Social Cause 01 (Jul 08 - Jul 15)

[winston]

Exiled Chinese author recounts prison 'hell'

AFP - Liao Yiwu clearly recalls the moment when he first stepped into a Chinese jail. He was stripped naked by inmates who then searched his anus with chopsticks -- the beginning of a four-year prison ordeal.

"I only stayed naked in front of everyone six to seven minutes, but I felt I had lost all dignity," the author and poet said about the start of his 1990 imprisonment after the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen pro-democracy protests.

More than two decades on and despite intense police obstruction, the 650-page account of those four years -- a rare depiction of life in a Chinese jail -- has finally come out in France after first being published in Germany and Taiwan.

The book was a long time in the making and has come at huge personal cost. Faced with the threat of more prison if he had it published abroad, the 54-year-old decided to flee China in 2011, leaving his mother and others behind.

"They were watching my emails and they knew I was in touch with editors in Germany and Taiwan," he said at the launch of "For a song, for a 100 songs" in Paris.

"They said I couldn't publish the book, and if I did, they would put me in prison again, this time for at least 10 years... The German and Taiwan editors got worried about my safety and they pushed back the publication date.

"All in all, they pushed it back three times. The third time, I decided to escape."

http://www.france24.com/en/20130117-exi ... rison-hell

[winston]

Ten jailed for detaining petitioners

A Beijing court has handed jail time to 10 people for illegally detaining petitioners, Xinhua news agency reported.

The court had heard that the ten people detained petitioners from central Henan province who traveled to Beijing, hoping to submit their complaints to the central government. But the petitions were often stopped by local government officials and locked them up in hostels.

The ten were sentenced to six months to two years.

Source: The Standard HK

[winston]

What a waste of lives

Nepal police report 100th Tibet self-immolation bid

AFP - A Tibetan man is in critical condition after setting himself on fire in Nepal, police said, the 100th self-immolation bid since 2009, according to a toll by Tibet's exiled government.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130213-nep ... lation-bid

[winston]

China village defies officials to demand democracy

AFP - Villagers in southern China were locked in a stand-off with authorities Sunday and were demanding democratic polls after a violent clash with thugs linked to a local official over a land transfer.

Just over a week ago, residents of Shangpu in Guangdong province fought with scores of attackers whom they claimed were sent by the village communist party chief and a business tycoon after they protested against a land deal.


http://www.france24.com/en/20130303-chi ... emocracy-0

[winston]

Nurse: Good morning Mr. Smith, you seem to be coughing much more easily this morning.

Mr. Smith: That’s because I’ve been practicing all night.

[winston]

U.N. investigator urges U.S. to pursue Bush-era abuses By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations investigator called on the United States on Monday to publish its findings on the CIA's Bush-era program of rendition and secret detention of terrorism suspects.

Ben Emmerson, U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, voiced concern that while President Barack Obama's administration has rejected Central Intelligence Agency practices conducted under his predecessor George W. Bush, there have been no prosecutions.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/ ... mesticNews

[winston]

Many people are wanting to fan your flames of discomfort, because they believe that "you're either with us or against us; if you don't stand in the same disgust and horror that we are all standing, then you are not with us."

It's hard for people to understand that you can not agree with them — and not be against them.

That you could be for something without being against something else.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Orlando, FL on Saturday, December 15th, 2001 # 4


Source: www.abraham-hicks.com

[winston]

Trillions pocketed from land grabs

Authorities have made nearly US$5 trillion (HK$39 trillion) by selling land confiscated from farmers to developers over the years, an economist claims.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 30326&fc=2

[winston]

Trillions pocketed from land grabs

Authorities have made nearly US$5 trillion (HK$39 trillion) by selling land confiscated from farmers to developers over the years, an economist claims.

By law, officials may provide compensation worth up to 30 times the value of the land's output, but in practice they have skimped on payments or foregone them altogether - then sold the land to developers at much higher rates.

Wu Jinglian, an economist at the Development Research Center of the State Council, the Cabinet, said: "Some [government] agencies have earned around 30 trillion yuan, by conservative estimates, from land price spreads in the urbanization campaign over the past decades."

The 30 trillion yuan figure equates to HK$37.5 trillion at current exchange rates.

Wu, a former adviser to Zhu Rongji, premier in 1998-2003, made the remarks at an economic forum at the weekend.


Source: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

[winston]

"Only free people can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end, and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own."

-- Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States