A quaking Quaker trying to live adventurously!
TAKING ROADS LESS TRAVELLED AND RARELY SEEN!
Burma: Telecoms Risk Complicity in Surveillance, Censorship
International telecommunications companies risk being linked to human rights abuses if they enter the Burmese market before adequate protections are in place. Burma’s human rights reforms thus far have been inadequate, including in the Internet and telecommunications sector, so companies entering the country should adopt robust safeguards to prevent and address any abuses linked to their operations.
Photo: A worker uses a mobile phone in Burma, where the government plans to increase mobile access to 50 percent in three years. © 2013 Reuters
However, with sadness I suspect the smell of profits will override our wish to wait for better human rights legislation AND implementation!
Help us to prevent Forty thousand Israeli Bedouin citizens from being forcibly removed from their homes
“I am certain that the world will judge the Jewish State by what it will do with the Arabs”
Chaim Weizmann – The First President of IsraelI apologize in advance that this is not a calm and reasoned appeal, as you are accustomed to receive from human rights organizations. This is an emotional appeal asking you to help save the soul of our country.
By: Arik Ascherman
I truly believe that history will judge all of us on how we act in the coming days. The enormity of the impending moral disaster is perhaps greater than any I have dealt with in the 18 years I have been working for Rabbis For Human Rights.
I need you to take a few minutes of your time to prevent that disaster.
Please click here to help us to prevent Forty thousand Israeli Bedouin citizens from being forcibly removed from their homes, wrenched from their way of life and sources of income, and forced to live in artificially created townships that have become centers of unemployment, poverty, crime, poverty and despair.
Forty Thousand.
Please click here, to read our background information and position paper.
Additional information from The Association For Civil Rights in Israel can be found by clicking here.
Please click here to write a letter to Israeli government ministers Livni and Lapid urging them to pull back from the brink. Please feel free to write additional letters to Prime Minister Netanyahu, your country’s Israeli Ambassador, and your nation’s government officials responsible for foreign policy.
From the moment that I first understood our government’s intentions, I have not been able to get out of my head the final scene of “Fiddler on the Roof,” as the Jews of Anatevka are expelled from their homes. Watch it for yourselves, starting at 2 hours and 36 minutes.
I imagine the residents of El-Araqib saying goodbye to the generations buried in their cemetery, and the residents of numerous villages giving one last longing look at their lands. I imagine the Bedouin soldier serving in the IDF returning his uniform after taking a furlough to help his family pack. At least as likely, I imagine 40,000 Bedouin battling the special police force to be created to enforce this plan, and eventually being forcibly herded into the “Pale of Settlement,” where they will be allowed to live. I see the hatred in young people’s eyes, rising incidents of skirmishes between Jews and Bedouin, and the headlines mourning declining investments and rising unemployment for Jew and Arab alike. As we are warned in this week’s Torah portion, “If you reject My Laws and spurn “My rules,….I will wreak misery upon you…” (Leviticus 26: 15-16)
The bottom line is that successive Israeli governments have desired for years to move the Negev Bedouin out of villages where they have lived before the creation of the state, or in some cases from villages into which Israel had forcibly moved them during the first years of the state. The goal has also been to take over their lands. Fear mongers have told the Israeli public that the Bedouin are criminals who will take over the Negev if they are not stopped. The truth is that, if the Bedouin were granted a fair opportunity to prove their land claims, and were they to win every claim, they would hold on to 5.4% of the Negev.
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation is scheduled to vote on Monday whether or not to send the latest plan to the Knesset to make it into law. Our ask is very simple. “Don’t approve this, or any other proposal that steals land and hope. Build a better future together with the Bedouin” Beyond the enormous moral implications almost impossible to grasp, there is self interest as well. The additional tension, strife and social problems will drive away investments, and discourage people from living in the Negev.
When Sheikh Sayekh al-Touri watched that scene of the Jews of Anatevka being expelled from their homes. He exclaimed, “They did to the Jews just what the Jews are trying to do to us!” However, I was always taught that we are a people commanded to learn from our own oppression how NOT to treat others, and how NOT to repeat history, “For you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.”
