosecution could not disclose a number of documents collected confidentially from information providers as permitted under the Rome Statute, causing concerns that Lubanga would not receive a fair trial. The prosecution worked with these information providers to address the judges' concerns, and in November 2008 the trial chamber allowed proceedings to resume.
The Ituri conflict and other conflicts in eastern Congo highlight the participation of non-Congolese forces. Ituri in particular became a battleground involving the governments of Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo. These governments provided political and military support to Congolese armed groups despite abundant evidence of their widespread violations of international humanitarian law. The ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has repeatedly stated that he will bring to justice those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious crimes.
"Getting to the root of the conflict in Ituri means that the ICC must go beyond local war lords like Lubanga," said Singh. "We look to the prosecutor to investigate those who supported Lubanga and other militias operating in Ituri, including senior officials in Kinshasa, Kigali, and Kampala."
The ICC is faced with the challenge of making sure that the proceedings are meaningful for the communities most affected by the crimes in Congo. Human Rights Watch said that the Lubanga trial is a unique opportunity that the ICC cannot afford to miss and should make every possible effort to communicate with people in Congo about important legal proceedings in The Hague. To be effective, justice must not only be done but also must be seen to be done. Human Rights Watch will be looking very closely at the court's performance to this end.
Bosco Ntaganda Still Sought by the ICC
Bosco Ntaganda, who collaborated with Lubanga as chief of military operations for the UPC, has also been charged with war crimes by the ICC but remains at large. He currently serves as the military chief of staff of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a rebel group that is now collaborating with the Congolese and Rwandan national armies in military operations against a Rwandan armed group in eastern Congo.
On November 4 and 5, 2008, CNDP troops under Ntaganda's command killed an estimated 150 people in the town of Kiwanja, one of the worst massacres in North Kivu in the past two years.
In early January, Ntaganda claimed he was taking over leadership of the CNDP from its former head Laurent Nkunda, and on January 16 he declared that instead of making war on the Congolese national army, he would join its troops in fighting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan armed group some of whose leaders participated in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
"Bosco Ntaganda is not a viable partner for the Congolese or any other government," said Singh. "He is a war crimes suspect sought by the ICC, and he should be immediately arrested, not celebrated as a partner for peace."
The Congolese government, a state party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, is obligated to arrest Ntaganda. Yet no such attempt was made last week when Ntaganda was in Goma alongside the Congolese minister of the interior and other senior Congolese military officers.
Background
In addition to crimes related to child soldiers, Thomas Lubanga's UPC, which purported to further the interests of the Hema ethnic group in the Ituri region of northeastern Congo, has also been involved in ethnic massacres, torture, and rape during the Ituri conflict.
In March 2006, Lubanga was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges involving child soldiers. In January 2007, the judges of the ICC determined that there was sufficient evidence to move forward with a trial.
This trial is the first in which victims will be allowed to participate in international criminal proceedings. More than 90 victims who have been found eligible will participate through their legal representatives. While not parties, victims have certain rights in proceedings, provided their exercise is consistent with the rights of the accused and a fair trial. This may include the right to submit evidence pertaining to Lubanga's guilt or innocence and thus contribute to the search for truth.
The ICC has charged three other Congolese warlords with crimes related to child soldiers, including Bosco Ntaganda, mentioned above. Two others, leaders of militias of ethnic groups allied with each other but rivals of Lubanga's, are in custody. They are Germain Katanga of the Ituri Patriotic Resistance Forces (FRPI), a Ngiti-based group, and Mathieu Ngudjolo, of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI), a Lendu-based militia. Both are accused of using child soldiers in attacking civilians in Bogoro village in early 2003, among other war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, sexual slavery, and rape.
Children are currently recruited and used in armed conflict in at least 15 countries and territories: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), India, Iraq, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, and Uganda. In the DRC, at least five parties to the armed conflict are known to use child soldiers. These include the Congolese army (FARDC), the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the National Congress for the Defense of the People, pro-government Mai Mai groups, and the Lord's Resistance Army.
In addition to the ICC's cases, the Special Court for Sierra Leone has charged all nine of its original defendants, including former Liberian president Charles Taylor, with the crime of recruiting and using children under the age of 15 as soldiers. To date, the Special Court has convicted four defendants of this crime; those convicted are serving prison terms ranging from seven to 50 years. The Special Court's trial of Taylor is ongoing.
Ituri is one of the areas worst-affected by Congo's devastating wars. A local armed conflict between Hema and Lendu ethnic groups that began in 1999 was exacerbated by Ugandan military forces and through linkages to the broader conflict in the Great Lakes region. As the conflict spiraled and armed groups multiplied, more than 60,000 civilians were slaughtered in Ituri, according to the United Nations. Competition for the region's lucrative gold mines and trading routes was a major contributing factor to the fighting. Foreign armies and local militia groups - seeing control of the gold mines as a way to money, guns, and power - fought each other ruthlessly, often targeting civilians in the process. In their battles for gold, armed groups such as Lubanga's UPC were implicated in widespread ethnic slaughter, torture, and rape.
Human Rights Watch has been documenting human rights abuses committed in Ituri since 1999. Human Rights Watch published detailed reports in 2001, 2003, and 2005, as well as dozens of news releases and briefing papers detailing the widespread atrocities by all armed groups.
Link
Labels: Children, Congo, Human rights, Human Rights Watch, Renata Daninsky
Radical constructivism or how to build a reform of education on the sand, by Anne Humphreys
From an article by Normand Baillargeon, a professor in educational sciences at the University of Quebec at Montreal, published in the book "Against the educational reform", published recently in vlb editor. We recommend the purchase of this book to anyone interested in the education required for students in Quebec.
Normand Baillargeon is a former education columnist for Le Devoir. It attacks by radical constructivism is the cause of educational reform imposed by the monopoly of education in Quebec schools. Baillargeon libertarian who is progressive and is reminiscent of Alain Finkielkraut, both citing Hannah Arendt, for whom the real progressive policy requirement calls as a pedagogical conservatism.
The headings below are of us.
Ernst von Glasersfeld, tutelary figure of the current curriculum Quebec
Ernst von Glasersfeld (born 1917) is, among other things, a psychologist and cyberneticians. [...]
Glasersfeld but he is best known as the creator of an epistemological doctrine called him 'radical constructivism', which has held in Quebec, in contexts where they think the education, influence and has been for nearly three decades .
As such, Mr. Glasersfeld has on many occasions been invited to Quebec theorists of education, especially in universities, where the texts were widely read, disseminated and studied.
In 2002, he received the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) the recognition of scientific merit. The university stressed that his participation in the work and activities of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Learning and Education Development (CIRAD), one of the places where it thought the current educational reform, and reminded that this "long-standing collaboration of the Center" had a great influence on the research conducted there. "
This influence is still recognized by this group of eminent academics and researchers from Quebec who in 2004 published a book in tribute to Glasersfeld. Their aim, say the authors, was to show "the impact of constructivism on research and educational practices" and to describe "his influence on curriculum reform and educational choices. "
Finally, Glasersfeld in 2006 received an honorary doctorate in education from Laval University.
Radical constructivism as hegemonic orthodoxy in Quebec
All this suggests the radical constructivism in Quebec has become a doctrine very influential at the highest levels of education. In fact, a kind of orthodoxy has installed an orthodoxy whose hegemony is reinforced by the fact that followers of radical constructivism do little contradiction and quickly, for all practical purposes, monopolized the discourse in Quebec and that the institutions of production and dissemination of research.
[...]
Varieties of constructivism in radical constructivism
Some feel that such socially that knowledge is constructed, particularly by social groups: their social constructivism is and others believe that it is the individual who builds and constructivism is individual. Some believe that this construction is a psychological phenomenon and that the study helps to understand how the mechanisms by which knowledge is constructed, while others believe that the very status of knowledge than a building, pushing some fairly in this way to achieve one form or another of idealism and epistemological relativism, claiming that knowledge, eg science, is a construction among other possibilities, no epistemic privilege. This is precisely the prospect of Glasersfeld.
Radical constructivism according Glasersfeld
[...]
The heart of Glasersfeld's position is contained in this presentation that often. From the perspective of it, he says:
- Knowledge is not passively received either through the senses or communication.
- Knowledge is actively constructed by the knowing subject.
- The function of cognition is adaptive in the biological sense of the term: to agree to viability.
- Cognition allows the organization by about the experiential world, not the discovery of an objective ontological reality.
These ideas involve various ontological and epistemological positions with the agreement of the author may be conveniently presented as follows:
- Knowledge is not a world independent of the observer;
- Knowledge is not such a world: theories of knowledge that knowledge is the real false;
- Knowledge is created by individuals in a historical and cultural context;
- It refers to individual experience rather than the world;
- It consists of conceptual structures of individuals;
- Conceptual structures constitute knowledge when individuals consider viable in their experience: constructivism is a form of pragmatism;
- There is no privileged conceptual framework: constructivism is a relativist doctrine;
- Knowledge is an order of a suitable experiential reality;
- There is no extra-experiential reality accessible to reason.
[...]
In fact, I do not deceive me by suggesting that many philosophers and epistemologists consider such concepts as contradictory, absurd, or highly questionable at best implausible.
[Radical Constructivism: relativistic and contradictory
Many criticisms have been leveled against the constructivist epistemology. The most common is that this theory is the bed of relativism, because it defines the truth as a "construction" depends on social society where it appears. This leads to accusations of internal contradiction: if what should be considered as "real" is relative to a particular company, then this constructive design itself must be true that in a given society. It could well be "false" in another company. If so, constructivism would be wrong in this society. In addition, this means that social constructivism can be both true and false. Critics of constructivism then recall this axiom of logic "if a proposal is both true and not true, it is not true", so according to the principles of social constructivism, it is false.]
[...]
Constructivism "repudiates the notion of truth"
[Some citations Glasersfeld:]
[F]rom a naive point of view which is that of common sense, the elements that make this complex environment are part of a real world consists of objects unquestionable, as real as the student, and these objects have an existence independent independent not only of students but also teachers. Radical Constructivism is a radical theory of knowledge which, for reasons that had nothing to do with the teaching of mathematics or education, does not accept the view of common sense.
The Radical constructivism is radical in that it breaks with conventions and he develops a theory of knowledge in which knowledge does not reflect an ontological reality "objective" but only scheduling and organization of a world by our experience. Radical constructivism repudiated once and for all "metaphysical realism".
Elsewhere, it states that constructivism "repudiates the notion of truth as correspondence with reality".
[...]
Count the number of people: everything is relative
In one of his books, Philippe Jonnaert, a constructivist Quebec, provides an example of what an educator for the adoption of what he calls the "constructivist posture" and metaphysical idealism. A teacher of a class of first year of primary school requires its students to the number of boys and girls in the classroom with their first names. It has 23 labels, distributed as follows: 12 boys, 10 girls, 1 and that of the teacher.
But that's it. A student has 22 labels is that it does not the teacher. Another arrived at 24: he has the teacher and, as it is a great person, he counts for two. The observer of the scene, he has 23 labels.
You see, then decreed constructivist idealistic: there is no real, that representations, each doing its own without it being possible to declare one more objective than the other. "Everyone writes the author constructs his reality."
All that is hateful in the constructivist posture is here.
First, this extraordinary and unjustified quantum leap by which one moves from a triviality to a radical thesis in epistemology, the banality of the very psychological constructivism and radical constructivism very questionable metaphysics.
Then the sad conclusion that teaching draws. For what should be drawn from this story is just [...] it is essential pout the teacher to ensure that what he said is clear and can be interpreted in different ways. Here, the instructions clearly were ambiguous.
[...]
Utilitarianism of constructivism in the teaching of basic skills
"[T] o constructivists, writing an emulator Glasersfeld Quebec, the only possible to know a topic is the practical knowledge which enables it to survive, to carry out its projects and to deal with his desire." The same author stresses the content of these programs in secondary mathematics [which] should include the teaching of concepts a minority use the latest "and" knowledge that most will never be called upon to use their lives, because they do not meet the problems they are supposed to solve, and the teaching of "some sophisticated language written or spoken."
[...]
[T]his pragmatism, in my opinion, is an important part of the explanation for this obsession of skills that has gripped the world of Education of Quebec. Glasersfeld wrote: "It is extremely difficult to substitute the concept of" know how "to design a knowledge that should produce an image of the real world [...]. But it is precisely this substitution must be done to understand the basis of constructivism."
[...]
Endoctrinaire trend in the faculties of education
In short, a radical doctrine was very questionable and is still taught in an extremely biased and partisan students and future researchers in education. But there's more. Is that this doctrine was transmitted in an institutional context where join was (and remains) an essential condition for taking part in the intellectual community and progress. All this leads me to conclude that everything has been made to ensure that people who are targeted adhere to the doctrine presented.
There is, philosophy of education, a word and a concept specific to describe what I just wrote, namely the transmission of a doctrine with the intention to close the mind through the use of processes other than those allowed by the observance of the rationality of the subjects or processes as deplorable bias and the incompleteness of the information or the institutional and economic pressure. This concept is that of indoctrination. And I support, based on over twenty years in that environment, and that this is indeed a form of indoctrination constructivist positions (particularly radical) that has been practiced on a large scale in Quebec schools science education.
[...]
Summary: waste transfer and relativistic without legitimacy
Constructivism is a radical doctrine confused, delirious in some respects and does little philosophical interest.
[...]
If [the education] has allowed the practitioners of a discipline in search of recognition to establish legitimacy, the latter inspired by him, have helped to dump the school system in a very toxic cocktail made of idealism of epistemological relativism, pragmatism [utilitarianism], very much in the spirit of the times, but whose impact on the school and the children are dramatic.
At the same time, it was neglected and lost sight of important issues for any reflexive support of education, encouraged a weakening of the role of knowledge in education and its practitioners and neglected the vast and rich heritage of knowledge from the philosophy of education and science that can make an important contribution to our understanding of education materials and the most appropriate and most effective to train people educated.
