Magdaleno

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS…

 

 

I want to thank all of you who voted and worked these past elections..you were the ones who brought sanity back to the political process…in spite of all the efforts to suppress voter turn out by tactics used by the Republican party it was not enough to stop the tide of change that swept across this country…you must now celebrate and then get back to the task of helping our elected officials roll back some of the evil pieces of legislation.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

 

a. new Middle East policy needed

b. stay the course …how dumb

c. abuse of Palestinian women

d. Korean support group

e. the refugee all stars

 

 

 

PERHAPS A NEW INTERNATIONAL POLICY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

            And other conflicted areas…

While we celebrate the elections and we should…many are still dying in Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma and many other parts of the world.. Our political eyes have been blinded to human rights abuse by the Israeli Army, by the USA ARMY and other military forces. We need to call for a cease fire and begin investigating all these abuses by these military actions.

We can not allow the military forces to abuse the rights of a people and then not to be accountable…

Today tens of thousands took to the streets of Gaza in protest because of the killings of 18 innocent individuals, 12 of one family… The Israeli missiles were 500 yard off from their intended target.. How can one government be allowed to shell another with out some one being accountable… this is not a road to peace but in fact it is a recipe for disaster…

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STAY THE COURSE …HOW DUMB CAN YOU GET

Abuse of Women Still Rife in Palestinian Life, Says Study
By Donald Macintyre
The Independent UK

Tuesday 07 November 2006

Gaza City – Sanaa Umar fidgets with her handbag as she describes the daunting task of making a new start when her own father blames her for failing to keep the violent and abusive man who married her at 15 and divorced her at 16.

“My husband started beating me without any reason in the second week of the marriage,” says Sanaa, now 17, from Beach refugee camp. Sanaa is not her real name – she is too frightened to be identified. “He beat me with a stick all over my body. It was like he was controlled by a genie. Even his own mother tried to stop him but she couldn’t.”

The man, a relatively well-off 22-year old, had seen her at a wedding and asked her – very poor – parents for her hand in marriage. Her father, who had made her finish school at 12 and had also often beaten her, was happy. ” I agreed because my father agreed,” Sanaa explains.

But all along her new husband was conducting a relationship with another 15-year-old girl whose father had forbidden the marriage. At one point, her husband beat Sanaa so badly that she was unable to get out of bed for a week, before he eventually dumped her back at her parents’ home.

Thanks to the small but valiant Gaza Women’s Empowerment Programme, Sanaa, now living with her parents, has been given a second chance and is training for an independent life as a hairdresser and beautician. At first her father opposed her taking the course because he didn’t want her status publicly on display, bringing shame, as he saw it, on the family. “Divorced women have a bad reputation,” Sanaa explains.

But while he came round, under pressure from Fatma’s mother, he is still verbally abusive. “He makes me guilty because I didn’t keep my husband. He uses bad words I cannot repeat.”

Sanaa’s experience – the pressure into an early marriage, the abuse by father and husband, and the stigma attaching to the victim rather than the assailant – is all too common in Gaza, where more than one in five women say they suffer physical domestic violence but there is not a single women’s shelter. A Question of Security, published today by Human Rights Watch (HRW), excoriates the Palestinian police and justice system for the near-total failure to protect women in both Gaza and the West Bank from abuse ranging from “honour killings” to rape, incest, beatings and sexual abuse.

While accepting that closures, economic blockades and bombardment by Israel have weakened Palestinian institutions, HRW strongly rejects that as an ” excuse” for long-standing and discriminatory – mainly Jordanian and Egyptian-derived – laws that “condone and perpetuate” such violence or the “virtual absence” of polices to “prevent violence, assist victims and hold perpetrators accountable”.

It points out the law drastically reduces penalties for men who kill or hurt their wives or female relatives for committing adultery, offers rapists complete impunity if they agree to marry their victims, allows only male relatives to file incest charges on behalf of children and requires mandatory prosecution for domestic violence if the victim is hospitalized for more than 20 days. The report says the police routinely “mediate” cases of sexual and physical abuse by returning victims to the “care” of their attackers – often in collaboration with tribal or clan leaders. It also condemns the use of – sometimes enforced – virginity testing, whether to exculpate assailants of sexual assault if the tests prove negative, or to dismiss victims’ complaints if they prove positive

Only 1 per cent of polled Palestinian women said they had lodged complaints. And of 85 reported cases of rape in 2003, only one resulted in a conviction. There have been 98 officially reported cases of “honour killing” or other domestic murders of women in Gaza and the West Bank since 2000.

