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  • Waterboarding

    Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 3:08AM / Standard Entry / Members only
    11 comments




    I've always admired people that are passionate about a cause.  Over the years I've donated time and money to various charities and causes but although I've cared about them I've never felt passionate and I've felt a little guilty about it. 

    But as I've gotten older I've come to realize the cause that really fires me up, angers me and motivates me to action is Human Rights.  That's not to say I don't care about anything else, I do.  It's just that human rights hits a nerve and I feel it's something important that I care about and want to promote.

    One of the issues that has been in the press a lot recently is whether 'waterboarding' is torture.  The US government says it isn't, that it 'simulates' drowning.

    The following video is of Christopher Hitchens being waterboarded for a Vanity Fair article.


    Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPubUCJv




    Let me know what you guys think.  Are any of you members of Amnesty International or any other group?


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Entry comments (11)

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  • kithui
    Official artist Kit Hui  
    posted on Wednesday, Sep 10, 2008 4:51PM [Report]
    read this article a while back from New Yorker about Hitchens, it's interesting.

    http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2008/07/i-came-back-fro.html
  • Jaine
    Jaine 
    posted on Wednesday, Sep 10, 2008 5:07AM [Report]
    omg of course it is torture
    how appalling, I just felt sick looking at the board knowing that it is used for human suffering
    human rights gets me fired up, at the moment I get particularly fired up at human trafficking.
  • issue76
    issue76 
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 7:46PM [Report]
    I read his article on waterboarding  but i haven't seen the clip above.
    It is just as powerful watching the scene as it was reading it. When you think we live in the 21st century and this is a form of torture which is  being used, it's like a a kick back from the middle ages- such progress.
    It was very weird listening to the music being played i wonder if the artist would approve of their music being used in such a way. I know  David Grey  has complained because his music has been  used in Guantanamo Bay and secret prisions run by the CIA as a form of torture  ( being played on a continuous-loop with the volume on loud)  and he is not happy about it at all.
    Thanks for posting.
  • rottendoubt
    rottendoubt 
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 2:39PM [Report]
    oh man, that's horrible!  i'm very paranoid of suffocating... can't take that feeling at all...
  • wendycheng
    Official artist Wendy Cheng 
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 12:23PM [Report]
    Agree with that too. And I think it's good that you know which one is more important to you. And yeah, there's no reason to ignore those issues in the name of patriotism. I don't consider myself patriotic. When I ever feel sympathetic to China, I'm speaking as a Taiwanese American who is trying to remember my experience of being surprised by some of the positive things I found there, when I would normally have every reason to be against it. In other words, my reaction is: let human beings develop without completely squashing them while we also try to keep their crimes in check. That's another form of fighting for human rights, and the argument of how human rights should encompass basic things that we still don't have in this country, like universal health care, etc. makes it all the more complicated (:
  • moonchild72
    moonchild72 
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 7:42AM [Report]
    Any kind of torture to anyone, anything (animal abuse), anywhere is beyond the pale.

    Sorry, just couldn't bring myself to watch the video .. guess that makes me kinda whimpy, but that's my choice.

    I support human rights and animal rights too ..
    not a card-carrying member of any organizations, since I'm a lowly student, but do what I can when I can to support the causes.
  • Flagday
    Flagday 
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 5:24AM [Report]
    I think I'm patriotic Jason, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.  It's when patriotism is equated with lock-step approval of what our government does that it's unhealthy.  I think it's more patriotic to question our government and to hold it accountable.  

    That's why Guantanamo is such a nightmare.  It is not what my America stands for.  What I want to do is to get that place shut down by voting for Barack Obama in November.  What the hell of military importance do these people have after being held for so long anyway?

    But I am not a card-carrying member of Amnesty International.  I read about these things but I've not found my passion in it.  Maybe it's overwhelming, but that's a cop-out.
  • jasontobin
    Official artist Jason Tobin  
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 4:47AM
    It may be a political card used by certain nations but it's still human rights abuse to the individual. That's what I care about.  It's not about countries or West versus the East and vice versa.  It's about the person at the receiving end of some horrible injustice.

    I find it offensive when countries shout 'racism' when human rights violations are highlighted in their country.   Shouldn't we all scream from the top of our lungs when human rights are being abused wherever they may be taking place?  Whether it be abroad or in our own home?

    It's for this reason I find nationalism and patriotism distasteful as it creates a fervent belief that we are 'right', and an intololerance to genuine criticism.
  • wendycheng
    Official artist Wendy Cheng 
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 4:20AM [Report]
    This really made me feel suffocated. Pretty frightening. I think human rights are incredibly important, but I think it's equally important that people in the west distinguish between when they really are fighting human rights abuses, or when they are responding to other cultures and countries out of a sense of pure competition and even racism (and I do think that happens, it's a political card that is played).
  • daxphelan
    Official artist Dax Phelan 
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 3:51AM [Report]
    I saw a video recently of someone being beheaded and I can honestly say it was the most horrific thing I've ever seen in my life.  This madness has to stop.
  • carmellarose
    carmellarose 
    posted on Sunday, Sep 7, 2008 3:21AM [Report]
    I'm really happy you've brought up waterboarding and human rights...I'm very passionate about human rights as well...And well, this is a great discussion...however homework first :P

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  • Jason Tobin is a British-Chinese actor who currently lives in London, England and attended King George V School in Kowloon, Hong Kong. He is perhaps most well-known for his convincing role as the unst...

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