Gyorgy Yabu was not a man to sit still with his victory or even find it satisfactory, that is, enough. There was always more to be had and Gorgy Yabu wanted it. Wanted it all. He was a man famine-cursed: in a famine, no matter how much is planted, it is not enough. With a famine, there is not enough. Of anything. Gyorgy Yabu was like a famine: no matter how much he ate up, he was never satisfied. Would he sell his soul–to the Devil, of course–to win the world? Would he sell his daughter? Well, perhaps only one of them would do the trick. After all, Agamemnon only required one.
So, it should not come as a surprise that when people stood in his way, Gyorgy Yabu became frustrated until he had removed them. This was often exhausting, causing him uncomfortable sleep and a general kind of irritation by day and occasionally a twitch at the left side of his mouth that caused him to grimace in a smiling sort of way. It was in his wish to banish these physical impediments, including the people, that Gyorgy Yabu found and hired–every hand has his price–Dr. Chicane Milchrot, an expert in his field. The project he set him was building a machine, a smart machine, a machine that would disappear people. It was of no concern where they were rendered, as long as they were gone out of his way. In the perfecting of such a miraculous machine, the more miraculous as it was to be designed to select one individual out of a crowd, guinea pigs were needed. Thus it was that arbitrary people were randomly picked up off the street, usually from the other side of the wall, and disappeared, never to be heard from again. Which, of course, was the whole idea. However, all along the way, people were incapacitated and died. An unfortunate side-effect but unavoidable, all things considered. As the dead were secretly disposed of, tortured limbs and all, it was all the same: they just disappeared and no amount of inquiry could uncover them.
Buck notified Hellecchino of every disappearance. Hellecchino kept a Domesday Book of names, dates and circumstances. Buck’s position as town disabled person and his living outside of town made it easy for him to disappear for days at a time in his search for Hellecchino, who was never in one place twice. They could have used carrier pigeons but Clyde Moyen Bucket liked to bird hunt and to him all birds were the same: dinner on the wing. And he liked to be the one with the most hits, so he often used a modified short barrel with #1 buckshot, even though it occasionally took out a fellow hunter. A mortally wounded pigeon would divulge its message and a later look for similarly fine feathered friends would have drive Clyde to ride through the night across the Coahuila near-desert sands in an attempt to follow the bird to its destination: Hellecchino, the swingest grade A number one East Texas choice frustration. So, the most obvious and direct method, so utterly within everyone’s sight and right under their noses, was the best way. Thus it was Buck hopped on his burro and clip-copped across the chaparral to wherever Hellecchino might be. Even I can’t tell you where he was or it’d not be a secret. Buck always limped back home with guidance for the corralled population, that is, all those on the other side of the wall. Fat lot of good it did–where was he when he was needed, eh? Stupid fucking hero!
Of course, Buck wasn’t the only one looking for Hellecchino. Jim Hatfield was looking for him, too. Jim Hatfield, no longer a Texas Ranger, had time on his hands. What better way to employ his time than by finding this much-talked-about thorn in Gyorgy Yabu’s, Medusi Minkowski IV’s, Clyde Moyen Bucket’s and The Mayor’s sides. Any man capable of invigorating so many enemies in so short a time must be formidable indeed. Now that Jim Hatfield knew how Gyorgy Yabu worked and what the long arm of the law really meant, he was anxious to meet Hellecchino. Perhaps there was something that he could learn, old dog that he was.
So it was that one day, in the middle of Yabu and Brownwood Causeway, just outside of Kaikai’s Hostelry, Jim Griffin and Kaikai waved good-bye to Jim Hatfield and Goldie. Even though the boardwalks were crowded with shoppers and loungers and the street modestly filled with buggies, buckboards and horses, nobody noted Jim Hatfield’s passing. After all, people were coming and going daily. Nothing unusual here.
So it was, too, that Jim Hatfield found Hellecchino. In amongst a group of wildly gesticulating and shouting Indians, Hellecchino stood cool as a cucumber. Everybody reverted to silence as Jim Hatfield rode up. Hellecchino looked around.
“Why, Jim Hatfield! Glad to see ya, buddy. Hop on down and join in the discussion,” said Hellecchino.
Jim did, loosely holding Goldie’s reins in his left hand in case the palomino got spooked.
“How’d you know it was me?”
“Everybody knows ya, Jim. You’re the most known man in the West.” A couple of the Indians grunted. “The most known white man in the West.” The Indians were happy with this. “But we can talk about that later. How’d you find me?”
“Buck’s burro bunnies,” replied Jim with a smile.
“We’ll have to see about his bagging it. You weren’t followed, were you?”
“Nobody even remarked my leaving.” Jim looked down, Goldie blew a gust out his great nostrils. “You ain’t afraid of them finding you, are you?”
“Hell no! But I’m not ready to be found. Ya gotta keep ‘em guessin’, Jim.”
“I suppose so,” said Jim, rubbing his chin. “But there’s no telling what’s going on in their heads.”
“The more fantasy, the better. Keeps ‘em occupied. Besides, they’ll be so involved in their possibility stories, we can slip right by ‘em. It’s a pink elephant, Jim.”
What the hell’s a pink elephant got to do with things?”
“Just you don’t think nothin’ about it.”
“What’s going on here? It’s against the law for Indians to gather like this.”
“You see anybody watching?”
Jim scanned the horizon. No hill or rise or big bush anywhere around. “Nope,” he said.
“That’s why we’re here. Right out in the open right where everyone can see is right where no one will be looking. If people think you’re sneaking around, they will only be looking for hiding places.” Hellecchino turned to the Indians. “Jim Hatfield wants to know what’s the problem” The Indians were silent. “It’s okay. He’s not a Texas Ranger any more. Gained some Indian friends out to the west of here.”
The Indians looked around to each other.
“You come do sweat lodge?”
