Hér eru nokkrar tilvitnanir í skáldið Oscar Wilde sem uppi var á seinni hluta 19. aldar. Wilde var stórmerkilegur maður með flotta lífssýn og heimspeki og hvet ég lesendur til að kynna sér hann nánar.

The vilest deeds likes poison weeds
Bloom well in prison-air
It is only what is good in Man
That wastes and withers there:
Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate,
And the Warder is Despair.

-úr ljóðinu The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1896)


"All limitations, external or internal, are prisons."


"Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. Therein lies its immense value. For what it seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of the machine."


"It is finer to take than to beg."


"Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion."


"Progress in thought is the assertion of individualism against authority."


"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth glancing at."

Israeli soldiers torture 10-year-old in his home
Report, Defence for Children International-Palestine Section, 10 July 2008
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9683.shtml

A 10-year-old boy was subjected to physical abuse amounting to torture for 2.5 hours by Israeli soldiers who stormed his family's shop on 11 June, seeking information on the location of a handgun. The boy was repeatedly beaten, slapped and punched in the head and stomach, forced to hold a stress position for half and hour, and threatened. He was deeply shocked and lost two molar teeth as a result of the assault.

On Wednesday 11 June 2008, at around 10:30am, 10-year-old Ezzat, his brother Makkawi (7) and sister Lara (8) were in their father's shop selling animal feed and eggs in the village of Sanniriya, near the West Bank city of Qalqiliya. The children were suddenly startled to see two Israeli soldiers storm in to the shop.

Interrogation and abuse in the shop

One soldier wearing a black T-shirt started shouting in a loud, menacing voice in Arabic, "your father sent us to you to collect his gun." A terrified Ezzat responded, "My father does not own a gun." The soldier responded by slapping Ezzat hard across the right cheek and his brother Makawi across his face. The soldier then ordered Makkawi and Lara to leave the shop. Once the younger children had left the soldier demanded once again that Ezzat hand over his father's gun. Although Ezzat repeated that his father did not own a gun the soldier ordered him to search for it in the sacks containing the animal feed. Ezzat kept insisting that there was no gun in the shop so the soldier slapped him once again, this time across his left cheek.

One of Ezzat's friends, realizing that something was wrong, tried to enter the shop but was kicked by the soldier standing at the door and prevented from entering. Soon a group of local people had gathered outside the shop. Some of the people in the group also tried to enter the shop but were prevented from doing so by the soldier at the door.

The soldier in the black T-shirt asked him once again to produce the gun. Ezzat answered, "We do not have anything." The soldier responded by punching him hard in the stomach causing Ezzat to fall over onto empty egg boxes. Ezzat started screaming and crying out from pain and fear. The soldier in the black T-shirt started making fun of Ezzat and imitated him crying. Ezzat remained in the shop alone with the soldiers for a further 15 minutes when the soldier in black abruptly grabbed him by his T-shirt and dragged him out of the shop. Ezzat asked the soldier if he could lock up his father's shop but the soldier said he wanted it to remain open so that it could be robbed. The soldier also threatened to put Ezzat in his jeep and take him away.

Once they were out of the shop, Ezzat was ordered to walk in front of the soldiers to his house, whilst a gun was pointed at his back. The soldiers hit him several times on the nape along the way. On approaching his house Ezzat saw many Israeli military officials surrounding the house and a number of green military vehicles parked outside. One of the olive-colored jeeps had the word "police" written on it.

Interrogation and abuse in the home

After arriving at the family's home the soldier in the black T-shirt stood Ezzat in the yard and ordered him to search the flower basin for the gun. Before Ezzat had a chance to respond the soldier slapped him so violently that Ezzat fell down face first into the basin. Without giving him the chance to stand up the soldier grabbed him by his T-shirt and lifted him up roughly. He was then instructed in Arabic by another soldier to head to the guest room.

On approaching the guest room Ezzat could see his father standing by the door. The soldier slapped him on the neck and Ezzat fell to the ground. As Ezzat stood up the soldier slapped him a second time making him fall to the ground once again. All this happened in front of his father. He then grabbed Ezzat by his T-shirt and lifted him in to the air. The soldier told Ezzat's father that he was going to take his son to prison. He also threatened to take Ezzat's 19-year-old sister to prison. Ezzat was then pushed forcibly in to the guest room where his mother and four of his other siblings, including his sisters Diana (19), Raghda (18), (Aya) 15 and brother Jihad (3), were being held. His mother was crying. Ezzat was also crying and when asked by his mother why he was crying, he said it was because he had been hit by the soldiers. His mother asked the soldiers to stop beating her son and to beat her instead.

