what the heck IS gawker? i think i like it, but i’ll decide in a little bit
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Day: February 2, 2010
oh so THAT’s why…
Thousands Dying Because Haitian Slaves ‘Swore a Pact with the Devil’ for Their Freedom
Galactically vile Christian cleric Pat Robertson told his CBN viewers today that Haitians are “cursed” because their ancestors “swore a pact with the devil” to liberate themselves from the French in 1804. “True story.”
What else would he say? Robertson can’t let human suffering pass without finding a way to insinuate that God did it deliberately because he hates gay people, black people, Catholics, or whatever other poor dying sap he can find to cruelly mock and use to his own political and fundraising advantage.
In the wake of 9/11, he hosted Jerry Falwell on his show, The 700 Club, to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ by saying “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way” bore responsibility for the attacks and resulting deaths. Robertson nodded in agreement at his guest, adding that “we have sinned against Almighty God, at the highest level of our government, we’ve stuck our finger in your eye…. The Supreme Court has insulted you over and over again, Lord. They’ve taken your Bible away from the schools. They’ve forbidden little children to pray. They’ve taken the knowledge of God as best they can, and organizations have come into court to take the knowledge of God out of the public square of America.”
After Katrina, Robertson consulted his soothsaying cross and determined that God killed 1,000 or so poor black people because they got too many abortions: “Have we found we are unable somehow to defend ourselves against some of the attacks that are coming against us, either by terrorists or now by natural disaster? Could they be connected in some way?” He went on to hope that the confirmation of John Roberts as chief justice to the Supreme Court could forestall further carnage.
Pat Robertson is as hateful and seized by superstition as any Taliban mullah with a knot in his forehead from obsessively banging it into a prayer mat. The motivation for this latest proclamation is no doubt the fact that about half the people in Haiti practice voodoo, an amalgam of Catholicism and African animism that dates to the importation of West African slaves there in the 16th century, and that was common to the slaves who whose uprising against their French owners eventually became the Haitian Revolution. For a more nuanced explication Haiti’s Satanic provenance—”Government Of The Devil, By The Devil, And For The Devil”—go here.
So because the people of Haiti practice a different religion from Robertson—about which everything he knows he learned from watching The Serpent and the Rainbow—it follows that their historic liberation in a bloody war must have been the result of a negotiation with a malevolent supernatural being who intervenes in worldly affairs. And every tragedy that has befallen their ancestors since has been deliberately directed at them by an all-powerful and loving god who wants to kill them, repeatedly, because they gained freedom by striking a deal with his enemy.
Who’s the fucking witch doctor?
UPDATE: A spokesman for Robertson e-mailed Politico’s Ben Smith to helpfully explain that “countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries…believe the country is cursed,” so Robertson was relying on sound scholarly research in tracing the cataclysmic earthquake to a well-documented pact with Satan that the people of Haiti entered into at the turn of the 19th century.
On today’s The 700 Club, during a segment about the devastation, suffering and humanitarian effort that is needed in Haiti, Dr. Robertson also spoke about Haiti’s history. His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed.
Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath.
If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster. They have sent a shipment of millions of dollars worth of medications that is now in Haiti, and their disaster team leaders are expected to arrive tomorrow and begin operations to ease the suffering.
Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution
http://openlibrary.org/b/OL4183354M/Bangladesh_The_Unfinished_Revolution
Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution
by Lawrence Lifschultz
Published in 1979, Zed Press (London)
Published in 1979, Zed Press (London)
Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution
| Contributions: | Bird, Kai. |
| works: | Bangladesh, the unfinished revolution |
| By statement: | [by] Lawrence Lifschultz. |
| Series: | Asia series ;, no 2 |
| Language: | English |
| Pagination: | [4], ix, 211 p. ; |
| ISBN 10: | 090576207X |
| LCCN: | 80461433 |
| Dewey: | 954.9/205 |
| LC: | DS395.5 .L53 |
| Subject: | Rahman, Ziaur. Taher, Abu, d. 1976. Bangladesh — Politics and government — 1971- |
hey it’s the MONKEYLUV guy! I love this guy.
http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_uniqueness_of_humans.html
Robert Sapolsky: The uniqueness of humans
About this talk
At Stanford University, primatologist Robert Sapolsky offers a fascinating and funny look at human behaviors which the rest of the animal kingdom would consider bizarre.