“Sure.”
“Okay.”
“They come after our land. It’s our land. We don’t want them to have it. It’s all we got,” said a big Indian.
“They will return with blue coats. Always it is so,” said a short Indian standing right before Jim.
“Who’s they?” asked Jim.
“Monkey Ears and Twisted Lips.”
“We don’t know what to do.”
“Yeah. We always lose.”
“Not so damn fast,” warned Jim Hatfield. “If you think that way, you certainly will lose. You’ve already lost.”
“You’re language sure has taken a tumble, Jim,” said Hellecchino.
“Happens when I’m a little put out.”
“What do we do, Hellecchino–why you have such a difficult name?”
“I had no choice.” Hellecchino paused. “What land is this?”
“Our holy land. It is where we go to feel the spirit.”
“And so they want it.”
“They come two, three times. Always more money.”
“Soon we have no land.”
Great group assent.
“Well. . .the more you fight for it, the more they’ll want it. They want it because it’s important to you. You gotta tell ‘em they can have it as long as they don’t take the other place.”
“What place?”
“Hell, I don’t know! Any old piece of worthless land a ways away. Draw a circle of stones on it. Don’t give it up. Fight tooth and nail–metaphorically, that is–and when you got a better deal, right up to the point that they’re threatening you, you give in like a bunch of yellow bellied cowards.”
“What do they want with worthless land?”
“If you’re fighting to keep it, they’ll think it’s worth plenty. Only you know it’s priceless.”
Jim Hatfield burst out laughing. Goldie neighed.
“That’s good hone, Hellecchino! Priceless indeed.”
The Indians were scratching their heads.
“Look,” explained Hellecchino, “you are leading them down a blind alley.” No comprehension in their eyes. “On a wild goose chase.” Still no comprehension ase’ceov the seminole sasv’kwv.”
“A group “Ah” and holding of black long-haired heads. These foreigners and their Indian!
“No one wants worthless land, right? Only you can make it worth something.”
“That’s a good idea,” said the big Indian.
“Alright then. Problem solved. Now. . .when you make the sale, you come find me and we’ll celebrate with a big dinner.”
And with that, the Indians jumped on their pintos and rode off into the south wind.
“You’re pretty slick,” commented Jim after the sound of hooves had receded and the dust settled.
“Depends on which plane of existence you live on.”
“I don’t think I follow you,” said Jim, scratching his head and unsettling his hat.
“You don’t have to live in the world somebody else makes for you. You may not like their rules and their interpretation of the world. Ain’t that why you quit?”
“So?”
“Well, if you don’t buy into it, you know the rules anyway and you can play it back at ‘em. Charming Jonson called it blow back.”
“And Jimmy Zimmerman called it blowing in the wind.”
“More like spittin’ into the wind.”
“I guess now I’m on a different plane.”
“Sure seems like it.”
Jim and Hellecchino stood around shuffling their boots for awhile.
“I’m parched,” Hellecchino broke the self-conscious silence. “Let’s go get a drink.”
“Where do we find a drink out here? You gotta be careful of drink. It clouds the mind.”
“Lu Da’s got some fine wine. Water, too, for you.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the disappearing machine was working well, though not so secretively as planned, and the disappearances became pandemic. Gyorgy and Chicane Milchrot had no idea who leaked the knowledge of the machine, nicknamed The Lagniappe, though Gyorgy liked to call it the Giving Machine. He was into Critias-type rhetoric, though, in reality, he would have had no idea who Critias was–and probably wouldn’t be able to pronounce the name properly. Everything outside of Brazos River Basin dialect was Greek to him. But sometimes secrecy was not as important as chutzpah, for if you pull it off right in front of people’s faces, they’re so appalled at your gall, at your audacity to flaunt your inhumanity, that they’re frozen in action and reduced to bitching about it. The best defense is denial, anyway.
Hellecchino was able, by way of his Domesday Book, to discover a pattern to the disappearances, temporally and geographically. This was not difficult to do, as people who are so sure of themselves that they feel they can do the most heinous of deeds right out in the open tend to operate in a very constrained and predictable manner. More often that not, they will also react predictably. And this is how Hellecchino worked to thwart Gyorgy’s plans for total Coahuila domination. This is why, too, the people of Chokepointe Piste considered Hellecchino to be a gifted, if not magical, being. Of course, he was a hero. Heroes were known for their superhuman life-saving efforts.
It was not at all surprising that at the time and placed of the next disappearance, directly upon the heels of outrageous behavior of one sort or another, in order to thwart it, Hellecchino was to be found. Unfortunately, spies and–worse–informers were about. Chicane Milchrot knew of the plot and simply retimed his disappearing act and–bingo!–Hellecchino was discredited, made to be a fool. Ll it takes is one such incident to get people to wondering about a person’s worth and reliability, especially those who are dependent, that is, those who do nothing. But this happened twice before Hellecchino found the clue to his failure. So, he set a trap. A stupid, simple trap. So simple in fact, that it smacked of the ingenious. Directly in front of the suspected snitch, Hellecchino told a secret to Buck that was easily overhead. And, sure enough, the Lagniappe did its bit just ahead of schedule. Hellecchino and Buck were there to witness it, as were, of course, a few others, including the ratfink, who was of course duly astounded and flabbergasted and ran off lickety-split to report the faux pas thus giving himself away. No one disappeared because Hellecchino told the intended to stay away until 10 minutes after the incident. Which he did. It was so good to see him again that Hellecchino’s reputation was restored. As for the ratfink, well, he disappeared, albeit not as cleanly rendered as Chicane Milchrot’s victims. Which is why Medusi Minkowski IV and a posse comeditatis tracked down Hellecchino and surrounded him, bull-in-the-ring fashion, south of Chokepointe Piste, on the way to McDonald’s farm, though why he was heading in that direction was a mystery and would remain so forever. However, legends grew up.
