SOB's Collected Ramblings 

I have decided to take an indefinte break from Care2. There's too much sh!t, horsemanure and pig feces going on, and I am tired of it. It's always the same idiots targetting the same targets, and it's growing old.

I am sure this will cause celebrations in some quarters, which will probably be blamed on someone's birthday or that the Americans doled out cake. And sadness in others, but I have to take care of me first - and right now Care2 is not the place to do that.

Here is an alternate email if you wish to contact me: sillyoldbear1@gmail.com

Be well,

Henric/SoB

Link to Petition

The United Nations is the outstretched arm of the global, International Community, and each UN Peacekeeper is, in reality, a representative for each individual member of that global community.

UN Peacekeepers and Personnel, when deployed, agree to be subject to an accepted mandate, to protect, serve, alleviate suffering, and establish peace in regions torn by war and conflict. Tacitly included in this mandate is the responsibility of each UN Peacekeeper/Personnel to represent to the civilian population of such regions, a beacon of hope, safety and trust, both for the immediate need and for the future.

UN Personnel are easily recognizable through their use of uniquely colored blue berets and helmets. When UN Personnel, both military and civilian, commit crimes against the local population in regions they are bound to protect, that trust and hope is betrayed and that blue color becomes tainted. If the crime committed is not dealt with quickly, is glossed over or is marginalized and not prosecuted, there can be no safety for those they are charged to watch over and safeguard.

When UN Personnel commit crimes of abuse against children in such regions, the betrayal is doubled, because those crimes not only smear the good name of the UN and its Personnel, past and present, throughout the globe, but the children who are the victims of such abusive crimes suffer the long-term effects that are the natural consequences of such horror, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an inability to trust, fear, and a whole host of psychological disorders and physical damage. Coupled with the fact that they are already in conflict situations that cause fear, the fact that those entrusted to care for them and make them safe have betrayed them, easily causes damage that will stay with them for life, and will engender fear and psychological problems they may pass on to their own children.

Internationally, the United Nations represents us all - the population of the World - and we, the undersigned, refuse to have our good names tainted by the despicable conduct of a few UN Personnel, who through their abusive actions against children in war zones, betray those children, their nation, and by proxy, the entire International Community.

We therefore, as part of the International Community, appeal to the UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon the Presidency of the International Criminal Court: Judge Philippe Kirsch (Canada) President, Judge Akua Kuenyehia (Ghana) as First Vice-President, Judge René Blattman (Bolivia) as Second Vice-President, the other two judiciary organs, the Security Council as presently constituted, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court: Mr. Louis Moreno-Ocampo, the Deputy Prosecutor Mrs. Fatou Bensouda and what agents the office of the UN Secretary General may use to implement change and establish procedures for change, that measures be taken to put a stop to the abuse - sexual and otherwise - of children at the hands of UN Personnel in war zones. That criminal investigation begins immediately, the offending parties arrested in an expeditious manner and that a Tribunal is immediately seated to hear the case. To accomplish the above we urgently request the following be immediately implemented:

· Make all UN Personnel accountable to the International Crimes Court at in The Hague, alternatively establishing a permanent Tribunal for the Investigation and Prosecution of Crimes committed against children in war zones and make UN Personnel accountable to such a Tribunal.

· Make immediate superior officers accountable for the conduct of their troops on pain of loosing their commission and being given a dishonorable discharge as well as prosecuted in an UN based Court of Criminal Justice such as the ICC and not in their home country.

· Create a screening process for all UN Personnel going into the field to determine their suitability for the work, with focus on their attitudes towards children and sex with children.

· Together with an independent children’s organization, such as Save The Children, create a mandatory educational program that focuses on the harm done to child victims of abuse (sexual and otherwise) both short-term and long-term, and stresses the importance of UN personnel protecting children in war-zones from such abuse and how to prevent such abuse from being committed by UN Personnel.

· Allow independent NGO’s such as Save the Children, The Red Cross, and Doctors without Borders to conduct regular and frequent independent investigations and bring to justice such UN Personnel that have been found to be engaging in crimes (sexual and otherwise) in relation to children in War Zones.

· Make it mandatory for Superior officers to investigate rumors and reports from the local population of this kind of abuse, and make sure that such UN personnel that have been found to be engaging in crimes (sexual and otherwise) in relation to Children in War Zones are brought to answer to those charges before an International Court of Criminal Justice.

