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Topic: What America (and the UK) has become
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Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312
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posted 14 August 2008 08:00 PM
quote: In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng's lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation. Instead, the affidavits say, guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation. "For this desperately sick, vulnerable person, this was torture," said Theodore N. Cox, one of Mr. Ng's lawyers, adding that they want to see a videotape of the transport made by guards. ... he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.
A sick, fucked up country [ 19 August 2008: Message edited by: Frustrated Mess ]
From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005
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M. Spector
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8273
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posted 22 August 2008 11:12 AM
quote: At any given time, there are about 30,000 immigrants in detention in the United States.And the way they are treated is a scandal. Sometimes, they can’t even get medical care for life-threatening conditions. The great Haitian-American writer, Edwidge Danticat, has written a prize-winning book, “Brother, I’m Dying” about her uncle who perished in detention out of neglect. She also testified about his treatment on October 4 before a House Judiciary subcommittee. Immigration officials had taken away his medication for high blood pressure and an inflamed prostate. And even when he was vomiting they accused him of faking. In the next issue of The Progressive, Laurel Maury tells about a man named Francisco Castañeda, who was placed in an immigration facility in early 2006. He had a lesion on his penis, but the immigration service would never let him get a biopsy for it. When he was released almost a year later, he found out he had invasive skin cancer. He had to have his penis amputated, and he died within the year.
Detention for many is a death sentence
From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005
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N.Beltov
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4140
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posted 22 August 2008 11:48 AM
quote: kropotkin1951: So what happens to "defectors" Does a Cuban arriving on the shores of America get treated different than a Haitian? I suspect the answer but I don't really know.
Cubans are in a whole different category when they "defect" to the US. Unlike Haitians, who might die from lack of medical coverage while in US detention,, Cubans go to the head of the line. It is a political show, the purpose of which is to undermine Cuba's government in the long term. There are some agreements to regularize Cuban emigration but the US side typically violates those agreements and disorganizes the whole arrangement. A lengthy quote might be in order here. quote: According to the dominant version, the "high" number of Cubans who have emigrated to the United States constitutes proof of the lack of legitimacy of the government in Havana. This claim is made by most of the international media, but no analysis of the phenomenon is deemed to be necessary. That's really surprising because the statistics of Cuban migration to the United States are available for the period from 1820 to 2003, that is, for more than 18 decades (1).Why is it that the international media do not illustrate their claim about Cuban emigration by using precise numbers that compare the pre-Revolutionary period with the present time? In the name of what simplifying principle don't they draw a comparison between the Latin American and Cuban migratory phenomena to clarify this controversial debate? The international media avoid analyzing in detail the Cuban migration to the United States. They fear, and with reason, that the conclusions drawn from the data provided by the U.S. immigration service will implacably contradict their famous claim and unmask their deceitful and ideological nature. Massive emigration before 1959 Before the defeat of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Cuba sent more migrants to the United States than Central America and South America together. In addition, Cuba produced more emigrants than Africa and Oceania together and surpassed Asian demographic behemoths such as China, India, Iran, Turkey and Indonesia. Special legislation to promote illegal emigration In 1966, the U.S. Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act, which grants any Cuban citizen who migrates legally or illegally the status of permanent resident of the United States. The object of that legislation is to incite to illegal emigration and to use that emigration as a political weapon to damage the prestige of the Cuban government. To this law we should add the brutal economic war that the United States has waged against Cuba since 1960, a war that hugely affects the population and constitutes a factor of incitement to emigration. 1993 and 'the special period' It is important to stop at the year 1993, which represents the worst moment of the special period. In effect, when the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991, Cuba was able to maintain (to a limited degree) its trade with the East. In 1992, the national reserves allowed the population to overcome the early difficulties. But by 1993, no reserves were left. In view of the economic and geopolitical conditions affecting Cuba, it wouldn't be unrealistic to assume that 1993 was synonymous with a massive migration to the United States. But the opposite occurred. In effect, out of Cuba exited only 13,666 emigrants in 1993, less than Canada (17,156), Jamaica (17,241), El Salvador (26,818 or twice the Cuban figure), the Dominican Republic (45,420 or thrice the Cuban figure) and Mexico (126,561 or almost 10 times the Cuban figure). So, in 1993, Cuba occupied only the sixth place among Latin American nations that issued emigrants. 1994 and the 'wave' of rafters The year 1994 was important to the degree that it saw a large wave of rafters. The international media greatly propagandized and politicized those events, which gave the impression that the entire population wanted to leave the island. What was the reality? In 1994, Cuba saw only 14,727 departures, as opposed to Canada (16,068), El Salvador (17,644), the Dominican Republic (51,189 or thrice the Cuban figure), and Mexico (111,398). In terms of U.S.