“Is this a welcoming committee?” asked Hellecchino after he’d been duly surrounded.
“Yore wanted for questioning,” said Medusi Minkowski IV.
“Well! Here I am. Ask away.”
“Yore willin’ to be questioned?” Medusi Minkowski8 IV was incredulous.
“Shore thang, sheriff. ‘Sides, I ain’t got much of a choice.”
“That’s for sure!” Medusi Minkowski IV jabbed a finger at Hellecchino.
And then everyone was silent. The posse comeditatis had come expecting resistance. They did not know what to do with acquiescence. Finally, Medusi Minkowski IV spurred his mount into the ring. He bent over his saddle horn and breathed down into Hellecchino’s face.
“I don’t like your sort,” he snarled.
“So?”
“I wanna know about the disappearance.”
“What disappearance?”
“Harvey Matusow.”
“Harvey?”
“Yes. Harvey. You hard o’ hearin’?”
“Harvey’s disappeared?”
“I just said so, didn’t I?”
“Where’d he go?”
“Are you really so fucking dumb?!@ When people disappears nobody knows where they gone.”
“How should I know?”
“I ain’t out here on no wild goose chase, goddamnit! Now, tell us what you know!”: shouted Medusi Minkowski IV, getting down off his horse.
“I don’t know noting’, ‘ceptin. . .”
Medusi Minkowski leaned in. All members of the po9sse comeditatis leaned in.
“‘Ceptin there’s been alotta disappearances lately.” Silence. “You ever check into them?”
Medusi Minkowski IV put his hands on his guns, took a wide stance. “I’m takin’ you in.”
“Hey!” Hellecchino held out his hands, pals up. “My hands are clean. I washed ‘em before I left Lu Da’s. See?”
Medusi Minkowski IV looked.
“Alright.” He stuck a finger in Hellecchino’s face. “I’m goin’ t’check. If’n you wasn’t there, yore ass is grass. Alright, boys,” he said, still staring menacingly at Hellecchino, “let’s ride.”
Medusi Minkowski IV turned and strode manfully, purposefully to his horse, relinquished hid hold on his guns and mounted up. The cowboys rode off, leaving Hellecchino standing in a cloud of dust.
Among the wondrous things that Chicane Milchrot had created–aside from the disappearing machine and an eater of the dead–was a remote sensing telegraph. A hand ditta. It was because of this particular invention that Chicane was able to be at the next disappearance at the same time Hellecchino was: he had been telegraphed.
“Ah-ha! I’ve got you now, Hellecchino! You’ll never get away.” Eureka’s Chicane Milchrot.
Hellecchino was surprised. “Whoa!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here? I mean. . .how did you know?”
“I have a hand job,” announced Chicane rather proudly, throwing out his chest.
With that, the great scientist opened up his hand and showed Hellecchino his new device: the hand job. AKA the hand conn. Gyorgy Yabu, however, called it the Bush Pilot. Hellecchino was duly amazed if not over-reactive, a kind of wild goose chasing behavior in order to induce the confidently proud scientists to further exhibit his device. Chicane was more than obliging.
After an hour or two of dissertation, Hellecchino, still nodding and smiling, asked the dapper fabricationist one simple question. It was a safe question because there was no one else around. Thus Chicane Milchrot’s next solution to the problem would hurt no one in particular.
“Now you have me, Dr. Milchrot, what are you going to do with me?”
“Ah-ha!” And the hand job disappeared into a large side pocket of his Zoot Suit coat and out of another another hand held device appeared. “I’m going to disappear you with my mini-lagniappe.” And without another word, he flicked a switch and the little gadget leapt to life. “What’re you gonna do about that!” A button was depressed –but too late.
You see, Hellecchino had jumped back and assumed one of the many Kong-fu pre-set stances, left hand extended before him, a look of horror or hatred on his face, and when the mini-lagniappe’s disappearing ray struck his hand Dr. Chicane Milchrot disappeared with a little pop. He had been rendered into never never land. Because Hellecchino was holding a mirror in his extended hand and the ray of the unseen was imaged right back at the Frankensteinian doctor.
End of problem.
Many years later, Hellecchino was to explain this phenomenon by stating that a good many people could not look at themselves in a mirror because they’d see nothing. He did not tell that he’d gotten the mirror from Walt Disney, though. That would have been just too unbelievable. Who believes in magic mirrors, eh?
Later that night, as Gyorgy was fretting that his ace in the hole scientist was not home yet, Hellecchino, Jim Hatfield and Buck were discussing things over an open fire outside the cinderblock house. There was no need to hide any more. Indeed, it was better to be out in the open and above-board with everything as this would be threateningly frustrating to the bad guys who thought they owned the world and assumed everyone was secretly plotting against them, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophesy, creating their own little world and, at the same time, imposing a nightmare scenario on everyone else. A kind of perpetual paranoia machine.
“Seems like we got ourselves a new problem,” opined Jim Hatfield.
“How so, Ranger?”
“Buck,” Jim leaned forward on his chair, “I’m not a Ranger any more.”
“But. . .but. . .you’ll always be Ranger Jim to me. Ya just can’t give up yore identity like that. It ain’t right.”
“I’m still the same man, Buck. Just with a coat of a different color.”
“What’m I gonna call you, then?”
“Jim would be fine.”
“How’m I s’posed to do that? There are so many Jims.” Buck chewed on a thought for awhile. “I’ll call you Jimhatfield.”
“How about me?” said a voice from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
“Hello, Jim.”
“Hello, Jim. What are y’all doing?”
“We have a problem now Hellecchino got rid of Milchrot. Come on in and join the discussion,” Jim Hatfield said.
“How can getting rid of Milchrot be a problem?” queried Jim Griffin.
“Well. . .we still have to find and deactivate the machine and with Milchrot gone there’s no telling what Yabu will do.”
