Mel Gibson, UKIP And Child Labour in Yemen

Jodie Foster has a new friend, Mel Gibson. Or at least that’s what we are told. Leshu Torchin at Souciant has a few thoughts:

“Moreover, there seems to be some misplaced disdain in a speech that mocks Honey Boo Boo but describes Mel Gibson as a lifesaver. I don’t doubt that there is a deep friendship there, and one that is mutually rewarding, but this was truly unsettling as it made me think of how Hollywood seems to give a free pass to men who beat women. Even if we forget his well-documented racist and anti-Semitic outbursts, this is a man who allegedly punched his wife in the face—twice—one time knocking her teeth out, because, as he states on the notorious tape, she “f*cking deserved it.” And he is not the only one. Charlie Sheen, who has a record of assaulting and abusing his partners (and even allegedly accidentally shooting one), continues to work, starring in the FX show Anger Management. And that behavior is not the violation of the morals clause that got him fired from the TV show Two and a Half Men; no, apparently he was fired because he began to harangue his producers. Insert “WINNING” joke here. Or don’t. “

UKIP always seek to thrive on the loathing of “foreigners”, the up and coming changes in the EU are no exception:

“After Eric Pickles said at the weekend that immigration from Romania and Bulgaria would “cause problems” and could lead to housing shortages, UKIP has wasted little time in exploiting the issue. The party has added a clock to its website counting down the days until 1 January 2014, the moment when transitional controls on migrants from the two newest EU member states expire.”

Child labour in the West is the stuff of Dickensian novels, but in Yemen and elsewhere it is a sad reality:

“SANAA, Yemen (ILO News) – More than 1.3 million children in Yemen are involved in child labour, including 469,000in the 5-11 age group, a new study shows.

This means 17 per cent of Yemen’s 7.7 million children in the 5-17 age group and 11 per cent of those aged 5-11 are involved in child labour, according to Yemen’s first-ever national child labour survey, which was carried out with support from the ILO, the Social Development Fund and UNICEF. “

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Wikileaks, Guardian Personality And Sexist Of The Year

Julian Assange is exceedingly annoyed at the Guardian, as can be seen from @Wikileaks timeline on Twitter:

I am not terribly interested in Assange.

He strikes me as a manipulative misanthrope and misogynist, and will probably end up doing a “Mel Gibson” one day.

But the activities of his supporters and how they attacked a female Guardian columnist I do find very disturbing. It reinforces the view that Assange’s supporters have no difficulty attacking women, verbally or otherwise:

So I thought it appropriate to have my own Sexist of the Year poll in support of the End Violence Against Women Coalition.

Obviously, any poll is incomplete and it probably could contain many more entries but these are, in my view, a representative sample.

I would welcome reader’s comments and observations. No sexism please, that’s a reminder to Assange’s supporters!

Update 1: A reminder to read Cath Elliot’s excellent, Assange, and feminism’s so-called male allies.

Update 2: I have been remiss and didn’t explain why Julian Assange was so cheesed off at the Guardian. In short, he and his followers tried to rig the Guardian’s person of the year, but they found out.

His reason for wanting to cheat is clear enough.

The narcissistic Assange could not stand the very idea of a brave and injured 14 year old girl winning.

Had Malala Yousafzai won the Guardian poll then it would have taken attention and admiration away from Wikileaks, which would come with Bradley Mannings’ victory.

Assange wants to bathe in the reflected glory of Mannings’ win. He needs the limelight. So he arranged to fiddle it.

Update 3: I forgot to say, but you can vote for several individuals in this poll, not just one.

Update 4: News just in, George Galloway, world famous expert on bad sexual etiquette, has won the End Violence Against Women Coalition’s Sexist of the Year 2012 award:

“George Galloway MP has been voted ‘Sexist of the Year 2012’ in a poll run by the End Violence Against Women Coalition (1), and will be sent a copy of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman as a prize.

The MP for Bradford West received more than a quarter of all votes cast, and around one and a times as many votes than his nearest runner up, the Prime Minister David Cameron. He received four times as many votes as the ‘bronze medal winner’, Julian Assange. Mr Galloway said, in a broadcast on YouTube in August, of having sex with a sleeping woman, “It might be really bad sexual etiquette but whatever else it is, it is not rape.”(2)

The poll, which was launched at the end of October and was open for a month, saw supporters of the EVAW Coalition and members of the public encouraged to send their nominations by email and on the twitter hashtag #sexist2012.

Voters nominated prominent institutions as well as individuals for their sexist attitudes and behaviour during 2012, including the BBC for its handling of the Savile crisis, The Sun for its ongoing Page 3 ‘feature’ and the Taleban for the attempted murder of schoolgirl campaigner Malala.

Other prominent UK politicians who were nominated included George Osborne, Jeremy Hunt and Ed Miliband (nominated by former MP Louise Mensch for his failure to censure sexist MP Austin Mitchell).

The EVAW Coalition has more than 60 members around the UK who are working to end sexual and domestic violence, forced marriage, FGM, trafficking, stalking and other forms of abuse. They include service providers, lawyers and academics who are on the frontline of tackling abuse and campaigning for government to take a more strategic approach to ending violence by aiming to prevent it in the first place.”

Mel Gibson, The Met Police And Sikhs

Racism is a common theme in many Western societies.

Nowadays it is less conspicuous than it was, but its still around.

Many had thought that the Metropolitan Police had been cured of overt racism, or at least, banished it to the deepest reaches.

Stephen Lawrence’s murder and the subsequent bungling produced many changes in British policing, but there are still problems as Channel 4 reported:

“Exclusive: As a senior Met Police officer says warnings of racism have fallen on “deaf ears”, Channel 4 News reveals 120 race-related cases over the past decade – and only one officer dismissed.

The figures, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information act, come as the Metropolitan Police reveal that nine staff, including one civilian, have been suspended amid allegations of racism.

Ten cases have been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and they include allegations of racist assaults in broad daylight as well as the racist abuse of prisoners behind closed doors.

The statistics come 13 years after the Macpherson Report , launched after the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, branded the force “institutionally racist”.

Channel 4 News can reveal that between 1999 and 2011:

• 120 police officers at the Metropolitan Police were found guilty of racist behaviour
• Of these, 21 received some kind of sanction, most commonly a fine
• Six were forced to resign
• Just one police officer of the 120 was dismissed “

Doreen Lawrence argues the Met hasn’t changed, and the case of Kester David suggests as much.

The antisemite, Mel Gibson, is in the news again.

BBC One had a rather good programme, The Story of the Turban.

It deals with the Sikh faith and the importance of the Turban, but in passing it shines a light on racism in Britain from the 1970s to the Nineties, which is still very relevant today.