OK, one thing is for sure, I won’t be visiting Moscow anytime soon.  This is crazy.  I had no clue Moscow was a hot bed for racism.  I had a roommate that was from Russia, he never mentioned this, always said things like Moscow would be a great place to visit.  Sorry Russia, you guys need to get your act together before I visit there.  If I can’t walk the street no chance in hell you’ll see me.

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Many African students in Moscow are afraid to go outside

BBC reported that nearly 60% of black and African people living in Russia’s capital Moscow have been physically assaulted in racially motivated attacks, says a new study.

Africans working or studying in the city live in constant fear of attack, according to the report by the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy.

A quarter of 200 people surveyed said they had been assaulted more than once. Some 80% had been verbally abused.

But the number of assaults was down from the MPC’s last survey in 2002.

The report’s clear conclusion was that Africans living in Russia exist in a state of virtual siege, says the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Moscow.

Extreme violence

Many of the African respondents said they:

• Avoided using the Moscow metro
• Were also careful to avoid crowded public places
• Did not go out on Russian national holidays or on days when there were football matches

Many of the attacks on Africans were pre-meditated and extremely violent, the report found.

One Nigerian migrant interviewed by the BBC had been repeatedly stabbed in the back and then shot.

Another man said his attacker had attempted to remove his scalp.

Officially there are some 10,000 Africans living in Moscow, but far more are believed to live there illegally – many as economic migrants.

The Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy is an English-speaking interdenominational Christian congregation that has ministered to Moscow’s foreign community since 1962.

What should we do about this in the world of sports for this type of situation?  I’m not sure what the technical term for this type of situation if she is not 100% a female.  I mean Lady Gaga is a hermaphrodite.  Is Caster Semenya one too??  Ohh I’m so confused.  I found some information online trying to educate myself, but I’m not even sure if hermaphrodite is the right term.  Maybe she just took drugs to increase her hormones…who the hell knows??

I found the below online…but I’m not sure if this applies to Caster or not…

There are 3 labels of Hermaphrodites: True, Male pseudo and Female Pseudo. All are equally genuine.

TRUE

A person born with both ovary and testicular tissue, this could be 2 separate gonads ( one of each) or a combination of both in one (an ovotestes). The genitalia can vary from completely male or female, to a combination of both or even ambiguous looking. The chromosome (karotype) compliment can be XX (female), XY (male), XX/XY (mosiac) or even XO (extremely rare). Those XX with female genitalia are raised female ( some have even given birth). Those XY with male genitalia are raised male ( a few have fathered children). The children born XX/XY or XO (with genitalia male or female are raised in the sex they look most like) ,Those born with ambiguous genitalia have many medical tests for the doctors to determine which sex they should be assigned. Doctors then recommend early surgery to make the child look physically like the sex assigned to them.

CAUSES
The causes are not known, The medical community does know this is a very rare condition but do not have accurate figures to how many people have this condition (depending on the literature between 350-450 known cases).

FEMALE PSEUDO

A person born XX with normal female internal organs but with “masculanized” genitalia. They can appear more male then female or a combination of each.

CAUSES
The most common is Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) it occurs approximately 1:14,000 births.This is when the adrenal glands overproduce testosterone. It also has been recorded that some persons with this disorder had been exposed to progesterone-like drugs before they were born.

MALE PSEUDO

A person born XY with testes (usually in the abdominal cavity). The external genitalia are usually female but can be ambiguous.

CAUSES
The most common cause is Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS). This is when the body doesn’t respond to the androgen being produced. There are different variations: Complete (CAIS) , and Partial (PAIS). This condition has a variety of names and occurrence rates..

1989 Tiananmen Square incident …something history will never forget

Toxic dumping and illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia…the real root of the problem.

From Democracy Now:

President Obama vowed an international crackdown to halt piracy off the coast of Somalia Monday soon after the freeing of US cargo ship captain Richard Phillips, who had been held hostage by Somali pirates since last Wednesday. While the pirates story has dominated the corporate media, there has been little to no discussion of the root causes driving piracy. We speak with consultant and analyst Mohamed Abshir Waldo. In January, he wrote a paper titled “The Two Piracies in Somalia: Why the World Ignores the Other?”

