Today’s Talk

November 21st, 2006 by CD

Today’s Talk will feature an international political topic between two very important countries, China and India. Much has been said within the United States concerning the trade deficit that we occur with China. However, we often don’t hear about the other side to China with respect to their trading partners in their region. China and India are extremely crucial in providing stability in the Asian-Pacific region and internationally. They are the fastest growing economies along with having the fastest population growth.

The President of China made a historic trip to India yesterday to further show the commitment between the two trading partners. It is expected that the two will exceed $20 billion worth in trade in 2007 which is quite an accomplishment considering bilateral relations have not always be amicable. However, relations between the two are far different from the early 60s.

There are still ongoing issues between the two countries with India stating that the quality of goods is not up to par with their standards and China stating that India is blocking investments in key areas.

With the conclusion of the recent APEC meeting in Vietnam, the U.S. must now watch carefully how trading between India and China will effect the trading status with the U.S.

Further statistical information can be found here:

China Statistics and Analysis

India Country Profile (PDF) (very detailed)

November 21st, 2006 by CD

Today, one of the abusive officers who was involved in last week’s attack on Mostafa Tabatabainejad was named officially. Terrence Duren has been with UCLA since 1988 and hopefully he won’t be with the department in 2007. Mr. Duren is no stranger to investigations. He was the subject of an investigation three years ago for shooting a homeless man in Kerckhoff Hall. It does not stop there either. He was also investigated to having harassed students on several occasions. It was reported that in August 1993, Daren slammed a student against a wall, and handcuffed and arrested him. A complaint was later filed which stated that on the way to the police station, Duren told the student, “For a while there I thought I was going to have to ‘Rodney King’ you.” The UCPD said that he was cleared on all charges. However, I can only speculate as to the actual legitimacy and autonomy that went into the investigations and whether there were biases that influenced the outcomes of these investigations.

The other officers present were Officers Alexis Bickamong, Kevin Kilgore and Andrew Ikeda, and the sergeant on duty was Philip Baguiao.

One particular student Jed Levine thinks this incident is one big trivial matter. He defends the police officers abuse of human and civil rights. He said in an article that “it is our duty as Americans to trust their actions and not ask questions or demand inquiries.” I believe this guy is smoking too much weed in college to have said something as idiotic as that. Yes, lets just have the police arrest and beat people on the street without any ramifications. There is no need for the Bill of Rights, civil rights and human rights here in American. Let’s just trust our officers. Wake up Jed! If that statement were true, I guess Rodney King got what he deserved, right? I encourage everyone to write both the police department and Jed Levine to state your feelings on the abuse of power that was illustrated against Mostafa Tabatabainejad.

November 20th, 2006 by CD

As a continuation of my earlier introduction 101 to the Darfur crisis, introduction 151 will go into a bit more detail now that you are familiar with who is fighting and why.

The conflict started in early 2003 with a peace deal in 2004 being reached. However, since then many states along with the United Nations have passed and/or condemned the acts of violence in Sudan. But who exactly is helping to bring peace to the region? And what happen to the peace deal?

Which countries are helping?
Well, the African Union has over 7,000 troops, which have been sent to the region. This number is far to few to cover the area needed to obtain security in the region. In addition, the training of the soldiers to combat the violence is less than adequate. The African Union itself is poorly funded which means the amount of time that is required to obtain and sustain peace in Darfur outreaches the African Union’s ability.

The United Nations has called for and agreed to sent UN peacekeeping soldiers of roughly 17,000 troops and 3,000 UN police men. However, the Sudan government has not allowed this force to obtain rights to enter into the country.

What happen to the peace deal?
Basically, nobody lived up to the deal. The SLA leader could not control the smaller factions of his group, which have committed numerous abuses to the people of Sudan. The actual government did not enforce the terms of the peace deal to disarm the Janjaweed either. Read more here. The actual terms of the peace deal included:

• A permanent cease-fire and the exact language of the peace deal were determined.
• The government and the southern rebels had agreed to set up a 39,000-strong army comprising fighters from both sides.
• The south should be autonomous for six years.
• Three border areas with special status were initiated where power is to be shared.

