Jezebel 
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New York, 2:38 AM
Sat Nov 28
29 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/07/09
I know Hillary's intentions are good, but after centuries of world powers ignoring the African continent and only taking from it, it's obvious that many of the countries have blocked the U.S government out and could care LESS what the hell they have to say.
It's a shame too. Something has to change, we're already flying down to hell in a handbasket.
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i don't make good decisions when i'm full of anger.
10/07/09
Go Hillary. Go France. Slam these criminals with the only consequences that makes sense to them-cutting off their money and influence. Here's hoping that these poor women get some justice, though I doubt it.
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And France has a no-extradition-of-French-citizens... policy; it's not like they have a pro-rape-and-pedophilia policy. And it was the Mitterrand, the "minister of culture" who appealed to Hillary Clinton for Polanski's release, not Sarkozy, who ordered the French government to drop support almost a year ago.
I don't know how I feel about these atrocities being associated with Polanski. The comparison of the two seems to denigrate the nature of these crimes.
10/07/09
However, WTHBS, if you really want to break it down, I am at a loss to think of a nation that has not, at some point in time: -condoned a rape. Or many rapes. Like the massive amount of rapes that occurred during slavery-in the US!
-Or given the impression that they do, in order to CTA and avoid international incidents-like the US all over the world, the most recent I can think of the teenager in Japan raped by servicemen.
-Or engaged in sexual trafficking-some of which comes to the US.
-Or been OK with putting women who live in abject poverty to work providing the sexual pleasure of people with more wealth. Like "comfort women" employed for US soldiers during WWII, or like men in the US do when they go for their wild and crazy vacations to Thailand to support the sex trade. Or go to strip clubs, or get "happy ending" massages,or engage prostitutes.
This shit happens everywhere, on everyone's watch. If you're looking for perfect, idealogically pure allies in the fight against rape, you're going to be awfully lonely. The Guineans could just as easily tell us to fuck off for being hypocrites. But that doesn't give much help to the ladies who were raped and killed, does it?
My bottom line is, this abuse of women is wrong, it needs to stop and the perpetrators need to be punished. If France is willing to join the fight, I am happy to have them. If it helps them examine their own attitudes, so much the better. I prefer to have baby steps towards dismantling rape culture than none at all.
10/07/09
You said that I was denigrating the crimes in Guinea. Try looking at it another way (and I'm speaking about the sexual violence that was referred to in this post). In my mind, rape is the worst crime that you can commit. Worse than murder. So the rape of 1 child in Hollywood or hundreds of innocent women fighting for freedom are BOTH monstrous crimes in my eyes. Quibbling about numbers doesn't matter to me. So if we here in the west can dismiss the one crime. where the fuck do we get the balls to tell other people that we are outraged at their crimes. You might be comfortable on that high horse, but I'm not.
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All I'm saying is that these atrocities deserve their own page and I am bothered by the constant comparison of what goes on in other countries to what happens in America. It like the Tyra Banksification of tragedy.
10/07/09
Further, the foundation of your argument rests on the faulty proclamation that "we here in the west" have dismissed the one crime. I don't think we have.
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I don't understand your overarching point, entirely. Yes, colonialism is bad, yes there may racial attitudes at play in the indignation, yes, France has done bad things too, yes, yes yes. All valid points. However, I'm not sure what you would have us do, given your many and varied objections to calling this particular atrocity an atrocity. It is no less an atrocity that these protestors were raped and murdered because it was committed by Africans. It is no less an atrocity because it was committed by people who are poorer than we are. Would you have no one act to stop it because you think they are too morally compromised themselves to call an atrocity an atrocity?
Really, I'd like to know.
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10/07/09
How am I supposed to feel about men when this shit happens everywhere, every day? How am I at fault for finding myself really hating them, as a group? Why are women everywhere just expected to trust men and let them make decisions? How could any logical woman with any memory at all be comfortable with men having power?
This sort of thing dismays me. This is why I don't think that there can possibly be a god.
It's 9:24 am CST and I'm done with today.
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articulate! and yes. my dad was an awesome man, and i know many of us have relationships with awesome men who would never want to be lumped with these mutations.
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Thing is, if I had like a dozen friends who had been bitten by dogs and severely injured/scarred by those dogs, no one would fault me for being afraid of dogs or for mistrusting dogs. But when it's men doing the hurting, and it's on a worldwide scale, I'm somehow a feminazi for having my default response to men be "mistrust."