And so, I also have an alternative vision in my head. It is one of Jews and Bedouin working together for the good of theNegev. It is one in which we will merit the blessing of this week’s Torah portion,”You shall observe my laws and faithfully keep My rules, that you may live upon the land in security, the land shall yield is fruit and you shall eat your fill…”(Leviticus 23:18-19), because we will remember that even the Covenant between God and the Jewish people does not mean that the land belongs to Arab or Jew, “For the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with me.”(Leviticus 25:23) If we act fairly and justly to Jew and Bedouin alike, we will be truly living the Torah’s command:
“You shall proclaim freedom throughout the land for ALL its inhabitants.” (Leviticus 25:10)
Please act now (link). Your decision at this moment could influence whether Israel ignores the moral lessons of our own history and perpetuates strife, or whether Israel acts according to the precepts of justice and fairness at the heart of our Jewish tradition, and promotes a better future for both Jews and Bedouin in the Negev.
Shaova Tov!
Arik“Therefore beware, so runs the warning, from making human rights in your own state conditional on anything other than on the basic humanity which every human being as such bears within him/her by virtue of being human. Any suppression of these human and civil rights opens the gate to the indiscriminate use of power and abuse of human beings to the whole horror of Egyptian mishandling of human beings that was the root of abomination of Egypt.” Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on Exodus 22:20
The time has come for an equitable resolution of Bedouin rights in the Negev. Any worthy
resolution must preserve the following principles:
- It will be arrived at only with real involvement from the Bedouin community institutions.
- Full recognition for all existing villages, even if that means altering the national zoning plan.
- Acceptance of the ownership claims made in the 1970’s.
- Diversity of settlement types, not just towns or large villages.
- Integration of the community in planning and finding solutions.
- Developing the Negev equally – for all its residents.
Words fail me at this moment.
UN report finds Canada not doing enough to stop violence against aboriginal women
Canada needs a national strategy to combat violence against indigenous women and girls, says a United Nations summary report on human rights.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted the report on the Universal Periodic Review of Canada’s human rights record, which included recommendations from several countries. The report, released in Geneva today, summarizes Canada’s UPR — a global accountability process that monitors a country’s compliance with international human rights laws. All UN member countries undergo such a review every four years. Recommendations included establishing a national centre for missing persons and unidentified remains, police task forces to investigate cases and community safe plans.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based watchdog, said the report shows the federal government has failed to adequately address the high number of murders and disappearances of aboriginals over the last four decades. “It is not surprising that violence against indigenous women and girls figured so prominently in the discussion of Canada’s human rights record,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement Tuesday. “It reflects the persistent insecurity faced by women and girls, the urgent need for a public accounting of what has gone wrong for so long, and a robust national plan for addressing it going forward.”
In response to the report, the federal government defended its record Tuesday, noting it has introduced legislation to try to ensure families on reserves have similar rights as other Canadians. “The proposed legislation will address violence against individuals living on reserve, especially Aboriginal women and their children, by allowing courts emergency protection orders to remove a violent partner from the home,” said Andrea Richer, press secretary to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt.
A scathing report released in February by Human Rights Watch accused some police officers of harshly mistreating native women and girls in northern B.C. That report contained unproven allegations by several northern B.C. women and girls who say they were abused physically or sexually by police.
In February, the federal government established an all-party committee in Canada’s House of Commons to hold hearings on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and propose solutions to address root causes of violence. Human Rights Watch said while the move is a step in the right directions, it is not a substitute for a national commission of inquiry with independent powers beyond those of a parliamentary committee.
I hope those in POWER are ABLE to read this, and are moved to actually do something about this.
Google has de facto recognized the state of Palestine: It has changed the name ‘Palestinian territories’ to ‘Palestine’ across their products. A spokesman said Google consults with a number of authorities when naming countries and is following the lead of several international organizations.
Well done Google, thank you.
Rabbi Yishai Ron looks for ways to restore the meaning to the Zionist promise in fulfilling the shared dream of political redemption for Jews and Arabs.. In “Tazria-M’tzora” we encounter the m’tzora, who makes promises and neglects them. To remain loyal to the promised path, Rabbi Ron asks us to retain a token part of the affliction. A Dvar Torah for “Tazria-M’tzora”.
