Category Archives: Freedom

One recent Saturday morning Katie Kowalski was helping get people with disabilities back on bicycles. She had her hands midway up my right calf, working it into a black attachment that was half-bike, half-ankle foot orthotic. She tightened a gear with a blue-headed wrench, then secured velcro straps and double-checked my helmet. With her nod of approval, I hit the pedals hard and headed onto a path at Edgewood Park.

Low-hanging trees and frizz-topped grasses bent in the wind to say hello. A couple walking their dog pulled over to the side of the road, long enough for me to notice that they werent keeping leash laws. My cycling partner, bike advocate Paul Hammer, regaled me with the history of invasive species in the park. As we cruised toward the parks small lake, a gust of cool air pressed up against my face, delivering a burst of early summer smells. Everything felt green.

It was a normal bike ride, except the bike was a recumbent, and my feet were in all sorts of toe clips, and I was riding a bike for the first time in almost 20 years. In under 10 minutes, it reminded me why biking is magical and yet still an uphill pedal in this city, especially if you have any sort of barrier to moving.

In collaboration with Northeast Passage, Bike-On, Ti Trikes-CT Adaptive Cycling, and New Haven Parks, Gaylord Hospitals sports association moved its annual adaptive bike clinic to New Haven this year as part of New Haven Bike Month, Mays month-long cycling extravaganza. When I found out Gaylord was holding the clinic here instead of its Wallingford facility, I had that finger-tingling, cheek-warming, muscle-flexing good feeling. I had wanted to get back on a bike for years, and this finally seemed like the way to do it.

I havent always needed an adaptive bike. Until I was 8, I had the idyllic, easy relationship with cycling that you see on Modern Family or The Middle. My dad taught me to ride by running alongside me, holding the kid-sized handlebars, on a tree-lined block and then letting go of the bike, letting it roll down the sidewalk until I learned to brake at the end of the street. Then in September 1998, I was in a car accident on my way home from elementary school. Our babysitter had a stroke and drifted one lane over. The backseat became detached and flipped over with me and my brother in it. When I woke up, there was a ventilator down my throat and I couldnt move the right side of my body.

I understood, still, that I was coming to Gaylords bike clinic with a level of privilege. I wasnt just young, when the brain is most plastic, when the accident happened. I was young and white, in a city where the hospital has a strong pediatric intensive care unit. The car crashed in an affluent suburb where the EMT workers were there in minutes. My parents had health insurance through their employers. I had a team of physical therapists, orthoticists, and neurologists that was willing to follow me through college. My right ankle was, and continues to be, more putty than muscle but I relearned to walk, and can do so without complaint on six of seven days in any week. Standing on two feet is an extraordinary luxury that we dont think about until were made to.

Michael Mancini was in the passenger side of a car with which a drunk driver collided 10 years ago, leaving him in a wheelchair. A hockey player before his accident, he was checking out the adaptive selections that Gaylord offers, including wheelchair tennis and hockey. But he hesitated to talk about the accident. It was so long ago, he said when I first asked. Time kind of flies when youre keeping busy. The sentence hit me like a ton of bricks.

There were also participants like Pam Rickert, who suffered a stroke over seven years ago and was getting back on a bike while awaiting a stem cell trial in Boston next month. As she described the spasticity she gets in her arms and hands, I showed her my right hand, the fingers curled into the palm like a small shell. I had taken my anti-spasticity meds that morning too, I joked. They werent helping all that much.

There was a horrible kinship there: we were a bunch of Harry Potters, sitting in a circle talking about how we defied the odds and earned our weirdly shaped scars. We were a group whose members had forgotten, almost everyone remarked, what it felt like to be on a bike, city streets opening up before us.

Until the bike clinic. As participants arrived a little past 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, Gaylord Sports Program Manager Katie Joly and representatives from Bike Month and adaptive cycling institutions unloaded dozens of adaptive bikes from three large trailers, setting them on the flat parking lot beside Coogan Pavillon. Some recumbents laid far back, a move designed for people who need to lean back as they pedal. Others focused on hand pedals, which direct bikes with upper body power. In a corner of the lot, volunteers unpacked a cabinet of orthotic curiosities: wide, walled-in pedals for added foot support, four or five kinds of toe clips and foot ties.