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up yesterday near Israeli troops in Beit Hanoun where Israeli forces killed two women acting as human shields for militants. The Israeli army said one soldier was slightly wounded. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has traveled to the Gaza Strip for talks with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on a unity government.

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LOCAL EVENT TO SUPPORT THE KOREAN PEOPLE

Many of us witnessed the strength, determination, and creativity of the Korean people’s movement in Seattle last month. Nearly 60 Korean workers, farmers, and women arrived here to protest the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement talks. For four days, Korean activists marched (and ran!), drummed, and sang side-by-side with US workers, social justice activists, and other allies. Hundreds of local community members took to the streets to express their solidarity with the Korean people.

The struggle against the Korea-US FTA continues, as does the fight to stop a US military base expansion in Pyeongtaek. Please help send a local delegation to Seoul for Eyewitness, a US Solidarity Mission, from Nov. 20th through 24th, to help raise awareness about the situation in Korea. We invite you to join us for a fundraiser and educational forum in Seattle on Friday, Nov. 10th from 5:30 to 7:30pm at St. Mary’s Church (611 20th Ave. S.) to learn about the mission, and about the anti-FTA and Pyeongtaek struggles. We hope you will bring five friends, and contribute $25 or more to help pay for airfare for the Seattle delegates.

We are also asking for your help by distributing the attached flyer to your networks. As people of good conscience in the US, we must stand in solidarity with the people of the world fighting against inhumane US military and economic policies. The time for an international human rights movement is now. Please join us. For more information, call Mijo at (206) 599-9821 or Soya at (206) 617-4056.

In solidarity and struggle,

Individual Sponsors*

Soya Jung Harris           Vanessa Mijo Lee
Michael Woo                 Cherry Cayabyab
Nina LaBoy                   Magdaleno Rose-Avila
Bob Barnes                   Jon Brier
Erica Kay                      Jeff Johnson
Cindy Domingo              Michael Ramos
Ubax Gardheere            Freedom Allah Siyam

Endorsing organizations*

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
BAYAN-USA Northwest Region
Church Council of Greater Seattle
Comité Pro-Amnistía General y Justicia Social
Legacy of Equality, Leadership, and Organizing (LELO)
Washington Fair Trade Coalition
Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation (WWFOR)

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Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are back!

 

When: Sunday, November 12, 2006

 

Where: The Showbox

 

Benefit: A portion of the proceeds will

benefit the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project

 

Tickets: Tickets available at all TicketsWest outlets, including ALL Rudy’s Barber Shops and SELECT QFC food stores, online at ticketswest.com, hob.com or charge by phone 1-800-992—TIXX (8499) For more information, contact Janet Lotawa at (206) 587-4009 or janet@nwirp.org

 

About Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars: Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars band was formed in refugee camps in Guinea during the brutal Sierra Leonean civil war. Their upbeat reggae and traditional Sierra Leonean music reflects the struggles and hopes of life as refugees.   This band is also the subject of the documentary “Living Like a Refugee”, which is touring film festivals throughout the world. To learn more about Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars visit www.nwirp.org or www.refugeeallstars.org

 

About Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP):

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) is the only organization in Washington State dedicated solely to strengthening the legal rights and well being of low-income immigrants and refugees.  To learn more visit www.nwirp.org or contact Janet Lotawa @ (206) 957-8609 or Janet@nwirp.org

 

Sharing the news

 

I sold out of the first edition of LOOKING FOR MY WINGS…and we have now have our second order ready for delivery for gifts you can give to friends on this holiday…We are also busy editing the second book which is a lot of work ..I have the help of a lot of good individuals and it is moving forward…

 

Also I want to thank those of you who have shared Ahora with others…

 

Keep working and dreaming

 

leno

 

 

 

Dear Sisters and Brothers

 

 

Life is good ..I am meeting new people every day who amaze me by the good work that they do for our community… We need to honor these individuals every chance we get 

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS           

1. time to vote
2. abolitionists
3. laughing at the enemy
4. they keep on dying
5. Lebanon
6. Evangelical has dark side

 

Time to Vote

 

If you have not voted than do so immediately that way you will be free to work on a campaign.  I just got my Absentee Ballot …and have sent it off… I will be off from work on the 6^th and 7^th working and doing all I can to get the vote out.

