Crystal Cave It is up to us to try to bring about change2008-06-15T05:40:41ZUser 95http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/OrgSpace NewsLogLessons - Taking Time for MeIt has been many months since I posted here. Time away to not only help me manage an extremely busy career, but to provide support to my husband who has not been well but more importantly time for me to step back and reflect on what is happening around me.
Lessons I have learnt during this t...It has been many months since I posted here. Time away to not only help me manage an extremely busy career, but to provide support to my husband who has not been well but more importantly time for me to step back and reflect on what is happening around me.
Lessons I have learnt during this time of reflection.
1. I can not change others or even hope that they will change and open their eyes to what is happening in this world, their world and my world. I can only change my immediate environment
2. We attract what we give out and we find strength that we didn’t know we had when times are tough. Yes, I know we know this but how often do we get to test it. This is a blessing, treasure the moments
3. I can not fight every cause and in my getting angry and frustrated with the injustice I see, it will not fix the situation. Each of us have lessons to learn in this life and I can not take on the lesson of someone else
4. For those of us in business we have to have the courage to speak out and to try and influence the decisions for the greater good. This is tough but we can influence change, I have witnessed that myself
5. Inner happiness and peace is our personal responsibility and I can not expect others to take on this responsibility for me. Only I can find my path
Nothing earth shattering in any of this. I knew this already but how easy is it for us to lose focus and be diverted from our true path. I am much calmer now and certainly more focused and accepting. It is good sometimes to take time for us and to get off the merry-go-round of life.
Blessings on and all
Nemue ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/__show_article/_a000095-000121.htm2008-06-15T05:40:41Z2008-06-15T05:40:41ZSix years in Guantanamo without causeWould you consider signing the attached petition to raise the plight of Sami al-Haj a cameraman whose imprisonment by U.S. forces has gone largely ignored in the corporate media. Al Jazeera, Sami al-Haj has been jailed without charge at Guantanamo for the past six years. There is no evidence that ...Would you consider signing the attached petition to raise the plight of Sami al-Haj a cameraman whose imprisonment by U.S. forces has gone largely ignored in the corporate media. Al Jazeera, Sami al-Haj has been jailed without charge at Guantanamo for the past six years. There is no evidence that supports the detention of this man.
[link]]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/__show_article/_a000095-000120.htm2007-08-12T07:51:05Z2007-08-12T07:54:19ZThe Silent West...It has been a while since I last posted. Like so many others my life is a 'merry-go-round', never enough time to do all of things I want to do. I have managed however to keep up with my reading and research and I want ask a question
Why the silence?
Recent events in my country with regard...It has been a while since I last posted. Like so many others my life is a 'merry-go-round', never enough time to do all of things I want to do. I have managed however to keep up with my reading and research and I want ask a question
Why the silence?
Recent events in my country with regards to announced actions to protect our indigenous children and women have been met with interesting responses from the 'politically correct lobby'. Their concerns centre more on ideals than helping to stop inherent abuse of our children and also women. I fail to understand this attitude.
Likewise we are silent - mute - when it comes to speaking out about the abuse that is metered out daily in third world countries. As an example a report compiled on the request of the Federal Women Division, places the number of honour killings in Pakistan at around 2,500 to 3,000 cases every year.
The report, however, adds that a good number of honour killing cases still go unreported or are passed off as suicides. Not more than 25 per cent honour killing cases are brought to justice, states the report while calling for tougher laws on domestic violence. Please do not think this behaviour is restricted to countries like Pakistan it happens in the UK, the Netherlands, India, Africa, the US to name but a few. We now have the judiciary supporting abuse of women. The following ruling took place in Germany earlier this year.
23/03/2007: 'He beat her and threatened her with murder. But because husband and wife were both from Morocco, a German divorce court judge saw no cause for alarm. It's a religion thing, she argued.' (Der Spiegel)
The Koran seems to have become the basis for a court decision in Frankfurt. I have just finished reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirse Ali, she makes similar points regards the behaviour that she witnessed firsthand in The Netherlands.
