Modpress – Page 32 – Kultur, natur og modstand

Kåring af de værste politiske hjemmesider

Så nærmer folketingsvalget sig, og vi vil her på Modpress gøre noget for at forbedre kvaliteten af de politiske kandidaters hjemmesider, for der er godt nok plads til forbedringer!

Vi vil kåre de 10 værste politiske hjemmesider og der er kandidater nok. Men nu skal bloglæserne jo også have en mulighed for at komme med indspark, så skriv eventuelle kandidater i kommentarfelterne.

Mine to favoritter indtil videre er:

http://www.konservative.dk/BrianMikkelsen/Sider/forside.aspx – stavefejlene er blevet rettet, men prøv at tjekke hvad der står om Brian..eller nogle af billederne.Den forrige version var en klokkeklar vinder, men er nu rykket hertil.

http://www.vantingifolketinget2011.dk/ – tragisk tilfælde..

Der er også de klassiske der ikke er opdaterede i årevis, tjek fx:

http://www.soren-pind.dk/

Der skal naturligvis være en sammenhæng mellem hjemmesidens kvalitet og hvor vigtig personen er rent politisk – så hav det in mente når I går på jagt.

Må den værste hjemmeside vinde!-

Bahrain: Repressalier mod aktivisters familie

Styret i Bahrain er nu begyndt at slå ned på familiemedlemmer til demokratiaktivister, der bor uden for landets grænser. Sådan gik det for eksempel Sayed Mohamed Shuber, hvis onkel Yasser bor i Storbritannien og er aktiv i bevægelsen for demokrati i Bahrain:

At 2.20 yesterday morning, Bahraini and Saudi forces raided 20-year old Sayed Mahmood Shuber’s home in Jidali in Bahrain. They pointed guns at the heads of his family and abducted him. They beat him. He has now disappeared.

The abduction seems to be part of a concerted effort to punish Bahrainis in Britain and their families for expressing solidarity with the revolts against the country’s regime.

Yasser, Sayed’s uncle, is a British citizen living in Bolton. His family telephoned him to tell him about their ordeal.

Yasser told Socialist Worker, “Seven jeeps and two civilian cars pulled up outside the house. They raided the house, started shouting and pushing the family around.

“Some of them were in blue uniforms–the uniforms of special branch. Others were in civilian clothes and wore balaclavas so that only their eyes were showing.

“My nephew Sayed was beaten in front of his family very badly. The men then pointed a gun at him. My sister, Sayed’s mother, says she began screaming, ‘Don’t shoot my son’.

“The men then pointed a gun at her, telling her to shut up or they’d kill them both. From the accents my sister could tell that some were Saudi and some Bahraini.”

The men took Sayed’s laptop and mobile phone. They brought with them some papers and documents into the house and went into his room. They came out with papers and documents and took them away.”

“My dad has been arrested before and held for seven days. They stopped giving him his medication and told him it was because of my activities in Britain.“The Bahraini authorities monitor people in Britain. Maybe they saw me on demonstrations in Manchester in support of the democracy movement. Now my nephew is being punished.

“I call for justice and democracy and freedom for the people of Bahrain. But you ask for freedom on Bahrain and this is what you get.”

Med hensyn til USAs rolle og håbet eller mangel på samme om hjælp fra den amerikanske regering er Yasser som de fleste aktivister i eller fra Mellemøsten særdeles afvisende:

“The British and US governments are plain hypocrites. The US has marines patrolling the Saudi boarder with Bahrain. We don’t want any military in Bahrain, we want the US bases gone.

“For 100 years the US has used Bahrain to attack Japan, Vietnam, and to supposedly free Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We don’t get anything from this apart from more repression by our own government. The Bahraini government buys arms from the US to use against the people. The US marines train the army and special forces in Bahrain. Those people are the ones killing the protesters now.

