Samme dag, som titusinder går i protestmarch på Brooklyn Bridge, og politiet arresterer op mod 300 demonstranter. “We are Winning”, var et andet af budskaberne.
Author: Carsten Agger
TV-folk: Vi laver en ny sæson af The Wire, hvis I legaliserer narkotika
Den amerikanske justitsminister Eric Holder appellerede i sidste uge til, at der bliver lavet en ny sæson af den fænomenale TV-serie The Wire.
David Simon’s og Ed Burns’ svar? Ja, hvis I standser “krigen mod narkotika”:
“I want to speak directly to [Co-creator Ed] Burns and Mr. Simon: Do another season of The Wire,” Holder said, adding, “I have a lot of power Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon.”Late last week, Simon replied with a counteroffer:
The Attorney-General’s kind remarks are noted and appreciated. I’ve spoken to Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.
Hvilket selvfølgelig får én til at tænke på miseren i sæson 3, hvor en enkelt politichef beslutter sig for at afkriminalisere stoffer i et enkelt område, Hamsterdam. Og naturligvis endte med at blive fyret og degraderet, for det går jo ikke. Heller ikke selv, om kriminaliteten i området nærmest forsvandt.
Palæstinensiske aktivister tager “whites-only”-busser til Jerusalem, bliver anholdt
Hvad gør myndighederne i “Mellemøstens eneste demokrati”, når medlemmer af den forkerte etniske gruppe vil tage bosætternes busser fra Vestbredden til Jerusalem?
De slår ned, præcis som myndighederne i de amerikanske Sydstater gjorde i 60erne:
Six Palestinians seeking to emulate the “freedom rides” in the segregated southern United States of the 1960s by travelling in a West Bank-to-Jerusalem bus alongside Jewish settlers were arrested by Israeli police yesterday.
The Palestinian activists managed to board a number 148 bus outside the West Bank settlement of Psagot, near Ramallah, but the bus was halted and the activists taken off near the Hizma entry terminal to Jerusalem.
Three walked off the bus under police escort but another three, including one woman, Huwaida Arraf, resisted and were dragged off it by force amid shouts of “Stop the apartheid”, and “I have the right to go to Jerusalem”.
Police had earlier boarded the bus at the checkpoint to persuade the activists to leave of their own accord as supporters waved banners, including one – in an echo of the famous speech by civil rights activist Martin Luther King – proclaiming: “We have a dream.”
Two of the activists were told by a police officer: “You are detained. Please get off the bus. If not we will have to use force.” One of the Palestinians, Nadim Sharabati, a 33-year-old blacksmith from Hebron, told the officer: “This is racial discrimination between me and the settlers. Why don’t you take permits from the settlers when they come to us?”
When the police officer told the men: “I am asking in a civilised way, with respect,” the other man, Badiya Dweik, replied: “If you respected us you would treat us like [you treat] the settlers.” When the officer asked if he had a permit, Mr Dweik replied: “Why do you not ask the settlers for a permit?”
Another of the Palestinian activists, Fadi Quran from El Bireh adjacent to Ramallah, asked the officers, in an apparent reference to the settlers: “Why are you protecting the Klu Klux Klan?”
Fængslingen af Alaa er et angreb på hele den egyptiske revolution
Den egyptiske forfatter Ahdaf Soueif i The Guardian:
Alaa is a techie, a programmer of note. He and Manal, his wife and colleague, work in developing open-source software platforms and in linguistic exchange. They terminated contracts abroad and flew home to join the revolution. In Tahrir he moved between groups; listening, facilitating, making peace when necessary, defending the square physically when he had to.
He started the TweetNadwa series – the corporeal meetings of the Twitter community. In one of those, in Tahrir, I understood the remarkable role he played. We sat on the ground, a screen displaying rolling tweets, discussing the restructuring of Mubarak’s brutal security apparatus. Comments and questions could only use two minutes. If you liked what you heard you fluttered your raised hand. Passersby stopped and, intrigued, they stayed and contributed. The numbers grew to over a thousand from every background: enabled, together, working out ways forward, and Alaa in the middle, facilitating, directing, articulating, engaged, and passionate. (…)
He was to enter a major confrontation with the military when, on 9 October, a peaceful (mainly Coptic) protest was attacked by the army and, worried, Alaa went looking for his friend, the activist Mina Daniel. He found him in the Coptic hospital, among the dead.