· For the purpose of expediency and to make International Criminal Justice available to the victims of crimes committed by UN Personnel in war zones, establish an independent International Office of Justice in each Region in which UN Personnel are stationed, so that the victims themselves can easily and safely bring their charges for investigation.

· If feasible, given the circumstances in each region, provide UN personnel a rotation duty cycle that allows them a safe period to seek out legal forms of relaxation conducive to their religion, country of origin or region of service. Any lack in facilities for such recreation to be provided for under UN supervision in direct connection to UN Posts.

From our hearts and our strong sense of responsibility to the children who, through no fault of their own, are forced to struggle on a daily basis with the horror of the conflicts created by adults in their regions for power, greed and politics, we, the undersigned, demand that you make such changes to protect those rights established by your own body in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We thank you for your time and efforts for human rights world-wide.

Link to Petition

Remember this entry?:

Women Would NEVER…or?

Some of the comments on those two news items in that entry coincide with a comment made on another News Item I posted today:

Young People Have Unwanted Sex World (tags: Children, sex, dissertation, Sweden ) Henric C abearsdayinthenews.wordpress.com

One in seven Senior High School girls have had sexual intercourse against their will. Among boys of the same age it's one in seventeen.

The very first comment was: "BOYS! NO MEANS NO!!!" - no shadow shall fall on the woman who said it, she later came in and apologized and said that she should have included the girls too, and not singled out the boys - so don't think badly of her.

The point I am using her comment to make is that it is all too common that people have knee-jerk reactions to news stories about unwanted sex.

People simply assume that if we are talking about unwanted sex, we are talking about girls not wanting sex, and boys forcing them to have sex.

Sexism - pure and simple sexism.

Not that most people will admit to being sexist, so they very often try and "save themselves" by referring to a statistical body which will confirm the idea that more girls than boys are being sexually abused and that the abusers are either men or boys.

The fact is that the statistics is skewed. The statistics has an agenda.

The fact is that the male gender-role doesn't allow for victimization and the female gender role encourages victimization.

The fact is that we really don't know exactly how many girls or boys are being sexually abused, either by their peers or by an adult they trust.

What we know is that more females report being subjected to unwanted sexual attention than males - but we have no way of knowing if this is a true indicator of an imbalance in the victimization, or if what we can glean from the statistics are the "white numbers" and that there are "black numbers" we are unaware of.

Even an anonymous survey of 4000 Swedish Senior High School Student is a blunt and inaccurate instrument.

The young people being surveyed may very well be lying, consciously or subconsciously remembering incidents where the gray zone between wanted and unwanted is closer to the truth than they are willing to admit even to themselves.

The adult who wrote the survey may consciously or subconsciously have written the questions in a manner that will skew the statistics in the end.

Why am I saying this?

Because we are all victims of the ideas of what is proper or expected of our respective gender-role.

Boys will more often that not write off unwanted sexual attention as not really being unwanted, because boys are (still) taught to take their self-realization as males from the sexual attention they get from girls (or women).

Girls will more often than not write off wanted sexual attention as not really wanted, because girls are still taught to take their self-realization as females from the idea that they are not really sexual beings.

So they will lie.

A boy will lie about not wanting the sexual attention from a teacher because he experienced an erection when she (or he) fondled him.

A girl will lie about wanting the sexual attention from a teacher because she has a crush on him (or her).

Both genders will lie about what actually happened (positive or negative) out of fear of what parents, peers and the school might say if they knew.

So, in the end we cannot really trust any statistics - it was not for nothing that Samuel Clemens said: There three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics.

The best we can do is to make an effort to not apply those horrid gender-roles to our views when we hear about sexual abuse or sexual activity, and try to remember to assume that what is true for one gender is true also for the other.

Unless we do we will never experience true Gender Equality.

In the News

News from Swedish Text TV and News you don’t find on BBC or CNN

About two years ago a gay man came into Human Rights Network and pleaded with the general public to extend the right to marry to GLBT people. He cited UDHR article 16:

Men and women of full age have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

Full text of Article 16

He then ventured into a refutation of the notion some have that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman - unfortunately he failed to use the most basic of refutations, which was right there in how the article is worded, and I am afraid that he might have antagonized his audience slightly.