Jim Griffin shook his head. “You really did it this time, Hellecchino.”
“I’m fallible. I’m only human,” Hellecchino spread his hands sheepishly.
“Yore a hero, Hellecchino. You ain’t allowed,” said Buck. “Not everybody can be a hero, y’know.”
“There’s no need for everyone to be a hero, Buck,” Hellecchino clapped his sidekick on the back. “I’ll just have to think of something, that’s all.”
“But yore a hero!”
“C’mon, Buck,” Jim Griffin remonstrated. “Give the guy a chance. It’s not like it’s the end of the world.”
“It is if Yabu discovers Milchrot is no longer around!” shouted Buck.
“Well, then,” drawled Jim Hatfield, “we’ll have to make sure he doesn’t find out right away. That’s all.”
“How you plan on doin’ it?”
“That’s the problem we’re discussing here, Buck,” Hellecchino quipped.
“Somebody better start thinkin’ then,” mumbled the little man.
So they all sat around thinking for awhile.
“We have to get to the machine and put it out of commission, it seems to me,” suggested Jim Griffin.
“Nobody gets into Yabu’s ranch.”
“If he thought it was one of his own. . .”
“Milchrot’s gone. Disappeared by his own hand.”
“But his assistant’s still here.”
Jim Griffin sat back and let the silence settle.
“He gotta assistant?” asked Buck, screwing up his face.
“He does now.”
“Yore joshin’ me!”
Hellecchino laughed.
“Where did he come from, Jim?”
“We just made him up, Jim. Dr. Theodore Nemore.”
Hellecchino laughed. People were solving their own problems. Amazing!
“I’ve been talkin’ to Sherlock Holmes about disguises. . .” Jim Griffin let the thought hang in the air again.
After a moment, Buck slapped his thigh. “We just make up Hellecchino and send him in there. Great idea Jimgriffin.”
“Nope. Not Hellecchino.”
“Nope, Not me,” said Hellecchino.
“Who then?” asked Jim Hatfield.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“Nope. Not me. No, sir. I’m not up to–I’m not going to be in one of your fictions, Jim Griffin!”
“I’ll work out okay, Jim.”
“No it won’t.”
“You doubtin’ my creativity?”
“Ain’t no doubt about it.”
“Good! Come on with me and I’ll fix you right up. In the meantime, we have to come up with an excuse for Milchrot not being around.”
Jim Griffin pushed Jim Hatfield out, leaving Hellecchino and Buck to come up with a lame duck excuse for Milchrot sending his trusted assistant to take up the slack. But where to put the good doctor in the meantime. . .
Tibet, China and Human Rights
March 21, 2008What is happening in Tibet is horrible, though not so bad as in Burma. The media and governments on both sides of the reporting are cooking the books, as it were. Propaganda, after all, must be used; it is often more effective than military might. However, there are some misconceptions and anomalies that are not being addressed.
The Dalai Lama has noted that Tibet is a sovereign nation with a long and illustrious history. This is just not so. The Yellow Hats, his sect of Buddhism in Tibet, only came to power via war and the support of the Ming Dynasty emperors. Since that time and into the 20th century, Tibet paid tribute to the country that made its religious elite all-powerful.
The Dalai Lama has said that he’s no such person to make his monks and the people stop rioting, in other places he has noted that he told his monks to protest, albeit non-violently. However, the Dalai Lama is such a person to control his Tibetan horde. The Dalai Lama is stronger than god but, like god, withholds his power to save his people for some unknown reason. That is, by not helping to put a stop to the violence, he is abetting the deaths of his own people. Great guy, the Dalai Lama. But that’s the way it is in the world, no? Some people are worth saving and some are worth less.
In Burma, the Buddhist monks were non-violent in their protests; not so in Tibet. But, then, remember they came to power by violence. This truly tarnishes the patina of the Buddhists as non-violent people, people who will not support violence. This truly is a wake up call for those who follow the Dalai Lama and Buddhism, at least the Tibetan strain, that the great patriarch found by following a star is talking out of both sides of his mouth, like any politician.
We must remember, too, that the Dalai Lama was, at one time, paid by the CIA. That he’s not now is a question. But spies are ever on-call after retirement.
Tibet is, as the Chinese are handling it, a human rights violation. But the outcry, and the protests, come at an interesting time: right when the US is making a move against the Olympics in Beijing. There has been a spate of China-hate and a call for boycotting of the Olympics because of China’s human rights violations. The US is the only country to have boycotted an Olympics–and the athletes were angry. Many, because the US government does not support its athletes, suffered extra-Olympically. The US is the only country who, when confronted with athletes protesting the rampant racism of the country, sent the athletes home and stripped them of their medals. That is, silenced them. Surely not! Surely not something one is ONLY likely to find behind the Iron Curtain or the SILK SCREEN or in Burma or Pakistan. . .
The US is after creating a problem for China and its Olympics, if not for the sake of embarrassment, then to divert the world’s attention from its plans for the next Middle East debacle. For all of the vicious military involvements in countries by the US, not once has any country called for a boycott of the Olympics when held in the good ole US of A. ONLY the US. Think about it.
And then think about this:
The Information Office of the State Council published a report titled
Human Rights Record of United States in 2007
The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007 on March 11, 2008. As in previous years, the reports are full of accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China but mention nothing of the widespread human rights abuses on its own territory. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007 is prepared to help people around the world understand the real situation of human rights in the United States and as a reminder for the United States to reflect upon its own issues.
I. On Life, Property and Personal Security
The increase of violent crimes in the United States poses a serious threat to its people’s lives, liberty and personal security.