Alaa and his friends then did something remarkable; from the morgue they took on the entire system. In the face of the hospital issuing death certificates from “natural causes” they persuaded the stricken families to demand autopsies. Activist lawyers pressured the public prosecutor to order them. They fetched the coroner and his staff and persuaded them to carry out the autopsies in the presence of physicians whom they trusted. And then they sat them individually with the families to explain the reports to them.
The hospital morgue only had three drawers, so all the while they treated the bodies of their comrades with ice and fans, and they treated the anger, grief and suspicion of the families with tears and embraces and explanations. Thus they foiled the attempt to cause sectarian violence, and to get rid of the evidence of the bodies, and they mobilised the families to demand an investigation.
Og nu er han i fængsel, fængslet af en af de illegitime militærdomstole for at have “opfordret til vold mod militæret”. Soueif skriver: No one believes that the military believe the charges they’ve levelled against Alaa; in attacking this central, charismatic figure they appear to be openly mounting an attack on the very spirit of the revolution.
Det er i alle tilfælde i disse måneder, at det afgøres, om oprøret i Egypten skal ende med at gøre en permanent forskel – eller om militæret med trofast støtte fra Vesten vil fortsætte deres egen udgave af Mubaraks terror.
Overophedning af bærbar med Ubuntu 11.04
Jeg har en i grunden ret god bærbar computer (en Acer Aspire S740), der dog det sidste halve års tid har lidt under, at den bliver ganske umanerligt varm. Batteriet holder heller ikke længere så lang tid, som det burde. I nogle måneder har jeg troet, at det var fordi der samles støv ved blæseren, så den ikke ventilerer ordentligt. Men så kom jeg til at zappe ind på OMGUbuntu, hvor det fremgår, at det handler om en fejl i den måde, hvorpå Linux-kernen håndterer strømstyringen for Intel-CPU’er og indbyggede Intel-grafikkort:
As of kernel 2.6.38 up until 3.1 (still present) there has been a problem of power regression but besides this I had slight problem with overheating. Regarding overheating in beginning I tried reporting bugs, tried different Thinkfan configurations, blamed proprietary software such as Adobe Flash for spiking up CPU temperature, however this problem was somewhat solved. After numerous battery calibrations and as these didn’t work in the end for battery life getting poorer with each day, I just blamed the factor that notebook was getting pretty old (~3 years).
Then the consumer woke up inside of me and I thought it was time to get new notebook. I laid my eyes upon ThinkPad X1 thing of beauty except one mayor drawback, its price. I did some reading on X1 and interesting enough, X300 comes with Core Duo 2 L7100 but overheating + power regression was still present even on latest Intel Core I* series. Reading this killed the consumer and woke up the hacker side.
Den korte og ikke-tekniske forklaring er, at der i Ubuntu 11.04 blev introduceret en fejl i kernens måde at håndtere strømstyring for Intel-CPU’er. Denne fejl betyder, at computeren bruger for meget strøm og derfor bliver for varm. Dette betyder selvfølgelig også, at batteriet holder kortere tid pr. opladning. Men hvad kan man gøre ved det?
Det korte svar er, at der er lavet en rettelse i Linux-kernen, som formentlig vil komme med i Ubuntu 12.04, og som løser problemet.
Det lidt længere og mere tekniske svar er, at man kan tvinge kernen til at styre strømmen korrekt ved at introducere nogle parametre til kernen i opstartsmenuen. Hvis du har Ubuntu 11.04 og du har en bærbar med dette problem, kan du gøre som følger:
- Åbn en terminal og åbn filen “/etc/default/grub” i din favorit-editor:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
- Erstat den linje, der begynder med GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT med denne:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1"
Det, som denne linje gør, er at tvinge systemet til at bruge strømstyring (pcie_aspm=force) og får grafikkortet til at bruge mindre strøm.
