Monday, April 12, 2010

The Problem of Racist Christian White Het Male-Centrism. NEEDED: Indigenous-Run Social Services!

 
[Australian anti-racism poster is from here]

I speak often about the problems, if not the atrocities, committed by and within WHM Surpremacist societies, against women of all ethnicities and sexualities, and against men of color also. These values, worldviews, practices, abuses, forms of discrimination, violations, and components of gynocide and genocide are innumerable. This blog attempts to gather together some of the elements, to bring into focus that larger picture: this is who is in control of the crimes--Christian white het men. This is who suffers because they are in control: everyone else. More evidence follows...

What follows is from *here* @ ABC News (Australian, not "American") found via the inteligentaindigena novajoservo blog. Thank you to The Angry Indian for your comprehensive news service.

Call to review services for Indigenous Queenslanders

By Emma Pollard
Posted 5 hours 50 minutes ago
A study has found major gaps in drug and alcohol support services for Indigenous people in Queensland despite increases in spending.

The National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee found funding for Indigenous services increased by 110 per cent between 2000 and 2007.

The committee has released a snapshot of services available in the 2006-07 financial year, which shows the focus on support for Indigenous people in rural and remote communities has come at the expense of those in some metropolitan areas.

But report author Professor Dennis Gray says many Indigenous people are still missing out on help, especially in big cities.

"A lot of research tells us that people don't access those mainstream services," he said.

He highlighted the lack of services in Brisbane and south-west Queensland.

Professor Gray says governments need to address inequalities.

"There's a large concentration of Indigenous people in Brisbane and relative to other areas they're under-serviced," he said.

The report makes 23 recommendations, emphasising the need for specific programs for women, young people and those with mental illness.

It also calls for more recurrent funding for Indigenous-run organisations as many close down because they are only given one-off grants.

Indigenous health advocate, Associate Professor Gracelyn Smallwood, says the most successful programs are Indigenous-run.

"Non-Indigenous organisations - with all due respect, so genuine many can be - it's time those funding and resources come from a bottom-up approach to Aboriginal and Islander organisations," she said.

Professor Smallwood says funding needs to be directed to Indigenous-run drug and alcohol support groups.
"Most detox and rehab programs are based from a western Christian perspective with the AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] program," she said.

"We have to get away from that and if you have a look at the programs that have been successful in other colonised countries of the world, they're community-based, extremely culturally appropriate."

In Support of Restitution for Survivors of Pornographer-Rapist-Molesters AND the Possessors of the Online Evidence of the Assaults: The Case of Amy -- Watching the Images of a Girl or Woman Being Assaulted is Yet Another Misogynistic Crime Against Humanity

[image is from here]

What follows was found at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette online here.


'Amy' seeks restitution from viewers of sex abuse
Sunday, April 11, 2010
As of last week, the woman known as "Amy" in every federal district court across the country had received almost 1,000 notices that she had been identified as the victim of a crime.

They are a thousand separate reminders of the horrific sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her uncle -- who also photographed the acts -- when she was just 8 and 9 years old.

And those are likely just a drop in the bucket for what Amy will experience in her lifetime.

Pornographic images taken of her and distributed on the Internet in what is now called "The Misty Series" continue to circulate 12 years later.

Now, at age 20, she has filed requests in nearly 400 criminal cases asking that she receive restitution from any defendant convicted of viewing those pictures.

Last April, her attorney, James R. Marsh of New York, filed the first request in Connecticut. He filed a similar claim in Pittsburgh in February in the case against Kelly Hardy of New Castle.

Mr. Hardy pleaded guilty in October to receipt, possession and distribution of child pornography.

Because of the large number of images found in his home -- there is no official count, prosecutors said, because it would have been impractical to try to catalog the many thousands he had -- Mr. Hardy is likely to be sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. He also could be held accountable for the $3.2 million sought by Amy.

U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer has not yet ruled on the issue in Pittsburgh.



The idea of restitution is to make crime victims whole. But in Amy's cases, the question is whether the act of simply "possessing," or looking, at the illegal, pornographic images in which she appeared is directly responsible for the harm she has suffered and will continue to suffer in the future.

Mr. Marsh -- and most federal prosecutors --agree that it is.

But defense attorneys across the country argue that the "proximate cause," of harm to Amy and other victims of child pornography occurred at the time of the actual sexual abuse.

Though the issue has been litigated in several district courts -- with hugely disparate results -- it has not been decided by any appeals court.

Until that happens, individual district judges have no binding legal guidance on which to base their opinions.

In California, Virginia and Alabama, for example, district courts have fully denied restitution requests by Amy.
In the District of Connecticut, a federal judge ordered a man guilty of possession of child pornography to pay $500 in restitution.

But in the Northern District of Florida, a judge awarded Amy the full amount of her request: $3.2 million to cover lost wages and the costs for lifetime counseling, as well as expert and attorney's fees.

That case, along with another, is on appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"It's about good law in the area," Mr. Marsh said. "We're taking a cautious approach."

As part of his argument in favor of restitution, Mr. Marsh says his client continues to be victimized simply because her images are available for viewing online.