 

We must all work together in behalf of the future of this country of ours.  Please do all you can in the days ahead to get the vote out. 

 

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

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ABOLITIONISTS want to keep us from killing

 

Recently I attended the 30^th anniversary of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) and while there I was re-united with old friends and met many new friends who work for abolition. I am always impressed by those who have given their lives to stopping state sanctioned killing…This was a conference filled with compassion and a lot of energy of hope..

 

At this conference they recognized and awarded many deserving individuals. In the audience were many who may never get an award or public recognition and they continue to do the good work. We all appreciate those who do the work for the simple honor of knowing that they are doing the right thing for the right reasons…they all are our heroes.

 

We should all find a way to join up with NCADP…and a local organization or committee that works to eliminate this horrific practice…we all need to stop the state from killing in our names.

 

 

LAUGHING AT THE ENEMY

 

I have been accused of using humor in my talks …and am accused of having the ability to joke about my friends, my self and my opposition.  And guess what …I AM GUILTY…

 

Our struggle to defend human rights is so serious that we must use humor to help us deal with all the stupidity of those who wish to suppress our rights. We must release our tensions and enjoy a lighter moment before we continue on down the road.

 

If you ask me to address your group you just might become a target for my corny jokes and my attempts at stand up comedy…

 

 

 

THEY KEEP ON DYING …and the white house keeps on lying.

 

I am saddened by the high number of deaths in Iraq, and Afghanistan….Dick Cheney  had said that there were more deaths were going on in Iraq because the insurgents want to affect the election….The Iraqis want us out and they will continue to kill our men and women and each other in order to get us out..They don’t care about the elections. But it is most interesting that the verdict on Saddam is given just days before the November elections.

 

This is a failed policy that we have in Iraq and we should reminded of all of the seriousness of this war and those who got us into this debacle and who has insulted our troops and their families with their mismanagement of the war…. Donald H. Rumsfeld must be fired yesterday.

 

 

LEBANON OH LEBANON

 

It has not been in the news and seems to be almost forgotten …but I want us all to remember all of the destroyed lives, homes and businesses of the residents of Lebanon.  Who is helping to rebuild this country?  I believe that our country should be sending aid and materials to this country that was once hailed as one of the great emerging democracies..

 

We need to send teams of people to work and help to continue the rebuilding of this important country.  This country is not getting the kind of aid that others governments receive and that is a crime.

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EVANGELICAL LEADER UNDER A DARK CLOUD

Pastor Ted Haggard founder and senior leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs which has 14,000 members is accused by Mike Jones a professional male prostitute of having a three year paid relationship which included sex and drugs.

Haggard also is President of the National Association of Evangelicals, and organization that represents millions of members.

Haggard has had to step down from his offices while an investigation is moving forward. And in some impromptu interview Haggard has already admitted to some of the accusations.

The following is part of the statement Haggard gave today to his church

The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There’s a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life,” he said.

Haggard has given many an anti gay/lesbian sermons and has helped to initiate many anti-gay legislative actions on ballots across this country.  It is sad that he like former congressman Tom Foley can be so anti-gay and yet seem to have another side to their lives. It might be easier if the Republican Party and the evangelical church could just accept gays/lesbians and get on with life…at least they might all live a reality instead of a myth.

Colorado Springs in the past 20 years has become the home to many right wing religious groups who in the name of god preach hate and deception. While I support religious freedom, I do not accept one person’s god oppressing another’s.

Haggard, like Ken Lay and Jack Abramoff all were close friends of the President and this White house. But once their stars have been tarnished the White House says that they barely knew them…I think that on this one we can easily call the President and the White House LIARS!

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JOIN UP

Let me know of any friends or associates who would like to receive my Ahora news… I want to share my take of the news with as many as possible…I want to share my views and activate folks to do more good work in behalf of human rights

My best

leno

new email

leno@magdaleno.org
206-310-2102