A load of Rubbish!

If this looks like a pile of rubbish than that's because it is! I found this interesting discussion on procrastination (the fact I was reading it speaks volumes - although, in my defence, it had led from a search for a good book on using sketchbooks - something I feel I need to improve on! Are you impressed? The true procrastinator always has a good excuse!!!!!!) Anyway it lead to this webpage and facebook group called "Everyday Matters"! On the facebook page there's a daily challenge.

Today's was to "draw your junk drawer" - as I'm British I felt it really ought to be a rubbish drawer! Although strictly speaking it's the drawer that contains the spare light bulbs, string and bin bags - they are there peeking out in the bottom corner- and fuses...! Anyway, it was fun to do, could be worked on more but it's a sketch! We have a baptismal font that IS full of rubbish (I live in a converted chapel and - before you get excited - it's only a little font like an urn you can pick up) , maybe I should do that next...

More mono print

Today was odd, I got distracted by trivia. Plodding on with the painting but distractions kept interfering. This is one of the mono prints from Saturday. The quality of the image is poor as it was photographed in poor light. I'll replace the picture with a scanned image once it is dry enough! That's a few days away yet.

NEW ADIDAS REFEREE JERSEY & SHORTS 2009 2010 HAVE ARRIVED

North America Sports received the new referee jerseys and shorts from Adidas for the 2009/10 Season. Jerseys available in yellow with red and black with red. The black jersey available in long sleeves as well as short sleeves. Adult sizes available in medium, large and xlarge.

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Ronaldo scores first goal for Real Madrid

Ronaldo scores first goal for Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo scored for the first time for Real Madrid in a 4-2 win over Liga de Quito in the Peace Cup on Tuesday.

Cristiano played his third game for the Real Madrid colours since his £80m move from Manchester United, Ronaldo scored a 48th minute penalty after being tripped in the penalty area by defender Norberto Araujo.

Cristiano also helped produce his team's second goal in the 53rd.




Cristiano Ronaldo's first goal for Real Madrid

I can't decide on a title

Today's post isn't quite finished but needs to dry a bit before I can clean up the white areas. Otherwise the inks spread into them. As it is I usually end up looking like I've got some contagious skin disease by the time I've removed the masking fluid. I'm mulling over titles, do I go descriptive or surreal, you know something like "Circles converging on a triangle" or "Elephants meeting at a waterhole"? I often wonder at titles of pieces i.e. Pretentious rubbish versus stating the obvious?

I've completed the three abstracts I started last night - OK other than the cleaning up on this one. Spent an infuriating hour trying to get figures right in an acrylic picture of street hockey I started before my last commission. I think they're right now!

Yezidi, Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, Kurd, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother- HUMAN

photos and article by Pruittiporn Kerdchoochuen

The demonstration held on July 15, 2009 by the Council of Yezidis in Germany and co-sponsored by my employer, the Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker), outside of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, was part of a last minute effort to rally support for a Yezidi family threatened with deportation, as well as to raise awareness on the issue in general. Yezidi is a Kurdish religion of Indo-European roots, and most of its followers are Kurdish- speaking originally from northern Iraq. The family of 4 had moved to Germany over ten years ago to escape the oppression and lack of opportunities they face as an ethnic and religious minority in Syria. The 2 children, the oldest having been 3 when the family left Syria and the younger having been born in Germany, speak German, attend German schools and call Germany their homeland. Now that their 10 year visa is up, they are faced with deportation back to Syria, and thus to routine discrimination by a state notorious for its use of torture and mistreatment of minorities.






The demonstration brought together the Yezidi community, their friends and supporters, and human rights activists in the area. Little children, teenagers, parents and grandparents were all present, clad in everything ranging from traditional headscarves to Chucks and low riding jeans. For me, the rally emphasized the "human" in human rights. It served as a reminder that, in the end, we are not merely fighting for some intangible ideals, but for real people: for our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers...

To see more of Pruittiporn's photos of the protest, check out the album by clicking here!

Finished doggy pic

This is the picture I've been working it. I think it's finished but I'm waiting on the client's approval. I've already altered it once as the dog is very shy and won't keep her ears up when photographed. So the ears are 80% guesswork but apparently correct.

Mono prints

Today I've been working up some on my mono-prints and continued with an acrylic painting I started about a month ago and stopped to do a commission. I should be able to post that soon!!!!! Here's one of the pieces I was working on -"Poppy". It's not my favourite of the mono prints but it was improved by the pastels.

It looks better "in the flesh" as I used iridescent pastels which don't show up when scanned. In fact, I'm not sure I like the scanned version... Oh well! I'm going to spend the evening on my painting, which won't be ready to post for a while.

The dog picture is still awaiting approval but as we're in a semi quarantine at present it will have to wait a few more days. I'm still happy with it.

Natalie completed

So, here's Natalie. I 'll probably do some touching up tomorrow, may change the picture then but she's virtually there. I've a glass of wine now so I'm not touching it again tonight.

Today's been pretty good. I was finally able to do some mono-printing. Fairly safe images, sunflowers and abstracts. Some have come out very well, others need a bit of work. I even managed some reading and sent off two submissions to galleries = happy girl!

Some people are gay. Get over it!

No, Princess Diana was not a closet lesbian - but that doesn't disqualify her from being a gay icon.

LONDON, UK - At the National Portrait Gallery in London, 10 famous homosexuals were each asked to choose 6 ‘Gay Icons’ who were inspirational to them in their struggle for dignity, respect, and equal rights regardless of their sexual orientation.

The result?



Some of what you would expect. Homosexual icons: Ian Roberts, a professional Australian rugby player; W.H. Auden, the British poet; Harvey Milk, the assassinated San Francisco mayor; and Virginia Woolf, who is known to have had a lesbian lover despite being married.

One man, Peter Tatchell, is depicted with his mug shot from a police station, underneath which the police officers in charge have stuck on the label “QUEER TERRORIST,” in big white letters, as part of Tatchell's criminal description. He was arrested for holding up a banner that said, “Charles can marry twice! Gays can’t marry once,” at the wedding procession in Windsor, England for the newlyweds, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker.

Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer of the United States army, a Vietnam war-veteran and a Bronze Star recipient, is one of the less well-known yet highly respectable and indisputably heroic gay icons in the exhibition. After being discharged from the army for admitting she was a lesbian, she filed a lawsuit in a civil court, which ruled both her discharge and the ban on homosexuals unconstitutional. The colonel then returned to the National Guard until her retirement in 1997. She was one of the only accepted openly homosexual officials in the United States army, before the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

But other ‘Gay Icons’ include straight people: CNN reporter, Christiane Amanpour; South- African president, Nelson Mandela; English rose, Princess Diana; and renowned Pulitzer Prize winning author, Maya Angelou.

You don’t have to be gay to be a gay icon. In the fight for LGBT rights, two groups have lost the dignity that makes one human: the homosexuals because of their sexual orientation, and the heterosexuals who have allowed their fellow man to be judged so arbitrarily – not by the content of his character, but by the gender of his partner. The ‘Gay Icon’ exhibition highlights the “human” in human rights: the fight for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (LGBT) does not only concern the LGBT community itself, but also those who are not judged by their sexuality and discriminated against accordingly – those with the most power to change the status quo.