About Robert Sapolsky
Robert Sapolsky studies the universal human ailment of stress, but his main research subjects are the wild baboons of Kenya. Full bio and more links
Quake death toll may top 100,000: Haitian PM
The real question is–WHY are there NINE MILLION (super impoverished) humans on half an island that small? Why? Do take note–if this island was UNINHABITED, no one would care when the ground shook. Roll that around your head for a second.
“Haiti quake could affect 3 million: officialHead of UN peacekeeping mission, 15 peacekeepers reportedly among dead”
Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN Wednesday the death toll from the earthquake that rocked his country could be “well over 100,000.”
The 7.0-magnitude quake struck Tuesday afternoon, and has left Port-au-Prince, the capital city, in ruins.
View Haiti Earthquake in a larger map
Haiti contacts
Canadians with family in Haiti can call the Foreign Affairs Emergency Operations Centre in Ottawa at 800-387-3124, 613-943-1055, or email sos@international.gc.ca. Canadians in Haiti can get in touch with Canadian Embassy officials in Port-au-Prince by calling 613-996-8885.
No official casualty numbers have been released yet.
Haitian President René Préval told the Miami Herald Wednesday he has been stepping over dead bodies and estimated thousands of people were killed.
He said Bellerive’s projection may be high because it was based on the extent of the destruction rather than firm counts of the dead.
“We have to do an evaluation,” Préval said, describing the scene as “unimaginable.”
“All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe,” he said.
“Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,” he told the paper. “There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.”
How to Help
To help those affected by the earthquake, here’s a list of organizations accepting donations.
Shattered communication systems in the Caribbean country made it impossible to immediately determine the number of casualties from the Tuesday afternoon quake, but an International Red Cross official estimated that three million people in the impoverished country of nine million may have been affected and could need emergency aid.
UN supplies funding
People gather in the street after an earthquake levelled many buildings and houses in Port-au-Prince Tuesday. (Jorge Cruz/Associated Press)
Paul Conneally said it would take a day or two to get a clear picture of the number of dead and injured, as well as the damage.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed for massive aid for Haiti and announced that the United Nations is releasing $10 million US from its emergency funds.
“There is no doubt that we are facing a major humanitarian-assistance emergency and that a major relief effort will be required,” he said.
Ban said the earthquake has had a devastating impact on Port-au-Prince, while other areas of Haiti appear to be largely unaffected.
“Buildings and infrastructure were heavily damaged throughout the capital. Basic services such as water, electricity, have collapsed almost entirely,” he said.
Aftershocks also continued to rattle the capital.
Scores of injured people lay in the streets of Port-au-Prince early Wednesday as aid groups around the world prepared to provide disaster relief.
A map showing the epicentre of the quake. (CBC)
Simon Schorno, a spokesman with the International Committee of the Red Cross, told The Associated Press that finding and rescuing survivors will be a priority, and aid workers will also help hospitals cope with casualties and establish clean water sources.
He said the 7.0-magnitude quake had caused “massive destruction in all the main neighbourhoods” of Port-au-Prince.
“Haitian Red Cross staff are trying to do what they can but are completely overwhelmed, so there’s no structured response at this point.”
Officials feared hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people were killed in the quake. The National Palace was badly damaged and thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed.
The UN also reported Wednesday that the main prison in Port-au-Prince had collapsed and an unknown number of inmates escaped.
Countries pledge millions in aid
Worldwide relief efforts have begun in earnest, with countries pledging to provide aid, including rescue workers, doctors and supplies.
U.S. President Barack Obama promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort, adding that the U.S. commitment to its hemispheric neighbour will be unwavering.
“We have to be there for them in their hour of need,” Obama said.
Aid pledges to Haiti |
|
| Country | Pledge |
| Canada | $5 million |
| European Commission | $4.52 million |
| Spain | $4.52 million |
| The Netherlands | $3 million |
| Germany | $2.3 million |
| China | $1.03 million |
A Homeland Security official also said the U.S. will halt the deportation of Haitians who are living illegally in the country in light of the earthquake. Those who were to be deported to Haiti will remain in U.S. detention centres for now.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada “stands ready to provide any necessary assistance to the people of Haiti during this time of need.”
The government will deploy the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) — Canada’s team of 200 Canadian Forces personnel, which provides help to areas affected by disaster for up to 40 days.
A 20-member reconnaissance team is due to land in Haiti on Wednesday afternoon to determine how best to assist the country, said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon.
Other nations — from Iceland to Venezuela — said they would start sending aid workers and rescue teams. Cuba said its existing field hospitals in Haiti had already treated hundreds of victims. The United Nations said Port-au-Prince’s main airport was “fully operational” and open to relief flights.