After several minutes Ezzat was taken out of the guest room and slapped several times by the soldier in black, once so hard that he fell to the ground. After being moved to several locations in the house Ezzat was told to stay in the boys' bedroom. The same soldier then left the room but would return every five minutes to slap Ezzat and also to punch him several times in the stomach. Each time this took place Ezzat would shout and scream out in pain and burst in to tears. The soldier would then imitate him and make fun of him. The soldier hit him around six times.

Destruction of property and use of stress positions

A short time later, five soldiers entered the room and proceeded to destroy the family's property using hammers. In all, the soldiers destroyed wooden ventilation panels in the attic, a small refrigerator in the bedroom and it contents, damage to the kitchen, a fan and the fireplace.

Ezzat spent one hour in the bedroom alone with the soldiers. In that hour he was ordered by the same soldier to stand on one foot for half an hour, with his back against the wall and with both his hands lifted up in the air. Ezzat was exhausted by this but was too scared to put his foot down on the ground. Eventually he was told by one of the other soldiers that he could put his foot down. He was then asked to sit down in a squat position. He managed to remain in this position for two minutes and then had to stand up. A female soldier then walked in to the room and asked him to sit on the refrigerator box.

Shortly after the soldier in the black T-shirt returned accompanied by Ezzat's older sister Diana. He proceeded to ask Ezzat whether he cared for his sister to which Ezzat responded, "Yes I do." The soldier then asked him to tell him where the gun was hidden and that if he told him where it was hidden that he would not tell Ezzat's father. The soldier left the room with Ezzat's sister. He then returned to the room on his own and hit Ezzat all over his body. He left the room once again and after a while came back offering Ezzat 10 Shekels in return for telling him where the gun was. Ezzat responded that he did not care about money. This made the soldier extremely angry and he took off his helmet and started throwing it at Ezzat from two meters away. Ezzat was in extreme pain. The soldier continued to hit him with the helmet and then left the room once again returning to slap him across his face and on his stomach. This continued for some time with the soldier leaving the room and returning to hit Ezzat and to question him over the gun.

Interrogation of family

Ezzat then witnessed the soldier in the black T-shirt and the female soldier leading his sisters and mother to one of the rooms close to the boys' bedroom. They closed the door of the room but Ezzat could hear the soldiers shouting at them. He overheard the soldier telling the female soldier to hit his mother because she was refusing to take her clothes off to be searched. After the incident was over Ezzat's sister informed him that they were all strip searched by the female soldier, while the male soldier waited outside.

Meanwhile, a soldier wearing black sunglasses entered the bedroom in which Ezzat was being held. He walked in pointing a rifle, a few centimeters away from Ezzat's head. Ezzat was so terrified that he began to shiver. The soldier laughed and made fun of him. He asked Ezzat to tell him where the gun was and threatened to shoot him if he didn't. Ezzat continued to maintain that there was no weapon hidden away. The soldier, getting agitated shouted at Ezzat, "for the last time, tell me where the gun is before I shoot you." Ezzat repeated that he did not have a gun. Hearing this, the soldier lowered his rifle and left the room. After about five minutes the soldier in the black T-shirt entered the room along with four other soldiers and said that they were leaving but would return.

The soldiers spent two and one half hours in the house in total. After the incident Ezzat spent the night at his uncle's house because he was too scared to sleep in his home. As a result of the physical assault Ezzat lost two of his molar teeth and is deeply shocked by the incident.

DCI/PS statement

DCI/PS is appalled that Israeli authorities would subject a 10-year-old child to beatings, position abuse and threats over the course of several hours. The treatment of Ezzat falls within the definition of torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as defined in the UN Convention Against Torture, to which Israel is a State Party. The treatment of Ezzat also infringes numerous other international conventions to which Israel is bound, as well as Israeli military and domestic law.

DCI/PS again calls on Israel to immediately ensure its compliance with the UN Convention Against Torture and to thoroughly and impartially investigate the allegations of torture and abuse of Ezzat and bring those found responsible for such abuse to justice.