As I surveyed rows of recumbent tricycles that Gaylord, Northeast Passage, Bike On, and Ti Trikes-CT Adaptive Cycling had rolled out for the event, Stone was already testing out models that fit his lifestyle, which includes weekly games of wheelchair rugby with the Connecticut Jammers. (It is the only Paralympic sport that allows full contact; watching the documentary Murderball in the hospital had initially inspired Stone to take up the sport). Transitioning from a heavy, low-sitting recumbent with partial hand control to an off-road, thick-tired hand cycle, Stone let escape a few woo hoos.

Then I was off, riding toward one of the parks little lakes with Hammer by my side. Ill fish you out if you go into the river, he said as I tried (unsuccessfully) to pull up the Independents live Facebook feature, pedal forward, steer and take notes. Only after my phone was perched between my teeth did I realize it probably wasnt going to work.

Bikes dont just open up public spaces they feel urgent, and necessary, and yet maddeningly out of reach. As a carless reporter, I rely on my feet and the public bus to get me to assignments on time. Biking is only faster than one of those. But it comes, it seems, with an added side of freedom.

One of our missions is to get more people out riding, and that means everybody said Hammer of the Bike Month effort. Hammer has himself suffered a traumatic brain injury. There are still so many barriers to riding, and we want to find ways around those barriers.

If youre able to afford and store an adaptive bike they generally go for between $3,000 and $4,000 where are you supposed to ride it? Theres the states sleek new five-mile cycle track, a possible spot for recreational riding that is greatexcept when youre a reporter trying to get somewhere.

The Gaylord Sports Association offers a free monthly adaptive cycle ride on the Farmington Canal Rail Trail, starting at Lock 12 of the trail in Cheshire. Thats great, if you can get to Cheshire. Of the participants I talked to at the clinic, very few had driven themselves. Because adaptive driving, too, is a world full of red tape, expensive equipment and time-consuming lessons.

Between Jan. 1, 2016 and Jan. 1 of this year, there were 7,821 auto accidents in New Haven, according to the University of Connecticuts Crash Data Repository. These accidents involved 15,531 vehicles and 20,075 people, with 43 fatalities and 353 suspected serious injuries. Of those, 34 involved collisions with cyclists. Two have been close friends of mine. It makes you think twice.

The data in the repository havent been vetted or cleaned, said city transit chief Doug Hausladen in an email exchange about auto-bike collisions, though they do provide a glimpse into traffic conditions for cyclists. And there are other ways to have a bike accident: a pothole your tires arent ready for, sharply sloping curve, problem braking.

So these streets? Itll still be a while. Maybe someday, Ill see you there.

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Many A Mile To Freedom - New Haven Independent

In a sane version of the United States, legislation allowing religious groups the freedom to opt out of laws that would require them to violate their beliefs would be a mostly non-controversial story.

But this is 2017, and propagandists infect both sides of every debate.

A Trump administration regulation currently under consideration would protect religious groups from having to participate in the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring that they cover services like the morning-after pill.

"[T]he new rule would leave in place the religious accommodation' created by the Obama administration, making that route available to groups that choose to continue using it," the pro-religious liberty group, the Becket Fund, explained this week, referring to the leaked proposal.

They added, "The new rule also makes it clear that insurers may issue separate policies to women whose employers are exempt from the mandate. The contraceptive mandate issue has been to the Supreme Court five times, and each time the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of broader protections for religious groups."

The Becket Fund has defended the Little Sisters of the Poor in their ongoing quest to be exempt from the HHS mandate.

"This rule, if made official in this form, is consistent with those Supreme Court rulings. If the rule goes into effect, further legal action will still be necessary to wrap up the challenges to the prior version of the mandate," said the Becket Fund.

Seems reasonable.

Let's head over now to Vox.comland and see how they handled the leaked rule story.

The original Vox.com headline in the matter read, "Trump's birth control crackdown is coming."

Oh, come on.

"Any day now, President Trump is expected to roll back Obamacare's contraceptive mandate," reporter Dylan Scott wrote this week for his healthcare newsletter. "The Trump administration had a few options for undercutting the health care law's requirement that all health plans cover contraceptives at no cost to the woman."