[...]
In the meantime, I'm still looking, without quite finding the answer to a pressing question: what right, by what legitimacy, officials and researchers have been able to transfer this tremendous sense of education they have made? It seems that the arrogance and ignorance that led to the adoption of ideas that I just described had to play a role in this story.
Labels: Anne Humphreys, Science and theory
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Killing in a nursery in Belgium: a man charged, another crazy release, bravo to the tolerance of stupidity, by Francis Chartrand
The young Belgian 20-year-old was remanded in custody. He acknowledged Friday that he killed two babies and a nurse in a daycare Termonde in western countries.
The Belgian, 20 years was killed Friday morning two babies and a nursery nurse, Dendermonde, western Belgium, has been charged with murder and attempted murder and remanded in custody.
Arrested shortly after an act which has plunged the kingdom into the dismay and sadness, the young man, whose identity was not revealed, was questioned by police throughout the afternoon. It was presented Friday in the evening to a magistrate, who was charged and placed under arrest warrant, "said the floor of Termonde.
During the long interrogation, the man's face was heavily disguised in white and black, leaving some to think the character of the Joker in Batman-.
He gave no indication on the mobile of his act, "said a spokesman for the prosecutors. But he admitted the facts, however, after 10 hours of interrogation during which he "laughed several times with investigators, said Saturday that the popular Flemish daily Het Laatste Nieuws, raising the question of the mental state of aggressor.
No past psychiatric
The prosecution had denied Friday evening that the man had a past psychiatric a rumor circulating insisted in Belgium.
According to Het Laatste Nieuws, the man had on him at the time of his arrest, a second knife (the weapon used was found on site) and the name of a second nursery located three kilometers. "Another bloodbath was averted," said the daily.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, newspapers also questioned the need to strengthen security in places open to the public, and children in particular.
Friday Termonde, residents wondered how a man look so strange could enter without difficulty in the nursery of the "Land of Fables", which had a score of infants and six custodians.
"The temptation may be great, after such a tragedy to have the doors of our stadiums, our banks, our theater but also of our schools, our nurseries and why not our streets guards, soldiers, police ", says the French daily newspaper La Libre Belgique.
Ten children and two employees still hospitalized
The young man walked into the nursery and immediately appeal to children, witnesses told. A child and a woman were killed and another child died soon after from his injuries.
The twelve other victims, ten and two kindergarten children, were hospitalized with various injuries. A baby of 6 months and 3 years old child are in serious condition but their lives are not endangered, assured a spokesman for the University Hospital of Ghent, where they were made.
Saturday, a senior medical said that some of the wounded were "mutilated" and they had to be plastic surgery.
(Source AFP)
Link
Well, my comment now. That was the article in the newspaper Liberation, morning edition on Saturday January 24 with an updated Strait made the night or morning dawns, the European Time, six hours later than in Quebec.
Twenty-four hours later, it confirmed it is a schizophrenic. A schizophrenic who walks freely, there is a flaw somewhere. Killing in a nursery in Belgium: a man charged, another crazy release, bravo to the tolerance of stupidity by Francis Chartrand, the end of the text that I wrote, it's not for nothing, and I reason.
How is it, damn, that is tolerant of the mentally deficient and social (schizophrenia), in day care? Even children, infants I say, killed by mentally ill, and it is not the first time, nor in Belgium and elsewhere. I only think of the massacre in Scotland, the Dunblane massacre that claimed the lives of sixteen children, aged four to six years, and their teacher in 1996. Another carnage with a madman armed with a knife, in Osaka, where a man of 37 years, entered the property armed with a kitchen knife and stabbed several children and teachers. It killed a total of 8 students, 13 seriously wounded and two other teachers.
On this blog, many readers are of Belgian, British and French. Us in Canada, we experienced the shooting of Dawson College, which the perpetrator of the carnage was in psychiatric journey, and wrote on MySpace texts predestined to take action. He had even sent by FedEx from the USA an AK-47, come on.
The young man, described by witnesses as an individual rather tall, had on his blog site vampirefreaks.com many pictures of him brandishing weapons. "His name is Trench. you will come to know him as the Angel of Death, "he wrote on his profile. He expressed his hatred of society, ordinary people, teachers, according to officials of the many taxing (racketeering) suffered in the secondary, the "jocks" (derogatory nickname from jockstrap - "protective shell" - for athletes school), police, which he said the watch for months. He also responded to this question, "How do you die? "On his blog," Like Romeo and Juliet or in a hail of bullets. " He spoke on this web site just two hours before the event, without mentioning the actions he was about to perform. Today, its profile (nickname "fatality666) there is more.
Oh, another story about the mad in our schools. Thursday, May 13, 1993 at 9:27, a man dressed in black, his head hidden in a motorcycle helmet and a balaclava, burst into the kindergarten of the school group N8 Commandant Charcot, Neuilly-sur-Seine.
This man, armed with a pistol and warning of explosives, threatening to blow up if the room does not get a ransom of one hundred million francs. These threats are made credible by its past demonstrations because he had taken care before, to blow up several dustbins voluntarily leaving a signature. His hostages, twenty-one children and their teacher Laurence Dreyfus, are therefore at risk. RAID is quickly dispatched to the scene. Investigators seek to identify the hostage-takers, but they will not succeed before the end of the hostage crisis. The man was then known only as the "Human Bomb" (suicide bombers) or "HB", which he himself gave. It was not until the very end of the hostage-taking that his name is revealed.
The media seized on the case. Journalists camped outside the school. The taking of hostages is a national event. Nicolas Sarkozy, then mayor of Neuilly, is trying to negotiate with Erick Schmitt to release children, we see Nicolas Sarkozy on television out of school a child in arms.
During the negotiations, Schmitt Érick gradually frees most children do not keep up with six, despite the fact that he had said in his first ransom note that no child would be released before he received the sum requested. He had also threatened to execute children (by sticking) in the absence of rapid response of the authorities but the threat was not carried out.
After nearly two days without sleep tension in a suicidal state of mind, Schmitt Érick showing signs of fatigue. Raid decides to take action when asleep. The plan is to bring the men of Raid in the room during the sleep of the hostage-takers. While the two men held in play, ready to neutralize it if he wakes up, evacuate the other hostages out of the room. To ensure qu'Érick Schmitt will be asleep during the assault, the men of Raid pay a sleeping pill (whose effectiveness has been tested on a man Raid) in coffee regularly provided to the hostage taker . As a precaution, Evelyne Lambert (then medical Fire Captain Paris), which looked after the children, is in secret. It must ensure qu'Érick Schmitt is asleep, and a signal (unbutton his jacket before the goal of a mini-camera through the wall by Raid) to mean that the police can intervene.
On the morning of May 15, the hostage taker s'assoupit. Évelyne Lambert verify that he is sleeping in the shaking and making furniture move noisily by children. It remains inert. It is then the appropriate signal. At about 7:25, eight RAID police entered the classroom to extract the last six children. During the intervention, Eric Schmitt was killed by three bullets in the head from a meter by the police officer Daniel Boulanger. The circumstances of his death created a controversy.
Only after his death that the identity of those who came to call "HB" throughout the taking of hostages is known: it was Érick Schmitt, an entrepreneur in a difficult financial situation, intelligent, and depression . Finally, it was revealed to Laurence Dreyfus, a few hours before his death, which meant "HB": it was the initials of Human Bomb (human bomb).
We have this madman who has killed 3 people with a knife. Yesterday we learned that a man was beheaded with a knife in the cafeteria of a California college student ... therefore I call on the prohibition of dangerous weapon knife. We will have to legislate in order to determine the possession of the knife to a permit. Only professionals and amateurs (cooks, butchers) may be owners of knives under the condition of a criminal record, no history of psychiatric and obtaining a certificate of capacity to handle the knife. Others can use disposable plastic knives. It will change our culinary habits, but in an era of fast food and the liberation of women from the bondage to this place that the vile kitchen is no longer a concern.
Also plan to ban the car launched at a hundred km / h on the colorful crowd of a market day can also cause enormous damage humans.
You will understand that I am of irony to understand the stupidity behind this attitude consistently pointing responsibility of firearms in homicides in the USA. These hideous phenomena have nothing to do with the right to possession of a firearm to recall the contrast to an urban legend is not as permissive than that in most U.S. states.
He determined to kill can be done without or with a firearm. Even in a country where the possession of firearms is strictly regulated whoever wishes can still be obtained illegally, and the criminal power is of course not affected by these considerations of legality.
Updated Sunday afternoon, hours of Quebec.
But finally, when will we understand that a disturbed, it remains disturbed. It is confirmed, the patient in Belgium, had an opening File psychiatric 4 times that the Crown had asked for a serious réencadrement see internment.
"Well no, must be tolerant of our social deficient, they must be brought into society, we must let them adapt. Here, let it play with your children, he will learn quickly, you see. No, no sir, I assure you it does not re-offend his penis to show to your children, despite the eight rape previously committed by him for 10 years."
Bullshit, nonsense like this that we are responding to all NGOs working for the integration of the mentally deficient and social. I grant you, you can not blame these groups to have a bit of love for our case of "mental health", even me I have compassion for them, and I have always condemned any abuse mental and physical fact against them in a psychiatric institute. They are human like us. But we can blame the NGOs, but not widespread, cases of willful blindness, on behalf of integration and tolerance.
It's beautiful, diverse Mr. Mrs. everybody, dancing around the rainbow. That's what it is, tolerance of stupidity, it seems that no official of the tolerance of diversity of mental illness, had a child or motherfucker stabbed by a "reintegration" in society. I ass full of "socially unfit", worse, I have full ass who does not supervise, and we call in the street, 3 blocks of a school.
Francis Chartrand
Labels: Belgium, Francis Chartrand, Human mistake
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Great Flood of Noah, by Noémie Cournoyer
The myth of the Great Flood described in the Bible?, Also called "Flood of Noah" is a mythological story to explain the nature of the relationship between the Jewish people and their God, YHWH? Thereafter, and that is the case with creationists, the flood has become the catch-all explanation when it comes to support the literalism? Biblical face geology.
First, the outline of the myth. Unhappy with his creation, YHWH decided to eliminate humans. But seeing that Noah and his family lead a good life, YHWH prevents it from the disaster to come, and it sends instructions to enable it to survive the flood by building a huge ship (Noah's Ark).
Following the flood, YHWH made a covenant with Noah that there will be no more disasters of this magnitude, in return for which men undertake to lead a good life. This alliance is characterized by the appearance of a rainbow, which illustrates the link between the earthly world and the celestial world.
Babylonian roots of the myth of the Flood
This myth is probably an adaptation of a Hebrew oldest Babylonian myth, the epic of Gilgamesh. In this version, the god of storms, Enlil decides to punish humanity corrupted by sending a deluge. The god of wisdom, Ea, decided to prevent Uta-Napishtim, a human particularly wise and virtuous. Uta-Naphishtim survive the flood by building an ark.
Posted to 2700 BC, the epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest stories known to date and above Genesis widely, even by the most generous dates (between 1200 and 200 BC.)
The following table shows some similarities between the story from the epic of Gilgamesh and the version presented in Genesis:
Babylonian version (1)
Hebrew (2)
(1) YHWH is angry against humanity corrupted.
(2) Enlil is angry against humanity corrupted.
(1) Noah favorite YHWH chosen to survive the flood.
(2) Uta-Napishtim, bookmark Ea chosen to survive the flood.
(1) An arch is built and loaded food and animals.
(2) An arch is built and loaded food and animals.
(1) After several days in the ark, Uta-Napishtim wants to know if the water level has fallen. It then sends a dove, a week later, a crow. The crow did not return, Uta-Napishtim knows that the flood is over.
(2) After several days in the ark, Noah wants to know if the water level has fallen. It sends a crow, and then a week later, a dove. The dove comes first with an olive branch, and is not at all. Noah knows that the flood is over.
(1) Uta-Napishtim is a sacrifice to the gods to thank for having saved the deluge. The goddess Ishtar sends a rainbow.
(2) Noah made a sacrifice to YHWH to thank him for having saved the deluge. YHWH sends a rainbow as a sign of the covenant.
Myths about a flood seem to be widespread. However, both because of the deluge that the protagonists and the outcome varies greatly from one to another myth. For example, in Paraguay, a myth tells that the earth was once flooded because there were too many people. The weight of humanity meeting was therefore sink the continent, which floats on water. Fortunately, some were rescued by a white bird.
In Canada, a myth from Cris tells people that a man has survived a flood in a canoe. It then sends a crow who could not find land. The crows were white. To punish the crow, the man had become the black.
It is interesting to note is that the myths from the eastern Mediterranean have more often the focus of the flood sent to punish humanity. Elsewhere in the world, because of the deluge is often not specified, or the result of a natural force.
The Great Flood of Noah and his theological embrouilles
The biblical myth seems to be an adaptation monotheistic? A pre-existing narrative. In the Babylonian myth of narrative coherence is ensured by the fact that the gods want to kill some people and others to save them. As against the "monothéisation" story leads to contradictions Hebrew as YHWH occupies both the role of executioner and savior.
This puts into question a central argument of Christianity, that God would allow evil in order to allow free will? It seems that the free will of contemporary Noah was not so important for YHWH.
It is also questionable from what Noah fired if his conduct exemplary. After all, the Ten Commandments were not even on the eve of being drafted. What set of rules, what moral code were (or were not) the people at the time of the Great Flood? The Christian belief that morality goes back to Moses (who seek the commandments on Mount Sinai) is well embêtée.
Another problem is posed by the existence of giants before the Flood. According to Genesis, these Néphilims would be the result of unions between demons and human women. Such watches have never had a place on board the Ark of Noah. Still, in post-biblical flood, it is still question of Nephilim. The famous Goliath fight that David, was not himself a giant?
This problem is resolved in the Jewish tradition by saying that one of the giants had hooked to the roof of the Ark (!), Which in the Hebrew story is a "box" and not a boat. As against this variant of the myth of the flood is not found in the Bible, which fails to explain how the Giants have survived the flood.
