"Darfur Now"

hey guys,

The premiere of "Darfur Now" is tomorrow, November 9th, at the Landmark Embarcadero Theater. It is a documentary about what's happening in Darfur, and it follows the story of 6 people, including Don Cheadle (actor/activist), George Clooney, a chief prosecutor in the ICC, and a former Darfurian rebel, who have dedicated their lives to fighting the ongoing genocide.

Here is the trailer:


Two things:
1. I hope you all want to/do see it

2. If we can organize a group of 15+ people to go together, we can have a conference call with Don Cheadle at the end of the month. I don't know about anyone else, but I think Don Cheadle is amazing and would love to chat with him...
The only thing about that is that we would probably have to go relatively soon.

Anybody interested?

Ralph and Hitler Youth

On Monday, Ralph, a surviver of the Nazi Genocide came to talk to our class. He talked about Mr. Samuel, a middle-class Englishman who had saved his life through the kindertransport. Yesterday we saw a video of a man who had been a former Hitler-youth, and had been so fanatical that he had tried to continue fighting even after Germany had surrendered.
I personally consider Ralph to be a surviver, and do not consider the members of the Hitler youth to be perpetrators in the sense that we are defining them.
What do you think? Ralph considers himself a surviver, but he escaped while very young. Is there an age limit? An amount of suffering one has to undergo?
Although the Hitler youth were essentially brainwashed, is it a person's responsibility to think for themselves at some point? If you do consider him a perpetrator, would he have been more or less culpable had he known his actions were wrong, but had done them to survive?

Spectrum?

after watching the film on Hitler Youth, and discussing groups at lick and beyond, i thought i would ask a couple of follow up questions...

1. what exactly does it mean to have a "choiceless choice?" i know this is something that has come up a lot, but can anyone relate to being in such a position of a "rock and a hard place?"

2. when talking about how to categorize the Hitler Youth in terms of perpetrators, bystanders, or upstanders, we decided that there must be a spectrum of perpetrators. What does this spectrum look like to you? How would you factor in the fact that many of the Hitler Youth were a) vulnerable to the extensive and invasive Nazi propaganda, and b) facing a "choiceless choice?"

3. Groups at Lick: Did the open dialogue about the social groups in our class bring up anything for you that you didn't get the opportunity to share in-class? If so, what? Despite the slightly awkward/uncomfortable nature of the conversation, did you think it was productive and/or interesting?

Thoughts?

Suspending The Constitution: Pakistan

As we have discussed in class this past week, the rise of the Hitler and the Nazis all came about legally. Hitler was able to use the Weimar Constitution to suspend the Constitution and the rights of the people through Article 48, which gave him the power to seize all control if he believed the republic was in danger.

Within the past week, the president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, abolished the Supreme Court and suspended the Constitution declaring a "state of emergency" in Pakistan. Musharraf, who is both the head of the military and the country which is against the Constitution of Pakistan, has abolished the Constitution in efforts to maintain his power in both.
Here is the address of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/world/asia/07lawyers.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Similar to what occurred in the Weimar Republic with Hitler and the Nazis, what is happening in Pakistan closely resembles the beginning stages of what Hitler did to rise to power as a dictator. Both president Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Hitler declared a "state of emergency" thus allowing them to suspend the Constitution and democracy.

Some questions to consider:
-Given what occurred in the Weimar Republic after Hitler rose to power, what is the danger in what is happening in Pakistan today?
-What measures could or should be taken to prevent the democracy of Pakistan from being abolished?
-As Arron mentioned in his earlier post on "neighbors", what role, if any, should other nations involve themselves in the situation? Will "help" be beneficial or non beneficial?
-What are the differences, if any, between what occurred in Germany and what is occurring in Pakistan today?
Feel free to respond to whatever else you may think of!

Aaron and Aileen's Week Summary!

Hey everyone, it's Aileen (F block) AND Aaron (H block). Double Threat...

