Chinese pro-wildlife campaign

This video says about itself:

Yao Ming — What I Found

Published on Apr 15, 2013

Former NBA star and Chinese icon, Yao Ming, launched a major public awareness campaign targeting consumption of ivory and rhino horn in China in partnership with African Wildlife Foundation, WildAid, and Save the Elephants.

From the African Wildlife Foundation:

Africa: Yao Ming Says No to Ivory and Rhino Horn

16 April 2013

Washington, DC — Surveys find Chinese public highly supportive of wildlife protection but unaware of African poaching crises

April 16th, Beijing: Today, former NBA star and Chinese icon, Yao Ming, launched a major public awareness campaign targeting consumption of ivory and rhino horn in China in partnership with WildAid, Save the Elephants, African Wildlife Foundation, and the Yao Ming Foundation.

In August 2012, Yao spent 12 days on a fact-finding mission in Kenya and South Africa filming a documentary to be aired in partnership with NHNZ later this year. Yao met wild elephants before encountering the bodies of five poached elephants in Kenya and a poached rhino in South Africa.

He also visited local school children, whose education is funded through wildlife tourism revenue, and conservationists and government officials working to protect elephants and rhinos. Footage and stills from his trip were released together with a series of public service announcements informing consumers, “When the buying stops, the killing can too.” …

Poaching for ivory kills more than 25,000 elephants annually and has reached levels only seen before the 1989 international trade ban. In 2012, 668 rhinos were killed in South Africa alone. These are precipitous increases from just a few years ago and, if not stemmed, could lead to the extinction of African rhinos and elephants in our lifetime.

A survey conducted in November of 2012 in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou by the Chinese research company, HorizonKey, found that:

More than half of the nearly 1,000 participants (over 50%) do not think elephant poaching is common; 34%, or one in three respondents, believe ivory is obtained from natural elephant mortality; Only 33% of all participants believe elephants are poached for their tusks; and 94% of residents agree the “Chinese government should impose a ban on the ivory trade.”

Although the international trade in ivory is banned, a one-off sale in 2008 perpetuated a legal market for ivory in China and Japan. Reports show widespread abuse of the system to launder illegal ivory in China, and seizure and intelligence reports indicate China is the world’s largest market for ivory.

Meanwhile, a similar survey conducted by HorzionKey in the same three major Chinese cities on rhino horn perceptions found that:

66% of all participants, that is two out of every three respondents, are not aware that rhino horn comes from poached rhinos; Nearly 50% believed rhino horn can be legally purchased from official stores; and 95% of residents agree the “Chinese government should take stricter action to prevent use of rhino horns.”

Traditional Chinese Medicine officially removed rhino horn from the pharmacopeia in China in 1993. These surveys, however, discovered that consumers are now buying rhino horn due to belief in its aphrodisiac properties and fever reducing capabilities. Rhino horn is also being used as a perceived investment and as an ornament or carving.

…

The attitudinal ivory and rhino horn surveys highlight the importance of Yao’s involvement in this campaign and the urgent need for him to continue to positively influence his fellow countrymen.

Kenyan researcher David Daballen, of Save the Elephants, stated, “Because of the demand for ivory, poaching has erupted all over Africa leading to the slaughter of tens of thousands of elephants each year.

These elephants are not only a part of our world, they are a part of our heritage and our family. We need the Chinese peoples’ help to save our elephants by saying no to ivory.”

Added Dr. Philip Muruthi, Senior Director of conservation science for African Wildlife Foundation, “Rhinos are not threatened by loss of habitat, they are threatened by poaching for their horns for Asian markets. African Wildlife Foundation has been rapidly investing in key target landscapes across Africa to ensure that critical rhino populations are protected, through measures such as aerial surveillance, rapid-response teams, and more and better-equipped boots on the ground.”

WildAid’s Executive Director, Peter Knights, stated, “Elephants and rhinos are conservation flagships, national icons, goodwill ambassadors, and generate hundreds of millions of tourist dollars for African economies funding education and development; they are the pandas of Africa. We have seen illegal markets collapse in the face of strong clear laws, enforcement efforts, and consumer awareness campaigns in the past. By strongly implementing these proven measures, China could become a world leader in wildlife conservation and help save elephants and rhinos.”

Yao’s previous WildAid campaign with shark fin, backed extensively by Chinese media, is credited with a reduction of 50 – 70% in consumption of shark fin in China in 2012 according to shark fin traders, media, and Hong Kong import statistics. Yao’s campaign contributed to a Chinese government decision to remove shark fin soup from all state banquets over the next three years.

Yao stated, “Poaching threatens livelihoods, education, and development in parts of Africa due to the insecurity it brings and loss of tourism revenue. No one who sees the results firsthand, as I did, would buy ivory or rhino horn. I believe when people in China know what’s happening they will do the right thing and say no to these products.”

Related articles

• After Failure of Legal Ivory, Trade in Rhino Horn Would Be a Disaster (bushwarriors.org)
• No end to ivory poaching in sight as CITES ends (itv.com)
• Wildlife Managers Are Poisoning Rhino Horns to Stop People From Eating Them (blogs.smithsonianmag.com)
• Forget The Drug War – Time To Throw Those Forces Into The Poaching War (timzimmermann.com)
• The perfect poacher’s storm threatening endangered species (itv.com)
• Cites: bid to curb sale of ivory and rhino horn voted down (guardian.co.uk)
• On the way out (economist.com)
• 5 big breakthroughs at CITES 2013 (mnn.com)

Boston marathon bomb tragedy, and media rush to judgment

This video from the USA is called Kathrine Switzer, Pioneering Boston Marathon Runner, on Fight to Stay in 1967 Male-Dominated Race.

First of all, today I wish recovery and strength for the survivors, families and friends of the Boston marathon bomb horror in the USA.