“The people of Bahrain are strong and united, and can resolve their own issues. We do not want any foreign intervention. Our real friends in Britain and the US are the people who marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Link: Bahrainian government targets family members of pro-democracy campaigners in Britain

Syrien: Fortsat oprør og vold mod demonstranter

Demonstranterne kræver reformer, løsladelse af politiske fanger og ophævelse af den årelange nødretstilstand. Angry Arab rapporterer, at sammenholdet i den syriske regering er begyndt at slå revner: “The brutality of the regime is digging a bigger hole for itself“.

På al-bab.com skriver Brian Whitaker, at Syrien meget vel kan være på vej mod den kant, regimerne i Tunesien og Egypten (og til dels Libyen) faldt ud over:

The “fear barrier” is an important consideration for both protesters and Arab regimes. The regimes’ basic calculation is that at any given time only a relatively small number of people are likely to cause trouble – because the rest will be too afraid. So long as the fear barrier remains, they can be reasonably confident of dealing with the situation.What we saw in Tunisia and Egypt was that once the fear barrier was broken large-scale protests erupted in numerous places and the security forces were no longer able to cope. One sign of the fear barrier breaking is when people start openly destroying images of the president – and this is now happening in Syria.

Syria, at the moment, appears to be on the cusp. It’s probably fair to say that the fear barrier has been well and truly broken in Deraa, and it is cracking but not quite broken in other parts of the country.

Considering that it is little more than a week since the first serious stirrings against the regime occurred in Syria, events seem to be moving quite fast.

At styret er ved at miste det greb, som folks frygt har givet det over situationen, antydes blandt andet af scener som denne, hvor præsident Bashar Assads billede bliver angrebet:

Jeg håber det bedste for befolkningen i Syrien. De fortjener bedre end de sidste mange års diktatur og ufrihed, og de fortjener også at komme fredeligt ud på den anden side af det her.

Free Mohamed Radwan

3arabawy skriver:

My friend Mohamed Radwan has been detained in Syria, and is facing accusations fabricated by the Syrian security services that he is some Israeli spy. Please help spread the word. He is facing the risk of torture and ill treatment in Syrian custody.

Så typisk for de fremmede regimer at finde “fremmede” syndebukke for deres egen befolknings vrede. Lad os håbe, Mohamed Radwan og alle andre, der er fanget i de syriske myndigheders “operation syndebuk” hurtigt kan slippe fri igen.

Update: Der er nu en Facebook-side, hvor man kan følge sagen.

Update, 2: New York Times har en glimrende gennemgang af sagen.

Foto: Mohamed Radwan såret af skud fra haglgevær på Tahrir-pladsen 20. januar, af Hossam El-Hawalawy.

EU: OK at dræbe demonstranter

EUs toprådgiver for Mellemøsten udtaler nu, at det er OK at skyde demonstranter ned med skarpt, hvis det er det, der skal til for at genoprette ro og orden i Libyen Syrien Bahrain.

Det skriver The Guardian:

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, has denounced the beating of medical personnel and the takeover of hospitals by security forces.

But Robert Cooper, one of the EU’s highest-ranking diplomats and councillor to Ashton on the Middle East and the Balkans, told MEPs: “I’m not sure if the police have had to deal with these public order questions before. It’s not easy dealing with large demonstrations in which there may be violence. It’s a difficult task for policemen. It’s not something that we always get right in the best western countries and accidents happen.”

Briefing MEPs after a fact-finding mission to the Gulf, Cooper stressed that two of those killed were police. He said that Bahrain, home to the US fifth fleet, is “a rather pleasant, peaceful place”.

While still calling for dialogue between protesters and the government, he said: “One should understand the authorities were right to restore calm and order and that’s what they’ve done.”

Breaking news: Bombetogterne over Libyen afblæses. “One should understand that Gaddafi was right to restore calm and order and that’s what he’s done”, udtaler EUs udsending for området. Eller Assad. Eller Ahamadinejad. Hvorfor er det lige præcis, det ikke fungerer lige sådan med hensyn til krav om frihed og demokrati i lande, vi ikke er allieret med?

Undertrykkelsen i Danmark rammer også DIG

Du synes måske, du har det godt her i Danmark; at du lever i et frit samfund, hvor alle kan få lov at gøre som de vil, hvis bare de overholder loven og lader andre være i fred.