Men go to war whilst turning a blind-eye to the brutalisation of women and millions of women themselves stay silent. Why I ask myself? Well I have made myself a vow, I will no longer stay silent. More of us need to speak out and support our 'sisters' around the world. ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/__show_article/_a000095-000119.htm2007-07-09T04:03:51Z2007-07-09T04:14:24ZGo Orange for Animals!I haven't posted for some time although I pop in every now and then to see what is going on.
Life for me has been very busy over the past 12-months. My husband has been very ill (but thankfully recovering now) and that has taken up a lot of time in caring for him. My business has been ext...I haven't posted for some time although I pop in every now and then to see what is going on.
Life for me has been very busy over the past 12-months. My husband has been very ill (but thankfully recovering now) and that has taken up a lot of time in caring for him. My business has been extremely busy - there are never enough hours in the day. I hear so many saying this of late...
That said, I just couldn't let this opportunity pass by to promote the Go Orange for Animals Day on April 10.
In celebration of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Day, show your love of animals--and your support for the mission of the ASPCA--by going orange for animals! Dress yourself, your pet (even your community!) in orange, take a picture, and post it here. You'll join with animal lovers across the country and in deed the globe in going orange for animals!
Without animals our lives would be diminished. Let us show them we love them. It would be wonderful if you signed the petition attached as well. Blessings...
[link]]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/__show_article/_a000095-000117.htm2007-04-08T03:41:04Z2007-04-08T03:41:04ZTruth - Yes or No? Could this happen in America or any other western country?
What do you think?
A Warning For America From South Africa
Date: Thursday 05 October 2006 12:37 pm
From: G Holman
I urge you to read this article. Our freedoms are at stake and we are asleep.
A MUST READ......the invasi...A Warning For America From South Africa
By Gemma Meyer (Gemma Meyer is the pseudonym of a South African journalist. She and her husband, a former conservative member of parliament, still reside in South Africa.)
People used to say that South Africa was 20 years behind the rest of the Western world. Television, for example, came late to South Africa (but so did pornography and the gay rights movement). Today, however, South Africa may be the grim model of the future Western world, for events in America reveal trends chillingly similar to those that destroyed our country.
America's structures are Western. Your Congress, your lobbying groups, your free speech, and the way ordinary Americans either get involved or ignore politics are peculiarly Western, not the way most of the world operates. But the fact that only about a third of Americans deem it important to vote is horrifying in light of how close you are to losing your Western character.
Writing letters to the press, manning stands at county fairs hosting fund-raising dinners, attending rallies, setting up conferences, writing your Congressman - that is what you know, and what you are comfortable with. Those are the political methods you've created for yourselves to keep your country on track and to ensure political accountability.
But woe to you if - or more likely, when - the rules change. White Americans may soon find themselves unable or unwilling to stand up to challenge the new political methods that will be the inevitable result of the ethnic metamorphosis now taking place in America. Unable to cope with the new rules of the game - violence, mob riots, intimidation through accusations of racism, demands for proportionality based on racial numbers, and all the other social and political weapons used by the have-nots to bludgeon treasure and power from the haves - Americans, like others before them, will no doubt cave in. They will compromise away their independence and ultimately their way of life.
That is exactly what happened in South Africa. I know, because I was there and I saw it happen.
Faced with revolution in the streets, strikes, civil unrest and the sheer terror and murder practiced by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC), the white government simply capitulated in order to achieve "peace."
Westerners need peace. They need order and stability. They are builders and planners. But what we got was the peace of the grave for our society.
The Third World is different - different peoples with different pasts and different cultures. Yet Westerners continue to mistake the psychology of the Third World and its peoples. Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe are perfect examples of those mistakes. Sierra Leone is in perpetual civil war, and Zimbabwe - once the thriving, stable Rhodesia - is looting the very people (the white men) who feed the country. Yet Westerners do not admit that the same kind of savagery could come to America when enough immigrants of the right type assert themselves. The fact is, Americans are sitting ducks for Third World exploitation of the Western conscience of compassion.
