Not the usual Sunday Cat Break

With thanks to profbigk for the important reminder:

The song was composed by Yusuf Islam when he was still known as Cat Stevens.  Though it was written in the seventies in his earlier persona, Yusuf Islam sang it for the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony in 2006.  That performance can also be seen on youtube, but this one seem to me to be better musically.

It is recorded by Jamal Records , for which YI has done several albums.  Jamal Records links to Small Kindness, which aims

To help the most vulnerable victims of war and conflict, such as orphans, widows, and young girls, by providing direct relief and support with minimum administrational costs, by employing and utilising local staff and infrastructure, being continuously sensitive to the cultural needs of the communities we are serving.

Among its programs are scholarship programs in a number of war-torn countries that seek to give young women job skills.

Yusuf Islam is the chairman of Small Kindness.  Although associated with the UNDP,  it is based in the UK. I’d be grateful for any observations about it that UK readers might have.

Looking up and outward

On more than one occasion, Roger Gottlieb (“the rabbi of environmental philosophy”) has argued that when self-absorption and ignorance is a widespread moral problem, “sometimes pointing and saying, ‘Look!’ constitutes an argument.”  I’ve often been struck by the truth of this, especially when sitting in the U.S. during an election which is so obsessively covered by the media that the electorate concludes the rest of the world must be doing fine.  As Pew Research center reports attest, interest in the Iraq war has dwindled concurrent with news coverage: “Last week the national media devoted only 2% of its overall coverage to the war.”

 Hopefully, the next U.S. president will take up the issues that citizens have allowed the last president to neglect, such as the direct relationship between genocide in Darfur and the recent violence in Chad; this from the New York Times:

John Prendergast, a former Clinton Administration official and anti-genocide advocate who has worked in Chad and Sudan for 20 years, said that Sudan has been actively trying to overthrow Mr. Deby because of his support for Darfur rebel groups and his willingness to allow a European peacekeeping force to deploy in Chad to protect Darfur refugees living on the country’s eastern border with Sudan.

“This has been an undeclared proxy war between Chad and Sudan for nearly four years now,” he said. “The international community has largely turned a blind eye.”

 Let’s remember Claudia Card’s injunction to priorities evils over unjust inequalities; this doesn’t mean not caring about women or non-whites winning elections, but it does mean remembering why it matters.  Feminists, let’s urge attention to true suffering.  As American feminists go to the polls, no matter whom you vote for, work to direct the attention of your fellow citizens and your leaders back to the world.

Look at the freedom we’ve brought!

An Afghan journalism student has been sentenced to death for downloading a report on women’s rights. What a fabulous democracy we’ve brought the Afghan people.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

The Independent has a petition you can sign here. It’s a petition to the UK foreign office, but anyone can sign it, and non-UK pressure can make a difference.

Grace Lee Boggs

 

 As Amy Goodman of Democracy Now tells us, 

Grace Lee Boggs, the legendary 92-year-old civil rights activist, who has been pivotally involved with the civil rights, black power, labor, peace, environmental justice, Asian American and feminist movements.

And from Bill Moyer’s site:

Born in 1915 to Chinese immigrant parents, Boggs received her BA from Barnard College in 1935 and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College in 1940.

Boggs’ comments on Democracy now can be seen as continuing discussions about racism and sexism that have been occurring on this blog, perhaps particularly in the observations and references made in comments on an earlier post about Bob Herbert on misogyny. Violence toward women is not likely to be an isolatable problem, one whose causes reflect just what happens between individuals. How deeply does it reside in our values and practices? And what today is holding that in place?

 One can see Boggs as calling a discussion of just such issues:

And we don’t see how what we have done and the way that we have tried to be robust in our economic growth has created all these crises for the world. That’s why I like to start looking at the economy. How can we take advantage of this opportunity, this crisis, to reorder our priorities?

And it is clear that her conception of “reordering priorities” is not a trivial idea, for it is to be done in terms of Martin Luther King’s insights

what people don’t realize is at the end of his life, King was looking at our crisis, a profound spiritual and material crisis, and he said that we had advanced economic growth at the expense of community and of participation, that our works had become larger and we ourselves had become smaller.

Asked if she is worried that the US will increase its military activities because of concerns about the economy, she remarked:

this is a question of choice, we are not at the mercy of circumstances. We are human beings. We can become more purposeful. We can choose. We don’t have to go the way of empires. Or, going the way of empires, we don’t have to continue to go that way.

Of course the causes of violence against women have ancient roots, but it seems very likely that the crisis MLK saw also does.
Boggs says that she is optimistic. I’m less sure. I am not confident, for example, that our society, or at least the US, is prepared to address the issues. Nor does there seem to be a clear way to get us to do so.

On Dec. 25, a completely silly video of cats singing

about sleigh bells in the snow would have been great, but I gave up on finding a really good one.  In part because I discovered a video that has left me very puzzled, a state that philosophers can love.  What I’m puzzled about is:  What happened?  The background scenes seen in the video below seem to have vanished.  And of course that war is basically over, but the current crisis in the States is sadly too similar.  

Another update: Halliburton rape

A few days ago I mentioned the woman who was raped by Halliburton co-workers in Iraq, then imprisoned by the company without food or water for 24 hours and not allowed to phone her family.  Congress is now planning to investigate the case.  (Thanks, Jender-Parents!)

How can we treat people like this?

Janipher Maseko was raped by armed rebels in Uganda and fled to the UK at 13.  At 18, she was in Yarl’s Wood detention centre, separated from her two children (one newborn), in agony from her swollen breasts, being told to take drugs to shut down her milk– and being told she was about to be sent back to Uganda, alone.  Fortunately, some good and powerful people intervened.  But her case is not yet over, and it’s not the only one.  Read more here.

16 Days

Today, 25 November, is the first day of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day, and December 6, which marks the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre. 

The International Red Cross is one of many groups to be a part of this campaign. One of their initiatives is to give a voice to women who are suffering from violence.

The IRC is in war zones around the world, helping many thousandsof women and girls every day. We know they have much to say andwe know how easily their voices are lost, so we’re working withwriter, photographer and long-time women’s advocate Ann Jones togive them an opportunity to speak, loudly and clearly.With digital cameras, women who have survived conflict,displacement, discrimination, sexual and domestic violencevividly document their own lives. Through these personalphotographs, stirring portraits are revealed and women cometogether to tell stories of strength, reclaim their rights andmake their voices heard.Be a part of this powerful exchange, which begins tomorrow,November 25th to kick off “16 Days of Action against GenderViolence.” Over the course of the 16 Days, you’ll be inspired bythe extraordinary changes these brave women make with the boldclicks of their cameras.Just sign up for our 16 Days e-mail list, and on each of thosedays you’ll get a special e-mail with one woman’s photo, anamazing story and a chance to add your own voice. Afterward,you’ll get occasional updates from Ann and the IRC about newstories, IRC programs empowering women, and the many ways YOUcan help.

To sign up for the IRC 16 Days list go here.   Thanks, Jender-Parents!

It is Thanksgiving Day in the United States

Joan  Baez singing “Where have all the flowers gone.”

The reference to “Camp Casey” is to a protest camp set up near GW Bush’s summer place in Crawford, Texas.  It was founded by Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son, Casey, in the Iraq occupation.