Month: June 2011

Ytringsfrihed: Dansk forsker trynet ud af medierne

De seneste dages blæst om EU-forskeren Marlene Wind har nu ført til, at professor Winds chef har meddelt, at Wind nu vil tage “en pause” fra medierne. Der er reelt tale om, at Københavns Universitet lægger sig fladt ned på maven for Dansk Folkeparti og knægter en af deres ansattes ytringsfrihed.

For bloggeren TackiestOnes på Adventures and Japes kommer denne debats sørgelige resultat ikke som nogen overraskelse. Marlene Wind ved jo, hvad hun taler om, og hun har ret. Selvfølgelig skal hun trues til tavshed, eller rettere: Hendes arbejdsgiver skal.

Som vi læser:

A relentless and shameful campaign of bullying. Which has worked. She has withdrawn from commenting in the media.

THIS is how Denmark operates. Politicians may use whatever colourful language they like, they may lie openly, they may smear and denigrate.
Experts and other non-politicians may only “stick to the facts, son”. If the facts they explain are at odds with what the ruling coalition would like to hear, they are annihilated.

This is how the myths that Denmark has a low crime rate, high life satisfaction, high tolerance and the ability to integrate foreigners well continue.
These things are demonstrably untrue.
Denmark has one of the highest crime rates in Europe and for a country this size, that is incredible.
Denmark has a higher suicide rate than of death in a traffic accident; many inhabitants rely on legal and illegal drugs.
Denmark is incredibly intolerant of difference. Denmark comes out worse in international surveys on integration of foreigners.

But they get away with it because they write one press release for Denmark and one for the rest of the world. The rest of the world do not speak Danish and so they believe the hype.

Suk. I mellemtiden er Danmark rykket et lille skridt nærmere diktaturet, nu hvor det der fastslået, at ingen kan udtale sig i medierne om de ting, de har forstand på, uden at Dansk Folkepartis tæskehold rykker ud for at lukke munden på dem. Det er sørgeligt og dybt beskæmmende at se.

Bahrains tragedie

Man kan læse side op og side ned om de forfærdelige ting, der er  sket i Bahrain siden myndighederne begyndte at slå oppositionen ned med tropper fra Saudi-Arabien, men nogle gange kan et enkelt fredeligt menneskes vidneudsagn være mere uhyggeligt end selv den mest skånselsløst udmalede rædselshistorie.

Mahmood Al-Yousif skriver:

I have been thoroughly depressed over the last few weeks. Everywhere around me bad news persists; people dancing over dead bodies and urging for more killings, people whom I thought to be friends started to regard me as a mortal enemy, people throw about choice terms like “traitor” and “unpatriotic” with vitriol and not much thought. What I previously heard as hesitant questions, whispered normally, enquiring whether a person was from “us” or “them” are now loud shouts of “he’s shi’i” and “she’s sunni” with pointed rigid fingers, blood-soaked eyes and wide open saber lined mouths not caring for the future of this country or its people.

Reason, it appears, has disappeared. The benefit of the doubt has no place.

Will a dialogue ameliorate these feelings? Will it put the country back on a reconciliatory track? Will we ever think of an inclusive “us” rather than solidify an already created and maintained cantons of rage?

I don’t know any more.

I’m just a simple Bahraini who’s now lost, and thoroughly disgusted.

Link: Lost & Disgusted

Superhelte

Dulce Pinzón: Superheroes

Mange mennesker vælger at se indvandrere som en belastning. For fotografen Dulce Pinzón (f. Mexico City, 1974) er de superhelte, der rejser til et fremmed land, hvor de knokler røven ud af bukserne med at opretholde det fremmede lands infrastruktur, samtidig med, at de sender penge hjem til familien.

På billedet ser vi superhelten Bernabe Menendez fra Guerrero i Mexico. Han arbejder med at pudse vinduer på New Yorks skyskrabere og sender hver måned 500 dollars hjem til familien. Du kan se flere superhelte på Dulce Pinzóns galleri.

Via Adventures and Japes.

Den grove løgn

Valget nærmer sig og de højreorienterede debatører og bloggere bliver mere og mere desperate. Ralf Pittelkow (JP), der sjældent går af vejen for at fordreje sandheden går nu hele vejen og fyrer let verificerbare løgne af i sit nyeste blogindlæg. Indlægget omhandler Sass Larsens kritik af den højreorienterede dominans af medierne, og Pittelkow skriver følgende:

Mig bekendt er der kun lavet én nyere undersøgelse af politiske tendenser i mediernes nyhedsvinkler. Den blev lavet af mig og drejede sig om tv-nyheder i sidste valgkamp. Undersøgelsen viste en kraftig slagside til fordel for de røde partier.