Then, I remember the Oklahoma bomb horror in the USA. Still many more people killed and wounded. The big media shouted: “Muslims! Muslims!” But the perpetrator of the atrocity turned out to be extreme Right Christian Timothy McVeigh; aided and abetted by other far Rightists.

I also remember the mass murders in Norway. The big media shouted: “Muslims! Muslims!” But the perpetrator of the atrocity turned out to be extreme Right Islamophobe Anders Behring Breivik, a killer with many links to neo-nazis and other far Rightists.

By Barry Grey in the USA:

Media rush to judgment in Boston Marathon bombing

16 April 2013

The explosion of two bombs Monday afternoon at the Boston Marathon has been accompanied by a rush to judgment by the media, in which claims of a broad new terror attack are being made without any factual substantiation.

The bombs exploded near the finish line of the marathon in the heart of the city’s downtown area. According to media reports, at least three people were killed and 144 wounded, including 15 with critical injuries. Witnesses on the scene and at hospitals have reported that the injuries include amputated lower limbs.

The explosions took place within about 20 seconds of one another and 50-100 yards apart, while thousands of marathoners were still running and many thousands of spectators were lined up along the route. The blasts shattered storefront windows, sending shards of glass and other debris into the crowd.

No individual or organization has as yet claimed responsibility for this brutal and criminal act.

Copley Square was evacuated and will reportedly remain closed off for 24 hours. Parts of the city’s public transit system were shut down and aircraft grounded for several hours at Logan International Airport, but service resumed in the early evening.

The federal government increased security around the White House, and New York City announced it had elevated its security operations.

In a press conference several hours after the blasts, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said there was a third explosion several miles away at the John F. Kennedy Library, which authorities were treating as related to the bombings at the marathon. However, officials subsequently said the incident at the JFK Library was “fire-related” and not connected to the marathon bombings.

There were also multiple press reports of a third bomb deliberately detonated by authorities following the initial blasts, and the Associated Press cited an unnamed intelligence official as saying at least one other device was found in the area of the race.

In the absence of clear facts or forensic evidence, many of the statements made by the media amounted to pure speculation, aimed at promoting an unstated political agenda and encouraging a mood of panic. Many assertions contradicted one another. For example, some commentators claimed the explosive devices were small and primitive, while others said they were sophisticated and indicated the work of a terrorist organization.

Some media outlets in particular seemed bent on steering the public toward the view that the Boston events were a terror attack along the lines of 9/11. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer directed the network’s reportage along these lines, encouraging his “expert” commentators to make wide-ranging claims within minutes of the explosions and while the mayhem on the streets of Boston was still unfolding. Jane Harmon, the former Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, appearing as a CNN commentator, claimed the bombings pointed in the direction of Al Qaeda.

The Murdoch press’ New York Post ran a banner headline, “Clearly an Act of Terror,” and featured a second article headlined “Authorities ID suspect as Saudi national in marathon bombings, under guard at Boston hospital.”

NBC Evening News featured as its terrorism expert Michael Leitner, former director of the US National Counterterrorism Center under both the Bush and Obama administrations. Without any factual substantiation, Leitner declared that the bombings were the act of a “terrorist organization.”

However, President Obama, in a brief statement from the White House delivered at about 6 PM, pointedly refrained from labeling the incident as an act of terror. He said the “full resources of the federal government” and the “full weight of justice” would be deployed against those responsible, while admitting that the government did not know “who did this or why.”

There appeared to be an element of confusion or conflict within the state over the response to the bombings. The media widely reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had declared the bombings to be a terrorist act. And only minutes after Obama’s White House statement, a “senior administration official” told Fox News, “When multiple devices go off, that’s an act of terrorism.”

It is necessary to treat all of the initial reports by the media with extreme skepticism. Whether the Boston bombing was a terror attack by Al Qaeda or by a home-grown right-wing organization, or an act carried out with state involvement, remains unknown.

In maintaining a critical attitude and avoiding falling prey to media manipulation, it is useful to recall the role of the media in previous cases of alleged terrorist attacks. In the anthrax incidents that occurred shortly after 9/11, for example, the media made sweeping claims of Al Qaeda and Islamist involvement, none of which proved to be true.

The leading fighting group in the US-backed war against the Syrian government has announced its loyalty to Al Qaeda: here.

Havana, Apr 16 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban Government condemned today the terrorist attacks perpetrated yesterday near the finish line of a marathon in the city of Boston, in the United States, which killed three people and wounded another 176, including 17 reported in critical condition: here.

President Barack Obama used a briefing Tuesday to declare the bombings the day before at the Boston Marathon “an act of terror,” though the FBI and police still had neither suspects nor a motive for the attacks: here.

While the nation, including the people of Boston, have remained calm, deeply saddened and shocked by the bombings as they are, the media and their leading personnel present a picture of disorientation and panic: here.

Related articles

• Boston Marathon Explosions the Work of Amateur Terrorists, Says Expert (theepochtimes.com)
• You: TTP deny Boston Marathon blasts (nation.com.pk)

Bahrain dictatorship and F1 fat cat Ecclestone

From the (Conservative) Daily Telegraph in England of 15 April 2013:

Bahrain protesters are just like those ‘complaining about Mrs Thatcher’, says F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone

Formula One auto racing chief Bernie Ecclestone is very much an admirer of the late Baroness Thatcher. So, equating the opponents of the bloody royal dictatorship in Bahrain with opponents of Mrs Thatcher means Ecclestone is taking sides for oppression in the Gulf monarchy.

Attending his first race of the season in China, Ecclestone urged reporters to “tell the truth” about Bahrain as he continued to insist he had no concerns about hosting the event in the strife-torn country this weekend.

The Daily Telegraph does not mention that Bernie Ecclestone is not only an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, but an admirer of Adolf Hitler as well. Which helps to put his ideas about Bahrain into perspective.

