Kim Jong Il the Spaceman

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT! Oh. Wait a moment. There's nothing to read.

Human rights organizations, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Korea, are repeatedly denied access to North Korea, which is notoriously reclusive yet provocative. The state-run news outlet, North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA), is not only North Korea's only news outlet but is also (unsurprisingly) censored and nationalistic. Far from critiquing the government it speaks only in awe of it, giving it its absolute support and admiration. Consider its reporting on the 'Trial of American Journalists' who illegally entered North Korea this summer, "Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it."

As a result of its closed- doors policy, the international community, NGOs, and news stations have been forced to make things up about the country of secrets that is North Korea. The Onion has been especially successful at this:

ON OCTOBER 17 ACTIVISTS WILL UNITE (in Connecticut)

by Helen Jack
Saybrook, Yale College 2012

Amnesty International student and local groups from high schools, colleges, and towns around Connecticut will be coming to Yale University on Saturday, October 17 for the Amnesty International Connecticut State Meeting. Meeting participants will spend the day attending workshops to build their organizing skills, hearing guest speakers on Amnesty's priority issues, and discussing how to better work together as a state. Guest speakers include Yale Law School lecturer Hope Metcalf, speaking about detainee abuse by US forces; Pooja Sripad, a student at the Yale School of Public Health, presenting on maternal mortality to introduce Amnesty International's new Demand Dignity Campaign; and Cynthia Gabriel, Amnesty's Field Organizer for the Northeast region. If you are interested in attending the state meeting, please email Yale Amnesty's State Meeting Coordinator Helen Jack at helen.jack@yale.edu

Check out more details of the event (via Facebook) here!

A Table for Tyrants

Contributed by Meredith Morrison

A Table for Tyrants
by Vaclav Havel
May 10, 2009

IMAGINE an election where the results are largely preordained and a number of candidates are widely recognized as unqualified. Any supposedly democratic ballot conducted in this way would be considered a farce. Yet tomorrow the United Nations General Assembly will engage in just such an “election” when it votes to fill the vacancies on the 47-member Human Rights Council.

Click here to read the rest of the article on The New York Times website.

Stop.

by Sarika Arya

The stage is initially dark. A spotlight suddenly turns on Center Stage. The actress's first lines must be spoken, loud, screeching, sharp, clear, and strong, and, most importantly, coincide exactly with the turning on of the spotlight. This is a highly physical piece throughout, and may be subject to interpretation. The actress must have a full and powerful voice, but give off an ambience of weakness, exhaustion, and defeat: her physicality must be matched by strength in sound, since it will not be matched in strength of character.


JOSEPHINE: STOP! (Pause.) I screamed it. (Shorter pause. The lines are spoken quickly, clearly, frantically, without punctuation.) I screamed at the top of my lungs as I watched As I watched that soldier that solider take out Take out the gun slowly Slowly as if in slow motion Slowly Very Slowly We were walking We were walking to the fields Fields full of life Full of life Full of sweet life tea lives sugarcane bananas with mamma and sister working working Sweating working weaving Laughing working planting Resting working harvest harvest harvest Us walking walking THERE. (The lines have been building up to this moment, matched by the actress's physicality. Perhaps she is sitting then slowly rising, or walking in position then jumping forward, in a sudden movement, towards the audience. Creeping and then arriving. There is a pause.) STOP. (She points, accusingly, at the audience.) THERE. (Suddenly, in a whisper.) Gun. (At a normal sound level. Taking in mind punctuation now.) A big shiny black gun. And a boy. A soldier. Three. There were three. Pointing at Miriam, and pointing at me. And the three boys, soldiers, the men, that evil men, they destroyed Miriam and they destroyed me. But they didn't hurt themselves. They were machines. Their body had taken on the same mission as their gun. There was no separation between men and the metal. They had the same mission. One goal: capture and destroy.

(Beat. Speaking in monotone.)

I am 29 years old, and I have been raped. I have been raped again. And again. And again. And again. Another machine came to my house. He gagged me. And then he raped me. Again.

(Beat. Speaking with emotion.)

Now what? (Pause.) There is nothing left for me here. (Pause.) Everyone knows my story. (Suddenly in another moment, as if reliving a past experience.) He raped me! (Acting as someone else.) Stupid child! You spread your legs girl. You made it eaaaaasssssssy. (Still in character as the imaginary villager the actresses hisses and clicks her tongue, as if catcalling.)

(The actress, as herself now, heaves a loud, long, yet lifeless and defeated sigh that moves, shakes, and exhausts her whole body. Beat. Speaking matter-of-factly. As if unaffected by what she is saying.)

In the community, they made such fun of me that I had to leave the village and live in the forest. Today, the only thing that I can think about is that I want an abortion. I am hungry; I have no clothes and no soap. I don't have any money to pay for medical care. It would be better if I died with the baby in my womb.

(The actress is now standing in a neutral stance, center stage, with the spotlight still on her. There is a moment's silence, while she looks out into the audience. Her body remains completely still, highlighting the fact that she closes and opens her eyes – just once, without moving her head, and then – BLACKOUT.)

This monologue was inspired by an Amnesty International report on sexual and reproductive rights around the world and a true story from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report can be viewed by downloading the PDF providing 'extra information' on this website. The story of Josephine is located on page 8.

A Prison Birthday for Aung San Suu Kyi

'Don't just depend on the courage and intrepidity of others. Each and every one of you must make sacrifices to become a hero possessed of courage and intrepidity. Then only shall we all be able to enjoy true freedom.'

The effort necessary to remain uncorrupted in an environment where fear is an integral part of everyday existence is not immediately apparent to those fortunate enough to live in states governed by the rule of law. Just laws do not merely prevent corruption by meting out impartial punishment to offenders. They also help to create a society in which people can fulfil the basic requirements necessary for the preservation of human dignity without recourse to corrupt practices. Where there are no such laws, the burden of upholding the principles of justice and common decency falls on the ordinary people. It is the cumulative effect on their sustained effort and steady endurance which will change a nation where reason and conscience are warped by fear into one where legal rules exist to promote man's desire for harmony and justice while restraining the less desirable destructive traits in his nature. (Freedom from Fear Speech, 1990 Aung San Suu Kyi)

The Burmese Prime Minister - elect and pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League of Democracy party in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under arrest in Insein Prison, which is controlled by the military junta of Myanmar, today, on her 64th birthday.

Kyi comes from a politically active family, which weilds great respect from the opressed Burmese community: her father, Aung San, founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma's peace from the United Kingdom - though he was assinated by his oppenents in the same year. She has been leading the pro-democracy movement in Burma since the 1980s, inspired by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, non-violent philosophy, and Buddhist ideology. Since 1989, Kyi has been placed under house arrest several times under the Burmese dictatorship: because of this she was only able to see her husband 5 times before he died of prostrate cancer and she remains separted from her children living in the United Kingdom.

In the past, Kyi has been offered freedom if she leaves her country, but she has refused: beliving the freedom of her people more valuable than her own. In 1991, she was awarded the Noble Peace Prize.

Now in prison yet again, there are reports that Kyi is suffering from dehyradation, low blood pressure, and weight loss. Take action for Kyi - give her hope on her birthday via Amnesty International here.

Guns for Sale

Control Arms: Every year, 12 billion bullets are produced. Without an Arms Trade Treaty, these bullets and other dangerous weapons have easily fallen into the wrong hands, and are the source of international humanitarian crisis, conflict, and poverty around the world. Click here to learn more about the Control Arms campaign.