UDHR Article 16 does not specify what gender men and women of full age have the right to marry. And that is the point - the very moment you define marriage as anything but what is defined in the UDHR or try and legislate a definition of marriage, you are in violation of the UDHR.

Many people hold the notion that homosexuality is unnatural, but they fail to understand the most basic fact about "natural" and what it is - "natural" is what comes natural to us - for gay people heterosexuality is not "natural", homosexuality is. For straight people homosexuality is not "natural", heterosexuality is. Because our sexuality is not a choice, it's part of our make-up as humans, something we are born with.

Article 16 in the UDHR is not the only Human Rights Article that supports GLBT rights to equal marriage rights - Articles 12 and 22 do too:

Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Article 22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Marriage as a legal contract between two people, in most civilized societies, includes economic, social and legal rights, privileges and obligations that are part of the basic human rights enumerated in the UDHR. Unless we want to claim that Gays and Lesbians are not human or are not part of the "Everyone", we have to grant them equal rights, also when it comes to marriage, including the right to call their union "marriage".

The wonderful thing about human rights is that I don't have to agree that all are entitled to them, I only have to extend them to all.

Analogy: I am against abortion - I truly think that it is something that should be avoided - but I also recognize that others feel and think differently, and that I really do not have a right to make choices for others. Therefore it is my human obligation to make sure that abortion is a legal and available option.

Same thing with same-sex-marriages - people may feel that marriage is something that should be only between a man and a woman - but as they have no right to restrict other peoples' options and possibilities, it is their human obligation to make sure that same-sex marriage is a legal and available option, so that Gays and Lesbians are guaranteed the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for their dignity and the free development of their personalities.

I downloaded a tool for Firefox, that will let me open all my “daily web sites” in one go. Very useful, especially for me, as I host several groups and discussions on the Internet - I can easily check if there’s been any traffic during the night.

This morning I went to Human Rights Network and found that all the Hosts were being attacked, accused of not respecting the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of UN Peacekeepers and treating the subject as a joke - a preposterous allegation of course, but there it is. Some people suffer from Moronitis.

Upset is the least I am right now. As a survivor of sexual abuse I take sexual abuse very seriously, and I have track record to prove it. I just don’t believe in re-victimizing by making the abuse or the solution to the abuse about the victims - the solution has to be sought at the source of the abuse - the abuser.

That kind of accusations, in fact any accusations always leave me feeling slightly confused, because I know what I think and believe, and it’s ALWAYS on the side of the victims.

This issue is connected to this entry: The Solution?

How do we, the People, do something about the abuse and exploitation of children being committed by UN Personnel around the world?

One thing we can do is petition the UN to put some safety-guards into their recruiting process, take some legal action and give their personnel "safe sex"

Here are 7 points that I would put in a petition:

1. Make UN Personnel accountable to the International War crimes Tribunal in Hague.

2. Make Superior officers accountable for the conduct of their Troops on pain of loosing their commission and being dishonorable discharged.

3. Create a screening process that all UN Personnel going into the Field has to undergo, to determine their suitability for the work, with focus on their attitudes towards children.

4. Allow independent NGO's such as Save the Children, The Red Cross, Doctors without Borders to conduct yearly investigations.

5. Make it mandatory for Superior officers to investigate rumors and reports from the locals of this kind of abuse, and don't just trust their sense of honor to do this.

6. Exclude from deployment troops from countries where sex with children is part of the culture - such as Thailand, Indonesia etc.

This last point is controversial - but it addresses part of the reason why this happens.

7. Provide UN personnel with "safe sex" through the creation of UN supervised and UN controlled brothels in direct connection to UN Deployments. There's nothing wrong with prostitution as long as we are talking about consenting adults, and those consenting adults are given health-care and decent (and controlled) pay for the services rendered.

---

Some may balk at the last one - especially those feminists that consider any kind of sex-work to be abuse of women.

However, not all prostitution is bad or demeaning to women. In fact many sex-workers will tell you that to them it's like any other work, and they will also tell you that if there were Unions for sex-workers they would join.

Others may think that excluding people from some countries is discriminatory, and it might be, but Thailand and Indonesia are well known for a big child-prostitution sector that the government is not doing much about, so it's safe to say that there is a culture of acceptance towards sex with children.

Yet other may feel that it's a bad idea to make UN Personnel accountable to the War Crimes Tribunal - but if you think about it, it's logical.