Haiti by the numbers |
|
| Population | Slightly more than nine million, 95% black, 5% white or mixed-race |
| Median age | Just over 20 years |
| Fertility rate | 3.81 children born/woman |
| Life expectancy | About 61 years |
| People living with AIDS | 120,000 (2007) |
| AIDS deaths | 7,200 Haitians (2007) |
| Literacy | 53% |
| (Source: CIA World Factbook) | |
The quake struck at 4:53 p.m., centred 16 kilometres west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of eight kilometres, the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti, on the island of Hispaniola.
The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said Tom Jordan, a quake expert at the University of Southern California. The quake’s power and proximity to Port-au-Prince likely caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.
“It’s going to be a real killer,” he said.
This image released by the U.S. Geological Survey shows a shake map of the Haiti area, prepared Tuesday. (U.S. Geological Survey/Associated Press)
Most of Haiti’s people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability, the country has no basic construction standards.
Tuesday’s quake was also felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, but no major damage was reported. In eastern Cuba, houses shook, but there appeared to be no significant damage.
Caribbean earthquakes
Jan. 12, 2010: Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Magnitude: 7.0. Widespread damage as epicentre of quake was 15 kilometres outside the capital. Number of dead unknown.
Nov. 29, 2007: Martinique region, Windward Islands. Magnitude: 7.4. Quake destroyed buildings, and much of the island lost electricity. One person died.
Oct. 8, 1974: Leeward Islands. Magnitude: 7.5. Damage was minimal, and no one died because the epicentre was far enough from any inhabited island.
Aug. 4, 1946: Samana, Dominican Republic. Magnitude: 8.1. Quake and resulting tsunami killed 1,600
Oct. 11, 1918: Northwestern Mona Passage, Puerto Rico. Magnitude: 7.5. Quake killed 116 people and caused $4 million in property damage.
Feb. 8, 1843: Leeward Islands. Magnitude: 8.5. At least 5,000 people died in a quake felt from St. Kitts to Dominica. This was the largest earthquake to hit the eastern Caribbean. In Antigua, the English Harbour sank.
May 2, 1787: Puerto Rico. Magnitude: 8.0. Possibly the strongest earthquake to hit the region. It caused widespread damage across Puerto Rico.
June 7, 1692: Port Royal, Jamaica. Magnitude: unknown. Quake killed 2,000 people. Much of the city slipped into the ocean.
the soap opera of sports
Bruce Dowbiggin
Published on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010 10:29AM EST Last updated on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010 9:57PM EST
The NHL mandates that dressing rooms be open 10 minutes after games for reporters to get quotes. It then ensures that the players who talk to sweaty scribes will say nada by fining anyone who deviates from the accepted script about refereeing, opponents and fans.
The latest to discover this home truth is Alexandre Burrows of Vancouver, who exercised his free-speech rights on Monday. The Canucks’ fiery winger said referee Stephane Auger had promised to punish him during the Canucks’ game against Nashville for embarrassing Auger earlier in the season. As both men speak French, it’s hard to see how this explosive accusation was lost in translation. It wasn’t lost on Canucks nation, which is seething over phantom calls and a costly loss to Nashville.
While a wonderful thing, the U.S. First Amendment does not protect NHL players from the commissioner’s wrath when they intimate that referees can be capricious. Even if the vendetta claim sounds a lot like Tim Donaghy’s accusations against his fellow NBA refs, Gary “Nothing To See Here” Bettman has targeted the excitable Burrows. Burrows was be given a chance to defend himself, then was hanged, drawn and quartered for media amusement and a $2500 fine. Auger, meanwhile, will be dealt with in the secret dungeon where the NHL buries embarrassments such as these. Then sworn to silence.
The league will subsequently announce that their crack investigators found nothing, absolutely nothing to substantiate Burrows’s charges stemming from the two-lap conversation caught on tape before Monday’s game. (To do otherwise would torch the Chinese lantern of league integrity.) After the heady whiff of candour from Burrows, reporters will be expected to return to printing banalities about puck possession, check finishing and commitment levels.
The final word on the validity of Burrows claims against Auger debate fell to the Predators own announcers. After watching Auger deliver his team another power play in the third (one of six), even Preds TV announcer Terry Crisp publicly concluded that this ain’t no way to play hockey.
Who’s The Best: If you want start a dandy argument, get Canadian baseball fans to debate who was the better announcer: Dave Van Horne or the late Tom Cheek. Both men – along with Jacques Doucet – are once again nominees for the Hall of Fame’s Ford Frick Award honouring contributions to broadcasting in baseball. The 2010 winner will be named early next month, and there is anticipation that either Van Horne or Cheek will finally get the nod after lengthy careers.
