Stray Bullets - Praises And Protests For The Pope, And France's Deportation Of The Roma People

TV Satirist To Organise “Sanity” Rally:
Jon Stewart, TV host for Comedy Central’s satirical show The Daily Show, is organising a 'Rally to Restore Sanity [1]' in Washington next month. Dubbing it the ‘Million Moderate March’ - a riff on the civil rights Million Man March of the 90s - the rally is intended to be a humorous “anti-extremism demonstration [2]” according to the Guardian. Happening at the same time will be spoof Conservative rally held by Stewart’s comedy partner Stephen Colbert, called “March to Keep Fear Alive”, to “restore truthiness” and challenge those who wish “to replace our Fear with reason.” These spoof rallies are a response to the recent Tea Party rallies - which some see as hysterically fearful - and right wing TV host Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honour” rally. The Rally to Restore Sanity [3] declares: “Ours is a rally for people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs) - not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority. If we had to sum up the political view of our participants in a single sentence… we couldn’t. That’s sort of the point.” Robert Thompson, a professor of TV and popular culture at Syracuse University told Ravayu,com, “We have entered a period where comedy and comic artists are playing a really important role in the civic conversation… Since the jesters are doing such a good job, why not extend it to other venues?”

Protests Against Pope:
Thousands of people have joined protests across the country [4] to criticise the Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain. On the September 18 between 10,000 and 20,000 protesters [5] marched through the streets of London, carrying signs that read, “Pope Protects Paedophile Priests”, “Homophobe”, and “Pope Promotes HIV & Aids by Denying Condoms.” The rally ended in Whitehall with speeches [6] from gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, scientists and advocator of atheism Richard Dawkins, and comedian Al “The Pub Landlord” Murray. On September 16, over 60 people held a peaceful protest [7] against the Pope’s visit in Edinburgh’s Old Town. Murray said, “Like a lot of people I am perplexed that it is a state visit. The Pope’s opposition to condoms kills people. It is all very well him lecturing us on morals but he should look at his own organisation’s view.” Sue Cox, a 63 year old who had been molested by priest when she was 10 years old, and then raped three years later by the same priest, accused the Pope of “enabling child abuse” and said, “How dare he suggest that secularism does not accept or tolerate traditional values?” 

On the flipside, upon his arrival to the UK, the Pope acknowledged the Church had been too slow in tackling issues of paedophilia and child abuse within the church [8]. And despite the protests, over 50,000 people attended the Pope’s open air public mass on Sunday (September 19) in Birmingham’s Crofton Park, with hundreds camped out in the park from 4am to ensure they’d catch a glimpse of the monarch. Around 80,000 supporters were present at the Pope’s vigil in London’s Hyde Park [9] on Saturday (September 18); overall a trip to the UK that the Catholic Church deemed as a ‘spectacular’ event.

France Deportation of Roma Compared To Nazi Policies:
Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, has retracted her statement comparing France‘s deportation of the Roma people [10] to Nazi policies. Since the beginning of the year, over 8,000 Roma people have been deported [11] from France, and a leaked memo from France’s interior ministry [12] revealed that the Roma people were being deliberately targeted. The memo reads: “The President of the Republic fixed precise objectives on July 28 for evacuation of illicit camps: 300 camps or illicit implantations must be evacuated in three months, in priority those of the Roma.” On September 14, Reding said, “I personally have been appalled by a situation that gave the impression that people are being removed from a member state of the EU just because they belong to an ethnic minority… this is a situation I thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War.” The next day she retracted the statement. Meanwhile on September 18, a group of over 150 Roma protested the policy at the French embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, chanting “Sarkozy is legalising racism.”

Iranian Human Rights Activist Jailed:
Shiva Nazar Ahari [13], a prominent Iranian journalist and human rights activist, has been jailed for six years [14] for propaganda against the government and “waging war against God.” Ahari, who founded the Committee of Human Rights Reporters in Tehran, was arrested in December. She was also fined about £250 as a substitute for receiving 76 lashes [15]. Mohammad Sahrif, her lawyer, said there was “no legal basis” for the charges.

Words: Richard Lemmer
Photos: First pic - Flickr user BritishHumanists [16], of the protest against the Pope's visit in central London.
Second pic - Flickr user lissnup [17], of Shiva Nazar Ahari.