Dette er ganske enkelt en løgn af de helt store. En af de åbenlyse løgne der burde være fyringsårsag.
En kort søgning på internettet finder rapporten fra SDU der konkluderer følgende:

Det billede, der tegner sig af dækningen af valgkampe i danske tv-nyhedsudsendelser, er, at de er partipolitisk balancerede, både hvad angår synlighed og tone For så vidt der findes ubalancer – eksempelvis at der kan spores en regeringsbonus, som gør regeringspartierne mere synlige i en valgkamp end oppositionspartierne – så har ubalancen ikke partipolitisk slagside: Ubalancen findes, uanset om rød eller blå blok har regeringsmagten ved valgets udskrivelse. Med til billedet hører, at dækningen på DR1 og TV2 går hånd i hånd. link

Det bør kræves af enhver politisk journalist og blogger at man bruger blot et minimum af research når kommer med grove generaliseringer. Også for Pittelkorw.
Link til en løgn af de store

Oprøret breder sig: 50.000 mennesker blokerer det græske parlament

Fra Occupied London:

According to corporate media and blogs, about 50,000 people participated in the rally in Syntagma Square [on May 31, 2011]. Thousands of people still there at the moment. Earlier the rally surrounded the parliament and a lot of demonstrators blockaded the gates. According to corporate media, police hesitated to attack to the people who blockaded the entries out of fear for riots from such a large crowd of people. So several MPs who had been trapped in the parliament had to leave the building from the back door through the national garden, while others had to leave the parliament after midnight, when the gates were not blockaded any more. People who noticed the ‘escaping’ MPs start chanting ‘thieves!’ ‘thieves!’. Earlier, professors of the University of Athens gave public speeches on the Propylea of the university in front of thousands people, supporting the rally of Syntagma. The speakers and the crowd marched from Propylea to Syntagma and merged with the ongoing rally there, while the people’s assembly of Syntagma Sq. carried on for seventh night.

Demonstrationerne i Grækenland er flammet op efter inspiration fra de store demonstrationer i Spanien, fortæller Wikipedia:

As of May 25, 2011, there is a peaceful demonstration in Athens and other major cities, protesting the new austerity measures proposed by the goverment, in the same spirit as the 2011 Spanish protests.[44][45][46] The demonstrations span across most major greek cities, including Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa, Patras, Volos, Rethymno, Tripoli and Kalamata, some of Greece‘s largest cities.[47][48][49] The demonstration in Athens is coordinated by the Facebook page “Αγανακτισμένοι Στο Σύνταγμα” (Indignants at Syntagma).[50] Currently, it is reported that over 90,000 people have registered at the page,[51] and thousands (reportedly over 30,000)[45] have gathered outside the Greek Parliament in Syntagma square.[52][53] The demonstration in Greece‘s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, is co-ordinated by the facebook page “Αγανακτισμένοι στον Λευκό Πύργο” (Indignants at the White Tower), and over 35,000 people have said they would ‘attend’ the protest.[54] Some of the most popular slogans at the May 25 protest were:

  • Error 404, Democracy was not found.
  • I vote, You vote, He votes, She votes, We vote, You vote, They steal.
  • Greece your turn has come, you have to stop burying your children.[55]
  • Oust! (Greek interjection of a negative nature, meaning “leave”)
  • The maid resisted. What do we do? (Reference to an alleged sex scandal involving former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn)[46]

(…) May 31 marked seven days since the start of the protests, and the University of Athens hosted an anti-government protest with the aid of famous Greek composer and anti-dictatorship fighter Mikis Theodorakis, while the dean of the University was also a key speaker at the event.[86] Once the protest at the university was over, the 10,000 protesters joined forces with the demonstrators already in front of the parliament.[87] The total number of demonstrators was between 25,000 and 50,000[87][88] and the demonstrators had surrounded the Greek parliament, making it impossible for MPs and workers inside the building to come out,[87][88] while 8 MPs were able to escape through the adjacent National Gardens.[88] Later riot police created a passage in order to enable MPs to exit the parliament, but the 1,000 protesters gathered at the side entrance of the parliament condemned all the members of parliament that exited the building.[89]

Wikipedia citerer mest græske kilder, jeg har desværre ikke fundet dækning af gårsdagens blokade af parlamentet på andet end græsk og spansk. Men mon ikke det kommer?