Anyway, so here is an update about what we covered in class:

We learned about the different political parties that existed in the Weimar Republic in the early 1930s. They were KPD, SPD, Center, and the Nazis. After each group representing each political party presented their platforms, the undecided voters evaluated the benefits and disadvantages of electing each party, and they finally made a decision. In both classes, the SPD came out with the victory.

Next class, we explored the course theme of obedience related to Nazi Germany. We read a excerpt from a German professor who experienced life under of the Nazis. Because of the "small steps" the Nazis used, he wasn't aware of the damage these measures would cause in the long term. We also talked about military obedience, how age affects obedience, and when it is appropriate to disobey.

Yesterday, both classes covered different material:
F block: We uncovered the role of obedience in Hitler's Nazi Youth Movement. Hitler's Youth Movement was intended to get the young to follow Hitler's ideology. Hitler was able to persuade these young minds and turn them against the Jews. We then learned through film about one man's experience during Hitler's youth movement. He explains that he was unaware of what was actually going and that he was easily persuaded by Nazi propoganda. Nazi beliefs became his own conviction.
H block: Yesterday we had a visitor, Ralph Samuel, who was a survivor of the Holocaust. We learned that through the Kindertrasnport, he was able to survive the extremities of the genocide. Ralph stated that even though the US did not pass the Act in Congress to allow unaccompanied children into the US, Britain began a system to transport children into England, called the Kindertransport. By the time the Kinderstransport stopped in the September of 1939, 10,000 children were saved. Ralph was about 8 years old when he was flown to England to meet his new family. However, a few months later he was evacuated to the countryside where Mrs. Strachey took him and 7 other children to stay with her during the war. His purpose in talking to many different schools is to memorialize Mr. Epstein, the father who took him in, as well as the other 6 million Jews that died. The moral of his talk is that anyone can make a difference.

Have a good blog week!

in case you're interested...

hey -

so i think i posted a while back about a "Dream for Darfur" event that's happening in the bay area on November 18th, and now that it's already November 5 (6 more weeks until 2nd semester!!) I thought I would post a reminder:

What: SF Bay Area "Dream for Darfur" rally/Symbolic Torch Relay/Die-In -> an event hosted by Martina Knee of the SF Bay Area Darfur Coalition to protest China's fueling of the genocide in Darfur.

Who: U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-9) will be speaking, and I've included a link to her bio and every piece of news regarding her involvement in helping end the genocide in Darfur --> http://lee.house.gov/index.cfm

When: Sunday, Novemeber 18th, 10:00 - 11:00 AM.

Where: Frank H. Ogawa Plaza (City Hall) (Oakland, CA)

Broadway (between 14th & 15th Streets
Oakland, CA 94612

* REALLY COOL: "Olympic Dream for Darfur official events in the US are organized by the Save Darfur Coalition, STAND, and the Dream for Darfur. They feature a torch that started its journey in Chad, just across the border from Darfur, will continue to the sites of previous genocides, several cities in the US, and arrive at China's doorstep in December."

Here is the link where you can sign-up to attend this event:
http://www.savedarfur.org/page/event/detail/olympicdreamfordarfurofficialevent/4jv5j

Also, I've been in contact with Martina Knee (the organizer of the event) and she sent me tons of posters, flyers, postcards, etc., so if you want one, please just let me know and I'll give you one...or three.

Thanks guys!

Article in Chronicle by Guest Speaker Roxanne

Hey guys, I know it's not my blog week, but I noticed that Roxanne, the guest speaker who came to F Block to talk about the Armenian genocide, had an opinion article in the Insight section of the Chronicle today. She argues for the passing of the Armenian Genocide Resolution in Congress. Here's the link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/04/INTDT2UPH.DTL

A point of hers which I found interesting:

"The United States has numerous military bases in the area - in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Bulgaria, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan - from which we can operate.
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Turkish Daily News have all quoted U.S. officials saying that if Turkey cut off our base or supply lines, it would not greatly affect our military operations. And, according to a recent article in Defense News, the Armenian genocide resolution wouldn't even "dent" U.S. arms sales to Turkey. Several years ago, when France passed a similar resolution, arms sales between France and Turkey were back to booming within months."

