Tensions linger in US over 'comfort women' plaques

I am sorry at how this article has copied form the internet, however I hope it is still readable and informative in my ongoing endeavor to highlight the cause of the Comfort Women.

A memorial, left, honoring comfort women of WWII stands at a distance while people wait for the public library to open, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, in Palisades Park, N.J. Comfort women refers to the women mostly from the Korean peninsula and China who were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers during WWII. A dispute has risen over different historical definitions of the so-called comfort women. Japan's current nationalist Prime Minister has suggested he may disavow a 1993 apology for the practice, and Japanese government officials even tried pressuring the small Palisades Park town to remove its memorial, which was the first of its kind in the U.S. Now, the backers of that memorial are planning to unveil a second one at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack, N.J., and engaging in an education campaign around the issue. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

HACKENSACK, N.J. - Four years ago, noticing plaques at the county courthouse commemorating slavery, the Holocaust and other atrocities, Korean-American community leader Chejin Park struck upon the idea of adding a tribute to the "comfort women" of World War II.

To his surprise, the seemingly small, local gesture , to honor the more than 200,000 mostly Korean and Chinese women forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers , would make a tiny northern New Jersey town a flashpoint in an international controversy.

Local officials would rebuff a request by Japanese officials to take down the first plaque put up just over two years ago in the town of Palisades Park, a square-mile borough outside New York where a majority of residents are of Korean descent.

But now the dedication of a second marker, this one at the courthouse whose memorials had inspired Park, has been held up until the wording can be changed to remove a reference to the Japanese government.

The top government official in Bergen County, Kathleen Donovan, said the delay is due to a mix-up, not any new pressure from Japanese officials.

Donovan and the county's legislative body, the freeholder board, had asked that the second plaque state that Japan's Imperial army, not the Japanese government, was responsible for what happened to those women, she said.

"Our monument is not anti-Japanese government; it is pro-comfort women," said Donovan, the county executive. "We want to be very clear that it was the Imperial Japanese armed forces and not the government that, according to our historical research, committed these acts."

Historians say the women, mostly from the Korean peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels. But rightists in Japan have questioned whether the women were coerced by the military to be prostitutes.

Some surviving women and their supporters have held a weekly vigil in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul for more than two decades, saying that an apology issued by a Japanese government official in 1993 has failed to convince South Koreans that Japan is truly contrite.

The issue is an important one for Bergen County, where the Korean population has quadrupled since 1990 and now accounts for nearly 8 percent of the county's more than 900,000 residents. Last year, Donovan made an official visit to the county's sister city of Dangjin, South Korea, and met with some elderly women who, decades ago, were forced to provide sex for the soldiers.

"It was quite an amazing experience to sit with them and have tea," Donovan said. "I asked them if I could tell their story; these are women who lived through that horrible experience and wanted the world to know."

Park, an attorney with a group that seeks to get Koreans more involved in community affairs in the New York metro area, worked with a memorial committee to build and finance the memorials to these women in Palisades Park and Hackensack.

"These memorials are simply stating the fact that it happened, and Japan is arguing that it didn't happen," Park said. "We just see the issue as a human rights issue. We see comfort women survivors screaming for justice."

A similar memorial has since been built in Los Angeles, and plans are also under way to build them in San Francisco, Georgia, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts, he said.

When the first plaque went up on a small boulder next to the library in Palisades Park, the mayor said he received a perplexing visit from Japanese consular officials, followed by a delegation of members of Japan's parliament.

They offered to donate books to the library of the small suburban hamlet. They wanted to plant Japanese cherry blossom trees along the borough's main thoroughfare. They offered to engage in activities with townspeople to "promote U.S.-Japan relations."

"In the meantime," Mayor James Rotundo recalled, the visiting officials also told him: "It would be nice if we'd take the monument down."

The first plaque reads: "In memory of the more than 200,000 women and girls who were abducted by the armed forces of the government of Imperial Japan 1930s - 1945 known as comfort women, they endured human rights violations that no peoples should leave unrecognized. Let us never forget the horrors of crimes against humanity."

The second plaque is being reworded to lay the blame on the Imperial armed forces of Japan instead of the armed forces of the government of Imperial Japan, removing the government reference.

The Japanese consulate in New York, asked about the controversy in New Jersey, issued a statement on behalf of the government stating that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "is deeply pained when thinking of the `comfort women' who experienced immeasurable pain and suffering, a feeling shared by his predecessors."

The statement adds that Japan has apologized for the suffering it caused to "the people of many countries, particularly to those in Asian nations."

On the issue of the women, the Japanese government said: "It is our sincere hope that we can focus on working constructively together and move forward, and not politicize this issue."

Park said he believes the women's struggles have a place alongside history's greatest injustices.