Måske har du hørt om, at Danmark er et land, hvor uskyldige mennesker kan sidde fængslede i månedsvis, helt uden at de er mistænkt for at have gjort noget som helst galt, og uden hensyn til, om de er gravide eller ofre for vold eller voldtægt.

Men du er jo ikke hverken asylsøger eller fremmed, og så gælder det ikke. Eller gør det?

På Adventures and Japes undersøger den britiske skolelærer TackiestOnes, hvor sikker du egentlig kan være på, at den slags ikke rammer netop dig.

Hun begynder med at citere en artikel, der forklarer, at i Danmark kan torturofre tvinges til at tage antidepressiva, også selv om de ikke virker og tværtimod gør ondt værre. Landets jobcentre har sågar tiltaget sig magten til at påtvinge sådanne mennesker antidepressiv, også selv om deres læge direkte fraråder det.

TackiestOnes forklarer:

The Danish school system spends more money per pupil than any other, you might have heard. But did you know that the education system is so good that anyone can prescribe medication? All employees of the borough council in Denmark have the right to say which drugs you should receive, what the dosage should be and for how long you should be on the drugs. What a wonderful country! If a worker in a Job Club is a bit unsure about which drugs would be best, they can ask a doctor but the doctor is not required to see the patient.
As everyone is so well qualified in medicine here, the patient is not allowed to refuse.

The Caseworker will see you now

Men okay, siger du – jeg er ikke torturoffer, bliver ikke bedt om at møde på jobcentret og er i det hele taget ved godt helbred, uafhængig og fri.

We don’t have to deal with the kommune!

Bortset fra, at det ikke kun er flygtninge og torturofre, der kan tvinges til at tage antidepressiva, som ikke virker og uanset, om lægen fraråder dem eller ej – det er alle, som risikerer på et eller andet tidspunkt af deres liv at få en depression samtidig med, at de er nødt til at søge økonomisk hjælp af en eller anden slags. Vi ved det godt – det kunne ikke ske for dig.

You are correct. The chances that you will fall on hard times and continue to stay in the country are indeed low. It will, as you have noticed, probably not affect you. Maybe your children. But not you. Probably. Depression is really rare, right? Especially in countries with nine-month-long winters, the likes of which you have never experienced… Especially not in countries where outsiders find it hard to build a support network….

Let’s just for a second consider what it all means, what the big context is.

The Danish State is huge, it is the biggest employer and it touches every aspect of your life. The minister for employment, the social workers, the case workers in the Job Club, the office workers in the borough council and so on, they all have enormous power.

If they decide, just POOF, one day decide that the best treatment for depression is antidepressants then it becomes so. Even if they only help a minority of people. Even if the side effects can be so bad that they drive people to suicide. Even if the drugs they force you to take, eat away a huge proportion of your benefits cheque. Even if your own doctor and an entire group of specialists say the drugs are not advisable in your particular case, you can still be forced to take them.

Men … det påvirker jo stadig kun nassere, siger du. Ikke folk, der overholder reglerne, passer deres arbejde, betaler deres skat. Og altså ikke bliver deprimerede. Ikke folk som dig. Og du har måske ret. Med mindre, du altså går hen og bliver skilt. Hvis du bliver skilt og ender med at være den, der tager sig af børnene, erhverver kommunen sig herved ret til at overvåge dig dag og nat uden hensyn til, hvad loven siger – det kunne jo være, at de herved kunne finde selv det spinkleste grundlag for at tage børnetilskudet fra dig.

Måske du vil finde, at det ikke altid er morsomt at leve i et socialistisk paradis.

You might also find, to your surprise, that your facebook is printed out, that the shoes outside your front door are noted, that the cars that visit your house are logged. You might find that as a result of this, you may be denied something you should be allowed or forced to do something. You might have your children taken off you.Fun fact, if your children are not in daycare and they are “behind” in their Danish language development, they can be forced into daycare. If you refuse, your family can be “investigated”. If you were planning on staying home past six months after your baby’s birth, think again. Even if you do not have a job to go to, you will be told to send your children to daycare around the six months mark so they can learn how to “socialise”.

