The Largest Minority

September 15th, 2008 by evmonk

This short doc I produced was selected for air by Current TV and premiered on the network over the weekend.

Politicians have promised universal health care for generations, but more Americans than ever before remain uninsured and in constant fear for their health. Millions of the uninsured are young college grads like Justine and her boyfriend Brian, who are caught off guard when a serious illness strikes. The Ithaca Health Alliance runs a free clinic in Ithaca, NY to care for those whom the health insurance system has left behind.

We started working on this piece about Justine, Brian and the Ithaca Health Alliance almost a year ago, and it was the first documentary project I ever worked on despite airing after some others. Many of the rough edges and growing pains - which almost derailed the project on a couple occasions - are evident, and Current’s highly-edited and sentimental version leaves out a lot of the more compelling research and interviews we did for the piece. But hopefully it succeeds in shedding a tiny bit of light on the heart-breaking problem of health care in this country.

September 12th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, thousands of hectares of Palestinian land in the West Bank have been illegally annexed by Israel. Up to two and a half times more land has been annexed for Jewish settlements than is designated for their current size. Though clearly a land grab, Israel claims the additional land it has annexed around the settlements with the expansion of the Apartheid Wall is simply a security buffer.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory ruling that the Apartheid Wall snaking through occupied territory in the West Bank breached international law and needed to be dismantled. The settlements themselves, currently occupied by 450,000 people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, are also illegal under international law.

As Israeli settlements continue to grow, the Palestinians, which own half the land, now have no access to it. Though land has been closed off to Palestinians for 30 years, the formalization of the expansion of these settlements by the Israeli military through “special security area” is a fairly recent development. Though the IDF claims these security zones are only established around illegal settlements to protect and not expand them, Jewish settlers are tolerated by the military when they build inside the zones.

Despite the Annapolis Conference claiming to freeze settlement expansion to bring about a Palestinian state, the Israeli government has done the opposite by expanding settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes.

source

August 6th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Physicians for Human Rights has reported that in keeping with its policy to cause as much pain and misery as is humanly possible, Israel has been forcing sick Gazans to trade intelligence information about Hamas for medical treatment. The 80-page report lists 32 Gaza Palestinians who were offered such a deal at the border before being allowed into Israel for treatment.

After the democratically-elected Hamas government prevented a US-backed Fatah coup in the Gaza Strip, Israel declared the occupied territory a “hostile entity” and sealed its borders, only allowing residents needing urgent medical treatment to leave with Israeli permission. When taken with the understanding that the situation in Gaza is the worst it’s ever been and that hospitals in the occupied territory are without power for up to 12 hours a day due to the blockade, the exploitation of those in need of medical attention is all the more disgusting.

Bassam Waheidi, one of the residents named in the report, is a 28-year-old reporter who focuses on women’s issues, social affairs, and workers’ rights. Waheidi is going blind and was referred by Gaza doctors to Israel for urgent treatment. When at the Erez border crossing he says he was led to an underground room and interrogated in an hours-long session to provide Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency information on militants in exchange for medical treatment to save his sight. Waheidi refused - choosing his dignity over his vision. Israel has not granted him a permit since. Now Waheidi has gone blind in his right eye and is losing sight in the other.

Israel is committing a horrendous crime against humanity by imprisoning a million and a half civilians, half of which are under 15 years of age. What were already dire health concerns in Gaza related to the legacy of occupation, underdevelopment, power cuts, reduce fuel supplies, untreated sewage, groundwater contamination, and reduced access to basic health and medical facilities have worsened significantly under the ongoing siege - an undeniable form of ethnic cleansing manifested through an official policy of collective punishment.

Unsurprisingly, Israel has denied the allegations of forcing Palestinians to spy for medical treatment, citing security concerns as the reason several Gaza residents have not been allowed into Israel. Meanwhile, the “Jewish State” continues to reject its responsibility as an occupier to provide Palestinians with the most basic of human needs under international humanitarian law. This core minimum obligation includes the right to health - a right which would only concern Israel if they wanted to keep their captives alive.

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August 1st, 2008 by Manila Ryce

In a departure from its usual policy of shooting first and not asking questions later, Israel has actually been negotiating with Hezbollah while talking to Syria and Hamas. Such progress was glaringly uncharacteristic of a state which makes it a point not to negotiate with terrorists (the Israeli definition of a “terrorist” is any Arab who objects to being a slave).

So why the sudden change in policy? Well, it would seem that while facing multiple investigations of corruption and the still-present defeat of the second war against Lebanon fresh in the minds of Israelis, Prime Minister Olmert has been compensating on the diplomatic front to gain favor with a public increasingly dissatisfied with his character.

However, now that Olmert has announced he will resign, right-wing Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu (or Benji as he likes to be called) has demanded that national elections be held to decide a new Prime Minister because he is likely to be the winner of those elections. “This government has reached an end … it doesn’t matter who heads Kadima,” the hardline Netanyahu told Israeli Radio as he railed against Olmert’s talks with the Palestinians and Syria. “They are all partners in this government’s total failure. National responsibility requires a return to the people and new elections.” Fresh elections, which would put Netanyahu back into power as the prime minister, seem very likely

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July 28th, 2008 by D.C.

