http://bit.ly/V8gPpw Photo: © STR/AFP/Getty Images" width="398" style="border-color: initial; display: block; margin: 0px;" />Friday, 18 January 2013
For refugee children like Najah, who've fled ..Syria, the arrival of snow means that the freezing wet ground they sleep on will feel unbearable.
http://bit.ly/V8gPpw Photo: © STR/AFP/Getty Images" width="398" style="border-color: initial; display: block; margin: 0px;" />
Holmes Wilson Fight for the Future - Aaron Swartz was a friend, and we went to his funeral Tuesday.
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the win against SOPA, and instead this week has been crushingly sad. Aaron Swartz was a friend, and we went to his funeral Tuesday.
Aaron was behind so much of the amazing activism you see on the web. He helped Lessig start Creative Commons and helped get Reddit off the ground. With David Segal he founded Demand Progress. He gave us tons of advice and encouragement on Fight for the Future and even swooped in to fix our website at a crucial moment in the first SOPA protest (it was amazing to watch him work).The tool that delivers your letters to Congress when you take action on our sites? He built that. Probably in a day or two.It's fun and comforting to be in awe of him. But all that "boy genius" stuff is not the important part. The thing that distinguished Aaron more than his intelligence was that he was political and effective. He didn't use his ability to make apps-- he used it to right wrongs. But he didn't let the deep corruption in his Chomsky books turn him into a helpless cataloguer of the world's sins and scams. He worked backwards to some steps he thought might--just maybe--make things better. Part of my horror at losing him is how clutch he was to have on our side. He was so powerful, versatile, and independent. If this was chess, they took our queen.But that's the one way he can be replaced. Not as a friend. And probably not by any single person on this planet. But by a network of people infected with his brazen courage. I remember Aaron saying that one of the best things Fight for the Future could do-- beyond stopping or even passing any piece of legislation-- would be to encourage activists and geeks to think bigger and bolder. In a world where any one of us can build things or say things that mobilize millions, handfuls of people can do so much. So it matters what you think. It matters what your dreams are. And it makes a difference when you step up.Seriously, this is 2013. Kickstarter exists. Bitcoin exists! Half the planet will soon have the Internet in their pockets, and most of them aren't very happy with their governments or employers. That's a lot to work with. So try something! :) In this email, there's no simple link to an action you can take; it's on you to make a plan. But once you do, post it to #ForAaron ... we'd like to read it.Aaron had so many friends and allies, and all of them want to make some lasting change in his memory, both to advance the causes he worked for and fix the unjust system that lead to his death. These include:* Fixing the CFAA, the law used to prosecute Aaron that makes harmless "terms of service" violations felonies* Requiring open access to *all* research that receives public funding
* Building ever greater archives of open data
* Creating consequences for prosecutors who bring disproportionate cases against the innocent or harmlessWe'll be helping on all of these fronts, personally or as FFTF. As Massachusetts natives, we'll work to end the political careers of the prosecutors here who targeted Aaron. Finally, if you do anything right now, learn about depression. Tiffiniy and I agree 100% with Aaron's family and closest friends that the actions of federal prosecutors and MIT were what killed him. But there's more to it than that, and we can't shake the feeling that our community's responses to depression are failing brilliant people like Aaron. Anyone who dreams big is going to encounter extreme stress. Anyone who works independently, driven by their own values and goals is especially vulnerable to spirals of guilt, frustration and depression when they hit a wall or push past their limits. The private, quiet lives that fuel our focus when we're happy become hellish traps when depression starts. All of us someday will lose a parent, a partner, a sibling, or someone close to us. If it hasn't happened to you, it will-- and it can throw you, hard. So get help, don't be afraid to rely on others (including doctors or therapists) and when it hits your friends, go above and beyond for them. If you have a project you'd like to pursue to address mental health issues at scale, using the Internet, be in touch-- we'd love to help in some way.With sadness, and love,Holmes Wilson
Fight for the Future
P.S. We'll be launching something in the morning.
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Breaking the taboo Posted on January 11, 2013
http://www.world-war-d.com/2013/01/11/breaking-the-taboo-2/
Breaking the taboo
Let us break the taboo on debate and reform. The time for action is now.Sign the petition http://www.breakingthetaboo.info/
Breaking the Taboo is a global grass-roots campaign website against the War on Drugs, run by the Beckley Foundation in association with The Global Commission on Drug Policy, Virgin Unite, Avaaz and Sundog Pictures. The Mission Statement of the campaign is the Beckley Foundation Public Letter calling for a new approach to the War on Drugs, signed by nine Presidents, twelve Nobel prize winners, and many other world figures. The site hosts a coalition of international NGOs, united in their belief that the War on Drugs has failed and that global drug policy can and must be reformed. An Avaaz petition is hosted on the site, which will be presented to the UN. We hope that by collecting together so many voices calling for change, we will finally be able to persuade governments and lawmakers into adopting a humane and rational approach to drugs.
