Torture in Syria

Avaaz just released a shocking (but not unexpected) report on torture in Syria.  Avaaz is trying to get the UN to take action against Bashar Assad - to try him for crimes against humanity at the ICC.  Support if you can.

and exerpt from a free-lance reporter who was sending reports to Avaaz.  He was held and tortured for 64 days.

“What happened to me is a catastrophe actually. I have been detained,
someone had told them about me. They caught with me all my devices, the
Thurayas, and my tools and some videos and all. I was detained for 64 days. I
was tortured on my fingers and toes, and my nails have been removed. I was in
a really, really bad situation. No water, no food, no toilet, no place to sleep until I
confessed and they always beat me. I have seen death, I’ve been tortured almost
to death. After, I confessed and then they tortured me. They made me stand up
for days. They tie your hands on metal and you still stand. For 7-8 days actually
that happened to me. They gave me little food, just enough not to die. Many
things have happened. I’m really, really… I can’t say. I can’t tell. My tears are on
my chest for what I remember now, for what happened to me.
“They used electricity. They put it on sensitive areas on your body. They tell
me, they curse me “you are an activist”. You can’t imagine how barbarous they
are. They told me “you want freedom, you are an activist” and then they started
torturing me. They put me 3 days in open air, standing up, tied, no food. They
poured water on my body and they started beating me, beat beat beat. My skin
became blue"

Here's a link for more informations.  Stop the torture in Syria

What's that crazy image?

Those are statues in Vancouver, Canada, and created by a Chinese artist.  Strangely enough, there are comments on you-tube which claim these are somehow 'anti-Asian'!  I found them really nifty so I snapped them and built the image with 'The GIMP'.

From the article in The Province...

"A-maze-ing Laughter, the massive bronze sculpture by Beijing-based artist Yue Min-jun that has delighted English Bay patrons for two years, will stay in Vancouver - if $1.5 million can be raised to keep it here.

Under a special arrangement with the artist, the price of the sculpture has been reduced from $5 million.

The non-profit, temporary-art exhibition Vancouver Biennale has until the end of August to raise the money, according to the event's director of marketing and business development, Miriam Blume.

The deal would require the 14 statues, which are 2.5-metres tall and weigh 250 kilograms each, to remain on public display and not be sold to anyone else.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Laughing+statues+stay+price/5971304/story.html#ixzz1j6NKbq51"