Tunisia prisons 'abusing rights'
Grok Headline matches for Tunisia prisons 'abusing rights'
Nepal 'abuses protesters' rights'
Nepal 'abuses protesters' rights'
04/11/2004 05:41 AMHundreds of detainees are being held in inhuman conditions, says
Nepal's human rights watchdog.
Dean Defends Rights' Record in Debate
(AP)
Dean Defends Rights' Record in Debate
(AP)
01/11/2004 10:27 PMAP - Under fire in a campaign debate, Howard Dean conceded grudgingly
Sunday night that he never named a black or Latino to his cabinet
during nearly 12 years as governor of Vermont.
PUC to decide consumer 'bill of rights'
today
PUC to decide consumer 'bill of rights'
today
05/27/2004 07:59 PMSan Jose Mercury News May 27 2004 10:50PM GMT
PSE to organize seminar on 'Intellectual
Property Rights':-
PSE to organize seminar on 'Intellectual
Property Rights':-
03/24/2005 05:08 AMWebindia123 Mar 24 2005 8:15AM GMT
`Telecom bill of rights' OK'd
(SiliconValley.com)
`Telecom bill of rights' OK'd
(SiliconValley.com)
05/28/2004 02:17 PMSiliconValley.com - Cellular phone customers will have a month to
cancel new contracts if they aren't satisfied with the service as part
of a landmark "telecommunications bill of rights" narrowly approved
Thursday by state regulators.
Bukidnon lumads assert 'intellectual
property rights'
Bukidnon lumads assert 'intellectual
property rights'
08/05/2004 12:09 AMMinda News Aug 5 2004 3:37AM GMT
Internet medicine ruling 'contravenes
human rights'
Internet medicine ruling 'contravenes
human rights'
12/12/2003 10:26 AMExpatica Spain Dec 12 2003 9:17AM ET
Tunisia
Tunisia
02/01/2005 10:10 PM
« The Sousse Ribat. Four galleries of photos from Tunisia; Black
& White, Colour, Carthage<
/a> and El Jem.
The people of Tunisia were decidedly uninterested in being
photographed and would hide their faces the moment they spotted a
tourist from 100 paces away. Next time, I go dressed as a Jawa. »
Tunisia was the destination for our winter holiday this year which
conjured a mixture of the exotic and the 'Star Wars' familiar in the
imagination. We departed late on Christmas Eve on a plane that had the
most cramped seating I've ever had the displeasure of sitting in and
still have the bruises on my kneecaps to prove it. I drank 3 glasses
of wine and chewed my fingernails to the quick to tamp down the
swirling homicidal urges directed at the woman in the seat in front of
me who kept bouncing the back of the seat not realising that the bumps
she was feeling in her back were my knees.
Fortunately, the flight was only four hours long. At passport
control, I watched a rather intimidating customs official linger over
every person and I began to be quite nervous about being a Yank. I
gave the man my papers and tried to do my best 'customs casual' hoping
that there wouldn't be a squad of armed guards if I looked too tense.
While waving about the folded receipt for my residence permit renewal
application that he found in the back of passport, "What's this?!", he
asked. I explained what it was and he then went through each and every
stamp in my passport. Twice. A few other questions and he tired of
toying with me and let me pass. A metal detector and two more passport
checks awaited us. Jarkko half-jokingly said to some other Finns on
the elevator in the hotel that he wouldn't be surprised if there was a
passport check at the room door. Welcome to Tunisia....
We strolled into Sousse on Christmas morning in search of coffee and
a general idea of the place we had flown into the night before. Sousse
is very much a product for the consumption of the tourists who come
there to visit but even with that in mind there were no McDonald's, no
Pizza Huts, no porn, no giant new shopping malls. There were a lot of
Santa and New Year decorations which were clearly part of the tourism
package but otherwise there were few signs of American/European
culture having found its way into Tunisia which was a refreshing
change of pace. Our 4-star hotel room even lacked a TV, telephone and
anything else electronic. It was paradise. We found a cafe and, after
nearly two years of strong Finnish coffee, the Tunisian coffee I
ordered 3 consecutive cups of was so good as to be sublime. I wanted
to order a thermos of it to go and I fantasized about a coffee
pipeline from the mediterranean to Finland.