"Human trafficking is a serious human rights violation, and the comfort women were the largest government-organized human trafficking case in the 20th century," he said. "We should understand the comfort women memorial as something like the other memorials in the United States that memorialize many other human rights violations that happened in many places in the world."

Source:http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20130130_ap_tensionslingerinusovercomfortwomenplaques.html?c=r

Forced contraception of Jewish Ethopian women is tip of global iceberg

My Posts today have had a bias toward issues relating to the treatment of women. I make no apology for this as I believe that the ill treatment of women throughout societies world wide demean and undermine humanity. I refer to it as a war against women, however within this I include babies and girls. The horrors of child rape within underage marriage and the infanticide of female fetuses and babies is a scar on the face of humanity that is often ignored and swept under the carpet for fear of offending. Female genital mutilation may be a cultural norm in some societies, but does that make it any less repugnant or morally acceptable?

I read a report over the weekend about the sterilization of Jewish Ethiopian women. Of course I was horrified as I believe any reader would be, however I have not uploaded the original article that I read, and instead have utilized this one that I found on the Guardian website which puts it into a global perspective of abuses against the reproductive rights of women.

A report claims Israel pressured women to reduce its poor black population. Reproductive rights need defending across the world

• • Lisa Hallgarten
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 January 2013 11.58 GMT

The hands of an Ethiopian Jewish woman during 'Sigd' prayers in Jerusalem. A report has revealed 'Ethiopian women have been given injections of Depo-Provera without sufficient understanding of the purpose or side effects of the drug'. Photograph: Dan Balilty/AP

Should gynaecologists need to be told not to give women contraceptive injections without establishing fully informed consent? Of course not. But that is what has happened in Israel after it was revealed in a report by a women's rights organisationthat Ethiopian women have been given injections of Depo-Provera without sufficient understanding of the purpose or side effects of the drug. Some Ethiopian women in transit camps were refused entry to the country if they refused the injection, and others wrongly believed they were being inoculated against disease. While Israeli demographers discuss the need to "preserve a clear and undisputed Jewish majority among Israel's total population", it may seem anomalous that women in the Jewish Ethiopian population are forced or coerced into using this highly effective contraceptive method.

However, the conclusions of the report, written by Hedva Eyal, are that the injections given to Ethiopian women are "a method of reducing the number of births in a community that is black and mostly poor".

Many people may be unaware that the Israeli case is merely the tip of a global iceberg of human rights abuses in the field of reproductive health. Forced sterilisation of people with learning disabilities and people of minority ethnic groups was documented across Europe and the US in the 20th century. Under the state of emergency in India between 1975 and 1977, thousands of men and millions of women were bribed, coerced and sometimes forced to undergo sterilisation. As recently as 1996 in Peru, ademographic policy led to a sevenfold increase in sterilisations in just two years, effected through widespread violations of women's rights. A provider explained: "Many [providers] did not inform women that they were going to be sterilised – they told them the procedure was something else. But I felt this was wrong. I preferred to offer women a bag of rice to convince them to accept the procedure and explained to them beforehand what was going to happen."

And on into the 21st century. What litany of coercive practice would be complete without reference to China's one-child policy, the violent implementation of which was highlighted in two particularly horrific cases last year? From Uzbekistan also come reports that doctors working to quotas have been sterilising women without their consent during caesareans. Likewise in 2010, HIV-positive South African women reported being sterilised while undergoing caesareans, abortions or shortly after childbirth without their knowledge. Others were made to consent under duress: "She [the nurse] snatched something that I wanted, you know? She made up a choice. She made up a choice for me." These are just the abuses that spring to mind – many more are being reported around the world.

The flipside of these is the concerted attempt by reactionary groups to deny women access to reproductive and contraceptive healthcare altogether. Right now Republican politicians in the US are fighting for the right of employers to refuse women contraceptive cover in their health insurance, and clogging up state legislatures around the country with bills aimed at eradicating abortion services. It has taken 15 years to pass a reproductive health bill in the Philippines that will allow poor women access to affordable contraception for the first time: the Catholic church fought it every step of the way and began its campaign to overturn the bill minutes after it was passed. Meanwhile 47,000 women a year die from complications of unsafe abortion in countries where abortion is legally restricted, or where services are inadequate to meet their needs. In Latin America, women and doctors are imprisoned for having or providing abortions, and women such as Savita Halappanavar are dying unnecessarily because of laws that prevent the termination of pregnancies that are life-threatening – even when they are not viable.

These cases are all connected – whatever the detail, wherever they are happening. They are all indicative of a fundamental disregard for women's lives. Forcing women to bear children, or preventing them from doing so, denying them life-saving treatment during pregnancy, or carrying out medical interventions without establishing informed consent, these all threaten women's safety, dignity and bodily integrity. They are serious violations of women's reproductive and human rights and must not be supported or countenanced by governments or doctors any more.

(Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/30/forced-contraception-jewish-ethopian-women)

BIRMINGHAM & BLACK COUNTRY

30 January 2013 Last updated at 15:25

Malala Yousafzai: Queen Elizabeth Hospital surgery to repair skull

Doctors have revealed how they are going to repair a missing area of the skull of Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai.

Surgeons at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been giving details about two procedures due to be carried out on the 15-year-old.

Malala was discharged from the hospital earlier this month after being shot in the head by the Taliban in October.

The hospital said the surgery would take place in the next 10 days.

The first procedure will involve drilling into her skull and inserting a custom-made metal plate.

Doctors said Malala had been left completely deaf in her left ear when she was shot at point-blank range.

'Remarkable recovery'

The shockwave destroyed her eardrum and the bones for hearing.

The second procedure will involve fitting a small electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.

Dr Dave Rosser, medical director at the QEHB, said: "Her recovery is remarkable and it's a testament to her strength and desire to get better.

"There is no doubt that the surgery she underwent in Pakistan was life saving.

"Had that surgery not been of such a high standard she would have died."

He added each procedure should take about 90 minutes and her full recovery could take another 15 to 18 months.

Dr Rosser said the missing part of Malala's skull had been put in her abdomen by surgeons in Pakistan, in order to "keep the bone alive".

Doctors in Birmingham have chosen to use a metal plate to repair her skull instead of that bone, which they say may have shrunk.

Dr Rosser added this was common practice worldwide to keep the bone healthy.

He said: "Malala currently has no skull, she only has skin covering the brain."

'Unique' hospital

Malala has asked to keep the bone once it has been removed, said Dr Rosser.

The QEHB is home to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine where members of the armed service who have been injured overseas are treated.

Dr Rosser said the hospital was "unique" because all the treatment Malala required could be done within the same organisation.

Stefan Edmondson, principal maxillofacial prosthetist, at the QEHB said: "What we're doing here could be done elsewhere but because we're such a large super-regional unit with a large neurological unit we see a lot more advanced cranial defects.

"We're fortunate in that aspect to see a lot more complicated cases and [it means] we have the software here."

Malala came to prominence when, as an 11-year-old, she wrote a diary for BBC Urdu, giving an account of how her school in Mingora town dealt with the Taliban's 2009 edict to close girls' schools.

Her love for education, and her courage in standing up to the Taliban, earned her a national peace award in 2011.

Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for Malala to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Pakistan government has given Malala's father, Ziaududdin Yousafzai, a job in Birmingham as the education attache at the Consulate of Pakistan for at least three years.

(Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-21257569)

Dr Mohammad Jawad: Acid Attack Surgeon

Recently, I have been following the story of Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/bolshoi-artistic-director-sergei-filin-blinded-by-acid-attack-that-left-him-with-chemical-burns-8457479.html) It would appear that he has been potentially blinded and has serious burns to his face. Acid thrown in the face of a person is an horrendous act of brutality intended to cause excruciating physical and psychologically painful damage.

Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet

For most of us, I would believe that our face is the source of our identity. We see it reflected at us and it is by this means that people that know us, recognize us visually. Our bank notes and coins bear the image of the monarch, not her signature. The famous and infamous are usually know to us through portraiture, be it photographic, in painting or in sculpture. Our face is who we are, and as we age, our faces change, but is still the same face. 

Katie Piper (before the acid attack)

A few years ago there was a similar attack in this country on a young model, Katie Piper, was raped by a man that she met on-line and he then arranged for someone else to throw acid in her face. This resulted in the loss of her eyelids, most of her nose and part of one ear. Her face had to be cut away in the first of almost one hundred operations. 

(Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/02/katie-piper-acid-attack-book)

I do not give these details out of some form of grotesque vourism. I share the reported details and photographs to shock, as I have been shocked by a recent documentary on Channel 4 here in the UK. 

The surgeon that worked with Katie was Dr Mohammad Jawad. His work has already been documented in 'Katie, My Beautiful Face'. A moving and inspiring documentary of Katie's journey which portrayed the physical and emotional scars she is dealing with on a daily basis. Fortunately, she is British and has the ability to access the services of the National Health Service and can be supported in her ongoing struggle with some of the best medical care in the world (including access to Dr Jawad and his amazing team). This is not a privilege shared by many victims throughout the world, as was highlighted in the thought provoking and shocking documentary 'Saving Face' which I watched last week and felt compelled to discuss here.

'Every year in Pakistan, over 100 people - most of them women - are known to be victimised by brutal acid attacks, while numerous other cases go unreported.

With little or no access to reconstructive surgery, survivors are physically and emotionally scarred. Many reported assailants, typically a husband or someone else close to the victim, receive minimal punishment from the state.

Dr Jawad is the surgeon responsible for treating British acid-attack victim Katie Piper - as documented in Channel 4's Bafta-nominated Katie: My Beautiful Face - and he regularly returns from his prominent London surgery to Pakistan to help the victims of such attacks.