DCI/PS also calls on the EU to make the upgrade of EU-Israel bilateral relations conditional upon measurable and confirmed progress by Israel to uphold the EU human rights standards in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Ég hef gaman af tilvitnunum. Sumir einstaklingar í gegnum söguna hafa haft einstaka gáfu til að koma frá sér visku, gagnrýni og upplýsingum á hnyttinn eða vel yrtan hátt þar sem hugtaki, atburði, skoðun eða kenningu er lýst með frumlegri og/eða skýrri frásögn, fallegu myndmáli, forvitnilegum viðlíkingum og svo framvegis. Þetta þýðir ekki að ég sé alltaf sammála tilvitnuninni eða skoðunum einstaklingsins né að ég meti viðkomandi meir en aðra. Það er bara tilvitnunin sem slík sem ég kann að meta. Þess vegna hef ég hugsað mér að gera það að reglulegum (en þó líklega ekki daglegum) viðburði hér á síðunni að birta tilvitnanir sem ég hef rekist á.

Í dag eru tilvitnanirnar í nokkra helstu spekinga Taoismans kínverska sem er heimspeki- og lífsspekistefna sem rekur uppruna sinn til 6. aldar fyrir vora tíð. Taoistar voru (og eru, ef einhverjir slíkir fyrirfinnast enn) náttúrusinnar og vantreystu og mislíkaði yfirvald. Þess vegna hafa sumir fræðimenn kallað Taoismann forrennara anarkismans. Nánari upplýsingar um Taoisma má finna víða, t.d. í bókinni Demanding The Impossible eftir Peter Marshall - en þaðan fæ ég tilvitnanirnar - og víðsvegar um vefinn, þar á meðal á Wikipedia

The more laws and restrictions there are,
the poorer people become.
The sharper men's weapons,
the more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
the more thieves and robbers.

Therefore the sage says:
I take no action and people are reformed.
I enjoy peace and people become honest.
I do nothing and the people become rich.
I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life.

-Lao Tzu (samkvæmt hefðinni var hann uppi á 6. öld f.v.t. en seinni tíma rannsóknir telja að hann hafi aldrei verið til heldur sé persónan samblanda af mörgum spekingum eða hafi verið uppi síðar. Hann er kallaður höfundur lykilverks Taoismans, Tao te ching, hvaðan tilvitnunin er tekin.)

Under heaven, nothing is more soft an yielding than water. Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better; it has no equal. The weak can overcome the strong; the supple can overcome the stiff.

-Lao Tzu, Tao te ching

Horses live on dry land, eat grass and drink water. When pleased, they rub their necks together. When angry, they turn round and kick up their heels at each other. Thus far only do their natural dispositions carry them. But bridled and bitted, with a plate of metal on their foreheads, they learn to cast vicious looks, to turn their head to bite, to resist, to get the bit out of the mouth or the bridle into it. And thus, their natures become depraved.

-Chuang Tzu, annar spekingur Taoismans er var uppi u.þ.b. 369-286 f.v.t.

There has been such a thing as letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind. Letting alone springs from fear lest men's natural dispositions be perverted and their virtue left aside. But if their natural dispositions be not perverted nor their virtue laid aside, what room is there left for government?

-Chuang Tzu

Væntanlega eru margar fleiri frábærar tilvitnanir í speki Taoismans en þar sem ég er ekki með rit þeirra við höndina heldur einungis fræðirit um anarkisma sem inniheldur stuttan kafla um Taoisma þá get ég ekki sett fleiri tilvitnanir þaðan bili. En væntanlega mun ég setja upp meiri taoistaspeki síðar.

Hours after flying on a rickety 19-seater propeller plane and landing on a dirt strip, you get to the village of San Buenaventura in the heart of the Bolivian Amazon. Here, in a simple one-storey brick house next to a row of wooden shacks, is the home of Antonio Garcia Baron. He is the only survivor still alive of the anarchist Durruti column which held Francoist forces at bay in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the founder of an anarchist community in the heart of the jungle.

Mr Baron, 87, was wearing a hat and heavy dark glasses. He later explained that they were to protect his eyes, which were damaged when he drank a cup of coffee containing poison nine years ago.

It was, he said, the last of more than 100 attempts on his life, which began in Paris, where he moved in 1945 after five years in the Mauthausen Nazi concentration camp, and continued in Bolivia, his home since the early 1950s.

He was keen to share his views on 20th Century Spanish history with a wider audience.

"The Spanish press has covered up that the (Catholic) Church masterminded the death of two million Republicans during the civil war, not one million as they maintain," Mr Baron said before launching into one of his many anecdotes.

"I told Himmler (the head of the Nazi SS) when he visited the Mauthausen quarry on 27 April, 1941, what a great couple the (Nazis) made with the Church.

"He replied that it was true, but that after the war I would see all the cardinals with the Pope marching there, pointing at the chimney of the crematorium."