Those in the West who forced South Africa to surrender to the ANC and its leaders did not consider Africa to be the dangerous, corrupt, and savage place it is now in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Those Western politicians now have a similar problem looming on their own doorsteps: the demand for power and treasure from the non-Western peoples inside the realm.
It is already too late for South Africa, but not for America if enough people strengthen their spine and take on the race terrorists, the armies of the "politically correct" and, most dangerous of all, the craven politicians who believe "compassionate conservatism" will buy them a few more votes, a few more days of peace.
White South Africans, you should remember, have been in that part of Africa for the same amount of time whites have inhabited North America; yet ultimately South Africans voted for their own suicide. We are not so very different from you.
We lost our country through skillful propaganda, pressure from abroad (not least from the U.S.A.), unrelenting charges of "oppression" and "racism," and the shrewd assessment by African tyrants that the white man has many Achilles' heels, the most significant of which are his compassion, his belief in the "equality of man," and his "love your neighbor" philosophy - none of which are part of the Third World's history.
The mainline churches played a big role in the demise of Western influence throughout Africa, too; especially in South Africa. Today's tyrants were yesterday's mission-school protégés. Many dictators in Africa were men of the cloth. They knew their clerical collars would deflect criticism and obfuscate their real aims, which had nothing whatever to do with the "brotherhood of man."
Other tyrants, like the infamous Idi Amin, were trained and schooled by the whites themselves, at Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard. After receiving the best from the West, they unleashed a resentful bloodlust against their benefactors.
From what I have seen and read thus far, I fear Americans will capitulate just as we did. Americans are, generally, a soft lot. They don't want to quarrel or obstruct the claims of those who believe they were wronged. They like peace and quiet, and they want to compromise and be nice.
A television program that aired in South Africa showed a town meeting somewhere in Southern California where people met to complain about falling standards in the schools. Whites who politely spoke at the meeting clearly resented the influx of Mexican immigrants into their community. When a handful of Chicanos at the back of the hall shouted and waved their hands at them, the whites simply shrunk back into their seats rather than tell the noisemakers to shut up. They didn't want to quarrel.
In America, the courts are still the final arbiters of society's laws. But what will happen when your future majority refuses to abide by court rulings - as in Zimbabwe. What will happen when the new majority says the judges are racists, and that they refuse to acknowledge "white man's justice"? What will happen when the courts are filled with their people, or their sympathizers? In California, Proposition 187 has already been overturned.
What will you do when the future non-white majority decides to change the names of streets and cities? What will you do when they no longer want to use money that carries the portraits of old, dead white "racists" and slave owners? Will you cave in, like you did on flying the Confederate flag? What about the national anthem? Your official language?
Don't laugh. When the "majority" took over in South Africa, the first targets were our national symbols.
In another generation, America may well face what Africa is now experiencing - invasions of private land by the "have-nots;" the decline in health care quality; roads and buildings in disrepair; the banishment of your history from the education of the young; the revolutionization of your justice system.
In South Africa today, only 9 percent of murderers end up in jail. Court dockets are regularly purchased and simply disappear. Magistrates can be bribed, as can the prison authorities, making escapes commonplace. Vehicle and airplane licenses are regularly purchased, and forged school and university certificates are routine.
What would you think of the ritual slaughter of animals in your neighbor’s backyard? How do you clean up the blood and entrails that litter your suburban streets? How do you feel about the practice of witchcraft, in which the parts of young girls and boys are needed for "medicinal" purposes? How do you react to the burning of witches?
Don't laugh. All that is quite common in South Africa today.
Don't imagine that government officials caught with their fingers in the till will be punished. Excuses - like the need to overcome generations of white racism - will be found to exonerate the guilty.
In fact, known criminals will be voted into office because of a racial solidarity among the majority that doesn't exist among the whites. When Ian Smith of the old Rhodesia tried to stand up to the world, white South African politicians were among the Westerners pressuring him to surrender.
When Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe murders his political opponents, ignores unfavorable court decisions, terrorizes the population and siphons off millions from the state treasury for himself and his friends, South Africa's new President Thabo Mbeki holds his hand and declares his support. That just happened a few weeks ago.
Your tax dollars will go to those who don't earn and don't pay. In South Africa, organizations that used to have access to state funds such as old age homes, the arts, and veterans' services, are simply abandoned.
What will happen is that Western structures in America will be either destroyed from without, or transformed from within, used to suit the goals of the new rulers. And they will rein either through terror, as in Zimbabwe today, or exert other corrupt pressures to obtain, or buy votes. Once power is in the hands of aliens, don’t expect loyalty or devotion to principle from those whose jobs are at stake. One of the most surprising and tragic components of the disaster in South Africa is how many previously anti-ANC whites simply moved to the other side.
Once you lose social, cultural, and political dominance, there is no getting it back again.
Unfortunately, your habits and values work against you. You cannot fight terror and street mobs with letters to your Congressmen. You cannot fight accusations of racism with prayer meetings. You cannot appeal to the goodness of your fellow man when the fellow man despises you for your weaknesses and hacks off the arms and legs of his political opponents.
To survive, Americans must never lose the power they now enjoy to people from alien cultures. Above all, don't put yourselves to the test of fighting only when your backs are against the wall. You will probably fail.
Millions around the world want your good life. But make no mistake: They care not for the high-minded ideals of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, and your Constitution. What they want are your possessions, your power, and your status.
And they already know that their allies among you, the "human rights activists," the skilful lawyers and the left-wing politicians will fight for them, and not for you. They will exploit your compassion and your Christian charity, and your good will.
They have studied you, Mr. and Mrs. America, and they know your weaknesses well.
hey know what to do.
Do you?
**************************
Black Racists Slaughter Whites in South Africa - Where's the Outrage?
May 1: Illegal Immigration Day Defused!
Death to America: Major American Cities Targeted By Terrorists?
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/__show_article/_a000095-000116.htm2006-10-08T07:11:10Z2006-10-08T07:11:10ZCorporate Responsibility - Corona Beer I have recently read and signed the petition: "Ask Anheuser-Busch to STOP promoting Bullfighting". Take up is slow and help is urgently needed to raise awareness.
I warn you the images are graphic.
Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petit...I have recently read and signed the petition: "Ask Anheuser-Busch to STOP promoting Bullfighting". Take up is slow and help is urgently needed to raise awareness.
I warn you the images are graphic.
Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. Please sign here:
Thank for caring.
[link]]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/__show_article/_a000095-000115.htm2006-09-24T03:35:41Z2006-09-24T03:37:32ZSteve Irwin & Peter Brock Farewell In one week we have lost two of our treasured sons – Steve Irwin & Peter Brock. To say Australians are stunned would be an understatement. There is a pervading feeling of gloom and loss. The outpouring of emotion is intense. We just cannot believe this has happened.
How poignant that b...In one week we have lost two of our treasured sons – Steve Irwin & Peter Brock. To say Australians are stunned would be an understatement. There is a pervading feeling of gloom and loss. The outpouring of emotion is intense. We just cannot believe this has happened.
How poignant that both of these men died as a result of tragic accidents and both doing what they loved the best. Steve diving stuck down by one of the gentlest of creatures a Stingray. Peter behind the wheel of a high-powered racing car participating in a Targa rally in Western Australia.
Losing one icon is hard enough but two in one week almost unbearable. What is has done however is forced reflection and that in itself is a good thing.