The film follows Dr Jawad as he makes every effort to save and reconstruct the faces of two women.

Thirty-nine-year-old Zakia's husband threw acid over her after she filed for divorce. Most of the time she is too afraid to leave the house, while, at school, her daughter struggles to cope with the stigma.

As well as needing to alleviate the pain and restore functioning and features to her face, Zakia is bravely fighting for her husband to be brought to justice.

Rukhsana is a 23-year-old mother who was attacked with acid and set alight by her husband and in-laws. Rukhsana has had to reconcile with them and continue living under the same roof.

Her life becomes impossible as the family forbid her from seeing her daughter, and she seeks help.

This compelling True Stories documentary follows Zakia and Rukhsana, who are supported by NGOs such as the Acid Survivors Foundation-Pakistan and Islamic Help; sympathetic policymakers; attorney Ms Sarkar Abbass, who fights Zakia's case; and female politician Marvi Memon, who advocates for new legislation - all working to bring their assailants to justice and help these woman move on with their lives.

Saving Face takes an intimate look inside Pakistani society, illuminating two women's personal journey while showing how reformers in Pakistan are tackling this horrific problem.'

(source:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/saving-face/4od)

Acid attacks are not confined to Pakistan as can be seen from the attacks on Katie Piper and Sergei Filin, and a quick trawl though Google will show the extent to which the world is plagued with this appalling and cowardly form of revengeful punishment. And, although Sergei Filin was a victim, I believe this brutality is more often perpetrated against women with little recourse to either medical intervention, or the intervention of State Institutions. Laws are of no use when they are failing to be enforced. What is needed is a cultural change in patriarchal societies where women are viewed as a commodity freely disposed of in place of financial transactions, and then become enslaved by vicious and vindictive 'in-laws.'

I have no solution to these issues. All that I aim to do with this post is to highlight the issue and share awareness to a wider community. As I have stated before on this blog, I believe that the biggest war being fought on earth today would appear to be the subjugation of women and this is one of it's tools in that war.

Here is the list of support groups from the Channel 4 website that may be of use:

Help and Support

FEATURES

FRIDAY 11 JANUARY 2013

Karma Nirvana
Supporting victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour based abuse.
0800 5999 247 (lines open 9.30am - 5pm Monday Friday)

Islamic Help
Providing medical and surgical support to acid burns victims, as well as helping survivors to become self-sufficient and encourage community integration.

Acid Survivors Trust International ASTI
Helping acid attack victims receive medical attention, and raising awareness by working with medical NGO's in a number of countries.

Acid Survivors Foundation Pakistan
Working towards eliminating acid violence, as well as assisting survivors with medical, legal, social and economic services.

Changing Faces
Providing support to anyone with a disfigurement of the face, hands or body, as well as their families.
Adviceline: 0300 0120 275 (lines open Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm)
Skin camouflage line: 0300 0120 276 (lines open Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm)

Let s Face It
A support network for anyone with a facial disfigurement, as well as their families and friends.

The Katie Piper Foundation
Helping individuals with rehabilitation needs.

British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons
Support information about reconstructive surgery through the NHS in the UK.

National Domestic Violence Helpline
Offering support to women who experience physical, emotional or sexual violence in the home. Helpline is a member of Language Line and can provide access to an interpreter for non-English speaking callers.
Helpline: 0808 2000 247 (lines open 24 hours)

Scottish Women s Aid
Helpline: 0800 027 1234 (lines open 24 hours)

All Wales Domestic Abuse
Helpline: 0808 80 10 800 (24 hours a day everyday)

Women s Aid Federation Northern Ireland
Helpline: 0800 917 1414 (lines open 24 hours)

Victim Supportline
Offering support information to anyone affected by any crime or violent assault, regardless of whether the crime is reported to the police.
Helpline: 0845 30 30 900 (lines open Monday - Friday 9am - 9pm, Saturday & Sunday 9am - 7pm, Bank Holidays 9am - 5pm)
Email: info@victimsupport.org.uk.

Dan's Fund for Burns
Providing advice and support.

Burn Centre Care
Offering information about rehabilitation following a severe burn.

Children's Burns Trust
Offering support and rehabilitation information to families of children following a burn or scald.

British Association of Skin Camouflage
Skilful application of skin camouflage.

Disfigurement Guidance
Online links to further information.

To learn more about the global problem of acid violence, to support survivors and to get involved, visit the Saving Face outreach website at:
Project SAAVE
'The mission of Project SAAVE (Stand Against Acid Violence) is to leverage the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary film SAVING FACE to raise greater awareness of the horrific global problem of acid violence, to spotlight the efforts of NGOs and other change agents working to eliminate it, and to highlight ways that individuals can get involved worldwide.'

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