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Evil under the sun
 Whilst NI deserves credit for tackling the massive subject of torture throughout the
world, it is a great pity that your map of ‘Evil under the sun’ (NI 327), based
as it was on Amnesty International’s 1999 data, is so full of omissions.
A glaring case in point is Iran, to which all 9 incriminating symbols are applicable,
yet it only received 3. Particularly regrettable is the absence of the little blue figures
symbolizing brutalization of children, an area in which this regime, which practices 174
different kinds of torture, is a world leader.
Boys in their thousands continue to be recruited every year into the Islamic
paramilitary forces and played a key role in suppressing the mass student uprising of July
1999. During this same uprising, scores of schoolchildren as young as 13 and 14 were
bussed off to already overflowing prisons, from which many have still to this day not
returned.
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. children are imprisoned
with their parents .
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Iran
is the country of chillingly specific laws and fatwas against
the families of so-called ‘enemies of God’, inciting the
Iranian public to torture, rape and even kill ‘infidel’
children. There are plenty of cases today of children being imprisoned
with their parents, where they might be subjected to torture and
rape under the heading of ta azir, ‘purification’;
or they might end up in a children’s prison, another Iranian
speciality, or on the streets.
Neither Amnesty nor the UN High Commission are allowed inside Iran, which may account
for gaps in their data. So please, dear NI readers, paint Iran’s thousands of
brutalized children into the map at once, plus all the other missing symbols.
Belinda McKenzie
Iran Aid Support Committee
London, England
Ed: There are undoubtedly other such cases which our map did not highlight. Based on
Amnesty’s Report 2000 which covers data for 1999, it acknowledged problems of limited
access to reliable information about torture (which most governments attempt to keep
hidden) and suggested the situation could be worse in some cases.
Sexual majorities
 You, like every other political person (including many who are bisexual), lump bisexuals
together with lesbians, gays and transgenders as a minority (Out South NI 328). However,
the majority of bis do not consider themselves bi. Only a short time ago, a married woman
declared that she made love only to her girlfriend (other than her husband) and that didn’t
count! Many people don’t discover their love for their own sex until they are 40 and
older. Which is more important: what people do or what they say they are? If you conducted
a survey for people older than sixty, you might find that the majority had had sex at
least once with someone of the same gender, making them bisexual in my book. And you might
find that the rest had at least wondered about it.
Vicky Ebert
Ayr, Scotland
Debt relief
Your article ‘Impact of angels’ (NI 326) angered me with its sweeping
generalizations. The author allies Western NGOs in Africa with the IMF and World Bank as
part of some covert re-colonization programme. I have no doubt that some NGOs have made
mistakes in their methods. But what about organizations under the Jubilee 2000 banner who
have been campaigning tirelessly for Third World Debt Relief, and coming up against heavy
opposition from both the IMF and World Bank? If their campaign is not about long-term
development, with the aim to make African and other highly indebted countries economically
autonomous and self-reliant, then I do not know what is. Jubilee 2000 clearly states that
the finances freed up from debt relief should be closely monitored and distributed by NGOs
– not Western NGOs but NGOs from within each indebted country. The author turns the
whole Western world with all its multiple and competing forces and ideologies into a
unified colonial bugbear. This is as crudely inaccurate as the blinkered view about which
Chris Brazier writes: ‘Africa is reduced to one single, terrible reality:
violence’.
Katherine Hodson
Sheffield, England
Poisonous
bouquet
Referring back to your superior pesticide reporting (NI
323), your readers would want to know that cut flowers are
among the products most highly contaminated with pesticides. The
flower has become a poisonous gift: from the women who work in the
industry, whose health and that of their children has been compromised;
to the imported flowers which must be free of insects, fungi, etc
at the borders; to the soil which is forever contaminated by the
production
of these flowers; to the ozone layer diminished by methyl bromide
use; to the rivers and lakes drained for the highly intensive irrigation;
to the agricultural loss in developing countries where food is sacrificed
for export commodities…
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The flower has become
a poisonous gift
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How many
people who are careful to eat organic meals have adorned their tables with the ‘snow
white’ fillings of their flower vases? In the United States a greenhouse cannot be
replaced without also excavating the soil beneath it, due to the use of chemicals. First
World entrepreneurs have taken their market expansion to Third World fields where the
chemical regulations are less strict or less enforced. The good news is that there is a
‘green label’ (Florverde) but it is little known in the US market.
Gwen Curtis
Cornell, US
Consuming Africa
Your issue on Pan-Africanism (NI 326) included comment by US Assistant Secretary of State
Susan Rice. Ms Rice seems to be propagating the views of her white American bosses in the
State Department. As always with the US Government, the political, cultural and trade
interests of the United States are paramount.
Ms Rice mentions Africa’s young, who she appears to hope will become, like many
millions of youth around the world, the prey of the ‘Coca-Cola’ cultural
imperialism of US media and multinationals with their message of consumerism and corporate
greed.
How do I know, as an Australian, that the aim of the US is to ‘Americanize’
African culture and gain control of the business sector (and through that, politically
influence African governments)? Because that is the way Australia is today after many
years of heavy American influence.
Chris Yates
Canberra, Australia
Colombian kidnappings
We have just received the terrible news that Tristan, the grandson
of Jenny James (‘Letter
from Colombia’ contributor NI
295 - 300)
has been kidnapped and possibly killed in the area of Hoya Grande,
Tolima, Colombia.
Tristan was 18. He was about to come to Ireland, but first went into a dangerous area
to say goodbye to friends. He disappeared at night, along with a Colombian boy, Javier,
who has also been part of our group.
We have tried everything possible to get more information about what happened. But as
is the custom in fear-ridden Colombia, no-one will talk.
Jenny has gone on Colombian TV appealing for any information, and has said publicly she
believes they are both dead. She has had to fight against the media not to let them use
this tragedy against the FARC (the guerilla group who control that area), as there is no
information that indicates their involvement. However, they are responsible for security
in that area, and suspicion is pointed at a local group ‘Los Chaparales’.
Jenny and Anne are in Bogotá doing everything possible and making as much fuss in the
media as possible, but have stated clearly that their deaths are not to be used to justify
the US involvement in its so-called concern for Colombia – ‘Plan Colombia’.
We are appealing to you in this time of terrible tragedy within our own group to
support Jenny and Anne, in whatever way you can.
If you can send them any donation for help with all the investigative work and cost of
phone calls etc we would be so grateful. Or even just write to Jenny and support her in
this very difficult time.
Her address: AA 241858, Bogotá, Colombia, S America.
If you can send a donation, it’s best to send a bank draft made payable to:-
Fundacion Atlantis Colombia.
Atlantis Affinity Group and Irish branch of the Colombian Radical Action Campaign
Cork, Eire
Puppet democracy
I saw the drawing of the ‘Festival for Democracy’ in a recent issue of your
magazine (NI 324). I liked it. Then my mother told me that a man named David Solnit, a
puppet-maker, was arrested when he came to Windsor, Canada in June to protest against the
Organization of American States. The people who arrested him thought he was dangerous.
My question is: if a puppet is really light, how can it hurt someone? How can someone
that makes puppets hurt anyone when he is busy making puppets?
Andabu Brownhill (aged 8 1/2)
Ontario, Canada
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New
Internationalist 329
