( Part I - From the East )
Mohandas Gandhi once said - «A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.»
Freedom for some, danger for others or deemed treasonous is to express oneself freely in this world.
For some to fight on my behalf, to defend my fellow Man and I means to become either incarcerated, tortured and mutilated, or heinously killed..
Facts are to easily obscured on either sides of Prime Meridian when a little time is involved, manipulation of access to information (whether by distortion, omission or "tailoring" said information),
and greedy hands of those who crave POWER ( usually at any cost) cyclically come and go...
As we all well know this happens for instance (and among other things) by taking full advantage of "their" mass media and ignoring the existence of some - not too distant - historic facts and figures.
Just to refresh our memories, I post twice on the matter. First a pair from the East, and next (Part TWO) shall be from the WEST:
Unfortunately the number in both Hemispheres is staggering and thus it is not an easy task to choose. This time I bring two.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
A pressão internacional ajudou a libertar a ganhadora do Prêmio Nobel Aung San Suu Kyi, mas milhares de outros ativistas continuam presos. Vamos mostrar nosso apoio a Suu Kyi e ao povo de Mianmar. Assine a petição!
English Readers
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Translated by Jeffrey Yang
Greed's Prisoner
for the dispossessed wife
a prisoner
presses into the crowd of your life
so cruel and full of greed
won’t even let you
buy a bouquet of flowers for yourself
a piece of chocolate, a pretty dress
he doesn’t give you
time, not a single minute
does he give you
the smoke in your cupped palm
he breathes in, breathes in, completely
even the ashes don’t belong to you, his body
in the prison of the Communist Party
so that the spirit-cell you built
without a door without a window
without a thread of a crack
locks you in solitude
to rot
he forces you to endure each night
in the carcass of denunciation
he controls your pen
makes you write endless letters
makes you desperate to find hope
your suffering’s been trampled upon
his boredom’s one pleasure
that bird of yours
is lost in the torturous palm-
lines of his hand
where each path
has betrayed you
this emptied-eyed all-ignorant dictatorship
has plundered your corpse
in one night white hair covers your crown
completing his legend, his myth
the moment he sees himself brimming with righteous deeds
you already possess nothing
but this prisoner
has deathly-seized the white space of your future
another sun comes
once more he issues an order
once more you must walk the road alone
without body without memory
using this hollowed life
to carry his heavy book-load
on the road to him
he is very good at exploiting
each chance to dispossess you
of your possibilities
beloved
my wife
in this dust-weary world of
so much depravity
why do you
choose me alone to endure
July 23, 1999
China: Liu Xiaobo Professional Background
Liu Xiaobo is a renowned literary critic, writer, and political activist based in Beijing. He served as President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center from 2003 to 2007 and currently holds a seat on its board. Liu Xiaobo was a professor at Beijing Normal University and has worked as a visiting scholar at several universities outside of China, including the University of Oslo, the University of Hawaii, and Columbia University in New York City.
Current Status
On December 10, 2010, Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Liu was poignantly represented by an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo. When told of the announcement after October 8, he wept and told his wife, Liu Xia, that it was dedicated to the martyrs of Tiananmen.
Liu Xia has been under house arrest since the award announcement and is incommunicado.
Liu Xiaobo was formally moved to Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning, his home province, on May 24, 2010. He reportedly now has access to books published in China and is permitted rare visits from his wife, though she has not been allowed to see him since October 10.
Liu Xiaobo was tried by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court on December 23, 2009, and pleaded not guilty to the charge of "inciting subversion of state power." The trial lasted less than three hours, and the defense was not permitted to present evidence. Two days later, on December 25, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison and two years' deprivation of political rights. The Beijing High Court rejected his appeal on February 11, 2010.
Liu Xiaobo was formally arrested by the Beijing Public Security Bureau on June 23, 2009 and charged with “inciting subversion of state power” for co-authoring Charter 08, a declaration calling for political reform, greater human rights, and an end to one-party rule in China that has been signed by hundreds of individuals from all walks of life throughout the country. His case was officially moved to the prosecutor's office on December 8, 2009. He had been detained a year earlier, on December 8, 2008, and held for six months and two weeks under “residential surveillance” while police gathered evidence on his case. Liu Xia, Liu Xiaobo’s wife, has only been permitted to visit him twice, he did not have access to a lawyer and he was denied writing materials while detained at an undisclosed location in Beijing. He was held at the No. 1 Detention Center of Beijing City, where he has finally had access to his lawyers, from the date of his formal arrest in 2009 until May 24, 2010.
Case History
In the spring of 1989, Liu Xiaobo left his post at Columbia University and returned to Beijing to play a crucial role in the spreading pro-democracy movement, staging a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in support of the students and leading calls for a truly broad-based, sustainable democratic movement. He was instrumental in preventing even further bloodshed in the Square by supporting and advancing a call for non-violence on the part of the students. He spent two years in prison for his role, and another three years of “reeducation through labor” in 1996 for publicly questioning the role of the single-party system and calling for dialogue between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
In 2004, Liu’s phone lines and Internet connection were cut after the release of his essay criticizing the use of “subversion” charges used to silence journalists and activists, and he has been the target of regular police surveillance and harassment in the years since.
Just after 9:00 p.m. on December 8, 2008, before the formal release of Charter 08, police arrived at the Beijing homes of Liu and fellow activist Zhang Zuhua. At 11:00 p.m., they took both men away and searched their homes, confiscating computers and other materials. His arrest occurred during a period of several sensitive anniversaries, including the 100-year anniversary of the promulgation of China’s first constitution, the 60-year anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the 30-year anniversary of Beijing’s “Democracy Wall” movement.
While Zhang Zuhua was released the following morning, Liu Xiaobo remained in detention. He was held incommunicado until December 31, when he was finally permitted a visit from his wife.
Since Liu Xiaobo’s arrest, nearly all of the 300 original signatories of Charter 08 have been interrogated in a push to gather evidence against him and crack down on free expression in China.
His wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest in Beijing. That I know of there are no accounts of her being seen since detention.
(link below is from the "The Irish Times")