The impossibility of a global deluge
To achieve a good overall flood, only one ingredient: water, in very large quantities. Hence came the great flood of water? Several hypotheses have been proposed by creationists.
The water in the flood, according to the Bible
Before examining the assumptions contemporary look that tells the myth itself. According to the bible, there are two possible sources: the rain, and the sources of the abyss "mentioned in Proverbs 8:29:
Disposa heaven when I was there; When drew a circle on the surface of the abyss, when the clouds settled on the top, and that the sources of the abyss poured out forcefully when gave a limit to the sea, to ensure that water does not cross the edges when laid the foundations of the earth, I was at work with it (trans. LS)
Note in passing that, according to this passage, the earth is flat. Thus, water would have fallen through openings in the dome covering the earth, which is flat. This water would be attached to that from under the earth-disk.
After the Deluge
Outcome of the Flood also a series of problems that are presented here briefly:
Problem of genetic diversity: if there were only two animals how have they been able to reproduce without inbreeding problems? The same applies to Noah and his son. These four families are the only humans on the planet, they did not have the choice to reproduce them.
Mass migration: how the animals have found their habitat? For example, how kangaroos have earned Australia? And what do the animals have eaten during the first weeks after the flood? Carnivorous animals have been forced to eat some herbivores (two species), causing rapid extinction of all life on earth.
Problem of adaptive radiation: how species archetypal (or "[[baramin]") have they been able to generate as much diversity in such a short time (4000 years)?
No land on Earth! Following a comprehensive flood, there would be no black soil on the surface for plant growth. All debris was mixed randomly, there could not be a top layer composed of loose soil and fertile. As a result, the animals had nothing to eat.
Geological problems posed by a global deluge
Creationists often argue that the geological strata accumulated in a few hours, do not contain traces of activity (fourmillères, earthworms, roots, etc.) which would have required several years. It is indeed a prediction that should logically result from a global deluge.
Unfortunately (for jobs), hundreds of complete ecosystems have been discovered in strata supposed to have formed in minutes. Some creationists have tried to explain these tunnels by saying that animals and insects trying to escape landslides digging toward the surface to avoid being buried. If they were, there would only vertical tunnel, but almost all are parallel to geological strata.
Link
Labels: Creationism, Noémie Cournoyer, Religion and fanaticism
Sid Ryan and CUPE Ontario: new black shirts, by Michael Coren
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is wrong to support a boycott of Israeli academics.
It might have been more appropriate for the resolution of CUPE Ontario is written in German.
The resolution of CUPE Ontario proposes to prohibit Israeli scholars to give speeches, teach or do research at Ontario universities, in protest against the bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza on 29 December. In response to the call of the Palestinian Federation of Unions of Teachers and staff of universities, we are willing to say that Israeli academics should not be present on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn bombing the university and the attack against Gaza in general.
Protest peacefully and legally against Israel or another nation is quite acceptable and even useful in a free and democratic society, even when the challenge is misinformed and predictable. But the initiative CUPE is fundamentally different. We are dealing with fanatics and fundamentalists that require ordinary people and apolitical who are to be born in the Jewish state pronounce an oath of loyalty.
It is unlikely that these extremists have considered their actions for more than a few seconds hysterical, but ask some fundamental questions.
Is this "conviction" will also be required of Israeli Arabs, or just Israeli Jews? There are, of course, more than 1.5 million Israeli Arabs, as Israelis enjoy full civil rights and democratic. Thousands of them are studying in Israeli universities, and many of them teach at Israeli universities, unlike most Arab countries where Jews were deported and where they can not study or teach, or even live.
Are we require, for example, that Iranians who teach in universities "condemn" the public hanging of homosexuals by their government, the stoning of women and implementation of university students protesting peacefully? Being asked to many Egyptian universities in the country to "condemn" the persecution of Christians in Egypt, ban various independent newspapers or the construction of the wall on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza?
Being asked to scholars from Zimbabwe, China or Communist dictatorships of Syria or Libya to "condemn" the despicable policies of their government? Being asked the same scholars from Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, raped, enslaved and forcibly converted to Islam? Or Palestinian scholars: just last week, the government of Hamas has killed 35 members of Fatah and shot in the legs of 75 others, paralyzing. They forced women to wear the hijab and threatened to throw acid in the faces of girls who refuse to do so.
Damn, such a "conviction" was not even applied to university of Rwanda while the country's government was trying to commit genocide!
But we asked the university to Israel, where the armed forces returned fire after eight years of terror, rocket attacks and deadly provocations.
The result of this little bit crass, painfully immature and angry is not the uniqueness of a single identifiable group of people we expose to hatred when they do their work: the Jews. Most of them, incidentally, were born in Israel because their families were forced to leave their old country and live in Israel because of the pogroms, the Holocaust and the expulsion Arabic.
In short, it is targeting Jews. And it goes beyond what is acceptable speech and civilized behavior. That is to operate a complex issue involving two people who deserve justice and to reduce it to abuse, blacklisted and discrimination worthy of the excesses of the 1930s in Europe.
The black shirts who hide under the colors red and green. They should cover their heads in shame and ask forgiveness.
Link
Labels: Canada, Human mistake, Israel, Palestine, Religion and fanaticism, Secularism
Hamas, a party of religious fascists, editorial from Riposte Laïque
Several years ago, I was interested in a public meeting in Paris suburbs, by the League of Human Rights. The theme was peace in the Middle East, what works? Hoping to learn things, I was in the audience, surrounded by 500 people. At the forum, among others, sat the host of this debate, Daniel Mermet, the then President of the LDH, Michel Tubiana, Leila Shahid, Palestinian Authority representative in France, Bernard Ravenel representing the Committee on Palestine and a representative of the French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP), speaking with a strong English accent.
The forum took the floor for two and a half hours. I was amazed at the oneness of all speeches. Israel was the evil aggressor, and Palestinians innocent victims. Daniel Mermet adding to each transition in this Manichean vision. He apologized after the last speech from the hall and explained that very little time for debate, therefore asked the potential stakeholders to be very brief. I pounce on the microphone, and asked for five minutes.
Irritated, Mermet gave me three. A little upset, I begin by saying that the conflict was fueled by two extremes, the far-right Jewish religious and right-wing religious Islamist. I explained that people wanted a greater Israel, freed of the Palestinians, and that others wanted to remove the State of Israel from the map. So I did express my surprise at the fact we have not yet decided once the name of Hamas. I say what really quickly Hamas and the political line he defended. At the forum, it started to jiggle nervously, and tried to interrupt me Mermet. I him a minute to conclude.
I added that I appreciated in France, Jews and Arabs have been able to work together against the National Front, in SOS Racism, and that the solution to the Middle East, could see the day when each side isolate religious extremists and his defending a secular society. I conclude by saying that I wanted more balanced meetings, from the LDH, for greater credibility of the goal: peace. A great silence accompanied my intervention and was succeeded by a few long seconds where we could hear a fly fly.
Apparently angered by my words, Mermet passed the floor to Tubiana. It began to say that the rise of Islamophobia and racism in France was serious. I interrupted the room telling him that I had not uttered the word Islamophobia, and I prayed to respond to what I said. While Mermet had announced that the meeting was to end in the minutes that followed, various speakers took the floor again an hour to meet me, often painstakingly, and justify their silence on Hamas.
Why start this first editorial of the year by that old story? Because it illustrates the drift of a section of the Left, political, associative and association, on the Palestinian question. To be published in Issue 69, the charter of Hamas, and have described as racist, sexist and of totalitarian and for not having married compassionate politically correct speech, our newspaper (see abundant letters ) has been extremely strong reactions, and sometimes abuse, from some opponents.
According to some, we would monsters indifferent to the suffering of the people of Gaza, and would be tolerant of the massacres of the State of Israel, colonialist, racist, fascist, who wants to exterminate the Palestinians as Hitler wanted to do away with Jews (for short).
As would be comfortable if the world were so simple. We would like to say that the fascists who killed the communists. Unfortunately, the facts are stubborn, Stalin killed more communists and Hitler, for example, there is evidence that 8000 Polish officers were executed in Katyn forest, with a bullet in the head, not by the Nazis as has long claimed the official version, but by the Red Army, which does not detract from the horror of the Nazi regime.
Since it would be comfortable today, in the same spirit, for many activists, to explain the woes of the Arab peoples by the sole fault of the Hebrew state. Of course, Palestinians killed in Israeli assaults which, remember, the politico-military targets Hamas. Any civilian casualties, even a child, is still a victim too. But can we hide the fact that the Hamas claim of using women and children as human shields? Has it existed historically, war clean, even for just causes and progressive?
Need I remind the other hand, thousands of Palestinians killed during Operation "Black September" in the 1970s by the Jordanians, the dead by the thousands, Shiites or Sunnis in Iraq and elsewhere, response to suicide bombings, also espoused by Hamas, killing several hundred activists of the Palestinian Authority, lynched without trial at the putch Hamas in Gaza, are not the result of the Zionist state? The tragedy of Darfur is not the fact of U.S. imperialism and its ally Israel, but the Islamist militias. Write it in no way detracts from the criminal attitude of the United States against Iraq, but requires a vision of the history a little less biased and compassionate.
Furthermore, a reading of the geo-political world, as written in 2005 by General Gallois is also useful for understanding the global context in which this conflict takes place.
Of course, the secular can not be found in certain positions in the State of Israel, and the pressure exercised what some religious circles. How can a democratic country can accept the need to marry abroad to see a civil marriage recognized? But if secularism is the freedom of conscience, there is no comparison between the democratic system in place in Israel, and the totalitarian logic of Hamas. Remember that for him the only solution in Palestine is the submission to Allah, the destruction of Israel, the extermination of the Jews and the imposition of sharia law, women in particular. For a woman, a homosexual, to a layman, for a progressive, is it better to live according to the principles applied in Israel, or the rules in force today in Gaza?
The fascination of a part of the left to totalitarian models yesterday Stalinism today Islamism, rebellion still those of us who believe that the social struggle can not hide a vision of society where, in addition to freedom of conscience and democratic rights, equality between men and women is a value with which we can not compromise.
However, in the name of a Marxist who is among the colonized peoples and colonizers, who yesterday showed complacency with criminal bureaucrats Stalinists, Trotskyites or many orphans who seem wall, repeated today, Today this appalling mistake, some even in light of Hamas, Hezbollah in the past, representatives of the poor and oppressed, as the novelist Thierry Jonquet in a magnificent published two years ago.
It is also curious that this blindness that led to the left fringe to have fought, sometimes with virulence, the campaign for a law against religious symbols in schools. They are also the ones who close their eyes, every day, before the offensive of Islam in France and Europe, against secularism, the Republic and the rights of women. What can they respond to Sarkozy when he defends secularism positive, they defend this thesis with Islam for 20 years! Have you noticed that we hear very little about the provocations Dieudonné giving the floor to Faurisson?
Some believe that the essential divide in a democratic society, would be the social and wealth distribution. They believe that the claim of religion of the poor and oppressed the right to take any liberties with our Republican principles. Well, no!
We can not have a society with people who accompany the offensive Islamist fascists, even if the activists say things just on the distribution of wealth and scandalous social inequality.
We do not want to live in a country where Muslim enclaves are becoming more and develop on our territory propaganda of Hamas, and its draft fascist society.
We do not want to see mosques invade more and more public space, much less when they are paid with our sub!
We do not want to hear religious Jews claim arrangements for the Saturday school, or other churches claim reasonable accommodations with secular principles and the law of 1905.
We note that those who now accuse Israel of war crimes and demonstrate against this (without worrying about the windfall that it is crazy for Allah), are not in the street when suicide bombings cause thousands of deaths, the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Indonesia, and throughout the world where the culture of rampant death, on behalf of the prophet. Too bad for Muslims and Arab peoples, first victims of religious fascism, we should not distract the masses of the one true battle: the one against U.S. imperialism and its Zionist ally. Hence the events where the flags of Hamas alongside those of the PCF (ie: French Communist Party) or the LCR! (Ed.: Revolutionary Communist League)
Yesterday, he had shut the realities of Stalinist regimes, not to despair Billancourt, and not divert the masses of the struggle against the bourgeois state. At another time, on behalf of revolutionary defeatism, it should not fight against Nazi Germany, when it was France, because it was promoting its own imperialism!
When a little common sense and the recognition that the defense of secular values, feminist, humanistic, democratic have more importance than ideological visions of the world where we end up defending religious fascists because they represent the oppressed (they also have nothing to do, their only prospect is to impose the jihad in the world).
As recently wrote Henri Guaino decidedly sometimes prevent labels of thinking.
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Labels: Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Terrorism
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Did Israel Use "Disproportionate Force" in Gaza?, by Dore Gold
Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over 4,000 rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas and other organizations since 2001. Rocket attacks increased by 500 percent after Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. During an informal six-month lull, some 215 rockets were launched at Israel.
The charge that Israel uses disproportionate force keeps resurfacing whenever it has to defend its citizens from non-state terrorist organizations and the rocket attacks they perpetrate. From a purely legal perspective, Israel's current military actions in Gaza are on solid ground.
According to international law, Israel is not required to calibrate its use of force precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it.
Ibrahim Barzak and Amy Teibel wrote for the Associated Press on December 28 that most of the 230 Palestinians who were reportedly killed were "security forces," and Palestinian officials said "at least 15 civilians were among the dead." The numbers reported indicate that there was no clear intent to inflict disproportionate collateral civilian casualties. What is critical from the standpoint of international law is that if the attempt has been made "to minimize civilian damage, then even a strike that causes large amounts of damage - but is directed at a target with very large military value - would be lawful."
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, explained that international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court "permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military objectives, even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur." The attack becomes a war crime when it is directed against civilians (which is precisely what Hamas does).
