Don’t look away from Bahrain’s revolution
9 March, 2012 – Egypt Independent

[excerpt] – Over the past year, as cameras turned away, the Bahraini regime carried out some of the worst atrocities in its history. Much like the brutal killing of Khaled Saeed under police torture, an incident that ignited the fury in the Egyptian street leading up to the 25 January revolution, systematic torture in Bahrain has become common place. Many protesters are beaten, jailed, tortured and continue to die in police custody. Two activists, Yousif Almuwali and Muntathar Fakhar, have died in custody this past January alone. Similar to Egyptian state security fabricating Khaled Saeed’s forensic examination report to make the claim that he had died because he swallowed a packet of marijuana, the Bahraini Ministry of Interior claims that those who were tortured to death in custody died of “sickle-cell anemia,” when they were actually healthy prior to their arrests.

Despite the similarities between the state security’s crackdown on protesters in Bahrain and other Arab uprisings, the former is often overlooked. The reason lies in how Arab media, specifically Gulf-owned satellite channels, have justified this crackdown on activists by inaccurately portraying the Bahraini uprising as an Iran-backed Shia insurrection against Sunni rulers. This is, of course, a misrepresentation of the whole story, since the uprising initially called for reforming the system of governance through establishing a constitutional monarchy. It was only after security forces killed and maimed people on the streets that the protesters’ demands naturally rose, as they did everywhere else, to eventually call for the downfall of the regime. But, of course, the foreign conspiracy card, manifested in the claim pertaining to Iran’s tampering in Bahrain’s domestic affairs, has been conveniently used by the regime to delegitimize the uprising. Arab tyrants, Mubarak among them, were quick to resort to this foreign threat propaganda in order to sustain their authoritarian rule.

We, Egyptians and Bahrainis, have both learned that authoritarian rulers will go to no end to stay in power, even if this means igniting anarchy and sectarian discord. Egyptians should be well aware by now that whether it is through bombing churches or igniting football fanaticism, the idea is simple: play on people’s prejudices to turn them against each other and to distract them from the revolution. The Bahraini regime insists on framing the Bahraini uprising in sectarian terms in order to fuel divisions between Sunnis and Shias both inside the kingdom, and also outside by turning Sunnis in the Arab world against the legitimate struggle of the Bahraini protesters. …more

Bahrain prepares for “biggest ever” protest
8 March, 2012 – Al-Akhbar

Thousands of protesters are set to take to the streets of Bahrain’s capital Manama on Friday in what is expected to be the biggest protest against the country’s rulers since last year’s uprising was brutally crushed.

Event organizers estimate that up to half of the country’s 1.2 million people will take to the streets to call for democracy, civil rights, and equal citizenship.

Last February tens of thousands of Bahrainis took to the streets to demand reform from the ruling Khalifa family.

Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf states sent in troops to help Bahraini authorities crush the protests, fearing the spread of the pro-democracy Arab Spring.

The crackdown resulted in hundreds of activists being detained and jailed, while at least 35 were killed.

Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said that Friday’s protests would be a major turning point for the campaign.

“I am hopeful that half of the population will be there. Not less than 300,000 people for sure,” he said.

Activists raised awareness of the protest on Thursday night on the social networking site Twitter using the hashtag #BahrainWantsDemocracy.

Former opposition MP Jawad Fairooz added that the streets for the 5km march are expected to be full.

“We can expect this to be the largest march in the history of Bahrain,” he added.

Al-Akhbar will be running a live blog on the protests from 11 GMT tomorrow. …more

Russia says 15,000 foreign “terrorists” in Syria
8 March, 2012 – Tom Miles – Reuter

GENEVA: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is battling al Qaeda-backed “terrorists” including at least 15,000 foreign fighters who will seize towns across Syria if government troops withdraw, a Russian diplomat said on Thursday.

Russia is a staunch defender of Syria despite international condemnation of the crackdown by Assad’s forces and evidence of human rights abuses against unarmed civilians.

Addressing a one-day humanitarian forum on Syria at the United Nations in Geneva, Russia’s deputy ambassador Mikhail Lebedev said rebels had recently committed large-scale attacks against Syrian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.