UN Peacekeepers serve the International Community, it is only fitting that should they commit crimes they should answer for those crimes in front of an International Court.

There have always been a tradition that the Superior Officers are responsible for the conduct of the troops under their command - so making the Superior Officers face real consequences if their troops misbehave, should make them a little more likely to protect civilians.

Imported from external blog

Save the Children - UK News

World (tags: Children, Save the Children UK, UN Peacekeepers, Abuse, exploitation ) Despite recent political commitments by governments and international organisations to tackle this problem, the report exposes the chronic under-reporting of such abuse, which leaves many children around the world suffering in silence.

World (tags: sexual, sexually, abuse, abusing, aid, workers, children, child, welfare, war, disaster, sudan, ivory coast, save the children, organization, charity )

Companion Articles:

BBC NEWS | Americas | UN troops face child abuse claims

BBC NEWS | Americas | UN to discuss child abuse claims

The U.N. Sex Scandal

UN to hold inquiry into Sudan child abuse - Telegraph

I read the above and I am speechless with anger - How dare they!? How dare they put on that Blue Beret and do THAT to children?

The UN represent all that is good, decent and hope inspiring in the world, and they dare defile this with their perverted, cruel, sadistic and inhumane practices...!

Those children...That Blue Beret stands for the help those kids have a right to expect from its bearers, and they have their trust crushed by vile desires and unbridled immorality. Those children, the weakest of the weak, the smallest of the small, with the inborn right to protection and support that the Blue Beret guarantees, are being abused and exploited - in MY name, in my father's name, in the name of the world...of all the vile things humans can do, THAT is the vilest.

My father was a UN Peacekeeper and those vile humans desecrate his memory, his good heart and his willingness to serve humanity in that Blue Beret.

This is one of those instances when I believe a good Company Punishment would be just fine.

Let the perpetrators run a gauntlet among their peers, put them in jail and throw away the key. They are not only a disgrace to every decent soldier in the world, they are a disgrace to the entire human race. Break their sabers and exile them from humanity for the remainder of their lives.

May G-d have Mercy on their souls, because they are going to need it.

Imported from external blog

Australian, 12, Cleared for Sex Change: Report - Yahoo! News Health & Wellness (tags: Transgender, FtM ) Henric C - 13 seconds ago - news.yahoo.com The judge said that while the initial treatment was reversible, it needed to be seen as the first step in a process which, if continued, would allow the child to live as a male.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A 12-year-old Australian girl has been allowed to begin the first phase of a sex change after a judge decided it was in the best interests of the child, reports said Sunday.

The unnamed girl has begun hormone treatment to block puberty after the family court judge accepted an application from her mother for her to begin to reassign her gender, the Sunday Herald-Sun reported.

The judge said that while the initial treatment was reversible, it needed to be seen as the first step in a process which, if continued, would allow the child to live as a male.

"In my view, and on all the evidence, the treatment is in his (the child's) best interests," the judgement said.

During a hearing in December, the court heard that the 12-year-old had thought of herself as a boy since the age of four.

Several medical experts, including a psychiatrist, backed the sex-change application, as did an independent lawyer for the child and a family counsellor.

However, the child's father could not accept that the girl had always seen herself as a boy and opposed the sex-change decision in part because of her young age, the court was told.

But the court said it needed to act quickly to prevent the onset of puberty as the girl dreaded the prospect of menstruation and developing breasts, the Sunday Herald-Sun said.

Further court applications must be made at a later stage if the child wants to take the process further and deepen her voice or develop facial hair.

Surgery to remove the womb and ovaries or build a penis cannot be done before the age of 18.

The court ruled that the 12-year-old can now apply for a new birth certificate and passport in a boy's name.

A huge ethical row has erupted over a judge's decision to allow a 12- year-old girl to have a sex change that will turn her into a teenage boy.

The child's father, who is separated from her mother, is outraged at the prospect but despite his objections the taxpayer-funded sex swap has already got under way.

His daughter, who cannot be named because of her age, is already having hormone treatment in Australia in what is one of the first such cases involving a child so young.

The girl has also been given permission to apply for a new birth certificate, passport and medical card in a boy's name.

Last night, a relative of the child claimed the girl had been 'vindictively brainwashed' by her mother into making the decision to have the change.