This flies in the face of the counterargument I've read often in other media that if Turkey were to stop allowing United States military to use their land and airspace, the military's mission would be hindered and it would put the US at risk.

What do you all think about this and the rest of Roxanne's argument?

Military Obedience: When is it acceptable to disobey orders?

A question that came up in class the other day was: When is it acceptable for American soldiers to disobey orders? The question came up in relation to our discussion about who is responsible for Genocide, in particular the Holocaust, where Hitler's most important men claimed that they had simply been following orders. This later came to be reffered to as the Nuremburg Defense. In response to this case study, we talked a bit about when soldiers should be responsible to disobey orders. In researching this question, I found one definition that really stood out to me. "When an order is so manifestly beyond the scope of the superior officer's authority and the order is so obviously and palpably unlawful as to admit of no reasonable doubt of its unlawfulness, there is actually a duty to disobey it." I have also seen many things that describe the disobedience as acceptable when a soldier feels International Law is being broken. Below is one of many websites discussing this topic. I suggest you all read this to get a better sense of what is going on.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7c3f05d0f48781bdded354b557bfffbe

In response to this article and to the topic in general, there are many questions still left unanswered. There is still the issue of morality, something that differes from person to person. Where one person may thing an action is morally incorrect, another person may be fine with it. So who defines what exactly is incorrect? And what should a soldier do if they think something is completely wrong and unlawful, but few of their fellow soldiers agree?

Also, many people consider the war in Iraq to be unlawful and to break International Law. Does this give soldiers the right to say they won't serve? Can soldiers go to Iraq and then at any time deside that what is going on is completely wrong, and leave? Who can generally define the what is "wrong"? When is it truly acceptable to disobey?

Darfur and French Non-Profit Organization

In response to what happened in Darfur about the French non-profit organization, here is more information from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/world/africa/27chad.html?em&ex=.
Based on the newspaper article, and continuing from our class discussion, here are some questions:
-Even though this was considered a crime, in regard to the genocide, and if in fact the parents had agreed with the French non-profit organization, should they have continued with the operations anyway?
-What makes a good neighbor, especially in terms of genocide and this situation, and when do you think neighbors (any kind-countries, people, etc.) should intervene, even though what they would be doing would be considered a crime in order to help others?
-What would be some factors that would cause neighbors not to react?

Psychology of Obedience

As we explore the topic of obedience in greater depth, I thought I would post about an oustanding experiment preformed by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s.

"In response to a newspaper ad offering $4.50 for one hour's work, an individual turns up to take part in a Psychology experiment investigating memory and learning. He is introduced to a stern looking experimenter in a white coat and a rather pleasant and friendly co-subject. The experimenter explains that the experiment will look into the role of punishment in learning, and that one will be the "teacher" and one will be the "learner." Lots are drawn to determine roles, and it is decided that the individual who answered the ad will become the "teacher."
Your co-subject is taken to a room where he is strapped in a chair to prevent movement and an electrode is placed on his arm. Next, the "teacher" is taken to an adjoining room which contains a generator. The "teacher" is instructed to read a list of two word pairs and ask the "learner" to read them back. If the "learner" gets the answer correct, then they move on to the next word. If the answer is incorrect, the "teacher" is supposed to shock the "learner" starting at 15 volts.The generator has 30 switches in 15 volt increments, each is labeled with a voltage ranging from 15 up to 450 volts. Each switch also has a rating, ranging from "slight shock" to "danger: severe shock". The final two switches are labeled "XXX". The "teacher" automatically is supposed to increase the shock each time the "learner" misses a word in the list. Although the "teacher" thought that he/she was administering shocks to the "learner", the "learner" is actually a student or an actor who is never actually harmed."
(The Milgram experiment, http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm)
In the end, 65% of the "teachers" "shocked" participants up to 450 volts and none stopped before 300.

To get a sense of the actual experimental conditions, follow this link and it will take you to an audio recording of the experiment. http://learningat.ke7.org.uk/socialsciences/Psychology/PsyAudio/thirdguy.wav

While this experiment is morally incorrect, it showed a lot about how far people are willing to go to obey. The question is, why?