On the walls of Mr Baron's house is a picture of him taken in the camp. Next to it is a blue triangle with the number 3422 and letter S inside, marking the prisoners considered stateless.

"Spain took away my nationality when I entered Mauthausen, they wanted the Nazis to exterminate us in silence. The Spanish government has offered to return my nationality but why should I request something that was stolen from me and 150,000 others?" he said angrily.

Mr Baron arrived in Bolivia on the advice of his friend, the French anarchist writer Gaston Leval.

"I asked him for a sparsely populated place, without services like water and electricity, where people lived like 100 years ago - because where you have civilisation you'll find priests."

Some 400 people, mostly Guarani Indians, lived there at the time, but in fact also a German priest.

"He was a tough nut to crack. He learnt of my arrival and told everyone that I was a criminal. They fled and made the sign of the cross whenever they saw me, but two months later I started speaking and they realised I was a good person, so it backfired on him."

Convinced that the priest still spied on him, a few years later he decided to leave and create a mini-anarchist state in the middle of the jungle, 60km (37 miles) and three hours by boat from San Buenaventura along the Quiquibey River.

With him was his Bolivian wife Irma, now 71.

They raised chicken, ducks and pigs and grew corn and rice which they took twice a year to the village in exchange for other products, always rejecting money.

Life was tough and a few years ago Mr Baron lost his right hand while hunting a jaguar.

For the first five years, until they began having children, they were alone. Later a group of some 30 nomadic Indians arrived and decided to stay, hunting and fishing for a living, also never using money.

"We enjoyed freedom in all of its senses, no-one asked us for anything or told us not to do this or that," he recounted as his wife smiled, sitting in a chair at the back of the room.

Recently they moved back to the village for health reasons and to be closer to their children. They live with a daughter, 47, while their other three children, Violeta, 52, Iris, 31, and 27-year-old Marco Antonio work in Spain.

They also share the few simple rooms arranged around an internal patio with three Cuban doctors who are part of a contingent sent to help provide medical care in Bolivia.

The hours passed and it was time to take the small plane back to La Paz before the torrential rain isolated the area again.

Only then, as time was running out, did Mr Baron begin speaking in detail about Mauthausen and the war - as if wishing to fulfil a promise to fallen comrades.

How the Nazis threw prisoners from a cliff, how some of them clung to the mesh wire to avoid their inevitable death, how the Jews were targeted for harsh treatment and did not survive long.

His memory also took him to Dunkirk where he had arrived in 1940, before he was caught and imprisoned in Mauthausen.

"I arrived in the morning but the British fleet was some 6km from the coast. I asked a young English soldier if it would return.

"I saw that he was eating with a spoon in one hand and firing an anti-aircraft gun with the other," he laughed.

"'Eat if you wish', I told him. 'Do you know how to use it?' he asked since I didn't have military uniform and was very young.

"'Don't worry,' I said. I grabbed the gun and shot down two planes. He was dumbstruck.

"I'll never forget the determination of the British fighting stranded on the beach."

Tekið af: Anarchist News . Upphafleg grein birtist á vef BBC og er greinin eftir Alfonso Daniels.
Örstutt grein um Durruti-fylkinguna má finna áWikipedia . Meira um fylkinguna og anarkista í spænsku borgarastyrjöldinni má m.a. lesa hér.

Alcan CEO calls on unionized workers to open dialogue
over seized plant

DAVID PADDON Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP) - The head of Alcan Inc. said Monday he's
concerned about safety at one of the company's Quebec
aluminum smelters, which has been taken over by
unionized workers.

"You have to remember these are facilities that use
very, very high levels of power, millions of amperes
of electricity, molten metal," Travis Engen said after
a speech to a Toronto business lunch.

While the unionized workers have done well operating
the smelter at Jonquiere, Que., on their own since
taking it over last week to protest plans to close it
this spring, affecting 550 jobs, Alcan management is
still responsible for the facility, he said.

"We're quite concerned about the potential for
something which might breach our health-and-safety
standards," Engen said.

But he added the company hasn't given any deadline to
the workers, who are represented by an affiliate of
the Canadian Auto Workers union.

"There will be some limits, obviously, because there
are some raw materials required to produce aluminum. I
would image the stocks of raw materials that are at
hand are falling. But there's no deadline," Engen
said.

Quebec's Labour Relations Board ruled late Friday that
the workers' actions were illegal. On Saturday,
thousands of people demonstrated against plans to
close the plant 10 years earlier than expected.

Engen said the 60-year-old smelter, which had been
slated to close in 2014 because its technology doesn't
meet more stringent environmental standards, is being
closed earlier because of the age of its workforce.