The Sousse medina was like running a gauntlet at a an American vacuum
salesman convention in Las Vegas. Primed for an international
clientele, i.e. tourists, the shopkeepers would step into your path
and attempt to get you to look at their touristy crap at low prices
just for you. "Päivä! Päivä! Mitä kuuluu?" and "Raha on loppu?" was
their mantra to the pale folks like us dressed in black unless they
noticed my camera and then it was either "Wie gehts?" or something in
Dutch. I must admit that I admired their polyglot approach to pitching
their wares even if I wasn't so fond of their aggressive sales
tactics. Touristy towns always attract grifters. On our last day, we
experienced what I called a 'Tunisian mugging' delivered to us by an
old man who caught us off guard by speaking very good English and
offering to show us the way to the great mosque in the medina. A few
scary alleyways later, I shook his hand, thanked him and it dawned on
me that we had been had in the least clever manner possible. We gave
him a few coins and wandered back into familiar territory somewhat
relieved.
On the first evening in Sousse, we had a few drinks in the hotel pub
with a congenial bartender who would show his approval or disapproval
of drink choices and keep the flow of little plates of finger foods
coming all evening. At some point, between the second and third
indigenous cocktail concoction, a local businessman started chatting
us up and extolled the wonders the tax-free status businesses enjoy
for five years in Tunisia. I asked, of course, "What happens after
five years?", and he laughed a little too heartily and said, "You
change the name of the business." Apparently, Tunisians also enjoy a
Mexican-style privilege where they are allowed to hop over to Italy as
a source of cheap agricultural labour. The train to Tunis the
following day was a tour moving through olive groves and piles and
piles of rubbish. Hundreds of tissue paper thin plastic bags in white,
black, pink and other colours lay on open fields catching the wind
which looked like some post-modern crop ready for harvest. After so
many kilometers of rubble, rubbish and olives, a giant superdome of a
football stadium rises up out of the plain just outside Tunis which
instantly tells you where the national priority lies. The Lonely
Planet guidebook mentions, "Westerners are often shocked by the
depressing amount of litter in the countryside; it's not unusual to
see rubbish being thrown from cars or buses.", and continues to
mention that forests and animals are all but gone as well as
widespread pollution from heavy industries and water scarcity place
Tunisia pretty low on the environmental health index. I think anyone,
not just westerners, would be appalled by the rubbish covering the
countryside. I have a few German sayings that my mother used to quote
frequently that all basically say that you don't have to be rich to
avoid living like a pig. It makes you incredulous that empires fought
over this once prosperous and lush land that is now a giant landfill.
The Tunis medina was much larger, much more interesting and filled
with local goods instead of the tourist crap and the pushy salesmen
that went with it. It is not, not for the claustrophobic or
those who like personal space in a crowd. One local man got Jarkko's
attention and pointed from his eye to Jarkko's jacket pocket and let
him know he should be mindful of pickpockets in the very tight crush
of people. It was just a brochure for Carthage, but it was very nice
of him to try and help the obviously 'not from around here' shoppers.
I bought only one thing in Tunisia and that was an authentic fez. The
local costume is a brown wool cape with pointy hood [think Jawa] and
red wool fez sans tassel. I wanted to buy one fez with a tassel for
the perl pod mullah, but the man refused saying that those were only
for tourists. Uh...Yah. :)
After 8 years of Latin and Roman history, I was really excited about
seeing Carthage, but having seen downtown Tunis before riding the
local train out to the ruins I was already lowering my expectations.
Carthage is reportedly an upscale suburb but they must not expect
anyone to visit it on their own as there are few signs to the
scattered sites, no maps, and no visitors office for information. A
pile of garbage was sitting in front of a European embassy where
several cats were picking through it casually. I suppose that
'upscale' simply means better a garbage selection for the local stray
cats. The view of Tunis and the sea from Byrsa Hill was beautiful, but
after the museum the rest of the ruins were a bit too shabby for me to
bear. We headed back into Tunis to get some lunch and catch the train
to Sousse and, while I was waiting in line at the tabac, I watched
with some fascination a calligrapher decorating cards for people who
wanted something special for their New Year greetings.
After the depressing state we found Carthage and since we couldn't
make the trip to Dougga we decided to head for El Jem which the
guidebook spoke very highly of for its colosseum that was third
largest in the Roman empire. Getting there was half the fun since,
aside from the twice daily train, the only way to get there was via
louage. A louage is a shared ride where you go to the station, state
your destination and expect to ride on the roof of the minibus because
the guy with the goats needs more room and goats are more difficult to
tie down. Most of the roads are 2-lane and crowded with slowly moving
trucks so the louage drivers are constantly leapfrogging through
traffic. After a few terrifying moments where I could count the moles
on a truck drivers' face, I decided to stare out at the passing
scenery until we reached El Jem. :) Drivers chat on their mobile,
change the radio station, make change for passengers and pass slower
traffic all at the same time. It was a very cool experience, a bit
unsettling, but the view of the colosseum from the outskirts of town
was enough to know that even walking there would have been worth the
trip. El Jem, formerly known as Thysdrus, built its wealth by being a
transport hub in the olive trade and became the most opulent city
within the Roman empire by 238 AD. The city revolted, assassinated the
tax collector and proclaimed the African proconsul Gordian as Emperor
when Emperor Maximus attempted to apply a heavy tax and relocate that
wealth to Rome. Furious, Maximus punished the city and it faded from
the memory of time and would only be remembered much later through
some references made by Catholic priests.
