News Revolution

If Everyone Watches CNN, what does CNN watch?

Al Jazeera English is finally up and running as of the middle of this month...and I'd love to be able to tune in.

Why so exciting..? Well, it's the first time in history that we have a Middle East-based English news channel. Interestingly, the news management and broadcasting centers rotate from one office to the next eg. Kuala Lumpar, Doha, London, Washington, although it is headquartered in Qatar.

What this means is that we no longer need to be held captive (with sometimes fairly uncaptivating news!) by the Western dominant players like CNN International , BBC World, NBC etc. which for too long have set a corporate news agenda for the world.

The annoying thing is that it doesn't seem like we'll be able to receive the broadcast here in Japan. According to the How to Watch Al Jazeera in English information on the website, you can pick it up in Uganda and Estonia...but you can't get it in China, Korea or Japan. Hopefully things will change. We'll have to start a petition or something! At least it's possible to watch it online though the quality is low and you need to get a subscription...

I was surprised to find out that there is a website / group called "Friends of Al Jazeera"
Here was one of the reasons given for being a friend of AJ:

AlJazeera is an anomaly. It's the first media company from the "third world" to break into the mainstream. It's an independent voice representing the other. Nearly every other major media outlet is speaking on behalf of the West. AlJazeera is a case of "the empire writing back". AlJazeera is the first significant challenge to Western hegemony and its monopoly on the truth. AlJazeera has given a voice to the voiceless.

auughhh - Essay writers block!

Have done 1 presentation, 2 exams and written 3 essays in the last week and now I've just got this one little nut left....and it's bloody killing me!!

Why so hard?

I don't know...I've done all the research and compiled the relevant bits and now it's just about lining up those 4000 golden words.

I think it's because this subject is for "international Economy" and perhaps I have a serious phobia of sorts regarding economics. Am trying to write about Japan's military expenditure + the 1% GNP cap and various implications on political/economic level but err, the prose just aint flowin!

It's 2am on Sunday night...just want to get some sleep. Raining outside. Perrrfect sleeping weather.

Oyasumi. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

No...I should really Gambaru all night till I punch this one out. It's due.

It's BABY fever!

I'm currently living with two close friends Ai & Daigo...who are about to get married in December. Not only that, but they're about to have a wee baby -- in May -- just 6 months away! So it's a very exciting time and we're full of talk about pregnancy, morning sickness, parenthood and bubbas. Infact, ever since they announced Ai being pregnant (about 2 weeks after we all moved in together;)) to our utter surprise!), I haven't been able to stop looking at little babies in the street, on the train etc. Just imagining what it's going to be like to live together with one, and looking after one. Scary -- but of course very exciting! Even though it won't be my own personal experience, it's the next closest thing to it I suppose.

And not just Ai & Daigo...there suddenly seem to be friends who've become expectant parents all around us...in fact so many so that we can basically call it a mini-baby boom! Akane & Rachel from Peace Boat are both due in March; Ben's sister Anna is having her 5th baby mid-next year; our friends Paul & Jin Hi here in Tokyo are expecting their 2nd one in May; Althea is preggaz in Sydney and due in May too. WOW! Eeeek!!

And to announce some recent births: Maria & Yves had Niko in Lausanne, Nicole and Yong had Adrienne in New York, and Joel & Mayu had Hannah here in Tokyo. Are there any that I've missed..?

So in honour of all these beautiful bubbas and beautiful parents, I have to post a few beautiful snaps of you all! XOX

Bubbas Galore

Maria with little Niko

Ai's belly at 15 weeks

Joel & 2 month old Hannah

The Road to Guantanamo

Meeting Rual & Shafiq
(from the "Tipton Three")
January 12 & 13, 2007

I haven't had a chance to do a proper write-up about meeting with Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul here in Tokyo over January 12 & 13...so will mention it quickly here. They came to promote the film and to talk about their experiences in Guantanamo, as well as to generate awareness about the issues here in Japan. In terms of their goals, they said "we'll keep working and speaking out until that Base is closed down."

I helped out as part of Human Rights Now's co-sponsoring of their visit, by interpreting from Japanese into English during a public panel discussion (mind you, I was assisting a professional interpreter, but was having a pretty damn hard time of it).

Those guys have emerged from a hellish experience with an enormously strengthened spirit and a deeper commitment to their faith, their families and to a sense of justice.

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10 November, 2006

Yesterday in my Middle East Studies class I watched the new film by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross called "The Road To Guantanamo".