Steve Irwin was only 44 years of age. He was the quintessential Aussie larrikin. I am ashamed to admit, that there were times when I felt intense embarrassment when I read of or witnessed Steve’s antics. In 2003 when the US President visited Australia, Steve was invited to attend a function in Canberra (our capital) to meet the President. Everyone turned up in black tie, as the event would demand, except Steve. Steve turned up in his customary khaki shorts and shirt. Many of us, myself included who like to feel we have a certain level of style almost died of shame. On reflection however who was the one with all of the style, it was Steve. He was being who he was. I have also been overwhelmed to learn of the impact that this ‘little Aussie larrikin’ had on some many people across the world. His impact on children is remarkable and his legacy will live on through the children he has motivated to learn about and to love nature. Steve loved his country, he loved is wife and his children, his family and the he loved wildlife. He influenced millions and was loved by as many. I am sorry Steve that I didn’t recognise your gift before it was too late but your legacy will live on.
Peter Brock (61) our greatest touring car champion and my hero. I spent many a Sunday watching Brock race. He was not only a great driver but also a truly great human being. His contribution on was many levels vast on only with regards the car racing community but also with regards to the various charities that he supported. He was generous of spirit. Peter although not as well know world-wide as Steve was none the less known widely within the car racing community. He also a wonderful ambassador for the country he loved dearly.
Rest in peace both of you. You will be greatly missed but you will never be forgotten. We will move on from our grief and our shock and I pray that the legacy you have left will be a constant reminder to us all – be generous of spirit, love with a passion, care about our world and our community and do this in the spirit of peace and harmony. ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/__show_article/_a000095-000114.htm2006-09-10T00:39:56Z2006-09-10T00:39:56ZRobert Fisk: A war crime? Scotty posted a previous article from Robert Fisk, which has caused a lot of debate, as it should.
Sunday 86 innocent women and children were buried in Lebanon as a result of this senseless action. This morning one of our local radio stations in Sydney interviewed the Lebanese son (a very we...More from Robert Fisk..
This mother and son were in a convoy fleeing danger yesterday when the Israeli air force bombed the rear minibus, causing carnage.
Published: 24 July 2006
They are in the schools, in empty hospitals, in halls and mosques and in the streets. The Shia Muslim refugees of southern Lebanon, driven from their homes by the Israelis, are arriving in Sidon by the thousand, cared for by Sunni Muslims and then sent north to join the 600,000 displaced Lebanese in Beirut. More than 34,000 have passed through here in the past four days alone, a tide of misery and anger. It will take years to heal their wounds, and billions of dollars to repair their damaged property.
And who can blame them for their flight? For the second time in eight days, the Israelis committed a war crime yesterday. They ordered the villagers of Taire, near the border, to leave their homes and then - as their convoy of cars and minibuses obediently trailed northwards - the Israeli air force fired a missile into the rear minibus, killing three refugees and seriously wounding 13 other civilians. The rocket that killed them is believed to have been a Hellfire missile made by Lockheed Martin in Florida.
Nine days ago, the Israeli army ordered the inhabitants of a neighbouring village, Marwaheen, to leave their homes and then fired rockets into one of their evacuation trucks, blasting the women and children inside to their deaths. And this is the same Israeli air force which was praised last week by one of Israel's greatest defenders - Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz - because it "takes extraordinary steps to minimise civilian casualties".
Nor have the Israelis spared Sidon. A heap of rubble and pancaked walls is all that is left of the Fatima Zahra mosque, a Hizbollah institution in the centre of the city, its minaret crumbled and its dome now sitting on the concrete, a black flag still flying from its top. When Israeli warplanes came early yesterday morning, the 75-year-old caretaker had no time to run from the building; he died of his wounds hours later. His overturned white plastic chair still lies by the gate. The mosque is unlikely to have been used for military purposes; a school belonging to the Hariris, Sidon's all-powerful Sunni family, stands next door; they would never have allowed weapons into the building.
Not that Hizbollah - which killed two more Israeli civilians with their rockets in Haifa yesterday - have respected Sidon, whose population is 95 per cent Sunni. They tried to fire Iranian-made missiles at Israel from the seafront Corniche and from beside the city slaughterhouse last week. On both occasions, residents physically prevented them from opening fire.
