100-Year-Old African American Sorority Leaves Its Mark

Published on Feb 22, 2013
February is Black History Month in the United States. It draws attention and pays tribute to people, organizations and events that have shaped the history of African Americans and their contributions to American society. VOA’s Chris Simkins reports on a black women’s organization that has fought for civil rights and has made a difference in the lives of many for more than a century.

Palestinian Kids in East Jerusalem Face Poor School Conditions

Published on Feb 17, 2013
Palestinian schoolchildren struggle with insufficient educational facilities and textbook censorship in their East Jerusalem neighborhood, according to a new report. Some say Israel should let Palestine handle schooling in the area. Linda Gradstein reports for The Middle Line.

True Believers in Justice: A Young Public Defender’s Struggle in the South

Published on Jan 24, 2013
The filmmaker Dawn Porter follows Travis Williams, a young public defender in the Deep South, who struggles against long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads to bring justice to all.

Chinese ‘Apartheid’? Hukou System Comes Under Fire

Published on Feb 1, 2013
Hukou, China’s controversial household registration system, was originally designed to monitor the population and limit mass migration from the countryside to major cities. LinkAsia contributor Mark Dreyer reports that Chinese have taken to social media to voice their complaints about the injustice of the houkou system.

Watch more at http://linkasia.org.

IMAGE: Zhan Haite poses for a picture at home in Shanghai, December 21, 2012. Police broke up a small protest in Beijing on Saturday calling for reform of China’s divisive household registration system, an action prompted by a Shanghai schoolgirl’s widely publicized plea for equal access to the education system:

2012 – Russia’s Worst Year for Human Rights Since USSR Collapse

Published on Jan 31, 2013
Human Rights Watch releases 2012 annual report, warning of the steady decline in human rights in Russia after President Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency.

Full story:

A representative from Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that 2012 was the worst year for human rights in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Division Deputy Director Rachel Denber spoke with journalists in Moscow.

She says Russia’s human rights last year was the worst she could remember in her 20 years of work in the former Soviet Union.

[Rachel Denber, Deputy Director, Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Division]:
“After the return of Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin, and I would say even before then, not only was the cautious progress towards liberalization of the ‘Medvedev-era’ liquidated, but in these months, authoritarianism in Russia reached a level unseen in this country’s recent history. The foundation of this authoritarian turn was a package of laws adopted by the State Duma. I don’t think it’s necessary to describe them in detail now, but I will just list them: this is restrictions on the freedom of assembly, restrictions on Internet content, the return of criminal liability for slander—which had been cancelled by Medvedev in the previous months—and this, of course includes the law about so-called foreign agents.”

Last summer, shortly after Putin was sworn into office, Russia passed a series of laws branding many rights and campaign groups as “foreign agents”.

It’s a move opponents say was an attempt to stifle protests against Vladimir Putin.

Denber says the decline in Russia’s human rights situation has been steadily worsening.

[Rachel Denber, Deputy Director, Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Division]:
“For a decade since the so-called ‘colour revolutions’, the Russian authorities have been attempting to marginalize, demonize, and discredit opposition politicians, human rights activists, civil society organizations, and the political opposition.”

Human rights organizations are voicing the rights issues against the fact that Russia is set to hold the Winter Olympics in February 2014.

[Rachel Denber, Deputy Director, Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Division]:
“Soon, in almost one year, the Olympics will take place in Russia, in Sochi, and I want to say that this is, of course, a very joyful occasion. But I want to say that the attack on civil society and this excessive suspicion towards foreigners is simply not compatible with the role of Russia as an Olympic Games host country. This, in my opinion, contradicts the Olympic spirit.”

Human Rights Watch says they have noted abuses such as expropriation of property, linked to Russia’s preparations for the 2014 Olympic Games.

Other issues raised include the harassment of Kremlin critics and human rights activists, and the Russian legislation banning so-called ‘homosexual propaganda’.

Also raised were the failures of the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development to meet World Health Organization standards.

Breaking Polygamy

Published by ABCNews on Nov 23, 2012

• Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints — not mainstream Mormons
• Warren Jeffs
• Homeschooling in Utah

Secrets of the Sect

Part 1: ABC News’ Amy Robach goes inside the FLDS, which has been called “the American Taliban.”

The Reeducation of Willie Steed

Part 2: Steed, 18 and starting a new life, found his FLDS education had left him unable to read.

A Haircut Equals Freedom

Part 3: “I want bangs!” Nellie Steed, 6, said, breaking with her strict FLDS upbringing.

Confronting ‘The God Squad’

Part 4: Police harassment of former FLDS led the Department of Justice to file a civil rights suit.

Pulled Back to the Fold

Part 5: Suzette Steed gets some news and must decide between her past and her daughters’ future.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Same Love ft. Mary Lambert (2012)

In support of marriage equality. Follows a gay male couple.