“Fish and Chips” and “Number 16 Bus Shelter,” what would you call these? sentence fragments? Things? Objects? If you guessed any of those answers you would be dead wrong, because they are names for children chosen by parents! I’ll let that sink in… … … Yes, that’s right, the names of children.

In a recent Yahoo news story, the use of absurd and ridiculous names for children has angered a New Zealand judge to take action. Judge Rob Murfitt, of family court in New Zealand, renamed a young girl who had been given the name Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii (No word of a lie, that was her real name). She has been renamed, but the court is keeping her new name confidential to protect her privacy.

The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child’s parents have shown in choosing this name It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily.

Personally, I do not understand what could be going through the minds of the parents who agreed to name their child this-I-won’t-even-repeat-it-because-it’s-so-ridiculous name. Some people just do not seem to have the sense to raise children. I believe that these two parents fall into this category. I cannot understand how they would think that this name would be a suitable name to give to someone. Were they high on drugs? People like this do not deserve to have children.

No parent in their right mind would cause greater burden to be placed on their own children by giving bullies and such an easy target. On the other hand, I also would like to know if Talula, and the other children, had their names registered on birth certificates. If they did, I think it should be illegal to name someone in such a way. I am all for open expression, but in the case of a child’s name, since they have no say about what they are called, the parents should show some restraint in ‘expression.’

Some of the names in the Yahoo story and just plain pitiful. ‘Sex Fruit,’ is an actual name given to a child. If a parent could not comprehend that this name would provide a hard life for their child, then they do not deserve to have a child. If they debated between “David, Peter, and all the other names in the English language” and thought Sex Fruit was the most fitting, then they should have a psychiatric evaluation. Even Gweneth Paltrow’s daughter’s name, Apple, is a more fitting name than ‘Sex Fruit!’

If people are looking for fame and fortune, or looking to get on the Jerry Springer show, at the expense of their child, they really need to re-evaluate their priorities. If they actually thought, at the time, that the name ‘Talula does the hula in Hawaii’ or ‘Fish and Chips,’ were proper names then they need a straight jacket. There are too many people out there that find ways to belittle people that have absolutely nothing wrong with them. By giving them a clear target such as a ‘unusual’ name, the child’s life would most likely result in ridicule. In the case of Talula, her lawyer stated:

The girl had been so embarrassed at the name that she had never told her closest friends what it was. She told people to call her “K” instead

July 26th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Three white teens were charged Friday in what officials said was an epithet-filled fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town…

…According to a police affidavit, the defendants and three 17-year-olds encountered Ramirez, 25, and a teenage girl in a park the night of July 12.

The youths goaded Ramirez and the girl, saying, “You should get out of this neighborhood” and “Get your Mexican boyfriend out of here,” documents said. After Ramirez and the girl began walking away, someone yelled an ethnic slur at him, court documents said. He responded, “What’s your problem?”

A fight ensued, during which police said Walsh punched Ramirez in the face. The victim fell and hit his head on the street, leaving him unconscious, after which Piekarsky kicked him in the head, police said.

All three suspects used ethnic slurs during the fight, which ended with Ramirez in convulsions and foaming at the mouth, authorities said. The attackers fled the scene; Ramirez underwent surgery but died July 14 of head injuries.

read more…

July 22nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

No, not by the fashion police. The UN War crimes tribunal announced Monday that Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžić is in custody after being on the lam for more than a decade. He is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the law of war.

When Bosnia and Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992, Karadžić declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic. The Bosnian Serbs were backed by Yugoslavian military and paramilitary forces, and quickly seized control of most of the country. During the conflict, Serb forces ethnically cleansed the territories they seized with forced displacements and killings of Muslims and Croats.

One crime in particular, which Karadžić is accused of overseeing, is the massacre at Srebrenica. The area was a UN “safe area” until it was overrun by Serbian troops who killed almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. It was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II.

It’s believed that added pressure lead to Karadzic’s arrest. In December, the European Union warned Serbia that it would have to cooperate with the war crimes tribunal if it wanted to join the organization. Serge Brammertz of the Tribunal said, “It is also an important day for international justice, because it clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law and that sooner or later all fugitives will be brought to justice.”

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July 21st, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The above video shows an Israeli soldier shoot a rubber coated steel bullet from just 1.5 meters away at the left foot of Abu-Rahma, a bound and blindfolded Palestinian who was protesting the continued construction of Israel’s Apartheid Wall. The incident was taped by a fourteen-year-old girl on July 7th in the West Bank. A probe was only launched into the conduct of the soldiers when human rights organization B’Tselem received the video and demanded that the Military Police Investigation Unit conduct an immediate investigation.

Despite IDF claims that such abuse is in “direct contradiction with IDF values and principles”, just as the US military claimed to be true when pictures from Abu Ghraib were made public, it is well known that this kind of abusive behavior is standard procedure, and that it comes down from the top. In fact, it’s a lieutenant colonel who is seen holding Rahma’s arm in the film as the lower-ranking soldier takes aim and fires.