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Monday, September 10, 2012

So many journalists yet so little pussy riot?



Key unlikely to discuss Pussy Riot with Putin
Prime Minister John Key is unlikely to raise the jailing of members of the punk rock band Pussy Riot when he meets Russian president Vladimir Putin tonight.

With so many NZ journalists enjoying a junket to Russia for APEC, you would imagine they would question Key on doing trade with an authoritarian regime the has scant concern for human rights.

Couldn't one of them ask Key if he would be picking up a copy of Pussy Riot for Max? What's the point of even sending journalists if they're merely onlookers? I suppose if they won't hold Key to account at home, they won't be doing it on holiday.

Nice to see we can trade our human rights values for a free trade deal without even acknowledging that is what we are doing.

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4 Comments:

At 10/9/12 8:49 am, Blogger Darryl said...

America jails minor drug offenders for 20, 30 or 40 years, holds terrorism "suspects" incommunicado indefinitely and imprisons for life even trivial "three strikes" offenders.

Being an American makes you statistically more likely to get sent to prison than being from ANY other country.
http://youtu.be/lUt_fIB6A_Y

Why don't journalists question Key on doing trade with THIS authoritarian regime that has scant concern for human rights?

 
At 10/9/12 11:24 am, Blogger Darryl said...

What I wonder is why politicians and the media (and bloggers) have spent so MUCH time on Pussy Riot.

I mean, the sentence they got is harsh and unfair, and I sympathize with their plight, but there are far greater injustices in the world that don’t get anywhere near the same attention.

And I don't just mean Americans like Patricia Spottedcrow who is serving 12 years for selling $31 worth of pot, or Todd Hannigan, who is serving 15 years because he was caught in a park with 31 Vicodin pills (he wanted to kill himself), or Gary Ewing who is serving 25 years for stealing three golf clubs, or Leonardo Andrade, who received 50 years in jail for stealing nine videos costing $153.00, or the Scott sisters, Jamie and Gladys, who are serving two consecutive life terms each for a robbery in which no-one was hurt and $11 was taken, and which they probably they weren't even involved in.

I mean injustices like the 22,000 children die EACH DAY due to conditions of poverty and the 925 million people who do not have enough to eat (more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union combined).

So, again, why do Pussy Riot get the spotlight? Is it because Russia is imagined as a brutal dark country full of secret police? Is it because Pussy Riot are young, female rock musicians? Is it because focussing in Pussy Riot serves powerful interests in the West who are always on looking for ways to divert attention from their nefarious machinations? Is it because those same Western interests want to discredit governments who oppose their geopolitical designs (think Syria and Iran)?

It is probably all of these things. But I suspect it is mostly because the band has such a risqué name.


Patricia Spottedcrow
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20111226_11_A1_CUTLIN819265

Todd Hannigan
http://www.famm.org/FacesofFAMM/StateProfiles/ToddHanniganFlorida.aspx

Gary Ewing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewing_v._California#Notes

Leonardo Andrade
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-527248.html

The Scott sisters
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/opinion/12herbert.html?_r=2&th&emc=th



Facts About Hunger and Poverty
http://www.thp.org/learn_more/issues/know_your_world_facts_about_hunger_and_poverty

 
At 10/9/12 6:59 pm, Blogger countryboy said...

@ Darryl . Brilliant . Yes , when I hear ' Pussy Riot ' I don't think of a gang of unruly cats over turning cars and throwing bricks I must say .

 
At 10/9/12 7:14 pm, Blogger Nitrium said...

Thanks Darryl for posting your reply. You nailed it EXACTLY. Pussy Riot is at best a fucking distraction (wow, injustice in Russia, who would have thunk it?). We need to focus on what is going HERE, not there. As you point out, the hypocrisy of "The West" knows no bounds, and that sadly includes Tumeke, apparently, for bringing up an utter NON-ISSUE when far worse crimes against humanity are being committed daily by "us".

 

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