Click here to visit the website for the exhibition 'Gay Icons.' The exhibition is on at the National Portrait Gallery in London until October 18, with reduced admission for students.

ASICS LETHAL TIGREOR IT & ASICS LETHAL DS NEW ARRIVALS

The Asics Lethal Tigreor IT in Blue & Asics Lethal DS in White & Black arrived today for Asics soccer footwear fall 2009. Adult sizes available from 7 US mens to 11.5 US mens.

Got questions or comments on the new Asics 2009 soccer footwear? Call us at 604-299-1721

Natalie Imbruglia - stage 1

Well, today has not been dull. I started the day doing domestic stuff and was planning to do some printing in the afternoon. My eldest arranged to visit a friend and was feeling a bit rundown but keen to go. So I dropped him off, came back for lunch. Took the youngest to a doctors appointment then returned for half an hour then it was time to collect the eldest. He was feeling much worse, hot, feeling cold with a headache and feeling sick. I got him home and dosed him with ibuprofen.

He was looking a bit grey so I looked up swine flu symptoms. I used the government's self diagnosis pages and on the first attempt I got past the first page and it suggested I call 999. I felt this was an over-reaction as he was conscious, walking around, drinking... So I tried again and said no to the first page and after completing the questions I was given the code to collect a Tamiflu prescription. I just had to drive 12 miles to the nearest pharmacy - oh, and find the place all before 18.30 - this was at 18.00! Have you ever tried to rush with a 4 year old in toe. Poor lad now has so many tablets in him he'll rattle if he's shaken.

Excitement over, I decided to do a caricature to calm my nerves - that and a beer. Which I've reached the first stage. Natalie here. I'm finding the celebrity caricatures harder than the commissions because I know so little about the celebrities. So she's water-boarding. OK so I'm clutching at straws, but it makes a pretty picture.

I'll paint it tomorrow and post the finished picture.

Who knows, I might even get around to my printing, as well!

Abstracted

Another abstract today. Maybe I should change the name of my blog to "Drawn to Abstraction!" This is the one I was working on yesterday. I haven't thought of a title yet. Maybe I should use the one I've just coined? Hmm.

I've nearly finished to dog painting, just letting it sit in a corner to see if any errors "leap out" at me.

There are just too many distractions now we're in the school holidays.

Viewpoint. Twist.

by Shahla Naimi
Trumbull, Yale College 2012

On Rafidia Street in Nablus, they are 4 or 5 guys basking under the trees in dark green uniforms and red-green hats casually laying down and carrying guns. They do not smile; they do not talk to you.

On Benihana Street in Jerusalem, they are young, attractive guys and girls in dark green uniforms holding backpacks, who haven’t undergone the emotional development that college instigates that makes someone keen to constantly ask questions. They laugh and hold hands, drink iced coffee and eat ice cream.



One maintains order in a land of people called Arabs.

One maintains order in a land of people called Palestinians; this is the other that gets discount prices at concerts:

50 NIS.
40 NIS for students and soldiers.

In a café in Jerusalem called Change, a young man told me that soldiers are normal, that they protect the people of Israel.

At An-Najah University in Nablus, a young woman told me that the Palestinian Authority is an unwelcome puppet, “But who cares anyways?”

Viewpoint. Twist.

The government of Israel cannot continue to manipulate, twist, and mold human rights to fit the image it wants and portray a biased story. In doing so, Israel casts itself as a victim when it clearly has the upper hand: it has the stability, power, and resources to determine and enforce how well- respected human rights are in its territory, and the Occupied Territories. The Oslo Peace Accords and every agreement before and after, should have been a matter of established human rights conventions, not power.

Human rights are non-negotiable.

(Actually) In Conversation with: Wael Abbas

Contributed by Sarika Arya and Meredith Morrison

The first time we tried to interview the internationally famous Egyptian blogger, Wael Abbas (WA), he was returning from a conference on global interdependence on Sweden. A week later, back in Egypt (and with a vengeance to blog), Wael sat down with the YJHR. His style is not to complain. It is to expose, clarify, provoke and, ultimately, inspire. He's pretty good at it - especially the provoking part.

Q: Why do you blog?

WA: I blog because I am. This is going to sound cliché but no that’s not the answer. I blog because I – well I started blogging for totally different reasons but then I discovered another reason. I have a voice and I wanted this voice to be heard. I wanted to discuss issues that weren’t discussed in the traditional media about religion, society, politics, stuff like that. That’s how it started. But afterwards, I decided that I’m blogging for change. I want change in this country. At least I want to leave a little impact, make a small change in three specific areas which are: the civil society, political parties, and the media.



Q: Who accesses your blog? Is it banned anywhere in Egypt? I read an article in which the reporter indicated that some blogs are banned to certain business and publications (like news outlets), according to a "state security apparatus"?

WA: It’s banned in China, that’s what I heard, but it’s not banned in Egypt. Well, they used to use this policy before 2005. They used to block some blogs and websites. This was mostly for the radical Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood. But not anymore; sometime they block websites, but only tactically, for one day, or two days, or a few hours. Like on the 6th of April where they blocked Facebook for only one day, the day of the general strike. Other than that, they have other ways that they attack blogs to get them shut down or report them to the hosts, saying they have a lot of inappropriate material. They did that with my YouTube account, my Facebook account, my email – they’ve shut down my email several times, like five times.


Q: Why? Are they allowed to know what’s in your email?

WA: They don’t have that technology yet, but there is a technology called packet inspection – they can inspect every single packet of data that comes into or out of your computer. I think the Chinese are doing that but I’m not sure the Egyptians are doing it yet.

But this is not the only way they attack bloggers; I can tell you about other ways – they’re not only electronic. They arrest them and torture them, like the owner of the Facebook group of the strike. They target reputations; this is what they’ve been doing about me for some time, spreading rumors saying I’ve converted to Christianity or I am a homosexual or something like that.


Q: Is that what happened last week at the airport?

WA: No, what happened at the airport was a direct attack. Well, I traveled a lot in the last three years, like my passport was almost full, and I’d never been in a situation similar to this one. I took a late flight from Stockholm, and there was a short time transit in Frankfurt, then I took a flight to Cairo. In Cairo, I arrived in the airport, in Terminal 3 at around 3:00 am. So as you can imagine I was really exhausted, tired, hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten. I also took a bus right from Talberg to Stockholm for four hours. When I arrived in Cairo, I thought, “I am finally home.”

So I approached the passport control desk, and I gave them my passport, and one of them he checked my passport on the computer, and he asked me these questions: “Do they always stop you when you arrive in Cairo?” I said, “No, it has never happened before.” And he said, “But this time you’re going to have to stay for a while.” So I said, “Okay.” I thought would be five minutes or something like that. So I waited. One hour, two hours, three hours, and nobody is telling me what is going on. And they stopped other people, like people with big beards, people who came from Yemen, but they let them go after five or ten minutes until I was the only one who was staying there.

