From my little compilation of Heany poetry to the left From the Republic of Conscience When I landed in the republic of conscience it was so noiseless when the engines stopped I could hear a curlew high above the runway. At immigration, the clerk was an old man who produced a wallet from his homespun coat and showed me a photograph of my grandfather. The woman in customs asked me to declare the words of our traditional cures and charms to heal dumbness and avert the evil eye. No porters. No interpreter. No taxi. You carried your own burden and …
The Heritage Foundation: Research: Middle East: wm225: “Coalition of the Willing” Already Larger than the 1991 Gulf War coalition. This report from The Heritage Foundation, a hawkish research instutute in the United States, lists as many as 54 countries now identified with the “coalition of the willing.” As a result, I’ve updated the paper detailing human rights issues in most of these countries. Version 3.0 of “Human rights issues in the coalition of the willing” is now online. Welcome Rwanda, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and other bastions of democracy and freedom!
The invasion of Iraq has begun. I’d thought it might be interesting to examine the human rights records of the countries who have aligned themselves with the “Coalition of the Willing.” Of the 30 countries in support of the invasion, only three — Estonia, Denmark and the Netherlands — have not been cited by either Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch for human rights abuses. Among the other 27 (not all of whom are democracies), there is a litany of human rights abuse, some of it on par with what happens in Iraq. Although there are few countries that can …
From September 1, 1949 by W.H. Auden All I have is a voice To undo the unfolded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky : There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone ; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police ; We must love one another or die. Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies ; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic flashes of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages : May I, composed …