Archive for March, 2009

Monthly Archive

Sat 21 Mar 2009

India: Gujarat Diamond Workers Suicide in the Face of Crisis

Posted by Juliana Rincon Parra under Balkers
[7] Comments

Original attribution Global Voices Online

                                           Dreaming of Diamonds by Swamibu

On the following videos we can see and hear about the situation the Gujarat diamond polishers in India are facing. As the world recession and economic crisis affects their industry, thousands are laid off. Unable to feed their families, pay bills or send their children to school, they have to adjust to living hand to mouth, many are turning to suicide as their last resort. The following video, in English and Hindi was uploaded by students of the IIM Ahmedabad as part of their Socio Cultural Environment of Business course explains the role the diamond polishers of Surat in Gujarat had in the industry, and how they’ve now been cut off the process, leaving formerly bustling factories empty of diamond polishers and replaced with embroidery industry, of which they know nothing about. Highly skilled specialized workers find themselves having to find jobs in different industries, earning much less than before. Their children, who used to attend private schools are now finding themselves barred from presenting exams due to lack of payment:

The situation in Surat is quite serious, as approximately 50% of the diamond cutters and polishers have been laid off. The government is trying to get scholarships to the children of the workers so they can continue their studies. In an Hindustani Times blog, an editorial reads

The impending crisis has another dimension in Surat — while laid-off workers around the world can usually depend on their families to help tide them over, most of the workers here have entire families in diamond polishing, and all risk losing their jobs or having pay cut drastically at the same time. 

On Pragoti.org the number of suicides due to the diamond industry crisis is said to be 71:

Even as Modi’s trumpeteers are jumping in joy over the investment figures, at least 71 diamond polishers have committed suicide in Gujarat over the last few months following their laying off due to the global meltdown severely hitting the industry. Modi, who loves to present himself as a ‘common man’, refused to bail out the diamond workers who remained at the mercy of the shrewd traders…

… Apart from the 71 suicides across Gujarat, the situation among the diamond workers has become so grim that there was near stampede outside the Surat Diamond Association where forms for school fees exemption were being distributed.

Diamond polishing is an exact art, on which the rough stone is transformed intro the brilliant gems that grace jewelry all over the world. In the following video, we see a young diamond polishing apprentice polishing his very first diamond after a three month unpaid apprenticeship:

If you would like to know more about the industry, Jobanputra, on the next videos, gives us a tour of the Sanghavi Diamond processing factory where we see and he explains the whole process from rough stone to gem. On the comprehensive four part video tour of the factory he explains how they follow best practices, don’t hire children and ensure their diamonds come from reputable sources and are not “blood diamonds“

Click to view part 2, part 3 and part 4 of the Diamond Manufacturing Process.

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Wed 11 Mar 2009

Egypt: Dalia Ziada urges Saudi Arabia to end discrimination against Muslim women

Posted by Marwa Rakha under Balkers
[5] Comments

Original attribution Global Voices Online
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On the occasion of Prophet Mohamed’s birthday, Egyptian blogger Dalia Ziada launches a campaign asking Saudi Arabia to end their discrimination against young Muslim women worldwide!

Dalia started her post by talking about this official holiday in Egypt:

Today, Egypt – and only Egypt – celebrates the blessed birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). We, Egyptians, call it: Mawlid Elnaby. On this day, Egyptian Muslims buy special desserts (halawet elmwalid), exchange cordial visits with relatives and acquaintances, and above all hold commemoration sessions to remember Prophet Muhammad.

Here is what triggered her campaign:

After performing the noon prayers, the idea of making a religious trip to Mecca and Prophet’s tomb in Saudi Arabia popped up to my mind.

Her search results were shocking:

I am not allowed to do “O’mra!” [a lesser pilgrimage to Mecca] Why? Because I am a young woman under the age of 45! The only solution for me to get to my beloved Prophet’s land is to be accompanied by a male chaperon. My mother is not enough!! Do you know what a male chaperon is? A first-degree male relative: father, brother, husband, or son! I am in a big trouble, then. My father is dead, my two brothers are not interested and I cannot afford paying for their tickets, I do not have a husband and of course I do not have a son!! What can I do, now?!

What infuriated the young activist more was:

I have traveled to places much far than Saudi Arabia. I was completely alone! I did not do something wrong, and nothing wrong was done to me in any of my previous trips overseas!!

Upon investigating this law further, she learnt that:

such an unjustified restriction is the pure invention of Saudi Arabia and has nothing to do with Islam! Thus, Saudi government is blocking one-third of Muslims (i.e. Muslim women) around the world from practicing a duty of their religion imposed on them by Allah! Who says that Saudi government’s word is superior to the word of Allah?! Who told them that Mecca and Prophet Muhammad is their own and they have the right to prevent whomever they want from visiting them?!

