Category Archives: Post Human

Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON The Palestinian Authority, despite signing international human rights conventions, has failed to hold its security forces accountable for alleged abuses, a leading human rights group said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the PA was refusing to investigate complaints of abuse by security forces in the West Bank. The report cited an assault by PA officers of four protesters in Ramallah in April.

Members of the Palestinian security forces scuffle with demonstrators in the West Bank city of Ramallah. /Reuters

Palestine should start living up to its human rights obligations by exonerating the victims and holding the police to account, HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said.

On April 12, PA police detained four Palestinians at a theater in Ramallah during a performance by an Indian dance troupe. Witnesses said police attacked two of the protesters and arrested another two who tried to stop the assault. All four men, ordered to court on May 28, were charged with disturbing the peace and provoking a riot.

Its absurd that the Palestinian justice system is prosecuting the victims of police brutality rather than their attackers, Stork said.

The PA attack came 10 days after the PA joined international human rights conventions that stipulated accountability by security forces. PA police have been trained under a European Union program called EUPOL-COPPS, said to stress respect for human rights.

In a statement on May 20, HRW said the Indian performance was disrupted by those boycotting Israel. At one point, a 25-year-old boycott activist, identified as Zeid Shuaibi, urged a walkout to protest the troupes earlier performance in Israel.

After 15 minutes, several men ordered Shuaibi to leave the theater, and later he was beaten by suspected plainclothes officers. Three of Shuaibis colleagues tried to stop the police and were assaulted as well.

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Rights group hits Palestinian Authority abuses

The Chinese character (xing) refers to a figure or an image. It also carries the meaning of likeness, resemblance, and similarity.

The character consists of two parts. On the left is (rn), the radical for a man, human being, or humankind, which suggests the meaning for (xing) as representing a figure.

On the right is (xing), which provides the sound and is a pictographic character that stands for elephant, image, resemblance, or phenomena.

The character is used in combination with other Chinese characters to enhance or refine its meanings related to figures and likeness.

As a noun indicating figures, examples include (rn xing), a portrait of a human being, where (rn) refers to a human being; (hu xing), a portrait or figure painting, where (hu) refers to a painting; (dio xing), a statue, or literally a carved image or carved figure; and (f xing), an image or statue of Buddha, or a Buddhist image or statue, where (f) stands for Buddha or Buddhist.

(t xing) or (xng xing) refers to an image in general, and (xio xing) is another term for a portrait.

Examples of the use of to indicate likeness include (xing xing) or (xing sh), which means to resemble or to be alike, and (ho xing), which means as if or to seem like.

(xing yng), or the emphatic phrase (xing m xing yng), describes something that is presentable, decent, or up to par or up to the standard, while (xing hu) expresses that something is proper, improved from before, or is more like it.

A photograph is called (xing pin), (xing pin), or (zho pin). (xing pin) literally means a sheet of likeness, where (pin) is the character for a sheet, piece, slice, or a film or movie.

(xing xing), image of a thought, refers to imagination or to the verbs to imagine, conceive of, or visualize, where (xing) means to think or believe, to wish or want, to suppose, or to miss something.

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Chinese Character for Figure, Likeness: Xing ()

The Far Post is a co-production of Roads & Kingdoms and Sports Illustrated. Every week until the World Cup, we'll publish a new feature on global soccer culture. For more Roads & Kingdoms coverage of food, war, and music, visit its online magazine.

By Supriya Nair, The Far Post

My grandfather, born in 1919, grew up playing football in a wooded corner of the British empire. The eldest son of a family of bright-eyed troublemakers from the southern Indian district of Palakkad, Kerala, he wore knee socks and a chip on his shoulder to the local missionary high school, where beatings from teachers quivering with rage were the chief method of keeping boys in line.

Tempers ran high on the playground. Thanks to what must have been a combination of extreme arrogance and extreme vulnerability, my grandfather's boyhood was marked by a determination to start or escalate fights. Playing "soccer," as he called it from beginning to end of his lifeEdwardian slang has a certain tenacity, as North Americans will knowhe was an aggressive and inconsistent forward, not notably destined for success on the field.

Although some of his brothers and friends would play the game for a great part of their lives, my grandfather gave it up relatively quickly. In the middle of the Second World War, he boarded a train for Bombay: a metropolis then, as now, suffocating in its love of cricket. On the churning streets of the vast city, he found himself stepping aside sometimes for trucks full of European soldiers, who were either passing through on their way to other theaters of war or enforcing imperial law in a restless city.

With his mind conflating the heroics recounted in one section of the papers with the other, he thought of the professional footballers in England who sometimes heaved the football from their booted feet into the net all the way from the halfway line. How easy the English made it look, he thought; and how easy it would be for a Tommy to raise his gun and fire at a brown man if he felt like it.

Through the smoldering rubble of the 20th century, the tread of jackboots sounded often on the chalky halfway line that divides the real world from the world of the game. In a century of war, pogroms, partitions and violent revolutions of identity, football functioned as a sharp tool, loved by dictators and warmongers as much as by dissidents and democrats. (Think of AS Romathe "Jewish club" of Rome, frequent target of anti-Semitic chants from their rivalswhich came into being in 1927 because Lazio, the great traditional Roman club, were considered insufficiently sympathetic to Mussolini at the time.)