After 9/11, when the Western alliance united to collectively topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, no one compared Afghan casualties in 2001 to the actual numbers that died from al-Qaeda's attack. There clearly is no international expectation that military losses in war should be on a one-to-one basis. To expect Israel to hold back in its use of decisive force against legitimate military targets in Gaza is to condemn it to a long war of attrition with Hamas.
Israel is currently benefiting from a limited degree of understanding in international diplomatic and media circles for launching a major military operation against Hamas on December 27. Yet there are significant international voices that are prepared to argue that Israel is using disproportionate force in its struggle against Hamas.
Israeli Population Centers Under Rocket Attack
There are good reasons why initial criticism of Israel has been muted. After all, Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over 4,000 rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas and other organizations since 2001. The majority of those attacks were launched after Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. Indeed, rocket attacks increased by 500 percent (from 179 to 946) from 2005 to 2006.
Moreover, lately Hamas has been extending the range of its striking capability even further with new rockets supplied by Iran. Hamas used a 20.4-kilometer-range Grad/Katyusha for the first time on March 28, 2006, bringing the Israeli city of Ashkelon into range of its rockets for the first time. That change increased the number of Israelis under threat from 200,000 to half a million. Moreover, on December 21, 2008, Yuval Diskin, Head of the Israel Security Agency, informed the Israeli government that Hamas had acquired rockets that could reach Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, and even the outskirts of Beersheba. The first Grad/Katyusha strike on Ashdod, in fact, took place on December 28. There had been no formal cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, but only an informal six-month tahadiya (lull), during which 215 rockets were launched at Israel. On December 21, Hamas unilaterally announced that the tahadiya had ended.
Critical Voices
On December 27, 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesmen issued a statement saying that while the Secretary-General recognized "Israel's security concerns regarding the continued firing of rockets from Gaza," he reiterated "Israel's obligation to uphold international humanitarian and human rights law." The statement specifically noted that he "condemns excessive use of force leading to the killing and injuring of civilians [emphasis added]."
A day later, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights "strongly condemned Israel's disproportionate use of force." French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, also condemned Israel's "disproportionate use of force," while demanding an end to rocket attacks on Israel. Brazil also joined this chorus, criticizing Israel's "disproportionate response." Undoubtedly, a powerful impression has been created by large Western newspaper headlines that describe massive Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, without any up-front explanation for their cause.
Proportionality and International Law: The Protection of Innocent Civilians
The charge that Israel uses disproportionate force keeps resurfacing whenever it has to defend its citizens from non-state terrorist organizations and the rocket attacks they perpetrate. From a purely legal perspective, Israel's current military actions in Gaza are on solid ground. According to international law, Israel is not required to calibrate its use of force precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it (Israel is not expected to make Kassam rockets and lob them back into Gaza).
When international legal experts use the term "disproportionate use of force," they have a very precise meaning in mind. As the President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Rosalyn Higgins, has noted, proportionality "cannot be in relation to any specific prior injury - it has to be in relation to the overall legitimate objective of ending the aggression." In other words, if a state, like Israel, is facing aggression, then proportionality addresses whether force was specifically used by Israel to bring an end to the armed attack against it. By implication, force becomes excessive if it is employed for another purpose, like causing unnecessary harm to civilians. The pivotal factor determining whether force is excessive is the intent of the military commander. In particular, one has to assess what was the commander's intent regarding collateral civilian damage.
What about reports concerning civilian casualties? Some international news agencies have stressed that the vast majority of those killed in the first phase of the current Gaza operation were Hamas operatives. Ibrahim Barzak and Amy Teibel wrote for the Associated Press on December 28 that most of the 230 Palestinians who were reportedly killed were "security forces," and Palestinian officials said "at least 15 civilians were among the dead." It is far too early to definitely assess Palestinian casualties, but even if they increase, the numbers reported indicate that there was no clear intent to inflict disproportionate collateral civilian casualties.
During the Second Lebanon War, Professor Michael Newton of Vanderbilt University was in email communication with William Safire of the New York Times about the issue of proportionality and international law. Newton had been quoted by the Council on Foreign Relations as explaining proportionality by proposing a test: "If someone punches you in the nose, you don't burn down their house." He was serving as an international criminal law expert in Baghdad and sought to correct the impression given by his quote. According to Newton, no responsible military commander intentionally targets civilians, and he accepted that this was Israeli practice.
What was critical from the standpoint of international law was that if the attempt had been made "to minimize civilian damage, then even a strike that causes large amounts of damage - but is directed at a target with very large military value - would be lawful." Numbers matter less than the purpose of the use of force. Israel has argued that it is specifically targeting facilities serving the Hamas regime and its determined effort to continue its rocket assault on Israel: headquarters, training bases, weapons depots, command and control networks, and weapons-smuggling tunnels. This way Israel is respecting the international legal concept of proportionality.
Alternatively, disproportionality would occur if the military sought to attack even if the value of a target selected was minimal in comparison with the enormous risk of civilian collateral damage. This point was made by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, on February 9, 2006, in analyzing the Iraq War. He explained that international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court "permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks [emphasis added] against military objectives, even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur." The attack becomes a war crime when it is directed against civilians (which is precisely what Hamas does) or when "the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage." In fact, Israeli legal experts right up the chain of command within the IDF make this calculation before all military operations of this sort.
Proportionality as a Strategic Issue
Moving beyond the question of international law, the charge that Israel is using a disproportionate amount of force in the Gaza Strip because of reports of Palestinian casualties has to be looked at critically. Israelis have often said among themselves over the last seven years that when a Hamas rocket makes a direct strike on a crowded school, killing many children, then Israel will finally act.
This scenario raises the question of whether the doctrine of proportionality requires that Israel wait for this horror to occur, or whether Israel could act on the basis of the destructive capability of the arsenal Hamas already possesses, the hostile declarations of intent of its leaders, and its readiness to use its rocket forces already. Alan Dershowitz noted two years ago: "Proportion must be defined by reference to the threat proposed by an enemy and not by the harm it has produced." Waiting for a Hamas rocket to fall on an Israeli school, he rightly notes, would put Israel in the position of allowing "its enemies to play Russian Roulette with its children."
The fundamental fact is that in fighting terrorism, no state is willing to play Russian Roulette. After the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, the Western alliance united to collectively topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan; no one compared Afghan casualties in 2001 to the actual numbers that died from al-Qaeda's attack. Given that al-Qaeda was seeking non-conventional capabilities, it was essential to wage a campaign to deny it the sanctuary it had enjoyed in Afghanistan, even though that struggle continues right up to the present.
Is There Proportionality Against Military Forces?
And in fighting counterinsurgency wars, most armies seek to achieve military victory by defeating the military capacity of an adversary, as efficiently as possible. There clearly is no international expectation that military losses in war should be on a one-to-one basis; most armies seek to decisively eliminate as many enemy forces as possible while minimizing their own losses of troops. There are NATO members who have been critical of "Israel's disproportionate use of force," while NATO armies take pride in their "kill ratios" against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Moreover, decisive military action against an aggressor has another effect: it increases deterrence. To expect Israel to hold back in its use of decisive force against legitimate military targets in Gaza is to condemn it to a long war of attrition with Hamas.
The loss of any civilian lives is truly regrettable. Israel has cancelled many military operations because of its concern with civilian casualties. But should civilian losses occur despite the best efforts of Israel to avoid them, it is ultimately not Israel's responsibility. As political philosopher Michael Walzer noted in 2006: "When Palestinian militants launch rocket attacks from civilian areas, they are themselves responsible - and no one else is - for the civilian deaths caused by Israeli counterfire."
International critics of Israel may be looking to craft balanced statements that spread the blame for the present conflict to both sides. But they would be better served if they did not engage in this artificial exercise, and clearly distinguish the side that is the aggressor in this conflict - Hamas - and the side that is trying to defeat the aggression - Israel.
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Labels: Gaza, Israel, Palestine
2008 was bad for free speech--'09 promises better, by Rob Breakenridge, for The Calgary Herald
The year 2008 will be remembered for many reasons, but was certainly one in which the issue of freedom of speech came into the forefront. And as this tumultuous year draws to a close, we've been offered two further examples of why this issue has become so galvanizing and at the same time so surreal.
The first came earlier this month--an early Christmas present of sorts for someone who would probably cringe at the notion of such a gesture.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission informed Quebec Resident Marc Lebuis that his complaint against the writings of Montreal Imam Abou Hammaad Sulaiman Dameus Al-Hayiti would not proceed.
Some of the passages highlighted in the complaint include references to Jews as spreading "corruption and chaos on Earth" and seeking "only mate-rial goods and money" because, otherwise, "they have nothing."
The language used to describe homosexuals was even more aggressive--the imam accuses gays and lesbians of spreading "disorder on Earth." He says homosexuals should be "exterminated in this life," and any gay men caught in a sexual act should be beheaded.
In rejecting the complaint, a CHRC representative claimed "the extracts . . . do not seem to promote "hatred" or "contempt" according to the criteria set forth in the Taylor case" --a reference to 1990 Supreme Court decision narrowly upholding Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
That case has been referenced many times in rulings from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, so the decision to let this imam off the hook seems puzzling in that light.
For example, a 2006 tribunal decision against Glenn Bahr repeatedly cites the Taylor verdict, using it as a means to help establish the meaning of "hatred" and "contempt."
The ruling refers to anti-Semitic comments in which "Jews as a group are described as unscrupulous, deceptive, dishonest and immoral" and concludes such comments are "likely to evoke extreme ill will against Jewish persons."
It also refers to comments advocating extermination of homosexuals, which constitute "a complete denial that (homosexuals) might have redeeming qualities and is an expression of 'extreme ill will.' "
It's hard to see how the imam's writings do not fall under the same criteria used to convict others. Moreover, this case involves not some obscure nobody writing on some obscure Internet message board--we're talking about the writings of a figure of religious authority. One might also note it's the same city where Jewish community centres have been attacked.
Section 13 and it's provincial cousins are bad enough as they are, but it becomes even worse when it appears as though some individuals are exempt -- a licence to hate, if you will.
As we've seen repeatedly this year--from Ezra Levant to Mark Steyn to comedian Guy Earle--there are many who are very clearly not exempt from the reach of federal and provincial human rights commissions.
That would include the conservative website Free Dominion, which has been under investigation for several months now by the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The CHRC interest in Free Dominion goes back even further: a complaint filed against the site in September of 2006 was later withdrawn.
The operators of Free Dominion, Mark and Connie Fournier, filed an Access to Information request to try and shine some light on why and how they were being investigated.
A few days ago they got their response--23 pages of heavily redacted documents, save the names of more than a dozen CHRC employees working on the file, and the pleasantries exchanged as they e-mail back and forth about the case.
It presents a most glaring contrast--the CHRC would appear to be going out its way to not investigate a fanatical anti-gay, anti-Jewish imam, but seems to be going out of its way to investigate a conservative political website.
It's a fitting way to wrap up what's been a roller-coaster of a year filled with setbacks and victories for freedom of speech.
As we go forward into 2009, though, we bring with us a broad consensus behind the argument that Canadian law needs to be changed to protect freedom of speech. That consensus now includes politicians on both the left and right, meaning the change we need may just be the change we get.
If 2009 is going to bring us any news worth celebrating, this is where we may find it.
Rob Breakenridge hosts the World Tonight, Weeknights 6:30 p. m. to 9 p. m. on AM770 CHQR.
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Labels: Canada, Freedom of expression, Islam, Religion and fanaticism
Two-tiered thought police, by Francis Chartrand
As proposed changes to the Canadian Human Rights Act sit in political limbo, it seems the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) is determined to do its best to discredit itself further as an institution.
In April, a Quebec blogger named Marc Lebuis brought a complaint to the commission over a book published on the Internet by a Montreal-based fundamentalist Muslim, Abou Hammad Sulaiman al-Hayiti. Lebuis claimed that the book exposed gays, Jews, non-Muslims generally and other identifiable groups to "hatred or contempt" under the plain meaning of Section 13 of the act.
Mr. Lebuis' purpose, he admits, was to "test the objectivity of the commission" in light of commission rulings against Christians for publishing equally or less strident language.
The commission failed the test spectacularly. On Dec. 5, CHRC officials told Lebuis that they would not proceed with an investigation of his complaint. They argued that Mr. al-Hayiti was free to say whatever he liked against "infidels," and particularly non-Muslim women (what with their disturbingly.
When it comes to radical Muslims, human rights censors suddenly see no evil wanton habits of dress and behaviour!) because they do not constitute an "identifiable group." As for Mr. al-Hayiti's imprecations against groups established as "identifiable," like gays and Jews, the commission reported vaguely that these "do not seem" to meet the criteria for promoting hatred.
The first part of the finding has the tendency of permitting any kind of abusive language to be used against members of a notional majority group by a member of a minority. As for the second, Mr. al-Hayiti's own words raise the question of what a radical Muslim writer could possibly ever do to be found guilty of arousing "hatred or contempt."
Allah, Mr. al-Hayiti warns, has taught that "If the Jews, Christians, and [Zoroastrians] refuse to answer the call of Islam, and will not pay the jizyah [tax], then it is obligatory for Muslims to fight them if they are able." Christianity, in particular, is denounced as a "religion of lies," which is responsible for the West's "perversity, corruption and adultery."
At one point, Mr. al-Hayiti's book refers to "the incredible number of gays and lesbians (may Allah curse and destroy them in this life and the next) who sow disorder upon the Earth and who desire to increase their numbers." In one short passage, this combines a seeming accusation of demonic "recruitment" with an open wish for the complete elimination of homosexuals and a claim that they are a source of social chaos. It is like a mini-compendium of every form of dehumanization, in other words, to which gays and lesbians have ever been subjected. Can you imagine how a Christian who uttered a similar statement would be treated by a human rights commission?
Actually, we don't need to wonder. A few years back, a Christian pastor named Stephen Boissoin printed some negative remarks about gays that were far tamer than those of Mr. al-Hayiti. The result: Alberta's Human Rights Commission smacked him down, declaring that henceforth he "shall cease publishing in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals."
