"This is a man's world But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl"

Hello!

I was just surfing around the web today and thought I wanted to check up on Afghanistan, and the progress of the rights of women. In 2001 Bush and his administration mentioned human rights and the liberation of women as an excuse to invade the country. So let's see how that's been going.

According to a article by RAWA, released March this year, violence against Afghan women hit records. Abuses like forced marriage, and traditions are still all a huge challenge for country. Even if women choose to report abuses it rarely goes anywhere, and what's even worse is that women run the risk of being punished if they report rape.

Please see some of the stories here:

http://www.rawa.org/self_immolation/violence2.htm

Why has not anything improved since the invasion? Reports show us it is even getting worse than it was before 2001. These numbers are alarming and they indicate that women's rights are not prioritized on the agenda. How can this have happened? Stop by again next week and I will tell you why and how this is!

I hate to say I told you so.

It's now proven that the US has abandoned their most basic democratic believes.

http://wikileaks.ch/gitmo/

Running more than one blog

Hello!

As I previously said I did get an internship at Global Action on Aging. I will still run this blog, but you can also read the work I do for them here:

http://globalaging.blogspot.com/

Stay safe on this April fools day!

Sanna

Good News Everyone!

Hi!

I have some pretty marvelous news to share with you. Two weeks ago I went on an interview for an internship at the GAA - Global Action on Aging, and this week I found out I got the spot. I will be writing for them and be update their their blog.

To describe it short the GAA works towards strengthening older people's rights, towards a UN convention.

Check out the organization here:

http://www.globalaging.org/

Bye.

Closing Time

Hello

What ever happened to the promise by Obama, about closing Guantanamo? Guess what, I looked it up and it is still open. The word on the street is that Obama still really want it closed but Congress doesn't.

As one of his first acts as president Obama signed an executing order to close the military prison for terrorist suspects within a year. More than two years has passed. There are about 172 detainees remaining at the camp.

Art by Banksy

A little information about Guantanamo for those who has been living under a rock the last couple of years. The prison was opened and established by the Bush Administration in 2002. It's a place where they would take boys and men that could be terrorists during the Afghanistan and Iraq war. (They have stopped bringing detainees there). A place like Guantanamo is illegal, but because it is run by the USA it has become this issue who's stuck in a vacuum. It has not helped much that the rest of the world have been demanding that this camp has to close, there is not much the rest of us can do, an economic sanction towards the US would not do much. Another big problem is that the prisoners have not been given the combatant status, which normally would grantee some human rights, (according to the laws of war). This has left them with no rights what so ever. There has been many reports of human rights abuses happening at Guantanamo such as ongoing torture, sexual degradation, forced drugging and religious persecution being committed by US forces.

The sad part of all of this is that when Guantanamo finally is closed, there will be a new prison, and I am pretty sure there are more prisons like this, Guantanamo just happens to be the one we know of.

Also read my old post about Guantanamo:

http://fragmentationnation.blogspot.com/2009/04/camp-x-ray.html

Intervene or not?

The situation in Libya continues. There's an ongoing debate in Europe and the US whether an intervention should take place or not. If it is, the next question is by who, why and how?

If a legal intervention should take place, it needs to go through the UN security council. This is a slow process and some leaders thinks that there is not enough time to wait. So far there has been suggestions that the security council (SC) should apply a UN sanctioned no - fly zone over Libya to prevent Muammar Gaddafi from bombing or gassing his own people. The five permanent members of the SC is not unified about this decision. France make their point by saying that a military intervention cannot happen without a clear United Nation mandate. At the same time Ban Ki-moon says that even more action beyond UN sanctions might be needed, since in Libya the regime has lost it's legitimacy and has declared war on it's own people.

So far some sanctions has been backed up by the UN and as well as the European Union, including an arms embargo and travel bans, and some nations have announced their own asset freezes.

Throughout history there has been successful interventions and less successful ones. I do think that is it very important to be careful about the situation and make sure the situation is analyzed before taking action. But I do not think we wanna repeat some of the mistakes that has been made before (Rwanda comes to mind). If an intervention is to take place it should be under the a UN mandate. The next problem is to find the actual people to do it. The UN does not have their own army and therefor relies on the armies of it's member nations. The question which countries would be willing to offer some assistance. For instance, the US army is busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, also Obama would have difficulties explaining to the American people why they should be apart of yet another military operation. If an operation will take place I doubt it will be led by the US.

The best thing would of course be if Gaddafi just resigned and gave up his power. If he continues to kill civilians, the international community will probably start feeling the pressure to act.

Why?

I always had a strong believe that you cannot force reforms and change on a whole nation and it's people. I do believe that the 'west' has the ability and responsibility to inform, educate, and assist other nations when it's necessary and asked for. If change is going to happen, it has to come from inside the country. This is exactly what is happening in Libya and other places in the Middle East. Another important thing to look at is the fact that for a very long time the radical Islamists of the Arab world has been viewed as the revolutionaries. But what we are seeing now is quite to opposite. We are seeing people who believes in change, and are now speaking up.

These two elements together forms a very good basis for a real chance of change, so the rest of us should not turn our backs on people who has hope, and has shown that they are more than ready for something new to come.

Me in the Security Council in NYC

I read the news today, o boy.

Hello!

Over and over again we are facing news about young girls being approached by older men on internet. It's very common for these men to say they are model photographers who are looking for models. Since we live in a very shallow and vain society a lot of girls dream about becoming models. In these modern days our society does not pay too much attention to accomplishments that actually requires hard work and intelligence. Pop culture praise people who are famous because they happen to be children of very wealthy parents, or just happened to be on a private sex tape that somehow leaked out to the public. I would say that a lot of these people have very little knowledge about the real world. I've seen shows on TV where some of these glamorous people does not even know how to cut up a tomato. At the age of 21 I would think anyone would have been faced with this problem.

Anyhow, back to my point. Growing up thinking this is the best and only way to live makes young people easy targets for adults that has an ill mind. I am not saying this is the children's fault at all. With new technology kids are facing these kind of problems each day. I do have a few thoughts about it though. I remember when I was 15, I had a profile on a social network site called Lunarstorm (don't know if it still exists), I was approached by a strange man perhaps in this late 40s. He said he was looking for models, and that he thought I was perfect for what he had in mind. At the age of 15 this sounded super cool. But, to me it sounded a little bit sketchy, so what I did was that I wrote the man back and said that it sounded like fun, but I wanted to talk to my mum about it and see what she thought. I figured that if this is a real and honest man he would not mind me talking to my parents. So yeah, guess what! I never heard from him again.

It is important children realize that 'candy man' is not the evil and fishy looking man walking the streets. He/she has found new modern ways. I know kids already knows this. But, still it happens all the time. Is the dream of becoming a model so big that you are willing to risk your own safety? It is probably even more important that kids realize that being famous is not all there is. I would like to see a society that celebrate other things than fame, money and good looks.

That is all for now.

Related post:

http://fragmentationnation.blogspot.com/2008/12/get-seduced.html

Also, a great South Park episode that touch the same subject:

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s08e12-stupid-spoiled-whore-video-playset