Why can the US get away with torture?
The 10th of December marked Human Rights Day. And what better way to commemorate such a profound celebration than to frequent the achievements of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' key drafter, the United States of America. Incidentally, a report was released this same week by the US Senate Intelligence Committee. The report details a "CIA torture program". The CIA is a US government intelligence agency, in effect, a state organ. Considering this, surely the "CIA torture program" would be some landmark project aimed at eradicating torture across the planet. Unfortunately, that is not the case. A far more horrifying truth…
Islamophobia: European history repeating itself?
Has humanity, and more specifically, the equal, tolerant, humanitarian, and culturally-diverse Europe, already forgotten lessons learnt from a past vastly condemned? There is a foreshadowing attitude and disturbing reflection of practices to a particular global trauma which is emerging from the vile state of mind labelled ‘Islamophobia’. European anti-Semitism ravaged the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Jews were identified by and persecuted for their appearance (Semite features, female head coverings, etc.), customs (membership lists, local intelligence networks), faith (synagogues), and labels (passports stamped with a J, The Star of David graffiti on business places). The Holocaust…
A response to Katie Hopkins’ recent outburst
Yesterday Katie Hopkins let loose a barrage of Tweets which disseminated some of the most vulgar, ill-founded, openly abusive, and unprovoked commentary a public personality ever has. Though one may try to argue freedom of expression in her defence, it is important to remember that such a freedom is not an absolute right and definitely has its limits on the fringes of what constitutes criminal conduct. "Palestinians busy knifing Israelis. 2 state solution my a***. Filthy rodents burrowing beneath Israel. time to restart the bombing campaign." In addressing the first allegation, it is fair to draw attention to recent events…