The food was very good, especially the couscous and the olives.
Tunisian Celtia beer is a light pilsner that is surprisingly good as
are some of the local wines that we got bombed on one evening when it
was stormy outside and didn't want to leave the restaurant. The
appetizers are divine and full of fresh vegetables that I've not seen
in years, which I ate in spite of the brief thought of the fields
filled with rubbish contaminating the food supply. Hey, pollution
tastes yummy with enough chili and onion served with it. :)
Tunisia is a very interesting place and I'd recommend it to anyone
who is willing to deal with the inconveniences of a country that
hasn't quite made it to the 21st century or, more precisely, it has
many of the bad parts of modernization without most of the good ones.
If we decide to return sometime, we'll avoid the tourist compound,
hire a local guide and head for some of the more out of the way
places. Don't leave home without a good guidebook as you won't get
very much information from the tourist bureaus or a reasonable supply
of pocket tissue packs since toilet seats, hand soap and toilet
paper are rare commodities in public toilets. Next year, we're going
to go somewhere hot, sunny and more modern for our winter holiday. :)
Tunisia win Cup of Nations
Tunisia win Cup of Nations
02/14/2004 05:19 PMTunisia beat Morocco 2-1 to win their first-ever African Cup of
Nations.
First Ever 3G Call in Tunisia
First Ever 3G Call in Tunisia
09/22/2004 04:42 AM3G Sep 22 2004 8:11AM GMT
ZTE Touts Tunisia 3G
ZTE Touts Tunisia 3G
09/21/2004 02:34 PMUnstrung.com Sep 21 2004 5:26PM GMT
ZTE on top in Tunisia with first ever 3G
call
ZTE on top in Tunisia with first ever 3G
call
09/21/2004 09:01 AMWebitPR Sep 21 2004 1:32PM GMT
3G Pilot In Tunisia
3G Pilot In Tunisia
07/01/2004 07:05 AM3G Jul 1 2004 11:15AM GMT
Tunisia out of 2010 race
Tunisia out of 2010 race
05/08/2004 03:28 AMFifa president Sepp Blatter says Tunisia have pulled out of the race
to host the 2010 World Cup.
Tunisia Selects Huawei 3G
Tunisia Selects Huawei 3G
07/02/2004 06:32 AMUnstrung.com Jul 2 2004 10:48AM GMT
African Flagship 3G Network For Tunisia
African Flagship 3G Network For Tunisia
06/29/2004 04:24 AM3G Jun 29 2004 8:06AM GMT
ZTE to provide equipment for Tunisia 3G
network
ZTE to provide equipment for Tunisia 3G
network
06/29/2004 04:24 AMMena Report Jun 29 2004 8:14AM GMT
Tunisia make African final
Tunisia make African final
02/11/2004 02:53 PMTunisia reach the African Cup of Nations final after a penalty
shoot-out win over Nigeria.
ZTE To Provide African Flagship 3G
Network For Tunisia
ZTE To Provide African Flagship 3G
Network For Tunisia
06/28/2004 11:22 AMECTA Portal Jun 28 2004 3:30PM GMT
Light show opens Tunisia 2004
Light show opens Tunisia 2004
01/24/2004 05:06 PMA display of colour and culture kicks off the African Cup of Nations
in Tunisia.
TCS: Tech Central Station - An American
in Tunisia
TCS: Tech Central Station - An American
in Tunisia
08/12/2004 08:30 PMZTE Corporation of China to make the
first ever 3G call in Tunisia
ZTE Corporation of China to make the
first ever 3G call in Tunisia
09/21/2004 10:11 PMWi-Fi Technology Forum Sep 22 2004 2:28AM GMT
Prisons as training grounds...
Prisons as training grounds...
03/26/2005 12:57 PMBBC.&nbs
p; Is the prison system we are running in Iraq going to produce a crop
of well trained entrepreneurial guerrilla groups? Our
approach to incarceration accelerates the training/recruitment of
violent gangs in the huge US prison system. It will be
interesting to see if this is going to happen in Iraq.My gut
tells me it will.
Improvements to U.S. Prisons Sought (AP)
Improvements to U.S. Prisons Sought (AP)
05/16/2004 01:31 PMAP - The spotlight on abuse of detainees at a U.S. military prison in
Iraq has spurred hopes that some attention will spill over to prisons
stateside, where reformers say get-tough policies and public
indifference have let longstanding problems fester.
