The Savage Rose, 1968, et pænt stort hit efter tidens målestok. I love love love this song …
Month: April 2009
Det går rigtig godt i Irak
Eller, det er i hvert fald, hvad man hører i medierne, og hvad krigens oprindelige støtter går og siger til sig selv og hinanden: Nu har vi haft the surge og taget et fast greb om ondets rod, så nu må der snart være fredeligt og roligt og rart at være – eller hvad?
Den uafhængige journalist Dahr Jamail er netop vendt tilbage fra et ophold i Bagdad og tegner et lidt mindre opmuntrende billede:
Nearly every day of the month I spent there saw a car bomb attack somewhere in the capital city. Nearly every day the so-called Green Zone was mortared. Every day there were kidnappings. On good days there were four hours of electricity on the national grid, in a country now into its seventh year of being occupied by the U.S. military, and where there are now over 200,000 private contractors.
There ‘s no normal life in Baghdad. While it’s accurate and technically correct to say there is less violence compared to 2006, when between 100 and 300 Iraqis were slaughtered on a daily basis, Iraq resembles a police state more than ever. U.S. patrols consisting of huge, lumbering mine-resistant vehicles rumble down streets congested with traffic. It’s impossible to travel longer than five minutes without encountering an Iraqi military or police patrol – usually comprised of pickup trucks full of armed men, horns and/or sirens blaring. Begging women and children wander between cars at every intersection. U.S. military helicopters often rumble overhead, and the roar of fighter jets or transport planes is common. There’s no talk of reparations for Iraqis for the death, destruction and chaos caused by the occupation.
Neighborhoods, segregated between Sunni and Shia largely as a result of the so-called “surge” strategy, provide a blatant view of the balkanization of Iraq. Neighborhoods of 300,000 people are completely surrounded by 10-foot high concrete blast walls, rendering normal life impossible. The fear of a resurgence of violence weighs heavy on Iraqis, as the current so-called lull in violence feels tenuous, unstable, and possibly fleeting. Nobody there can predict the future, and to hope for a sustained improvement in any aspect of life feels naive, even dangerous.
Link: Iraq in fragments
Dagens citat: Psykiatrisk cirkelslutning
Fra Joanna Moncrieff: The Myth of the Chemical Cure, Palgrave MacMillan 2008, s. 65:
Although nowadays the dopamine theory of psychosis and schizophrenia is central to the idea that antipsychotic drugs have a disease-centred action, it was the presumption that the drugs exerted a disease-specific action that was the initial inspiration for the dopamine theory.
Altså: Hele forestillingen om, at schizofreni er forårsaget af for høje niveauer af dopamin er afledt af den omstændighed, at neuroleptika og andre antipsykotiske stoffer påvirker niveauet af dopamin og synes at medføre en bedring hos sådanne patienter.
Hvis det nu viste sig, at teorien om, at depression er forårsaget af for lave niveauer af serotonin og noradrenalin var inspireret af den kemiske virkning af tricykliske antidepressiva og SSRI-inhibitorer…
og hvis det endvidere viste sig, at en fordomsfri undersøgelse af disse stoffers virkning ikke kan godtgøre, at de skulle have nogen specifikt helbredende virkning, hverken mod psykose eller depression, så ville skandalen – og afsløringen af årtiers medicinsk fejlbehandling – være komplet. Eller hvad?
Hvorom alting er, Moncrieffs bog kan anbefales.
Folkene bag Pirate Bay kendt skyldige, idømt fængselsstraf
… hvilket der er en masse at sige om.
Som ofte påpeget har The Pirate Bay som “piratside” lige så meget været en politisk aktion som en side af praktisk betydning, eftersom det vrimler med andre og mindst lige så gode hjemsteder for torrents af vekslende lovlighed.