Dalia then links her personal sense of injustice to her female counterparts living in KSA:

Actually, no wonder! Saudi Arabia is the biggest abuser of women rights in the whole region. They deprive women from showing their faces, driving a car, or even working or socially mixing with men! Saudis commit these awful violations against women rights in the name of Islam. They distort the image of our tolerant religion. But, I am not Saudi Arabian; why should I comply with their naïve rules, then? This is not fair!

Back to the issue of the Prophet’s birthday:

Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia does not celebrate Prophet’s birthday. That is despite the facts that: 1) the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was born in Saudi Arabia; 2) his mission to call for the religion of Islam started in Saudi Arabia; 3) he lived his whole life in Saudi Arabia; and 4) Saudi government holds all property rights for Prophet’s belongings and monuments. So, how come Saudi Arabia does not celebrate Prophet’s birthday?!! They even consider the Prophet’s birthday celebrations, we – Muslim Egyptians – do, a heresy (beda’a)!!!

Dalia is now calling upon:

world feminists, moderate Muslims, and those who believe in women rights in the Muslim world to join me in my upcoming fight against the Saudi government for getting my right (as a woman) to practice my religion with complete freedom, liberated from the unreasonable restrictions imposed by extremists and patriarchal governments like that of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia does not have “monopoly rights” over Islam!

Muslimah Media Watch tackled the issue of how women in KSA are treated like legal minors.

Zoheir al-Harithi, spokesman for Saudi’s Human Rights Commission, says that the report didn’t focus on productive efforts to improve the situation as well as confused tradition with state policy. “We agree with some points and we are working on that as a commission for the government, but we don’t agree with the generalisation.”

You can download the full report, Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia, here.

Dalia Ziada created a Facebook group here for her campaign.

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Sun 8 Mar 2009

Secret Bush Memos Reveal U.S. Dictatorship

Posted by USA / Carol under Balkers
[58] Comments

If you reached this Balkingpoints.com article by direct external link, stop by the front page for an incredible satellite view of the earth in rotation!

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Nine secret legal opinions, written by former Office of Legal Counsel attorneys John C. Yoo and Robert J. Delahunty, were recently released by the Justice Department. Overall, they reveal that the Bush administration brought the United States close to executive tyranny after the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

Neil A. Lewis wrote in the New York Times, “The opinions reflected a broad interpretation of presidential authority, asserting as well that the president could unilaterally abrogate foreign treaties, ignore any guidance from Congress in dealing with detainees suspected of terrorism, and conduct a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants.”

One of the opinions, written by John C. Yoo and dated October 23, 2001, stated that the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures was not relevant in wartime, “The Government’s compelling interest in protecting the nation from attack and in prosecuting the war effort would outweigh the relevant privacy interests, making the search and seizure reasonable.” Regarding the need for a warrant, Yoo wrote, “Warrant and probable cause requirements… are unsuited to the demands of wartime and the military necessity to prosecute a war against an enemy.”

In addition, the October 23, 2001 memo asserted that “First amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” The memo further declared that, “The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically.”

According to Scott Horton, an International Human Rights Attorney, writing in Harpers Magazine, “He [Yoo] concluded that in wartime, the President was freed from the constraints of the Bill of Rights, with respect to anything he chose to label as a counter terrorism operation inside the United States.”

In a statement made on MSNBC, Michael Isikoff remarked, “We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001 – January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a commission of inquiry to investigate the Bush administration’s controversial counter terrorism tactics. The Chairman, Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont) proposed a “truth commission” to probe the use of torture, domestic surveillance, and other contentious policies enacted during Bush’s Presidency.

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, Illinois) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, Rhode Island) have also called for the release of a report prepared by the Justice Department, based on a 4½ year-long inquiry into whether three former OLC lawyers – including Yoo and former OLC chief Jay S. Bybee – violated professional standards in preparing these opinions.

More documents are expected to be released.

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Fri 6 Mar 2009

Egyptian -and Muslim- Girls between a Rock and a Hard Place

Posted by Marwa Rakha under Balkers
[5] Comments

Original attribution Global Voices Online
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Egyptian women are trapped between who they are and who they are expected to be; they are required to live up to the expectations of their parents, families, colleagues, and later on, their husbands and children. In their attempt to meet those expectations, some of them feel that they lose touch with who they really are and the great things they can really do.

Scene and Heard asked Egyptian men why they prefer to get married to Non-Egyptian/Arab women:

One of our guy writers who’s an Egyptian born and raised abroad and still living abroad said that while he tried dating an Arab girl, he found it was just too complicated. “They’re just too feisty…I need someone cool, calm and collected”. He also stated that with his Egyptian girlfriend, he always had to worry about drama and jealousy…but with a foreign girlfriend, he said “she’s so easy going and not menafsena (spiteful)”

The issue of faking the good girl image came up and

Another guy said, “the girls have just become so say3een (loose) in Egypt and while foreign girls can be say3een (loose), they don’t know any different…but OUR girls do, they were raised to know better. Plus they just over do everything, even the seya3a (liberal image)! and then they act all innocent and mo7tarameen (decent)”

Culture and traditions are also a turn off

Another one said, “There’s just less pressure. We don’t have to worry about her father or brother getting upset that we haven’t proposed yet or that if we kiss her in public that her aunt’s neighbor’s daughter’s schoolmate might see us and report back to the family.”