So to relate this back to genocide: Today in class Ms. Finn mentioned the Eichmann Trials. Eichmann was put on trial after the Holocaust for "crimes against humanity." While Eichmann did commit a crime, can it be said that he was 'just following orders'? As we know, many people in Nazi germany obeyed Hitler's commands, even if they didn't agree with them. My class (F Block) had a very interesting discussion around the idea of obedience and I wanted to open this up to anything lingering from today.
Some questions:
-What are your initial thoughts about Milgram's experiment? Do you find the results surprising?
-What do people fear if they resist and don't obey?
-Who is the most susceptible to obeying irrational demands? Why? (we touched on this briefly in class today)
-How can we teach people to not obey authority if what authority is promoting is sincerely wrong?

I know this is somewhat a broad topic, so anyone feel free to add anything and pose more questions!

shoah foundations

here are some follow up questions:

-Why do you think the work of the shoa foundation is important not just for the holocaust, but to help the overarching issue of genocide, hatred, and discrimination?

-What do you think are things that might be put in the guidelines for the interviewers and recorders of the interview? Why do you think these guidelines are important?

The shoa foundation

The shoah foundation is a visual history foundation. It was started in 1994 by Steven Speilberg, he decided to start the foundation soon after making the movie, "Schindler's List." The foundation feels that visual history is important because it allows viewers to really connect with the holocaust survivors and try to see things from their perspectives. Shoa in Hebrew means catastrophe, Steven Speilberg refers to the foundation as having a three act goal,

• Act One can be seen as a race against time to collect the testimony of remaining Holocaust survivors before it is too late.
• Act Two is the process of indexing and cataloguing the visual history testimonies the Foundation has collected.
• Act Three is the process of turning the survivors into educators.
  

At the moment they are working on act two, volunteers have recoded about 52,000 visual histories. Each one takes about two an a half hours to record. The recordings are of a variety of people from different countries who speak many different languages. The following are the different survivors that their archive hold recordings from.

• Homosexual survivors - These are persons who were persecuted by the Nazi regime based on their homosexuality or suspected homosexuality.

• Jehovah's Witness survivors - These are persons who were persecuted by the Nazi regime based on their religious affiliation with the Jehovah's Witness faith.

• Jewish survivors - These are persons who were persecuted by the Nazi regime based on their religious affiliation with Judaism.

• Political prisoner survivors - These are persons who were persecuted by the Nazi regime based on their political convictions and/or expression of those convictions.

• Sinti and Roma survivors - These are persons who were persecuted by the Nazi regime based on their affiliation with the Sinti and Roma cultural groups ("Gypsies").

• Eugenics policy survivors - These are persons who were persecuted by the Nazi regime based on eugenics laws and policies -- in an attempt to maintain a "pure" German race, the Nazis sterilized and killed people with mental and physical disabilities.

This link allows you to downloads the questionnaire that they use in the interviews along with guidelines for the interviewers, which are very important to the foundations,
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/vhi/vhf-new/Pages/1-Access-Methodology.htm

The questionnaire is actually 40 pages long, the format and questions of the questionnaire was somewhat surprising to me.

If anyone looks at the questionnaire I would like to know what your thoughts on it are.

Photos vs. Words

Just a quick question of opinion: when reporting on or making crises (civil war or genocide, for example) known, is the use of pictures more powerful than words, and why?
(Photographer: Steve McCurry. Photograph of Sharbat Gula, 1985)

Basic Rights

So having recently discussed the idea of basic rights in a new democracy and when people are willing to stand up for these rights I thought this article was interesting.

The Road to a South African Driver's License

This article talks about how difficult it is to get a driver's license in South Africa. Fewer than 4 out of 10 people who applied for a license actually received one. In America I know that some people consider having a license to be a basic need. Trying to get a license is "so daunting that it set off riots this year"

Do you think that not being able to receive a license is violating a right?
What is considered a basic human right?
Does basic human rights vary from place to place?
What rights do you think people are willing to die to protect?