I kept asking questions, but nobody would give me any answers, until one of them told me discreetly: “Your passport is, at the moment, with State Security.” When I asked, “Why?” he told me, “I don’t know, I’m not with State Security; I’m just with passport control.”

So I waited and kept asking the officers for my passport back, but they wouldn’t give it back to me. So I decided to start a sit-in. I took a big piece of paper out of my bag and wrote, “THIS IS A SIT-IN; STATE SECURITY TOOK MY PASSPORT,” and I sat on the floor and faced people coming from the planes. And at first they were ignoring that, but then it started to piss them off, after a while one of them started trying to persuade me to end this, and then he started harassing me, saying, “This isn’t good. It’s going to end up ugly.”

I told him, “I know my rights. What I’m doing, according to the laws and institutions, is right.”

So they told me, “Just end the sit-in and we’ll give you back your passport.” And I said, “No, give me back my passport first and I’ll end it.” They brought my passport back to me after 5 minutes.

So I passed the passport control and went to the baggage carousel to get my bag but unfortunately my bag had disappeared; it had been over four hours at this point, and somebody had moved it. I asked a guy at the airport what I should do and he said to exit customs and go to Lufthansa and ask them for your bag. So I went through the customs, but they stopped me and said, “No, just wait here and we’ll get it for you.”

I waited for two hours, and he pretended they were trying to get my bag. During this time, they had my passport with them, and they wouldn’t give it back to me. And they kept talking to each other discreetly, like kneeling with each other and saying something I could not hear, until suddenly they tell me, “Okay, now we have to search your bag.” I was carrying this laptop bag of mine.

They started searching the bag. At first, I thought it was a joke – they took out every single thing that was in the bag, no matter how small, like the medicine. They kept asking me questions about the medicine and talking about the medicine. Then they took all the conference papers to a room inside, and I don’t know what they did with that, but I suspect they were photocopying the papers. They took out my camera and the laptop and put it inside.

Eventually, they brought back the papers and the camera and asked me to go inside for something similar to a strip search. I went inside and they searched every pocket of my clothes and almost every curve of my body. He took my wallet out and searched everything inside my wallet – credit cards, ID cards, driver’s license, stuff like that – and then put everything back in the wallet. This is something that is really weird for customs people to do; they’re supposed to be looking for goods.

They gave me back my passport and my wallet, but they told me they had to keep my laptop because they want to show it to this agency we have here, which is responsible for copyright software and piracy and stuff like that. But this is totally irregular. They never do this to anybody, never to me before; I’ve flown hundreds of times and they’ve never done this to me.

And I said that taking my laptop was illegal, and I know it’s illegal, and I know by customs law that I am entitled to carry one laptop for personal use, and they cannot take it away from me, and they can’t make me pay customs for it, and they’re not authorized to open it or inspect the software inside unless they have approval from a judge. But still, they insisted they are not giving me back my laptop, so I sat there for two or three hours more demanding my laptop back, but they refused. I demanded to talk to the head of customs, and, after negotiating, he told me, “We have orders from a higher entity, and we cannot give you back your laptop.”

After this, I decided that staying in the airport was useless, so I decided to leave. I met friends who were waiting for me outside, met lawyers, and we went to Lufthansa to look for the bag. And they obviously knew about my bag, they knew my full name, and the whole situation. They told me my bag was with storage in the other Terminal, in Terminal 2. So I went to this other company that is supposed to be handling the baggage, and they told me that you need permissions to go to the storage room to get your bag back.

We had to go through a lot of red tape to get permission to get my bag, and during the process there was a permission that was supposed to be from state security. This one alone took 2 hours. They claimed that they have my name on the list that belonged to State Security. This list of the names, was totally new. It was never there before, they never had reason to stop me.

I finally managed to get the permission and got my bag back and then I filed a report in the police station about the illegal detention and confiscation of my laptop, which I didn’t get back till now.


Q: Why do you think that this happened to you?

WA: I don’t know, but I have inside information from the state that says that somebody filed a report about me from Sweden that I said stuff that was harmful to the Egyptian government state. But I know for sure that there were two people from the National Democratic Party that were there.


Q: Was it something you said – what kind of stuff?

WA: I said a lot of stuff, of course. I criticized the regime and I criticized the European position on our regime. I said that it was hypocritical that they know what the regime does to the opposition but they are aiding this regime and this is totally different from their approach to the “iron curtain” or the Eastern bloc during the Soviet Era... so this is probably what pissed of the National Democratic Party.


Q: Is that what you blog about – what do you blog about?

WA: I blog about that and other stuff too. Stuff that doesn’t get enough coverage in media.


Q: Why do you think this happened this time?

WA: I don’t know. I think there is a state of panic in state security right now. I think something is going on. I don’t know why but they have arrested people in the Muslim Brotherhood – maybe President Mubarak is dying. I think they are preparing a military tribunal for the Muslim Brotherhood, something similar to what they did last year. [Last year], they sent some Muslim Brotherhood members to jail accusing them of funding an organization or something like that – terrorist attacks, an illegal organization, stuff like that.


Q: How do you find your material?

WA: In the beginning all the material I got was mine. They were like pictures I took myself, videos I took myself. But after I started gaining some credibility people started sending me their old material: stuff they shot on the street or stuff that leaked out from police stations. People sent me videos of train accidents, terrorist attacks, car accidents.


Q: How did you get into blogging?

WA: I was always interested in journalism, ever since I was a kid I was reading opposition papers. I was interested in this new experience, because it was new in the 70s. It was new in the reign of Sadat. I always felt there was something missing from this opposition in independent media. I wanted to work in media but I found out its hard, you have to know somebody in a good position in order to get a job. So I quit for a while until I saw the potentiality of the Internet back in 1994. You’re able to interact with people from other countries in long distance, you can be anonymous and discuss anything freely in censorship. It all started actually in chat rooms, then forums, then reading groups, then electronic newspapers, which I wrote articles for and sent to. Then in 2004 I took the major turn and decided to start my own blog, because there was a lot of activity in the Egyptian state and I felt like they were not getting enough coverage in the traditional media, even from the opposition. So I decided to go to these police stations and take my camera and do interviews and my own stuff and put it on my own blog. The blog enabled me to post, photos videos, and links provide technology.


Q: Have you ever been scared to blog? (Especially because of the potential consequences?)

WA: Not really.


Q: Have you ever censored yourself?

WA: Maybe when there is something that doesn’t have to do with politics or the rights of people. If it is a personal scandal of somebody I abstain from posting it.


Q: Do you censor comments from people?

WA: Yes.


Q: Why?

WA: Because they are personal and offensive. I am my own authority, I am proud of that. I will be a fascist. I would never take a government position. I keep away from that because I know that I have a fascist quality.


Q: It seems that you’re suspicious of many people, professions, and things in general – who or what do you trust?

WA: I’m not suspicious!


Q: Okay, well you seem to find faults in a lot of things. What profession do you find most admirable? Journalism?

WA: Journalism has been really a dirty job in Egypt for fifty years now. Journalism is not honest at all its only after advertising and power and stuff like that. I hate that.


Q: So then what job is honest? What about human rights activists can you find something wrong with them?