- Når du har gjort dette og har gemt filen, kan du i terminalen skrive:
sudo update-grub
Alt. hvad du nu behøver at gøre er at genstarte, og problemet med overophedning vil være løst. På min egen computer faldt det gennemsnitlige strømforbrug i “tomgang” (blank skærm som pauseskærm) fra ca. 17W til ca. 12W, hvilket er en reduktion på mere end 30%. Her et par timer efter mærkes det meget tydeligt: Computeren er overhovedet ikke varm. Og ja, det er lidt en skam at man som forbruger stadig er nødt til at forholde sig til den slags, men det har meget at gøre med den fart, hvormed GNU/Linux-systemerne og især Linux-kernen bevæger sig i disse år.
Occupy Wall Street – solidaritet med Egypten
Jeg har ikke så meget tid til at blogge eller følge med i den politiske udvikling i disse dage – nyt job og en masse mere langsigtede gøremål tager al tiden. I mellemtiden, et citat fra The Guardian om forbindelsen mellem Occupy og den egyptiske revolution, netop som de egyptiske generaler for alvor begynder at stramme nettet:
In a statement appealing for solidarity from the worldwide Occupy movement that has taken control of public squares in London, New York and hundreds of other cities, campaigners in Egypt claim their revolution is “under attack” from army generals and insist they too are fighting against a “1%” elite intent on stifling democracy and promoting social injustice.
The announcement came as Alaa Abd El Fattah, the jailed Egyptian revolutionary who has become a rallying figure for those opposed to the junta, had his appeal against detention refused by a military court. He and 30 other defendants accused of inciting violence against the military will remain in prison for at least 10 more days. The authorities could then choose to extend their incarceration indefinitely. This week a secret letter written by Abd El Fattah from inside his cell at Bab el-Khalq jail was published by the Guardian and the Egyptian newspaper al-Shorouk, laying bare the growing chasm between the ruling generals and grassroots activists who believe that their revolution has been hijacked.
In Thursday’s communique, which was jointly signed by a number of activist groups and published on the website of the “No to military trials” campaign, Egyptian protesters say that while global media attention has shifted elsewhere since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak in February, their struggle has continued.
“Again and again the army and the police have attacked us, beaten us, arrested us, killed us,” reads the statement. “And we have resisted, we have continued; some of these days we lost, others we won, but never without cost. Over a thousand gave their lives to remove Mubarak. Many more have joined them in death since. We go on so that their deaths will not be in vain.”
The statement reaffirms activists’ decision to withdraw all co-operation from the military justice system: “We now refuse to co-operate with military trials and prosecutions. We will not hand ourselves in, we will not submit ourselves to questioning. If they want us, they can take us from our homes and workplaces.”
It ends with a call for an international day of action on 12 November. “Nine months into our new military repression, we are still fighting for our revolution,” the activists conclude. “Our strength is in our shared struggle. If they stifle our resistance, the 1% will win – in Cairo, New York, London, Rome – everywhere. But while the revolution lives, our imaginations knows no bounds. We can still create a world worth living.”
Sandy Nurse, of Occupy Wall Street, said: “The Egyptian people have changed the face of the regime and the revolution is momentous but unfortunately it is far from over. Changing the face of the regime, getting rid of Mubarak, is like changing the curtains: the military is in control of the country and has been for a long time.”
Nurse, who is on the direct action committee of OWS, expressed her personal solidarity with the people of Egypt and added: “I believe Occupy Wall Street would be in solidarity with the continued struggle of the Egyptian protesters.”
Anup Desai, a press spokesman for OWS, said: “The effort put out by the entire country in Egypt gave us motivation. Egypt has won the first step. I was not aware what was happening so I am grateful for this opportunity to learn and I thank the Egyptian activists. What is happening with the military and the military courts is 100% wrong and we need to share this and tell people about it.”
Desai, who is also a professor of philosophy at City University of New York, expressed solidarity with the activists and said: “We need to keep coming together.”
Naomi Colvin, from the Occupy London movement, said: “All decisions are made through a general assembly but I’m sure we will strongly support the call from our friends in the Middle East to stand in solidarity with them through an international day of action.
“Egyptians provided us with an example of courage that has inspired not only our own protest but many others around the world, and we owe it to them to support their ongoing struggle in any way we can.”
