I wonder too...

Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation. ~Graham Greene




Share

Night with Poets

Last night I ventured north of the river to a poetry meeting at the Boardwalk Library. There were quite a few of my friends from the Kansas City Metro Verse group that went to check out a somewhat newer Northland Poetry group and to my surprise the convener, Polly McCann, is the daughter of a couple my wife and I know but have not seen in goodness-  more than a decade!

We shared some poetry from other poets. I chose a Susan Rich poem to read which was kind of fun because it was an opportunity to introduce to the group a poet new to them. Then those of us who had material of our own in draft or finished read these as well.

We wrapped up the evening with a writing prompt.

Polly has apparently been writing a poem a day since January. Her blog can be found here.  I was especially impressed with the photographs of some of her own artwork which graces the blog too!

Good to see Ralph, Pat, Brenda, Becky, and Linda as well.


Share

Confession Tuesday - Who am I edition

I get a journaling prompt e-mailed to me each week and it just to happened that the one for today struck me as perfect to incorporate into my Tuesday Confession, so if you’ll follow me to the box, I’ll get started.

Identity - my true identity reveals itself when_________.   Finishing this statement reveals some attributes that are probably quite revealing.

I think my identity is quite driven by those gut feelings that are so strongly associated with my concept of fairness and justice. I confess this all seems to be driven by a passion for order. I don’t mean a clean desk. I confess I am not well ordered in that respect. What I mean is a societal order. Civility, if you will. I confess I am a bit of an Arthurian personality. I would have done well sitting at the “round table” as fairness and justice were the order of diplomacy. I suppose this is the basis for a good deal of my very strong political views. I confess that I’m driven by the notion that fairness and order in society doesn’t just happen on its own. It also, I confess doesn’t always happen when left to the devise of others. I have become more cynical of “others” making good decisions and that is problematic for two reasons. One being cynical leads to frustration and pessimism. Neither of which are good for the soul. The other is that it can create tension when strong passionate core principals seem counter to those of others you come in contact with. I’m not a person who can hide my identity well.


You know how some people don’t like others to know how they vote? People who believe what they do behind the curtain (yes at one time they existed) of the voting booth is a private matter. I’m not quite like that. Yard signs, bumper stickers political buttons have been a fixture of my life since before I could vote. My identity is in much of what I do is an open book. For example, my screen names or nick names online have always been identity extensions of my interests. Highnside came from my love of the game of baseball. Stickpoet, my love for writing poetry. I confess I would not make a good Chameleon. I don’t suppress my identity well. I tend to stand out.



I confess I don’t see what my identity reveals about me as being all good or all bad. It’s just who I am and at this stage of my life I don’t know what it would take to change it if I wanted to.



Share

Finding the breath in your words

Anais Nim's words I quoted in my last blog post have stuck with me overnight and upon waking this morning it followed me off to work where it nagged at me all day long. I decided her words are worth recall when I sit down to write.


Sometimes picking up a pen to write and committing the ink to the page can become rather automatic and there are times it seems I start without any appreciation for what I may be putting on the page. Getting to that starting point as a force of habit seems to be a good thing, but really having that deep pressing need to breathe through what you are saying or a song to sing or voice crying out is what gives meaning to what one puts on the page.  I truly believe Nim's words speak a truth.


It's my goal this week to do one of these three things in all I write. If I can at the end of the week I can say honestly that I've done this... alleluia!



Share

If...

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it. ~ Anais Nin




Share

Concrete Poetry in rural France

Concrete Poetry in rural France

The international movement of Concrete Poetry is described as ‘works where the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, i.e. the words, the rhythm, the rhyme and so on’ – the words themselves form a picture. The 1950’s pioneers were the De Campo brothers Haroldo and Augusto (who published Teoria da poesia concreta in 1965), and the CDLA exhibition also carries works of Ian Hamilton Finlay (founder of Wild Hawthorn Press, publisher of the Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. periodicals), the French poet Pierre Garnier, Robert Lax, Liliane Lijn, Paul de Vree, Bob Cobbing and Dom Sylvester Houédard to name a few. In an epoch where the world’s publishing industries look to how literature might be played out on new digital platforms, it’s fascinating to see how these poets, typographers and designers from the 1950s onwards were creating these visual feasts using letters, words and poetry – the very page acting as platform

Share

Honduras: Ongoing Attacks Foster Climate of Intimidation | Human Rights Watch

 

Honduras: Ongoing Attacks Foster Climate of Intimidation

Little Progress on Human Rights after Six Months of Lobo Government

July 29, 2010

Related Materials:

Honduras: Firings Undercut Judicial Independence

Honduras: Investigate Attacks on Journalists

Honduras: Investigate Attacks on Coup Opponents

Violent attacks on journalists and political opponents have had a profound chilling effect on basic freedoms in Honduras. When journalists stop reporting, citizens abandon political activities, and judges fear being fired for their rulings, the building blocks of democratic society are at grave risk.

José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch

(Washington DC) - Six months after President Porfirio Lobo took office, Honduras has made little progress toward addressing the serious human rights abuses since the 2009 coup, Human Rights Watch said today. Threats and attacks against journalists and the political opposition have fostered a climate of intimidation, while impunity for abuses remains the norm.  