WA: Yes, of course! Of course! There are people who dealing with double standards. Like human rights who don’t recognize the rights of gay and homosexuals, and people who don’t recognize the rights of people from other religions like Bahai’s. You have people like that in your Council. Don’t write that down it will piss of [your boss]. And you have people who do it to make money, there is a lot of money in human rights. Donations. They put in their pockets.


Q: So what is the admirable profession for you? What can change the world?

WA: Any profession you do with love and honesty and you are willing to serve people with. This is the profession I respect, even if it is a garbage collector.


Q: How do you react when Yahoo, Youtube, and Facebook close your accounts?

WA: I complain against them.


Q: How does that happen? Like why does Facebook shut off your account?

WA: Google and Facebook cooperate with the regime, which I know for sure they are. Or they get false reports like people reporting me for spamming or posting violent material or abusive photos or like kinky sexual stuff. Like I have videos of torture: the police officers who shot the videos of torture took pleasure in shooting them.


Q: Why do you think this happens specifically in Egyptian society – like what is going on the police officer’s brain?

WA: We have been living under a tyrannical dictatorial military regime for over 50 years. And this has empowered and enforced the position of army officers and police officers at the same time. They have unlimited power so they feel like gods. The motto of the police used to be, “The police are in the service of the people.” But now they changed it so that now it is, “The police and the people are in the service of the nation,” – whatever the hell that means. And by the way they give courses in police academy to be arrogant or to be superior to people. They tell them not to take public transportation like the ordinary people.

The soldiers are paid very little but the police officers are very good. And they have lots of good stuff: a good pension, good health care. They can buy cars, apartments, they have touristic villages where they spend the summer with the families, they have these like five star hospitals. So they are basically being bribed to be like the guard dogs of the regime. But the soldiers of course are basically being paid pennies.


Q: What is your relationship with the American government like? We heard that you have a certain relationship with the American government.

WA: Yeah I have relations with the CIA, FBI, MI5.


Q: Are you making fun of us?

WA: Of course.


Q: So, can you be honest?

WA: [Laughs.] No I don’t have any relationships with anybody. I go on scholarships and training programs that are organized by the civil society. Nothing to do at all with any government.


Q: So what do you think about the American government? This is something of interest to us, because we’re Americans.

WA: Would your government hire people like me or pay people like me? Do you really think so?


Q: Well yeah, because you’re exposing the humanitarian face of your country. You’re an insider with access to all this material. Look, we’re basically trying to find out if you’re a spy.

WA: Is that doing any good to the American administration? Like exposing the Egyptian regime or exposing Egyptian torture? Are you planning to invade my country and am I helping you? Are you angry with Mubarak are you going to impeach him?

GIVE ME A BREAK! The US government is sleeping with Mubarak in the same bed! I get stopped at the American airports every single time that I arrive and depart there.

(Q): I mean to be honest, that might not have anything to do with your profession, but because you’re coming from the Middle East. Right? And because you’re Arab… America has a policy of discriminating against certain people so… okay clearly you don’t seem very impressed with American politics because they’re “sleeping with the regime.”

W: No, they’re very hypocritical. Sometimes they are supporting the regime. I refuse this kind of support. I consider it interference. It is hypocritical because they are supporting my country just to save face but on the other hand they are handing millions and billions to our regime.


Q: Right, but in America it would be very very rare, especially under Barack Obama, for someone to be detained for blogging. There is a pretty well respected policy for freedom of speech, at least under President Obama.

WA: I don’t think so, I don’t think so. So far, Barack Obama has not been doing anything about freedom of speech in other countries.


Q: Do you think that there is censorship in America?

WA: There is censorship in America because the media is controlled by a few corporations. There’s very little effective private media not like in the 70s. After Reagan came to power these corporations are buying all of the local stations and newspaper making them all a part of one huge network; turning into one network abiding by one policy. So censorship is very easy.


Q: We read on your blog that you basically compared Barack Obama to the Muslim Brotherhood.

WA: Well yeah, because he was, like, addressing the religious sentiment of the people not their mind, not their thoughts. So it is basically the same thing; reciting verses from the Koran and reciting the hadiths [oral stories] of the prophet. Oh my God. What the hell? Is he going to fool me like reciting stuff that? What is he thinking? What is he thinking? Yeah, there are some people who will be fooled by stuff like that but not me. Not the people like me who use their minds. Not the liberals, not the secularists, not the leftists.


Q: Well, that’s a valid point but don’t you think that some people might respond by saying that there is a religious –

WA: Fuck that. I don’t want that. I want that to be eliminated actually. I want a civil state.


Q: But don’t you think you can have a civil state with religion? You don’t think so?

WA: We can have a state with religion, but for everyone to be free to be able to practice their own religion. They are arresting Shia Muslims, because they don’t accept that there are Shia Muslims. They are arresting Christians, and they are persecuting Baha’is.


Q: So, did you watch Obama’s speech? Or did you attend it?

WA: I was there yeah.


Q: You weren’t one of the people in the back screaming “I love Obama!” where you?

WA: [Laughs] No. I was sitting next to someone who loves Obama. He is a famous actor actually.


Q: Were you appalled by him [the actor]?

WA: Everyone is free and entitled to his own opinion. He loves Obama, he was happy that Obama was there and recited verses from the Koran as if it’s adding honor to the Koran. Some people have this mentality. Some people need to be slapped in the face for thinking this way. It feels like there is this ugly old woman that men don’t approach at all, and then suddenly a man started flirting with her. (The Muslim world is the ugly old woman.)


Q: For you, what would be the ideal way for America to approach Muslim politics?


WA: I’d like America to start addressing mentality, to stop dealing with double standards, to stop aiding tyrants and dictators.


Q: What do you mean by “addressing mentality”?

WA: In the Cold War, there was a whole different approach towards the Eastern bloc and the Soviet Union and a lot of criticism in the media. I don’t see that anywhere at all in the Muslim media. Saudi Arabia is the biggest ally of the United States and the biggest funder of terrorism in the world. It is building schools in the jungles of Africa, in the jungles of southern Thailand, and the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is where the Taliban came from. This is where the people who explode embassies come from. From these schools. And all of these schools have pictures of the King Abdullah, the king of Saudi Arabia, and his son. The United States always yields to pressure from Saudi Arabia. Hollywood bows to pressure from Saudi Arabia- all the time, the perception of Arabs in the media. They want to sell the most movies in the Gulf countries, the oil- rich countries. So they rarely attack Saudi Arabia, and the traditions, and the religion there.


Q: Do you vote in your country?

WA: No, because we don’t have voting. We don’t have real elections.


Q: A lot Egyptians are very impressed by Obama –

WA: Because he looks like us. He is the first black guy to be president and so he is the embodiment of a dream. We want something similar here in Egypt like where anyone can be president of the country.


Q: We met a taxi driver who like Obama because he thought he was Muslim.

WA: Some people are ignorant stupid people and think he’s a Muslim


Q: So, you’re not impressed by Obama?

WA: I was impressed by Obama before he came to power, but when he started giving those stupid speeches like he thinks he’s smart, and he thinks he’s fooling people around the world. I don’t like it. I’m simple, I’m not like him. He’s patronizing people around the world.