"We've been trying to find the right moment in time
when, because of the natural evolution of the
employment, that we'd have enough retirements to more
than offset the job reductions so that people could be
transferred and there would not be any layoffs," Engen
said.

Alcan had been in discussions with union
representatives before the company's announcement Jan.
22 that it plans to close the facility. But the
workers' representatives have been unwilling to talk
since then, he said.

"We remain open, interested, available. And would
welcome whatever steps could be taken to open up a
dialogue," Engen told reporters.

Alcan had started the closure process, which requires
several weeks. But Rolland Poirier, the union local's
general secretary, said in an interview the workers
took over the plant last Tuesday "and stopped the
closure process."

Poirier said Monday the mill's foremen are making
inspections at the mill, which still runs 24 hours a
day, "but the operating decisions are being made by
the operators."

The last of the four potlines was to be closed at the
start of April, Poirier said. He added that the Quebec
government has named a mediator to try to resolve the
dispute.

Although Alcan is rationalizing its global operations
since the acquisition of Pechiney SA of France in
December, Engen said the closure of the Jonquiere
smelter was due to its aging technology and desire to
avoid layoffs.

But Engen said he does expect layoffs will result from
its takeover of Pechiney, particularly some of the
functions at its Paris headquarters.

Montreal-based Alcan (TSX:AL) is the world's largest
aluminum producer by revenue after its recent takeover
of Pechiney, completed last month for $6.3 billion.

Tekið af vefsíðu tímaritsins Upping The Anti

Það eru augljóslega fleiri en Íslendingar sem berjast við álrisana. Hvað ætli sé langt í að álfyrirtækin fari að loka verksmiðjum sínum á Íslandi og henda 500 starfsmönnum út á gaddinn? 20 ár? 30?

Unite to negotiate a real truce
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9672.shtml


Dr. Eyad al-Sarraj, The Electronic Intifada, 4 July 2008

After nearly one year of a suffocating siege imposed on Gaza by the Israeli military establishment, a truce agreement was reached between Hamas and Israel. This followed months of dedicated Egyptian good offices. Rockets launched from Gaza against Israeli settlements were to stop in return for gradually lifting the blockade. A ceasefire sustained for six months would then roll over to the West Bank. A hostage Israeli soldier would be released in a separate deal involving exchange of Palestinian prisoners. Future negotiations would set the terms for opening the borders between Egypt and Gaza.

Hamas vowed to respect the agreement as did other Palestinian factions. In addition to Hamas, only Islamic Jihad is to be taken seriously. Fatah, the faction linked to President Abbas, has long and vehemently criticized rocket firing from Gaza.

Five days into the long awaited ceasefire, Israel allowed the entry of tissues and sanitary napkins into Gaza as a form of "good will." Simultaneously, it carried out an early morning raid against a student hostel in Nablus, killing two Palestinians in their beds.

Seeking to justify what seemed to many an obvious provocation, Israeli spin-doctors once again invoked the "ticking time bomb" rationale. It was claimed that the men, both in their early 20s, were plotting a terrorist attack that had been prevented only at the last moment. Israel was instantly rewarded with the response it expected. Rockets landed in Sderot, the first two fired by Islamic Jihad and the third by the al-Aqsa brigades of Fatah, who denounced the truce with Israel as a form of treason, taunting Hamas for being more concerned with the survival of its cadre in Gaza than with the fate of fellow Palestinians in the West Bank.

Hamas is in a tight corner. Denied international recognition, embargoed and short of funds, its leaders feel responsible for meeting the needs of a throttled population as well as challenged by the daunting task of running a government with no experience behind them.

Perhaps the most painful dilemma faced by Hamas is how to govern well and consolidate their power while at the same time keeping faith with their bedrock commitment to champion the armed struggle against the Israeli occupation.

Some of its leaders believe that entering the legislative elections in 2006 was a form of entrapment -- even though Hamas won a decisive triumph at the polls. Echoes of this doctrinal purity can now be heard in charges from al-Aqsa brigade fighters against Hamas for abandoning the noble mission of resistance in favor of squalid political compromise.

It is widely believed that firing rockets hurts Palestinians and impedes their quest for justice, and that competing militias -- the al-Aqsa brigades in particular -- are out to embarrass Hamas by turning the ideological tables.

But Hamas leaders now insisting on self-restraint and denouncing those who breach the ceasefire as traitors must contend with the irony of time. Not so long ago, they used the same polarizing language to indict Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a collaborator when he demanded a halt to what he called "futile" rocket attacks.

