[permaculture-oceania] Re: Cuba discussion

[Russ Grayson]

On 18/9/06 2:17 PM, "Duroyan Fertl" <duroyan at yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> Another reason to thinkagain on RSF
>   http://www.voltairenet.org/article135300.html
> Duroyan Fertl 
> State Convenor, NSW Socialist Alliance

Well, Duroyan, I visited the site of the address you give above and found
the 'Non-aligned Press Network' complete with lengthy articles such as how
the September 11 attack on the Pentagon was not caused by a crashing
aircraft and similar conspiracy theory-like stories. Now, not even the
American government would be so stupid as to fake the explosion and fire in
the way the correspondent describes, surely? And who finances this so-called
non-aligned network?

Yes, I looked for the journalist mentioned by you above and found quite a
bit on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) website. Interestingly, the
article you mentions is headed: 'Reporters without Borders Keeps silence
about journalist tortured in Guantánamo '. Strange, I found a number of
items about him calling on the US government to release him. A pretty rowdy
silence, perhaps? A few of the mentions on RSF follow:

Where the United States imprisons journalists
Report calls for release of journalists held in Iraq and Guantanamo
PDF - 235.5 kb
Download the report (low resolution - 235 ko)

Reporters Without Borders called today on the US government to free two
journalists it said were being unjustly held at a US prison in Iraq, and at
the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

It said in a report that they and other journalists arrested in Iraq by the
US, mainly on suspicion of collaborating with insurgents, had not been tried
or even charged with anything after months of incarceration.

Abdel Amir Yunes Hussein, of CBS TV network¹s program, CBS News, has been
held at the Camp Bucca prison in Iraq since April last year, while Sami
Al-Hajj, a cameraman for the pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, has
been a prisoner in Guantanamo since 2002, after being arrested in
Afghanistan in 2001.

³These journalists have been denied justice and not allowed to see family or
lawyers,² the worldwide press freedom organization said. ³This is
unacceptable. We call on the US authorities to break their silence² [about
their detention] and ³reveal the evidence they claim to have of their
involvement in illegal activities.²

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16429


RSF also distribute a useful little book, free to download:
'Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents'. Practical advice and technical
tips to help bloggers stay anonymous and get round censorship.

Our conversation on Cuba seems to have devolved into an attack on RSF and my
defending them, though I am not a member of the organisation and make no
contribution to its website. My defence of RSF stems from my belief that an
independent media is a necessary component of a democracy. As you know, an
unimpeded flow of information is critical to democratic processes, whatever
the form the democracy takes, be it liberal democracy or socialist democracy
or participatory democracy. So, I give verbal support to an organisation
that defends those who report that information. Likewise, I give the same
support to the Australian Journalist's Association and other organisations.

I wonder whether, instead of attacking RSF, your time as a Leftist activist
might better be spent applying your critical skills to issues like the
concentration of media ownership in Australia. As I observed several emails
ago, my single point of criticism of Cuba was its treatment of dissident
writers and I have no argument with you that the US embargo has held Cuba
back or that the Cubans might have made great progress in feeding
themselves. 

Some of the help for Cuba came from Australian permaculturists who went
there to train Cubans in small scale, intensive urban agriculture. Some of
these people are my friends and associates. I was associated with the
Australian organisation that sent them - Permaculture Global Assistance
Network - which also funded publication of a book I wrote with others and
edited and its publication. That Cuban project was AusAID-funded and I
supported it in overseas aid circles, even when an AusAID consultant was
saying that 'Permaculture has no place in overseas aid'.

I think we might have talked through Cuba now.

...Russ Grayson


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RUSS GRAYSON
journalism, online content production, photojournalism, instructional
manuals, media services for overseas aid

PO Box 1045, Manly, NSW 1655 AUSTRALIA
info at pacific-edge.info
P: 0414 065 203
www.pacific-edge.info

TerraCircle international development team, Oceania
www.terracircle.org.au

Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
www.communitygarden.org.au
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^