Ecclestone is not the only big cheese in the Formula One world with errr … strange ideas.

Former F1 President Max Mosley was an election candidate for his father Sir Oswald Mosley’s fascist party. He was nearly kicked out as sports boss because of a prostitution scandal with nazi undertones.

And, also from the Daily Telegraph of 15 April 2013:

British racing legend Sir Stirling Moss has provoked outrage by suggesting women are not mentally tough enough to compete in Formula One.

The Daily Telegraph Ecclestone article continues:

Villagers in poorer Shi’ite areas away from the Sakhir circuit are also alleging that King Hamad’s regime is using the money from F1 to enforce further repression. …

His [Ecclestone's] view appeared at odds with an account from Bahrain on Monday reporting tense skirmishes in the village of Al-Ahli. Amani Ali, a 22-year-old female student, was quoted as saying of the grand prix: “Of course we are against it. The race brings money to the regime, which they use to buy weapons and attack us.”

Although Sunday’s race is almost certain to go ahead, two years after it was cancelled at the height of Bahrain’s violently-suppressed revolution, political momentum in Britain is also gathering against the event.

On Tuesday Andy Slaughter MP and Lord Avebury will host a briefing at the House of Lords on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Bahrain.

The group said that Bahrain had descended “deeper into a political crisis” and “any remaining principles or values of human rights are being trampled upon by Formula One as they prepare to take the sport, yet again, to a country which at present is a controversial and unsuitable location for any competition”.

The group highlighted allegations that in 2011 Bahrainis employed for this leg of the championship experienced torture at the circuit.

They said on Monday: “F1 insisted on holding last year’s grand prix and Bahrainis were killed, tortured and detained when they protested.” And they asked: “Is a country that at present is suppressing the rights of its people, and using sheer brute force to intimidate them, a place for sport of any kind?”

…

Damon Hill, the former world champion, has expressed grave worry about F1 being “hijacked” by Bahraini authorities and implicitly endorsing ruthless police tactics by travelling there. Extra barbed wire and security fencing have been introduced this year around the Sakhir track.

From The Atlantic in the USA:

Bahrain Is Becoming Even More Repressive Because of the F1 Race

Reports that police are arresting and intimidating those living closest to the race tracks add to the kingdom’s already worrying situation.

Bahrain: New move to crush dissent ahead of Grand Prix: here.

Bahrain on fire but race goes ahead – No grand prix on our blood, protestors tell Ecclestone: here.

Jean Todt, the head of motor sport‘s world governing body who has condemned hundreds of Formula One personnel to a potentially hazardous and harrowing week in Bahrain, will not be attending this Sunday’s race himself: here.

A group of British MPs have called for the Bahrain Grand Prix to be cancelled amid unrest in the Gulf state: here.

Bahrain: Police ‘fire tear gas’ at boys’ school: here. And here.

Bahrain Grand Prix: calls to cancel F1 race amid threats to jail anyone who ‘insults the king’: here.

The Bahraini government on Monday approved proposals to impose jail terms of up to 5 years for insulting the country’s king and national symbols. It comes amid protests against the coming F1 race in Manama, as Anonymous warns a new OpBahrain is on: here.

Related articles

• Ecclestone, Cameron support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship arrests activists before Grand Prix (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Eric Avebury writes… Bernie Ecclestone, F1 and Britain’s shameful friendship with Bahrain (libdemvoice.org)
• Canadian Conservatives support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Ecclestone, Translated (profanef1.com)
• Arrests in Bahrain ahead of Formula 1 GP: Rights group confirms, govt denies (rt.com)

Indian worker abused in Bahrain

From The Hindu in India:

April 13, 2013

Tales of horror from Bahrain

S. Sandeep Kumar

22-year-old Durga Bhavani, who went to Bahrain to work as a domestic help, says she was abused, thrashed and made to work for 20 hours a day

Last April, when 22-year-old N. Naga Durga Bhavani left for Bahrain to work as a domestic help, she was dreaming to repay loans taken for her elder daughter’s heart surgery.

But destiny had other things in store for her. In Bahrain, she was abused, thrashed and was made to work for over 20 hours a day.

“My passport was taken and it was hell there,” says Bhavani, who came back to Hyderabad on Friday morning with bitter memories and empty hands.

A resident of Vanapalli village in East Godavari district, Bhavani had never heard of a country called Bahrain.

It was Ram Babu, a native of her village and Sudershan from neighbouring Allavaram village, who approached her with the offer.

“I did not even have a passport till that time. My four-year-old elder daughter Munni, who had a heart problem, had undergone a surgery. My younger daughter Kharimunnisa was just five months when I left home,” she recalls. She claims to have paid Rs.15,000 to Sudershan for getting a passport and for processing the application.

On April 6, 2012, she was brought to the city along with 10 other Telugu speaking women.

Documents snatched

“We were assured that our salary would be Rs. 8,000 per month besides food and other benefits. Soon after landing in Bahrain, one Lilly Kumari and Ram Babu, who was already staying there, snatched our passports,” she explains.

They collected all other documents, including boarding pass, ticket booking slips, etc. Ram Babu and Kumari employed me in a house that had 12 rooms, eight bathrooms, two kitchens and over 30 members, she recalls.

“I had to clean the house, wash clothes, help the cook, and take care of children. I used to sleep late in the night and wake up at 5 a.m. I was offered only lunch,” recollects Bhavani.

Vexed with the work, she complained to Kumari and Ram Babu but all she got was broken fingers when Kumari thrashed her. “She said I could not fly back as the employer had already paid the contract amount. Left with no choice, I went to work in another home,” she said.

Things were similar in that house too.

“The house owner used to beat me and shout at me. After working for four months, I made up my mind and escaped from the house. Thankfully, a Telugu person took me to Indian embassy,” she says.