The multimillion-dollar Hariri Foundation - created by the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated last year - has helped 24,000 Shia refugees out of the south and on to Beirut but its generosity has not always been happily received. One group of refugees sheltering in a technical school in Meheniyeh punched and taunted Hariri workers. Elsewhere, the foundation's staff have been cursed by fleeing families. "They are telling us that we are working for the Americans and that this is why we are taking them out," said Ghena Hariri - Rafik's niece and a Georgetown graduate. "It is something that drains our energy. We are working 24 hours a day and at the end of the day they curse us. But I feel so sorry for them. Now they are being told by the Israelis to leave their villages on foot and they have to walk dozens of kilometres in this heat."
It's not difficult to see how this war can damage the delicate sectarian framework that exists in Lebanon. One group of Shia families - housed in a school in the Druze mountains of the Chouf - tried to put Hizbollah's yellow banners on the roof and members of Walid Jumblatt's Druze Popular Socialist Party had to tear them down. Their act may have saved the refugees' lives.
Yet many of the Shia in this beautiful Crusader port have learnt how kind their Sunni neighbours can be. "We are here - where else can we go?" Nazek Kadnah asked as she sat in the corner of a mosque which Rafik Hariri built and dedicated to his father, Haj Baha'udin Hariri. "But they look after us here as their brothers and sisters and now we are safe."
These sentiments provoke some dark questions. Why, for example, can't these poor people be shown the same compassion from Tony Blair as he supposedly felt for the Muslims of Kosovo when they were being driven from their homes by the Serbs? These thousands are as terrified and homeless as the Kosovo Albanians who fled to Macedonia in 1998 and for whom Mr Blair claimed he was waging a moral war. But for the Shia Muslims sleeping homeless in Sidon there is to be no such moral posturing - and no ceasefire suggestions from Mr Blair, who has aligned himself with the Israelis and the Americans.
And what exactly is the purpose of driving more than half a million people from their homes? Many of these poor people sit clutching their front-door keys, just as the Palestinians of Galilee did when they arrived in Lebanon 58 years ago to spend the rest of their lives as refugees. Yes, the Shia Muslims of Lebanon probably will go home. But to what? A war between the Hizbollah and a Western intervention force? Or further bombardment by the Israelis?
The Sidon refugees now have 36 schools in which they can shelter - but they are the lucky ones. Across southern Lebanon, the innocent continued to die. One was an eight-year-old boy who was killed in an Israeli air raid on a village close to Tyre. Eight more civilians were wounded when an Israeli missile hit a vehicle outside the Najem hospital in Tyre. And during the morning, one of Lebanon's journalists, Layal Nejib, a photographer for the magazine Al-Jaras whose pictures were also transmitted by Agence France Press, was killed in her taxi by an Israeli air strike near Qana, the same village in which 106 civilians were massacred in a UN base by Israeli artillery shells in 1996. She was only 23.
In her marble-walled home above Sidon, Bahia Hariri - Ghena's mother, the sister of the murdered former prime minister and a local member of parliament - sat grim-faced, scarcely controlling her fury. "We are in this terrible situation but we haven't any window to resolve this situation," she said. "Rafik Hariri is no longer with us. The international community is not with us. Who is with us? God. And the old Lebanese. And the Arab world, we hope, will help us. The only resistance we can show is to be a united Lebanon. But we have only a small margin in which to dream."
They are in the schools, in empty hospitals, in halls and mosques and in the streets. The Shia Muslim refugees of southern Lebanon, driven from their homes by the Israelis, are arriving in Sidon by the thousand, cared for by Sunni Muslims and then sent north to join the 600,000 displaced Lebanese in Beirut. More than 34,000 have passed through here in the past four days alone, a tide of misery and anger. It will take years to heal their wounds, and billions of dollars to repair their damaged property.
And who can blame them for their flight? For the second time in eight days, the Israelis committed a war crime yesterday. They ordered the villagers of Taire, near the border, to leave their homes and then - as their convoy of cars and minibuses obediently trailed northwards - the Israeli air force fired a missile into the rear minibus, killing three refugees and seriously wounding 13 other civilians. The rocket that killed them is believed to have been a Hellfire missile made by Lockheed Martin in Florida.