According to a FBI report on crime statistics released in September 2007, 1.41 million violent crimes were reported nationwide in 2006. . . . (FBI Release its 2006 Crime Statistics, FBI, www.fbi.gov/pressre1/pressre107/cius092407.htm). Throughout 2006, U.S. residents age 12 or above experienced an estimated 25 million crimes of violence and theft. . . . (Criminal Victimization 2006, U.S. Department of Justice, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs). In the United States, one violent crime was committed in every 22.2 seconds, one murder committed in every 30.9 minutes, one rape in every 5.7 minutes, one robbery in every 1.2 minutes and one aggravated assault in every 36.6 seconds (FBI Release its 2006 Crime Statistics, FBI, www.fbi.gov/pressre1/pressre107/cius092407.htm).
A survey by the Police Executive Research Forum in 163 U.S. cities shows that 65%of them reported increases or no changes in homicides during the first half of 2007, 41.9% of cities reported increases or no changes in aggravated assaults, 55.6% reported increases or no changes in robberies (“Survey Shows Shift in Violence,” USA Today, October 12, 2007). . . .
The United States has the largest number of privately-owned guns in the world. Frequent gun violence poses a serious threat to people’s life and property security. There are an estimated 250 million privately-owned firearms in the United States. . . .
In the United States, about 30,000 people die from gun wounds every year (“Update 2-Senate Passes Gun Bill in Response to Rampage,” Reuters, December 19, 2007). The USA Today reported on December 5, 2007 that gun killings have climbed 13% overall since 2002. An estimated 25% of all violent crime incidents were committed by an armed offender. . . . (Criminal Victimization 2006, U.S. Department of Justice, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs). . . .
II. On Human Rights Violations by Law Enforcement and Judicial Departments
The abuse of power by law enforcement and judicial departments in the United States has seriously violated the freedom and rights of its citizens.
Cases in which U.S. law enforcement authorities allegedly violated victims’ civil rights increased by 25% from fiscal year 2001 to 2007 over the previous seven years, according to statistics from U.S. Department of Justice (“Police Brutality Cases up 25%; Union Worried Over Dip in Hiring Standards,” USA Today, December 18, 2007). The national average among large police departments for excessive-force complaints was 9.5 per 100 full-time officers (The New York Times, November 14, 2007). But the majority of law enforcement officers accused of brutality were not prosecuted. . . . (Cf. The Chicago Police Department’s Broken System, University of Chicago, www.law.chicago.edu for specific details). . . . On May 1 when Latino immigrants were campaigning for the rights of illegal immigrants at MacArthur Park in downtown Los Angeles, police officers abused their power by clubbing demonstrators and journalists and shooting them with rubber bullets (The Los Angeles Times, October 9, 2007). . . . According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Justice in October 2007, 47 states and the District of Columbia reported 2,002 arrest-related deaths between 2003 and 2005. Among these, 1,095, or 55%, were killed by gunfire of state or local police (Death in Custody Statistical Tables, U.S. Department of Justice, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs).
The United States of America is the world’s largest prison and has the highest inmates/population ratio in the world. A December 5, 2007 report by EFE news agency quoted statistics of U.S. Department of Justice as saying that the number of inmates in U.S. prisons has increased by 500% over the last 30 years. By the end of 2006, there were 2.26 million inmates in U.S. prisons. . . . The U.S. population only accounts for 5% of the world total, but its inmates make up 25% of the world total. There were 751 inmates in every 100,000 U.S. citizens, far higher than the rates in other Western countries (EFE news agency, December 5, 2007). . . .
Abusing inmates is commonplace in U.S. prisons. According to a report released by U.S. Department of Justice in December 2007, an estimated 60,500 inmates. . .experienced one or more incidents of sexual victimization. . . (Sexual Victimization in State and Federal Prisons Reported by Inmates, U.S. Department of Justice, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs). The U.S. government acknowledged in a January 16, 2007, report that suspected illegal immigrants were mistreated in five prisons, breaching the principle of humane custody (The Washington Post, January 17, 2007). The Washington Post reported on December 17, 2007 that juvenile inmates in a West Texas youth prison were sexually assaulted or beaten and denied medical care. Those who reported the crime [suffered violent retribution]. . . . (“Dad Dismissed Prison Reform,” The Washington Times, December 17, 2007; see also International Herald Tribune, January 8, 2008). Guards in American prisons regularly use taser guns. According to a 2007 report from Amnesty International, 230 Americans have died from taser guns since 2001. . . .
U.S. prisoners often die from HIV/AIDS infection or inadequate medical service. A report released by the U.S. Department of Justice in September 2007 said there were 22,480 state and federal inmates who were HIV infected or had confirmed AIDS at year end 2005, 5,620 inmates had confirmed AIDS. . . . (HIV in prisons 2005, U.S. Department of Justice, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs). According to a report by the Los Angeles Times on September 20, 2007, 426 death cases took place in California prisons in 2006 due to belated treatment. . . . On April 14, 2007, 41-year-old diabetic prisoner Rodolfo Ramos died after being left alone and covered in his own feces for a week. Prison officials failed to get medical treatment for him despite knowing of his condition (The Associated Press, April 27, 2007).
The justice of the U.S. judicial system is increasingly put in question. Surveys find that since the first DNA exoneration in 1989, there have been 209 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States. . .15 of the 209 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row (Facts on Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations, Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.com). . . .
III. On Civil and Political Rights
The freedom and rights of individual citizens are being increasingly marginalized in the United States.