On the Israeli front, it is increasingly and tragically clear that continued violence represents the default mode of the Israeli military establishment. However often peace may be rhetorically invoked, in practice it remains anathema, since it inevitably means the surrender of occupied land to the Palestinians.

Israel is a master at disguising aggressive intransigence as self-defense. The assassinations carried out last week in Nablus aimed to incite retaliatory Palestinian violence. It did so. And this in turn served to confirm the master narrative, so familiar in media coverage of the conflict, which casts Israelis as perennial victims and Palestinians as treacherous and untrustworthy.

Such an Israeli strategy is not new. The current intifada, which was provoked by former Israeli prime minister and war criminal Ariel Sharon's visit to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque and quickly militarized, has witnessed a veracious Israeli appetite for Palestinian land in the West Bank. And as settlements expand and grow more entrenched, Israel has succeeded in making the Palestinians play the scripted role as violent spoilers who "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

In my dialogue with some of Hamas leaders I have tried consistently to alert them to Israeli colonial designs, and the need to change course in order to outflank and out think our force-addicted opponents. I always found listening ears.

Caught in a pincer move between a siege of medieval barbarism imposed by the Israeli military, and a vicious, internecine Palestinian feud, Gaza has been brought to the breaking point. But residents have displayed amazing steadfastness, finding the strength to persevere from religious faith, traditions of familial solidarity, and an abiding belief in the justice of the Palestinian cause. Resilience, however, has its limits.

The siege must be completely and permanently lifted so that the 1.5 million people who have endured a kind of collective water-boarding get the chance to come up for air. For this to happen, political leaders in Ramallah and Gaza must concentrate less on settling scores and more on meeting the needs of the citizens they represent, communicating a set of core messages to European and American audiences, and crafting an agile, principled and tough-minded strategy to negotiate with Israel.

Dr. Eyad al-Sarraj is the founder and director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP).

Undirstrikanir eru frá minni hönd. -Villi

Lesi maður Moggann mætti halda að engin mótmæli séu við G8-fundinn í Japan. Það er að sjálfsögðu rangt. Hér er frétt dagsett þann 4. júlí, þ.e. áður en fundurinn sjálfur byrjaði, um hvernig japönsk yfirvöld hafa reynt að kæfa mótmælin í fæðingu:

(en) Japan, Controls Increased ahead of G8

Date Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:37:40 +0300

---

The protests against the 2008 G8 summit have begun. On Thursday a
demonstration took place in Kyoto against the G8 foreign ministers
meeting. There are three protests camps in Sapporo, the nearest town to
Lake Toya, where the G8 summit will take place from July 7-9.
Alternative media centres in Sapporo and Tokyo have been set up and a
network of critical lawyers is ready to support demonstrators. Events,
conferences and demonstrations are scheduled for the coming week. Many
activists from around the world have travelled to Japan, amongst them
anarchist and trade union groups from other Asian countries.

Meanwhile, the police are attempting to delegitimate and divide the
movement. More than 40 people were arrested two weeks ago, and squats
have been searched. Following a raid on a trade union office in the
working class neighbourhood Kamagasaki in Osaka, confrontations with
police ensued which lasted for a number of days.

Since Tuesday the controls at the Narita International Airport in Tokyo
have been stepped up. Foreigners have been questioned and searched for
up to 12 hours. Some have been asked to provide detailed plans of their
activities for each day of their stay. In spring this year, the Japanese
Government changed the requirements for entry into the country.

Already last August, the German Federal POlice (BKA) provided the
Japanese investigation authorities with information on the networks and
coalitions that participated in the anti-G8 protests in Heiligendamm in
2007. Japanese police travelled to Berlin to learn about measures
against summit protests. The BKA'a president Mr Ziercke promised to
continue to provide "all relevant data".

During the 2007 G8 summit protests the German police compiled an
extensive database with photos and fingerprints, which presumably
includes all 1.800 people who were arrested during the protests.
Although only a very small number of them were actually convicted of
anything this data has not been destroyed. Normally, inclusion in such a
database is sufficient to be denied entry into a country during a summit
meeting.

Trade unionists of the Korean "Confederation of Trade Unions" have been
issued a blanket entry denial. Also the Italian philosopher and activist
Toni Negri has been denied entry. Only yesterday two media activists of
the Hong Kong collective "In-Media" were arrested at the airport.

The police has issued a number of posters 'warning' the Japanese public
about the protests by comparing them to the London 7/7 bombings in 2005.
One of the posters depicts a demolished London bus next to a photo of a
burnt out car in Rostock. The public is being asked to report suspicious
persons directly to the police. Hotels across Japan have been instructed
to send photocopies of all passports of foreign guests to the police.