Så hvad er betydningen af denne afgørelse? Vil Pirate Bay forsvinde, og hvis den gør, betyder det noget, og hvad vil komme i stedet? Vi giver ordet til Cory Doctorow på Boing Boing:
After the illegal seizure of its servers in 2006, The Pirate Bay supposedly adopted a distributed architecture with failover servers in other jurisdictions that were unlikely to cooperate with EU orders. If The Pirate Bay shuts down, it’s certain that something else will spring up in its wake, of course — just as The Pirate Bay appeared in the wake of the closure of other, more “moderate” services.
With each successive takedown, the entertainment industry forces these services into architectures that are harder to police and harder to shut down. And with each takedown, the industry creates martyrs who inspire their users into an ideological opposition to the entertainment industry, turning them into people who actively dislike these companies and wish them ill (as opposed to opportunists who supplemented their legal acquisition of copyrighted materials with infringing downloads).
It’s a race to turn a relatively benign symbiote (the original Napster, which offered to pay for its downloads if it could get a license) into vicious, antibiotic resistant bacteria that’s dedicated to their destruction.
Slippe af med downloads og fildeling kan man ikke – ånden kan ikke puttes tilbage i flasken igen, så lidt som man i 70erne kunne forhindre folk i at kopiere musik fra plader og over på kasettebånd. Kopiering er billig i den digitale alder, og befolkningens retsfølelse har endegyldigt flyttet sig i retning af, at fildeling er OK. Det bedste, industrien kan gøre, er at opdatere deres forretningsmodeller.
I mellemtiden må vi jo tage bestik af dommens indhold og dens mulige konsekvenser:
One of the defendants, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, admitted that Pirate Bay had lost its case.
“Stay calm – nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or filesharing what so
ever. This is just a theatre for the media,” he said.“Really, it’s a bit LOL. It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release.”
The trial began on 16 February in Stockholm district court, when the four co-founders of The Pirate Bay, Fredik Neij, Carl Lundstrom, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Kolmisoppi, were put in the dock on charges of assisting copyright infringement.The Pirate Bay does not itself host audio and video files, but provides links to torrents hosted elsewhere on the internet.
Throughout the trial, the Pirate Bay defendants have played up their image as
rebellious outsiders, arriving at court in a slogan-daubed party bus and insisting that their position was to defend a popular technology rather than illegal filesharing.Prosecutors made a major slip-up on the second day of the trial after failing to convince the judge that illegally copied files had been distributed by the site.
The trial has further polarised the tech community and the music industry with both sides eagerly awaiting the result, which will be regarded as a precedent for future filesharing cases.
Obama giver frit lejde til torturbødler
Nürnberg-domstolene fastlagde det princip, at man ikke kan undskylde en åbenlyst ulovlig handling med, at den skete efter ordre.
I dag synes den amerikanske regering at have forladt dette princip – Barack Obama har frigivet dokumenter fra Bush-administrationen, der sort på hvidt autoriserer forskellige former for tortur, men præsidenten udelukker samtidig, at nogen kan retsforfølges for de forbrydelser, der er begået på den konto.
Og hvilke metoder er det så, der hermed er erklæret straffri? Udover waterboarding er det bl.a. søvnmangel og tortur med insekter:
Ten techniques are approved, listed as: attention grasp, walling (in which the suspect could be pushed into a wall), a facial hold, a facial slap, cramped confinement, wall standing, sleep deprivation, insects placed in a confinement box (the suspect had a fear of insects) and the waterboard. In the latter, “the individual is bound securely to an inclined bench, which is approximately four feet by seven feet. The individual’s feet are generally elevated. A cloth is placed over the forehead and eyes. Water is then applied to the cloth in a controlled manner……..produces the perception of ‘suffocation and incipient panic’.”
‘Walling’ involved use of a plastic neck collar to slam suspects into a specially-built wall that the CIA said made the impact sound worse than it actually was. Other methods include food deprivation.
civil rights organisations have been disappointed by a series of rulings by the Obama administration that have protected a lot of material relating to Guantánamo and the sites abroad. The release of the memos today reversed that trend, though there will be unhappiness over the immunity from prosecution.
Obama, in a statement from the White House, said: “In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carrying out their duties relying in good faith upon the legal advice from the department of justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.”