Aktivister fængsles, Mubarak-modstandere som Alaa i fængsel igen, et udkast til en ny forfatning, hvor militærets jerngreb om magten gøres konstant; og et Europa og et USA, hvor magthaverne kunne tænke sig at opnå en lignende kontrol i form af antiterrorlove, overvågning og i USAs tilfælde nu også systematiske snigmord af “besværlige” modstandere. Alt imens de store europæiske regeringer vil tvinge Grækenland til kolossale besparelser for at redde bankerne ved hjælp af nogle penge, som den græske befolkning slet ikke skylder – alt mens ingen eller stort set ingen medier udfordrer den officielle historie om “den græske gæld”.
Der er mere brug for den politiske vrede, som Occupy Wall Street og Tahrir repræsenterer, end der har været længe.
Ben Ali vender tilbage til Tunesien
I hvert fald for en stund. Se endelig det hele.
Tahrir Square: Protest mod politivold i Oakland
Hvis du stadig tror, intet har forandret sig det sidste års tid: Disse billeder er fra Tahrir Square i Kairo, hvor demonstranter viser deres solidaritet med Occupy Wall Street og ofrene for politivold i Oakland, Californien. Almindelige egyptere demonstrerer i solidaritet med almindelige amerikanere, og folk i USA er glade for og stolte af støtten. Det er for tidligt at sige, hvad det ender med at komme til at betyde, men noget er bristet.
As they vowed earlier this week to do, Egyptian pro-democracy protesters marched from Tahrir square to the U.S. Embassy today to march in support of Occupy Oakland—and against police brutality witnessed in Oakland on Tuesday night, and commonly experienced in Egypt.
Above and below, photos from Egyptian blogger Mohammed Maree, who is there at the march live-tweeting. He is a journalist with Egytimes.org, a human rights activist, and a veterinarian …
Link: Egyptians march from Tahrir Square to support Oakland protesters.
Guantanamo er en torturlejr
Ja, det skal uforbederligt venstreorienterede eller i hvert fald krigskritiske stemmer jo sige. Er det Michael Moore, der nu igen har været ved at blamere sig?
Nej, denne gang kommer kritikken fra den amerikanske regerings ledende statsadvokat på Guantanamo-lejren med ansvar for at retsforfølge de mistænkte i Bushs “krig mod terror”. Den nu pensionerede oberst Morris Davis lægger ikke fingrene imellem, når han beskriver sin egen tidligere arbejdsplads:
Retired air force colonel Morris Davis resigned in October 2007 in protest against interrogation methods at Guantánamo, and has made his remarks in the lead-up to 13 November, the anniversary of President George W Bush’s executive order setting up military commissions to try terrorist suspects.
Davis said that the methods of interrogation used on Guantánamo detainees – which he described as “torture” – were in breach of the US’s own statutes on torture, and added: “If torture is a crime, it should be prosecuted.”
The US military, he said, had been ordered to use unlawful methods of interrogation by “civilian politicians, and to do so against our will and judgment”.
Davis was speaking at a conference on human rights law at Bard College in New York state. After resigning from the armed forces, in a dramatic defection to the other side of the raging debate over conditions at the camp, he became executive director of, and counsel to, the Crimes of War project based in Washington DC. The speech was to launch the project’s 10th anniversary campaign and to protest against the existence of the camp and the torture there and at so-called “black sites” run by US intelligence around the world.
“No court has jurisdiction over Guantánamo,” said Davis. “Some senior civilian Bush adminstration officials chose Guantánamo to interrogate detainees because they thought it’s a law-free zone where we can unlawfully… handle a very small number of cases. We have turned our backs on the law and created what we believed was a place outside the law’s reach.” He added that America was “great at preaching to others, but not so good at practising what we preach. There is a point when enough is enough, and you have to look at yourself in the mirror. Torture has no place in American courts.”
Link: Former US chief prosecutor condemns torture in Guantanamo
Dagens citat: Occupy Wall Street
USAs præsident Barack Obama:
Square by square, town by town, country by country, the people have risen up to demand their basic human rights. (…)The United States supports a set of universal rights. And these rights include free speech, the freedom of peaceful assembly…
Nåh nej, det var noget helt andet, han talte om. Eller var det?
Herunder ser vi Oaklands heroiske politi, der forsvarer Mubaraks dikatur det amerikanske demokrati mod demonstranter, der forsøger at komme en såret kammerat til undsætning: