Todays Top Storiesddd
Friday, May 23, 2003
- Ignoble peace prize
Blush and Bare nominated for Nobel death prize
http://news.awse.com/06-Feb-2002/Entertainment/8104.htm
Hitler wins it in 1941
http://news.awse.com/06-Feb-2002/Entertainment/8104.htm
SEE HERE FOR ANTI BUSH-BLAIR PETITION
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/302184339
And this, orginally at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,900496,00.html
Given the fact that previous nominees include Adolf Hitler and Henry Kissinger, can anyone take the Nobel Peace Prize seriously, asks Paul Hamilos
Friday February 21, 2003
Which word connects Bono, the European Union, Jacques Chirac and George Bush? Peace, apparently. It has been announced that they have all been nominated, by the rather convoluted method by which these things are done, for this year’s prize.
Of course, this raises a number of questions: not least, who would pick up the prize if the European Union won it? And on whose mantelpiece would it find a home?
Added to this, we are not even two months into the new year, and Jimmy Carter is still basking in the glory of last year’s award. How can anyone put forward either Chirac or Bush?
With the war in Iraq not even started yet, it seems odd that the two are in the running. Putting aside the hawk’s view of the French president and the dove’s view of Bush, the idea that either of them is promoting world peace seems not only ludicrous but also an offence to the meaning of the word. Have those responsible for sending these nominations to the Nobel institute misplaced their dictionaries?
But then, this is nothing new for the Nobel peace prize. After all, Adolf Hitler was in the running in 1938. Yes, that’s 1938, not 1933 - after the persecution of the Jews had been established under the Nuremberg laws. This was also the same year in which Gandhi was nominated, although the committee agreed that he didn’t deserve recognition. Alfred Nobel, incidentally, also invented dynamite.
And there was also the famous comment by the American songwriter Tom Lehrer, who believed that “political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize”.
In 1973, Kissinger, then the US secretary of state, was jointly honoured with his Vietnamese counterpart, Le Duc Tho, for their roles in negotiating the Vietnam peace accord.
There was a certain irony in this, as Kissinger is accused of deliberately scuppering the peace talks in 1968, leading to the unnecessary prolongation of an already pointless war. His “peace efforts” in Cambodia, Chile, Cyprus, Bangladesh and East Timor also failed to win universal praise. Le Duc Tho, quite understandably, declined to accept the award.
The Nobel peace prize, however, is not just for old war criminals. In 2001, Swedish MP Lars Gustafsson nominated football. All right, the beautiful game didn’t win, but what was he thinking? Surely such a prize can only be awarded for deliberate actions made by sentient beings (and whatever you think of David Beckham, nobody would accuse him of being that).
You might cite the famous Christmas Day match between German and English soldiers stuck in the trenches during world war one as an example of football’s unifying qualities. A brief look at the history books shows, however, that that particular game did not bring war to an end and that the sharing of half-time oranges failed to prevent them from killing each other a day later.
What is particularly startling about the peace prize is just how many of its recipients have been men, generally regarded as more the more bloodthirsty of the sexes. Of the 110 prizes that have been awarded, a dismal 10 have gone to women, including Mother Teresa (1979) and Aung San Suu Kyi (1991).
As these awards were met with far less outrage than that which greeted some of the male winners, it leads one to wonder why it is that men, who usually opt for war, are the ones who have generally gained the plaudits for peace.
The prize was inspired by Alfred Nobel’s secretary, Bertha von Suttner, who was nominated four times (nothing to do, of course, with Alfred being deeply in love with her) and was the first female winner in 1905.
But, despite the abundance of potential female winners that followed her, from the suffragettes to the feminist movement, we still prefer to congratulate the men for their efforts. Perhaps it is because society sees women as inherently peaceful creatures and that any man who has overcome his natural inclination to maim and slaughter is immediately deserving of some kind of award.
So where does that leave us in 2003? With a multi-millionaire Irish pop star; a French president who is stalling over Iraq for reasons of self-interest; an American leader whose peace credentials are at best dubious, at worst non-existent; and an institution, the EU, that is being torn apart by the upcoming war.
So, who should be in the running? Well, taking the lead from the Kissinger-Tho Le Duc award, I go for the Iraqi foreign secretary, Tariq Aziz, and his US counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld.
We may have to put up with a bloody, murderous war beforehand, but if these two can sit around a table before the end of the year to sign a peace treaty, surely they’re a shoo-in?
-Multimedia source for real info on U.S. invasion of Iraq
Introducing Pepperface
Pepperface was created to provide a multimedia source for real information regarding the US invasion of Iraq. We will continue to update this forum with information on the US continued occupation of Iraq, analysis of the media role in the US occupation of America, and anything else which may be of interest.
Further down the page you’ll find alternatives to the calculated idiocy aimed at social inebriates, which blathers out the television in a continual stream. We’ve provided links to online news broadcasts, media analysis programs, micro-radio stations, reports from people in Iraq, realtime video of Baghdad, IndyMedia sites, and other alternative news resources.
-GREENPEACE FILES MEDICAL ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST SENATOR FRIST FOR BLACKMAIL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May, 19, 2003
Frist AIDS Bill Suggests Medicine Could Be Denied to African Nations If They Refuse Genetically Engineered Food Aid
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Greenpeace filed a complaint today with the State of Tennessee calling for an ethics investigation of Senator Bill Frist’s AIDS bill. The bill suggests withholding AIDS medications from African nations if they refuse to accept genetically engineered (GE) food aid. The Greenpeace complaint calls for the state to investigate and take disciplinary action, including calling for a formal public hearing, sanctioning Frist (a medical doctor), and revoking his license to practice medicine.
“While we strongly support this essential spending assistance for AIDS sufferers, Dr. Frist’s attempt to use African AIDS patients for unrelated political goals is reprehensible,” said Charles Margulis from Greenpeace. In threatening to withhold AIDS medication because certain African governments refuse to accept untested gene-altered foods, Senator Frist is practicing medical blackmail.
The Greenpeace complaint cites the codes of medical ethics of several U.S. medical societies, including those of the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians. Referring to these codes, the Greenpeace complaint cites three areas of ethical violations: Violations of Physician Responsibilities to Patients and Society; Violations of Physician’s Responsibility Regarding Informed Consent and Avoiding Coercion; and Violations of Physician’s Responsibility Regarding Conflicts of Interest.
In the complaint, Greenpeace explains Dr. Frist is attempting to coerce African nations into accepting food by suggesting that it could be tied to receipt of AIDS prevention funding. Such action flies in the face of the physician’s duty to protect and foster free, uncoerced choices&Dr. Frist’s attempt to blackmail AIDS patients is despicable and should be strongly censured.
The text of the Frist bill reads: “Although the United States is willing to provide food assistance to these countries in need, a few of the countries object to part or all of the assistance because of fears of benign genetic modifications to the foods. It is therefore the sense of Congress that United States food assistance should be accepted by countries with large populations of individuals infected or living with HIV/AIDS, particularly African countries, in order to help feed such individuals.”
Listed as witnesses in support of the Greenpeace complaint are the Global Aids Alliance, the Society of Women Against AIDS in Africa, and the Center for Environmental Health.
CONTACT: Charles Margulis, Greenpeace (202) 413-8512 (cell); Alisa Arnett, Greenpeace Media, 415-255-9221 x330.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
-Police Attacks Against Activists, Indymedia in St. Louis and Urbana-Champaign
The other day we announced the Biodevastation 7 events, that were planned for St. Louis, Missouri from May 16 - 18:
http://tokyoprogressive.org/news/tpnews_comments.php?id=P437_0_2_0_C
We also had this story about Monsanto’s Roundup Ready in Denmark’s drinking water:
http://tokyoprogressive.org/news/tpnews_comments.php?id=P453_0_2_0_C
Well, now this from Indymedia.org:
“On May 16-17 in St. Louis police initiated a severe crackdown on activists during the protests against the pro-biotech World Agricultural Forum and concurrent Biodevastation 7 conference. The Biodev 7 conference, which was addressing issues of environmental racism, world agriculture and biowarfare, went on successfuly despite the heavy police presence. On May 16, St. Louis police - backed by federal agents - raided the Community Arts and Media Project (CAMP), home of the St. Louis IMC, and the Bolozone, a collective housing project, in anticipation of the Biodevastation conference and expected protests at the WAF. Police arrested protesters and non-protersers alike, without any provocation. The Secret Service illegaly entered one person’s home and later harassed his parents as well. St. Louis IMC is asking for support and for support of all those unjustly arrested.
