haiku too

The maternity t-shirt
Covers the belly no more;
It is time to give birth.

Torture: A modest proposal

A brief intro first, then a summary of the Gray article, then the Amnesty report...

The title and excerpts are, again, from John Gray's Heresies. I had to go to the end of the article and check whether it had been written on April Fools' Day, but no. Tighten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Choice quotes:

We need to view the reintroduction of judicial torture as the next step in human progress.

We need to shed the belief that human rights are violated when a terrorist is tortured.

[how do you know he's a terrorist before you torture him/her?]

In a truly liberal society, terrorists have an inalienable right to be tortured. This is what demonstrates the moral superiority of liberal societies over others, past and present.

[again, written on Feb. 17, 2003 - not April 1]

In this article, Gray argues that torture warrants, like search warrants, should be legal (he also points out that technically torture is not unconstitutional in the US; I wonder if the white house administration reads this UK guy.) He claims that the abolition of torture made sense back in the days, but that it no longer does because, whereas back in the days torture was used to uphold arbitrary power,

today torture is used to defend free societies from attack by their enemies

[mmh...].

The scary part is that he goes on to say "The US will not rest until other states have have also adopted [this new regime of human rights]. " This was 2003, it's now 2006 and lots of stories are emerging regarding the outsourcing of terror onto other states, including the willful cooperation of certain European law enforcement agencies. Gray claims that since the US was able to convince the world of the new "pre-emptive strike" doctrine, that it can also pull this off. Think Rice.

The article ends with the following:

The world's finest liberal thinkers are applying themselves to the design of a modern regime of judicial torture. At a time when civilization is under daily threat, there can be no more hopeful sign.

We have different hopes, John, very different hopes.

There are generally-speaking three types of arguments against torture - (and for the most part they're the same variety as applies to anti-death penalty argumentation); and Gray doesn't convince me on either one of them.
A) It is immoral
B) It doesn't work (torture: the results are unreliable; death penalty: it does not act as a deterrent)
C) The process by which people are picked to whom it applies (the tortured, the killed by the penal system), is deeply flawed.

On any given day I probably would've just dismissed this article, said "Codswallop" as says the author of my current baby book, and moved on to prettier topics. But you see, I happen to work for an organization that fights for human rights. And I like to keep informed of things like Amnesty Intl's latest report on the use of torture by the US.

So should you have any time, even just time enough to read this blog, you should seriously skim through this well-crafted, humourous report. Humourous because cynical and smart. Also much better written than the Gray article.
Guantanamo and beyond: The continuing pursuit of unchecked executive power. It's magnificently researched. It points out the hilarious discrepancies between the State Department reports and the same government's doings. It is well worth it.

Keep your seat belts on for the read though, it is after all about abuse of executive power and humiliations and torture.

is it possible to eradicate evil?

[note: I am not recommending John Gray's Heresies from which passages are excerpted below. I've been struggling with it for months, but mostly as I might post later about, it condones torture. Plus he's very pro-Bush, I mean who can forgive that?!?]

In Europe, we see terrorism as one of several threats to the world. They include poverty and climate change, and each has causes that can be alleviated. In America, by contrast, terrorism is seen as supremely evil, the work of dark forces that must be defeated and eliminated.

Dividing the world into goodies and baddies is a recurrent feature of American thinking. (Reagan, Wilson). Today, the idea that the US embodies all that is good in the world is an article of faith in the 'new strategic doctrine' presented to the US Congress in September 2002, in which President Bush declared that there is 'a single sustainable model for national success': American democracy and free entreprise.[...] It is at the bottom an indigenously American creed, rooted in the belief that the United States has been chosen by God to bring freedom and virtue into a benighted world.

It is disbelief in evil that is today peculiarly American. Contemporary American culture is founded on the Pelagian faith that evil can be defeated and eradicated from the world. In contrast, Europeans see the choices that have to be made in international relations as being unavoidably among evils. No doubt they continue to hope for a better world, but they are always conscious of the danger of too much enthusiasm.

The risks of imagining evil can be conjured away are many, and they are nowhere more evident than in US policy on Iraq. [...] far reaching lack of realism in US thinking. The relentlessly upbeat moral outlook that underpins American foreign policy prevents a clear assessment of these risks. It also inhibits honesty about more mundate interests, such as secure oil prospects and Bush's re-election prospects. The belief that evil can be driven from the world nourishes a false sense of moral purity. US policy, like that of any imperial power, is dictated largely by realpolitik. Morality, though it may constrain foreign policy, can never be the chief force in shaping it.

America's critics condemn Bush's call to take up arms against evil as an expression of religious fundamentalism. And it is true that fundamentalism has an alarming hold on US government. But if Bush talks so insistently of evil (...) it is because he does not doubt that once the world has accepted American values, it will enjoy everlasting peace and prosperity. THis has not always been the American view. For the founding fathers, human beings were flawed creatures that no change in institutions could improve fundamentally. The purpose of government was not to conduct us to the Promised Land but to stave off the recurrent evils to which human life is naturally prone.

The revival of the language of evil in the speeches of American leaders does not mean that the ancient truth [of the doctrine of original sin] has been rediscovered. On the contrary, it is a sign that we are in for another grandiose experiment in remaking the world, with all the force and horror than invariably entails.

basketball en corte

Girls playing basketball in long skirts.

