http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/world/middleeast/01egypt.html?hp
...But the six-day-old uprising here entered a new stage about 9 p.m. when a uniformed military spokesman declared on state television that “the armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people.” Addressing the throngs who took to the streets, he declared that the military understood “the legitimacy of your demands” and “affirms that freedom of expression through peaceful means is guaranteed to everybody.”...
“I hate the Brotherhood,” said Mohamed Ismail, 23, an engineer. “I hate Islamism. I don’t want an Iranian regime. I want freedom and democracy.”...
“I brought my American passport today in case I die today,” said Marwan Mossaad, 33, a graduate architecture student with dual Egyptian-American citizenship. “I want the American people to know that they are supporting one of the most oppressive regimes in the world and Americans are also dying for it.”...
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Update Re: China "Hu Concedes China Needs To Improve Human Rights"
"Hu Concedes China Needs To Improve Human Rights" AP, 1/20/11
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/20/MNGL1HBQDA.DTL&type=politics
"China's Hu Faces Rights Questions in Congress" Reuters, 1/20/11
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_china;_ylt=AtSWwPgf8RbANpR6jHfQHFKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNja2dyaDE0BGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwMTIwL3VzX3VzYV9jaGluYQRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzgEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2NoaW5hMzlzaHVmYQ--
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/20/MNGL1HBQDA.DTL&type=politics
"China's Hu Faces Rights Questions in Congress" Reuters, 1/20/11
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_china;_ylt=AtSWwPgf8RbANpR6jHfQHFKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNja2dyaDE0BGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwMTIwL3VzX3VzYV9jaGluYQRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzgEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2NoaW5hMzlzaHVmYQ--
Monday, January 17, 2011
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1964 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech
Acceptance Speech
Martin Luther King's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
"I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.
I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that We Shall overcome!
This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.
Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.
Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible - the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.
So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man's inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvellous age in which we live - men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization - because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.
I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners - all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty - and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold."
From Les Prix Nobel en 1964, Editor Göran Liljestrand, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1965
Martin Luther King's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
"I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.
I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that We Shall overcome!
This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.
Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.
Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible - the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.
So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man's inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvellous age in which we live - men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization - because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.
I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners - all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty - and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold."
From Les Prix Nobel en 1964, Editor Göran Liljestrand, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1965
I avoid buying things made in China. Can consumers CHANGE China?
Can consumers CHANGE China?
I avoid buying things made in China.
Yesterday, I avoided a pair of pants that were 'made in China' at Vans' clothing store.
I asked the the 18-year-old clerk where a simple pair of gray pants were made, she had no idea.
We looked, made in China.
"I avoid things made in China," I said. She looked puzzled.
"For human rights, women's rights, and environmental abuses," I continued.
"And they jail people who speak their mind, they don't allow freedom of speech or religion, like people can't worship the Dalai Lama."
Vague recognition flashes and brightens her face.
She says, "Yesterday someone else asked where something was made."
"Yes," I reply. "You should tell your manager that again today a customer is passing on the pants because they were made in China."
"Ok."
I continue, "How about the shoes? I think some used to still be made in the U.S."
We looked, made in China.
"Sorry, hope you have a nice day," I said, and I left.
I bought a pair of pants next door on sale made in Sri Lanka.
(1) I know some people will say, "How do you know the conditions in Sri Lanka aren't as bad as China?"
I don't, but the fairness of Sri Lanka's society isn't as important as fostering the fairness of China's, plus I like the idea of giving some business to some Sri Lankan's, at whatever level.”
I avoid buying things made in China.
Yesterday, I avoided a pair of pants that were 'made in China' at Vans' clothing store.
I asked the the 18-year-old clerk where a simple pair of gray pants were made, she had no idea.
We looked, made in China.
"I avoid things made in China," I said. She looked puzzled.
"For human rights, women's rights, and environmental abuses," I continued.
"And they jail people who speak their mind, they don't allow freedom of speech or religion, like people can't worship the Dalai Lama."
Vague recognition flashes and brightens her face.
She says, "Yesterday someone else asked where something was made."
"Yes," I reply. "You should tell your manager that again today a customer is passing on the pants because they were made in China."
"Ok."
I continue, "How about the shoes? I think some used to still be made in the U.S."
We looked, made in China.
"Sorry, hope you have a nice day," I said, and I left.
I bought a pair of pants next door on sale made in Sri Lanka.
(1) I know some people will say, "How do you know the conditions in Sri Lanka aren't as bad as China?"
I don't, but the fairness of Sri Lanka's society isn't as important as fostering the fairness of China's, plus I like the idea of giving some business to some Sri Lankan's, at whatever level.”
(2) For large retailers, the same model t-shirt, can be sourced from several places: I always take "made in Vietnam, or Bangladesh, or South American" countries first, over the made in China version.
Yes, of course I do buy some organic co...tton and made in U.S. products, but we don't always have those choices.
And/or I'm not as hardcore as some others, but I'm inclined in the right direction.
(3) Minimizing consumption is a goal too; I don't shop often, but like what I have.
When China came to the table at the U.N. Copenhagen Climate Conference more agreeably, I was so mad that the U.S. again didn't promise strong enough cuts I bought something from China. "Now we are the bad guys."
After the Cancun conference, I bought my second pair of prescription glasses frames called "Eco" http://www.prweb.com/rel
So I still avoid buying anything made in China. Maybe market forces can make them CHANGE (if we all boycotted buying anything from China for two months, I bet their government would change some stuff FAST), and maybe we can beat them to the high-tech sustainable future affordable product marketplace/society.
Or maybe we can get there in tandem, soon.
Yes, of course I do buy some organic co...tton and made in U.S. products, but we don't always have those choices.
And/or I'm not as hardcore as some others, but I'm inclined in the right direction.
(3) Minimizing consumption is a goal too; I don't shop often, but like what I have.
When China came to the table at the U.N. Copenhagen Climate Conference more agreeably, I was so mad that the U.S. again didn't promise strong enough cuts I bought something from China. "Now we are the bad guys."
After the Cancun conference, I bought my second pair of prescription glasses frames called "Eco" http://www.prweb.com/rel
So I still avoid buying anything made in China. Maybe market forces can make them CHANGE (if we all boycotted buying anything from China for two months, I bet their government would change some stuff FAST), and maybe we can beat them to the high-tech sustainable future affordable product marketplace/society.
Or maybe we can get there in tandem, soon.
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Sunset, Venice 12/20/2012