In the coming week there will be protests against the G8 summit
worldwide, inclding in France,Germany, Belgium, Holland, Spain and the
Basque Country.

Tekið af: http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos21064.html

Breaking Into a Prison

By RAMZI KYSIA

I want to tell you a secret and I want to ask you a question.

Shhh! - Come closer. Listen carefully: I'm part of an international conspiracy to break into the world's largest open-air prison this summer by sea. Will you help me?

This August, the Free Gaza Movement will set sail from Cyprus to Gaza on a ship carrying needed medical supplies. We will not be asking Israel for permission.

For over two years the state of Israel has severely restricted the Gaza Strip's ability to import fuel, spare parts, and other necessary materials. Israel maintains complete control over Gaza's air space and territorial waters, near complete control over travel into or out of Gaza, near complete control over Gaza's imports and exports, and near complete control over Gaza's own tax revenues. Little is allowed in. As a result, Gaza's economy has completely collapsed. [1]

This has consequences, both vast and personal.

In Gaza City, the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children operates a school for 275 students, ages four through seventeen. That is, they used to operate a school. It was forced to close in mid-April because of the severe fuel shortages caused by the Israeli blockade. Atfaluna has also been unable to supply children with new hearing aids or batteries for over eight months - ever since Israel blocked their importation due to "security" concerns. The Atfaluna Society has asked for our help. Will you help them? [2]

The troubles faced by the children of Atfaluna are but one story in a sea of human misery. Because of the siege, eighty percent of families in Gaza are now dependent on international food aid just to be able to eat. [3] There is over forty percent unemployment , and ninety-five percent of Gaza's industries, as well as a majority of private businesses, have been forced to shut down. [4] Because of shortages in fuel and spare parts, Gaza's only power plant is running at less than seventy percent of capacity, and electrical outages of several hours a day are the rule rather than the exception. [5]

Running water is now available to most households for only four to six hours a day. Sewage treatment centers no longer function properly. Millions of liters of raw sewage have been pumped into heavily populated neighborhoods, and in order to avoid being forced to literally flood these residential areas with even more raw sewage, the Mediterranean Sea has been turned into a toilet. Since January of this year over 10 billion liters of untreated and only partially treated sewage have been released into the Mediterranean. Gaza's fishermen state that the sewage has killed off most of the sea life in the immediate vicinity. [6]

The humanitarian condition of the one and a half million men, women, and children illegally incarcerated in Gaza is now at its worst point in the last forty years of Israeli occupation.

Israel's pitiable attempts to achieve absolute security through absolute domination have only led us all into disaster. The rocket attacks by militants in Gaza against Israeli civilians are as deplorable as they are predictable - given the suffering caused by this blockade, - but these attacks are also irrelevant to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israel's siege. The one does not justify the other. The one cannot justify the other.

What is needed in our world today is not simply protest against the violence of terrorist groups and terrorist governments. What we need is a new militancy, a greater resolve, rooted in the profound respect for human life, and sustained by the profound disrespect for any government or group that attacks our sisters and brothers around the world. Protest is not enough. Our living, and our dead, both cry out for more. We must build a movement of direct civil resistance against violence and oppression.

In one month, the Free Gaza Movement will sail on just such a mission of civil resistance.

We are students and teachers, human rights observers and aid workers, lawyers, medics, activists - parents and grandparents. We are Americans and Europeans, Israelis and Palestinians, Australians, South Africans, and more. We are of all ages and backgrounds. Collectively, we have years of experience volunteering in Gaza and the West Bank. Because of our human rights work, the state of Israel has banned many of us from re-entering Palestinian areas. Because of the ongoing blockade, the rest of us find it almost impossible to enter Gaza at all. Despite deteriorating conditions, the great need for international assistance, and the invitations of our Palestinian partners - the Israeli Government will not allow us into Gaza to help. Will you help?

We must break the siege of Gaza. Conditions there are already catastrophic. We have to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of Gaza and deeply pressure Israel and the international community to lift the blockade and end the Occupation. As people of conscience our actions must be commensurate with the crisis.

We've tried to enter Palestine by land. We've tried to arrive by air. Now we're getting serious. We're taking a ship. Please look into your hearts and ask yourselves if the collective punishment and virtual imprisonment of one and a half million human beings can ever be justified. If your answer's "no," then we want your help this August when we break into Gaza and try to break out of this siege.