The House of Representatives and the Senate of the U.S. Congress passed the Protect America Act of 2007 on August 3 and August 4, 2007. The act enables the U.S. administration to eavesdrop on terrorist suspects in the United States without court approval. It also permits intelligence services to conduct electronic surveillance on digital communications between terrorist suspects outside the United States if the communications are routed through the country (The so-called Protect America Act, http://public.findlaw.com, August 10, 2007). According to a report by the Washington Post on March 10, 2007, the FBI improperly obtained personal information on more than 52,000 people without court oversight through the use of national security letters (NSLs) from 2003 to 2005. Verizon Communications, the second largest telecom company in the United States, disclosed that the FBI sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. . . . The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone data. In that period, Verizon turned over information a total of 94,000 times to federal authorities. . . . The FBI is embarking on a 1 billion U.S. dollars effort to build the world’s largest computer database of peoples’ physical characteristics, called Next Generation Identification, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad. The increasing use of biometrics for identification is raising questions about the ability of Americans to avoid unwanted scrutiny (“FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics,” The Washington Post, December 22, 2007). Statistics show that the government’s illegal dragnet electronic surveillance has put sensitive personal information from millions of people at risk. . . . (Cf. USA Today website, December 10, 2007). In July 2007, the Homeland Security Department was granted more than $4 million to install 175 video cameras on the streets of cities. . . . The Boston Globe estimated that up to hundreds of millions of dollars were being spent by the department to install new surveillance systems around the country, accelerating the rise of a “surveillance society” (The Boston Globe, August 12, 2007).
Workers’ right to unionize has been restricted in the United States. . . . Employer resistance stopped 53 % of nonunion workers from joining a union (“Sharp Decline in Union Members in ‘06,” The New York Times, January 26, 2007). According to a report by the Human Rights Watch, when Wal-Mart stores faced unionization drives, the company often [broke up the organizing, fired the involved employees, or closed down their stores].
IV. On Economic, Social and Cultural rights
The deserved economic, social and cultural rights of American citizens have not been properly protected.
Poor population in the United States is constantly increasing. According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau in August 2007, the official poverty rate in 2006 was 12.3%. There were 36.5 million people, or 7.7 million families living in poverty in 2006. In [other words], almost one out of eight American citizens lives in poverty. . . . The poverty rate of major American cities was 16.1%. . . . The poverty rate in the Washington D.C. [the nation's capital] was 19.8%, which meant nearly one-fifth of its citizens were living in poverty (“DC’s “Two Economies” Headed in Different Directions, Report Finds,” DC Fiscal Policy Institute, October 24, 2007).
The wealth of the richest group in the United States has rapidly expanded in recent years, widening the earning gap between the rich and the poor. . . . Top executives of major U.S. businesses made an average of more than $10 million in 2006, 364 times more than that of ordinary workers. They earn as much money in one day of work as ordinary workers make over the entire year (AFP, January 4, 2008).
The past five years have witnessed relatively strong growth in the U.S. economy, but the fortune of millions of Americans just gets worse. The ratio of American wage expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP) has dropped to the lowest since records began in 1947. The average income of households consisted of members at working age has seen a continuous decline in the past five years, and is 17% less than five years ago (U.S. News & World Report, January 1, 2007; see also, USA Today, October 24, 2007; and The Associated Press, December 14, 2007, which notes stress-related suicides).
Hungry and homeless people have increased significantly in American cities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said, in a report released on November 14, 2007, that 35.52 million Americans, including 12.63 million children, went hungry in 2006. . . (“Over 30 Million Americans Faced Hunger in 2006,” Reuters, November 15, 2007). Results of the 2007 Hunger and Homelessness Survey released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors showed that 16 of the 23 polled cities reported increased requests for emergency food assistance. . . . In 20 survey cities, 193,183 people applied for emergency shelter or transitional housing. The number of residents applying for government rent subsidies surged by 30% in Baltimore County in 2007 (“More Seeking U.S. Rent Subsidy,” The Baltimore Sun, December 17, 2007). It is estimated that 750,000 people are homeless on any given day in the United States (“Care Critical for Homeless,” The Washington Post, October 22, 2007). . . . Research shows one-third to half of the homeless have a chronic illness. . . . (“Care Critical for Homeless,” The Washington Post, October 22, 2007). . . .
The number of people without health insurance has been increasing in the United States. A Reuters report on September 20, 2007 quoted the U.S. Census Bureau as saying that 47 million people in the United States were not covered by health insurance. A U.S. family organization said nearly 90 million people below the age of 65 were not covered by health insurance. . . (Reuters, September 20, 2007). . . .
V. On Racial Discrimination
Racial discrimination is a deep-rooted social illness in the United States.
Black people and other minor ethnic groups live in the bottom of the American society. According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau in August 2007, median income of black households was 61% of that for non-Hispanic white households. Median income for Hispanic households stood at 72% of that for non-Hispanic white households. . . .(Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006, see Census Bureau website: www.census.gov; see also Washington Observer Weekly, November 30, 2006). The prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS and other diseases are higher among blacks and Hispanics than among non-Hispanic whites (Cf. “Study Calls HIV in DC. A ‘Modern Epidemic’,” The Washington Post, November 26, 2007). . . .
Ethnic minorities have been subject to racial discrimination in employment and workplace. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in November 2007, the unemployment rate for Black Americans was 8.4%, twice that of non-Hispanic whites (4.2%). The unemployment rate for Hispanics was 5.7%. . . . (The Employment Situation: November 2007, issued by the U.S. Department of Labor on December 7, 2007, see www.bls.gov). . . .
There is serious racial discrimination in the education sector of the United States. According to a media report, public schools tend to take tougher discipline sanctions on black students, and the rate of black students disciplined is much higher than that of white students. . . (Chicago Tribune, September 25, 2007; see also The Associated Press, Jena, Louisiana State, September 20, 2007). . . . Nazi symbol swastika was also found on the campus of the Columbia University in 2007, apparently targeting American Jews, according to a report by the World Daily.