Q: So who is your favorite political leader in the entire world?

WA: Anwar Sadat, Mahatma Gandhi.


Q: Someone who is alive? If you had to choose – someone with real power, so you can’t say the Queen of England.

WA: No, I don’t like her. I hate monarchies. How about that guy – what’s his name? The guy who was in prison? … Nelson Mandela.


Q: Okay but someone who is in power RIGHT now.

WA: NONE! Really! No country is perfect; even Sweden, even Norway, even Finland- even those countries that have those kinds of democracies because they have their own problems. So nobody is perfect. I can only choose from the dead, from the people who are no longer in power because I can see their achievements and their contributions to politics. So these are the only people I can judge.


Q: Why did you turn down a meeting with President Bush in 2008? It was an opportunity to talk to a political leader.

WA: I wanted to talk to him as a journalist, but not as an activist that he was supporting because he was not. Bush was like leaving office and he wanted to give a message like okay I was supporting these movements. He was using me, and not just me, others too! People from South America, from former Soviet Republics. All these people praised Bush, and I was expected to do that? HELL NO. I was offered to meet Rice in 2007 and I refused that. I also hated people who met with Hilary Clinton. I don’t believe in meeting with officials from any government, especially like controversial figures. I can meet with the Prime Minister or President of Israel but only as a journalist or as an interviewer. That’s it.


Q: If you had the opportunity to tell Mubarak anything, what would it be?

WA: Lots of bad things. Lots of very horrible, horrible, nasty, ugly, obscene stuff you know. I cannot think of anything rational that I would say.


Q: If you don’t believe in working through the established method of power, then how do things get change?

WA: Things are going to change if they change their ways. The government are not fighting for their rights or to do the things they are supposed to do. If we accept censorship and security then civil society must accept all of the regulations that are forced upon them.


Q: When you say no to these meetings, do you ever feel like you are missing an opportunity to tell government officials what you think?

WA: No. I can say whatever I want through the media and through meeting with other people from civil society. The governments are working only for their own interests.


Q: What’s the best way to rule a country?

WA: By the people themselves. I believe in democracy, but I believe in enlightened democracy. People should be aware first. I don’t want people to choose Mubarak. I don’t want people to choose Hamas. I don’t want people to choose Taliban. I don’t want people to choose businessmen because they bribe them. I don’t want people to choose someone because they are oppressing them. I hate people who use people, who use democracy for their own interests. I want people to be able to realize that democracy is for their own good and they shouldn’t give it up for bribe, for a promise, for anything- just because these guys are religious, or having religious sentiment. People should think before they vote.


Q: Who has influence on you? Any writers, intellectuals, or political theorists?

WA: Charles Dickens and the x-ray machine. The x-ray machine because it doesn’t provide a cure. Some people accuse me of not providing solutions. That’s what Charles dickens and the x-ray machine do. Like, Charles Dickens was like pointing his fingers at the problems of society, the problem with institutions, the British institutions, the abuse of children and women, but he never gave answers to that. But eventually the British society was able to reform itself, to reform its institutions. So, I don’t have to provide answers. I don’t have answers. There are other people to think about it. I can only point out the problem. I point it for people to solve it.

I’ll give you an example. I published a video of torture inside a police station, of a truck driver who was physically sodomized with a stick. The video was circulated for over a year and the people didn’t care, they were so apathetic. They exchanged the video as if weird or absurd, not a crime that needed to be reported. I took this video and I posted it on my blog and I made a scandal out of it, and I said somebody should do something about it. And it was taken to court and the officer sentenced to jail. So people have a problem in awareness. People don’t know what is a crime and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Police torture was acceptable for a long time and now it’s not because people are talking about it. And I didn’t propose a solution but it’s better now. The problem is not totally solved, but the people became aware. They came forward, and they became more use to exposing that kind of torture.


Q: What do you think is the biggest humanitarian problem facing Egypt today?

WA: The biggest is a collection of all of these. I cannot say that there is a specific main problem. There is a problem of awareness – awareness of many things –people’s awareness of their own rights: what is right to do, what is right not to do, what is right to choose, what is not right to choose. So it is, basically, awareness.


Q: Do you think it’s the same for the rest of the world as well?

WA: Maybe so. This is something that our leaders and government and media and businessmen exploited. They know how to exploit very well. This is the thing that frightens me.


Q: When did you realize you were being exploited and how?

WA: After I graduated. Well, the government was like having all this propaganda all the time on television that the youth are not doing anything, that the youth are worthless and useless, that they are only into drugs. And they never thought of empowering them. And I always thought that you have to develop yourself and gain more knowledge and gain more training and stuff. I found out I had a university degree and I spoke, like, two to three languages, and certificates, and couldn’t get a job for God’s sake. So they were telling us lies. It’s not about having qualifications, it’s about, like, being corrupt and knowing somebody who is corrupt who can get you a job. I found somebody who has less qualifications than mine and just because he knew some people he had some very good jobs. I was always very critical, even before I graduated.


Q: So you’ve always been critical of your country?

WA: Not my country. The people who are running my country.


Q: Do you think you’re more patriotic for criticizing your country and trying to improve it? Would you consider yourself patriotic?

WA: That’s for other people to call me.


Q:How would you describe yourself?

WA: Not optimistic, but still if I was not I wouldn’t be working on changing stuff. If I were pessimistic I could have stopped working altogether and left the country and emigrated and started a family somewhere else. But I’m still here; that must mean something. Even if I deny it, I do desperately hope things will change. I hope at least. There is still hope.


Q: What do you want to tell our generation?

WA: You are the problem, the United States. You guys are all studying now business and engineering and chemicals, and stuff, stuff that are really radical. But nobody’s studying literature and philosophy and these arts, these kinds of arts. This is really horrible in my opinion. People are studying things that will get them jobs and get them money. This is what your regime really wants, people that are running your country want: your regime, your government, the government you choose, the government you vote for. Your democracy! They’re controlling you! The media, the corporations, and business, the corrupt people in politics. They want you to be practical and not to think and not to criticize them, not to be philosophical, not to make your mind work. They had this is in the 70s and this made them really worried: the hippies and the beat generation, people who thought and were really critical of the government, and thought the Vietnam war was wrong, and started these sit-ins and demonstrations and Woodstock festivals, and music, and rock, and stuff like that. Maybe it sounds funny now but your government made them look like that. They made them look funny. They made them look like people who were only after free sex and smoking and LSD and stuff like that. But this is not the truth. Most people were really thinking about their country and the future of their country now. There is something really wrong, it’s odd. This is not the case now. Most people are not studying philosophy, arts. I think by studying these arts, we can change the world.

Young people should study the history of the world so as not to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, and then the Iraq- these are mistakes that are being repeated deliberately because some people are making money out of it, believe it or not. Some people are making HUGE bucks out of it. So people should learn history, should learn philosophy, should make their mind work; not be like lab rats and be like cogs in a machine that only move the machine that never works, that never stop to think, that never stops to think or reflect. Maybe I am using, like, communist terminology here, but I am not a communist.


