Action Alert: Anti-War Activist Targeted by Country Beginning With the Letter “C” (Hint: It’s Not China or Cambodia)

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Sep 242007
 

For those of you who still think it can’t happen here:
Subject: URGENT Appeal for Support: US Anti-war Activist Arrested at Canadian Border!

Sent: 24 Sep ’07 13:53

The Alison Bodine Defense Committee is appealing to all progressive groups and organizations who fight for a better world to support the campaign to defend Alison Bodine, a US citizen who is being targeted by Canadian Border Services Agency for being an anti-war and social justice activist.

Originally from Broomfield, Colorado, Alison is a central organizer with Vancouver, Canada antiwar coalition Mobilization Against War & Occupation
(MAWO), for three years was the president of the University of British Columbia’s Coalition Against War on the People of Iraq and Internationally (CAWOPI), a
long-time executive committee member of the UBC Social Justice Center, is a prominent activist in solidarity with Cuba and the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba,
and a supporter of immigrant and refugee rights in Canada and the US.
Near midnight on Thursday September 13, 2007, Alison was arrested by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) when she attempted to legally cross the border
at Peace Arch border crossing, travelling from Canada into the United States. Three days prior, Alison was harassed by CBSA officials while traveling from the US
into Canada. The ordeal began after border officials searched her vehicle and identified her as a political organizer after they found various political materials and progressive newspapers in her car.
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 Posted by on September 24, 2007

Saturday Special: Only in Arkansas

 4 Responses »
Sep 222007
 

I frequently bemoan the fact that I am not creative enough to make up stuff as good as what happens in reality–many thanks to an alert feminist fan in Arkansas for this story which starts out ridiculous and just gets worse. Seems a group of anti-abortion wingnuts wants to put a statue on the Arkansas state capitol grounds commemrorating infant deaths,

“Supporters of the memorial said it would allow parents to cope with grief caused by miscarriage, abortion or fetal or infant death.”

The statue is described “as a man holding a baby while talking to a woman. The robe wearing male figure wears sandals.”

When the Secretary of State asked, “Is that Jesus ?�

The reply was, “It’s whoever you want to say it is.�

“The statue is called the Hope Monument. According to the web site, the male figure is Jesus.”

Ok, I understand if you are rolling on the floor or banging your head against the wall about now, but wait, it gets better:

“The commission met in the Old Supreme Court Room on the Capitol’s second floor. On a table at the rear of the room the group set up a display showing a small model of the proposed statue. At the end of a table was a rectangular, dark wood box. Commission members that the box contained a fetus miscarried in 1993.

“Since he was considered medical waste, his mother asked if he could be preserved,â€? (organizer Millie) Lace told the commission. “He is here with us today at our reference table. If you desire to see him, let us know.â€?”

To the credit of Secretary of State Charlie Daniels (no not THAT Charlie Daniels, at least we don’t think), rather than make a decision about the request, he decided to appoint a committee to figure out just what kinds of things are appropriate to place on the capitol grounds. Here’s hoping they check out the Constitution while researching the matter.

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 Posted by on September 22, 2007

When Journalists are Raped

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Sep 212007
 

I just came across an interesting piece in the May/June issue of the Columbia Journalism Review that talks about female journalists who are sexually assaulted while doing their job.

“The only attempt to quantify this problem has been a slim survey of female war reporters published two years ago by the International News Safety Institute, based in Brussels. Of the twenty-nine respondents who took part, more than half reported sexual harassment on the job. Two said they had experienced sexual abuse. But even when the abuse is rape, few correspondents tell anyone, even friends. The shame runs so deep–and the fear of being pulled off an assignment, especially in a time of shrinking budgets, is so strong–that no one wants intimate violations to resound in a newsroom.”

Gives one pause to wonder how this situation impacts how journalists cover sexual abuse and rape stories. While this is generally a good piece about a subject that needs to be addressed, I do take issue with the following wording of Judith Matloff’s piece:

“In the cases that I know of, the journalists did nothing to provoke the attacks; they behaved with utmost propriety, except perhaps for one bikini-clad woman who was raped by a hotel employee while sunbathing on the roof in a conservative Middle Eastern country.”

Memo to Ms. Matloff: Sexual violence is not the fault of the victim. Ever. Even when she is wearing clothing that is inappropriate for the setting. Rape and assault are acts of criminal behavior and the blame is solely that of the perpetrators.

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 Posted by on September 21, 2007

Prostitution in Cambodia–It isn’t ‘People’ who are the Johns

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Sep 212007
 

Kudos to Dr. Lynette Dumble of the Global Sisterhood Network for flagging this troublesome piece from the Deccan Chronicle about prostitution in Cambodia. With a headline that reads, “Demand for Virgins Soar”, the article reports that the high demand for virgins is fueling sex trafficking of underage girls in Cambodia. While the article goes into specific detail about the ethnicity of the male clients who are buying the services of virgins, it ends with this line,

“People were increasingly picking up virgins in entertainment establishments.”

Yet as both Dumble and activist Jennifer Drew point out, people aren’t picking up virgins, men are. Drew writes,

“The real headline should be male demand for virgin women and girls soars. Then we would read and begin to understand the reality of female sexual slavery.

Also note the fact many of these young women voluntarily enter prostitution is an overt assumption that prostitution is acceptable provided women and girls ‘choose’ to become prostituted women. No need to consider the fact it is either prostitution for these women and girls or else they and their families starve. Or the fact prostitution is far from the myths we are regularly fed by the pornography and sex industries.

I’ve yet to hear of mass numbers of women buying prostituted women or virgin women in order to rape and sexually abuse them for their sexual gratification. It is overwhelmingly men and men of all nationalities, backgrounds and ethnicities – not just men of the
same ethnicity as the prostituted women who are the ones fueling the demand for an unlimited fresh supply of women’s and girls’ bodies. After all, prostituted women soon become used up, contract HIV/Aids, STI’s as well as other medical conditions. Which is why there must be a continuous fresh supply of women and girls.

Once again, it is what is omitted which is important – not what is reported.”

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 Posted by on September 21, 2007

The Pornography of War (Literally)

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Sep 202007
 

A hearty congragulations to Vogue Italia for what is the most obscene, inappropriate fashion spread I have every seen.  Shot after suggestive shot shows  pornographic images of models being ravaged/lusted after by ‘soldiers’, some of the shots are quite violent in nature.  This comment on Detainees says it all:

“Steven Meisel’s new spread in Vogue Italia, “Make Love Not War,” is pornographic, not because it features nudity, but because it glamorizes an already obscene, criminal and tragic situation. US soldiers in Iraq are already “making love,” but not to supermodels. They are using Iraqis as prostitutes when not raping, sodomizing and sexually torturing them. We’re not cool lovers but angry sadists.”

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 Posted by on September 20, 2007
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