By: Rabbi Yishai Ron
A dream come true fills me with mixed emotions. On one hand I’ve longed for it to happen and worked to make it real; in my mind’s eye I’ve imagined the joy that would beat within me when it was fulfilled. The moment I yearned for came, and it blossomed into fulfillment. And on the other hand…what now? You can’t dream a dream come true again. It’s lost – but without a dream, what do I have to look forward to? I must find an alternative dream. If the one that came true was big and inspiring enough, anything that comes afterwards will seem petty. But maybe we don’t have to dream only big dreams – even little longings can impart a good taste to life…
For two thousand years the Jewish people dreamed of the return to the land of Israel, for the “renewal of the days of yore” (almost a contradiction in terms), and in our everyday prayers we beseeched God to gather us from the four corners of the Earth and return us to Zion with compassion. We have to admit that for most of that period there was no objective obstacle preventing us from going back ourselves, but the people of Israel fell in love with that dream and found it hard to let go…after all, it was so hot and swampy in the land, and the mosquitoes…the despair in London is so much more comfortable…
“The Arabs underwent a mirror image: they lost all the wars and live in poverty, but they gained big time – they gained a dream, hope and an ethos that yearns to return to its homeland.”
“Whereas the Arabs got the opposite: they lost all the wars and live in poverty, but gained big-time – a dream, a hope and ethos that longs to return to the homeland.”
The Zionist dream is emptied and the Palestinians undergo renewal
Now we’re back in the land, through the generosity (and determination) of those who, instead of resorting to prayers to God, took matters into their own hands.
The dream came true and the State came into being – ex nihilo – and the joy of creation spilled over into the task of building it up (somewhat). Hatikvah – The Hope – was fulfilled. But at the same time it became less and less relevant (there’s no reason to make do with “an eye that looks toward Zion” when you can just pick up and move here; and the ones preventing us from being “a free people in our land” are…us. Instead of The Hope there grows an emptiness of that dream-space, an emptiness of vision – Filled in by separate, contradictory, petty dreams (the most common of which becomes, “I’ll make my home” – i.e. amass wealth without counting anyone but myself).
And now, sixty-five years later, we discover that there was a dream, and it’s gone; that perhaps a different dream came true from the one we dreamed: not “a light unto the nations” in the form of a model society to which the whole world looks, but a small, besieged, bellicose country; a state in which the basic value of justice, of equality, does not exist. And instead of a society “…founded on the principles of liberty, justice and peace…” (from the Declaration of Independence), we have a self-righteous society that lacks sensitivity.
And the (disturbing) thought occurs to me: in the struggle to establish Israel we both won and lost, while the Arabs lost and won. We won in the real world – we established ourselves in our homeland with a GDP of positively European proportions, but we lost the dream – The Hope. Whereas the Arabs got the opposite: they lost all the wars and live in poverty, but gained big-time – a dream, a hope and ethos that longs to return to the homeland. They won’t be in any rush to give up on that victory: if we nurtured ours for two thousand years, why should they give up their right to dream? Any demand that they give it up is doomed to fail, even in the context of a “peace agreement.”
So which is better? To win and lose…or lose yet win? Is there a middle path?
Window at the Hansen government hospital (formerly the Jesus Help Asylum leper hospital).
We can assume that the leper – the “hero” of “Tazria-M’tzora” – has dreams. He dreams of healing, of ending the discomfort; in his dream he’s just like any other person, and people no longer treat him as a leper. Nothing else is important to him. He marvels at the normal people so caught up in petty affairs instead of rejoicing at their good fortune, that they are not like him; and he feels the pain in the way the healthy treat him and his kind. Distant, isolated, the leper promises himself that if he recovers he will treat the societal lepers better, and try not to let the little things cause him pain.
Miraculously (or through advanced medicine) he recovers; the skin slowly returns to normal and the memory of the affliction – as well as his promise – begins to fade. The ex-leper finds himself once again caught up in petty concerns, and his treatment of other lepers is even worse than others’.
The Torah tells us that one who recovers from leprosy must bring a guilt-offering. Our Sages explain: his affliction was punishment for gossip and selfishness. But today, now that we have (one hopes) internalized the idea that sickness is not a punishment for one’s behavior, we can give a different – even opposite – interpretation to the offering: not guilt over his sickness (the pathology of which was not his fault) but the guilt of the future former leper, the guilt of forgetting. Forgetting those who are still afflicted, those who still live in pain, and the guilt over concerning oneself with petty issues at the expense of the grand dream.
How can I not fall into the sin of the recovered leper, when the natural tendency is to forget? Maybe the answer lies in the possibility of not healing completely; leave a little of the leper inside me, one who still holds the dream of healing. That remnant will enable me to remember the pain of the lepers and their dream, and leave an opening for hope –for them and for me.