Analysts for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as of July, had encountered photographs of Amy in more than 3,227 evidence reviews in child pornography investigations.

"Every day of my life I live in constant fear that someone will see my pictures and recognize me and that I will be humiliated all over again," Amy wrote in her victim impact statement.

"It hurts me to know someone is looking at them -- at me -- when I was just a little girl being abused for the camera. I did not choose to be there, but now I am there forever in pictures that people are using to do sick things."

But the federal public defender, W. Penn Hackney, who is representing Mr. Hardy in the local case, wrote in a court brief that "conflating the actual abuse and initial production of child pornography with receipt and distribution ... makes little sense in terms of basic conceptions of morality and blameworthiness."

Further, he argues, Amy filed her initial request for damages in Connecticut even before Mr. Hardy was charged. Therefore, he said, Amy had already suffered that harm, and his client should not be held responsible.

When investigators searched Mr. Hardy's home in April 2009, they found 14 desktop computers, three laptop computers, 60 hard drives, more than 4,000 compact discs and digital versatile discs, more than 3,000 floppy disks, 8 thumb drives and 36 zip disks.

In addition, they found 33 pairs of young girls' underwear, which Mr. Hardy told officers he had taken from the homes of friends and acquaintances.

Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, believes requiring restitution for possession is the wrong way to go -- but not because of the moral question. For him, it's a pragmatic one.
"Most of my objection to this new trend is that it could create a serious and negative impact on the legal system as we expand restitution to an unprecedented scope," Mr. Turley said.

Restitution demands would increase infinitely. In all federal district courts in Fiscal Year 2009, according to the Department of Justice, 1,448 defendants were charged with possession, receipt or distribution of child pornography.

"Defendants download hundreds or thousands of images with a single click of a mouse," Mr. Turley said. "Literally, one click brings a library of images."

That, he said, means that potential punishment for defendants in child pornography cases could radically increase.

Such defendants already face lengthy prison terms, and increasing the number of people who pay restitution would be a "logistical nightmare for courts," Mr. Turley said.

"There's no question that reproducing these images produces harm," he said. "[But] under this definition, victims could literally sue millions of people forever."

But in an October letter to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said such a consideration isn't relevant.

"We urge you not to let these practical and administrative challenges drive a policy position that directly or indirectly suggests that possession of child pornography is a victimless crime," Mr. Breuer wrote.



Analyzing Amy's case shows that can't be true.

According to a psychological report, Amy continues to suffer post-traumatic stress symptoms, including unconscious avoidance, anxiety, anger and a lack of self-confidence. Amy, who lives in central Pennsylvania, also reports having difficulty with trust and feelings of love.

Though she enrolled in college, she ended up dropping out after watching a video in a psychology class about child abuse.

She repeatedly talks about physically withdrawing -- by staring into space and completely losing track of her surrounding.

She self-medicated with alcohol for much of her adolescence, and though she tries to maintain sobriety, she is not in treatment for it.

Dr. Mary Carrasco, an expert in child sexual abuse and the director of A Child's Place at Mercy, said the response to such abuse can vary widely.

"Some kids are just totally devastated," she said. "They don't know who's looked at it. They can't hold their heads up."

Among their feelings, Dr. Carrasco said, are self-blame and guilt for not being able to stop the abuse.
Amy has expressed both of those emotions.

However, Mr. Marsh added, by filing for restitution in these cases, his client is beginning to feel empowered.
"Through the restitution, she feels she's going from a victim to someone who's taking control of her life."

Amy now has a 6-month-old baby, and has expressed an interest in taking online college classes.
Still, she doesn't make much in the way of long-term plans.

"Most of her life is spent coping day to day," Mr. Marsh said.

Amy thought she might have been a schoolteacher. Part of her restitution claim is for lost wages she might have earned from that position.

While she has filed more than 400 restitution claims, Amy has received court orders in only about 20 districts. So far, she has collected money from about a half-dozen defendants, raising $266,000.

Among those who have been made to pay are a former law enforcement officer and a man who worked in a lumber yard, Mr. Marsh said.

Under the requests for restitution, once Amy receives the entire $3.2 million she is asking for, she would no longer file any new claims. For his part, Mr. Marsh is only being paid an average of about $3,500 per claim filed.

It's not a windfall, Mr. Marsh said. For Amy, who has no health insurance and is living on public assistance, restitution will be simply a means of compensating her for her inability to work at a full-time, professional job because of the harm done to her, he said.

"You have millionaires going to prison, and taxpayers funding their treatment. And then you have the victims with zero," Mr. Marsh said. "The social costs here are huge on both sides of the equation, and this is really just a way of equalizing the treatment of victims in the criminal justice system."

Read more: http://www.postgazette.com/pg/10101/1049563-455.stm#ixzz0kuZmfbsb

The Cherokee Word for Water: Feature Film Project

[image is from here]

I believe a core issue for Women's Liberation, as well as for ending genocide, is this: water, clean water, available potable water. Water than you don't have to walk miles or many kilometers to get, and then carry back: women being the people who do this, globally.