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And I'm not holding all men accountable for this, I'm just saying that I should not be faulted for my default attitude being cautious mistrust toward a group that has really messed up, collectively.
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And there's the problem with the thinking right there. This line of argument takes the "she deserved it" line to a whole new level. Did you hear that, ladies? We deserve it.
It is easy and possible and even proper to hate and mistrust an oppressor class while loving some members of it.
10/07/09
I don't hate men because I'm capable of seeing people as individuals. Give it a try.
10/07/09
Seeing that it's physically impossible to get to know every single individual in the world and assess them accordingly, I'm going to err on the side of caution here and consider the fact that a man that I do not know could possibly intend to harm me.
Furthermore, there's no need to get personal attacky.
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10/07/09
I'm going to totally step in it here ... I just think there is something about men that enables them (when circumstances are right) to disengage their brain and be aggressive. Whether it's to fight at a bar, kill people in a war, or rape women in a confrontation, it's just something that tends to be more common for men than for women. And I don't get it, but then, I'm not a guy.
I used to say (when I was much younger) that every guy is a potential rapist. (Yes, this made me very popular with the boys.) But it's true - every guy who rapes a woman is somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's friend. When we start trying to divide the world into groups of men who rape (icky) and men who don't (yay!) we ignore the fact that the line is a lot more fluid than that.
Historically, men rape women on a large scale in times of war and conflict. Are all of these men inherently evil? Or is there something about conflict itself that can turn a normally respectful man into a rapist? I think that's what HRC is trying to address on a broader scale - how do we create a world culture where rape is not a part of war strategy vs. something that is just always part of conflict? She's got her work cut out for her.
So, yes, I think it's possible to become weary and skeptical of men in general while appreciating the individual men who are a part of our lives. I don't think those are two incompatible attitudes.
10/07/09
It's like people who hate Americans for what Bush did, and saying all Americans are horrible, selfish, materialistic people. (I live in Canada, and I have actually heard people say this sometimes.) And of course that's not okay - so why should that be okay to say about men?
Lumping people into groups, whether it's nationalities, sexual orientations, religions, or genders, and saying you hate them as a group, has never done ANYONE any favors. People are individuals, and if we want to change atrocities in the world, we have to work on the structures of power relations, education, a million other things - not condemning groups of people as a whole.
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I don't assume all white people mean me harm, just like I don't assume all men mean me harm. UNTIL they prove otherwise.
Oh and I agree with you about the 'personal attacky' thing. No need at all.
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Please join the International Criminal Court.
Thank you,
Winner
10/07/09
world, show your condemnation for activites of this type, take action, cut off contact, whatever it takes, we need to show that this is NOT OK
it is too early in the morning for my rage to be channeled into anything more coherent than that...
10/07/09
Guinea is the world's top bauxite exporter--bauxite makes aluminum. Huge international corporations have a lot of money invested in Guinea--Alcoa, Rusal, Rio Tinto--and more focus needs to be on those companies and how they have colluded with corrupt rulers.
Unfortunately, this conflict will not improve anytime soon, and threatens to destabilize the entire region. Of Guinea's neighbors, only two can be considered stable--Senegal and Mali--and even those nations still have too many people suffering from extreme poverty. Guinea's other neighbors are either narcostates (Guinea-Bissau) or recovering from war (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire). This conflict could reignite the simmering tensions in those 3 states... It's not just the women of Guinea, it's the people of Guinea, and of West Africa.
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it's a really beautiful country with amazing people, and stories like this break my heart. guinea has never had a chance at democracy, freedom, or prosperity. its history with france is so mixed that the actions france is taking now really don't have much of a sway--when guinea decided to become independent, france took everything from the country from lightbulbs to maps to medical equipment, so guineans aren't too trusting of the french anyway.
my opinion is that the best options we have is to send in international forces to help the situation, it's what i wanted to see happen last year when Conte finally died, but unfortunately, politically it's not feasible. Dadis has said that he does not want peacekeeping troops, and he would probably take his anger out on the people again if the UN/AU sent in outsiders. It's truly tragic.
10/07/09
Don't threaten--DO. Raping and assaulting women in the streets? I think that's the point of no return. Don't say you're going to do something to try to stop it, just do it.
Although, considering France's role in Rwanda during the genocide always makes me uneasy to see them involved in African relations at all.
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I can't come up with an answer.
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Camara trying to be the new Charles Taylor?
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