To our knowledge, Reverend Boissoin is the only religious figure anywhere in Canada who is legally barred from talking about homosexuality in his own sermons, in his own house of worship. Not Mr. al-Hayiti, though -- he can slam gays all he likes, "human rights" be damned.
This is part of a pattern that has revealed itself over the last few years. Human rights commissions claim to be agencies that fight "hate" generically. But in fact, they are interested in a very narrow sub-category of alleged hatemonger -- the right-winger accused of homophobia, anti-Muslim bias or some other thoughtcrime. The more unvarnished and explicitly murderous forms of hatred made manifest in the publications of, say, Jew-hating Muslims and Hindu-hating Sikhs are of no interest to the thought police.
In a narrow sense, the CHRC made the right call in this case: We are all in favour of Mr. al-Hayiti--or anyone else--being able to promote any particular interpretation of Islam, or any other religion. The larger problem is that Canada's thought police obey a politically correct double standard.
Section 13 of the Human Rights Act should be abolished: We don't want Canada to be a place where publications are screened for "hatred" by a coterie of bureaucrats. But until those people are properly turfed out of their jobs, perhaps the CHRC could be a little less overt in their bias against conservatism and Christianity.
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Labels: Canada, Francis Chartrand, Freedom of expression, Religion and fanaticism
Friday, January 09, 2009
Myth - Speak Arabic to understand Islam, by Francis Chartrand
Muslims tend to disarm any criticism of Islam and the Koran in particular by asking the person who expresses his opinion if she had read the original Arabic text of the Koran, as if the issues of the sacred text suddenly disappeared when the player controls the holy language and experience sensory direct words of Allah himself, that no translation can not do justice.
Muslim non-Arab
This should not forget that the majority of Muslims are neither Arab nor Arabic, about 1.3 billion Muslims, only about 300 million live in countries where Arabic is the language used, alone, populations of large Muslim countries non-Arabic such as Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey will exceed 600 million. While it is true that among the Muslims whose mother tongue is other than the most educated learn to read the Koran, the vast majority of believers is not the language, and many people learn passages of the Koran by heart, without typing a word.
In other words, most Muslims are required to read a translation of the Koran to understand. And contrary to popular belief, such as Farsi translations exist for the X ° or eleventh century, and that Turkish and Urdu for a very long time ... Today, the Koran is available in more than 100 languages. Many of these translations can be found on the Web, for example, see Quran.org.uk, often translated as Muslims elsewhere - despite disapproval more or less religious authorities.
The Arabic language, its evolution and its different forms
Even for our contemporary Arabic, reading the Koran is not a picnic. The Koran is supposedly written in what we call "Classical Arabic", but most of the modern Arab populations do not read or does not write in classical Arabic. We are facing what linguists call a phenomenon of "diglossia" situation of a group of people who practice both languages by giving them different hierarchical status, even if these languages or language varieties are related and partly inter-comprehensible. Here, the varieties are the "high" Arabic, called "Modern Literary Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic, derived directly from the Classical Arabic, and" Bottom "Arabic, Arabic Current" which includes the fact dialects commonly spoken.
The Modern Standard Arabic is taught in school, like Sanskrit or Latin in other latitudes. It is (in principle) used in writing and communication in very formal situations (sermons, lectures, news, part of the press ...).
Fluent Arabic is used in everyday life (with family, friends, radio and television for entertainment, ...). However, as noted by Alan Kaye, the differences between the many dialects of Arabic and Arabic Current Standard are such that fallah (farmer) who has not been to school can barely understand some words and expressions without experiencing great difficulties. We could assemble a dozen fallahin who have never been exposed to Standard Arabic, would be very hard to understand each other. "
Finally, scholars who assert that "anyone can read a newspaper in Modern Standard Arabic will have no difficulty reading the classical Arabic of the Koran and other ancient texts" paint a misleading picture of the linguistic situation of modern Arab societies they are insensitive to changes in meaning and use of terms that have occurred since the time of Classical Arabic, in a word to the evolution of language on a very long period and in an area geographically vast . In addition, anyone who lived in the Middle East in recent years knows that the language of the press, the best, semi-literary, and in any case as simplified structures and vocabulary used, and can even detect in the newspapers and television news which in terms of classical Arabic would grammaticales.Le errors linguist Pierre Larcher spoke of the "considerable gap between Medieval Classical Arabic and Classical Arabic (or literary) modern, some of texts in the former now the subject of narratives in the second ... "
Alan Kaye explains it in reality very few contemporary speakers of Arabic language sufficiently mastered the subtleties grammar Classic to give unannounced formal speech in English. And Pierre Larcher said that when you have a situation where two varieties of the same language exist, you can probably get all kinds of mixtures, which led some linguists to talk about triglossia, see quadriglossie or polyglossie about l 'Arabic, the various forms of the language creating a sort of continuum ...
In short, the style of the Koran is difficult, very different from the prose of today, the book is largely taken only incomprehensible and requires a glossary or even a commentary. Even the best-educated Arabic speakers will therefore often require some sort of "translation" if they want to find a direction. The Koran is without doubt one of the Sacred Scriptures more elusive, the gnomonic and more allusive.
Do you know Aramaic?
We're questioning, sometimes aggressively, "Yes, but do you Arabic? Then you assener often triumphantly:" To fully understand the Koran, it should be read in its original version in Arabic!". The free-thinkers are generally reduced by this maneuver to a sullen silence. They now keep criticizing Islam: After all, who are they to judge, who do not know Arabic?
However, no one denies criticize Christianity, yet how many freethinkers or atheists Western include Hebrews? How many of us know what was the language of Ezra? Or simply what language the New Testament was written? And of course, Muslims also feel free to criticize the Bible and Christianity, without knowing a word of Greek, in Hebrew or Aramaic!
Summary ...
There is no need to understand Arabic to discuss Islam or the Koran. It is need for skepticism and criticism. There are translations of the Koran by Muslim scholars, whose believers can not claim that there was corruption or deliberate alteration of the text by an infidel. The majority of Muslims is not Arabic, and they too must rely on translations. The original text of the Koran is the classical Arabic language in any case very different from what is spoken today, and even Muslims have Arabic notes to help understand their holy texts.
Arabic is a Semitic language, like Hebrew and Aramaic, and is not easier or more difficult to translate these other languages. There are of course all sorts of difficulties inherent in the text of the Qur'an, the Islamic scholars have also identified and discussed for a long time. The Koran is an opaque, but opaque to all; Muslim theologians themselves debating the meaning of verses broadly representative about a fifth of the Book!
Labels: Arab World, Francis Chartrand, Islam, Religion and fanaticism
We Muslims have work to do, by Salim Mansur
We have inherited a culture of denial, and too often we refuse to acknowledge our own responsibilities for the widespread malaise that has left most of the Arab-Muslim countries in economic, political and social decay.
In recent decades, reports and statistics intergovernmental have documented a gap, perhaps now irreversible, between Muslim countries and the advanced industrial democracies in the West.
A recent report on the index of states in disrepair, published in the journal Foreign Policy (May / June 2006), Pakistan, for example, is ranked among the 10 most failed states in the world - on top of Afghanistan. Pakistan is a Muslim country, a military nuclear power, but it can barely feed, clothe, educate and provide housing for its people.
Reports on the Arab countries is a sad list of entrenched tyrannies, savings into disrepair, squandered wealth, oppression of women, persecution of minorities and endemic violence. The system of religious leaders want Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and threatens to destroy Israel, to suppress internal opposition and to seek confrontation with the West.
Instead of acknowledging the reality of Arab-Muslim world as a broken civilization, we Muslims have tended to give way and blame others for our ills and divert responsibility for the failures that have become breeding of violence and terrorism. "We have taught our children false pride, and have given them a sense of history that crumbles under the consideration of the review. We have imposed a conflict of loyalty and now some of them have become our nightmare.
We preach tolerance, but we are intolerant. We demand inclusion, but we are putting in practice the exclusion of women, minorities, those with whom we disagree.
We constantly repeat that Islam is a religion of peace, but too many of us display conduct contrary to what we profess."
We continue to reassure us and others that Muslims violate Islam are a tiny minority, but we can not hold this minority accountable in public.
A bowl of milk turns into curd with a single drop of lemon. This tiny minority that we are responsible for curdled ruined our Islam, but too many of us insist refute all the evidence against our belief that distinguishes us as better than others.
In Islam, we insist that religion and politics are inseparable. The result: The politics dominates our religion - and our religion has become a cover for tribalism and nationalism.
Salim Mansur, Canadian and Muslim
Lien
Labels: Arab World, Canada, Islam, Religion and fanaticism
Quebec - Chronicle Jacques Brassard on the decision of the Human Rights Commission not to investigate the complaint by Marc Lebuis
The Daily
Opinion, Wednesday, 24 December 2008, p. 11
Chronicle
Peace on Earth to men of good will ...
Brassard, Jacques
His name is Abu Hammaad Sulaiman Dameus Al Hayat. Whew! This is an imam in Montreal. A fundamentalist. He wrote a book entitled "Islam and fundamentalism, in the light of Quran and the Sounnah. Reading the book, the publisher of tipping point, Marc Lebuis, filed last April, a complaint against the Imam for hate propaganda under article 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act of person. Mr. Lebuis alleged proof that the writings of the imam were nice and contemptuous hate against homosexuals, the unbelievers (non-Muslims), women, Jews, Quebecers. It's a lot of people!
Enslaved woman
Quotes from the book of Islam can not be more explicit. Here are some all impregnated with hatred and contempt ... On homosexuals: they deserve to be "wiped out". Razing the village gay, perhaps? On the unbelievers (Christians): "They live like animals," they are perverse love perversity. " Not really often! On women: "Man is more complete in his intellect and his memory that the woman". Or again: "The veiled woman is a light in the darkness of the 20th century." Enslaved woman, woman light that Françoise David is said to keep! On the Jews: [They] spreading corruption and chaos on Earth. On democracy: "Freedom is a principle that is alien and contrary to Islam and, therefore, therefore, false." On this basis, try to come up with reasonable accommodations! And these are just a few samples ...
What was the response of the Canadian Human Rights Commission on this complaint? Denied! Why? The passages of the book "do not seem to promote hatred and contempt." So, no investigation. The complainant draws the following conclusion (Le Devoir, 17 December): "If you are a minority, you can take with impunity hate speech and derogatory to the majority."
The remark by Mr Lebuis does not however imply that all religious minorities are trying to both impose their beliefs and values and to establish their domination over the society in which they lodge. While it is true that there are fundamentalists in every religion (ie rigorous practitioners), there are Islamists who want to submit all the unbelievers in Sharia and adhere to duty of Jihad (holy war). You will not see Catholics or Jewish fundamentalists wearing belts of explosives, use of terrorism and killing innocents in the name of their faith. Only Islamists kill, torture and decapitate as an homage to their god. Their fundamentalism is very specific and unique, we must recognize.
Not isolated cases
In fact, there is an Islamist who can proclaim jihad, like Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed, before a crowd in London: "The jihad is a duty, a struggle and an obligation. We will not rest until the banner of Allah, the flag of Islam, was hoisted on the 10 Downing Street (residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain). Do not particularly the case of Imam Al Hayitri and that of Sheikh Omar are isolated cases. They are simply cases of "proven". For all practical purposes, in all mosques of the West, incendiary imams preach Islam even vindictive, obscurantist, radical, steeped in hatred of Jews and the West, vomiting democracy and freedom. And, indeed, the Canadian Human Rights is all that benign, harmless and basically insignificant.
In short, it must be understood is that the jihad, not only the war in Afghanistan and the killing of Muslims in Iraq and Algeria, not only to terrorist attacks around the world (from New York to Bombay, from London to Madrid, Jakarta in Islamabad), it is also, according to Pierre-Andre Taguieff in his book on Judeophobia unavoidable, a "cultural war in the western countries preachers close to the Muslim Brotherhood or from Wahhabis, supported by a multitude of associations engaged in proselytizing. "
Aim
Their first objective is to prevent the integration of ethnic minorities by Islamic indoctrination them out of the global society, then, to promote networking and support militant groups fanatics ready to kill and sacrifice their own lives for the cause.
And do you think not immune to this strategy and the process of Islamization. In Europe, it has become a real threat. There are already Muslim states: Bosnia, Kosovo. In several other countries (Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, etc..), The Islamization of society has reached a critical point. That reveal the hateful diatribe of Imam Montreal is that it is also underway in Canada.
Merry Christmas anyway!
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Labels: Human rights, Islam, Québec, Religion and fanaticism
Sunday, January 04, 2009
The bêtisier archive 2008, by Noémie Cournoyer
"Harry Potter and this kind of literature (big book) with the" magic "responds to the kind perfectionists who must control everything in their lives but who hit the nose on the realities and that's good they are always disappointed. So they escape to play characters that have the "power" on people and events. They fabulent and delighted in a small consolation when writing the Bible gives us the character's most powerful, Jesus. Fortunately, this Potter is far behind in the list of best-selling books in the world "- JP on forum-chretien.com
"You are not gay Baptist, you are in fact victims of a sinful temptation, that of the homosexual. Especially not you ever considered as being homosexual, trying with all your heart to fight against that temptation, and Christ knows that nothing is impossible. "- Majestic on forum-chretien.com
"This is none other than wages AIDS that we often forget that its origin is homosexuality. This is why AIDS is a disease that will always incurable, simply because it was a divine punishment. Excuse me, but you can not have tolerance for anything and everything. "- On levangile777 forum-chretien . com
( "Another states that the carbon-14 dating is a matter of interpretation. He said that the nuclear physics that is not blank ...)
"It's your interpretation ... of Scientist "- A Forum on Top Chrétien
"Well first, when I say that I am thologien, historian and bla bla bla, not by degrees I justified it, but by my membership in these areas, period." - Another on Forum Top Chrétien
A touch of ethnocentrism:
(Background: one wonders if malédications ancêstrales are heresies).