But her struggles continued. In the embassy, they needed her passport or a true copy but she had nothing to produce. It was Migrants Forum in Asia, Bahrain chapter and National Domestic Workers Movement here, which helped her.

“I went to Sudershan to collect a true copy of Bhavani’s passport, but he gave it after two months,” says Lissy Joseph, national coordinator of National Domestic Workers Movement.

From Reuters:

Thousands of Bahrainis mount protest before Formula One

April 13, 2013

Thousands of Bahrainis staged a peaceful march on Friday in the first of a series of protests the Shia-led opposition is planning to hold before next week’s Formula One Grand Prix race. Police stayed away from Friday’s demonstration as protesters denounced king Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa and Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, his uncle.

“You have no legitimacy,” they chanted. The Gulf Arab state, where the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based, has been hit by unrest since pro-democracy protests broke out in early 2011, putting it in the frontline of the region-wide power struggle between Iran and Arab states such as Saudi Arabia.

Waving the red-and-white Bahraini flag, the demonstrators marched from one main roundabout to another in the village of al-Aali, some 15 km (nine miles) outside the capital Manama. “The Formula One is used by the regime to advertise that there is nothing wrong in Bahrain,” said Abdelwahid al-Nadhkhadha, a 53-year-old company employee. “We are showing the world that we are people with demands.” Watched by millions around the world, the Grand Prix is the biggest sporting event hosted by the US-allied country whose government is hoping for a big turnout despite continuing violent unrest.

Companies who help to bankroll Formula One motor racing are limiting their involvement in the Bahrain Grand Prix this month, saving some of their marketing dollars for less politically sensitive races: here.

Related articles

• Bahrain dictatorship’s tear gas Grand Prix (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Ecclestone, Cameron support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship persecutes doctors (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship and Manchester United football (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Canadian Conservatives support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain regime tortures again (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain, torture and football (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• No bloody Bahrain F1, says Damon Hill (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
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Bahrain dictatorship and Manchester United football

From the Daily Telegraph in England:

Manchester United risk political row over Denis Law‘s Bahrain visit

Denis Law, the legendary former Manchester United striker, risks being engulfed in a political row when he visits Bahrain on Saturday after allegations that a doctor in the strife-torn Gulf kingdom had been tortured for raising the issue of human rights abuses with the club.

By Oliver Brown

11:09PM BST 11 Apr 2013

As Law prepares to attend Manchester United’s latest Soccer School in Manama, the Bahraini capital, the New York-based organisation Human Rights First claimed yesterday that Dr Fatima Haji had been beaten and electrocuted by security forces after she asked the Premier League leaders if they would hold a minute’s silence for a teenage boy killed in the 2011 uprising.

Law’s daughter Diana, the former United head of press, told Telegraph Sport last night that she was “worried” by the claims and would be seeking further reassurance about her father’s visit, which comes amid heightened tensions in the country ahead of next Sunday’s Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix. Last year’s race was marred by scores of anti-government demonstrations.

Brian Dooley, director of Human Rights First, alleged that Dr Haji was subject to brutal interrogation by the Bahraini authorities in April 2011 after she appealed to the club to honour the memory of Ahmad Shams, the 15-year-old shot dead by police still wearing his United shirt.

According to Dooley, Dr Haji, a rheumatologist at Bahrain’s Salmaniya medical complex, said: “I was blindfolded and handcuffed with my hands behind my back, and beaten. A man asked me: ‘What is your relationship with Alex Ferguson?’ I was shocked and figured out they had gone through my emails. A female officer hit me on the head on both sides at the same time – she was wearing what I later found out was a special electrical band on her hands, and she electrocuted me a couple of times. I felt a shockwave through my head. It was very painful and the whole world was spinning.”

Dr Haji is said to have deleted her original email to United, realising that it could have proved incriminating amid Bahrain’s drastic security crackdown, only for police to arrest her on April 17, 2011, and discover United’s reply when they accessed the messages on her computer.

“As they had responded to my email the police thought I somehow knew someone at Manchester United,” she said, in Dooley’s account.

Dooley, speaking from Washington last night, said: “I think Manchester United should be aware of what happened, both of the boy who died wearing the shirt and the Fatima connection. It would be helpful if Denis Law could meet her.

The club should know what went on, that she was tortured at least partly because of her perceived association with United. The Bahrain authorities are very sensitive to their international reputation, and the idea that a major international player like United might think ill of them clearly mattered to them deeply.”

Along with 18 other doctors, she spent weeks in custody for treating injured protesters, and was sentenced to five years in prison before being acquitted on appeal last April. Three of her co-accused remain incarcerated, with Bahrain’s human rights record again due to be thrust into the spotlight by next weekend’s grand prix.

In this context, the timing of Law’s visit on United’s behalf could hardly be more politically sensitive. United did not respond to several requests for comment yesterday.

See also here.

Update: here.

Anger as Denis Law’s trip to Bahrain for Manchester United goes ahead. Denis Law has flown to Bahrain to visit a Manchester United soccer school after seeking Foreign Office advice over the controversial trip to the Gulf state in the wake of a female doctor being tortured for raising the issue of human rights abuses with the club: here.

Tension has increased ahead of next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix as anti-government demonstrators chanted ‘Your race is a crime’ while clashing with police who fired tear-gas and sound bombs: here.

Related articles

• Bahrain, torture and football (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Ecclestone, Cameron support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship persecutes doctors (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship’s United States politicians’ support (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship police attacks women with grenades (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship’s tear gas Grand Prix (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship arrests activists before Grand Prix (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship’s British computer spyware (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
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Bahrain dictatorship’s tear gas Grand Prix

This video says about itself:

Oct 1, 2011

Abdulrazzaq Al-Saiedi, a senior researcher with Physicians for Human Rights in Boston, speaks to Al Jazeera about the conviction of Bahraini medical professionals for “anti-government crimes”.