Mission Statement:
The global war on drugs has failed. It is time for a new approach.
We call on Governments and Parliaments to recognise that:
Fifty years after the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was launched, the global war on drugs has failed, and has had many unintended and devastating consequences worldwide.
Use of the major controlled drugs has risen, and supply is cheaper and more available than ever before. The UN conservatively estimates that there are now over 250 million drug users worldwide.
Illicit drugs are now the third most valuable industry in the world, after food and oil, all in the control of criminals. Fighting the war on drugs costs the world’s taxpayers incalculable billions each year. Millions of people are in prison worldwide for drug-related offences, mostly personal users and small-time dealers.
Corruption amongst law-enforcers and politicians, especially in producer and transit countries, has spread as never before, endangering democracy and civil society. Stability, security and development are threatened by the fallout from the war on drugs, as are human rights. Tens of thousands of people die in the drug war each year.
The drug-free world so confidently predicted by supporters of the war on drugs is further than ever from attainment.The policies of prohibition create more harms than they prevent. We must seriously consider shifting resources away from criminalising tens of millions of otherwise law abiding citizens, and move towards an approach based on health, harm-reduction, cost-effectiveness and respect for human rights.
Evidence consistently shows that these health-based approaches deliver better results than criminalisation. Improving our drug policies is one of the key policy challenges of our time. It is time for world leaders to fundamentally review their strategies in response to the drug phenomenon.
At the root of current policies lies the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It is time to re-examine this treaty, which imposes a “one-size-fits-all” solution, in order to allow individual countries the freedom to explore drug policies that better suit their domestic needs.
As the production, demand and use of drugs cannot be eradicated, new ways must be found to minimise harms, and new policies, based on scientific evidence, must be explored.
Let us break the taboo on debate and reform. The time for action is now.
Yours faithfully,
President Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia
President Otto Pérez Molina, President of Guatemala
President César Gaviria, Former President of Colombia
President Lech Wałęsa, Former President of Poland, Nobel Prize winner
President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Former President of Poland
President Jimmy Carter, Former President of the United States of America
President Fernando H. Cardoso, Former President of Brazil
President Ruth Dreifuss, Former President of Switzerland
President Vincente Fox, Former President of Mexico
Sir Richard Branson, Entrepreneur and Founder of the Virgin Group
Bernardo Bertolucci, Oscar-winning Film Director
Carlos Fuentes, Novelist and essayist
Sean Parker, Founding President of Facebook, Director of Spotify
Thorvald Stoltenberg, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs (Norway) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Asma Jahangir, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Execution
Louise Arbour, CC, GOQ, Former UN High-Commissioner for Human Rights
Professor Sir Anthony Leggett, Physicist, Nobel Prize winner
Dr. Kary Mullis, Chemist, Nobel Prize winner
Maria Cattaui, Former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce
Wisława Szymborska, Poet, Nobel Prize winner
Professor Sir Harold Kroto, Chemist, Nobel Prize winner
Professor Sir Harold Kroto, Chemist, Nobel Prize winner
Gilberto Gil, Musician, former Minister of Culture, Brazil
Professor Thomas C. Schelling, Economist, Nobel Prize winner
Professor Sir Peter Mansfield, Economist, Nobel Prize winner
Professor Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard University
Professor Colin Blakemore, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and University of Warwick
Professor David Nutt, Former Chair of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, Professor of Economics at Cambridge
Dr. Julian Huppert, MP, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform
Dr. Muhammed Abdul Bari, MBE, Former Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain
Trudie Styler, Actress and producer
Professor Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University
Lord Mancroft, Chair of the Drug and Alcohol Foundation
Professor A. C. Grayling, Master of the New College of the Humanities
General Lord Ramsbotham, Former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
Lord MacDonald, QC, Former Head of the Crown Prosecution Service
Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, Former Editor of The Sunday Telegraph
Tom Brake, MP, Co-chair of the Lib Dem Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities Parliamentary Policy Committee
Professor Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT
George P. Schultz, Former US Secretary of State
Yoko Ono, Musician and artist
Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer, Nobel Prize winner
Jaswant Singh, Former Minister of Defence, of Finance, and for External Affairs, India
Sting, Musician and actor
Michel Kazatchkine, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS
John Whitehead, Former US Deputy Secretary of State
John Perry Barlow, Co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Javier Solana, KOGF, KCMG, Former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy
Professor Kenneth Arrow, Economist, Nobel Prize winner
Jeremy Thomas, Film Producer
Professor John Polanyi, Chemist, Nobel Prize winner