"Absolutely, you will notice that these beliefs are mostly spread among Africans for Christians who believe it is cultural as well." - Tinina Forum on Top Chrétien
"This issue for those who dispute the possibility of the existence of a triune God," I remind them that if for example "UAE" written in three letters or three typographical as "H2O" in the language of a chemist, we should conclude that water can appear in three different forms namely concrete, a liquid, solid ice and gas in the form of steam. "- Site" Bible and numbers "
"I have another problem with the so-called" continental drift. "Why is there no elephant, giraffe, hippopotamus, rhinoceros in South America as in Africa, you will answer me that because they have disappeared long ago in America, not Africa. Allow me to contradict myself constateur simple things that anyone can take it with me. First it are the same types of climates from northern Argentina to northern Mexico, and vast areas virtually uninhabited. Then, the Americas were inhabited by very late man in relation to other continents, so it ' there was no competition for large animals. Even if he had to cross the arm of the sea, all these animals can swim! "-" Gillovy "forum on Topchrétien
"I am fighting against the devil and evil spirits with some friends, spirits and jinn, which helped, but I had to take medicine because the psychiatrist did not want me to leave the course closed to the hospital since then, apart from a brief stop in 94, I take a drug, they can not get when I am not receptive, it can not crucify me. "-" Gaetan "forum on Sceptiques Quebec
"Me I need to know that virtually no scientific or n'étudie uses the theory of evolution in the work (except to" plug-in) to conclude that evolution is a belief and not a theory understood and supported by the scientific community. "-" KingJosias, on top Christian forum
"Science has taught us long ago that are carnivores because they no longer have the enzymes needed to digest certain components of the vegetation, or vice versa." - "D. Gasser, on top Christian forum
"I always ask a question ... Why are scientific as it rejects the establishment and accepts it as the evolution ... Knowing that neither one nor the other is provable by a + b and that changes must also be called "Theory of evolution" as it is, I think he still theory and is trying to collect what seems to be "done" to infer more "logic" ... "-" Fabien, on top Christian forum
"I read the bible is the best scientific tool because it agrees with the science." - "Adventist", Forum on Religion
"ME SO IS THERE A FOUTRE (less) if God wants you to hell SOYER BECAUSE OF YOUR HATE HIM TO ME I can do nothing to save you. Do you remember me but to hell. NOT BECAUSE YOU LIKE WHAT YOU LOVE. Next time I GIVE YOU THE DEFINITION OF HELL, THAT WAY YOU HAVE AN IDEA ON YOUR DESTINATION. "-" LECHEMAINDROIT ", Forum on Religion
"What is evolution? It is a theory based on the unholy thought that the explanation of the origin of life can be a theist. Based on this principle laid down in absolute rule, a materialistic atheist (mechanistic type) was developed in competition with the biblical expressed by Genesis. Taking its starting point in the fabrications of the apostate Darwin Ch 1 (and a few others) as working hypotheses, a scenario 2 scientistic considering modification and improvement of the species and what was imagined "- gillovy forum TopChrétien.
The confession of a great speaker creationist:
"I don't care about his views [of the intelligent design advocate Michael Behe] and the views of creationists or evolutionists." - Julien P.aka "Josiah and KingJosias" on the forum Sceptiques Quebec.
There are two elements in a couple, then God exists:
"Prove otherwise, prove that there are no pairs? If you find that is true of each element there are a couple, it means that God exists, if not, there is no god! this is your chance atheists! "-" LECHEMAINDROIT ", Forum on Religion
"Of course the man cotoyé these fantastic beasts that are known dinosaur, although I am convinced that in fact they were species of dinosaurs, whales, elephants, and large varan volatile. Indeed it was discovered that evidence of cohabitation in the fossils of the same geological disposal. We must tell the truth and stop the misinformation! Because if the lie was punishable by law, there would be many evolutionists release "-" Gillovy, on the Forum Topchretien
"An acquaintance who claims to escape the guardianship of the biblical teaching satanic claiming the right to autonomy (I remind your kind thought that creationism is the official doctrine of the Church of the Apostles until today ... No father apostolic fathers of the Church, Doctor of the Reformation has supported a further explanation than that of Genesis, which is crucial to lay the foundations for understanding the functioning of the world where we are .... Who can say it a cure?) Why independent thinking is it satanic? because it is based on .... Did God really say? Doubt, a search for a different understanding, a different interpretation. "-" Gillovy "on the Forum Topchretien
"The true believer accepts clean slate of human ideas and welcome those of God in the place. And believe me, when someone has received God himself in his life, the veil of ignorance and poor reasoning falls blind and his eyes open to consider how the truth is simple, beautiful and accessible ... so it is there in his eyes and he wondered how it had so far not to see it! Our intelligence is renewed by the Holy Spirit of God and we finally understand things how the world has been done, how it works and how it will end. evolutionist propaganda seems so frivolous and vain that it ends soon by classify science-fiction mythology and post-scientific. "-" Gillovy " , on the Forum Topchretien
"If evolution was represented by a person, after these events, you require the care of your property? If you were an employer, you commit? How can we trust any logic in this false science "- Michael J., comment on a newspaper article of rural life.
"Creationism is conveyed through scientific periodicals published by the creationist research centers, via the Internet, via the debates in colleges and universities, etc. ..." - Josiah, comment on a newspaper article of rural life.
"[T] he man was created to serve and not to be the master. The great seduction of 60 years was to believe that man can be free. Jesus reminds us of the truth, the man was created to be under the government of God is under the government of money. The "free spirit" does not exist in the kingdom of God. "- Blog Zone Impact, 1st April 2008
"What some theologians have returned to their account of the" methodical doubt "of Descartes is unfortunately true. (...) For my part, I do not trust these pseudo-scientists of the Bible, these douteurs professional, the unbelievers in Christian clothing. I will never allow my old Bible, who followed me - and I tried to follow during my earthly pilgrimage, and be "eaten by the myths" - Guillaume JC - Are there any myths in the Bible?
"[...] Participants display of" avatars "(images that forumeurs choose to represent) clearly demonic matching each message or a link to their site, like this young woman advocating lesbianism, the "conversion to atheism" and other glorification of suicide (sic) - but says nothing moderation. "- Site Voxdei on the forum topchretien.
"Do not forget that quantum mechanics can explain things quite large, such as the killer waves (waves of 20-30m high) that were impossible for classical physics." - "Yoda" on Forum Topchretien
"0 = + m-m
= Should be read as a symbol of identity m anything (apple, man, god, music ...) + m-m and the expression of balance, which is universal.
For this truly magical, though infinitely simple, there is nothing that we did everything !!!!!!!!! So I think this scholar has fully answered questions about the identity of God, on how to create and that of evolution. I personally do nothing to say more, or possibly to explain further. "- Fabio, on the Forum Topchretien
"How to give a proof of the existence of God is above all a personal encounter with him with an open heart ready to give him access to all our lives for my part I was a hurry without God there but not what I did was to make the black magic and it did not bring peace but on the contrary one day I do encounter a Christian and m'ainvitée to come to church and I 've heard many stories but I could not really believe this made me tracassais and a night in my room alone I prayed and I asked forgiveness and I talk to God as a friend when I destémoignages had heard people crying and said they had felt peace n'aivaient they never felt so I foolishly waited all that I cry but nothing has happened I went to bed but still sad persévérente j 'I start the next evening and had nothing; ors I thought I could not will not have forgiveness and peace especially since I've been the practice of black magic then again the next night I did not update genous I'm lying very very sad and I said I did not have the right because of what I did and all of a sudden I started crying and resents a sensation at the top of my head to toe and a peace that I had never RESENTATION AND all my fears fears angoises that I lived a few years since we lost and that peace has never left and I have experienced extraordinary moments avecDieu an adventure so wonderful that is why it can not be explained that this is living with his heart, it is a personal decission must believe it just like a child the world wants proof of God has already given proof look around you life is a miracle, but know that we are responsible for our actions God has given us the intelligence and the choice of our actions we will respond un jour y God is not responsible for what we arrive c.est the world chosen and we accept them or not "- Choupette on the Forum Topchretien
"We have 10 or 100 billion neurons, and we only use a small part:" 5000 neurons. This is the scientists tell us. For me, I think that is a consequence of sin originel. "- TITOU on the Forum Topchretien
"You think it is possible to select pigs finally over several billion years to have a pig the size of the city of Chicago? I think not. "- Science Building on the Forum Topchretien (See also Samizdat, the site of Science Creation for countless pearls).
Creation Science and puts it on that other thread, same argument: the pig the size of the city of Chicago rejects evolution.
"While scientists are not evil Satanists seeking to corrupt the world, but ultimately one that does not belong to God belongs to the Devil." - Saimoune on the Forum Topchretien
Link
Labels: Creationism, Noémie Cournoyer, Religion and fanaticism, Science and theory, Secularism
Israel/Hamas: Civilians Must Not Be Targets, by Anne Humphreys
Israel and Hamas both must respect the prohibition under the laws of war against deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch expressed grave concern about Israeli bombings in Gaza that caused civilian deaths and Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilian areas in violation of international law.
Rocket attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets violate the laws of war, while a rising number of the hundreds of Israeli bombings in Gaza since December 27, 2008, appear to be unlawful attacks causing civilian casualties. Additionally, Israel's severe limitations on the movement of non-military goods and people into and out of Gaza, including fuel and medical supplies, constitutes collective punishment, also in violation of the laws of war.
"Firing rockets into civilian areas with the intent to harm and terrorize Israelis has no justification whatsoever, regardless of Israel's actions in Gaza," said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division. "At the same time, Israel should not target individuals and institutions in Gaza solely because they are part of the Hamas-run political authority, including ordinary police. Only attacks on military targets are permissible, and only in a manner that minimizes civilian casualties."
Human Rights Watch investigated three Israeli attacks that raise particular concern about Israel's targeting decisions and require independent and impartial inquiries to determine whether the attacks violated the laws of war. In three incidents detailed below, 18 civilians died, among them at least seven children.
On Saturday, December 27, the first day of Israel's aerial attacks, witnesses told Human Rights Watch that shortly after 1 p.m. an Israeli air-to-ground missile struck a group of students leaving the Gaza Training College, adjacent to the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in downtown Gaza City. The students were waiting to board buses to transport them to their homes in Khan Yunis and Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The strike killed eight students, ages 18 to 20, and wounded 19 others.
A UNRWA security guard stationed at the college entrance told Human Rights Watch that he used his UN radio to call for medical help. He said the attack also killed two other civilians, Hisham al-Rayes, 28, and his brother Alam, 26, whose family ran a small shop opposite the college entrance. The guard said that the only potential target nearby was the Gaza governorate building, which deals with civil matters, about 150 meters away from where the missile struck. Another UNRWA security guard who also witnessed the attack told Human Rights Watch: "There wasn't anybody else around - no police, army, or Hamas."
The second incident occurred shortly before midnight on Sunday, December 28, when Israeli warplanes fired one or more missiles at the Imad Aqil mosque in Jabalya, a densely populated refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. The attack killed five of Anwar Balousha's daughters who were sleeping in a bedroom of their nearby house: Jawaher, 4; Dina, 8; Samar, 12; Ikram, 14; and Tahrir, 18. "We were asleep and we woke to the sound of bombing and the rubble falling on the house and on our heads," Anwar Balousha told Human Rights Watch. The Balousha's three-room house is just across a small street from the mosque.
The two-story Imad Aqil mosque, named after a deceased Hamas member, is regarded by Palestinians in the area as a "Hamas mosque" - that is, a place where the group's supporters gather for political meetings or to assemble for demonstrations, and where death notices of Hamas members are posted. Mosques are presumptively civilian objects and their use for political activities does not change that. Human Rights Watch said that the attack on Imad Aql mosque would be lawful only if Israel could demonstrate that it was being used to store weapons and ammunition or served some other military purpose. Even if that were the case, Israel still had an obligation to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and ensure that any likely civilian harm was not disproportionate to the expected military gain.
In the third incident, at around 1 a.m. on Monday, December 29, an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles into the Rafah refugee camp. One struck the home of a senior Hamas commander; the other struck the home of the al-Absi family, about 150 meters away, killing three brothers - Sedqi, 3, Ahmad, 12, and Muhammad, 13 - and wounding two sisters and the children's mother. Ziad al-Absi, 46, the children's father, told Human Rights Watch that at around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, armed Palestinians had gathered near their home, firing machine guns at Israeli helicopters. "I and the neighbors argued with the militants, told them this is a populated area and this will put us into peril," he said. According to al-Absi's nephew, Iyad al-Absi, 27, the fighters refused to leave. When their commander arrived at about 11 p.m. and ordered them to leave, they again refused. The fighters finally left at around 11:15, but only after an exchange of gunfire between the fighters and their commander. Al-Absi said that he and his family then went to sleep. He told his nephew and other relatives that there was no further armed activity in the area prior to the missile strike on his house, almost two hours later. Ziad al-Absi said the blast had thrown one daughter onto a neighbor's balcony. The children's mother is in hospital intensive care; the two daughters are also in the hospital.
Human Rights Watch noted that many of Israel's airstrikes, especially during the first day, targeted police stations as well as security and militia installations controlled by Hamas. According to the Jerusalem Post, an attack on the police academy in Gaza City on December 27 killed at least 40, including dozens of cadets at their graduation ceremony as well as the chief of police, making it the single deadliest air attack of the campaign to date. Another attack, on a traffic police station in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, killed a by-stander, 12-year-old Camilia Ra`fat al-Burdini. Under the laws of war, police and police stations are presumptively civilian unless the police are Hamas fighters or taking a direct part in the hostilities, or police stations are being used for military purposes.
"Israel must not make a blanket decision that all police and police stations are by definition legitimate military targets," Stork said. "It depends upon whether those police play a role in fighting against Israel, or whether a particular police station is used to store weapons or for some other military purpose."
