Racism and homophobia in F-land

Two news items today:

An 8-year-old ethnically Somalian girl was pushed out of a train on the platform by an adult Finnish male, who also called her “a monkey” and told her to get out of his way.

The discussion following this on the newspaper website concentrated on calling the story “a probable lie”, blamed the girl herself for some invented bad behavior “since that’s how they are” and called the news story propaganda since it told of an act of violence towards the Somalian minority. And, oh yes, someone managed to disparage the girl and her family and of course many times they were told to go back to Somalia.

In the Finnish parliament, a parliament member compared gay and lesbian families to “someone marrying a dog”. The discussion following this on the newspaper website lauded him for his “values”.

Sometimes I do not miss Northeast Europe at all.

Pulitzer Prices

This year’s Pulitzer Prices have been given out in the U.S. The New York Times swept five, including the price for photojournalism. Damon Winter’s A Vision of History is, of course, about the Obama election. It’s a good series, although some of the crowd photos are not that interesting. This I kinda like:

Sami al-Hajj, a journalist

Sami Mohy El Din Muhammed Al Hajj is a Sudanese journalist and a cameraman for Al-Jazeera. In December 2001 he was arrested on a work trip in Pakistan and then held prisoner in Guantanamo for years. He was finally released without any charges on May 1 2008.

During the whole ordeal Al Hajj had no idea what he was being suspected of. The charges thrown at him in interrogation situations changed from day to day. He was not able to prove his innocence since his interrogators would not let him defend himself. He was tortured, force fed, sexually assaulted. His son, who was just a baby when he was captured, spent his early childhood without his father.

Al Hajj reported that during 125 of his 130 interrogations, he was questioned as to whether Al Jazeera was a front for al-Qaeda. He was the only journalist held in Guantanamo Bay.

This is Sami al-Hajj’s son Muhammad holding a picture of a father he did not remember and only met again last May.

I wonder what kind of atrocities we will find out once president Obama gets around to closing Guantanamo Bay. I can imagine that some in the previous administration are busy busy busy covering  their tracks right now.

Agnes Dherbeys & Nepal

I’ve been following the political turmoil of Nepal somewhat; read a couple of books about the strange history of the Nepalese royal family and tried to understand the problems of the country in the larger context of being tucked somewhere between China and India.. Agnes Dherbeys is a photojournalist who has been following Nepal’s chaos.

I like the classic black and white photojournalistic style and her tones.. perhaps not that contemporary but still looks pretty damn good to me.