He continued, "It appears they'll take the religious freedom' route, making it easier for employers with religious objections to skirt the mandate."

Nice scare quotes.

You know, next time you hear national reporters kvetch about the Trump administration admitting right-wing flunkies to daily press briefings, remember that the Vox.com propagandists were a constant presence at the Obama White House.

Same trash, different teams.

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Shockingly, Vox.com is misleading people about Trump, religious freedom, and the contraceptive mandate - Washington Examiner

New York Times

At the Movies, the Beach Is the Ultimate Freedom. And in Life? New York Times It's summer, even if it doesn't feel like it yet in New York. To get ourselves in the warm-weather spirit, we went to see Baywatch, the new big-screen reboot of the 1990s TV series, starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron as crime-solving lifeguards.

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At the Movies, the Beach Is the Ultimate Freedom. And in Life? - New York Times

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Xinjiang is home to most of the nations Muslim Uighur minority and borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Authorities in Beijing have expressed concern that Muslim separatist groups in the region are feeding the population of Islamic State jihadists in the groups Middle Eastern strongholds in Syria and Iraq.The Islamic State recently released a videofeaturing Uighur terrorists who vowed to return home to conduct terrorist attacks there.

Chinas state-run, English-language media ran the full report from the State Council Information Office on Thursday, which applauds the Chinese government for taking effective measures to develop the economy, improve peoples living standards, enhance the well-being of the public, promote ethnic unity and progress, and safeguard the basic rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

Normal religious needs of local people have been satisfied, ChinasGlobal Times asserts, citing the report. The text of the report asserts that the people of all Xinjiangs ethnic groups enjoy the same status and the same rights, and must fulfill the same obligations in accordance with the law. Their political rights as citizens are fully protected.

The five-part report spends much of its energy on environmental rights, health care, and economic equality. On health care, for example, the report condemns the free government preceding the communist Peoples Republic of China, claiming Xinjiangs population suffered a shortage of doctors and medicines, and epidemics of diseases, such as the plague, smallpox, and cholera.

It then goes on to claim that the Chinese government has successfully curbed radical Islamic terror in Xinjiang:

Since the 1990s, violent terrorists, nationalist separatists, and religious extremists have plotted and committed a series of violent terrorist crimes, causing loss of life to and damaging the property of people of all ethnic groups

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has taken a series of measures designed to strike against violent terrorist crimes, strengthen social protection and control, modernize the governance system and capacity, and safeguard the lives and property of all the people of Xinjiang, whatever their ethnic group. These measures include the promulgation and implementation of the Measures of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Enforcement of the Anti-Terrorism Law of the Peoples Republic of China.

The report then asserts that China has protected freedom of religion in Xinjiang by expanding the governments power to control religious practices by implementing Regulations on Anti-extremism of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and working to strengthen management of religious affairs in accordance with the law.

The claims in the report echo those of a similar publication released almost exactly one year ago, titled Freedom of Religious Belief in Xinjiang, which asserted that Normal religious activities in Xinjiang are protected by law, and religious organizations are responsible for coordinating internal religious affairs and the government should not interfere. This year, the Chinese government white paper did not claim that the government had minimized its interference in religion, insteadclaiming its interference aided the normal practice of religion.

The new report also emphasizes the governments push to replace the Uighur language with Putonghua, or common tongue (Mandarin). The Constitution stipulates that the state promotes the nationwide use of Putonghua in accordance with the law, the report notesbut asserts that the common use of Uighur in public is a sign the government protects the Uighur language. In reality, the Chinese government announced a nationwide campaign to eradicate non-Mandarin languages in January, which corresponded with the development of a plan to promote intermarriage between Uighurs and the Han minority and the imposition of a variety of ordinances that prohibit overly Islamic activity in public.

Among the activities prohibited in public in Xinjiang is the wearing of burqas in the capital city ofUrumqi, theuse of public transportation while wearing any Islamic garb,and the observance of the Ramadan fast by Communist Party officials.If we think that someone may be fasting, we will invite them to the village office to drink tea with us to see if they are fasting or not, Alim Abdurahman, a Xinjiang official, toldRadio Free Asialast year.

