Rupert's Read

Keep up to date with the Gaza Freedom march - follow my mate Peter's blog: http://petroff-riverofpeace.blogspot.com  

Important info about my friend and Green Councillor colleague Peter Offord. Please help, if you can!!: GAZA FREEDOM MARCH - BREAKING NEWS PETER OFFORD DETAINED IN EL ARISH, EGYPT As some of you may know Norwich Stop the War President, Peter Offord, is one of the international delegates travelling to Gaza to take part in the Gaza Freedom March. With him he is taking in art supplies to assist the Palestine Trauma Centre in Gaza. He and his colleagues were hoping to enter Gaza through the Egyptian border. However we have learned today that the Egyptian police are stopping international delegates from travelling to the Rafah border, where they intended to cross into Gaza to take part in the March. Currently Peter is around 40 kilometres from the Gaza border, which has been closed. This evening he has forwarded the message printed below explaining that he was among those detained in El Arish, to which the message refers. We must do all we can to ensure that the march is allowed to proceed...

  Corrected version of Peter's piece in the OBSERVER last week. Sad, but inspiring reading. Let him be given a peerage!...: The Observer - Peter Tatchell profile   How constant beatings have caught up with campaigner Peter Tatchell Peter Tatchell is standing down as a Green party parliamentary candidate after assaults by Robert Mugabe's thugs and Russian neo-Nazis. He tells Elizabeth Day about his painful decision The Observer, Sunday 20 December 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/20/peter-tatchell-retires-interview   Photo slide show of Peter Tatchell's human rights campaigns: http://www...

  T he last survivor of an unknown and uncontacted Amazon tribe has been targeted by gunmen. The incident took place last month in Tanarú, an indigenous territory in the Amazon state of Rondônia, Brazil, but the news has only just emerged. It is not known whether the Indian was in the direct line of fire or whether the shots were designed to scare him away. Ranchers in the area oppose government efforts to protect the man's land, and are the most likely perpetrators. Officials from FUNAI, Brazil's Indian affairs department, discovered that its protection post had been ransacked and found empty shotgun cartridges nearby in the forest. The police have investigated the incident, but nobody has been charged for illegal entry. Altair Algayer, a FUNAI official, said, 'This is a serious situation. The Indian's life is being put in danger by the interests of the ranchers'. FUNAI believes that the 'Man of the Hole' has survived the attack. This name ref...

Watch this: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/18/chief_g77_negotiator_lumumba_stanislaus_di  (Democracy Now)  

Crucial Amy Goodman interview with the great Bolivian President: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/17/bolivian_president_evo_morales_on_climate

Here is my response to:   http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2009/12/16/looks-like-the-conspiracy-is-working-just-fine/   It is obviously very good that people are not as prejudiced against gays etc as they used to be. But is this because people are becoming more liberal (more tolerant, more... indifferent?), or because they are becoming more thoughtful and caring? I hope it is because of the latter. Liberality points toward societal disintegration. A more caring society, more capacity to think and imagine yourself into the shoes of others, points toward societal integreation. You can see where I am going with this... I strongly welcome the support for gay rights, and for abortion rights; but I hope that in an important sense this does NOT mean that Britain is becoming a more liberal society. A society that leaves people free to do whatever they want so long as it doesn't directly harm other autonomous people. Because that way lies nemesis. For society, and the ec...