Racial discrimination in the U.S. judicial system is shocking. According to the 2007 annual report on the state of black America issued by the National Urban League (NUL), African Americans (especially males) are more likely than whites to be convicted and sentenced to longer terms. Blacks are seven times more likely than whites to be incarcerated (National Urban League: The State of Black America 2007, www.nul.org). Blacks are 10 times as likely to be imprisoned for drug offences as whites, even though both groups use and sell drugs at the same rate (“Study Finds Racial Divide Across U.S. in Drug Arrests,” The Washington Post, December 5, 2007; also, Prisoners in 2006, issued by the U.S. Department of Justice on December 5, 2007, at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs; and Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2007). . . .
In the United States, minorities are the main victims of hate and violent crimes and murders. According to a FBI report published in November 2007, there were 7,722 hate crimes in the country in 2006, up 8%. Among them, 51.8% were motivated by racial bias. Hate crimes against Muslims increased 22%. Hate crimes against Hispanics went up 10% (“FBI: Hate Crimes Escalate 8% in 2006,” USA Today, November 20, 2007; and Black Victims of Violent Crime, http://www.ojb.usdoj.gov/bjs).
VI. On the Rights of Women and Children
The condition of women and children in the United States is worrisome.
Women account for 51% of the U.S. population, but there are only 86 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress. Women hold 16, or 16% of the 100 seats in the Senate and 70, or 16.1% of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. . . . (Women Serving in the 110th Congress 2007-09, Center For American Women and Politics, www.cawp.rutgers.edu).
Discrimination against women is pervasive in the U.S. job market and workplace. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said it received 23,247 charges on sex-based discrimination in 2006, accounting for 30.7% of the total discrimination charges (Charge Statistics FY 1997 Through FY 2006, www.eeoc.gov/stats/charges.html; also, Reuters, Los Angeles, February 6, 2007). The average income of women is. . .77% of men’s. . .(Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006, issued by the U.S. Census Bureau, see www.census.gov).
The poverty rate of women is higher. Statistics show that at the year end of 2006, more than 5.58 million single women above the age of 18 were living in poverty, accounting for 22.2% of women in that group. Some 4.1 million, or 28.3% of female-householder-with-no-husband-present families were living in poverty in 2006, much higher than the national family poverty rate of 9.8% (Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau). Colored women are more likely to fall prey to poverty and misery. A report issued by the American Center for Reproductive Rights shows the maternal death rate of the United States ranks the 30th in the world. The maternal death rate for black women is four times that of white women. The proportion of black women infected with AIDS and venereal diseases is 23 times and 18 times that of white women, respectively. . . .
American women are victims of domestic violence. According to information from the National Organization for Women, about 1,400 women are beaten to death every year by their husbands or boyfriends in the United States. It is estimated that two to four million women are battered each year. Women are 10 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate. Women who are separated, divorced or single, low-income women and African-American women are disproportionately victims of assault and rape. Domestic violence rates are five times higher among families below poverty levels. . . .
Women are frequently victims of sexual harassment at their workplaces and military barracks. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said it received 12,025 charges on sexual harassment in 2006, 84.6% of which were filed by women (Sexual Harassment Charges EEOC & FEPAs Combined: FY 1997-FY 2006, see www.eeoc.gov). The National Organization for Women said every year approximately 132,000 women reported that they had been victims of rape or attempted rape, and that two to six times that many women were raped, but did not report it. The U.S. department investigating military crimes received about 1,700 sexual harassment charges in 2004, including 1,305 rape charges. . . . (Cf. Latin American News Agency, Havana, February 10, 2007, for more information). . . .
Women inmates are increasing in American prisons and they are often subject to grave conditions. Figures released by the Department of Justice in December 2007 show that the number of female inmates in federal and state prisons increased by 4,872, or 4.5% in 2006 to reach 112,498. . .(Prisoners in 2006, issued by the Department of Justice on December 5, 2007, see www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs). Amnesty International said in a 2007 report that in American prisons, male watchers can do full body searches on female prisoners and watch them washing and changing clothes. In most states, male watchers are allowed to enter female cells without supervision.
The living conditions of American children are of great concern. The Houston Chronicle reported that a survey by the United Nations on 21 rich countries showed that though the United States was among the world’s richest nations, it ranked only 20th in the overall well-being of children. In the dimension of health and security, the United States was at the very bottom of the ranking. Statistics show that by the end of 2006. . . . Children accounted for 35.2% of the impoverished population in the United States. The rate of impoverished children in female households with no husbands present is as high as 42.1% (Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006, issued by the U.S. Census Bureau in August 2007, see www.census.gov). More children are doing without medical insurance. . . . More children are becoming homeless. . . . (Mayors Examine Causes of Hunger, Homelessness, press release by the U.S. Conference of Mayors on December 17, 2007, www.usmayors.org). According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the infant mortality rate of the United State was seven in a thousand in 2004, and the mortality rate of black infants was 2.5 times that of whites (The Associated Press, November 10, 2007). The infant survival rate of the United States is lagging far behind other developed nations. A bill that would have expanded government-provided health insurance for children was vetoed by President George W. Bush in 2007. . .(“Bush Vetoes Kids Health Insurance Bill,” The Washington Post, December 13, 2007).
American juveniles often fall victims of abuse and crime. According to a report on school crimes in the United States released by the Department of Justice in December 2007, 57 out of 1,000 American students above the age of 12 were victims of violence [with] 14 school-associated homicides. . . . (School Crime Rates Stable Children 50 Times More Likely to Be Murdered away from School Than at School, issued by the U.S. Department of Justice on December 2, 2007, see www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs). . . . Sexual violations are widespread in American schools. A national survey by the Associated Press in 2007 found that 2,570 educators were punished for sexual misconduct between 2001 and 2005. Eighty % of the victims were students. A survey by the U.S. Congress shows that. . .an average of three sexual abuse cases take place in American schools every day (The Associated Press, Washington, October 21, 2007).
American juveniles are ill-treated at boot camps. A report mandated by Congress said thousands of teenagers suffered terrible abuses at boot camps, some even lost their lives. Governmental investigator said boot camp abuses took many forms, including youths being forced to eat their own vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or feces, being kicked or beaten. . . .