In the midst of the dead-end feeling that characterizes our relations with the Palestinians, perhaps the best thing for us would be to give up a bit of our material victories and renew, to some degree, the dream that sustained us for two thousand years (go back to dreaming about our return to the city of our patriarchs and matriarchs, among other places). At the same time, we would allow the Palestinians to fulfill a small part of their dream, thus lowering the flame (however slightly) of their dream (that so threatens us). Perhaps instead of our victory measured only on the ground, but which lacks the flame of hope, and their victory measured in hope but landless, we can share both?
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yishai Ron
As I read this, it made me think, what has happened when I take major matters into my own hands without prior prayer and spiritual discernment. Yes, in some way I make expensive mistakes, and sometimes hurt those I didn’t mean to.
When we read this article, we see how the state of Israel and its ungodly use of Power- over has been corrupted and the dream begins turning sour.
Interesting lyrics from Afro Celt Sound System – 'Release"
This morning as I was ahem “dancing” around my flat listening to the Afrocelts, the lyrics suddenly came alive as I realised something. I know these words from somewhere else….. can you quess where from? Feel free to respond!
Don’t argue amongst yourselves
Because of the loss of me
I’m sitting amongst yourselves
Don’t think you can’t see me
Don’t argue amongst yourselves
Because of the loss of me
I haven’t gone anywhere
But out of my body
Reach out and you’ll touch me
Make effort to speak to me
Call out and you’ll hear me
Be happy for me
Don’t argue amongst yourselves
Because of the loss of me
I haven’t gone anywhere
But out of my body
Reach out and you’ll touch me
Make effort to speak to me
Call out and you’ll hear me
Be happy for me
Reach out and you’ll touch me
Make effort to speak to me
Call out and you’ll hear me
Be happy for me
The warrior of light has faith, and never looses sight of what is transitory and what is final.
The author Paolo Coehlo quotes a well know British Aristocrat and Libertarian who also happened to be three times a Prime Minister ** (see below) who once said:
“If you have a total belief in doctors, you will soon find that everything leads to bad health.
If you have a total belief in theologians, you will be convinced that everything is a sin.
If you have a total belief in the military, you will conclude that nothing is absolutely safe.”
Paulo asks us to accept the passions, and not abandon the enthusiasm of the achievements; they are a part of life and we should be cheerful to all who participate.
But as a Warrior of Light, he ask us to never loses sight of the enduring things in our life and knows that the bonds created with strength over time can distinguish between what is transitory and what’s final.
That my Friends in my faith in the ability of God to transform transitory darkness into something bathed in the eternal light. If we have faith is God to transform ourselves, to resist constant temptation then we finallz succeed. I have to confess I have recently given into certain temptations and occasionally let myself fall into discouragement. Then another ‘Warrior of light’, a Friend came along, and helped me throw off that despondency and short term transitory thinking.
Thank you Lord for reminding me of my journey, your role for me.
** Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (a.k.a ‘Lord’ Salisbury)
How to Write about Africa | Granta 92: The View from Africa | Archive | Granta Magazine
I wonder how many will pick-up the 2 different threads here….. read article and then feel free to comment!
(Space left here on purpose, to see if you have read the article first!)
1) How to sell lots of books
2) How to continue the stereotype - enforce the power-over structures.
ISRAEL: Ninth imprisonment of Natan Blanc | War Resisters' International
This young Israeli conscientious objector Natan Blanc was imprisoned today for the ninth time.
Natan is a 19-years-old, from Haifa, who declared his refusal to serve in the Israeli Army for the ninth time on 18th April, and was sentenced to 20 days’ imprisonment for his refusal. He has spent a total of 150 days in prison.
It is compulsory for an 18 year old Jew (men and women) in Israel to serve, there are still a couple of exceptions, many of the Ultra-Orthodox Religious Jews seem to manage to postpone until they are too old, or are exempted.
It is not just the prison, if you can’t show you served, it is not uncommon for you to have problems later getting a flat/house, a (cheaper) mortgage or financial help.