Officials Argue Over Sex in Prisons
(Reuters)
Officials Argue Over Sex in Prisons
(Reuters)
03/24/2005 11:47 AMReuters - South Africa's jails watchdog and
prison officials have locked horns in a public row over
proposals to allow consensual sex behind bars.
"Sadly, No!: Children in Iraqi prisons"
"Sadly, No!: Children in Iraqi prisons"
07/08/2004 08:34 AMScientology's Prisons and Slave Labor
Scientology's Prisons and Slave Labor
06/24/2005 04:49 PM
Here's an
account of
conditions and
abuse in a Scientology
prison camp.
Considering Scientology's
philosophy, the use of
prisons and
slave
labor
(often used for the benefit of
celebrities) shouldn't be
surprising. (for
these links, you may need a good
dictionary)
"draws a line from Abu Ghraib to US
prisons"
"draws a line from Abu Ghraib to US
prisons"
05/11/2004 03:41 AMNew Limits On Tactics At Prisons
(washingtonpost.com)
New Limits On Tactics At Prisons
(washingtonpost.com)
05/15/2004 12:01 AMwashingtonpost.com - The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq has barred
military interrogators from using the most coercive techniques
potentially available to them in the past, declaring that requests to
employ the measures against detainees will no longer even be
considered, officials said yesterday.
Commander of Coalition Prisons
Apologizes (AP)
Commander of Coalition Prisons
Apologizes (AP)
05/05/2004 08:19 AMAP - The commander of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq apologized Wednesday
for the "illegal or unauthorized acts" committed by soldiers at the
Abu Ghraib prison, where photographs showed Iraqi prisoners were
abused by smiling American guards.
Denmark Prisons Ban Heavy Dumbbells (AP)
Denmark Prisons Ban Heavy Dumbbells (AP)
01/23/2004 04:12 PMAP - Pumping iron — at least heavy dumbbells — will be
banned in Danish prisons following complaints by wardens who feel
threatened by inmates turning themselves into "monster men," officials
said Friday.
The Secret World Of Us Terrorist Prisons
The Secret World Of Us Terrorist Prisons
06/14/2004 12:30 AMFree Internet Press Jun 14 2004 4:13AM GMT
U.S.: no widespread abuse in Iraq
prisons
U.S.: no widespread abuse in Iraq
prisons
05/02/2004 02:06 PMU.S.: No Widespread Abuse in Iraq
Prisons (AP)
U.S.: No Widespread Abuse in Iraq
Prisons (AP)
05/02/2004 09:47 AMAP - Top U.S. military officer Gen. Richard Myers said Sunday there is
no widespread pattern of abuse of Iraqi prisoners and that the actions
of "just a handful" of U.S. troops at a Baghdad prison have unfairly
tainted all American forces.
AP: Prisons Lax on Muslim Chaplain
Checks (AP)
AP: Prisons Lax on Muslim Chaplain
Checks (AP)
05/04/2004 07:47 PMAP - Federal prison officials are failing to adequately screen Muslim
chaplains and others who provide Islamic religious services to inmates
to determine whether they hold extremist views, Justice Department
investigators say.
U.S. prisons to end boot-camp program
(USATODAY.com)
U.S. prisons to end boot-camp program
(USATODAY.com)
02/05/2005 10:15 PMUSATODAY.com - Prison boot camps are getting the boot. The Federal
Bureau of Prisons plans to eliminate its "intensive confinement"
program after the current batch of 525 inmates completes the
military-style course over the next six months at boot camps in
California, Pennsylvania and Texas.
U.S. Wants Quick Handover of Iraq
Prisons (Reuters)
U.S. Wants Quick Handover of Iraq
Prisons (Reuters)
05/18/2004 04:32 PMReuters - The United States will hand over
control of military prisons in Iraq to a new Baghdad government
as quickly as possible, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, as
senators questioned plans for the transition of power in the
wake of the prison abuse scandal.
Smoking bans spread to prisons
(USATODAY.com)
Smoking bans spread to prisons
(USATODAY.com)
07/22/2004 07:52 AMUSATODAY.com - The last sanctuary for smokers in government buildings
has always been the worst place to be - prison. But those institutions
are fast becoming smoke-free, to the anguish of nicotine-addicted
prisoners and guards.
Report Warns of Infiltration by Al Qaeda
in U.S. Prisons
Report Warns of Infiltration by Al Qaeda
in U.S. Prisons
05/05/2004 11:17 AMGroups promoting extremist brands of Islam have gained a foothold in
American prisons, according to a Justice Department investigation.
Grok Description matches for Tunisia prisons 'abusing rights'
GrokA matches for Tunisia prisons 'abusing rights'
Tunisia prisons 'abusing rights'