Infants learning to socialise

Alt sammen i Danmark, verdens bedste land – det socialistiske paradis, hvor få har for meget og færre for lidt, og hvor vi alle finder sammen omkring vores “hygge”, som er et ord, der ikke findes på nogen andre sprog, bortset fra norsk, svensk, hollandsk, engelsk og sikkert mange andre sprog.

Ret skal være ret, det særegne, socialrealistiske mareridt, som vi i Danmark påtvinger samfundets svageste borgere, findes nok ikke helt magen til nogen steder. Og gud ske lov for det.

Link: Should I move to Denmark: Denmark is a Socialist Paradise.

Yemen: Massakre gav bagslag

Det er i hvert fald en rimelig tolkning. Flere højtstående officerer er nu gået over til demonstranterne og kræver at diktatoren Saleh går af:

in the streets of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, rival tanks were ranged against each other after three senior army commanders announced that they backed the protesters.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Gabool al Mutawakil, a youth activist, said: “We are now in the middle of two militaries – one that has joined the protesters and one that is under the authority of president Saleh. There is fear of civil war, but we are insisting on having a peaceful revolution.”

Earlier Major General Ali Mohsen Saleh, the head of the north western military zone and the head of the first armoured division, announced his support for the protesters.

Brigadier Hameed Al Koshebi, the head of brigade 310 in the Omran area, Brigadier Mohammed Ali Mohsen, who heads the eastern division, Brigadier Nasser Eljahori, the head of brigade 121, and General Ali Abdullaha Aliewa, an adviser to the Yemeni supreme leader of the army also deserted the president.

Saleh, den næste arabiske eks-diktator i rækken. Måske der bliver til en hel kalender? Januar Ben Ali, februar Mubarak, marts og april – ja, hvem ved. Måske året kan sluttes af med Saudi-Arabiens kong Abdullahs fald i november eller december, skarpt fulgt af Qatar og De Forenede Arabiske Emirater. Lige for øjeblikket ser det sort ud på mange måder, men billedet kan nå at vende adskillige gange i de kommende måneder.

Demo in support of Bahrain, Copenhagen 18.3.2001

“Situationen i den arabiske verden er nu, at i kølvandet af alt det, som skete i Egypten, har folket fået nok. Folket har fået nok af undertrykkelse, og nu siger de stop. Dette er ikke en religiøs kamp. Det her handler rent og skært om basisfriheder: Frihed, rettighed og lighed til alt!”

Via Fatima Al-Hashimi.

Krigsherren Obama

Via 3arabawy.

I mellemtiden rammer As’ad Abukhalil hovedet på sømmet:

The charade of overthrowing regimes and invading countries in the name of democracy was a bloody farce in the case of Bush era. They now don’t need to do that. They can just jump on the case where they see a potential for a real democratic change and then guarantee the installation of a puppet regime without having “boots on the ground”, as Obama kept warning in White House meetings. They bomb and kill and manage to maintain a high tone of moral uprightness while the puppet Arab League puts its ugly stamp to make it look like an Arab affair.

A useful idiot is needed, of course, and Mustafa `Abdul-Al-Jalil is perfect for the role and he has been so chummy with Saudi propaganda as of late. Obama has modified Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: not only maintaining the occupations but guaranteeing long-term presence in both countries. He has also started a war in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen where the US is a major force in the war there.

Western enthusiasm for intervention in Libya has never even been explained: why the hundreds of deaths in Egypt or Tunisia did not warrant any condemnation (the State Department did manage to condemn the protesters in Egypt, lest we forget too soon)? Israel manages to kill far more than Qadhdhafi and in shorter periods of time, and we never encounter the “humanitarian” impulse of Western governments there.

Civile i Libyen: Nej tak til vestlige bomber

Som Politiken skriver:

Et halvt døgn efter at de første krigsfly fløj ind over Libyen, er mange lokale allerede godt trætte af angrebet.

