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Edwards’ Darfur petition

John Edwards’ One America Committee has started their own petition to urge the Bush Administration to take action for Darfur. Even though this is not unlike so many other petitions circulating out there, John Edwards probably has a bit more “Washington clout” than most of us.

This, of course, is rather serendipitous coming just three days after I commented — I’d be surprised to find a candidate speaking out against our lack of intervention in past genocides or calling for new initiatives in handling these egregious acts of violence… It’s always good to see someone in politics paying attention.

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Hitler resurfacing

A local restaurant is causing a huge stir in Mumbai. The problem stems from the owner’s choice of theme, namely Hitler. The restaurant, called Hitler’s Cross, is not only named after the former Nazi dictator, but it’s also decorated with him in mind:

Posters featuring a red swastika carved in the name of the eatery line the road leading up to the restaurant.

A huge portrait of a stern-looking Führer greets visitors at the door and the interior is done out in the Nazi colours of red, white and black. The restaurant also has a lounge for smoking the exotic Indian water pipe or “hookah.”

As if that weren’t weird enough, reports from the UK suggest that the “Hitler Beetle” is facing extinction because of its popularity among neo-Nazis.

The tiny, brown, eyeless beetle, Anophthalmus hitleri, was discovered in 1933 by Oscar Scheibel, a German amateur entomologist and ardent Hitler fan, and is found in only around 15 caves in central Slovenia. Initially shunned by entomologists as not being of any particular scientific interest, it has been sidelined by museums wary of exhibiting anything with such a close connection to Nazi Germany. Now though, the “Hitler beetle” is so sought-after by right-wing extremists that scientists are worried it could disappear altogether.

Not surprisingly, this is the only species of animal named after the Nazi dictator.

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Me quoting me

I recently weighed in on the problems in Darfur in the local fishwrap:

I found Nat Hentoff’s recent column on the crisis in Darfur particularly timely. As he points out, “the world was silent” when Polish Jews were murdered during the Kielce massacre, and now we’re silent as the Sudanese government (backing militia forces) renews its attack on Darfur’s people, even after signing a May 2006 cease-fire agreement.

Worse still, Congress continues to play politics with the issue, while the African Union, the only peacekeepers on the ground, prepares to pull out of the region this fall. Even though the existing forces have been too few in number to adequately curb the violence, and the death toll has continued to climb, the U.S. and the UN continue to sit complacently and watch.

Like Hentoff, I’d be surprised to find a candidate speaking out against our lack of intervention in past genocides or calling for new initiatives in handling these egregious acts of violence. All of which begs the question — when will we finally stand up and defend those who can’t defend themselves?

I would provide a bit of editorial, but that seems rather redundant, don’t you think?

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Call for Falun Gong genocide

David Kilgour, the former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific, along with his collegue Edward McMillan-Scott, the vice-president of the European parliament, are calling on the United Nations to begin investigations into reports that China has been killing Falun Gong practitioners and harvesting their organs.

Mr Kilgour’s earlier investigation relied on the telephone interviews with the former wife of a surgeon who allegedly removed 2000 corneas in two years and testimony from the family of Falun Gong members who say they saw bodies of their loved ones riddled with holes.

He concedes the evidence is “circumstantial”, not least because the Chinese government refused him permission to travel to China.

As well as the testimony, he points to 41,500 transplants undertaken in China in the six years to 2005 where no source of the organs was identified and the high number of executions that take place in China.

Along with testimony that Falun Gong are being executed for their organs, comes testimony that they’re living in appalling conditions in forced labor camps, under the threat of being deported to remote north-west China.

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Neo-Nazi fears in Delmenhorst

The town of Delmenhorst in northern Germany is attempting the block the sale of a hotel amid neo-Nazi fears. The Wilhelm Tietjen Stiftung fuer Fertilisation Ltd. group has an offer on the building, and is reportedly interested in turning the hotel into a neo-Nazi convention center.

A website – www.fuer-delmenhorst.de – was set up in Delmenhorst earlier this week to raise the necessary funds.

By Thursday, 520,607 euros (£344,320) had been donated to buy the hotel and adjacent buildings.

Delmenhorst’s town spokesman Timo Frers told the BBC News website that the money was coming not only from local residents but also from across Germany and abroad.

“It was a crazy idea, but everybody thinks it might work. Everybody is optimistic,” he said.

An effort to raise enough money to counter the offer of the Tietjen Stiflung fuer Fertilisation group was proposed when the town realized that they were the only one who had an offer on the table.