The Chinese government also forces Muslim shops to carrya variety of alcohol and cigarettebrands to encourage the violation of Quranic laws against the consumption of these products.

Beijing has also banned Muslim parents in Xinjiang from giving their children overly religious names like Islam, Jihad, or Muhammad.

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China Observes Ramadan by Praising Itself for 'Religious Freedom' in Muslim Xinjiang - Breitbart News

"Since I arrived in South Sudan, January 2016, there has been a change in media censorship. Earlier, journalists were tortured and media houses physically closed, but now there is more self-censorship. The press are being threated. Journalists and media owners are being told to watch what they publish or broadcast," Ndinoshiho says.

According to the International Federation of Journalists, South Sudanese journalists are frequently harassed, intimidated, beaten or abducted, and sometimes killed. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks South Sudan as the fifth worst country in the world when it comes to holding the killers of journalists accountable for their crimes.

"The country is not safe, so journalists are not safe", says Ndinoshiho.

For the past year, Mwatile Ndinoshiho has been deployed to UNESCO in South Sudan, as a Communication and Information Specialist. Much of her work is concentrated around the UN Plan of Action on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity.

South Sudan has legal protection for the freedom of expression and the media, and the constitution guarantees media freedom. However, defamation is seen as a criminal offense and within the legal framework there are limits to press freedom and freedom of expression.

Although restrictions decreased after the establishment of the South Sudan Media Authority in September 2016, there is still some control of media activity, both for national and international journalists.

The country's economy is failing, and combined with the current conflict and dire humanitarian conditions, the government is not be able to fund the Media Authority or other similar institutions that help the public access information, participate in governance and demand accountability.

"Citizens, including journalists, need to understand that they have a right to information and how they can apply it. There is also a need for media donors and development partners to support institutions such as the Media Authority that deal with complaints, hearings and other media-related incidents, "Ndinoshiho says.

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Press freedom in a conflict-ridden country - Norwegian Refugee Council

Star Parker 11:17 a.m. CT June 1, 2017

Star Parker(Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO FROM CREATORS)

Intolerance, at times exploding into violence, is spreading throughout our society. And its coming from the political Left.

Its happening on college campuses. Most recently, students walked out on Vice President Mike Pences commencement address at Notre Dame University.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was interrupted by boos and jeers at her commencement address at historically black Bethune-Cookman University.

Conservative scholar Charles Murray was met with violent protests at Middlebury College. Another conservative scholar, Heather Mac Donald, was violently shut down in a presentation she was giving at Claremont McKenna College. These are just a couple examples.

Notre Dame graduates walk out of Notre Dame Stadium in protest as Vice President Mike Pence speaks during the 2017 commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 21, 2017, in South Bend, Ind. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP) ORG XMIT: INSBE703(Photo: Robert Franklin, AP)

Now its spreading off college campuses with reports of violence and threats toward Republican members of Congress, and their families, as they hold town halls in their districts.

A column in The Hill newspaper bears the headline, Republicans fearing for their safety as anger, threats mount.

Whats happening?

A recent commentary in Forbes Magazine from a London School of Business professor calls this The Post-Truth World.

He describes a prevailing feeling of helplessness as individuals inhabit a world in which knowledge is, in general, exploding but each individual knows, relatively, less and less. And he points to a world in which business and politics are becoming increasingly interdependent.

New York University psychologist Jonathan Haidt attributes whats happening to a culture in which young people are not forced to deal with opposing viewpoints. This, says Haidt, is amplified by social media, which serves to reinforce existing biases.

But all this doesnt explain why the intolerance and violence is coming mainly from the political Left.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center sheds light on this.

Sixty-six percent of Republicans compared to 29 percent of Democrats say that a person is rich because they worked harder than most people rather than because of having personal advantages in life. This 37 percent difference in attitudes of Republicans and Democrats about why some people are rich is 12 points larger today than where it stood just three years ago in 2014.

Seventy-one percent of Democrats compared to 32 percent of Republicans say someone is poor because of circumstances beyond a persons control, rather than because of lack of effort. This 37 percent difference between Republicans and Democrats in attitudes regarding why someone is poor is 19 points larger than where it stood three years ago in 2014.