Anthony Romero, the ACLU executive director, said: “President Obama’s assertion that there should not be prosecutions of government officials who may have committed crimes before a thorough investigation has been carried out is simply untenable.”
Og ja, Romero har ret – det er intet mindre end en skandale. Kan jeg nu også bortføre min nabo og underkaste ham eller hende alle de behandlinger, der fremgår af Bush-administrationens liste af “anerkendte teknikker” og slippe for straf efter lex Obama?
Hvis vi skal stole på, at det vitterlig er slut med Bush-regeringens forbrydelser, med tortur og kidnapninger og bombetogter mod civile, kan intet mindre end et retsopgør gøre det – fromme erklæringer om, at det skal man nok lade være med at gøre i fremtiden, er ikke nok. Som det er, er Obamas erklæringer jo slet og ret en garanti til gerningsmændene om, at de bare kan tage ekstra hårdt fat i de Forenede Staters tjeneste – de kan alligevel ikke straffes. Det er simpelt hen ikke godt nok.
Link: Barack Obama releases Bush administration torture memos
Sidste nyt i krigen mod kameraer
Et par østrigske turister, den 69-årige Klaus Matzka og hans søn, begik den uhørte forbrydelse at fotografere en rutebilstation i London. Ordensmagtens reaktion var prompte: En alvorlig påtale om, at den slags tøjeri er “strengt forbudt”, og omgående sletning af billederne.
For hvad kan der ikke ske, hvis turister og andre folk får lov til bare sådan at gå og tage billeder?
the tourists have said they had to return home to Vienna without their holiday pictures after two policemen forced them to delete the photographs from their cameras in the name of preventing terrorism.
Matkza, a 69-year-old retired television cameraman with a taste for modern architecture, was told that photographing anything to do with transport was “strictly forbidden”. The policemen also recorded the pair’s details, including passport numbers and hotel addresses.
In a letter in today’s Guardian, Matzka wrote: “I understand the need for some sensitivity in an era of terrorism, but isn’t it naive to think terrorism can be prevented by terrorising tourists?”
The Metropolitan police said it was investigating the allegations.
In a telephone interview from his home in Vienna, Matka said: “I’ve never had these experiences anywhere, never in the world, not even in Communist countries.”
Måske fordi terrorfrygten så småt er ved at gøre visse vestlige lande værre end den gamle østblok, i hvert fald på nogle områder.
Matzka har nu svoret, at han aldrig vil vende tilbage til London efter den behandling, og det kan man jo egentlig godt forstå.
Link: Police delete London tourists’ photos ‘to prevent terrorism’
Somalia og en ubeskyttet kystlinje – hvem er ‘piraterne’ her?
Det igangværende “pirateri” ud for Somalias kyst begyndte, da europæiske og andre skibe begyndte at bruge de ubeskyttede somaliske farvande som skraldepand – samtidig med, at europæiske fiskere begyndte at tømme området for fisk, sådan som man også har gjort hjemme ved sig selv.
Nogle somaliske fiskere tager så initiativ til et selvbestaltet “kystværn”, som skal få indtrængerne til at forføje sig eller i det mindste betale en skat af deres tilstedeværelse – og straks hyler de vestlige medier op om “sørøveri”. Vi giver ordet videre til Johann Hari i The Independent:
Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: “Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it.” Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to “dispose” of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: “Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention.”
At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia’s seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: “If nothing is done, there soon won’t be much fish left in our coastal waters.”
This is the context in which the “pirates” have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a “tax” on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence”.
No, this doesn’t make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters – especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali: “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas.”
Link: You are being lied to about pirates (via Boing Boing)
I Danmark går fattige sultne i seng
SF forsøgte for nyligt at råbe partierne bag bl.a. startsydelsen op ved at invitere ofrene ind i tinget. VK og O kvitterede ved at ignorere fattigdommen i Danmark. SFs forslag om afskaffelse af fattigdomsydelserne blev også stemt ned af den såkaldte “borgerlige” fløj. Citat fra artiklen på information.dk.