SAME LOVE – MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS (PARADISE FEARS COVER)

Lyrics from Rap Genius:

[Verse 1: Macklemore]
When I was in the 3rd grade
I thought that I was gay
Cause I could draw, my uncle was
And I kept my room straight
I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
She’s like, “Ben you’ve loved girls since before pre-K”
Trippin’, yeah, I guess she had a point, didn’t she
A bunch of stereotypes all in my head
I remember doing the math like
“Yeah, I’m good a little league”
A pre-conceived idea of what it all meant
For those that like the same sex had the characteristics
The right-wing conservatives think its a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made, rewiring of a pre-disposition
Playing God
Ahh nah, here we go
America the brave
Still fears what we don’t know
And God loves all his children it’s somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written
3,500 years ago
I don’t know

[Hook: Mary Lambert]
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love, my love, my love
She keeps me warm [x4]

[Verse 2: Macklemore]
If I was gay
I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately
“Man that’s gay”
Gets dropped on the daily
We’ve become so numb to what we’re sayin’
Our culture founded from oppression
Yeah, we don’t have acceptance for ‘em
Call each other faggots
Behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate
Yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It’s the same hate that’s caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color
Complexion of your pigment
The same fight that lead people to walk-outs and sit-ins
Human rights for everybody
There is no difference
Live on! And be yourself!
When I was in church
They taught me something else
If you preach hate at the service
Those words aren’t anointed
And that Holy Water
That you soak in
Is then poisoned
When everyone else
Is more comfortable
Remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans
That have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same
But that’s not important
No freedom ’til we’re equal
Damn right I support it
[Trombone]
I don’t know

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

[Verse 3: Macklemore]
We press play
Don’t press pause
Progress, march on!
With a veil over our eyes
We turn our back on the cause
‘Till the day
That my uncles can be united by law
Kids are walkin’ around the hallway
Plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful
Some would rather die
Than be who they are
And a certificate on paper
Isn’t gonna solve it all
But it’s a damn good place to start
No law’s gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever god you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath it’s all the same love
About time that we raised up

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

[Outro: Mary Lambert]
Love is patient, love is kind
Love is patient (not cryin’ on Sundays)
Love is kind (not crying on Sundays) [x5]

Ethneezy raps about social issues – conscious hip-hop

Ethneezy – Hands of Time (2012)

Published on Dec 4, 2012 by orchardmusic
Music video by Ethneezy performing Hands of Time. (C) 2012 FOTO

Published on Aug 14, 2012 by KevinNgongo
Directed by Kevin Ngongo
Produced by Morfius

Vietnamese Cautiously Stand Up to Police Brutality

Published on Nov 2, 2012 by linktv
Policy brutality has long been a major issue in Vietnam, and has gone unchallenged due to government suppression. Yet as contributor Nguyen Qui Duc reports from Hanoi, advances in technology have allowed Vietnamese citizens to document the worst cases of brutality.

Nigeria seeks to curb child sorcery claims

Published on Nov 1, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
The Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom has introduced a law that makes it illegal to accuse children of withcraft and sorcery. The state has spent significant amounts of money to aid the hundreds of Nigerian children that had been branded withches in Akwa Ibom for years. But some say churches in the impoverished state where unemployment is rampant, must also be reigned in. Some activists cite the churches as the source of the belief that children are sorcerers or witches. Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege reports from Uyo.

Report Decries Treatment of Mentally Ill in Ghana

Published on Oct 16, 2012 by VOAvideo
In Ghana, mental illness is widely thought to be a spiritual matter — and so-called “prayer camps” fill the vacuum left by inadequate psychiatric health facilities. But an international human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, alleges the camps are unfit to deal with patients and are guilty of abuses. Nick Loomis has more from Accra.

Peru’s forcibly sterilised seek justice

Published on Mar 10, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
After years of denying any wrongdoing, Peru has reopened investigation into forcible sterilisation of women, what human rights groups say was a crime against humanity.

During the 1990s, more than 300,000 women were pressured into being sterilised by the government.

Doctors and nurses under Alberto Fujimori’s administration, between 1996 and 2000, were assigned monthly quotas and given bonuses based on the number of sterilisations they performed.

Al Jazeera’s Latin America Editor Lucia Newman reports from Anta on the women’s quest for justice.

Killed for Organs: China’s Secret State Transplant Business

Published on Oct 20, 2012 by NTDTV
It’s being called “abhorrent” and a “crime against humanity.” Allegations of forced organ harvesting in China started to surface in 2006. Since then, mounting evidence suggests these allegations are true—and even worse than originally suspected.

Prisoners of conscience—especially Falun Gong—are being killed for their organs.

Starting in 1999, the number of transplant centers in China increased by 300% in just 8 years, even though China has no effective national organ donation system. 1999 was the year the Chinese regime began persecuting adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, sending hundreds of thousands to labor camps. Many of them were never seen again.

Transplant medicine was developed to save lives. But in China, innocent people are being killed for their organs—so they can be sold for profit.

Increasingly, doctors, congressmen, international politicians, human rights lawyers, journalists, and people around the world are raising awareness about forced organ harvesting.

Rise in number of US Coptic Christians

Published on Oct 13, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
After the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s government last year the number of Egyptians granted asylum in the US doubled.

Many of them are minority Coptic Christians facing insecurity in their home country.

Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler reports from New York.

Angel Island’s painful legacy

Published on Oct 2, 2012 by chinadailyus
Perched in San Francisco Bay, Angel Island was opened in 1910. For the next 30 years, it was the point of entry for most of the 175,000 Chinese who immigrated to the United States.
One man detained at Angel Island, Show Nam Lee, who is now 91, shared with China Daily his memories of that time.