Pavel Bém, Former Mayor of Prague
Dr. Jan Wiarda, Former President of European Police Chiefs
Professor Lord Piot, Former UN Under Secretary-General
Professor Martin L. Perl, Physicist, Nobel Prize winner
Lord Rees, OM, Astronomer Royal and former President of the Royal Society
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Former President of the Royal College of Physicians
Professor Trevor Robbins, Professor of Neuroscience at Cambridge
Caroline Lucas, MP, Leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton
Professor Jonathan Wolff, Professor of Philosophy at UCL
Carel Edwards, Former Head of the EU Commission’s Drug Policy Unit
Professor Robin Room, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne
Gary Johnson, Former Republican US Presidential Candidate
Bob Ainsworth, MP, Former UK Secretary of State for Defence
Nicholas Green, QC, Former Chairman of the Bar Council
Peter Lilley, MP, Former Secretary of State for Social Security
Tom Lloyd, Former Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire
Professor Robert Grayling, Dean of School of Medicine, KCL
Paul Flynn, MP, Labour MP for Newport West
Dr. Patrick Aeberhard, Former President of Doctors of the World
Amanda Feilding, Director of the Beckley Foundation
Breaking the taboo
Let us break the taboo on debate and reform. The time for action is now. Sign the petition http://www.breakingthetaboo.info/ Breaking the Taboo is a global grass-roots campaign website against the War on Drugs, run by the Beckley Foundation in ass
via world-war-d.com
Monday, 14 January 2013
FREE SARA KRUZAN
http://www.freesarakruzan.org/#!about_us/csgz
FREE SARA KRUZAN
Sara Kruzan
Sara Kruzan (d.o.b. January 8, 1978) is a survivor of child molestation, rape, of child-sex trafficking and of intimate battering. March 10, 1994, when child-sex captor G. G. Howard was motioning to rape Sara inside of a hotel room, Sara let off the fatal gunshot that ended her sex-captors life. A year later on May 10, 1995, at the age of 17, Sara was convicted of the first degree murder [PC 187] of George Gilbert Howard. Sara was sentenced to life in prison, plus four years, with no possibility of parole. Signed on December 31, 2010, the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, commuted Sara’s sentence to life with the possibility of parole, come 2020. [1]
Early Life
Sara Kruzan grew up in Riverside, California with an older sister and a single mother on welfare. Sara’s father was an ex-convict and heroine addict. On one of three occasions when Sara met her father, she witnessed him shooting up heroin in a bathroom. Sara’s mother was mentally ill, emotionally unstable and addicted to cocaine. She battered Sara and Sara’s sister physically and psychologically since they were infants. In one of Sara’s earliest memories, her mother smacked her across the face until blood splattered from her nose onto a nearby dresser. Child Protective Services opened an investigation in 1989, due to being notified (by Sara’s school) of bruises on Sara’s body. In 1993, Child Protective Services determined it to be unsafe for Sara to reside with her mother.
Sara was molested by several of the men her mother brought home. Sara’s earliest memory of molestation is cited at age five. As these incidents persisted, Sara’s mother did nothing to stop them, but instead displayed jealousy and blamed Sara. Sara was exposed to her mother’s sex and drug activity. By fourth grade, Sara started cutting. By age 11, Sara began to leave home without permission. Sara’s mother showed no sign of concern. Instead, she physically assaulted Sara and forced her out of her residence. At age 11, Sara was hospitalized for attempted suicide. Rather than to provide Sara with adequate safety, the State sent Sara home. [2]
Child-Sex Trafficking
At age 11, George Gilbert Howard picked up Sara as she was walking home from school. G. G. bribed Sara with ice cream, then took her to his residence, where he undressed her and molested her, thereby committing a first degree felony sexual assault. From that date forward, G. G. Howard indoctrinated Sara into the child-sex trade. At age 12, Sara’s mother set Sara up with a 23 year old “mentor”, who furnished Sara with alcohol and raped her repeatedly over the course of a year. [In the State of California under PC 261.5, sex with a minor is defined as rape.] [3] At age 13, Sara was gang raped by three men. Sara’s mother refused to allow Sara to press charges. She insisted it would backfire and that Sara had “asked for it”.
At age 13, 33 year old George Gilbert Howard raped Sara Kruzan [PC 261.5] then immediately began to sexually exploit Sara, selling her body for three years in the child-sex trade. G. G. Howard threatened Sara and set her in dangerous situations, in addition to the dangers of prostitution. At age 15, Sara was hospitalized when she survived a fatal car crash. Sara was then placed in five or six foster care homes, while she repeatedly ran away to return to G. G. Howard over the course of five months. [4]
Plans to Escape
November of 1993, Sara attempted to escape a life of prostitution by going to Ontario with a 15 year old male friend. Sara’s mother threatened to report kidnap, ergo Sara returned to her mother’s neighborhood. Sara’s friend found a place where the two could temporarily stay with a friend’s uncle, James Earl Hampton. “James Earl” was a convicted felon and drug dealer out on parole. (James E. Hampton, Prisoner ID P23654, has since been convicted of rape and attempted murder, and is serving out a life sentence in the State of California.) [5] As James Earl bragged of the murders he committed and threatened to take Sara’s friends life, Sara hoped to borrow money from G. G. to get her own apartment. When James Earl caught wind of this, he demanded Sara follow his instructions to rob and murder G. G. if she wished that she and her loved ones survive.