The nation is becoming increasingly polarized on the very fundamental question regarding the extent to which individuals have control over their own life.

Across the nations whole population, 53 percent feel poverty is the result of circumstances beyond an individuals control compared to 34 percent who see poverty as the result of lack of effort.

What is the meaning of freedom in a country where more than half its citizens feel fate rather than choice governs their life?

Not surprisingly, for the first time in 8 years, according to Pew, more Americans (48 percent) say they want bigger government than say they want smaller government (45 percent).

Conservatives are exposed to the same cultural and technological forces as liberals. But its not what comes from outside that determines human behavior. Its what comes from inside the individuals attitudes and approach to life.

Liberal mentality, increasingly dominated by moral relativism, produces a culture of victimhood. The victim sees life exclusively in political terms, seeing political power and government as the means to a better life, rather than freedom and personal responsibility.

With Republicans now in power, trying to restore economic vitality and fiscal balance by limiting government and expanding personal freedom, the Left sees this as a threat, not an opportunity.

We all should be deeply troubled that, in the land of the free and home of the brave, some are turning to violence to battle the prospect of becoming freer.

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Liberal fight against freedom turns violent - The Daily Advertiser

Common Dreams

Give the Portland Heroes the Presidential Medal of Freedom Common Dreams As we honored and remembered over the Memorial Day weekend so many who have died for justice and freedom, I found myself inordinately haunted by the Portland, Ore., stabbing of three men who came to the defense of two young women being bullied ...

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Give the Portland Heroes the Presidential Medal of Freedom - Common Dreams

GENEVA A U.N. rights expert who visited Japan last year noted significant worrying signals for the countrys freedom of expression and opinion in a report released on Tuesday in Geneva.

The lack of debate over historical events, restrictions on access to information justified on national security grounds and government pressure on media require attention lest they undermine Japans democratic foundations, said David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

The report, to be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council in June, is the result of the first research ever on freedom of expression in Japan conducted by a U.N. special rapporteur.

Kaye criticized the governments influence over school textbooks, saying members of the Textbook Authorization Research Council are ultimately appointed by the education ministry.

Government influence over how textbooks treat the reality of the crimes committed during the Second World War undermines the publics right to know and its ability to grapple with and understand its past, Kaye said.

He noted in particular the gradual disappearance from textbooks of the issue of comfort women, who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II. The issue was first introduced in textbooks in 1997.

While all seven 1997 junior high school history textbooks took up the issue, no description was included in textbooks from 2012 to 2015 and only one mentioned it in 2016.

Kaye also aired concerns about the contentious secrecy law for the prevention of leaks of state secrets that took effect in 2014.

Under the law, civil servants or others who leak designated secrets could face up to 10 years in prison, and those who instigate leaks, including journalists, could be subject to prison terms of up to five years.

While welcoming government efforts to clarify the four specific categories under which information may be designated as secret defense, diplomacy, prevention of specified harmful activities and prevention of terrorist activities Kaye warned that specific subcategories remain overly broad and thus involve the risk of being arbitrarily applied.

Regarding government pressure on media, Kaye raised concerns over the broadcasting law and particularly its Article 4, which provides the basis for the government to suspend broadcasting licenses if TV stations are not politically fair.

Kaye said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications should not be in the position of determining what is fair.

Government evaluation of such broadly stated norms would lead to deterrence of the medias freedom to serve as a watchdog, if it is not already creating such disincentives to reporting, he added.

Kaye, professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, specializes in international human rights law and international humanitarian law. He was appointed as rapporteur by the Human Rights Council in August 2014.

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U.N. rights expert airs concern about Japan's freedom of expression - The Japan Times

Robert Bush, 99 of West Manchester Township, is recognized during the the annual York County Memorial Day service at Veterans Memorial Park, Sunday, May 29, 2017. Bush, who served in the Army under General Patton from 1942-1946, will turn 100 in September. John A. Pavoncello photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)Buy Photo

Locals gathered at memorial sites and parade routes across York County on Monday to honor fallen soldiers as part of Memorial Day, which one local politician called a day to be meaningful, thoughtful and thankful.

In York City, local veterans, politicians and community residents gathered at Veterans Memorial Park, where York County Veterans Affairs Director Terry Gendron spoke about the memorial's founding nearly 55 years ago.