As always, I hope this information is informative to anyone wanting to know more about the crisis in the Sudan and stay tune for further information on this issue.

Further information:

Security Council resolution 1574 (2004)
Security Council resolution 1556 (2004)
Security Council resolution 1564 (2004)

November 19th, 2006 by CD

Today’s Talk will focus on a disturbing incident at UCLA’s campus late last week involving a student named Mostafa Tabatabainejad. He who was tasered by campus police for not leaving the library and failing to show his ID when asked by staff workers at the library.
Mostafa was in the library late last week, when he was asked to show his ID. The university said the check was routine and that this is a routine accorance that happens after a certain hour. Mostafa who believed he was being racially profiled refused to show his ID. At appropriately 11.30 p.m on November 14, Mostafa claims he was already on his way out of the library when the campus police approached him. According to campus police, Mostafa was uncooperative and resisting the campus police when they decided it was necessary to use a taser on him five times.

My opinion on this matter is that both Mostafa and the campus police are at fault here. Having been a student, I know the drill of showing IDs when asked. If he thought he was being racially profiled I believe there are other ways to go about seeking justice for what you think is unfair treatment. But mostly, I feel the campus police did an absolutely horrible job in treating this student. This fairly small student was in no means a physically threat to the numerous police officers that came to the library. They obviously used excessive force on him by tasering him not one but FIVE times. Completely unnecessary. There should be brutal consequences brought upon the police officers who carried out this attack on him. If he was refusing to leave and fell to the ground like they said he did, use common sense and each officer grab one arm and leg and carry him out. In the end they did carry him out, why didn’t they do that in the first place? Tasering him was a grave misjudgment on those policies officers that should cost them their jobs.

Living in a technology world, this was all captured on video by bystanders who were begging the police to stop. I warn you this video is a little hard to watch.

November 17th, 2006 by CD

Fox news aka faux news has once let the public know again that its true purpose is not to report the news but rather distort the facts to the public. An internal memo from the network’s Vice President was leaked by a good samaritan spy that indicated the bias that the top leadership wanted to extend to its journalist. Apparently these memos are sent down 2-3 times a week indicating what to report on which is mostly anti-democratic news. Fox news should be called an extension of the propaganda news that is uttered from the White House vis-à-vis Tony Snow.

So with this warning that was brought to the public by John Moody, let us all keep away from this channel as they only report a conservative bias headed by newscasters like Bill O’Reilly.

November 16th, 2006 by CD

Afghan women are by no means as free as women in western societies are accustom too. Arrange marriages are still apart of their customs whether they want it or not and often at a very young age.

A special envoy of social experts from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries gathered in Afghanistan to talk about forced marriages. One Afghan survivor, a 16-year-old girl, told the summit she had endured beatings from her drug-addicted husband, a man 25 years her senior and whom she was forced to marry.

“When he did not have access to heroin and narcotics, he tortured me. After midnight he would hit me,” she said. “That night he hit me and hit my head. Blood was coming from my nose. I asked him why he was doing it and he hit me even more.” Following the attack, she doused herself with benzene and lit a flame.

The practice of setting oneself on fire is apparently not as uncommon as one would think. With nowhere to turn to, many Afghanistan women are turning to some type of self-immolation to try to escape daily abuse they are facing. Women can be given away to other families to settle conflicts that can also lead to a life of abuse. And as I stated earlier with no where to go its either kill themselves or endure a life of abuse.

Read more here on human rights issues in Afghanistan

Comments? Thoughts?

November 15th, 2006 by CD

Not too many of us are familiar with the crisis that is happening in Darfur. The warning signs were far too evident years ago that Sudan would end up in complete devastation due to hatred amongst its people.

So Today’s Talk will feature a brief 101 introduction course on the Darfur conflict to enable us to know what is taking place in our international community.

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