The Crime Scene
March 9, 1994, James Earl Hampton garnered Sara Kruzan with a pistol and a pager. He ordered Sara to call G. G. Howard to arrange that the two of them meet. James Earl Hampton brought Sara to where G. G. picked her up to take her to a movie theater. Sara began to receive several pages from James Hampton, instructing “187″ (as she knew to be the California Penal Code Section for Murder). G. G. escorted Sara to the same hotel room where he had raped her on prior occasions. While G. G. payed for the room, Sara called James Earl and asked to speak with her friend. James Earl declined to allow it and threatened Sara that she would not survive if she did not follow through with the murder and robbery of G. G. Howard.
Passed midnight, in the hotel room, 36 year old G. G. Howard put on a pornographic movie and began undressing and touching 16 year old Sara. G. G. took out a large sex toy. Sara dreaded being raped by G. G. Howard. When G. G. turned to plug the sex toy into the wall, Sara shot him. Sara took G. G. Howard’s money and keys, but left behind her purse, identification and shoes. She delivered the car and money to James Earl. James held a gun to Sara’s head and instructed her of what to say if she were questioned. James Earl brought Sara to some other residence where he ordered she be kept locked away in a room. When James Earl brought Sara to his mothers house, she was arrested. Sara initially repeated the story that James Earl demanded, yet she soon confessed to the shooting.
Her Life Sentence
Sara was 16 years old and had no priors. The convicted James Earl Hampton and the minor (then a friend of Sara’s) were never brought to trial. Sara’s defense counsel, David Gunn, advised Sara to take the case to trial. Sara Kruzan was tried in Riverside County Superior Court, with Judge J. Thompson Hanks presiding. The testimony lasted two and a half days. The jurors were not aware that George Gilbert Howard had sexually assaulted, raped and indoctrinated Sara into the child-sex trade for five years. While no expert witnesses spoke in Sara’s defense, Sara agreed to nearly every leading question the prosecutor asked. The probation officer assigned to Sara Kruzan’s case overlooked PC 190.5, that granted court discretion to sentence minors convicted of first degree murder to 25 to life with the possibility of parole. The officer incorrectly stated that State law required the court to sentence Sara to life without possibility of parole. On May 10, 1995, at the age of 17, Sara was sentenced to life in prison, plus four years, without possibility of parole.
Intimate Battering
Two key experts independently concluded that Sara suffered from the effects of intimate partner battering at the time of the shooting and that expert testimony would have affected the outcome of the criminal proceedings. After a thorough evaluation of Sara Kruzan and her documents, Dr. Linda S. Barnard concluded that, “Sara was suffering from the effects of intimate partner battering in March 1994 and her behaviors and actions were affected – if not controlled by – the years of abuse she endured. By failing to have an expert on intimate partner battering and its effects to explain the many complexities involved in this case, Sara Kruzan’s defense was severely limited.” Dr. Nancy Kaser-Boyd concluded, “Ms. Kruzan clearly suffered the common effects of intimate partner battering on the night of the shooting. Most young people [suffering from intimate partner battering and its effects] respond well to therapy and become healthy adults with therapeutic intervention.” [6]
Free Sara Kruzan
Free Sara Kruzan was founded in 2006, by Kim Deanne, whose dedication was inspired by her friend Sara Kruzan to combat her plight as a victim of child-sex slavery and subsequently being sentenced as a youth to life in prison with no possibility of parole. In 2012, Free Sara Kruzan is a Global Campaign run by three women (Kim Deanne, Jesaka Sekmet, Carrie Christie), whose mission is to raise awareness of Sara’s story, to facilitate her release from prison and to prevent all forms of child-sex slavery. With the aid of international supporters and Sara’s 2007 interview by Human Rights Watch (see: external links), on the last day of 2010, Sara’s sentence was commuted by Governor Schwarzenegger to 25 to life with the possibility of parole. Sara currently resides in an honors dorm in a women’s facility in the State of California. Sara has earned a college degree and has been named Woman of the Year by Correctional Officers. Sara’s final appeal to be released with time served was dated July 19, 2012, yet granted a 60 day extension. On September 18, 2012 Riverside District Attorney Paul Zellerbach will decide whether Sara will be released with time served. The Global Campaign to Free Sara Kruzan is currently petitioning, educating and demonstrating for Sara’s immediate release. [7] [8]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Flickr - projectbrainsaver
www.flickr.com
|