Nine days ago, the Israeli army ordered the inhabitants of a neighbouring village, Marwaheen, to leave their homes and then fired rockets into one of their evacuation trucks, blasting the women and children inside to their deaths. And this is the same Israeli air force which was praised last week by one of Israel's greatest defenders - Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz - because it "takes extraordinary steps to minimise civilian casualties".
Nor have the Israelis spared Sidon. A heap of rubble and pancaked walls is all that is left of the Fatima Zahra mosque, a Hizbollah institution in the centre of the city, its minaret crumbled and its dome now sitting on the concrete, a black flag still flying from its top. When Israeli warplanes came early yesterday morning, the 75-year-old caretaker had no time to run from the building; he died of his wounds hours later. His overturned white plastic chair still lies by the gate. The mosque is unlikely to have been used for military purposes; a school belonging to the Hariris, Sidon's all-powerful Sunni family, stands next door; they would never have allowed weapons into the building.
Not that Hizbollah - which killed two more Israeli civilians with their rockets in Haifa yesterday - have respected Sidon, whose population is 95 per cent Sunni. They tried to fire Iranian-made missiles at Israel from the seafront Corniche and from beside the city slaughterhouse last week. On both occasions, residents physically prevented them from opening fire.
The multimillion-dollar Hariri Foundation - created by the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated last year - has helped 24,000 Shia refugees out of the south and on to Beirut but its generosity has not always been happily received. One group of refugees sheltering in a technical school in Meheniyeh punched and taunted Hariri workers. Elsewhere, the foundation's staff have been cursed by fleeing families. "They are telling us that we are working for the Americans and that this is why we are taking them out," said Ghena Hariri - Rafik's niece and a Georgetown graduate. "It is something that drains our energy. We are working 24 hours a day and at the end of the day they curse us. But I feel so sorry for them. Now they are being told by the Israelis to leave their villages on foot and they have to walk dozens of kilometres in this heat."
It's not difficult to see how this war can damage the delicate sectarian framework that exists in Lebanon. One group of Shia families - housed in a school in the Druze mountains of the Chouf - tried to put Hizbollah's yellow banners on the roof and members of Walid Jumblatt's Druze Popular Socialist Party had to tear them down. Their act may have saved the refugees' lives.
Yet many of the Shia in this beautiful Crusader port have learnt how kind their Sunni neighbours can be. "We are here - where else can we go?" Nazek Kadnah asked as she sat in the corner of a mosque which Rafik Hariri built and dedicated to his father, Haj Baha'udin Hariri. "But they look after us here as their brothers and sisters and now we are safe."
These sentiments provoke some dark questions. Why, for example, can't these poor people be shown the same compassion from Tony Blair as he supposedly felt for the Muslims of Kosovo when they were being driven from their homes by the Serbs? These thousands are as terrified and homeless as the Kosovo Albanians who fled to Macedonia in 1998 and for whom Mr Blair claimed he was waging a moral war. But for the Shia Muslims sleeping homeless in Sidon there is to be no such moral posturing - and no ceasefire suggestions from Mr Blair, who has aligned himself with the Israelis and the Americans.
And what exactly is the purpose of driving more than half a million people from their homes? Many of these poor people sit clutching their front-door keys, just as the Palestinians of Galilee did when they arrived in Lebanon 58 years ago to spend the rest of their lives as refugees. Yes, the Shia Muslims of Lebanon probably will go home. But to what? A war between the Hizbollah and a Western intervention force? Or further bombardment by the Israelis?
