HUMOUR:

INTERNET CENSORSHIP USA

LITERATURE:

SO THEY NEVER DID LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER:

I have recently finished 'The Collected Fairy Tales Of Hans Christian Anderson, and am about 80% through 'The Collected Fairy Tales Of The Brothers Grimm'. Lots of things could be said about these collections. The most obvious one is the bourgeois pietism of Anderson which creates a much"grimmer" picture than the bucolic peasants of the Grimm tales.

One little example, however stands out to me. I am reading direct translations from the Danish and German, and guess what ? The phrase "and they lived happily ever after never appears. I suspect it was a Victorian invention to sanitize death out of the originals. Here's a few examples of how the Grimm tales end:

1)"During the rest of their lives the farmer and his wife were tormented by a guilty conscience and spent their days in poverty and misery. (The Poor Boy In The Grave)

2)"The king drowned, but Hans married his daughter and became the king" (The Griffin)

3)"And the ungrateful son had to feed the toad every day; otherwise it would have eaten away part of his face. Thus the son wandered about the world without a moment of rest" (The Ungrateful Son)

The book purlates with such endings, some grimmer than others. About the closest one gets to the traditional fairy tale ending that we grew up with would be statements like, "...and so they lived happily until they died". I'm not a literary historian by any means, and so I am left to wonder when and why the classic fairy tales were bowdlerized.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS GREAT BRITAIN:

INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN ENGLAND:





The London Metropolitan police have jumped on one of their critics, the website 'Fitwatch' (no longer operational for reasons that will become plain below) which was originally set up 3 years ago to oppose heavy handed tactics on the part of London police. The recent development comes in the wake of student demonstrations against English government austerity measures which ended in occupation of Conservative Party headquarters. With egg all over their faces for failing to anticipate the level of militancy amongst some of the demonstrators the police have reacted with a show of bravado by flailing out at their critics. Things haven't turned out as well for themas they expected. Here's a brief report on this incident from the eGov Monitor.


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Police Ire Forces Shut Down Of Fitwatch Website - But The Offending Post Unsurprisingly Is Now On Various Websites


The Metropolitan Police has forced the suspension of the Fitwatch website last evening arguing that it was "being used to undertake criminal activities".

The website has been suspended, however, unsurprisingly, the particular blog post has now been published on thousands of websites across the internet beyond the Met's jurisdiction.

The move came following a blog post was published on the Fitwatch website which gave advice to students who were afraid of police action against them following their protest and occupation of the Millbank complex last week, the Guardian reported today.



Following the protest, the blog post on Fitwatch advised students to stay calm, and not hand themselves over to the police as well as change their appearances. In addition, it asked those who are worried about being arrested to stay away from similar protests planned later.

The website's hosting company, Justhost.com was approached by the Met's public order branch C11 to request the site be removed - following which a more formal request came from the Met's e-crime unit, which argued that the blog was providing "guidance" to offenders.

The letter seen by the Guardian says: ""We hereby request [you] de-host this website for a minimum period of 12 months. The website is providing explicit advice to offenders following a major demonstration in central London. The demonstration was marred by violence and several subjects have already been arrested, with a major police operation under way to identify and arrest further offenders."

An acting detective inspector, Will Hodgeson authorised the action against the website, according to the letter.

Fitwatch was set up in 2007 to campaign against what it saw as heavy handed police tactics of the Met's Forward Intelligence Teams - who take photographs of people participating in protest.

If nothing else, this decision was not thought through at all - and once again proves that police forces do not really understand how the internet works. In fact, it could be argued by taking the action, the police ensured that the particular blog post gets massive publicity and is published on various sites around the world.
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As is argued above the police merely ended up with yet more egg of their faces through their actions as the advise given went viral and began appearing on blogs and websites across the world. Always ready to do her little bit Molly reproduces the article below courtesy of the Another Green World blog. For the life of me I cannot see any counselling to commit a criminal act in what follows. Actually it seems quite akin to what some police officers do when they retire ie set up a business to counsel people on how to get out of their traffic tickets. As a point of interest you can read more about this case and other incidents of internet censorship at the Committee To Protect Bloggers website.
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16 Nov 2010
Banned Fitwatch article here, please re-blog.
THIS IS THE BANNED FITWATCH ARTICLE
I DON'T CONDONE DROPPING FIRE EXTINGUISHER BUT PROTEST IS ESSENTIAL....any way on to the banned.