From AFP news agency:

Friday April 12, 2013

Bahrain police tear-gas Formula One protesters

DUBAI: Bahraini police fired tear-gas and sound bombs to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside the capital to protest against this month’s Formula One Grand Prix, witnesses said on Friday.

Thursday night’s demonstration in the village of Khamis, close to Manama, came as a report by Human Rights Watch that police have been rounding up pro-democracy activists in a bid to head off protests, stoked renewed controversy over the Gulf state’s hosting of the April 19-21 event.

“Your race is a crime,” the protesters chanted in reference to motor racing bosses who have insisted on keeping the Bahrain Grand Prix on the Formula One calendar, witnesses said.

“Down with Hamad,” they shouted in reference to the king, who heads a Sunni minority regime in the Shiite majority island state.

“The people want the fall of the regime,” the demonstrators chanted, rallying cry of the Arab Spring revolts that rocked the region in 2011.

…

Bahrain was rocked by month-long pro-democracy protests led by the kingdom’s Shiite majority in early 2011 that were crushed with the help of Saudi-led troops.

Protests have continued in Shiite villages outside the capital. Human rights groups say a total of 80 people have been killed since February 2011.

Last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix went ahead against an ugly backdrop as police responded to protesters … by using tear gas, sound bombs and birdshot.

Former world champion Damon Hill has called on FIA president Jean Todt to take an ethical stance on the controversial event.

“I think Jean’s approach is say nothing because otherwise you are being political,” said Hill, who won the world title in 1996.

“I think that is a mistake because actually he is being political because he’s being used, or the sport is perceived as being used, by its engagement in the economy and the reputation of the country.”

A two-day conference at the University of Bahrain in the capital Manama last week was intended to show the United States and the region that the Bahraini government is making progress toward democratic governance and addressing the grievances of the country’s majority Shiite population. But the discussions were less than convincing because there was no empirical data or other direct evidence to support the participants’ claims: here.

Related articles

• Bahrain dictatorship police attacks women with grenades (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship arrests activists before Grand Prix (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• No bloody Bahrain F1, says Damon Hill (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship persecutes doctors (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Calls for an ethical approach amid claims of human rights abuses in the lead up to the Bahrain Grand Prix (dailyrecord.co.uk)
• Damon Hill: Bahrain should not hold grand prix as it could be used as a political tool (telegraph.co.uk)
• Bahrain in human rights spotlight as it denies rounding up potential trouble-makers ahead of F1 Grand Prix (independent.co.uk)
• Bahrain dictatorship and Scotland (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)

Lady Thatcher’s expensive militarist funeral

From daily News Line in Britain:

Thursday, 11 April 2013

Thatcher funeral–a state of siege!

THATCHER’S state funeral on April 17, is to be a Tory state provocation of the working class.

Her coffin is to be carried through the streets of London by 700 troops from units associated with the Malvinas (Falklands) war.

The great leader is so popular that the skies above her coffin will be defended by planes, helicopters and missiles.

All the drains, and other bomb friendly structures along the route, will be searched, sealed and guarded.

Barriers will be in place to prevent trucks or other vehicles being driven into the funeral procession.

Lists are being drawn up of people who have a record of active hostility to Thatcher.

Since large numbers of people are in this category, time is being spent on compiling a list of the ‘most dangerous’.

These are to be got out of the way for a number of days by house arrests, or illegal jailings, in fact kidnappings.

Troops from the SAS and Special Boat Service will be in the vanguard of the security operation, that signifies that the gloves are coming off in the struggle to smash the NHS and the Welfare State.

Special targets of the operation are Irish Republican and left-wing groups.

Detectives are monitoring social media, internet forums and Blackberry messaging networks in the expectation that attempts will be made to halt the funeral.

Yesterday afternoon, PM Cameron put himself forward as the heir of Thatcher and her chief mourner.

…

• Yesterday afternoon it was announced that the proposed one-minute silence at the Reading vs Liverpool football match this weekend to remember Margaret Thatcher was cancelled.

The cancellation came after the Hillsborough Families representative Margaret Aspinall said: ‘To have a minute’s silence for her at any football ground would be an insult to all fans‘.

Minute’s silence for Margaret Thatcher: Hillsborough group says tribute would be ‘insult to fans’; former sports minister warns silence would backfire: here.

This video says about itself:

Brendan Rodgers: Silence for Hillsborough, NOT Thatcher [11.04.2013]

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says the silence ahead of their game at Reading on Saturday is for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster and not for the former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher.

Reading chairman Sir John Madejski has called for football to mark the death of Baroness Thatcher with a one-minute silence but the Premier League and Football League will not be asking clubs to organise tributes.

Rodgers says remembering the people who died at Hillsborough is “the only remembrance there should be” and it will give Reading an opportunity “to show their support for the families and the 96 supporters who are no longer here”.

From the site of the Socialist Labour Party, the party of Arthur Scargill, National Union of Mineworkers president during the 1984-1985 miners’ strike, bloodily suppressed by the Thatcher administration:

April 2013 – A contrast of London’s historic funerals between those evoking love and admiration and those provoking mass hatred and disquiet.

The City of London is no stranger to large scale funerals for persons who have impacted greatly upon the Country’s historic events.

Back in the latter part of 1648, thousands of people marched on foot whilst others rode on horseback as they followed the funeral cortege of the great leveller leader Thomas Rainsborough. He had been assassinated a week before (30th October) at Doncaster, many levellers believing that Cromwell was implicated. They followed the procession going via Islington, St Pauls, Cheapside and through the East End to Wapping where he was interred. He had been the leader of the physical force New Model Army levellers, the Parliamentary naval Vice Admiral and had been a great Civil War commander. The followers wore ribbons of sea green (his own regimental colours) and black. From that time, sea green has been associated as the colour of incorruptibility. Indeed, French Revolutionary leader Robespierre was called the ‘sea green incorruptible’. There was nothing but affection for the deceased shown at this historic event.