Q: So we have this blog right? It’s a human rights blog, and human rights issues actually from a creative standpoint: so we have people who submit literature, and photos, and poetry, and songs? What tips do you have for this blog?

WA: My approach was to address the young people, no matter how trivial I think they are and no matter how I think that their education or knowledge is inferior. I try to talk to them in their own knowledge. I try to attract young people in their own language and tell them that first we understand them, and second that we are interested in having a conversation with you. Don’t make them feel intimidated, don’t make them think that you are an elitist. You know, this is a problem here in Egypt because some people were speaking in classical Arabic, and they have this sophisticated language, and using these expressions all the time that young people maybe don’t understand and they don’t care to understand those issues that they are discussing. That’s why I’m using obscenity and slang language in my blog. It’s actually what provokes people to interact, and understand, and absorb what I’m telling them. Also, always try to support what you’re saying with pictures and videos and stuff like that – multimedia, it gives you more legitimacy. And never censor people or opinions – you can always censor offenses; like towards your mother and so on and sister and so on and so on.


(Q:) That hasn’t happened to us yet.

WA: Well, maybe people have more respect for your mother, and your mothers’ sexual organs. [Laughs.]


(Q:) Well, we won’t censor that. We don’t censor.

WA: [Smiles] Inshallah. [Arabic for God willing.]

Tiger, tiger...

I've had a productive day today. I finished my tiger picture - see below. I'm thinking it should be called "Blake's inspiration". I've always been fascinated by tigers but I wouldn't want to meet one without a cage. It was started as an abstract but I didn't want to finish it as one, maybe I'll try again... I've included the poem, it's too good not to. I've also nearly finished an abstract - waiting for it to dry.

I've had the subject of my commission over for a photo shoot. A camera shy mongrel, she's lovely but terrified of cameras. Eventually got some useable pictures and one the client wants a copy of! Just need to finish the picture now.

William Blake. 1757–1827

The Tiger

TIGER, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did He smile His work to see?

Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

No Where to Run

by Sarika Arya

The girl was running into the police station. On the way back from work, stuck in muid-afternoon traffic, I noticed her through the window of my taxi: she was wearing a light pink hijab, a long-sleeve purple t-shirt, and jeans in spite of the heat, symbolizing her devoutness to Islam. She ran up the stairs into the white dilapidated police office, sliding past the men (she was the only woman there) who were hovering around outside – narrowly escaping touching any of them, not even allowing her body to brush them accidentally, in her rush to find sanctuary inside. But there is no guarantee that sanctuary, let alone justice, is what she got. In Egypt, the human rights culture is not so much of zero tolerance, but zero accountability.



According to a 2008 US State Department human rights report on Egypt, the Egyptian People's Assembly (the popularly-elected representatives of the Egyptian parliament), discharged 1,164 lower – ranking policemen for misconduct and abuse of power. The same report documents a shocking case in which a 13 year- old was electrocuted by a detective, a 15 year- old was tear- gassed by a policeman, and a human rights activist and her colleague were physically assaulted by a policeman in a courtroom where they were seeking justice for a torture victim. In fact, in this incident, one victim received head injuries so serious that he remained unconscious for about 30 minutes.

The total degeneration of civil society in Egypt poses a serious threat to human rights. Consider the most basic scenario: a woman walking on the street. Even a fully-covered girl is at risk for sexual harassment. According to the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, 69% of sexual harassment occurs on the street and 42 % in public places (22% is on the beach and 6% at the workplace.). In 2008, the Centre surveyed 1,010 Egyptian women, of whom 83% reported they had been sexually harassed. Often times, it is those who are supposed to be upholding the law: traffic wardens, policemen, soldiers – men in uniform – who are committing this abuse. An American friend of mine in Cairo recalled being whistled at by a police officer, "I turned around, and said to him in Arabic, 'Do you have any dignity? You should be ashamed of yourself. You're a policeman." He was so shocked that this blue- eyed, blond- haired, American woman was reprimanding him in Arabic, that he was ashamed. But often times it is not as easy or even safe to respond. My two girlfriends and I walked past a group of train conductors lounging in Ramses Station, only to be whistled at, tongues clicking, men muttering "You're very beautiful," over and over in Arabic. We had another uncomfortable experience when a truck full to bursting with policemen all carrying handguns rattled down the street, clicks, whistles, and catcalls following the women who passed it. If these men hadn't been speaking Arabic, I would have thought the truck was full of sick chickens: it both looked and sounded like it anyways, what with all the clucking and purring.

When civil servants are the very perpetrators of abuse, when even the courtroom – which is supposed to be a place of justice – becomes a torture chamber, and when the elected government suspiciously receives 88% of the vote, how can human rights enforcement ever be taken seriously? The total lack of accountability manifests itself in complete apathy to and acceptance of the bleak human rights situation.

Think of this: it is not uncommon for a sexually harassed woman to blame herself for the ogling stares that make her uncomfortable, the whistles that haunt her, and even the grabbing hands that may lead to her self-imposed house arrest and isolation from the rest of society.

Respect for human rights is only as strong as respect for the legal authority that mandates those rights in the first place. While Egypt has a constitution, legal restraints that technically prevent most human rights abuses from occurring, and even pro-human rights government projects (like pamphlets that use Islam to discourage sexual harassment – particularly targeting men since, according to a ECW report, 62% of men surveyed admitted to engaging in harassment), there is still a human rights- resistant mentality, especially because this has been the norm for so long. Some even classify it as lethargy: a laziness to change one's behavior; submissiveness to human rights abuse that one can not only become accustomed to but also even profit from.

My flat mate, Meredith, and I, fed-up with being unable to walk down the streets without someone nearby whispering, "Hello Seniorita," even if we looked our grungiest selves, found ourselves eating our feelings of frustration at an Italian restaurant often frequented by expats. Shortly after the waiter took our order, Abhinav and Anna, two foreigners at the table next to us, engaged us in some friendly conversation about their lives as managers (of finance and housekeeping, respectively) for a certain world-renowned five- star hotel in Cairo. (We were asked not to reveal their names or the name of the hotel, so as not to risk their jobs or give the hotel bad publicity.) Meredith and I vented a lot about our frustration at being mistreated because of our gender, wondering what could possibly be the root cause of this problem and marveling at the limited efforts undertaken to prevent it and enforce the law.

Abhinav and Anna sympathized with us. Abhinav remembered a time when a male coworker, married and in his 40s, giggled to him about a girl's cleavage. Abhinav was shocked that in a professional workspace, high school humor was considered mature and funny. Moreover, there is no guaranteed way to deter such behavior: Abhinav's predecessor was fired for reprimanding an employee over a similar issue. As it turned out, the employee's connections (despite his lowly job) were good enough to secure his boss's immediate removal.

But Abhinav had an even more shocking story for us. Here is a brief summary of the legal status of prostitution in Egypt, as described by the US State Department report about human rights in Egypt in 2008:

“Prostitution and sex tourism were illegal but continued to occur, particularly in Cairo and Alexandria. Prostitution existed in cities and in some rural areas. Sex tourism existed in Luxor and Sharm El-Sheikh. Street children were subject to prostitution. Most sex tourists came from Europe and the Gulf.”