“Rebel groups attack, kill, torture and intimidate the civilian population. The flow of all kind of terrorists from some neighboring countries is always increasing,” Lebedev told the forum.

Asked by Reuters how many foreign fighters were believed to be in Syria, he said: “How many got in through illegal routes? The border there is not demarcated, not delimited, so nobody knows. But at least 15,000.”

On Thursday, Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, said he would urge Assad and his foes to stop fighting and seek a political solution, drawing angry rebukes from dissidents.

Russia wants a ceasefire by all parties and an inclusive political dialogue. Lebedev told the U.N. meeting criticism of Assad was overdone.

“We urge our partners not to yield to temptation to exaggerate things but to expedite a balanced and professional approach to delivering help to all segments of the Syrian population with no exception,” he said.

“Most of the militants are indeed directly or closely affiliated with al Qaeda.”

COUNTERPRODUCTIVE
Lebedev told Reuters the information about al Qaeda links in Syria was an “unambiguous fact” but declined to say if Russia would provide the U.N. with evidence to back its allegation Syrian rebels were committing torture.

“All I know is that all the way through (the wars in the Russian region of) Chechnya nobody believed us when we said the Islamic underground, including terrorist organisations, was developing its operations on our soil,” he said.

“It’s just that five years later there’s a recognition that we did everything right.”

Lebedev said attempts to force Assad to rein in his troops unilaterally would be counterproductive.

…more

“If people actually knew what was happening, they would be really pissed off.” -Barbara Brenner, former BCAction Executive Director in the new documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc.

Pink Ribbons, Inc.: The Movie
by Caitlin – 23 February, 2012 – Think Before You Pink

Billions of dollars have been raised through the tireless efforts of women and men devoted to putting an end to breast cancer. Yet, breast cancer rates in North America have risen to 1 in 8. “What’s going on?” asks our former Executive Director Barbara Brenner in Pink Ribbons, Inc. a new film now playing across Canada and debuting in the U.S. this year.

The Toronto International Film Festival says: “Léa Pool’s devastating documentary about the industry and “culture” around breast cancer, addresses the rise of corporate involvement in fund-raising for charities … and the impact it has had on research into the disease. Powerful and incendiary, the film is an important and timely piece from one of our finest filmmakers.”

Thank you, Léa Pool, from the bottom of our pink ribbon-fatigued hearts, for making this movie. We need powerful. We need incendiary.

This film has been a long time coming. Based on Samantha King’s brilliant book of the same name, Pink Ribbons, Inc. pulls back the pink curtain on why we aren’t making progress in ending this epidemic. It’s a curtain we’ve been tugging on for over a decade through our Think Before You Pink® campaign, where we encourage people to ask critical questions about breast cancer fundraising. We are thrilled to see this message go mainstream.

Pink Ribbons, Inc. also shines a much-needed spotlight on pinkwashing, a coin we termed to describe when a company or organization claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces, manufactures and/or sells products that are linked to the disease.

Breast cancer has become big business—corporations look good by associating themselves with breast cancer, but how much does their involvement benefit women? As one woman living with metastatic breast cancer says in the film, “Our disease is being used for people to profit. And that’s not OK.”

This movie is a potential game-changer, showing just how much the shiny pink status quo has cost us—and how little we’ve gained from it. As an advocate says in the film, “For people to finally rise up and object, they have to be aware of the lies they’re being fed.”

Pink Ribbons, Inc. is debuting at film festivals in the U.S. this spring and we’ll keep you posted on where and when you can see it in theatres. In the meantime, get your free copy of our brand new Think Before You Pink Toolkit, which is a perfect companion to the film and, says, Samantha King, “gives both seasoned agitators and newcomers to breast cancer activism vital resources to change the conversation about breast cancer. Download it today and start changing the world, one pinkwasher at a time.”

When it comes to breast cancer, profits far too often are priority number one. This toolkit helps advocates like you challenge the status quo and make sure women at risk of and living with breast cancer come first. …Screenings