The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on ‘a violent faction’, after the march was ‘infiltrated’ by anarchists.

There are an encouraging number of initiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students – something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive ‘deterrent’ sentences handed out to the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fees has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a ‘magnificent demonstration’.

This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. The Torygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied ‘shop-a-student’ piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce ‘results’ after what they have admitted was a policing ‘embarrassment’.

51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the details of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.

Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:

If you have been arrested, or had your details taken – contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other, and mount a coherent campaign.

If you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;

DONT panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn’t mean they know who you are.

DONT hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to ‘come forward’. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.

DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were wearing at the demo, including YOUR SHOES, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.

DONT assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. ‘That isn’t me’ has got many a person off before now.

DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their ‘wanted’ list. Keep a low profile.

DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn’t a guarantee, but may help throw them off the scent.

DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts / photos on your phone. Don’t make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything illegal in the house.

DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody, especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.

DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage / disorder ONLY to people you really trust.

DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal. Otherwise you’ll be serving the sentence before you are even arrested.

HUMOUR:

IN ONE EAR OUT THE OTHER:

CANADIAN POLITICS LONDON:

IS A POSTER "PROPERTY DESTRUCTION" ?:

While the police forces of Ontario and a good part of the rest of Canada are being drained to put on the massive show of force in downtown Toronto (who cares if there are a few more murders and a lot more robberies as long as those 'goddamn protesters' can be intimidated ?)the police in one other southern Ontario city, London Ontario, have been busy doing their little bit to stop the collapse of civilization. That is they were arresting two individuals for the heinous crime of putting up posters opposing the G20 summit in Toronto.

Now Molly knows that London Ontario is hardly unique in this regard. There are moves afoot by one city councillor here in Winnipeg to have postering outlawed, and there are numerous other cities where it is already illegal. This "crime" of course defies enforcement. One can only imagine the outrage if a city has to waste resources on a "poster police" to go around and tear down every single ad for stray cats on power poles and every single garage sale sign on boulevards. Quite frankly whenever I visit a different city I find these unauthorized signs infinitely more interesting than the legally permitted commercial advertising.

Down in London Ontario the anal retentive absurdity is somewhat less as the enforcement is targeted ie enforced against political opponents of the G20, part of the campaign to create paranoia that Canadian governments are obviously engaged in. Some in that city are not going to stand for this persecution. Here's a press release from the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause about what happened and the 'mass postering' response to the ham handed attempt at censorship.

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June 22, 2010

For Immediate Release:
-----------------------------------------------

LONDON ACTIVISTS TARGET OF POLICE INTIMIDATION

The recent arrests of two London activists for “promoting disturbance” represent yet another dramatic escalation in the Canadian state’s ongoing attempts to criminalize dissent.

We denounce these arrests as the shameful police intimidation tactics they are, and declare our solidarity with the two individuals arrested - including our organization’s youngest member, Andrew Cadotte.

It is clear that politicians and police officers in this country are more than willing to bend the rules to try and intimidate those seeking to challenge the continued domination of the poor by the rich.

By referring to postering as “property destruction”, the police are attempting to build a psychological connection between lawful dissent and violence where no such connection exists.

The police cited the “negative message” of the posters as grounds for holding these individuals overnight in jail. But the true “negative messages” plastered around the city are in the sexist advertisements that promote women as emotionless commodities, and on the countless billboards that sell apathetic consumerism as a way of life.

Public space should belong to the community, not to corporations, and should be a space where we can freely express our ideas as part of the democratic process. This freedom must be regularly exercised and vigorously defended, or else it will be trampled on by the repressive nature of the state.

This is why several of our members joined with the direct action on Thursday, June 17th that covered our city’s downtown core with the very posters our comrades were arrested for putting up two nights earlier.

As anarchists and social justice activists, we have every intention to continue “promoting disturbance” of the capitalist status quo, guided by our undying commitment to international class struggle and, ultimately, revolution.

Common Cause - London

Common Cause is an anarchist organization with branches in London, Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa.


--
Common Cause
P.O. Box 347, Station E
772 Dovercourt Rd.
Toronto, ON, Canada,
M6H 4E3

Email: commoncauseontario@gmail.com
Web: http://linchpin.ca
Online Forum: http://anarchistblackcat.org/viewforum.php?f=61

INTERNET FREEDOM:

AGAINST INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN THAILAND:

The following story and petition comes from the Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) blog. As you will see below the idea that signers have to "sign their name in Thai: may be more than slightly off-puting, but I personally am going to try to do it via Google translate. Wait for the results at the end of this post.