Moving on in history, another great funeral took place in January 1806. The naval hero Admiral Lord Nelson had been killed at the battle of Trafalgar on October 21st 1805. Fatal casualties would normally have been buried at sea but in this case, his comrades decided to preserve his body in a barrel of brandy. His ship, the Victory arrived at Portsmouth on December 4th. The preparations for a state funeral were by then underway and the proceedings reached their peak over the days of 5th to the 9th of January 1806. The body was taken up the Thames on one of Charles the Second’s state barges and was eventually interred in St Paul’s Cathedral. Thousands of admirers flocked to the events. A monument to the hero, Nelson’s Column was constructed between 1840 and 1843 and is, of course, sited in Trafalgar Square.

We can compare these two outpourings of natural grief with the imminent event in London next week. Here, the forces and police are being deployed in huge numbers in the Capital and along the route in order to prevent hostilities aimed at the cortege. Already, the secret services are drawing up lists of those to be arrested and prevented from getting anywhere near this exclusive ‘Establishment’ function. Because there are so many hostile parties from throughout the World to the historical memory of the deceased, this is going to prove a very complicated operation. The cost of all the surveillance, logistics and event is going to be huge. The great insult to the British working class is that they are being asked to fund most of this (at a time of supposed austerity). Rarely in World history can we say that military might has been used to prevent a County’s inhabitants from venting their fury at a leader who left office such a long time ago! The irony is that some of this fury will be on public display in Trafalgar Square!

By Roger Bagley in London, England:

Here’s the real state funeral

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Easington Labour MP Grahame Morris told today why he would join an emotional ceremony next Wednesday to mark the destruction of 1,400 local miners’ jobs under vicious Thatcherite policies.

Mr Morris was among a large group of around 100 Labour members who disobeyed party whips and refused to attend today’s gruesome hours-long Commons session to pay tribute to Margaret Thatcher.

While the Establishment will bring London to a halt next Wednesday with an obscene Thatcher funeral spectacular, Mr Morris will be preparing for a special event to mark the 20th anniversary of the closure of his local Easington pit.

The event in Easington Colliery Working Men’s Club is expected to be a moving occasion, with sad memories of the pit jobs massacre mixed with emotional highs as Thatcher’s victims enthusiastically toast her demise.

Closure of the pit with the loss of 1,400 jobs under the post-Thatcher Tory government in 1993 devastated the local community.

Mr Morris said that the effects of coalfield and industrial closures in East Durham were “absolutely dire.”

He declared that it would have been “hypocritical” for him to attend the Commons today in view of the disastrous consequences of Thatcher’s policies for people in his area, including his own family.

Durham Miners chairman Alan Cummings, who will be hosting next Wednesday’s event, told the Star today: “I hated the woman. I think she was evil.”

The special recall parliamentary session today turned into a ghoulish ruling-class theatre of the absurd, in which the venomous and destructive Thatcher was portrayed as a great national figure.

Yawning gaps on the Labour benches took the shine off the event as Prime Minister David Cameron declared that “she made this country great again.”

Labour leader Ed Miliband jumped up on cue to describe Thatcher as “a great and towering figure” even though he “disagreed with much of what she did.”

One of the few dissenting voices was Labour MP David Winnick, who recalled that Thatcher’s “highly damaging” policies “caused immense pain and suffering to ordinary people.”

Former Labour minister John Healey was among MPs who refused to attend today’s parliamentary session.

He accused the Prime Minister of hijacking Thatcher’s death for political gain.

Mr Cameron was using the parliamentary session as “a platform for his party’s ideology, not just eulogy,” complained Mr Healey.

Miners’ MP Ian Lavery also stayed away, declaring: “I feel very personally about what Thatcher did to my family, my friends and my colleagues, not to mention the people I represent in Parliament.”

Another deliberate absentee was left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn, who declared that the coverage of Thatcher’s death by most of the media was “beyond absurd.”

Parliamentary authorities announced that MPs returning from overseas visits for the Commons tribute to Thatcher would be able to claim up to £3,750 in travel expenses.

Next Wednesday’s costly ceremonial funeral for Thatcher in St Paul’s will be backed by a huge mobilisation of police and armed forces.

The processional route to the cathedral will be lined by personnel from army, navy and air force, with various military bands performing.

The coffin will be draped in a Union Jack and borne on a gun carriage drawn by six horses, while guns will be fired at one-minute intervals from beside the Tower of London.

From the Durham Miners’ Association in England:

After a full year, the miners were defeated but Thatcher did not have long to savour her victory as Prime Minister. Her pigheaded imposition of the poll tax moved a people weary of the politics of greed to revolt. She became an embarrassment to her party and they brutally cast her aside.

When we say we celebrate her death, we are reflecting the deep and lasting bitterness of our mining communities – and felt across the entire working class – at the ravages of her brutal policies which destroyed the lives and prospects of so many people.

Even today, we see the legacy of her policies in the continued vandalism of the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition, this time aimed at dismantling the Welfare State.

Thatcher infamously said, “There is no such thing as society”. She was the person who did her best to wreck it. We are the people who will rebuild it.

From the National Union of Mineworkers in Britain:

DEATH OF THATCHER

Margaret Hilda Thatcher (13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013)

The former UK Prime Minister who held office from 4 May 1979 until 28 November 1990 died 8 April 2013. To her family our condolences.

The legacy of what the Conservative Government did to British Industry under Thatcher is not one to be proud of if you really did want the best for the people.

Of course Thatcher was the symbol of “free enterprise” and set out to serve those whose interests were profit for the few.

The coal mining industry is not on its own in suffering the decimation of a world class industry in the name of the “free market”.