At the same time that police were preparing the downtown area, on a public online forum called St. Louis Coptalk (SLC), police expressed a willful desire to harm peaceful protesters. One officer wrote, “Is it true we’re going to be issued the new tazers before next weekend?” and another replied, “I want that 220 Volt model that blows the teeth out of their head, just before they crap their pants.” The posts were soon removed from the web forum but Coptalk is still online.
Additionally,the Urbana-Champaign IMC performance space has been temporarily shut down by the city of Urbana for alleged fire code violations. “
The full stories are here:
http://indymedia.org/archive/features/current#8875
-’Love of country’ curriculum hit
Japan Times
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030513b5.htm
By GARY SCHAEFER
The Associated Press
Few schools in Japan are complying with government guidelines suggesting that students be graded on how patriotic they are—and those that have face opposition from teachers, parents and citizens’ groups.
“Fostering love of country” was added as a curriculum goal for sixth-grade social studies classes under guidelines first approved by the education ministry for the school year that ended last month.
Patriotism here is often associated with the jingoism trumpeted by Japan’s militarist government and forced upon students in the decades leading up to this country’s defeat in World War II.
The nonmandatory guidelines suggested that teaching patriotism would encourage children to take pride in their history and culture.
But according to a recent survey by a Japanese newspaper, less than 200 of Japan’s 24,000 public elementary schools are complying. Parents and citizens’ groups are protesting, and a spokesman for the nation’s largest teachers union said in an interview that he questioned the constitutionality of the guidelines.
“The freedom of belief is guaranteed by the Constitution and applies to children as well,” said Shinji Furukawa, a spokesman for the Japan Teachers’ Union. “We think it is very serious that this language has been included in the guidelines before the matter was debated by the Diet.”
Japan’s Asian neighbors, which bore the brunt of its past military adventures, have frequently criticized Tokyo for allowing wartime atrocities to be whitewashed in officially sanctioned textbooks.
Officials have defended the patriotism guidelines.
“The advisory council’s view was that it was important in international society for students to develop a sense of identity as Japanese,” education ministry official Yuiichi Sakashita said. “The idea is to teach kids to understand and appreciate their country and its history and traditions.”
The old curriculum for sixth graders called on teachers to foster a “love of Japan’s history and traditions.” The new version adds “love of country” to that list, Sakashita said.
A board of education official in the city of Fukuoka, where 51 elementary schools started giving grades for “love of country” in the last school year, said the decision had “nothing to do with nationalism.”
“We’re not grading students on how much they love their country,” Mamoru Shibata said. “It’s basically about how much interest they’re showing in their studies about Japanese history and culture.”
Such explanations have done little to placate critics.
“I think students are already taught enough about taking pride in their history and culture,” said Noriyoshi Mukoyama, principal of Tokyo’s Seisho Elementary School, one of the many schools that hasn’t added “love of country” to its report cards.
“I didn’t see any need to give a grade for that,” he said.
Schools implementing the grades have significant leeway in deciding what constitutes patriotism, since the ministry guidelines provide few specifics.
The very idea of having such classes is upsetting some parents.
“Who’s to say what patriotism is? How do you grade it?” asked Hiroaki Nakane, 49, whose daughter is a fifth-grader in Fukuoka. “The whole thing sounds like a return to the militaristic thinking in this country before the war.”