IFIFIFIFIFIFIFIFIFIF
FACT – Freedom Against Censorship Thailand
กลุ่มเสรีภาพต่อต้านการเซ็นเซอร์แห่งประเทศไทย
PLEASE SIGN FACT’s PETITION!
14-03-10
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) was founded on November 15, 2006 on the basis of a petition against Internet censorship which was presented to Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission and later to the Official Information Commission under a military coup government. The NHRC was disbanded by the coup and government officials refused illegally to cooperate with the OIC.

FACT has never deviated from its opposition to all censorship in Thailand and everywhere else. FACT’s original petition is now largely of historical interest.

FACT’s working group has now prepared a Mission Statement, our statement of principles and purpose to replace our original petition.

FACT now has more than 1,500 signers. If you have signed FACT’s petition, there is no need for you to sign again. However, if you have not signed, we urge you to sign FACT’s petition, and ask your friends, family and colleagues to sign. FACT’s petition is open to all.

For your signature to be counted, you must sign your FULL NAME in Thai and English, your affiliation, your location and your email address for verification.

FACT’s petition is hosted on FACTsite, with the Asian Human Rights Commission and at Change.org.

Please join us if you believe in FREEDOM. You have nothing to lose but your fear…and your chains.
Say NO to censorship!
These rights are universal: freedom of speech; freedom of expression; freedom of communication, including the Internet; freedom of association, including virtual association; media freedom, including the blogosphere; academic freedom, including digital learning; freedom of opinion; freedom of thought; freedom of ideas. A free Internet is our fundamental human right. Free expression is not a crime.

FACT supports all media, including the Internet, free of interference or regulation as the best means of participatory democracy possible. Every person deserves an equal voice and has a right to privacy and anonymity. These are our basic liberties.

FACT believes in transparent, accountable and democratic government. All people deserve freedom from fear.

We have the fundamental human right to unrestricted knowledge, knowledge without borders, boundaries, limits. A fully-informed public with access to all opinions is an asset to both our national and the international community. Education, knowledge and information are never a threat to national security.

Censorship in Thailand conceals a hidden political agenda used to repress dissent. Censorship reinforces social, class, gender, religious and economic divisions which, suppressed, are root causes of violence in Thai society.

Abduction, kidnap, torture, forced confessions, disappearance, extrajudicial murder, the death penalty, are the ultimate censorship. We support reconciliation in the human community.

FACT celebrates human diversity: all views share equal validity, if only for one person. Open minds, open hearts.

FACT believes most human beings choose good over evil. We believe applying community and family standards to Thai society will result in personal responsibility, the full development of our children and a truly free society.

Censorship is a clear violation of our fundamental human rights, civil liberties and basic freedoms.
NO COMPROMISE:

Stop censorship NOW!

IFIFIFIFIFIFIFIFIFIF

Well, I think I signed the petition or at least signed my support for FACT by going to the link above...all this without trying to sign my name in Thai. I don't think I can direct the reader any further, as I am quite confused by this, other than by directing you to one of the links above.

INTERNATIONAL CIVIL LIBERTIES:

BOOK BANNING:

Molly found this choice opinion piece while browsing through the Care2 site. The following is written by an American, and, of course, deals with the situation in the USA. Lest us Canadians think, however, that we are so high-falutin' pure and tolerant I urge the reader to consult the Freedom to Read 's website HERE for a list of frequently challenged books up here in the frozen North. There is also an, admittedly very incomplete list of banned books worldwide HERE at Wikipedia. The graphic, by the way, is of author J.K. Rawling, one of the most frequent targets of the book burners because of her Harry Potter series.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL

Banned Books Week 2009 - Books Too Gay or Too Dangerous for the Public:
posted by: Steve W.

It's Banned Books Week, an annual that, according to the American Library Association (ALA), celebrates "the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment". It aims to highlight the dangers of censorship and attempts to draw attention to any calls to ban books within the USA.

What do we mean by banning a book? The ALA categorizes it as the following:

A ban placed on a book completely removes it from the shelves of the bookstore/district library/school library where the challenge was made and in some rare occasions this can have state wide impact.