Some other Israeli targets may have also been unlawful under the laws of war. Three teenagers were killed in southern Gaza City on December 27, when Israeli aircraft struck a building rented by Wa`ed (Promise), a Hamas-affiliated organization that defends prisoners held by Israel. Israel justified its attack on Gaza City's Islamic University on grounds that laboratories were used to manufacture explosives, but this did not address why a second strike demolished the women's quarters there. Israel also attacked the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV, but did not provide a reason. Television and radio stations are legitimate military targets only if used for military purposes, not if they are simply being used for pro-Hamas or anti-Israel propaganda.
Human Rights Watch expressed grave concern about the seriously deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which was already dire prior to the latest attacks. A health expert with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza said on December 28 that hospitals were "overwhelmed and unable to cope with the scale and type of injuries that keep coming in." The ICRC noted that medical supplies and medicines were already badly depleted as a result of Israel's prohibition of most imports into Gaza since Hamas took full internal control of the territory in June 2007. In a statement on December 29, the ICRC said that some neighborhoods were running short of water, owing to damage from attacks or fuel and power shortages. The statement also said that prices for food and basic commodities were reportedly rising fast. UNRWA had reported several days prior to the latest escalation of fighting that its stocks of essential commodities were extremely low.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which also monitors security matters in Gaza, Palestinian armed groups fired more than 100 rockets towards Israel on December 27-28; Haaretz, the Israeli daily, reported that on December 29 Palestinian armed groups fired at least 60 rockets into Israel. One of them killed a Bedouin construction worker, 27-year-old Hani al-Mahdi, and wounded 14 others in the coastal city of Ashkelon, north of Gaza; another fatally wounded 39-year-old Irit Sheetrit while she was driving home in the city of Ashdod, 35 kilometers from Gaza. The previous day, December 28, a rocket attack killed another Israeli civilian and wounded four in Netivot, some 20 kilometers east of Gaza City.
Human Rights Watch has long criticized Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli civilians - most recently, in a public letter to Hamas on November 20 (http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/11/20/letter-hamas-stop-rocket-attacks ). The rockets are highly inaccurate, and those launching them cannot accurately target military objects. Deliberately firing indiscriminate weapons into civilian populated areas, as a matter of policy, constitutes a war crime. Rocket attacks have killed 19 civilians in Israel since 2005, including those killed to date during the current clashes.
Human Rights Watch has also criticized Israel's policy of severely restricting the flow of people and goods into Gaza, including fuel and other civilian necessities, saying that those restrictions amount to collective punishment against the civilian population, a serious violation of the laws of war (http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/11/20/letter-olmert-stop-blockade-gaza ). Israel continues to exercise effective control over Gaza's borders and airspace as well as its population registry, and remains the occupying power there under international law. The laws of war prohibit the occupying power from attacking, destroying, or withholding objects essential to the survival of the civilian population. Israel is also obliged to protect the right of Palestinians in Gaza to freedom of movement, to secure access to health care and education, and to lead normal lives.
Link
Labels: Anne Humphreys, Human Rights Watch, Israel, Palestine
Saturday, January 03, 2009
ECR: analysis of a multiculturalist and pluralist normative, by Francis Chartrand
Some excerpts from a program analysis of ethics and religious culture by Charles-Philippe Courtois, Ph.D. in history (UQAM) and Political Science (Paris), published in the book against the educational reform, VLB publisher. Mr. Courtois takes a critical and secular nationalist (or closed Republican seeking to reject the transmission of religion outside of school). We do not agree with all his analysis, but we believe they are worth running. The intertitles added.
"
[...]
Program evaluated by the ability to "open up to the other"
Because this is where the shoe pinches. The "religious culture" proposed can not be taught a course in which students will be evaluated on the basis of their knowledge. No, we will not measure in the evaluation of the course, it can briefly explain the main features of each of the major religions and their history. It will be evaluated according to their skills. " In this case, the course combines "ethics" and "religious" aspect of the religious culture will be assessed according to a single jurisdiction, "the practice dialogue." And that, throughout the curriculum, for eleven years! Basically, we form rather whether the student has learned the history of Muhammad or Buddha. What we seek is to assess its ability to "openness to others, acceptance of religious diversity, because that is what measures the competence" to practice the dialogue. "
[...]
Moreover, the combination of religious culture to the moral teaching has an effect amalgam: morality and religion are related [that is a layman who writes], and morality and what some call the "hyper-tolerance" are confused.
The competency evaluation can be especially insidious, not only because it provides secondary access to knowledge, but also because it can easily give first place to ideological conditioning in the evaluation process . Finding no shortage of spicy, when considering that the supporters of the new pedagogy endless distance over traditional models of school, either Catholic or Republican, criticizing not only the ideologies conveyed by those body but, allegedly, the fact is promoting Catholicism, or patriotism.
The cramming will be particularly intense
As this course will be compulsory for the first year of primary education in the last year of high school, the cramming will be particularly intense.
[...]
George Leroux divert secularism in favor of pluralism
Thus, Leroux argues that secularism in Quebec can (read: should) be open to the diversity according to "new rules of respect for pluralism," as they are anywhere else (p. 11. [Of book by George Leroux, genuine apology course ECR: Ethical Culture religious dialogue, Fides, 2007])
Already, we know that secularism [republican French] as we know it is not in the program. A new definition of equality, he has asserted since the 1960s. Indeed, this statement appears to be sufficient, in the small test Leroux, to justify the establishment of an ECR.
The multicultural high respect fundamental democratic Well
Leroux goes even further in the following passage: "[c] ow cultivate this respect, which is the fundamental virtue of democracy, without supporting the knowledge of others and value difference?" (Emphasis mine , p. 12)
Why is the fundamental virtue of democracy, which is, after all, first a system where the people are sovereign, it is defined by a multiculturalist interpretation of equality and human rights? In this, the argument is not far from an argument based on authority: the good is defined, it is now to enforce. Opponents of the coup defending evil, there is no need to take into account their views or their arguments. In sum, pluralism appears as a new command, entered at the top of the table of new laws that would impose clerics of religion politically correct.
A new first commandment plurality is a richness
The following quotes illustrate that it is a commandment, the student, Leroux says, "must be led to infer that plurality is not an obstacle to overcome [hence the need then paradoxical to impose this course], but a treasure to know and incorporate in its world view. " Not only it is a command, but it takes precedence over all others, including the training school. Because "[t] through [school] is to integrate the knowledge of others in all aspects of its culture, and at the forefront of its values and beliefs, whether religious or not (p . 17)
Will tendentious ideological control
Georges Leroux even adds that "every young person to move from the recognition of pluralism in the enhancement of normative pluralism" (pp. 13-14) simply becomes the "mission" of the school. Asserting that quite bluntly expressed a desire to control ideological bias. The pluralism becomes the principle of educating the youth in Quebec (p. 40).
[...]
Strange definition of integration: integrate multiculturalism in Quebec
Let's end as [George Leroux] defines integration: "Everyone will enter the school as in a society where identities are both common and multiple joint first, since the school [d ' State] shall assume the collective mandate of public education and its mission is to convey the core values of democracy, but also different, because everyone belongs to a world which varies according to its origins, beliefs, culture "(p. 15 ).
In other words [for Leroux], Quebec schools should integrate more children to the culture [...] It has to incorporate the Quebec cultural diversity of multiculturalism and pluralism, in the words Preferred ...
Consequences of mixing current Quebec unpredictable, you just open
Because nobody can predict which will mix in Quebec "in terms of beliefs, practices, the mix of identities and cultures. » (p. 17), but the school must work to ensure that the mixture is made as smoothly as possible by opening to the values and beliefs of the other, allowing for full secularism and secularization. No other goal of integration is the program that the famous opening to another ", a common chorus qu'ânonnent new clerks orthodoxy well thought out.
[...]
Pluralism, the new opium of intellectuals
In this sense, we can indeed say that pluralism is now unchallenged as the new opium of intellectuals.
But why? Here Leroux presented his "advocacy". He argues that both arguments demonstrate the need for this course: a historical argument and an argument of political philosophy. The argument is convoluted. First there is the process of secularization initiated since the Quiet Revolution. But it does not necessarily [if history has a meaning!] To this kind of pluralism, but rather to secularism. But we will see how Leroux wants to secede from the republican model, caricatured, demonized again in the manner of the Bouchard-Taylor report [.]
[...]
Georges Leroux against secularism in the French
In summary, there are three arguments against the Republican according Leroux: he joined a French national culture as it should be open to Europe and pluralism (argument for the dissolution of national identity and nations) and did not open to Islam (curious argument because secularism involves a principle of neutrality and equality that could, instead, require better enforcement), and finally, the classical culture is elitist and does not so young (argument of cultural and educational demagoguery).
The anger of French Muslims is explained by the lack of attention given to their roots - that argument is perhaps a bit simplistic.
The argument of political philosophy in favor of an ECR weak and childish
As to the argument of political philosophy, it seems to be the lowest, for the work of Leroux not, ultimately, to argue in earnest. It does not take seriously the criticism and, therefore, did not bother to explain in detail the reason for the choice it represents.
This would "bring them into line with school policy modernity" (p. 36). In itself, this does not mean much. Who defines modernity? Was it once and for all determined that multiculturalism embodied modernity, the only way a people and a state can choose to be "modern"? This argument is childish.
[...]
[Insensitivity as George Leroux Bouchard-Taylor in the popular will]
Leroux relativise the principle of majority said that "nostalgic"
Leroux goes very far. It puts the principle of majority, it may be imaginary, in any case "nostalgic".
[... The principle of equality], "the only principle capable of resolving our relationship to diversity" (p. 37). Again, note it, diversity is based itself in the argument. On behalf of the imperative of multiculturalism as it is justified, but this requirement is not argued by the author. Therefore, in total, this argument is very poor.
Disturbing trends among experts usual monopoly Education
Instead, it teaches us about disturbing trends in some of the intelligentsia, and more out of their weight on the Ministry of Education. We are talking about the ambition of ideological re-education in political correctness, which aims to standardize the minds of Quebecers tomorrow according to the Canadian Multiculturalism.
[...]
Make the bed of the chimera multiculturalist and cosmopolitan culture very anglicised
The price of ECR is flawed because it does not focus on the investigation of major religions, or citizenship, which would be laudable goals, but will flood rehabilitation in favor of ideological Canadian Multiculturalism renamed the "pluralism".
However, addressing the world with a Quebec does nothing to open on the world, while Quebec qu'abolir perspective on the world is only a means to weaken drastically the Quebec identity and threaten , ultimately, the perpetuation of our national identity and local real one of these cultural differences that claims to cherish.
In sum, it is intended to promote a multiculturalist chimeric diversity, which is just another form of integration in a cosmopolitan culture and very anglicised, ther than perpetuating the framework of a concrete cultural difference, that defines a people duly formed and a distinct society.
[...] "
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Québec
Failure at the heart of educational reform, by Francis Chartrand
The heart of the educational reform which puts forward the controversial program of educational projects is a "failure", a study reveals that the Journal has obtained a copy.
The survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Montreal for the Management Committee of the education tax on the island of Montreal, found that in schools where teachers are often group projects, the proportion of students who graduate in secondary education amounted to just 55%.
In contrast, in schools where teachers away this new method, the graduation rate reached 86%.
"It's true that it is annoying for those who put forward these teaching methods," said Pierre Lapointe, one of the sponsors of the study and professor at the University of Montreal, who adds that "on the political side, the study may actually be annoying to many. " Yet the silence is the most comprehensive monopoly Education.
The researcher is of the opinion that this does not affect the reform. "It continues to fuel the controversy, but we can not believe that a new program is just positive," he said.
Teaching
The traditional get a much better note. In schools where teachers often the practice teaching, the proportion of students graduating reached 76% while it is 67% in institutions where they do practice occasionally.
"These results are quite disturbing. The reform has failed in its foundations, "Judge Steve Bissonnette, professor of psychoeducation and psychology at the University of Quebec in Outaouais.
Turn 180 degrees
Robert Comeau, an associate professor in the Department of History at UQAM, who led the lawsuit against the educational reform that has just been published, said he needed to turn 180 degrees.
"The problem at the moment is trying to change the songs to play, such as newsletters. This is the basis for reform that we must change, "he said.
François Paquette, vice president of the Federation of Parents' Committees, said that the study "questions the educational projects, but believes that reform should not be discarded in the trash as long without the Journal de Montreal, we learn why.
For their study, researchers used data from four cohorts of students entered school between 1998 and 2001, totaling 72 698 young people from the island of Montreal. In addition, 212 teachers responded to a questionnaire and 30 principals were interviewed.
Other findings of the study
9%
Students who interrupt their school for one year is virtually assured of not getting their diploma. Only 9% of young people having a break from their school in fact receive their diploma at the age of 20 years or less.
MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO PRIVATE
64%
Students who attend a private school are more likely to graduate than those in the public network. Nearly 90% of young graduate after five years, compared to 64% in public school.
THE TEACHER HAVE AN IMPACT
57%
Teachers who positively encourage their students have an undeniable impact on their success. In schools where teachers do not relate to social reinforcement, the graduation rate is 57%, while it is 81% in schools where teachers say they often adopt this strategy.
POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT
53%
Students in schools where the environment in the classroom is perceived positively are more likely to graduate. In schools where teachers say that the educational climate is very favorable, the graduation rate to 79%. As against, it is 53% in schools where their colleagues have an opinion.
Source: Report on the educational environment in public schools and school students from the island of Montreal
EDUCATION AND TRADITIONAL EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS
EDUCATION MAGISTRAL
The teacher uses a more traditional, where he teaches his own ideas and concepts. Students perform the following exercises to ensure their understanding.
TEACHING BY THE PROJECTS
The student incorporates many of their learning in different subjects by conducting a project. Backed by the teacher, students take charge of their learning.