The matter is particularly complex for minorities, particularly the large Korean community. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, and many ethnic Koreans in Japan descended from workers brought here forcibly as laborers.
“How is a Japanese teacher supposed to grade a Korean on love for country?” said Lee Han Eun, 32, who runs a Korean citizens’ group. “We’re worried that this is part of a broader trend toward nationalism—not just a question of report cards.”
Also from Friday, October 18, 2002
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021018a8.htm
A government advisory panel on education has compiled draft amendments to the Fundamental Law of Education that call for nurturing children’s patriotism, morals and respect for Japanese culture, according to sources familiar with the panel’s discussions.
The Central Council for Education plans to hold subcommittee discussions on the draft on Oct. 24 before determining a rough plan on Oct. 30 for its interim report on the proposed amendments, the sources said on Wednesday.
The draft is to review the current 1947 “education constitution,” which emphasizes individual self-esteem and independence of children.
The draft says Japan’s education should aim to foster “tough” Japanese. It also calls for a new basic education law that would address the importance of education at home, lifetime education, and social volunteer work, according to the sources.
The draft does not say anything about changing the law’s preamble, which sets out the Constitution’s antiwar stance, or anything about reviewing Japan’s ban on religious education in public schools. The panel has not reached a consensus, the sources said.
The ministry earlier said it hopes to submit a bill to the Diet in 2003 that would amend the law after receiving suggestions from the council.
On Nov. 26, 2001, Atsuko Toyama, minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, asked the panel to recommend within a year whether it thought the law should be revised.
She told the council at that time to consider recommendations made in December 2000 by the National Commission on Educational Reform, a private advisory panel to then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
Mori’s panel proposed revisions focusing on points such as scientific and technological advancement, international coexistence, environmental problems, family education, respect for traditional culture, religious education and the need for a basic education promotion plan.
And from Thursday, October 10, 2002
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021010a4.htm
Korean group protests grades for patriotism
FUKUOKA (Kyodo) A Korean citizens’ group here is protesting a report card used at local municipal elementary schools that includes an evaluation of students’ Japanese patriotism, group members said Wednesday.
Lee Bak Sung, a lawyer and director of Woori Sahwe, which means “our society” in Korean, said such an evaluation could lead to discrimination against students with foreign citizenship.
The group’s leader, Chong Gi Man, submitted a written demand Wednesday to Fukuoka City Hall that the item be eliminated from report cards.
The group has also called on the Fukuoka Prefecture bar association for help and has demanded that the municipal board of education eliminate the evaluation, according to Lee.
“Children using their ethnic (Korean) names will be subject to discrimination and prejudice. It sends a message to Korean residents of Japan and other foreigners that they should engage in studies as a Japanese,” Lee said.
There are some 500,000 Koreans with permanent residency status in Japan, including many who were forced to come to Japan to work as laborers during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, as well as their descendants.
The Fukuoka City Board of Education said the section was among four items deemed worthy of evaluation in the field of social sciences when a committee of principals compiled a draft report card for use in fiscal 2002, which began in April.
Among the 147 municipal elementary schools in Fukuoka, 69 use the report card for sixth-grade students, board officials said.
The item allows teachers to evaluate whether children “cherish Japan’s history and traditions and have feelings of love toward the country, as well as try to identify themselves as Japanese in this world which aims for peace.”
Mamoru Shibata, an official of the Fukuoka board of education, said the issue should be considered flexibly in the future.
Meanwhile, an official of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry suggested that the policy for handling foreign students is left to each school.
“The nation’s education will focus on educating its citizens, but we must also naturally respect the identities of Korean residents of Japan and other (foreigners),” the official said. “Each school needs to decide how to care for foreign children.”
-PATRIOT GAME: Love marks
The Asahi Shimbun (http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2003050800188.html) This is the first installment of a three-part series on freedom of speech and patriotism in Japan.
An elementary school student in Fukuoka brought home a report card boasting straight A’s in social studies-except for one category. The lone blemish came because the student had not shown sufficient “love for Japan.’’