Summary of the Week 10/22-10/29

This week in class we began our look into Germany's Weimar Republic. Covernig the time between the end of World War I and the begining of Hitler's rule, the republic offers a glimpse of the troubles a fledgling demcracy may face. It also shows how Germany created an atmosphere which allowed someone like Hitler to come into power.
On monday the 22nd, before jumping into the subject, Ms. Finn made a presentation of the Chicago style of Citation. This is in preperation for our paper which is due in a couple of weeks as well as all future History courses we may take. We then met in pairs to answer questions about democracy such as how a new democracy should educate their citizens so they become capable members of the nation.
On wednesday the 24th, We first focused on our previous night's homework. The assignment was to right the introuductory and first body paragraphs to a possible essay about the Weimar Republic. During class, we met with a partner, and peer edited our work so that we could get a feel of the likely mistakes we would have for our future paper. Then, we met in groups of four where each group answered questions about a different document. The four documents were: a summary of the Versailles Treaty, part of the Weimar constitution, German news Reports during the beginning of the Weimar Republic, and a map showing German Territory losses caused by the treaty of Versailles.

On friday the 26th, we once again split up into fours, but this time to teach oneanother about the documents we looked at the previous class. Then, in those same groups of Four, we were each given a summary about one of the political parties during Weimar Republic. These included the the Socialist, Commmunist, Catholic, and Nazi party. After learning about our parties, each group had to make a presentation which explained their parties ideas and goals, and at the end two other students had to decide which group would be elected.

News on the fight to pass the Armenian genocide resolution

Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives decided to delay the vote on the Armenian genocide resolution which we discussed in class last week. The main reason given as a justification for putting off the vote until a later date was due to the fear of crippling U.S.-Turkey relations. An article in the S.F. Chronicle noted that lawmakers believe the resolution will be supported by the majority of House at a more favorable time (when it will not affect important U.S.-Turkey relations). Condoleezza Rice told House panelists that passing the resolution now "would really damage our relations with a Democratic ally who is playing an extremely important strategic role in supporting our troops." California Democrat Adam Schiff, one of the primary sponsors of the resolution said that "we [the primary sponsors] want to make sure that when the measure is brought to the floor, we're confident the votes are there. I think the worse thing would be that you take it up and you're not successful, and Turkey argues that it's a denial of the genocide."

To see the full article from which this information was taken, visit:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/10/25/national/w135735D42.DTL&hw=genocide&sn=008&sc=576

What do you think the benefits and down-sides are to delaying the vote?

Do you agree or disagree with Schiff's worry that by delaying the vote or re-trying the vote at a bad time, there is a possibility of Turkey using the failure as a means of furthering denial of the genocide? Why or why not?

Is there a more appropriate time to continue the fight to pass the resolution? If so, when?

How real is our Democracy?

As we uncover the role of a democracy in class, I thought I would post about the American democracy, something that we can all relate to. Although America is stereotypically the ideal democracy, I find more and more that our country isn't "governed by the people"-- the definition that Ms. Finn gave us in class. I cannot say that we are all equal and that we all exercise complete freedom. As we know, we elect officials who we think are going to make right decisions, but we rarely have say in what actually happens in our political system. I know it seems impossible for everyone to have a say in everything, but then is this a true democracy?
Following is a letter to the editor from the New York Times (October 14, 2007) from a woman from MA who feels like her voice (and actually many others who agree with her) is not being heard and that she is not living in a society where justice and democracy are supposed to be prevalent.
"Thank you, Frank Rich, for calling attention to the troubling reality of American apathy that has allowed the Bush administration to violate our most cherished principles of justice, democracy and human rights.
Along with millions of other Americans, I have participated in a multitude of events protesting the policies of this administration, including a famously underreported march of half a million people in Washington right before the start of the Iraq war.
Along with my friends and family, I have written letters, signed petitions, contacted my Congressional representatives and actively campaigned at the grass-roots level. None of it has helped.
I am profoundly discouraged. What can we do? "

So my questions are:
Do you feel part of a truly democratic society here in the U.S.? If not, why not?
What are the advantages and disadvantages to the U.S.'s form of democracy? Does one outweigh the other?
Can you answer this woman's last question: "What can we (as individuals) do"?