Lidt opmærksomhed skaber Enhedslistens Line Barfoed dog, da hun læser højt af et håndskrevet brev. Brevet er fra Gro Pettersens to døtre og beskriver, hvordan døtrene går sultne i seng og ofte hører deres mor græde.
Gro Pettersen ser det hele fra tilhørerrækkerne. Hun er bevæget og forstår ikke, hvorfor halvdelen af salen ikke lytter til hendes historie.
“Jeg blev både vred, fordi de ikke lyttede, men også meget ked af det. Faktisk fældede jeg et par tårer,” fortæller Gro Pettersen.
Hun har ventet længe på at komme i kontakt med politikerne, for hun vil gerne fortælle dem, hvor fattig hun egentlig er på sin starthjælp.
“Jeg vil råbe de politikere op, der ikke vil høre, og vise, hvad der sker ude i virkeligheden,” siger hun.
Da Özlem Cekic tidligere på dagen gav frokost i Christiansborgs kantine, var det helt uvant for Gro Pettersen ikke at skulle tælle smørrebrødet. For selv den basale kost bliver der sparet på hos familien Pettersen.
“Vi har ikke råd til fødselsdage, og julen er et mareridt. Vi er heller aldrig mætte, og tit undlader jeg at spise. Alt det, andre tager for givet, kan vi ikke gøre, så vi er også socialt isolerede,” forklarer hun.
Tillykke til VK og O. I har skabt sult i et land der flyder af honning og mælk.
Et pletskud af et vildskud..
Læs her wildskuds reaktion på Venstres forslag om at straffe børn hårdere og længere.
Opskriften til at tabe en krig..
Forestil dig du sidder derhjemme og surfer lidt på nettet. Pludseligt banker det på døren.
Udenfor står en fremmed soldat med gevær. Bagved flere i kampvogne. Soldaten kommanderer dig til at pakke dine ting, og tage din kone/mand og børn med dig. Du har 30 minutter til at forlade jeres hjem. Da du protesterer og påpeger at soldaterne ingen ret har til at overtage din ejendom hjælper det ikke. Du troede måske du levede i et demokrati og soldaterne var der for at forsvare dig, men soldaterne er der mest for at forsvare sig selv.
Med tvang bliver du og din familie sat på gaden. Imens I trasker ned af vejen til en usikker fremtid som hjemløse i et land i borgerkrig, kan du høre hvorledes soldaterne begynder at rive dele af jeres hjem ned. I bliver lovet en erstatning af soldaterne – hvis I altså vender levende hjem når soldaterne engang er færdige med at smadre jeres hjem.
Det er ikke nazityskere vi snakker om – heller ikke talibanske islamister. Næh det er danske soldater der nådeløst begår uhyrligheder og grundlovsbrud.Og deres chef forsvarer deres handlinger i dagens Politiken:
Forsvarschef Tim Sloth Jørgensen mener, det er i orden, at soldaterne smider civile ud af deres hjem.
»Jeg ved udmærket, at det er svært for soldaterne at være nødt til at sende familier på gaden, og det er meget vigtigt, at tingene sker, så lokale ikke føler sig krænket, men soldaternes sikkerhed har højeste prioritet.«
Ja det må da være svært for soldaterne(!) – det er sørme synd for de stakkels soldater der skal smide forsvarsløse familier på gaden, så de selv kan sidde og hygge sig i sikkerhed.
Men er det ikke at krænke den private ejendomsret, hvis folk ikke selv vil forlade deres bolig?
»Jo, på et eller andet plan. Vi prøver at gøre det så smertefrit som muligt for dem, men vi må prioritere vores egen sikkerhed højest.«
At smide folk ud af deres bolig med 30 minutters varsel er ikke at krænke ejendomsretten “på et eller andet plan”. Det er at krænke ejendomsretten på den aller-allergroveste måde. Denne fremgangsmåde må stoppes øjeblikkeligt, og de skyldige straffes for grundlovsbrud. Krig er ganske vist en beskidt affære – men det bliver meget, meget værre når man gemmer sig bag civilbefolkningen.