Source: Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Québec, Religion and fanaticism, Youth
Grand Disparus 2008, by Francis Chartrand
January 1 - John Granville, U.S. diplomat
January 3 - Jimmy Stewart, British racing driver and brother of triple world champion Jackie Stewart in Formula 1
January 4 Michael Conte, writer, humanist, songwriter, choreographer, stage designer Quebec
January 8 - Daniel Hétu, pianist, author, composer and performer in Canada
January 11 - Edmound Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and winner of the first Everest
January 15 - Brad Renfro, actor
January 16 - Pierre Boussel, said "Lambert, founder in France of the Workers Party
January 17 - Carlos, born Yvan-Chrysostome Dolto, French singer and actor
January 18 - Bobby Fisher, the world champion of failures of U.S. origin
January 22 - Heath Ledger, actor
January 26 - Christian Brando, eldest son of Marlon Brando
January 26 - George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
January 27 - Mohammed Suharto, former president of Indonesia
January 28 - I Christodule Athens, primate of the Orthodox Church of Greece
February 3 - Samuel Boyle, American journalist, head of the New York office of the Associated Press (1981-2002)
February 5 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation
February 6 - The Gwenc'hlan Scouëzec, "Grand Druid" of the Gorsedd of Brittany
February 10 - Roy Scheider, American actor
February 13 - Henri Salvador, singer and jazz guitarist French
February 18 - Mickey Renaud, hockey player Canadian junior, captain of the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL
March 1 - Raúl Reyes, Colombian guerrilla "Number 2" of the FARC
March 3 - Giuseppe Di Stefano, the Italian tenor, a partner of Maria Callas
March 4 - Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons
March 8 - Colette Berger, French actress
March 10 - Dennis Irwin, bassist, great American jazz musician
March 15 - Ken Reardon, hockey player Canadian ice, a former player with the Montreal Canadiens
March 16 - Ola Brunkert, drummer, musician additional group ABBA
March 16 - George David Low, American
March 19 - Arthur C. Clarke, author of British science fiction (2001, A Space Odyssey)
March 24 - Richard Widmark, American actor and producer
March 24 - Sherri Wood, Canadian journalist
April 3 - Rosita Salvador, starring Canadian popular songs of the 1960s
April 5 - Charlton Heston, American actor
April 8 - Stanley Kamel, actor, the psychiatrist's detective Adrian Monk in the series "Monk"
April 13 - John Archibald Wheeler, American theoretical physicist who coined the term "black hole"
April 14 - Jamacia Jackson, American football player of the Tiger-Cats of the CFL Hamilton
April 14 - Ollie Johnston, the last member of the legendary team of the "Nine Old Men" of Disney Studios
April 29 - Chuck Daigh, American racing driver
April 29 - Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist, discoverer of LSD
May 1 - Deborah Jeane Palfrey, director of a prostitution network of luxury
May 9 - Nuala O'Faolain, Irish author
May 10 - Jessica Jacobs, actress Australian television series
May 15 - Alexander Courage, American composer (Star Trek)
May 15 - Claude Théberge, Quebec painter
May 24 - Rob Knox, a young British actor, the credits of the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
May 26 - Sydney Pollack, director and actor 29 mai -
May 29 - Luc Bourdon, ice hockey player, defender of the Vancouver Canucks
June 1 - Yves Saint-Laurent, French fashion
June 2 - Bo Bidley, guitarist, singer and American composer
June 4 - Jacques-Francis Rolland, French writer and resistant
June 11 - Jean Desailly, French actor
June 13 - Tim Russert, journalist and political analyst from the American channel NBC
June 23 - George Carlin, comedian, actor and screenwriter U.S.
June 28 - Ruslana Korshunov, Kazakh model
June 29 - Diane Hebert, the first Quebecer to receive a heart-lung transplant
July 2 - Solange Harvey, columnist and courriériste québecoise of the Journal de Montréal
July 4-Evelyn Keyes, actress
July 4 - Terrence Kiel, football player in 2003 for a 2006 San Diego Chargers
July 8 - John Templeton, investor and philanthropist British
July 12 - Tony Snow, American journalist, spokesman for the White House from 2006 to 2007
July 18 - Brigitte Laflamme, first Québecoise with CF to receive a lung transplant
July 28 - Suzanne Tamim, Lebanese singer
July 30 - Leif Pettersen, a former Canadian football player in the CFL with Saskatchewan and Hamilton
August 1 - Pauline Baynes, British designer
August 3 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and dissident, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970
August 6 - Jud Taylor, American actor and director
August 7 - Juan Bustos, Chilean politician, ppposant to Pinochet and Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies
August 9 - Bernie Mac, actor
August 10 - Isaac Hayes, singer, composer and actor
August 12 - Gilles Bilodeau, former ice hockey player Canadian
August 13 - Sandy Allen, American women, the largest in the world, (2m32, 7 '7 ¼), according to the Guinness Book of Records
August 18 - Habib Miyan, Indian man, self-proclaimed dean of mankind 138 years old
August 20 - Hua Guofeng, Chinese politician, successor to Mao Zedong at the head of the CCP and Chinese prime minister from 1976 to 1980
August 24 - Jacques Krier, director and producer of French television
August 28 - Michel Vastel, a French journalist, a columnist in many newspapers Quebec
September 9 - Richard Monette, actor and director Canadian
September 10 - Gérald Beaudoin, professor of law and Canadian politician
September 11 - Bennett Campbell, Canadian politician, Premier of the Province of Prince Edward Island from 1978 to 1979
September 15 - Marion Dewar, Canadian politician, Mayor of the City of Ottawa from 1979 to 1985
September 15 - Richard Wright, British musician, keyboardist of the progressive rock group Pink Floyd
September 18 - Ron Lancaster, American football player Canadian quarterback Ottawa and Saskatchewan in the CFL
September 22 - Marie-Claude Lorne, French philosopher
September 26 - Paul Newman, actor
October 13 - Guillaume Depardieu, French actor
October 13 - Françoise Seigner, French actress
November 4 - Michael Crichton, a writer of science fiction writer and producer of American films
November 7 - Amulet Garneau, Canadian actress
December 5 - Alexis II of Moscow, 15th patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church
December 24 - Harold Pinter, British writer, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Rights Commission condemns discrimination Father Christmas, by Francis Chartrand
After that shit, take a look at this.
And you'll say, "what the fuck?".
In December 2006, the Human Rights Commission has received complaints of discrimination based on disability with regard to Rudolf, a small red-nosed reindeer.
Through the use of anatomically correct dolls infused life that have recreated incidents in dispute dramatically, and at least one version of the facts delivered in the form of a ridiculously catchy song, the Commission has established the following facts:
Rudolf is suffering from facial disfigurement.
He is employed by Santa Claus, owner and sole director of a conglomerate of toy known as Operation Santa Claus Inc. (Hereinafter OPNI) and on the magnetic North Pole of the Earth (the hereinafter referred to as the North Pole), or near the North Pole. Rudolf has worked in the department of delivery systems, propulsion and guidance.
In North Pole, reindeer can fly. No one finds it strange.
Like the lingerie departments of department stores, book OPNI its entire annual production of Christmas presents in one night, December 24.
The alleged incidents took place in the winter months leading up to Christmas 2005.
The Commission has established the following account of events:
Rudolf has a rare swollen nose and discoloration.
Doctors who examined at the request of the Commission had concluded that his disability is not due to a condition known.
His nose is too bright. Witnesses said that some "would say that shines", raising the possibility of radiation poisoning. This hypothesis has been ruled out by using a Geiger counter. The Commission accepted a diagnosis of congenital disfigurement.
It is clear that the disfigurement of Rudolf has been a source of shame for his parents. At one point, the child's father had tried to blacken the nose of his son with the mud - a considerable effort given the scarcity of mud at the North Pole. A dental eventually shaped a prosthetic nose and Rudolf forced to wear in public.
Rudolf problems were exacerbated in school. The prosthetic nose fell often crudely made, revealing the disfigurement of Rudolf. His peers responded by ridiculing and refusing to leave "to join the reindeer games," according to a version of events.
Reindeer Games are an intrinsic part of the reindeer, and the exclusion of Rudolf was painful. No action was taken by the teachers or the school principal to correct the situation. The Commission notes that the school is owned and operated by Educational Systems Inc. of North Pole., A subsidiary of OPNI.
The cruel taunts and exclusion have continued until 24 December 2005, when weather conditions have resulted in the formation of a thick fog in the North Pole, a polar desert where temperatures at that time around 45 degrees below zero.
That's when Santa Claus himself Rudolf approached and offered him the chance to fill a newly created position in the department of delivery. He asked Rudolf help pull his sled for gifts in the position of scout.
Santa hoped the nose luminous beacon Rudolf serve and help guide his sleigh into the night. This has apparently worked, and the delivery went off without a hitch.
The sudden and unexpected commitment Rudolf the sole and all-powerful employer in the region has changed the attitude of his peers to him. "From that moment, all the reindeer loved him," said one witness. Some have predicted that Rudolf "go down in history."
CONCLUSIONS
The Commission considers that this case is disturbing from start to finish. Members noted with sadness that the North Pole is dominated by a Manichean character tinged trial that divides the world into "evil" and "friendly". The systematic exclusion of Rudolf clearly comes from the leader of a community that is controlled in all its aspects by a single employer.
There is little in this regard, which separates the North Pole from any single employer city of South Africa from the era of apartheid, Ireland before the First World War, or what is now New Brunswick.
The Commission is also troubled that Father Christmas is made in favor of a victim of discrimination repeated that once the fate of his business at stake Although OPNI lawyers argued in court that recruitment Rudolf is a clear indication of the inclusive policy of the company, the Commission considers that it was motivated by a corrupt purpose, and the company has behaved differently after complaints were filed with the Commission.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Accordingly, the Commission decides that:
OPNI acted in a discriminatory manner against Rudolf, and must pay the sum of $ 18.5 million in damages.
OPNI must immediately begin to offer educational programs on tolerance and diversity to all staff, beginning with senior management.
OPNI must submit to audits of diversity on an annual basis and submit a report to the Commission indicating its progress in providing jobs for red-nosed reindeer, large elves and humans not jovial.
They really did that investigation, chezz, I don't believe it. In Canada, 50,000 women are forced to wear the hijab, but we will be more talking about reindeers of Santa Claus. The Canadian Human Rights has actually released the report, but dismissed the complaint by Marc Lebuis, editor of Point de Bascule.
Can somebody go tell that shit to the First Nations in Parc LaVérendrye? They have no power, no water.
What the fuck?
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Human mistake
Topless ban to protect Muslims and Asians: Nile, by Francis Chartrand
Conservative MP Fred Nile says he wants topless bathing banned in NSW to protect Sydney's Muslim and Asian communities.
The Reverend Nile has rejected allegations that prudishness is behind a bill he has prepared to ban nudity, including topless sunbathing, on the state's most popular beaches.
Australia's reputation as a conservative but culturally inclusive sociery was at risk of erosion by more liberal overseas visitors, he said.
"Our beaches should be a place where no one is offended, whether it's their religious or cultural views," he said.
"If they've come from a Middle Eastern or Asian country where women never go topless - in fact they usually wear a lot of clothing - I think it's important to respect all the different cultures that make up Australia."
The practice was at risk of raising the ire of Muslim men in particular, Mr Nile said.
"I don't want to have any provocations or disturbances on our public beaches," he said.
Acting Premier Carmel Tebbutt and the NSW Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, have both said that topless bathing is an issue for local councils, not state governments.
But Mr Nile said he believed most politicians would come around once all the issues were considered.
"I think if you survey Australian women you'll find a lot of women would be uncomfortable if it became the custom [to be] topless at the beach," he said.
"Australia's always been a conservative country as far as beachwear goes.
"Once being topless is accepted as lawful the next question will be why can't women go totally nude on a public beach and I don't think Australians want to go down that pathway."
NSW Liberal powerbroker David Clarke and Labor MP Paul Gibson have reportedly vowed to support the bill.
AAP reports:
Mr O'Farrell said topless bathing was not a matter for Parliament.
"This is a matter for local councils to deliberate, at a time when state parliament should be focusing on roads, public transport, hospitals and education," he said today.
"It doesn't rate on the list of important matters for the Parliament of NSW."
Up to individuals: Gillard
Speaking to reporters in Melbourne, acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the topless issue was one of context and clear signage.
"People want to go to the beach and use the beach in a variety of ways. Obviously family groups want to go to the beach, people who want to get a bit of sun all over also want to go to the beach," she said.
"As long as people know what the rules are and know what to expect I think it is a matter for the individuals involved."
Ms Gillard urged topless bathers to be sun smart.
"There is also a stage where people should be getting the hat on, getting the shirt on and getting the sunscreen on," she said.
Topless bathing not an issue: Bondi mayor
Waverley Council Mayor Sally Betts says she is aghast at moves by state politicians to outlaw women from sunbathing topless on NSW beaches.
"We've got alcohol-related violence, we've got under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour in the public domain - those are really important issues," Ms Betts told Fairfax Radio Network.
"If the Reverend Nile really wants to help people he should focus on those issues."
Ms Betts said she was at the beach on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and did not notice any topless women.
But if it was a problem, she would have heard about it, she said.
"In Waverley, we have a very involved community. They complain about everything," she said.
"But nobody has complained to me about topless [women]."
Buy peace, to reduce their demands, fear of Muslims.
It is a way that suggests their superiority enshrined in the Koran.
That is exactly what not to do.
It is for Muslims to adapt to the customs of their home countries, it is not we who live in the Middle Ages, it was for them to evolve and not up to us to retreat.
Where does this annoying habit of always wanting to give way to the weak and ingnorants?
A child is born parents become his slave, a child entered the school teachers becomes his servant, an immigrant enters the country people to kiss your feet, give up their culture, trample their own rights and their freedom.
It happens anyway? Did I miss something? Laws of nature are reversed? Now it is the law of the weakest? mice eat cats, sheep slaughter wolves?
Looks like an old song by Paul Piché: There is more teacher in our homes because you're there.
Francis Chartrand
PS: By the way, I like topless girls on beach, just a matter of principles... ;-)
Labels: Australia, Francis Chartrand, Religion and fanaticism, Sex
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