Despite having already seen some images in the media of the orange-suited detainees in Guantanamo Bay, and always maintaining the position that the US government was guilty of committing extreme human rights violations, watching this film made the grim reality of it all hit home hard!

Being part-documentary and part-dramatization, the experience of the “Tipson Three” - the three young Pakistan-English guys from the British town of Tipson, (and all the other characters for that matter) was really convincingly portrayed. There was no part of the story-telling that even prompted any doubt or suspicion in my mind as to its veracity. And accordingly, I felt like I was suddenly being exposed to a fresh perspective. One that never reaches the mainstream audience, for it is simply too shocking, too appalling and too anti-government to make ordinary headlines.

Thank god for documentaries such as this. Let’s just hope that it’s being widely viewed around the world. I plan to make sure that as many of my friends and acquaintances take the opportunity to watch this film as possible. Amnesty International Japan, Human Rights Now and film distribution company The Klock Worx are screening the film in Tokyo on 13 January 2007, and bringing out the three British men for a speaking tour of Japan. Stay tuned!

Like hearing a very personal testimony of a survivor, this film made me squirm; feel incredulous, deeply sad at the level of suffering, and also contempt for the perpetrators. Most of all, it made me ask the obvious: How does humanity devolve to such a low level that we can behave like this to our fellow humans?

Well, academically-speaking I can understand that it’s all about the “de-humanizing” and “de-personalizing” that takes place in the minds of those who engage in warfare (in the broad sense of the word – ie., including the “war on terror’). All justified in the name of national security, public safety, justice and democracy and the civilized world and so forth. But beyond the plethora of justifications for acts of torture, need we believe that the capacity to behave in an extremely violent and immoral way is within all of us? If that were so, it would surely be a tragic truth.

Having made that strong assertion, I am keen to study the issue of torture and political prisoners in more depth by looking at historical cases from around the world. With all the political and moral implications, torture does seem to be a very current and relevant problem of our time, especially considering its global nature.

I’ve been reading the book “Torture: A Human Rights Perspective” edited by Kenneth Roth and Minky Warden, which talks about how the US position has undermined the global prohibition on torture.

I’ve also been reading testimonies of former Burmese political prisoners who are also torture survivors. Check out the website for the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) for more information on what's taking place inside Burma.

Back to the Blog!

After a long (Aussie) winter slumber from blogging, I'm back online and hope to be hit with a few spells of automatic writing to make up for all those blogless months!

I'm currently back in Tokyo and just starting my third month of graduate studies at ICU on what's known as a "Rotary World Peace Fellowship".

ICU is one of 6 Rotary Peace Centers around the world, and here in Japan there are 9 of us from the Netherlands, Zambia, Thailand, USA, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Mexico and Australia, who enrolled in the masters program on peace and conflict studies (via a MA in Public Administration).


Being back at university and studying full-time without having to be too worried about a regular income flow is a damn nice privilege, and I feel really lucky to be where I am just now. While I'm studying a range of subjects (including Conflict in the Middle-East; NE Asian Political Economy; Peace Studies; Public Administration; Philosophies on Peace + two Japanese classes), I'm looking to focus my research efforts in the second year on Burma. More specifically, the role of women in civil society and the contribution they are making to the democracy movement, as well as the application of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on "Women, Peace and Security" to Burma.

Well, there's plenty more ideas in my head about other approaches to take on Burma (eg. IDPs & refugees; corruption; sexual violence; ASEAN; corporate accountability for armed conflict etc etc) so how to start refining my ideas? I guess I need to start talking to more activists in the field about what kind of topic would be most useful and valuable to them, as well as something that is academically purposeful.

Right now though -- I'm spending this weekend writing essays to hand in later this month. Autumn term finishes for me on November 18. Topics so far: Analysis on Japan's defense budget; Gandhi's Hind Swaraj and contemporary interpretations; and something about Co-optation and local participation perhaps..? Hmm. Still have to find something fascinating to write about in Public Administration -- which has so far been a rather dry and uninspiring subject. But I realise it has so much potential!!

Other news is that I'm doing some work for a new Japanese NGO called Human Rights Now. This organization was established just a few months ago by a group of activist lawyers, journalists, academics etc and there are plenty of very enthusiastic people involved -- including a growing number of volunteers -- to help ensure that it gets off to a very solid start. So far I've been involved with editing a position paper on the Khmer Rouge Trials (Phnong Phemn, Cambodia), translating for the English website, and researching for the ODA project team for upcoming NGO-governmental consultations.