A cousin who stayed with the girl's family for two and a half years said yesterday that after a bitter break-up the mother had used the child to 'get back' at the father.

'She's been brainwashed from an early age,' said the cousin, who has to remain anonymous to protect the Victorian girl's identity.

'The mother drilled into the girl from an early age that she would have preferred a boy.'

Now the father, who considers his daughter is far too young to make a decision on her gender, is appealing to Melbourne's legal fraternity for help in fighting the case after he ran out of money to afford representation in opposing the sex swap request.

The Victorian Family Court was told that the girl had always considered herself a boy and was at risk of self harm if she continued to develop into a woman. Hormones now being implanted under the 12-year-old's skin every three months will stop her from developing from a child into a woman, including preventing her hips and breasts from growing.

A further court application must be lodged in coming years for testosterone treatment to deepen the girl's voice and promote growth of facial hair and muscles. Surgery to remove her womb or ovaries or build an artificial male sex organ must wait until she is at least 18.

The court was told that the hormone therapy was reversible and would give the family 'breathing time' with progressive sex change treatments and operations requiring further court orders.

'I question how reversible the treatment is,' said the cousin. 'There will be psychological consequences that are not reversible. 'I don't think the side effects have been adequately considered. How people treat her will have an effect. 'She will never have this time in her life again.' News of the judge's decision to grant the sex-change treatment has sparked furious debate.

Medical ethicist Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini described the ruling as 'astounding'. He added: 'I fail to see how it can be in the interests of a young girl to undergo treatment that will change her for the rest of her life.

This is a great story!

It is good to see that there are people in the world who realize that being transsexual/transgendered is not a choice, a disease or a mental illness, but a matter of IDENTITY and of life and death.

Too many TS/TG kids have killed themselves at the onset of puberty, because they had no other way of coping with their bodies betraying them.

I wish this little brother of mine all the love, acceptance and blessings he can pick up along his journey. And big kudos to his mother for listening and standing by her son.

Imported from external blog

I just have to share this entry from another of my blogs - I know it's a repeat post, but it's good:

search: bondage ants.. search: libanon gay bears gay… search: arab bears gay search: leviticus silly search: silly history facts search: porn cruel israel search: silly math problem

The most puzzling of those search terms is the combination in the first… “bondage ants”. Ants that are into bondage - why on earth would one do a search on that, unless of course the searcher is looking for some rather kinky animal pornography…and have a special fetish for ants…

Perhaps it was made by the same person who made a search on “ass-humping dog” and ended up being pissed at me in another Blog of mine, because he didn’t find what he was searching for? He then went on to rag about my presumed hatred for the US and it’s imperialistic use of the term “Americans” as a designation for US citizens only…

The second most puzzling search term combination is &ldquoorn cruel israel” - unless you are of the belief that Israelis somehow use pornography as a means to violate Palestinian human rights, it is really hard to imagine just how someone came up with that idea, but then I guess the Radical Far Left will believe anything their mentally deprived brains can concoct.

There is of course always the possibility that the search was made by a bunch of Palestinians looking for an Israeli Dominatrix…just too bad the IDF uniform is not the least sexy…and a Nazi Uniform just doesn’t work on brunettes…

What’s next?

Oh, yes, the Gay Arab Bears…what were they thinking? Bears humping each other in Arab garb? Bears humping Arabs? Gay Arabs humping Bears? Some how those images doesn’t work as well as the Dragon Fighting Bear

What’s with this obsession with sexually loaded search terms to find my Blog? Are people afraid to put the terms “Silly Old Bear’s Grins and Grumps” together in one line?

Do people really believe I spend a large chunk of my time writing about sexually loaded matters involving Arabs, Israelis, Lebanese Ants and Bears? Apparently.

But then, we all know that those search terms are silly little codes for “Silly Old Bear’s Grins and Grumps Blog”, a web place you (and you all know who you are :-p) really don’t want to admit that you are looking for, not even to yourselves.

If I wanted to include Lebanon (not Libanon) in my Blog, I wouldn’t be writing about Lebanese Gay Bears, Gay Rights in Lebanon perhaps, but not Gay Bears. Gay Bears are just fine where ever they are, whatever ethnicity their Bear Passports sport.

Keep them silly searches coming - you are cracking me up

I still don’t get what’s with the enslaved ants though…

Imported from external blog