Ramzi Kysia is an Arab-American writer and activist, and a member of the Free Gaza Movement. You can receive regular updates on their efforts to break the siege of Gaza by signing up for their newsletter. If you'd like more information, or if you can donate money or medical supplies (such as hearing aids), please visit their website at FreeGaza.org.

REFERENCES

1. "Power Shortages in the Gaza Strip," United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 8 January 2008; "Impact of Fuel Shortages on Gaza Sanitation," OCHA, 29 April 2008.

2. Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Narratives Under Siege

3. "Gaza Humanitarian Crisis," A Joint Statement by Nine Israeli Human Rights Organizations: B'Tselem, Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Amnesty International Israel, Bimkom, HaMoked, Gisha, PHR Israel, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Rabbis for Human Rights; 16 November 2006; "The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion," A Joint Report by Amnesty International, CAFOD, CARE, Christian Aid, Medecins du Monde UK, OXFAM, Save the Children UK, and TRoCAIRE, Executive Summary, March 2008.

4. "The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion," Joint Report, p. 8, March 2008.

5. "Impact of Fuel Shortages on Gaza Sanitation," OCHA, 29 April 2008.

6. "Power Shortages in the Gaza Strip," OCHA, 8 January 2008; "The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion," Joint Report, Executive Summary, March 2008; "Impact of Fuel Shortages on Gaza Sanitation," OCHA, 29 April 2008.

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US Contractor Leads Torture Training in Mexico

By KRISTIN BRICKER

E xactly one day after George Bush signed the first year of the $1.6 billion Plan Mexico into law--giving Mexican military and police US training, armament, and resources--videos surfaced showing Mexican police undergoing torture training in León, Guanajuato. The torture training is directed by a British man from an unidentified US private security company.

The videos show the English-speaking contractor directing and participating in the torture of members of the Special Tactical Group (GET in its Spanish initials) of the León municipal police force during a 160-hour training over twelve days in April 2006. Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, the Secretary of Public Security in León, says the participants volunteered to be tortured as part of the training.

In one video, the unidentified contractor drags a GET officer through a puddle of his own vomit as punishment for failure to complete a training exercise.

In a second video, GET officers squirt mineral water up the nose of another officer, a torture technique commonly utilized by Mexican police. The man's head is also shoved into a hole which supposedly contains rats and feces:

Leon city Police Chief Carlos Tornero told the AP that the English-speaking man in the videos is a contractor from a private US security firm. Tornero refused to elaborate on the man's identity, details about the US company, and who contracted the company.

The government's response has been to defend the program, attack the media for reporting on the videos, and deny the illegality of torture. León mayor Vicente Guerrero Reynoso said that the training would continue and no public official would be punished for involvement in the torture training. He demanded that the media "be more responsible." Guerrero is a member of President Felipe Calderón's right-wing National Action Party.

Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, Secretary of Public Security for León, said torture training for police is necessary: "It is essential to have a special group that responds to certain conditions. More and more we see the clear involvement, not only in León, but in the whole state, of organized crime, and there is a need to have these groups." Cabeza de Vaca seemed to be most preoccupied with how the videos became public. In response to a reporter's question about why the municipal government offers illegal training that violates human rights, he responded, "Well, while it is not prohibited...in the end I don't know how the video arrived [in the hands of the meda]. The trainer makes the recordings to observe and correct the teachings."

Mexico's national daily La Jornada was quick to point out that torture is in fact prohibited, contrary to the public security chief's assertions: "Torture is a crime in Guanajuato: in accordance with Article 264 of the state Penal Code, the public servant who 'intentionally exercises violence against a person, be it in order to obtain information or constituting an illicit investigation method,' faces a punishment of 2-10 years in prison."

The existence of a training led by a US defense contractor to teach Mexican police torture tactics in order to combat organized crime and the local government's adamant defense of the program is particularly disturbing considering the US government's recent approval of the $1.6 billion Plan Mexico, also known as the Merida Initiative. Plan Mexico is an aid package specifically designed to support President Felipe Calderón's deadly battle against organized crime. It will fund more US training for Mexican police and military, in addition to providing them with riot gear, spy equipment, and military aircraft. Plan Mexico allows funds for the deployment of up to fifty US defense contractors to Mexico.

This is not the first time US defense contractors have directed torture in foreign countries. During the 2003-2004 Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq, US soldiers claimed that defense contractors who ran the prison directed them to torture inmates. Four former Abu Ghraib inmates recently filed lawsuits against CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and New York-based L-3 Communications Corp., formerly Titan Corp., for torturing them.

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