This monument tenders honor to each dedicated, unique, irreplaceable personality who went out from this community to serve to spare those of us who are the great beneficiaries of their sacrifice to live ever more fruitful lives,Gendron said.

Attendants of the event included Gendron, York City Mayor Kim Bracey, York City Council President Michael Helfrich, York County President Commissioner Susan Byrnes, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry R-Dillsburg, and state Rep. Carol Hill-Evans D-York City.

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At the ceremony, Byrnes announced a proclamation on behalf of the York County Board of Commissioners to mark Memorial Day in York County. She said the care and support for veterans is a No. 1 priority for all York countians and called on locals to be ever mindful of the total sacrifice that was given freely by our nations military men and women.

Perry delivered the main address at the event, telling onlookers that he wanted to tell them something that he recently experienced.

I said, Have a happy Memorial Day, and as I said it, I knew thats not something you say, he said. Thats something you should never say. The audience of about 100 applauded.

Its easy to get caught up into all the holidays, but its not just another holiday, Perry said.Weve got to think about that.

Before he was married and had children, the Iraq War veteran and brigadier general in the Pennsylvania National guard said he spent his Memorial Days by himself, just mowing the lawn and thinking about what Memorial Day was about, and he revealed his conclusions to those in attendance.

Its about the choices that we have, he said. Freedom is not free.

Perry concluded his remarks by thankingattendants and wishing them a "meaningful, thoughtful (and) thankful" Memorial Day.

Local vets: Many of those in attendance were veterans from wars past and present, and among them was a veteran who served under Gen. George Patton in World War II.

Robert Bush, 99, kept repeating Im glad I came to the many veterans who approached him to thank him and get photos with him. He enlisted in 1942 at age 24, and 75 years after his enlistment, he still urges men to enlist into the army.

We all had a number then, Bush said of the draft, but he enlisted before he formally received a letter about conscription.

I beat the draft by 12 hours, he said.

Bush said Memorial Day was a day of rest for those lost, and he appeared to echo some of Perrys remarks.

I never celebrated anything, he said.My wife and I, we never went out to have fun on Memorial Day.

"I know several men that didn't make it back," said Vietnam veteran Otto Sexton. He said he has attended the Memorial Park ceremony for the past 15 years and believes the ceremony reinforces the freedoms we have that many around the world do not have.

"Freedom, freedom of speech, just freedom in general," Sexton said."We just don't know how important that is."

Richard Leonard, left of York, and Ron Etheridge, or Dover Township, from VFW Post #556 talk with fellow veterans John Stambaugh, 96 of West Manchester Township who served in WWII and Korea, and Robert Bush, 99, who served under General Patton during WWII before the annual York County Memorial Day service at Veterans Memorial Park, Sunday, May 29, 2017. John A. Pavoncello photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)

Wrightsville parade: In Wrightsville, a parade brought out locals to cheer on the marching bands, police and pipers that marked the 15-minute parade.

Wrightsville native Gina Frey said she was glad that the ceremony took place after last years parade unexpectedly didnt occur.

Joe Taney, second vice commander of the American Legion Post 469, which handles the orchestration of the parade, said the event was scrapped last year due to confusion by newly elected officers over the jurisdiction of the parade.

They assumed the borough assembled the parade, he said, and since the officers were elected two months before the parade, they decided to postpone it until this year.

After the mix-up last year, Taney said he is glad the ceremony came back strong this year.

Based on feedback we got, it looks like everything went well, he said.

Taney said he looks forward to creating abigger and better Memorial Day parade next year.

Its great to recognize fallen soldiers, Frey said. She said she was told war stories from her uncle who served in World War II and grew to value the sacrificethat wasmade.

She said she also remembers the difficult reception many veterans received during the Vietnam War when she was youngerand said that alone should keep the parade going on in Wrightsville.

Even if it was just one little band (marching), wed hold the parade, Frey said. Thats the kind of town we are.

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Memorial Day in York: 'Freedom is not free' - York Dispatch

Editors Note: The Oslo Freedom Forum took place last week. This is the annual human-rights gathering in the Norwegian capital. Jay Nordlingers journal on the gathering, and related matters, began yesterday, here.