Deciding which of the two men should get there first is a matter of taste– and geography. Expos fans naturally lean to Van Horne while Blue Jays supporters think it’s time for Cheek to be recognized. You like chocolate, we like vanilla.
Van Horne (who’s now calling Florida Marlins games) was the English voice of the Montreal Expos on radio and (sometimes) TV from their inception in April of 1969 till his move in 2004 to Florida. To long-suffering Expos fans who saw just one postseason appearance and a bitter exit from Montreal, Van Horne was as much the soul of their team as any of its Hall of Fame players. Like a valued relative, he was there to console, explain and humour fans of the misbegotten team for 35 years.
Like today’s hot announcing property, Dan Shulman, Van Horne has killer pipes. In Montreal, he seamlessly poured out statistics, anecdotes and (occasional) criticism next to an assortment of Expos side men that started with Russ Taylor and included Duke Snider, Ken Singleton, Jerry Trupiano and Tommy Hutton. The mark of Van Horne’s skill, say fans, was his ability to take raw commodities such as Snider and Singleton and develop them into effective analysts.
Witty, knowledgeable and steady, Van Horne’s greatest liability was the anonymity of working in Montreal and Florida and calling so few postseason games. There were also the occasional episodes with hair pieces, but on radio… not such a big deal.
Cheek’s iconic “Touch ‘em all, Joe, you’ll never hit a bigger home run” demonstrates the power of events to propel an announcer’s legend. And Cheek put his own stamp on the two Blue Jays World Series winners. The inaugural Blue Jays voice, Cheek – who died in 2005– had the benefit of just two principal radio side kicks – Early Wynn and Jerry Howarth. But Cheek was more like Bob Cole or Vin Scully, a voice who was better working alone. His genial approach took him through an amazing 4,306 consecutive regular season games and 41 postseason games.
The knock against Cheek was a lack of specificity that baseball fans crave. He often referred to positions rather than player (“There’s a ground ball to shortstop, over to first for the out” instead of “Ground ball to Griffin, over to Upshaw, out at first”.) It was noticeable next to the meticulous Howarth, who blankets his casts with detail and statistics. But Cheek has plenty of admirers– especially with fellow media types in Toronto that will help his candidacy.
As one who cut his teeth on Van Horne in Montreal, Usual Suspects would like to see Van Horne honoured first. But the Hall will hardly go wrong with either man.
Roid Rage At NBC: When Mark McGwire finally fessed up on Monday to his ‘roiding ways Usual Suspects thought that The Church Ladies of the sporting press would be in high dudgeon. Seeking a way back into baseball, McGwire admitted the obvious to start clearing his name. But having expended themselves when McGwire did his Congressional fan dance in 2005 (and seeing subsequent steroid users come forth), the media had trouble working up enthusiasm for the kill shot. Resignation probably sums up the general mood of press voices commenting on the belated confession.
Not so NBC news anchor Brian Williams, who led his cast Monday with a highly personal stab at McGwire. “Good evening,” said Williams, casting aside the mantle of objectivity. “Because this is a family broadcast, we probably can’t say what we’d like to about the news today that Mark McGwire—the home run hitter, the family favourite from the St. Louis Cardinals—stopped lying today and admitted that he did it while on steroids.
“For those of us who were raising young baseball fans and baseball players who looked up to Mark McGwire, that summer of ‘98 was magical stuff, as he and Sammy Sosa vied back and forth for the title of Single Season Home Run King. He didn’t tell the truth to Congress or to his fans until finally, formally coming clean today. He’s been unable to get into the Hall of Fame and, apparently—even for him—the shame here was too much.”
What did Lyndon Johnson say about losing Walter Cronkite meant losing the country? We think baseball just lost his piece of the USA when Williams went off-script in his comments.
Reds Faced: Finally, how to win fans and influence public opinion starring Tom Hicks, Jr., a director of financially struggling Liverpool FC. The son of the Dallas Stars’ owner Tom Hicks was feeling a bit testy when a local media critic suggested he couldn’t manage a chip shop, let alone the Merseyside lads. One fan of the Reds sent the offending article to Hicks Jr. for comment. Employing time-tested PR sensitivity, Hicks told the e-mailer to “blow me, f*** face.”