The student’s uncle, a lawyer of Korean ancestry, noticed an explanation on the new topic in his nephew’s first-term report card.
“In addition to having feelings of love for our nation and placing importance on history and traditions of the nation, an effort is made to possess a consciousness as a Japanese living with the hope for a peaceful world,’’ the explanation read.
Boiled down, it basically means students are being graded on their level of patriotism.
Elementary school students at 172 public schools in 11 prefectures are now evaluated on this new category, according to a national survey of sixth-graders’ report cards conducted by The Asahi Shimbun.
The patriotism category is apparently in response to new curriculum guidelines introduced in the 2002 school year that included the fostering of “feelings of love for one’s country’’ as an objective for sixth-grade social studies.
A mother in her 40s living in Maruoka, Fukui Prefecture, said she was stunned by the new report card brought home by her child.
“Why does `love for one’s nation’ have to be included at this stage?’’ she asked. “If evaluating the feelings of children spreads without the knowledge of parents and even the children themselves, it would be a throwback to the days before World War II.
“I am worried that the children will not speak out because of concerns that criticizing the central government or those in authority would lead to a lower grade,’’ she said.
The lawyer in Fukuoka questioned how it was possible to evaluate 11- and 12-year-olds on their love for their nation. The schools don’t seem to have a clear answer.
The lawyer asked the principal of the Fukuoka elementary school to eliminate the wording about patriotism, but the principal refused, saying the wording followed the education ministry’s guidelines.
The nephew’s “B’’ grade in patriotism was based on an overall evaluation of his interest and eagerness, according to the principal.
Sixty-three elementary schools in Fukuoka, or almost half of all that exist in the city, included a mark for “love for one’s nation’’ in their report cards. One teacher in charge of a sixth-grade class did not notice the peculiar wording of the new report card during a staff meeting when the draft of the report card was discussed.
But after the teacher realized what the draft report card meant, discussions were held with fellow sixth-grade teachers. They concluded that since it was impossible to grade the patriotism of students, everyone would be given a “B.’’
At other Fukuoka schools, efforts have been made to establish evaluation standards.
One elementary school in central Fukuoka is considered a model for others. The school set up an experimental class in social studies last June and allowed principals and teachers from other schools to observe. The topic of the class was the attempted Mongol invasions of Japan in the 13th century.
One student brought up the example of the Koryo dynasty in Korea and said that fighting to protect what was important was better than becoming a vassal state. Others said the problem could have been resolved through diplomatic negotiations.
The 37-year-old teacher wrapped up the talks by saying, “Regardless of whether you are in favor of or opposed to war, you all had the same feeling of wanting to protect Japan from invasion by a foreign nation.’’ Therefore, the teacher said, all students had feelings of love for Japan.
Grading on the category could be done by observing the students’ attitude, comments made and classroom notes, the teacher said.
The teacher also said that “feelings of love for one’s nation’’ could be fostered through research into the history and traditions of Japan, and that such love was similar to the love of the community and region where one was raised.
That line is similar to those espoused by Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and education ministers, who have argued that current legislation contains “no provisions on love of country and respect for tradition and culture.’’
The Central Council for Education in March called for such provisions to be included in the Fundamental Law of Education.
Teachers and parents, however, argued the government is simply trying to push through nationalistic reforms without thorough debate. Although the revisions have yet to be made, opponents fear it is already too late, considering the implementation of the curriculum guidelines.
The education board of Gyoda, Saitama Prefecture, created a committee that, together with teachers, came up with a revised report card that included “love for one’s nation’’ for all 15 elementary schools.
Another sixth-grade teacher who did not realize the change in the wording until after the draft was approved felt the patriotism reference should be eliminated, but said raising the subject a year after it was implemented is next to impossible.
In the spring of 2002, teachers from the three elementary schools in Ujitawara in Kyoto Prefecture met to compile a new report card. A principal at the meeting said: “If any change is made to education ministry guidelines, we will be held responsible for explaining why the change was made. Therefore, no change in the guidelines was attempted.’’ (IHT/Asahi: May 8,2003)