The rest of the post discusses the issue further.

The multi-cultural Muslimah’s post titled Strike Two, You’re Out? discusses the number of times a girl could break off an engagement or a marriage!

For those of us who were western-born (or raised) this is absolutely not an issue, painful and heartbreaking yes, but nothing that would induce us to raise any eyebrows. I mean heck, who doesn’t know someone who is triply or even quadruply divorced? That’s when things get a little hairy, you know what I mean.

But in Egypt its a completely different story: two strikes and you’re out. Especially when it comes to women, upon whom the blame is laid in even the most sexist of situations. Hell, if your husband goes out and gets a second wife its YOUR fault because you didn’t give him enough sex/dress up enough/watch his favorite TV shows/insert some other really inane and bullshit reason here.

I could rant, oh could I rant, on how women get the short end of the stick in pretty much every situation here but I will restrain myself to the topic at hand.

Do you see how twisted the thinking is? Can any of us imagine this? I mean engagement is the closest thing practicing Muslims get to dating. What if we were stigmatized after our second boyfriend/girlfriend? Men get off a little bit easier, but it is noted when a man is a serial engager, if only by the girl he wants to get engaged to next.

After narrating the details of her two Egyptian friends, she concludes:

Even in baseball you at least get three tries.

Ethar El Katatney is more concerned with the image of the Muslim female; in her critique of the Moroccan movie  Amours Voilee she wrote:

There’s a new Moroccan movie out that, on the surface, seems to tackle the issue of pre-marital sex in the country. They’re a dime a dozen these days, but this one is stirring up controversy like crazy. Why?

I’ll give you a hint: The name of the movie is Amours Voilées,  Hijab al-hob, which translates as Veiled Love in French, and The Veil of Love in Arabic.

Ta da! Once more, we have proved what is now fact: plug in the world ‘veil’ to anything, and you will immediately gain an audience

She also added links to the trailer and the songs

Here’s the teaser, the trailer, and a video clip of one of the movie’s songs. (The latter gives you the best impression of the movie, trailers not so much).

Ethar clearly states that

It would be silly to say that this movie is about the role the veil plays in Moroccan society. True, the veil plays a role in the movie, but the story is more about the conflict Moroccan—and by extension Arab—women face in the world they live in today. It’s the struggle these women face in reconciling the principles they’ve been brought up to cherish with their subsequent behavior, and in a greater sense how they deal with the discrepancies between what their culture dictates versus their religion.

Sobia and Krista urge the media to cut Muslim women some slack when writing about them:

Rule #1: Don’t assume that Muslim women need to be saved, or that you know how to save them.
Rule #2:Rather than assuming you know what Muslim women’s lives are like, try asking them.
Rule #3: Be careful of who you talk to regarding Islam and/or Muslim women.
Rule #4: Understand that Muslims are just like anyone else in terms of their belief systems. Not everything a Muslim does has to do with Islam.
Rule #5: Understand that there is no such thing as a “Muslim culture.” Muslims come from a variety of cultures, and culture is dynamic – it’s constantly changing.
Rule #6: Don’t create a dichotomy between “Muslim” and “Canadian” (or “American,” “British,” etc.), or between “Muslim” and “Western.”
Rule #7: Tone it down! Be mindful of the language you use.
Rule #8: Take responsibility for the consequences of your writing.
Rule #9: Leave the headscarf alone.

To make the space between the rock and the hard place tighter, Wandering Scarab shed light on another aspect of the Arab culture:

Victims of sexual crimes are often shunned by their male family members. Many are told that it is “their fault for being in the wrong place at the wrong time” or “that they brought it on themselves by wearing inappropriate attire”.

The outcasts of the Egyptian society – the spinsters - are raising their voices in an attempt to change how society views them while men demand absolute virginity (AV); Fantasia wrote:

In a society like ours, a mere virgin just isn’t good enough.. every man’s quest while mating is to find the absolute virgin. Well, I’d better clarify what that means.

An AV is a never-been-touched, never-been-in-love, never-had-a-relationship, kind of girl. This is different from the simple “virgin”.. Coz it is taken for granted that the girl must be a virgin in the biological sense! She has to bleed on her wedding night. That is out of question. The absolute virgin goes beyond her hymn.. Her husband has to be the first man in her life. It is even better if she told him he was her prince charming.. and she would really do the perfect job if she was able to convince him that his ghost used to visit her in her dreams.. a very common proto-image inspired by some Egyptian movie classics. Let’s say our guy (thinks he has) succeeded in his mission, and he was able to find his half human, half angel AV. Is the nightmare finally over? Hehehe.. you wish!

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