The Sidon refugees now have 36 schools in which they can shelter - but they are the lucky ones. Across southern Lebanon, the innocent continued to die. One was an eight-year-old boy who was killed in an Israeli air raid on a village close to Tyre. Eight more civilians were wounded when an Israeli missile hit a vehicle outside the Najem hospital in Tyre. And during the morning, one of Lebanon's journalists, Layal Nejib, a photographer for the magazine Al-Jaras whose pictures were also transmitted by Agence France Press, was killed in her taxi by an Israeli air strike near Qana, the same village in which 106 civilians were massacred in a UN base by Israeli artillery shells in 1996. She was only 23.
In her marble-walled home above Sidon, Bahia Hariri - Ghena's mother, the sister of the murdered former prime minister and a local member of parliament - sat grim-faced, scarcely controlling her fury. "We are in this terrible situation but we haven't any window to resolve this situation," she said. "Rafik Hariri is no longer with us. The international community is not with us. Who is with us? God. And the old Lebanese. And the Arab world, we hope, will help us. The only resistance we can show is to be a united Lebanon. But we have only a small margin in which to dream."
[link] Photograph of mother and son! ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v95/__show_article/_a000095-000113.htm2006-07-25T01:40:49Z2006-07-25T01:40:49ZNobel winner blasts 'Islamic violations'Sunday Jul 23 18:01 AEST
Nobel Peace Laureate, Muslim and human rights activist Dr Shirin Ebadi has spoken out against undemocratic Islamic countries justifying "oppressive acts" in the name of Islam.
Dr Ebadi said some Islamic countries were turning their backs on modernisation and the need...Sunday Jul 23 18:01 AEST
Nobel Peace Laureate, Muslim and human rights activist Dr Shirin Ebadi has spoken out against undemocratic Islamic countries justifying "oppressive acts" in the name of Islam.
Dr Ebadi said some Islamic countries were turning their backs on modernisation and the need for democracy and as a result were creating tensions internally.
Speaking at the Earth Dialogues 2006 conference in Brisbane, Dr Ebadi said her native Iran as well as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Yemen "among others" were guilty of human rights violations. "In these countries, Islamic rulers want to solve 21st century issues with laws belonging to 14 centuries ago," she said.
"Their views of human rights are exactly the same as it was 1400 years ago.
"Undemocratic Islamic governments justify their oppressive acts by taking advantage of the name of Islam, in exactly the same way as the United States justifies its war mongering by abusing the name of democracy."
In 2003, Dr Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in promoting democracy and human rights in her country, particularly the rights of women and children. Today, she works as a lawyer and teaches at the University of Tehran.
She was one of the first female judges in Iran from 1975 to 1979, but was forced to resign after the 1979 revolution because the ayatollahs decided women were too emotional and irrational to hold such positions.
Dr Ebadi, who received a standing ovation for her call for world peace, said in her mind, one could be a Muslim and also respect human rights.
"Problems arise when a group of fundamentalists close their eyes to the evolution of the world and are unwilling to reassess their value standards. They consider outside changes to be nothing but an illusion," she said. "They have stuck with persistence to their aged traditions and look on the world through the eyes of their ancestors and wish to solve today's problems with an outdated knowledge of yesterday.
Dr Ebadi lamented "horrific events" in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon. "Peace between Palestine and Israel can only be enduring if both countries accept and recognise that two separate and autonomous states of Palestine and Israel can co-exist," she said.
It has been many months since I posted here. Time away to not only help me manage an extremely busy career, but to provide support to my husband who has not been well but more importantly time for me to step back and reflect on what is happening around me. 
Would you consider signing the attached petition to raise the plight of Sami al-Haj a cameraman whose imprisonment by U.S. forces has gone largely ignored in the corporate media. Al Jazeera, Sami al-Haj has been jailed without charge at Guantanamo for the past six years. There is no evidence that supports the detention of this man. 
It has been a while since I last posted. Like so many others my life is a 'merry-go-round', never enough time to do all of things I want to do. I have managed however to keep up with my reading and research and I want ask a question 
In one week we have lost two of our treasured sons – Steve Irwin & Peter Brock. To say Australians are stunned would be an understatement. There is a pervading feeling of gloom and loss. The outpouring of emotion is intense. We just cannot believe this has happened.