Thatcher lived long enough to see her beliefs demolished when the “free market” collapsed and came running to the State for support.

Unlike the Banks who gambled, cheated and were bailed out – Coal mines were closed and communities were left to suffer.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher is gone but the damage caused by her fatally flawed politics sadly lingers on.

Good Riddance.

Related articles

• In remembrance: Minute’s silence is for Hillsborough victims, not Margaret Thatcher insist Reading (mirror.co.uk)
• Football tribute to Thatcher would be a mistake, says Hillsborough relative (guardian.co.uk)
• Margaret Thatcher funeral: Family should pay bill NOT taxpayers, say three out of five in poll (mirror.co.uk)
• Honouring Margaret Thatcher before Liverpool game would be an ‘insult’ say Hillsborough campaigners (telegraph.co.uk)
• Taxpayers can ‘well afford’ to contribute to estimated £10m cost of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral, says William Hague (independent.co.uk)

No bloody Bahrain F1, says Damon Hill

From the Daily Telegraph in Britain:

Damon Hill: Bahrain should not hold grand prix as it could be used as a political tool

Former Formula One world champion Damon Hill has argued that the sport should not travel to Bahrain next week amid increasing signs that security forces in the Gulf kingdom are planning another drastic suppression of anti-government protests around the grand prix in 10 days’ time.

By Oliver Brown

6:30AM BST 11 Apr 2013

“The question is whether Formula One going to Bahrain would be enabling or furthering brutal repression, by appearing to endorse the treatment being meted out,” he said. “There is a perception that the sport is being used.”

Hill’s remarks, during a security briefing at Portcullis House, add to concerns in Westminster over the tinderbox political situation in Bahrain. Last year’s race was marred by scores of protests near the circuit …

Richard Burden, the Labour MP who called for the grand prix to be cancelled 12 months ago, said the kingdom had not carried out enough political reforms to justify holding the race again this year.

“If I was Jean Todt, president of the FIA, I would not want to run the race in the absence of the proper benchmarks and milestones,” he said. “Based on what I hear from the opposition forces, F1 will be even more of a focus for discontent this year.

“The demonstrations will increase. It is easy to keep F1 cocooned, but the sport should send out a message sensitive to the real situation in Bahrain. By its words and deeds, it must show that it is part of a broader international community.”

Burden expressed dismay with the comments of Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s commercial rights holder, who said last week he could see “no problems” in Bahrain and that he would be attending the grand prix at Sakhir. “I find that message surprising,” he continued. “The holding of this race should have some conditions attached to it – F1 should not see itself in a global bubble.”

The 2011 race had to be scrapped after at least 35 people were killed when Bahrain’s ruling Sunni elite crushed a pro-democracy uprising. After last year’s instalment went ahead against the backdrop of the tightest security, the opposition movement, Al Wefaq, claim that the reforms promised by King Hamad continue to be half-hearted at best. Unrest has again been witnessed in the outlying villages of Sitra and Sanabis.

See also here.

THIS year’s Grand Prix will again take place in Bahrain amid claims of widespread human rights abuses and, so far, the sport’s governing body have dodged the issue: here.

Baird’s support for regime in Bahrain: All part of Canada’s ‘royal’ foreign policy: here.

Related articles

• Damon Hill calls on FIA president Jean Todt to clarify Bahrain stance (guardian.co.uk)
• Bahrain in human rights spotlight as it denies rounding up potential trouble-makers ahead of F1 Grand Prix (independent.co.uk)
• Ecclestone, Cameron support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship arrests activists before Grand Prix (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• National Sport: Hill calls for Bahrain stance (coventrytelegraph.net)

Bahrain dictatorship arrests activists before Grand Prix

This video is called Brian Dooley responds to Bernie Ecclestone on F1 in Bahrain.

From Reuters:

Rights group says Bahrain arrests 20 before Grand Prix

Human Rights Watch reports the arrests of 20 Bahraini opposition activists in preparation for the Grand Prix, a huge sporting event to begin on April 21

Wednesday 10 Apr 2013

Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that police had arrested 20 opposition activists in towns near Bahrain’s Formula One circuit in a sign of rising political tension before the Grand Prix on April 21.

The Bahrain government denied any arrests had taken place.

The Gulf Arab state, where the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based, has been hit by unrest since pro-democracy protests broke out in early 2011, putting it in the frontline of the region-wide tussle between Shi’ite Muslim Iran and Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia.

Watched by millions around the world, the Grand Prix is the biggest sporting event hosted by the U.S.-allied country and the government is hoping for a big turnout at this year’s event despite continuing violent unrest.

An HRW statement said the detentions were made without a warrant and with the apparent intention of preventing a repeat of protests during last year’s race, which went ahead against a backdrop of burning tyres and riot police firing teargas at petrol-bomb throwing protesters in Shi’ite Muslim villages.

…

DESERT RACE

The race at the Sakhir desert circuit was cancelled in 2011 when the protests were crushed and at least 35 people were killed. Activists put the tally far higher.

Almost daily demonstrations have taken place in Bahrain since the end of martial law in June 2011, often ending in confrontations as youths throw stones or petrol bombs and police fire birdshot pellets and tear gas.

The Shi’ite majority complains of entrenched discrimination – a charge denied by the government – and their loyalty has been questioned by members of Bahrain’s Sunni ruling family, bound by historical and marriage ties to that of Riyadh.

[Human] Rights Watch, quoting local sources, said that in about 30 raids since April 1, masked police officers in plain clothes had targeted activists living near to the Formula One track who had led protests in the past.

The raids, mostly at night or around dawn, took place in Dar Khulaib, Shahrakan, Madinat, Hamad, and Karzakkan, towns close to the circuit and the roads leading to the capital Manamam.

“This latest crackdown and the way it’s being carried out raises new questions about the Bahraini authorities’ commitment to reform,” HRW’s Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in the statement.