Despite its prohibition, like so many other things in Egypt, the weak enforcement, lack of accountability, and the social norm to operate on a who-knows-who basis, means that it continues, even on the grounds of a five- star family hotel. There, married men, pimps, and the ‘goods on sale’ gather to exchange numbers, money, and make the final deals –but all under the guise of meeting new people. Amused by our amazement, Abhinav and Anna invited us to the famous casino and then the outdoor café at the hotel to do some untraditional bird- watching, “Come see for yourselves.”

It’s high season for prostitution in Egypt: Gulf men (Arabs from the oil-rich Gulf states) flock to vacation spots in the relatively cooler northern part of the Middle East, while their wives and children jet set off for fun times in Europe: shopping at Harrods, Euro Disney, and other equally liberal family alternatives. This particular 5- star hotel in the heart of Cairo is no exception to these summer patterns. Our guides, our insiders into this forbidden world, led us to the hotel casino, usually a hotspot for prostitutes and particularly non-Egyptian prostitutes, since only foreigners are allowed into the casino (gambling is illegal by Islam, which is the main influence on Egyptian law). But the casino was dead. Meredith and I became skeptical but they told us it was early, so we decided to just wait it out at the café.

The café was full of Gulf men dressed in their traditional garb, white robes (called thobes), red and white checkered headscarves encircled with black rope, smoking shisha, and sipping Turkish coffee. The ‘Gulfies’ outnumbered the other foreign visitors who were scattered across the outdoor café and Egyptian themed restaurant and enjoying the supposedly family- friendly atmosphere, oblivious to the underground red light district that was slowly evolving around them. We sat in the center of the café. Gulf men sat close by at the tables all around us, and although it was very hot and humid they looked comfortable. We waited. It was nearly 10:30pm. Suddenly, Anna nudged us, indiscreetly nodding her head towards a girl walking by, muttering, “Look, there’s one.”

Besides us strolled no, strutted, a girl with straight, shiny, black hair extensions, which framed a powdered- white face. Her eyes were entrenched in dark eyeliner and her lips were painted a bright ruby red. She wore tight jeans with sparkles embedded on the back pockets (what we came to realize was staple clothing for most of the alleged prostitutes) and a black corset on top of a thin black see- through top. Her visibly uncomfortable high heels clackity- clacked on the cement in sync with the swaying of her hips. She was an expert. It was clear that she was using the moment walking past the line of tables occupied by Gulf men, potential customers, to show-off the commodity she had to offer: to model herself. The men engaged in this window- shopping, and we watched them, their eyes following her hungrily as the waiter seated her in full view of them. In a few moments she is approached by a Gulf man who, to the unsuspecting eye would just appear to be making conversation with a fellow hotel guest (who just has some bad fashion sense) who he happens to know. But it is just an act.

In fact, much of this society wears a costume. We learn that many hotels experience a similar prostitution problem, but there is something striking about the scenery of the hotel in question. It is beautifully crafted: under gilded terraces encrusted with the Muslim star and crescent, these men, having just returned from Saturday night prays, buy some women and indulge in infidelity. They appear to be puritanical, in their sparkling white robes, they travel from the most Islamic of states, but they betray the very traditions they enforce at home without (it seems) blinking an eye, a pang of remorse, or feelings of guilt under God’s all powerful and ever watchful being.

It suddenly becomes evident that the Gulf men next to us are engaged in a telephone conversation with a lady sitting across the aisle. The woman has pencil thin eyebrows that appear to be drawn on, straight brown hair, and a corset that is squeezing her artificially enlarged breasts – “That’s one,” whispers Anna, excitedly. Throughout the conversation, the woman is making hand gestures; it is clear they are negotiating a price. Then, the phones turn off, and the man gets up, leaving his friend at the table, and makes his way straight towards her under the guise of making friendly conversation. He has a limp: one foot drags behind him, and as he nears her table he cracks a toothy smile, wipes his sweaty brow, and takes out a wallet from his back pocket. He shakes her hand in introduction, sits down, and says something that makes her bellow with laughter. They share some shisha, shake hands again, and continue talking: a deal has been struck.

The girl will sleep comfortably tonight in the hotel. Abhinav and Anna assure us that the waiters and hotel staff know exactly what’s going on. In fact, both have unintentionally brushed shoulders with prostitutes late in the night. Anna recalled a girl knocking on her door at one in the morning, mistaking it for her customer’s. Abhinav received several phone calls from a girl using the house phones in the hotel lobby late one night, selling herself via conversation, searching desperately for a customer. Unsurprisingly, most of the hotel security are in on the business: either engaging in the prostitution themselves or receiving a small commission from the prostitutes and pimps for letting them break into the hotel market and use the hotel grounds. Moreover, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to prove prostitution was even occurring: anyone could excuse the behavior as two innocent people meeting and ‘having fun.’ It could also be very dangerous for any one individual to get involved– especially if the prostitution turned out to be part of a greater sex trafficking scheme, which the police were beneficiaries of. This is not an unlikely scenario. It remains a don't ask- don't tell policy.

A very beautiful girl, who appeared to be in her twenties, with long brown hair, a tight grey t-shirt, jeans, and a black belt with the word’s ‘Fire’ encrusted on the buckle, strides over to an overweight Gulf man in jeans, green shirt, and glasses. He is sitting with a more traditionally dressed Gulfie and a young boy who is no older than her. The Gulf man in green has been whistling at her for about ten minutes, and is thrilled that he has successfully captured her attention, giving her a greasy smile when she shakes his hand as if she were businesswoman in an office instead of a prostitute trespassing in a hotel. He handles the entire transaction: it is clear that he has done this before. Despite coming from (and probably doing his utmost to promote) a culture where men and women can’t even bump into each other on the street without making one another feel uncomfortable, he has no qualms in brushing a pudgy finger across her belt, along her hip, “Shu hada ‘Fire’?” (What is this ‘Fire’?) I notice, that despite her profession, she pulls her shirt down uncomfortably, covering her exposed midriff and crossing her arms.

She’s incredibly young. No wonder she is uncomfortable. Anna tells us it is not uncommon to see fourteen and sixteen year old girls here, trying to make a dime. A woman in an abaya, a black robe traditionally worn by more religious Muslim women, walks by. Her lack of head covering, says Anna, is a surefire signal that she is actually a prostitute. Apparently it is now fashionable for prostitutes to wear some religious symbols, as it makes them even more alluring. One woman has been wondering the café relentlessly, for over an hour, looking for a buyer. Her weight is working against her: she is obese, and it is heartbreaking to watch her, her eyes desperately searching, searching, searching, circled in sad eyeliner. She looks like a lost clown.