The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report two years ago that the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners “constituted torture” in violation of the Geneva Conventions. The findings were based on interviews with prisoners once held in the CIA’s secret black sites. The Red Cross said the fourteen prisoners held in the CIA prisons gave remarkably uniform accounts of abuse that included beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and, in some cases, waterboarding. The author Mark Danner published parts of the secret Red Cross report in the New York Review of Books. Danner said the Red Cross’s use of the word “torture” has important legal implications. Danner said, “It could not be more important that the ICRC explicitly uses the words ‘torture’ and ‘cruel and degrading.’ The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, and when it uses those words, they have the force of law.”

Read more

Let’s not fool ourselves here, the cartoon was racist.

Today is Martin Luther King Day. He was born 80 years ago, on January 15th, 1929. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just thirty-nine years old.

Tomorrow, more than four decades after Dr. King’s death, Barack Obama will take his oath of office to become the 44th president of the United States and the first African American president in US history. The Reverend Joseph Lowery, a civil rights icon who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr, King, will deliver the benediction at the inauguration ceremony. Obama accepted the Democratic party nomination on the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, arguably his most famous address.

While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People”s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic US foreign policy and the Vietnam War.

War Criminal

Is George W. Bush a war criminal for deliberately violating the Geneva Conventions? Can he be prosecuted when he leaves office on January 20, 2009? The answers are found in Michael Haas’s George W. Bush, War Criminal? The Bush Administration’s Liability for 269 War Crimes, which documents 269 war crimes and assesses the culpability of Bush and his administration.

The author, Michael Haas, has written more than thirty books, most recently International Human Rights: A Comprehensive Introduction (2008). A well-known political scientist, he played a key role in stopping American funding of the Khmer Rouge. His book exposing Singapore’s many human rights violations is banned in that authoritarian country.

The Foreword to the book is written by former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz.

The following chapters delineate 269 war crimes:

1) A President Without a Good Lawyer
President George W. Bush is ambitious but not a lawyer, so he relies on legal advice. The attorneys on which he has relied have been widely criticized as lacking the competence and wisdom to provide sound advice. Bush has preferred to “kick ass” (in his words) rather than listen to the legal fine points.

2) Crimes of Aggression
The concept of “just war” developed from the writings of Saint Augustine and others into international agreements prohibiting aggressive war. The primary war crime is to wage war without UN approval. There are five other crimes against peace, including propaganda for war, all violated by Bush.

3) Crimes Committed in the Conduct of War
Abraham Lincoln promulgated a code of warfare that served as a basis for the Red Cross Convention, the Hague Conventions, and the Geneva Conventions. Nevertheless, Bush and his commanding generals have allowed 36 violations of these and other international agreements.

4) Crimes Committed in the Treatment of Prisoners
Although General Tommy Franks ordered troops in Afghanistan and Iraq to follow the Geneva Conventions whenever they encountered enemy personnel, he was quickly countermanded by Bush. The “gloves came off,” and thousands were improperly treated. Some 175 war crimes have been committed, many captured on film, within American-run prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantánamo—and in secret prisons.

5) Crimes Committed in the Postwar Occupations
Whereas the postwar military occupation of Afghanistan was brief, the expected scenario for postwar Iraq did not materialize. Iraq was governed by L. Paul Bremer, who claimed direct authority from President Bush in proclaiming “I am the law,” and another 52 war crimes have been committed.

6) Tribunals for War Crimes Prosecution
American and international law provides the basis for lawsuits, but sitting presidents cannot be brought to court on criminal offenses. Some cases have already been filed in Europe. This chapter will indicate which tribunals have been and could be used for trials as well as the statutory and treaty basis. Penalties under the law are identified.

7) The Bush Administrations’ War Crimes Liability
President Bush is directly responsible for some but not every war crime identified in the analysis, so an assessment is made of his culpability for each specific violation as well as members of his Cabinet, top military brass, field commanders, and field personnel. The ramifications of both suing and not suing Bush are complex. Arguments pro and con are reviewed. A truth commission is proposed.