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Setting Fire to the River Today I read the following story: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Turkey promises to compensate Kurds after years of terror Below where I live are friends of ours who run a cafe, they are 'Kurdish'. Tonight we had a group dinner with them, traditional Kurdish dish of raw meat with bulgar wheat and lots of chili - and we talked and sang traditional Kurdish songs (and drank lots of raki, an anise liquor). Everyone there belongs to or is somehow affected by resistance groups in Turkey who fight against the dictatorship. One older couple has lost two children, both killed fighting against the military dictatorship. Being there and listening to songs about 15th century Anatolian revolutionaries fighting against the Ottoman Empire, and knowing that those songs still resonate today among todays kurds who have faced appalling persecution from Turkey was a shocking, poetic and profoundly challenging moment. The article above suggests that the Turkish Government will pay compensation to Kurds who were affected by a government barbarity that resulted in up to 1 million victims. No one will face justice for torture and murder, disappearance and state sanctioned violence. They want to pay some money and hope that is the end of it - so they can become an EU member. This is disgusting and outrageous. Where is the US, with their superior morality helping the persecuted all over the world? Why does Saddam Hussein's abhorrent crimes against the Kurds (which US and European governments rubber stamped until it suited them to use it as a moral bludgeon for their gain), weigh heavier than Turkey's systematic and devastating torturous campaign. See individual entry…

Woken from a long slumber Yes, months have passed, and many things have happened, but I have had to stop writing here for a while. The following article so enraged me that i had to add it to my other asylum / immigration links: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Four out of 10 whites do not want black neighbours(s) This is a vindication of my sentiments that the UK has become mindlessly hysterical and overtly racistto immigration / asylum seekers. The massive ignorance among the British is succinctly highlighted by those polled thinking Britain had 23% first generation immigrants within its borders, when that actual value is *6%!!!*. This fantasy that Britain is 'overrun' leads those polled to rank immigration as the most important issue facing Britain after Education and Heath. An issue that is basically over-inflated in their minds by a factor of 4! Some 4 out of 10 white respondents did not want to live next to an 'immigrant' neighbour (though to be fair older people were more likely [60%] to hold these racist views than younger people [36%]). After the rage I feel at this situation, comes an aching sadness. How can my fellow humans be so ignorant, so arrogant. I suppose people want to believe in some scapegoat, some group to blame for any injustices they feel. Sadly, this is what enabled persecution of Jews, Gypsies, Gays, 'Blacks' and an endless line of such scapegoats. When the Daily Mail runs such inflammatory anti-immigrant stories, it is merely following a tradition, most clearly exemplified by the Nazis, of stirring up hatred through racial stereotyping. I abhor this, I abhor those papers that, instead of trying hard to balance the media (mis)representation of this issue, continue to perpetrate myths and fantasies. I wish this poll was the fantasy, but this simply is not the case. See individual entry…