-bound migration, Cuba was in fifth place among Latin American countries. Current emigration It is interesting to make a migratory balance using the latest data. In 2003, Cuba was the country of origin for 9,304 migrations to the United States. In 2003, Cuba was only in tenth place in the hemisphere in terms of migration, behind Peru (9,444), Canada (11,446), Haiti (12,314), Jamaica (13,384), Guatemala (14,415), Colombia (14,777), the Dominican Republic (26,205), El Salvador (28,296) and Mexico (115,864). Thus, Cuba went from second place in 1959 to tenth place in 2003. Politization of the migration issue Curiously, the migration issue has never been politicized when other nations are involved. For example, El Salvador -- whose population (5.75 million) is one half that of Cuba (11.2 million) -- sent out three times the number of migrants to the United States in 2003. However, no one has ever utilized this fact to denounce the political regime in El Salvador as a totalitarian regime. Likewise, the Dominican Republic originated three times as many U.S.-bound departures as Cuba, although its population is only 8.5 million. Jamaica, whose population is 2.6 million, one-fourth that of Cuba, originated more U.S.-bound departures than Cuba. The same can be said for Haiti, whose population is barely 6.8 million, one-half that of Cuba. In addition, these nations do not enjoy the benefits of any "Adjustment Act" and do not suffer any economic sanctions. Nevertheless, no one has dared to utilize such an argument to describe those countries as being dictatorial regimes. Ideological stigmatization As one can easily see, the migratory argument is not valid for the purpose of stigmatizing Cuba. If one wishes to politicize the issue, one can see -- from the 1959 statistics and the current data -- that the Cuban government is without a doubt one of the most legitimate political regimes in the American continent. Seen thus, stigmatization is only ideological and therefore lacking in substance. Only the alternative press counteracts this type of disinformation, which is orchestrated by the international media. Salim Lamrani, a French researcher at the Sorbonne university, read this paper during a panel on the role of alternative media in the preservation of historic memory, during the World Social Forum in Caracas, Jan. 27, 2006. (1) All the data relative to Cuban and other emigration, 1820-2003, come from the Office of Immigration Statistics (2003 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, September 2004, pp.12-14.
On the role of the alternative media using Cuba as an example
From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003
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Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312
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posted 02 September 2008 01:25 PM
quote: The window through which Salam Amira, 16, filmed the moment when an Israeli soldier shot from close range a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee has a large hole at its centre with cracks running in every direction.“Since my video was shown, the soldiers shoot at our house all the time,” she said. The shattered and cracked windows at the front of the building confirm her story. “When we leave the windows open, they fire tear gas inside too.” Her home looks out over the Israeli road block guarding the only entrance to the village of Nilin, located just inside the West Bank midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It was here that a bound Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27, was shot in the foot in July with a rubber bullet under orders from an Israeli regiment commander. The treatment of the family stands in stark contrast to the leniency shown to the soldier and his commander involved in that incident.
And the another side.
From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005
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Frustrated Mess
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8312
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posted 03 September 2008 07:10 AM
quote: Yesterday, Goodman witnessed and experienced something very frightening that likely was not mentioned on your local news. During the opening of the Republican National Convention, she was arrested for asking police where her two producers were. They had been arrested, and because SHE asked a question police did not like, she was arrested too. After more than 20 years as a journalist, Goodman was doing what reporters are supposed to do. She was gathering news inside the Republican National Convention as well as seeking opposing views outside. Heavens to Betsy - a real journalist telling both sides! The video of a demure Goodman walking into a group of police who were dressed in riot gear - looking like guards outside a dictator's palace - is surreal. It also convinced me that Republicans would love to provoke citizens practicing their constitutional right of civil disobedience into acting like misguided idiots. Then the mass media, which have been lifting pom-poms for the Bush administration for years, can blame them and make them look like lunatics worthy only of dismissal. If Amy Goodman had been wearing an American flag or a Republican emblem on her lapel, I doubt she would have landed behind bars. Voices of dissent have always restored balance after times of extreme, and if those voices are silenced, can we still call ourselves a democracy?
Freedom in Amerika
From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005
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DrConway
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 490
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posted 28 September 2008 02:19 PM
quote: Originally posted by ceti: Biden is a gas bag, only less frightening than the neo-cons because he is so full of himself and no one takes him seriously. Cheney and Palin however, are true believers -- the kind that would shoot you in an instant. Biden would just talk and talk, giving you time to get away.
Off topic: I don't think he even takes himself that seriously. Unlike Dan Quayle, who was prone to the same sorts of gaffes. On topic: I have to say, I'm sad but not surprised, really. [ 28 September 2008: Message edited by: DrConway ]
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001
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