I see a man in the elevator whom I recognize. But I cant place him. Have we met? In a few seconds, I realize who he is: Guillermo Farias, the great Cuban dissident. I have read about him and written about him for years.

And here he is, in the flesh. Which to me is somehow astonishing. (Later, I will interview him at length.)

There is a reception in City Hall, site of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Among the many at the reception is a human-rights advocate I know, who is currently working on resettling endangered Turkish journalists in democratic countries.

I mention a recent episode in Washington, D.C.: where Erdogans goons set upon a group of peaceful protesters. Right on American soil. They beat the hell out of those protesters, including the women.

My friend says, Oh, thats just the tip of the iceberg. What they do at home is unspeakable.

She makes a further point, my friend does: For a very long time, democracies tolerated Erdogan in part because his Turkey was a buffer between Europe and floods of refugees and migrants even more than arrived in Europe regardless.

A big topic

The mayor of Oslo, Marianne Borgen, makes remarks. She is followed by Manal al-Sharif, whom I mentioned in Part I of this journal: She is the Saudi human-rights activist. (She has dared to drive a car, for example.)

She mentions similarities between her country and Norway: two oil kingdoms; beautiful landscapes (though very different); wonderful people. Yet the mayor of Norways capital city is a woman, and so, for that matter, is the prime minister.

Not very Saudi

The Oslo Freedom Forum gives a Vclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent. Winners receive a statuette, in the form of the goddess of democracy, carried by students in Tiananmen Square. Manal al-Sharif is a past winner of this prize.

Here in City Hall, she tells us that she had never heard of Havel. Or Tiananmen Square. Or the goddess of democracy. In Saudi Arabia, you can be kept in the dark about many things, and that goes double if youre a woman.

Among the attendees is Rosa Mara Pay, a marvelous young woman. She is the daughter of Oswaldo Pay, the Cuban democracy leader, murdered by the regime in 2012. His daughter is carrying on his work.

I did a podcast with her last year. To hear it, go here.

This year, she tells me that Cuban democrats put up a plaque in honor of her father. Within a few hours, the government had taken it down.

Well, one day, I hope, there will be a big statue of Oswaldo Pay in Havana. Maybe one of Rosa Mara too.

I meet a friend of mine whos an expert in free speech. We discuss the situation on U.S. campuses. I say, I never thought Id live to see the day when free speech is treated as some kind of right-wing plot. We both shake our heads, virtually speechless.

In America, I dont see 7-Elevens much anymore. The most I have ever seen anywhere was Taipei. Oslo has its share, too. They often smell of those wieners, dont they?

At an intersection, the light tells us that there are 58 seconds left until we can walk. Everyone is waiting obediently. There are no cars coming. I cant stand it. Im a scofflaw. My American feet just want to move.

Come and get me, copper! (They dont, thankfully.)

At the opera house, there is a long, long slope concrete (or something). Its like a small mountain. Not a bunny hill. And little, little kids are riding their scootery things down it, going very, very fast.

I can barely look

At the Nye Theater, the Freedom Forum is taking place. First at the podium is Erna Solberg, the prime minister of Norway. She is a jolly-looking woman. (Is that hate speech?)

She begins, Ladies and gentlemen, friends of democracy, defenders of human rights. I like that.

I also like her occasionally creative English as in, The lackage of human rights fuels extremism. Why not? (And the statement is of course perfectly true.)

She mentions that May is the month of democracy and freedom in Norway. On the 8th, they celebrate their liberation after World War II. And the 17th is their Constitution Day.

In my experience, politicians rarely refer to themselves as politicians. Other people are politicians. I like that Solberg refers to herself as a politician as in not least for us politicians.

Later, she says something like the following I am paraphrasing, but closely: We should all be troubled when politicians invoke the will of the people to put themselves above the rule of law. This is a dangerous form of populism, which undermines democratic checks and balances and weakens democratic society.

Hear, hear.

After her formal remarks, she does a brief Q&A with Thor Halvorssen. Thor brings up the resource curse. He says that, of the top ten energy producers in the world, only two are democracies: Canada and Norway. Why is oil a blessing for Norway rather than a curse?