A challenge in this instance refers to not one complaint, or even just a few, but a formal protest made by a group against a specific title filed with the library or store.

No book has had a federal ban placed on it for decades now (I believe the last book to be banned in America was Fanny Hill which was banned on its release in 1821, re-released under the name of John Cleland’s Memoirs of A Woman of Pleasure and banned once again for obscenity in 1963, only for that ban to be overthrown by the Supreme Court in 1966), but challenges on certain titles persist throughout America in individual towns and school districts year after year.

So Which Books Face Calls for a Ban or Restrictions?

As you might imagine, literature featuring gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) themes is often the source of controversy.

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Henry Cole is often one such book that is challenged. It is the story of two male penguins who raise a chick in the Central Park Zoo.

The book, aimed at children, is based on true events and, whilst not featuring any explicit affirmations of sexuality, it is often labeled as "indoctrination" and accused of "promoting a homosexual agenda". It is the ALA's most challenged book of 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Baby Be Bop by Francesca Lia Block was one of fifty-five books that were challenged by parents in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They formed a group called the Parents Protecting the Minds of Children who wanted the book removed from shelves for what they called its "graphic language" and for "promoting a homosexual agenda".

Baby Be Bop was also challenged in Wisconsin by group called the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries who wanted all LGBT interest books moved to the adult section, regardless of the nature of the book, claiming that such material filed anywhere else in the library could be harmful, and that restricting access to the books was necessary "to protect children from accessing them without their parents' knowledge and supervision".

Groups don't ask for books to be banned just for the sake of children either. The Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) filed a legal suit against West Bend earlier this year claiming that elderly library goers were "damaged mentally and emotionally" by Baby Be Bop's presence. They sort financial damages and the right to hold a public book burning.

Speaking on the lawsuit a spokesperson for the CCLU said, "We don't want it put in a section for adults. We're saying it's inappropriate to have it in the library, and we want it out or destroyed".

For a list of LGBT themed books that are frequently protested against or have received local bans, please click here.

It's not just LGBT themed books that are targeted. Often books that are considered classics by most are also challenged. The organization Focus on the Family and others like it have, in the past, wanted to restrict access to books they deem " too liberal", "satanic" (concern was raised that The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter promoted sorcery) and books that do not "represent traditional values". The traditional values they stand for include campaigning against abortion, and the perceived homosexual agenda.

"Every year, the ALA and other liberal groups use this trumped-up event to intimidate and basically silence concerned parents... the truth is, parents have every right and responsibility to object to their kids receiving sexually explicit and pro-gay literature without their permission, especially in a school setting." – Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family.

So what kind of books are often objected against? Here's just a small selection:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.

For a more comprehensive list, here is a link to the ALA's website.

I have to say, having read all of the books above, and having done so at a relatively young age, I was enriched, not harmed, by the material I found there. Was some of it disturbing? Yes. Did it scar me for life. No. I'd even go as far to say that books like The Color Purple and Beloved changed me for the better.

My parents never restricted what material I was allowed to read. They were of the mind that if I was old enough to understand a book, then I should be allowed to read it. Interestingly, the only book I can ever remember my parents censoring to any degree (and even then we only skipped certain pages) was the Bible.

Both my parents were very religious (my mother was a devout Christian and my father is now a lapsed Methodist) but felt that certain passages within the Bible were not suitable for children.

I wonder if "traditional values" proponents such as Focus on the Family, who have campaigned so heavily to restrict access to certain books, had also thought of applying the same measures to the Bible as well? After all, the Bible clearly mentions incest, rape, hellish views of what awaits some in the afterlife, infanticide, genocide and supernatural phenomena – all of which are reasons that groups have given for restrictions being placed on books in the past.

Personally, I am against censorship and am pro religious freedom, I just wonder how evenly the standard of "traditional values" should be applied?

What are your views on Book Banning Week and censoring books in schools and libraries?

AMERICAN POLITICS:

KEEP TEXAS SOCIAL STUDIES TEXTBOOKS TRUTHFUL:

Sometimes the shear strangeness of American politics leads this little Canuck to a jaw-dropping moment. One of these occurred when I read the following appeal from the United Farm Workers. The 'culture wars' of the USA seem interminable, and one of the strangest aspects of these, from a Canadian point of view, is the determination of the American right wing to keep the facts of history away from children. no doubt there are those in my own country who would dearly love to emulate such nonsense, but the simple fact is that they rarely dare to make their designs public. One wonders who the right wingers in Texas think should replace Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall in the history books. Robert E. Lee perhaps ? George Wallace ? Oh, I know...Anal Roberts. Ah well, here's the story.