Like other sports, football had been dubiously bequeathed to many countries in Europe's colonial endeavors, and yet sometimes it helped overturn the rules it was supposed to enforce. Just before my grandfather was born, the Calcutta team Mohun Bagan won a historic footballing victory when they became the first brown team to defeat an English side in competition in 1911.

Former Italy dictator Benito Mussolini, center, poses with the 1934 World Cup-winning team.

AFP/Getty Images

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Far Post: Dream Time at the World Cup

WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate Finance Committee voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve Sylvia Mathews Burwell's nomination to become the nation's next health secretary and oversee implementation of the new health law.

The 21-3 vote sent her nomination to the full Senate, where it likely will come to a vote next month.

Burwell, who has served as President Barack Obama's budget chief, would replace outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who announced her departure last month just as the health law was recovering from the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov website to post stronger-than-predicted enrollment numbers.

Despite expectations that Burwell's confirmation hearings would become an election-year trial of "Obamacare," there were no fireworks as she won support from senators of both parties.

Voting against her Wednesday were Republican Sens. Pat Roberts, John Cornyn and John Thune.

Burwell, 48, seen as a competent insider, promised senators she would be more responsive to Congress than Sebelius. She will face significant challenges in sustaining the momentum of the health care law, including news she can't control in the months ahead as insurers announce premiums for next year.

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Burwell Gets Committee Approval For Health Post

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Human Rights Issues

Fact Sheet Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC May 16, 2014

People everywhere long for the freedom to determine their destiny; the dignity that comes with work; the comfort that comes with faith; and the justice that exists when governments serve their people -- and not the other way around. The United States of America will always stand up for these aspirations, for our own people and for people all across the world. That was our founding purpose. President Barack Obama, September 25, 2012 There are few areas where I think our task is so clear, and what we need to do is make sure that we are working for that larger freedom for all people, and for the rights and the dignity of LGBT persons around the world. Secretary John Kerry, September 26, 2013

The U.S. Department of State has significantly expanded efforts to promote and protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons over the past year. Through our private engagement with governments and civil society, public diplomacy, foreign assistance, and work in multilateral fora we have conducted activities in the following five areas of focus under the Presidential Memorandum on International Initiatives to Advance the Human Rights of LGBT Persons. We have also institutionalized these efforts throughout the Department.

Combating Criminalization of LGBT Status or Conduct Abroad

Our Embassies around the world regularly engage with civil society and host governments on laws that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct between adults. We have developed decriminalization strategies in regions where LGBT conduct is criminalized. Even in countries where we do not have a formal decriminalization strategy in place, we are working to support decriminalization efforts and to ensure greater legal protections for LGBT persons. We have also focused on raising awareness of countries that criminalize same-sex conduct through the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and the Bureau of Consular Affairs Country Specific Information (CSI) sheets.

Protecting Vulnerable LGBT Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Through the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), the Department has focused on identifying protection gaps for LGBT refugees and asylum seekers and developing targeted interventions to address those gaps. Training and Capacity-Building: All new PRM employees are trained on LGBT issues. The Department also funds the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other nongovernmental and international organization partners to develop training materials focused on LGBT refugees and asylum seekers and strengthen institutional capacity to address their unique needs. In one example, PRM supported the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to conduct a regional workshop for LGBT advocacy organizations from six countries on the protection needs of LGBT migrants and asylum seekers.

Programming: PRM has supported nongovernmental partners to conduct research and pilot new programs to support LGBT refugees and asylum seekers in urban areas, and has also provided targeted assistance to partners working to provide safe shelter and services for LGBT survivors of gender-based violence.

Humanitarian Diplomacy: Department leadership is continually engaging, both privately and publicly, on behalf of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers. PRM annually communicates information to all embassies about the U.S. refugee resettlement process, including as it relates to LGBT applicants. Foreign Assistance to Protect Human Rights and Advance Nondiscrimination

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Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Human Rights Issues

CRYSIS 3 PS3 1080p Playthrough Part Three: Post Human - Infiltrate The Liberty Dome
CRYSIS 3 PS3 1080p Playthrough Part Three: Post Human - Infiltrate The Liberty Dome.

By: DetectiveTOX

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CRYSIS 3 PS3 1080p Playthrough Part Three: Post Human - Infiltrate The Liberty Dome - Video

Crysis 3 - Kill The Alpha Ceph [Post Human Warrior]
Crysis 3 - Kill The Alpha Ceph [Post Human Warrior]

By: Gapgaptz Maru

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Crysis 3 - Kill The Alpha Ceph [Post Human Warrior] - Video

Lecture on the concept of the Post Human, or In-human Part 2
Prof Rodney Sharkey talks about current trends in philosophy. Here he introduces the idea of the inhuman by tracing the development of humanism and post-humn...

By: johnwallification

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Lecture on the concept of the Post Human, or In-human Part 2 - Video

Lecture on the concept of the Post-Human, or In-Human. Part 1
Prof Rodney Sharkey talks about current trends in philosophy. Here he introduces the idea of the inhuman through The National #39;s song #39;Terrible Love #39; from the...

By: johnwallification

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Lecture on the concept of the Post-Human, or In-Human. Part 1 - Video

Lecture on the concept of the Post-Human, or In-Human part 4
Prof Rodney Sharkey talks about current trends in philosophy. Here he introduces the idea of the inhuman by discussing how irony helps us to understand Alice...

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Lecture on the concept of the Post-Human, or In-Human part 4 - Video