Det fortæller øjenvidner til en række internationale nyhedsmedier, efter at Frankrig, USA og Storbritannien natten igennem har kastet bomber og granater ned mod mål i det nordafrikanske land.

En af de utilfredse Tripoli-borgere er ’Sami’, der til The Guardians udsendte giver luft til de stærke anti-amerikanske følelser, der hersker i Libyen og resten af regionen.»Folk er trænet til denne slags konfrontation. Vi blev også bombet af USA i 1986. Disse folk har en agenda: De vil ruinere Libyen og trække landet ned«, siger ’Sami’.

I Twitter-universet – hvor der også er masser af USA-kritiske røster fra libyere – vælger ’OnlyOneLibya’ en modsat tilgang. Som han skriver:

»Jeg vil blot minde det libyske folk om, at luftangreb ikke fjerner Gaddafi. Vi er selv nødt til at gøre det. Libyen må rejse sig!«

I The Independent udstiller Robert Fisk de vestlige regeringers moralske fallit ved at spørge sig selv, om man mon ville være lige så hurtig til at blande sig i et lignende opgør i Mauritanien eller Elfenbenskysten – og påpeger, at de oprørere i Benghazi, der i dag vifter med franske flag, meget hurtigt kan rette gå hen og rette geværerne mod de vestlige styrker:

Why not, when Gaddafi tells the people of Benghazi that “we will come, ‘zenga, zenga’ (alley by alley), house by house, room by room.” Surely this is a humanitarian intervention that really, really, really is a good idea. After all, there will be no “boots on the ground”.Of course, if this revolution was being violently suppressed in, say, Mauritania, I don’t think we would be demanding no-fly zones. Nor in Ivory Coast, come to think of it. Nor anywhere else in Africa that didn’t have oil, gas or mineral deposits or wasn’t of importance in our protection of Israel, the latter being the real reason we care so much about Egypt.

So here are a few things that could go wrong, a sidelong glance at those bats still nestling in the glistening, dank interior of their box. Suppose Gaddafi clings on in Tripoli and the British and French and Americans shoot down all his aircraft, blow up all his airfields, assault his armour and missile batteries and he simply doesn’t fade away. I noticed on Thursday how, just before the UN vote, the Pentagon started briefing journalists on the dangers of the whole affair; that it could take “days” just to set up a no-fly zone.

Then there is the trickery and knavery of Gaddafi himself. We saw it yesterday when his Foreign Minister announced a ceasefire and an end to “military operations” knowing full well, of course, that a Nato force committed to regime-change would not accept it, thus allowing Gaddafi to present himself as a peace-loving Arab leader who is the victim of Western aggression: Omar Mukhtar Lives Again.

Libya is not Egypt. Again, Gaddafi is a fruitcake and, given his weird performance with his Green Book on the balcony of his bombed-out house, he probably does occasionally chew carpets as well.Then there’s the danger of things “going wrong” on our side, the bombs that hit civilians, the Nato aircraft which might be shot down or crash in Gaddafi territory, the sudden suspicion among the “rebels”/”Libyan people”/democracy protesters that the West, after all, has ulterior purposes in its aid. And there’s one boring, universal rule about all this: the second you employ your weapons against another government, however righteously, the thing begins to unspool. After all, the same “rebels” who were expressing their fury at French indifference on Thursday morning were waving French flags in Benghazi on Thursday night. Long live America. Until…

Jeg forstår godt dem, der mener, der kan være bedre at gøre noget, og at selv om en aktion ikke er perfekt, kan den godt være bedre end ingenting. Jeg kan bare ikke se noget som helst tegn på, at den igangværende vestlige aktion mod Libyen ikke er værre end ingenting. Jeg håber meget, jeg tager fejl, men de fleste vil give mig ret i, at Vesten ikke har nogen god track record i området. Bortset fra, da vores flyveforbud og heroiske indsats i øvrigt reddede indbyggerne i Srebrenica fra massakren. Eller hvad det nu var, de gjorde.