Solberg says, simply and rightly, that you have to have democratic institutions in place. Transparency and all the rest of it. Then oil is a blessing. But if you have a tyranny or autocracy, with a culture of corruption floods of wealth make it all the worse.

Thor also asks her about women in politics. As you know, Norway has plenty of women in high places. I love how Prime Minister Solberg begins her answer: I dont believe that everything good in Norway is due to the fact that we have women in politics, but

In Part I, I mentioned Wai Wai Nu, the young woman who represents the Rohingya minority in Burma. A brave person, who has already been through a lot too much in her life. Here in the theater, she is giving a formal talk.

Ill tell you something sad: Apparently, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese heroine, and Nobel peace laureate, is indifferent to the sufferings and persecution of the Rohingyas. I would like to know what she has to say for herself on this score.

Wai Wai Nu says that Buddhist nationalists target not only Rohingyas but Hindus, Christians, and other minorities too. (Typical, the majority lording it over other people.)

By the way, Wai Wai Nu has taken part in the Liberty and Leadership Forum at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. (Her bio from this program is here.)

Im not surprised. GWB, what a man. A great man. And doing a great deal of good.

Now on the stage is Grace Jo, a North Korean escapee. I wont give you too many details. They are very grim, as usual.

As a child, she was starving. For ten days, she went without food. Her body got very hot. Her black hair turned yellow.

Two of her brothers starved to death.

One day, her grandmother found six newborn mice under a rock. She boiled them and gave them to her granddaughter to eat. The little girl was five years old.

State agents beat her father to death. They beat her mother, too, though not to death, apparently.

I could go on. Anyway, Grace Jo is now in the United States, and takes part in a group called NKinUSA. She tells us that, in 2013, she gained American citizenship, and I am now considered Korean American. She then breaks into a wonderful smile a wonderful smile after all that grimness. Behind her is a picture of herself at what is apparently her citizenship ceremony. She is waving a little American flag.

Not a bad country, for all thats said about it

By the way, Grace too has an association with the GWB Center (go here). Not surprised.

Over the years, I have heard a great many speakers at the Oslo Freedom Forum, and interviewed a fair number: dissidents, expolitical prisoners, escapees. Its amazing how many of them mention Animal Farm, George Orwells parable. They mention it to say, This describes our situation.

How did Orwell know? He knew. And he expressed it brilliantly in Animal Farm and 1984.

Raed Fares mentions Animal Farm. He is a Syrian democracy activist and journalist. He tells us about the brutality in his country. He also shows us video, documenting the same. It all beggars belief.

The Syrian uprising began in 2011 in the midst of the broader Arab Spring. Despots throughout the region were under pressure. Two schoolboys in the city of Daraa daubed a graffito: Your turn, doctor. In other words, Youre next, Bashar Assad (the ophthalmologist-turned-dictator).

This triggered a hell that has not let up.

In the Nye Theater, Raed Fares says, Assad will continue to murder, but well keep going until our dream comes true: a free and democratic Syria for all.

At this point, Fares takes a guitar-like instrument I dont know what to call it and strums a patriotic song.

We have a coffee break. A young German entrepreneur says to me, How can we do normal things how can we have a coffee break and chat after hearing what weve heard? After seeing evidence of these horrors? Well, thats what you do. You keep on with life.

It can be jarring, however.

This young mans grandfather was in the war World War II. So were his six brothers. They all died. He survived. He had a body full of bullets, however, courtesy our boys in Normandy.

The things people go through

The term Arab Spring follows on from Prague Spring, of course. Garry Kasparov will make an important point. Hes the chess champion, as you know, and a democracy champion. Hes the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, the companion organization of the Oslo Freedom Forum.

He points out that the Prague Spring failed, miserably. It was crushed by Soviet tanks. Snuffed out by dictatorship. Just like the Arab Spring, most of it.

And yet it lit a spark, and 20 years later that country (Czechoslovakia) had its Velvet Revolution.

You never know. Ill see you for Part III. Thanks, dear readers.

A word from the National Review Store: To get Digging In: Further Collected Writings of Jay Nordlinger, go here.

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Oslo Journal, Part II: A freedom festival and its astonishing ... - National Review