Meredith and I ask Abhinav and Anna, What about STDs, STIs, AIDS? “Who knows?” they say. This is a dangerous, undocumented, and unregulated world, which the law enforcement itself has no shame participating in and to some extent, even facilitating and sponsoring. On the other hand, Abhinav tells us a story about a prostitute who got married. Her husband remains unaware of her past - how? Well, the general lack of sex education meant that she could turn off the lights and do anything (effectively nothing) with her young customers, and convince them it was sex, even if it wasn't. "You would think they would naturally understand that she had cheated them," Abhinav says, "But some, especially the young and uneducated, have no idea." On another occassion, Anna got word through one of her housekeepers that there was blood on the bedsheets in a hotel room. It was revealed that the room had been used by a couple who had been married in the hotel the previous night. Anna and Abhinav assumed the woman had been the unfortuante victim of violent abuse. It was later found out that the woman's new husband had mistakently sent her to the hospital because he did not realize that bleeding was possible, and even normal, when a woman loses her virgnity.

The night is drawing to an end, and we decide to stop by the casino on our way out. It’s close to midnight now, and the gambling tables are buzzing. We run into the obese woman, and she scowls at us, embarrassed that we seem to know her true identity. But she is also frustrated: two hours ago, the casino would not have carried so much competition. But now, as soon as we enter, we see two women, clearly prostitutes, chain- smoking cigarettes on the red velvet couch at the door, waiting to snag a man looking to splurge his winnings. “Enjoy Cairo,” says the doormen, smiling at us warmly as we leave, and using the traditional Islamic salutation to say goodbye, “Masalaam,” which literally means, “With peace.”

We are overwhelmed: the society is contradictory, hypocritical, disordered, has weak law enforcement but for almost thirty years has been at the mercy of an authoritarian ruler who claims to be president of a democracy, it is at once oppressive of women, but also preaches Islam, which at one point was the foremost feminist movements in the world. As we leave the hotel and the tourist police give us the eye, probably fighting the urge to whistle at us, two appropriately-dressed young girls walking quickly with their heads bowed, not speaking, we wonder – what did we expect?

Still procrastinating...

I'm stuck with my commission - I need to see the dog and take some pictures and check colour. Spent some time playing with abstract ideas. Started a new abstract and a picture of a tiger - waiting for drying time on the masking fluid before painting. Should get some more done tomorrow. This is an abstract I did about 2 weeks ago - I love wheels! I love circles in general!

Uninspired

I'm on a downer at the moment. Want to draw but not getting around to it. It's the dreaded procrastination. I start the day with good intentions but don't seem to get around to it! I need to discipline myself more and being tired doesn't help. So I'm off to do something and hopefully there will be a post with a picture tomorrow!

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Where does the time go?

Last week of term is over and I haven't posted since Monday. I haven't had a good week for drawing, well not completing at least. Too much going on

I've been working on the recent commission, going well so far. Not ready to post .

Tuesday's drawing time was taken up with a BAFA Art gallery meeting... very useful, there is talk of continuing the Buckingham Art trail and actually advertising it more extensively. I can't even find a proper web link. Just 4 lines on the Buckingham festival site - hopeless!

Wednesday was taken with craft club, a completely pointless afternoon trip to collect a part, which hadn't arrived. A swimming lesson and an evening on the boat.

Thursday was a leavers assembly and then sorting out leaving stuff for today.

Today was an awards ceremony and a child who claimed to be well, but is far too quiet and cuddly for normal. He was in full Limpet mode. I sent out some more approaches to gallery. Got a rejection slip which had me quite positive until I engaged brain and realised it was probably a form email - ho hum!

Tomorrow we're, hopefully, back on the boat.

Human Rights Go Corporate

by Sarah Sloan

This summer, I am working in the human rights and business section of a human rights organization in Denmark. The department works directly with companies, providing them with tools to evaluate how well they adhere to human rights standards, research about the laws and practices of different countries where they may want to operate, and advice about how to uphold human rights in countries where violations are common. Beyond that, it is up to the companies to incorporate what they've learned, to change their practices, to follow through with our advice. We don't monitor companies. Instead, we give them the resources to monitor themselves.



My work this summer has made me think deeply about the role of businesses in human rights. Corporations now operate in countries around the world, from Nigeria to Vietnam, Iran to Guatemala. Oftentimes, the countries are plagued by unstable governments, corruption, and violence. It is common knowledge that the leaders of some of these countries consistently abuse the human rights of their people. The question, then, is what role companies should play- both legally and morally- in such situations. Does working in a country with an oppressive regime legitimize the government, even empower it? Or does the company's presence open the country up, provide jobs to its people, and allow the government to be somewhat monitored? Or, if the company itself is not violating any human rights standards, does its presence even have a significant effect- positive or negative- on the country?

I honestly don't know the answers to these questions, and I'm not so sure that there's one clear answer that fits every context and situation. But the more I work here, the more I see the potential benefit of having responsible, human rights-upholding companies operating in troubled countries. A company can extend its influence throughout a particular region, perhaps even throughout a country, and its presence keeps the line of communication with the government, and with the people, open. After all, the practice of operating in countries with less than ideal human rights records is already so entrenched in the corporate world it would be difficult to completely eliminate it. I'm far from convinced by either side, but I strongly believe that the conversation
is one well worth having.

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Approximately 80,000 fans saw the first appearance of the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo at Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid's home ground.Cristiano was passed on the number 9 shirt which was previously worn by some great players at the Real Madrid club.

Cristiano Ronaldo No. 9 Shirt

Sorcery Makes Torture A-OK!

Contributed by Judd Stern Rosenblatt

After reading about the Saudi Arabian genie- harraser, Judd forwarded this shocking article from IOL, a South African newsource. (Click here to see the article on the original website.):

Banjul - A 28-year-old man accused of stealing a man's penis through sorcery was beaten to death in the West African country of Gambia on Thursday, police said.

A police spokesperson said that Baba Jallow was lynched by about 10 people in the town of Serekunda, some 15km from the capital Banjul.

Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure.

The police spokesperson said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of "vanishing" genitals.

Seven alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs in Ghana in 1997.

In Saudi Arabia, Even a Genie can Violate Human Rights

An interesting article from the BBC News website, 'Also in the News':

Saudi 'genie' sued for harassment

A family in Saudi Arabia is taking a "genie" to court, accusing it of theft and harassment, reports say.

They accuse the spirit of threatening them, throwing stones and stealing mobile phones, Al Watan newspaper said.



The family have lived in the same house near the city of Medina for 15 years but say they only recently became aware of the spirit. They have now moved out.

A local court is investigating. In Islamic theology, genies are spirits that can harass or possess humans.

'Get out of the house'

"We began to hear strange sounds," the head of the family, who come from Mahd Al Dahab, told the Saudi daily. He did not want to be named.

"At first we did not take it seriously, but then stranger things started to happen and the children got particularly scared when the genie started throwing stones."

He added: "A woman spoke to me first, and then a man. They said we should get out of the house."

A local court says it is trying to verify the truthfulness of the claims "despite the difficulty" of doing so.

Many Westerners know the term genie from the tale of Aladdin and the magic lamp, or the 1960s American sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie.

But the BBC's Sebastian Usher says genies, or jinn, in Islamic theology can be a lot more sinister.

They are believed to be normally invisible but with the ability to assume human or animal form, and are often said to be motivated by revenge or jealousy.

There is a lingering belief in genies in the Muslim world that predates Islam, our correspondent says.

Click here to see the article on the original website.