APAPAPAPAPAPAPAP

Tell Texas not to remove Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall from school books:
There is an education war going on in Texas that you need to know about and get involved with. The TX State Board of Education is currently preparing to adopt new social studies curriculum standards. These standards have major national implications as Texas is such a major purchaser of textbooks and their state’s required curriculum drives the content of textbooks produced nationwide.

Please read the following and then take action and forward this to as many friends as possible.

The TX State Board of Education has hired 6 "experts" to determine what will be in the books their schools use. Some of these "experts" are arguing that the state’s social studies and history textbooks are giving "too much attention" to some of the most prominent civil rights leaders in US History, namely Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall.

David Barton, one of these "experts," claimed Cesar Chavez "lacks the stature, impact and overall contributions of so many others." Another of these "experts" evangelical minister Peter Marshall said, "To have Cesar Chavez listed next to Ben Franklin"--as in the current standards--"is ludicrous." He went on to say Chávez is not a role model who "ought to be held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation."

The same "expert" wants to eliminate Thurgood Marshall, a prominent Civil Rights leader who argued the landmark case that resulted in school desegregation and was the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court justice. He wrote that the late justice is "not a strong enough example" of an important historical figure to be presented to Texas students.

Board members and their appointees have complained about an "over representation of minorities" in the current social studies standards. This is ironic in light of the changing demographics of our country. Sadly, Latino and African-American children have the highest drop-out rates in the country. It’s essential to ensure schools are providing students with role models and historical figures whose experiences reflect their own.

We must be concerned when the contributions of Cesar Chávez, Thurgood Marshall and other individuals who have contributed so much to the landscape of American democracy are cast aside and ridiculed. We should welcome the inclusion of all Americans who have helped to make this nation great.

It is horrific to discover that the TX State Board of Education has allowed these panelists to use our children's social studies curriculum as a platform for their political agendas. Please take action today to stop this travesty from going forward. Send your e-mail to the Chair of the Texas Board of Education Gail Lowe (R).

APAPAPAPAPAPAP

THE LETTER:

Please go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to the Texas State board of Education.

APAPAPAPAPAPAP

I'm shocked and dismayed to discover that the TX State Board of Education is choosing to allow biased "expert" panelists to use their children's social studies curriculum as a platform for their political agendas.

Board members and their "experts" have complained about an "over representation of minorities" in the current social studies standards. This is ironic in light of the changing demographics of our country. Sadly, Latino and African-American children have the highest drop-out rates in the country. It is essential to ensure schools are providing students with role models and historical figures whose experiences reflect their own.

Some of these "experts" said that the state's textbooks are giving "too much attention" to some of the most prominent civil rights leaders in US History, namely Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall.

One of these "experts" claimed Cesar Chavez "lacks the stature, impact and overall contributions of so many others." Another, evangelical minister Peter Marshall said, "To have Cesar Chavez listed next to Ben Franklin"( who, ironically enough.to my knowledge was a "deist" and therefore not a "Christian" in the holy roller sense-Molly)--as in the current standards--"is ludicrous." He went on to say Chavez is not a role model who "ought to be held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation."

Cesar Chavez is widely acknowledged to be a national hero. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, his face appeared on a U.S. Postage stamp, and his birthday is an official holiday in 8 states. To suggest that his life story does not merit being taught to Texas students, in a state whose population is 36% Latino, is ridiculous and offensive.

A member of this biased "expert" panel also wants to eliminate Thurgood Marshall, a prominent Civil Rights leader who argued the landmark case that resulted in school desegregation. He wrote that the Marshall is "not a strong enough example" of an important historical figure to be presented to Texas students.

This is absurd. Thurgood Marshall, the first African American in history to sit on the Supreme Court, is also a man whose life story is an important one for students to learn and be inspired by.
We must be concerned when the contributions of individuals who have given so much to the landscape of American democracy are cast aside.

Don't be known as the state that took Cesar Chavez, Thurgood Marshall and other significant figures out of the history books. Live up to your responsibility--and the mixed demographics of your state--by having the books that teach your children represent the diversified population of your state and this nation.