I always use my computer's background image as a source of inspiration or escape. Just last week I changed it to a picture my sister took in Guatemala. Four girls are standing on a basketball court; they're facing the basket. The ball is close to the basket and going in - we think, we hope. One of them is barefoot, the others in sandals. They all have long dark hair tied in a ponytail.

They wear the traditional corte: a long skirt that wraps around the body, whose pattern is dictated by the village the girls come from; and a huipil, same story but it's a top. theirs is an embroidered mauve huipil on a gorgeous dark red corte. They're mayans, their language is cakchiquel and their backyard is the gorgeous Lake Atitlan and its surrounding volcanoes. In fact in the picture you can see lush incredible greenery - coffee fields? (note last year a very deadly mudslide crippled the area. the politicians didn't bother showing up - same old contempt for 'indios').

It really speaks to me at the moment. Girls doing sports. girls doing things they're not expected or supposed to do. title 9. decalage. empowerment of women.

I have few regrets in life (what's the point of them?), but one is linked to Guatemala. I went with an Mayan activist, an older friend of my sister's, to Livingston on the atlantic side where we stayed at a long-time friend of hers. I should have taught this woman how to ride a bicycle, it would've made such a difference in her life. The reasons not to were numerous: no time, no money, no bicycle, and who was i to intrude? But I sincerely believe that sometimes it's the most mundane things that can turn a life around. Will I dare next time?

false and tired

I am tired of false labour (contractions but no real progress). Damn it, give me the real thing or leave me in peace. I am tired already. Tired of being tired. Tired of waiting. Tired of reading pregnancy websites for information. Tired of reviewing the suitcase for the hospital. Tired of wondering whether we've picked the right name. Tired of being primarily defined by the protrusion that is my belly. Tired of the sleepless nights and the digestion issues and the 5 pillows that allow me some semblance of rest. Tired. Tired. TIRED.


... I am also an emotional mess. Two nights ago I cried for a good hour - and the reason I was crying doesn't actually really matter. Music of all variety brought me to the verge of tears three times today.

Is it honest in my state to ask for compensation for the hours of work I put in? I wonder. But I do my best.

I still found the energy to laugh when I stumbled upon this site: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/1/T010900.asp (note: I don't actually recommend you visit this page if you're not familiar with pregnancy sites; don't jump in at the ninth month or you might get scared away; ease into the first trimester first). They kindly term the whole last month "the labor month", and add

Take all the emotions you've felt over the past eight months, intensify them, and you've got an idea of what you can expect emotionally during month nine.

I'm liking this validation.

Even getting up off the sofa can leave you out of breath.

I should come back to this site frequently.

You may not be able to get comfortable – anywhere.

I feel normal again. Back to work.

radical office

Well, i'm still up. And if you're still reading, I might as well tell you about my office.

I sit on the floor - what a radical concept. Well, technically, I sit ontop one or more cushions, which are on the floor. My desk is maybe 15 inches off the floor; it's a masterpiece of its own: it used to be the bottom of a grand armoire, some bits and pieces were added to make it more functional and standalonesque, then it was sold to a furniture exchange place, where I bought for practically nothing. Posts were sawed off (by Paul, I don't claim to do any of that these days), and replaced by slightly longer, sturdier ones. And voila - the desk of my dreams in rather nice dark wood!

Why on the floor might you ask? I hate sitting in chairs. For those of you who know me from my pre-cambridge evil-empire days, you'll remember that I used to work standing most of the time. Put me on a chair and the first thing I'll do is bring my legs up and sit cross-legged.

Plus floor sitting is excellent for everyone's hips. You should try it some time...

Side note: it helps if you work in a mezzanine, where the windows are rather low and you can actually look out the windows rather than crane your neck up three feet to get an inkling of light.

sleep deprivation

- Hi, my name is Marion and I am an insomniac
- Hi Marion...

Hello everyone,
Well, it's a tad early (or very late) to be up, but we'll make do. After some anxiety and some obsessively trying to have e-ve-ry-thing done and purchased way ahead of time, I've reached a zen state. It's nice. I feel ready.

Preparation classes are back in the full swing of things, and I'm liking that maternity ward with its labouring pool, and labour rooms with everything from massage oil (to put the partners to work - ha!), to exercise balls to all kinds of cushions and things.

I've been thinking, too (it happens...). You know that they don't let you eat or drink anything during labour? And that it lasts for maybe 15 hours on average for a first child? And that people have compared it to trying to run a marathon followed by a full-on sprint? Well, maybe .. just maybe... doing that on empty stomach might bring about exhaustion and contribute to the later blues. waddyathink?
(by the way the reason they don't let you eat or drink, at least in france, is in case they need to do an emergency anaesthesia; pregnant women especially are then likely to have all the contents of their digestive system spill back into the lungs. not a pretty picture. moving right along...)

So in the mean time, I try to psyche myself up for the 42 shots I'll have to give myself (I think I mentioned those in an earlier post, but maybe not. a shot a day for 6 weeks. yuck). And I deal with life - you know: asking for air miles that got lost along the way when we moved one too many times, looking for a car, looking for the proper long-term health insurance, making sure the French taxman isn't going to come running after us, looking for daycare for the little one, filling out medical reimbursement forms, that sort of fun stuff. life.

At the end of the day, I'm happy (even if not always fully rested during the day). And what more could you ask for?

haiku

My ribcage
is too small
for my little girl's sidekicks.