Self-Deception and Equality in America

While discussing the question of "self-deception," in class, an interesting question came up: what exactly do we mean, or more precisely, did the Founders mean, when they wrote "all men are created equal?"

Obviously, not everyone is created equal - everyone has a different talent or skill. So then what exactly does "equality" mean?

Does equality mean equal rights under the law? What kinds of rights?

Does it mean equal opportunity... ie... "pursuit of happiness?"

Does it mean equal wealth?

Can equality be all of these things at once? Can it be something else?

Who determines what this "equality" is?

And... relating back to the original question - does this "equality" exist in America today? Do we tell ourselves that it does? Why?

Anyway, lots of questions, few answers, but I'd like to know what you guys think.

-coe

Genocide in Darfur & Apartheid in South Africa

In terms of student activism, the Apartheid of South Africa and the genocide in Darfur have a stiking number of similarities. The Apartheid is an interesting case study to look at because student protests and activism for divestment in South Africa really helped to end the racism and human rights abuses. Here is a brief overview of the Apartheid:

"Apartheid consisted of numerous laws that allowed the ruling white minority in South Africa to segregate, exploit and terrorize the vast majority: Africans, mostly, but also Asians and Coloureds - people of mixed race. In white-ruled South Africa, black people were denied basic human rights and political rights. Their labour was exploited, their lives segregated.
Under Apartheid, racist beliefs were enshrined in law and any criticism of the law was suppressed. Apartheid was racism made law. It was a system dictated in the minutest detail as to how and where the large black majority would live, work and die. This system of institutionalized racial discrimination defied the principles of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Steve Biko is an especially good example of a student activist who was allegedly murdered by the apartheid regime of South Africa and since then revered as a martyr of the movement and a civil rights activist:
"Steven Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and early 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement. While living, his writings and activism attempted to empower blacks, and he was famous for his slogan "black is beautiful", which he described as meaning: "man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being". The ANC (African National Conference, governing party of South Africa) was very hostile to Biko and to Black Consciousness through the 70s to the mid 90s[Quotation from source requested on talk page to verify interpretation of source] but has now included Biko in the pantheon of struggle heroes, going so far to use his image for campaign posters in South Africa's first democratic elections, in 1994." Steve Biko (I know wikipedia is bad but this was a good summary)
Apartheid in South Africa
More Info

This relates to the situation in Darfur, which is actually much "worse" given that it is a genocide. My questions are:

• What are the factors that make student activism effective?
• Why was the divestment apartheid movement of the '80s seemingly more effective than that of the divesement movement for Darfur today?
• Is student activism the way that human rights causes should be solved and campaigned for in the first place? Is it up to the students to campaign for human rights or should the government and international community be doing more?
• The connects to our in class thingy about solving genocide, what is the most effective solution? Does student activism only take place because the international community and politicans are too slow?
  

Also I want to let everyone know about the DAY OF ACTION FOR DARFUR tomorrow, Wednesday October 24th.

Social Justice Club will be hosting a petition drive in the foyer all day, where you can come by and sign the global petition for Darfur and learn more about it as well.

Claims of Genocide in Hunters Point

This post is a little belated, but I felt that it was worth sharing:

About two weeks ago I attended the official San Francisco Mayoral debate, and one of the questions was about how the candidates would deal with the violence in the Bayview/Hunters Point area. One cadidate, I believe it was Josh Wolf, stated that Gavin Newsom's lack of action against the violence was genocide. This brings up a few interesting questions- would this be considered genocide? And also, if it were considered genocide, who would be the pertetrator? That relates back to the questions of bystanders and perpetrators. If you did believe the murders to be genocide, would the perpetrators be the individuals who had committed the murders, or the Mayor for not doing enough to stop them, or both?

*Even if you don't believe this is a genocide, I'm still curious about your answers to the other questions*