Having had a few hours to reflect after hitting the send button, Hicks the younger tried to apologize. “Stephen, I apologize for losing my temper and using bad language with you. It was a knee-jerk reaction. Tommy.” Nice try. After the initial response went viral, Hicks Jr. resigned from the football club. Darn, we were just starting to make progress, doctor.
Is Avatar weighed down by white man’s burden?
Europeans DID take over the world… Even if the movie is a retelling of that, why is that racist? You can’t CHANGE history. White folk came, killed, raped, and conquered. So?
January 12, 2010
Linda Barnard
Director James Cameron on the set of “Avatar.”
MARK FELLMAN/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
Some movie fans are crying the blues about Avatar, claiming James Cameron’s billion-dollar blockbuster is racist.
What started out as a few online comments exploded into a cyber phenomenon Monday, hitting Google’s top 10 searched items as writers and bloggers weighed in on whether the film about a white solider who helps the 3-metre-tall, blue-skinned Na’vi people fight a human invasion of their planet is racist.
“I think it is racist, in the same way I see (racism) in Dances With Wolves,” said blogger, author and York University student Orville Lloyd Douglas.
Douglas posted about the issue on his blog, GayBlackCanadianman and said he first became aware of the controversy through British blogger Will Heaven, who decried Avatar‘s “racist subtext” on the London Telegraph website in late December.
“The movie is another one of those white-saviour movies,” Douglas added.
In Dances With Wolves (1990), Kevin Costner plays a white soldier who assimilates with a Sioux tribe and ultimately saves those who were unable to protect themselves from the invading U.S. Army.
What’s raised the hackles of the Avatar critics is the central plot about the American military’s plan to invade the planet of Pandora to mine a priceless mineral deposit under the most sacred site to the native Na’vi.
The army sends in a soldier in the blue-skinned avatar identity as of one of the Na’vi in an attempt to win them over. He becomes a sympathizer and bonds with the natives, eventually helping them fight back. The fact a white man is sent in to save the day for natives unable to help themselves isn’t lost on Avatar‘s detractors.
Actress Robinne Lee (Seven Pounds), who is of black and Chinese ancestry, told the Associated Press the movie has echoes of Hollywood’s version of the Pocahontas story – “the Indian woman leads the white man into the wilderness, and he learns the way of the people and becomes the saviour.
“It’s really upsetting in many ways,” added Lee, who does not appear in Avatar. “It would be nice if we could save ourselves.”
Simone Browne, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Toronto resident, believes Cameron was aware these issues would spark debate.
“It was very deliberate in its design and I don’t think we can dismiss it as innocent,” said Browne.
“I think it may be racist in its effects, because it is still containing the same old tropes about the white man’s burden.”
Michael Zryd, associate professor of film at York University, isn’t convinced the movie is racist, but he sympathizes with the argument.
“I understand where the critique is coming from, while I disagree with it,” he said.
“He still has the white man coming in to save the day,” observed Zryd. “It’s kind of a no-win situation for Cameron.”
Critics also complained that non-white actors play the five key Na’vi roles. The man who rescues them, played by actor Sam Worthington, is white.
For his part, writer/director Cameron said in an email to AP that his film “asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message.”
The debate extended far beyond movie websites. A golf blog, Party of Fore, put talk about greens aside to discuss white and blue.
“The movie clearly stereotypes Smurfs,” sniffed a blogger.
With files from the Associated Press
“Where Is Atheism When Bad Things Happen? -Dinesh D’Souza
“Notice something interesting about the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings? Atheists are nowhere to be found. Every time there is a public gathering there is talk of God and divine mercy and spiritual healing. Even secular people like the poet Nikki Giovann…i use language that is heavily drenched with religious symbolism and meaning. The atheist writer Richard Dawkins has observed that according to the findings of modern science, the universe has all the properties of a system that is utterly devoid of meaning. The main characteristic of the universe is pitiless indifference. Dawkins further argues that we human beings are simply agglomerations of molecules, assembled into functional units over millennia of natural selection, and as for the soul–well, that’s an illusion! To no one’s surprise, Dawkins has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community. What this tells me is that if it’s difficult to know where God is when bad things happen, it is even more difficult for atheism to deal with the problem of evil. The reason is that in a purely materialist universe, immaterial things like good and evil and souls simply do not exist. For scientific atheists like Dawkins, Cho’s shooting of all those people can be understood in this way–molecules acting upon molecules.If this is the best that modern science has to offer us, I think we need something more than modern science.” —-Dinesh D’Souza
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2007/04/18/where-is-atheism-when-bad-things-happen/
Tribal Interloper 