Water to drink, to stay alive. Water to rinse out wounds to help prevent infection and death. Water to cool the feverish body. Water to wash the stink of the rapist off your body. Water to take down pills necessary to keep the ravages of HIV/AIDS, and many other diseases and illnesses at bay. Water to wash the blood off of you after being battered again by the man who says he loves you. Water to wash the semen off your face, after having your human rights violated, again, inside the world of industrial-strength racist, sexxxist pornography, trafficking, and sexual slavery.

Women in poverty, women without water, are vulnerable to all manner of other abuses. Please remember that. If you don't have water for your children, they are vulnerable too, to being pimped and trafficked and sold into slavery. Most children are girls, remember. Gynocides, not women's lives, thrive on lack of basic resources for women and girls. Land, water, food, shelter, health care, compassionate friends, healthy community, physical and spiritual well-being.

Water is a radical profeminist issue. And those of us with class and region privileges, may never ever think of water this way. But if you watch what follows, and pay attention to what poor women of color around the world do, to survive and help others in their communities survive, you will understand.

What follows next is from *here*.

A feature-length motion picture, The Cherokee Word for Water, is about a Cherokee community that uses traditional Native values of reciprocity and interdependence to rebuild their community. Set in the early 1980s, the screenplay was inspired by the Bell Waterline Project which was the subject of national media coverage. This positive, uplifting film focuses on the cultural assets of Native people and seeks to help reshape the public perception of Native people. The project is committed to training and employing Native people for jobs from filming to construction.

Mankiller Project, LLC, being supported by the Native-run nonprofit One Fire Development Corporation, will produce and distribute The Cherokee Word for Water and all related educational materials. The leadership team includes Charlie Soap, Wilma Mankiller's husband who has worked in Indian Country for all of his life. The experienced creative team includes Paul Heller, producer of Academy Award Wining My Left Foot, to create a positive contemporary Native American story with universal appeal.

Introduction Video: [see here]

Background Video: [see here]

To learn more contact outreach@cw4w.com or visit: http://www.cw4w.com.

Please Consider Honoring the Life of Wilma Mankiller: here's how

This image is amazing to me. And it seems appropriate for this blog post. 


[image is from here. Click on image to better read the text beneath it.]

From the website, *here*, is the statement about Wilma Mankiller's passing, links to her own words, and important information about where donations in her memory may be made, to a non-profit organisation, One Fire Development, which seeks funding to support global Indigenous-centered economic growth and development, to work against this global genocide.

Wilma Pearl Mankiller

Former Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller Passes Away

Wilma Mankiller, former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, passed away this morning. Mankiller served 12 years in elective office at the Cherokee Nation, the first two as Deputy Principal Chief followed by 10 years as Principal Chief. She retired from public office in 1995. Among her many honors, Mankiller was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton.

“Our personal and national hearts are heavy with sorrow and sadness with the passing this morning of Wilma Mankiller,” said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. “We feel overwhelmed and lost when we realize she has left us but we should reflect on what legacy she leaves us. We are better people and a stronger tribal nation because her example of Cherokee leadership, statesmanship, humility, grace, determination and decisiveness. When we become disheartened, we will be inspired by remembering how Wilma proceeded undaunted through so many trials and tribulations. Years ago, she and her husband Charlie Soap showed the world what Cherokee people can do when given the chance, when they organized the self-help water line in the Bell community. She said Cherokees in that community learned that it was their choice, their lives, their community and their future. Her gift to us is the lesson that our lives and future are for us to decide. We can carry on that Cherokee legacy by teaching our children that lesson. Please keep Wilma’s family, especially her husband Charlie and her daughters, Gina and Felicia, in your prayers.”

Mankiller requested that any gifts in her honor be made as donations to One Fire Development Corporation, a non-profit dedicated to advancing Native American communities though economic development, and to valuing the wisdom that exists within each of the diverse tribal communities around the world. Tax deductible donations can be made at www.wilmamankiller.com as well as www.onefiredevelopment.org. The mailing address for One Fire Development Corporation is 1220 Southmore Houston, TX 77004. Her memorial service will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Cherokee Nation Cultural Grounds in Tahlequah.
To read more of Wilma in her own words select from below:

Wilma Speaking About Her Life in Her Own Words
Spirituality
The Way Home
Womanhood

To send a message to Wilma's family please email: message@wilmamankiller.com.

For more on the Native Community Building organisation, One Fire Development, please see *here* and below:

One Fire Development Corporation

One Fire Development Corporation is dedicated to advancing Native American community and economic development through recognizing and valuing the inherent capacities and wisdom that uniquely exist in each tribal community.
The One Fire team is a group of professionals with extensive experience in community and economic development. One Fire brings leading edge strategies and tools to the challenges and opportunities facing tribal communities today.
One Fire's core development approach focuses on four interrelated areas:
  • Capturing Hearts and Minds of the Community
  • Identifying and Capturing Economic Opportunities
  • Building Economic and Organizational Capacity
  • Sustaining Action
One Fire is partnering with Wilma Mankiller in the development of a feature length motion picture. "The Cherokee Word for Water" is a story about a community that finds the inner strength to work together and control their destiny.

Projects