Millions of underage girls become sex slaves in the United States. Statistics from the Department of Justice show some 100,000 to three million American children under the age of 18 are involved in prostitution. A FBI report says as high as 40 % of forced prostitutes are minors.
American children are not properly protected by the justice system. The United States is one of the few countries in the world that sentences children to death. . .and sentences more children to life imprisonment than any other country. . . . Colored children and those from impoverished families are more likely to suffer fate of this kind.
VII. On the Violation of Human Rights in Other Countries
The United States has a notorious record of trampling on the sovereignty of and violating human rights in other countries.
The invasion of Iraq by American troops has produced the largest human rights tragedy and the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern world. It was reported that since the invasion in 2003, 660,000 Iraqis have died, of which 99% were civilians. That translates into a daily toll of 450. According to the Los Angeles Times, the number of civilian deaths in Iraq has exceeded one million. A report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that about one million Iraqis were homeless, half of whom were children. . . . According to media reports, guards of Blackwater, a security service company with State Department background, shot dead 17 Iraqis for no reason on September 16, 2007, and it was given immunity by the State Department (The China Press, October 31, 2007). Investigation by the Iraqi government found that Blackwater guards had killed 21 Iraqis and injured 27 others before that. State Department investigation showed that Blackwater was involved in 56 shooting cases in Iraq in 2007. A U.S. Congress report said the company was involved in nearly 200 shooting cases in Iraq since 2005, and 84% of them were random shooting. . . .
U.S. troops have killed many innocent civilians in the anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan. The Washington Post reported on May 3, 2007 that as many as 51 civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers a week (“Karzai Says Civilian Toll is No Longer Acceptable,” The Washington Post, May 3, 2007). An Afghan human rights group said in a report that U.S. marine units fired indiscriminately at pedestrians, people in cars, buses and taxis. . .(New York Times, April 15, 2007).
The United States has many secret jails across the world where prisoners are treated inhumanely. “Secret prison” and “torturing prisoners” have become synonymous with America. In May 2007, the UN special rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism. . .expressed his concern over the conditions of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other secret detention facilities, the lack of justice protection and access to fair trial for terrorist suspects, as well as the rendition of suspects. He also expressed his disappointment that the U.S. government had refused to allow him to visit Guantanamo Bay and other places of secret detention (Preliminary Findings on Visit to United States by Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism, May 29, 2007, www.unog.ch). In addition to Guantanamo Bay where prisoners were subject to gruesome tortures, the United States also ran secret facilities in Jordan and Ethiopia, where detainees were brutally treated. . . . The detainees came from 19 countries and included women and children as young as seven months. . . . (The Daily Telegraph, April 5, 2007; The Associated Press, Nairobi, April 5, 2007). The Washington Times reported on December 14, 2007 that CIA often tortured detained terrorist suspects by using waterboarding and mock execution (“House Approves Ban on CIA Waterboarding,” The Washington Times, December 14, 2007). The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) described in a report how waterboarding is done: the prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt. . . . Iraqis said there had never been so many rapes and atrocities against women in any war since the Middle Ages as witnessed in the Iraqi war (Rebellion, May 5, 2007).
The United States has always adopted double standards on human rights issues. It frequently exerts pressure on other countries to invite the UN special rapporteur to examine and report on the status of their human rights status, but itself has never done so. The United States requests others to obey the UN norms that allow special rapporteurs to visit any place and talk with anyone without interference or surveillance, but itself has rejected such norms and has turned down the request. . .from several special rapporteurs.
The United States has to date refused to acknowledge the right to development as part of the human rights. Although it signed the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1977, the United States has not yet ratified the convention. The United States claims that it attaches importance to the protection of the rights of women and children, but it has not yet ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 27 years after signing on the convention. The United States is one of the seven U.N. members that have not ratified the convention. The United States has not yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child 12 years after signing on it, though 193 countries have already done so. Since March 2007, the Convention on Rights of Disabled Persons has been open for signature and many countries adopt active attitude towards the convention. By the end of December 2007, 118 countries had signed the convention and seven ratified it, but the U.S. has not yet signed nor ratified it.
To respect and safeguard human rights is an important achievement in the progress of the human society and an important symbol of modern civilization. It is also a common goal of people of all countries and races and a key theme of the tide of progress in our time. . . . No country in the world should view itself as the incarnation of human rights, and use human rights as a tool to interfere in affairs of and exert pressure on other countries and realize its own strategic interests. The United States reigns over other countries and releases Country Reports on Human Rights Practices year after year. Its arrogant critique on the human rights of other countries is always accompanied by a deliberate ignoring of serious human rights problems on its own territory. This. . .exposed the double standards and downright hypocrisy of the United States on the human rights issue, and inevitably impairs its international image.–
This is not to say China has human rights violation problems: it does. But the US needs to take a firm look at itself before pointing its pot black fingers at a kettle. The US has brutally take care of any group that protests its war and terrorism policies, utilizing not only beatings and tasering but chemical weapons by police. The full extent of the two Patriot Acts and the Military Commissions Act are not at all approached in the above report but it’s easy to put it in simple terms: your house and be broken into and you arrested and confined without warrant or reasons given for your arrest/imprisonment; there is no ability to defend yourself, that is, the writ of Habeas Corpus has been taken away. Anyone can be listened, followed on line or their mail read at any time for whatever reason–even no particular reason at all. These are the kinds of things that happen in military dictatorships, socialist dictatorships and tyrannies. Why, then, do they happen in the US?
In truth, both countries–China and the US–should be taken before the International Criminal Justice Courts and dealt with accordingly.
[NOTE: quoted text has been edited for grammar and clarity and many individual statistics have been eliminated in the name of brevity, the original document being 13 pages long]
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