“These raids and detentions suggest that officials are more concerned with getting activists out of circulation for the Formula 1 race than with addressing the legitimate grievances that have led so many Bahrainis to take to the streets.”

The international rights group said at least two of those detained were charged with crimes related to national security while others were charged with participating in illegal gatherings.

Formula chief Bernie Ecclestone said last week he had no concerns about the race becoming a target for anti-government protesters.

An international inquiry commission, invited by Bahrain’s government, said in a report in November 2011 that 35 people had died during the uprising. … The report said five people had died from torture.

The opposition puts the death toll at more than 80.

Related articles

• Bahrain dictatorship police attacks women with grenades (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Rights group says Bahrain arrests 20 before Grand Prix (dailystar.com.lb)
• Ecclestone, Cameron support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahraini pro-democracy activist interview (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain: Targeted Raids And Arbitrary Detentions Ahead Of Formula 1 Grand Prix, Says HRW (eurasiareview.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship and Scotland (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Arrests in Bahrain ahead of Formula 1 GP: Rights group confirms, govt denies (rt.com)

Bahrain, torture and football

This video says about itself:

‘I was sexually assaulted & tortured to extract false confession’ – Bahraini medic

Mar 30, 2013

In Bahrain, 21 doctors have been cleared of involvement in illegal anti-government protests. The medics have spent more than a year and a half behind bars, for, as they say, treating injured demonstrators. Dozens of health workers along with opposition activists have been arrested and charged, since the uprising began more than two years ago. Doctor Fatima Haji faced similar charges to the acquitted medics, and she told RT what she had to go through during her confinement.

By Brian Dooley, Director, Human Rights First’s Human Rights Defenders Program:

Manchester United, Denis Law, and Torture by the Bahrain Regime

This Saturday Manchester United legend Denis Law is going to Bahrain to promote the 2013 Manchester United Soccer School (MUSS). Law’s appearance comes just one week before the Formula One race will take place in Bahrain. “The visit is set to happen during a significant time in Bahrain’s sporting calendar and is aimed at further strengthening Bahrain’s profile as a major host of sporting activities by raising its international profile,” says the event’s sponsor, telecom operator VIVA.

While Law is there promoting the school, it might be nice if he went to see the family of Ahmad Shams, the 15-year-old boy who was shot by the police, according to his family, while wearing a Man United shirt in March 2011, or popped in to see Dr. Fatima Haji, one of the medics in Bahrain who was tortured and interrogated about her connection to Man United.

Ahmed Shams was playing soccer with his friends near his home in Sar on March 30 2011, his family told me, when he was killed by security forces. Around 5:30 p.m. in a quiet area, two groups of security vehicles appeared, nine in all. When the boys playing saw them, they ran, and the police started shooting rubber bullets at them.

They say Ahmed was hit by a “sound bomb” cartridge on the back of his head. He continued running, but was caught and beaten by the police. His father took him to a relative’s house and then to the American Mission hospital. While being examined by a doctor, his family says security troops came and took him to the main Salmaniya Hospital, where he died, still wearing a Manchester United shirt.

A commission of inquiry into what happened during the crackdown on protestors ordered by the Bahrain government found that “No autopsy was conducted and no formal cause of death has been recorded,” and that “The MoI [Ministry of the Interior] has failed to conduct an effective investigation into the circumstances surrounding this death.”

It was hard for me to look at the Man United posters on Ahmed’s bedroom wall when I visited his house a few weeks after he died. I am also a Man United fan, and have been since May 1968 when I was five and watched George Best on the TV take it round the Benfica keeper in the European Cup Final. I had pictures of Best and Denis Law on my bedroom wall. Ahmed had Rooney and the rest of the team on his.

In the days after his death, some people in Bahrain wrote to Man United asking if they might hold a minute’s silence before one of their games in tribute to Ahmed. An ambitious ask, but people sent emails to the Man United account making the request. One of them was Dr. Fatima Haji, a rheumatologist in Bahrain’s Salmaniya Medical Complex, and a Ryan Giggs fan. Along with dozens of other medics she was arrested after treating injured protestors and tortured in custody. But her interrogation was a bit different; she had written the email asking for the minute’s silence and then deleted it, knowing it might be incriminating. When she was arrested on April 17 her laptop was taken too, and a few days later — with tragic efficiency — Man United responded to her email, which her interrogators then saw.

I was blindfolded and handcuffed with my hands behind my back, and beaten. A man asked me ‘What’s is your relationship with Alex Ferguson?’ I was shocked and figured out they’d gone through my emails. A female officer hit me on head on both sides at the same time — she was wearing what I later found out was a special electrical band on her hands and she electrocuted me a couple of times — I felt a shock wave through my head. It was very painful and the whole world was spinning. I was beaten again on the head.

Haji says she was questioned over and over again about her connection to Manchester United: “because they’d responded to my email the police thought I somehow knew someone at Manchester United.” She spent several weeks in custody and was tried with 19 other medics in a military court. She was sentenced to five years in prison and then acquitted on appeal in June 2012. Three of her co-accused are still in prison.

None of this was Man United’s fault, but the club and Denis Law might want to know about what happened to Ahmed and Fatima, and say something about it.

While writing this blog post, I find that the Bahrain Center for Human Rights Internet site is not working. Just a technical problem; or another case of Internet censorship by the Bahraini regime, by attacking the Bahrain Center for Human Rights server, which is not in Bahrain itself, I think?

Related articles

• Ecclestone, Cameron support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship’s United States politicians’ support (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship police attacks women with grenades (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain regime tortures again (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahraini pro-democracy activist interview (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahraini father dies after police tortured his son (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Canadian Conservatives support Bahrain dictatorship (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Court acquits 21 Bahraini medics (bbc.co.uk)
• Bahrain dictatorship, resistance continue (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)