Over at the Paris Review Online, one of my favorite writers — John Jeremiah Sullivan — has a short essay about the tension between religious belief and religious music. It is also an essay about a new collection of old country music —Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard — collected by Kentuckian Don Wahle, who kept the records in boxes until the day he died. Says Sullivan about the track “Beyond the Starry Plane”:
From the abyss of the static come “dear Mother” and “no matter what I do” and “we shall meet again” and “Jesus is my God.” I listen to this song and imagine Don Wahle listening to it, leaning forward to hear it better. An infinitesimal point of communion, a shared pause before the obliteration.
Sullivan also wrote the liner notes for the collection, which Milo Miles reviewed for Fresh Air a few weeks back.
-Nell
Image by Tennessee Home and Farm via Flickr Commons
Love this b/w picture.
If all grammar and English books were this cool, would everyone on Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/etc. actually type in a way that doesn’t make my eyes bleed? Goodness, I hope so.
No need to comment!
(Source: iwillsparethedetails)
Prayer for the State of Israel
Sovereign of the Universe, accept in loving kindness and with favor our prayers for the State of Israel, her government and all who dwell within her boundaries and under her authority.
On the 65 anniversary of her founding, reopen our eyes and our hearts to the wonder of Israel and strengthen our faith in Your power to work redemption in every human soul. Grant us also the fortitude to keep ever before us those ideals to which Israel dedicated herself in her Declaration of Independence, so that we may be true partners with the people of Israel in working toward her as yet not fully fulfilled vision.
Grant those entrusted with guiding Israel’s destiny the courage, wisdom and strength to do Your Will. Guide them in the paths of peace and give them the insight to see Your Image in every human being. Be with those charged with Israel’s safety and defend them from all harm. May they have the strength to protect their country and the spiritual fortitude never to abuse the power placed in their hands.
Spread Your blessings over the Land. May justice and human rights abound for all her inhabitants. Guide them “To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8.), and “May justice well up like water, righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24). Implant tolerance and mutual respect in every heart, and may all realize that, “We were not brought into this world for conflict and dissension, nor for hatred, jealousy, harassment or bloodshed. Rather, we were brought into this world in order to recognize You, may You be blessed forever” (R. Naḥman of Bratzlav). Spread over Israel and all the world Your shelter of peace, and may the vision of Your prophet soon be fulfilled: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4)
So may it be Your Will that speedily and in our day all inhabitants of the earth will say of the State of Israel, “It is very good.” (Genesis 1:31) for she will have become a blessing to the entire world and a “Light unto the nations.” (Isaiah 42:6).
Photo: Image by Amir Farshad Ebrahimi (License: CC BY-SA 2.0)
Amen!
Rare UK memorial inspires contemporary Quaker work - Friends Ambulance Service
Am glad the following was done! Some of the comments are worth reading, I learnt something today.
Ghana: People With Mental Disabilities Face Serious Abuse
People with mental disabilities suffer severe abuses in psychiatric institutions and spiritual healing centers in Ghana. The Ghanaian government has done little to combat such abuse or to ensure that these people can live in the community, as is their right under international law.
Photo: At Heavenly Ministries Spiritual Revival and Healing Center, some people with presumed mental disabilities lived in buildings with cubicles for each resident and were chained to walls. They could not leave the cubicles without permission of the staff at the prayer camp.
© 2011 Shantha Rau Barriga/Human Rights Watch
This is rather disturbing, and in the name of spiritual healing something’s looks to have gone seriously wrong!
Who and why!
Just a blog about a bloke living a life that our creator decided was meant for him, regardless of his own initial personal thoughts on whether he ACTUALLY wanted this adventurous life in the first place!!!
However over time I realised if we are to live authentically as God wants us to, then we need to let go of our fears, have faith and live adventurously in the spirit.
My mum tells me she felt I was meant to be a Christopher Daniel (Christ bearer - God is my Judge) ... it "only" took us both until my 39 year on this planet to realise what she meant. Good job our loving creator is patient eh!
Now that I know this is what I am called to do, it does make life just a little easier. At least I don't need to worry about career choices in the near future!
This is a story about being a tiny incy-wincy cog in our creators great plan. So fasten your seat belts in the back there, and let us begin our journey together, some of those rarely travelled back roads are very bumpy and violent!
A couple of favourites
-
What Is Empire? Part 1
After launching “Shake...
-
Josh Garrels
-
Members of a Muslim sect that translated parts...
-
How to Be Alone
-
“Kinder und Narren sagen die Wahrheit.”
I am following
Copyright © Theme created by 