"Violent attacks on journalists and political opponents have had a profound chilling effect on basic freedoms in Honduras," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "When journalists stop reporting, citizens abandon political activities, and judges fear being fired for their rulings, the building blocks of democratic society are at grave risk."

Human Rights Watch called on the Honduran government to provide protection to journalists and members of the political opposition, prosecute people responsible for human rights abuses, and restore the independence of the judiciary. 

A Climate of Intimidation

At least eight journalists and ten members of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP)-a political group that opposed the 2009 coup and advocated  the reinstatement of the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya-have been killed since President Lobo assumed power on January 27, 2010.

There has also been a significant increase in threats against journalists and opposition members during this period, according to justice officials interviewed by Human Rights Watch.

For example, José Oswaldo Martínez, a journalist with Radio Uno in San Pedro Sula, told Human Rights Watch that he had received repeated death threats in phone calls, text messages, and emails, including one in July that said: "Because you won't stop talking about that dog Zelaya, we are going to shut your mouth with a bullet."

On June 15, Luis Arturo Mondragón, the news director for Channel 19 in El Paraíso, was shot to death as he left the station. He had reportedly received death threats by phone.

Oslin Obando Cáceres, a 22-year-old taxi driver from Tela who was an active member of the FNRP, has been missing since June 13 and is feared dead. In the weeks before he disappeared, Obando and his family had received repeated death threats for their political activities.

In response to these and other attacks and threats, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has issued 26 "precautionary measures" (medidas cautelares) during the current administration to journalists, members of the political opposition, and their families, instructing the Honduran government to provide them with protection. However, efforts by Honduras to comply with these measures have been "few, late in coming, and in some cases nonexistent," the commission said in a June report.

As evidence of the government's ineffective compliance, the commission cited the case of Nahún Palacios, a television station director in Tocoa, who had been issued "precautionary measures" after receiving numerous death threats. Palacios was killed by unidentified assailants as he drove home on March 14, and the commission strongly criticized the Honduran government's failure to protect him. Several other journalists and members of the FNRP who have been issued "precautionary measures" told Human Rights Watch that the government had done nothing to provide Palacios protection. 

The motives for the attacks on specific journalists are not always evident; some -- but not all -- appear to have been linked to their criticism of the 2009 coup.  However, together with the violence against the political opposition, these threats and attacks have generated a climate of intimidation that is having a severe chilling effect on exercising the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in Honduras, Human Rights Watch said.

A radio journalist told Human Rights Watch that a colleague left his job at their station in July after receiving repeated death threats for his political views. Similarly, a political opposition member interviewed by Human Rights Watch said she felt compelled to abandon her political activities after she and her daughters were accosted by armed men in March. A FNRP member who was shot in the leg during an assassination attempt told Human Rights Watch that he also stopped participating in political activities as a result of the attack. In each of these cases, as well as several others documented by Human Rights Watch, individuals asked that their names not be used for fear of reprisals.

Impunity

The climate of intimidation in Honduras has been compounded by the lack of accountability for abuses committed in the aftermath of the 2009 coup. To date, there has not been a single conviction of those responsible for the abuses documented by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and other local and international human rights organizations.

On January 27, the government passed an amnesty decree for political crimes committed during the 2009 coup. While the decree explicitly prohibits amnesty for human rights abuses, the ambiguous language of the law-particularly with respect to amnesty for "abuses of authority"-leaves open the possibility of overly broad application. Honduras is party to several international human rights treaties that impose an obligation to investigate and prosecute violators as appropriate, as well as to guarantee victims an effective legal remedy, including justice, truth, and adequate reparations.

While the creation this year of a special human rights prosecutor's office was a positive step, prosecutors in the office told Human Rights Watch that the office lacks the resources and personnel needed to investigate the enormous number of complaints it has received. Moreover, victims and witnesses of attacks often prefer to remain silent, out of fear for their security and that of their families, making investigations more difficult.

Firings of Judges

The May dismissal of four lower-court judges who challenged the legality of the 2009 coup has severely damaged the credibility of the Honduran judiciary. 

The Supreme Court removed Judge Ramón Barrios for publicly criticizing a June 2009 Supreme Court ruling that validated the coup. Judge Guillermo López Lone, the president of Judges for Democracy, and Judge Luis Chévez de la Rocha were removed for participating in public demonstrations calling for Zelaya to be reinstated. And Judge Thirza Flores Lanza was removed for filing two legal motions on behalf of Zelaya.

The judges presented challenges (escritos de impugnación) to the Council of the Judiciary (Consejo de la Carrera Judicial), a review body appointed by the Supreme Court, on June 28, and they have appealed to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights to review their case.

Judge López told Human Rights Watch that, since his dismissal, several judges have confided in him that the fear of dismissal by the government influences their judicial decision-making. A prosecutor from the human rights prosecutor's office said fellow prosecutors had expressed the same concern.

"Honduras has made little progress toward restoring the rule of law since the coup," Vivanco said. "The government should protect journalists and political opposition members who receive threats, support the vigorous investigation and prosecution of abuses, and reaffirm the independence of its judges." 

Also available in:

• Español

Honduras: Ongoing Attacks Foster Climate of Intimidation | Human Rights Watch