Freedom of E X P R E S S ION &
impunity campaign

CAMPAIGN TO CHALLENGE IMPUNITY WAS LAUNCHED IN NOVEMBER 2002
AT THE BIENNIAL MEETING OF THE WRITERS IN PRISON COMMITTEE OF INTERNATIONAL IN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MEXICO. CANADA IS LEADING THE EFFORT lN PARTNERSHIP WITH INTERNATIONAL WRITERS IN PRISON COMMITTEE, AMERICAN CENTRE, AND MEXICO.

Freedom of Expression and Impunity Campaign
<> SILENCING THE MESSENGER:-THE MURDER OF WRITERS AND JOURNALISTS
Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of a flourishing democracy. All citizens must be able to
express themselves without hindrance on any matter and through any medium.

The works to promote and protect this right across the globe and notes that the threat to this right is
strong today as it was when the organization's work began in 1921.

Nowhere is this threat more pronounced than in the continued murder of writers and journalists every year . because of their work. In many countries individuals who make a living through the written word are deliberately targeted by those who seek to silence them. They are often killed because their investigations and criticism have exposed those in power thereby threatening their positions of influence. (Some were even murdered to prevent them from reporting on sensitive issues.)

Many reporters investigate cases of corruption that involve public officials or business figures. Journalists and writers have also spoken out against military officials or criminal elements such as drug traffickers. Local reporters covering crime, corruption and human rights-violations are especially vulnerable particularly in countries where conflict is widespread and impunity is the'norm. Over the past ten years It has recorded the murders of more than 400 writers. journalists and media workers.
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(1) Gerardo Bedoya, Colombia: The editor and journalist for the Cali daily El PaIs was gunned down at point blank range in 1997 by an unknown assailant. Those said to be responsible for the murder were elements withi~ Cali's drug carteL Bedoya had been an outspoken critic of ' drug lords in;theregion. More than five years later, his murder remains unsolved.

(2) Edgar Damalerio, Philippines: On May '13, 2002, ' two men on motorcycles shot dead the 34"':year-old . journalist in Pagadian, Mindanao Island, as he was driving from a press conference. Damalerio, 'who had inves- , tigated corruption among local police and politicians, had previously received death threats. The ensuing investigation has failed to identify those responsible. In addition, witnesses have been threatened and, in one case. killed.

(3) Nasser Zarafshan, Iran: The noted attorney and writer was sentenced in 2002 to five years' imprison- ' ment and fifty lashes for "disseminating state secrets and the possession of firearms and alcohol." Zarafshan was legal representative for the relatives of two of the families of Iranian writers and journalists murdered in 1998, His conviction is believed to be for his criticism of the official investigation into the murders and also as a means of silencing others who seek the truth behind the killings.

Impunity: the problem
One phenomenon noticed in many countries is that public institutions designeq to act as checks on authorities are still weak. As a result, the media have assumed this role by bringing to light illegal or abusive acts previously unnoticed, ignored or perpetuated by authorities. In other countries, the lack of a political opposition leaves authoritarian regimes unchallenged. Consequently, the press has become the voice of critical views, filling the void left by the absence of political parties or organized opposition groups.

Those responsible for the murder of writers and journalists are many. Be ther members of organized crime, corrupt politicians and public officials, the military or rebel forces, they are universally intolerant of the countervailing power of the written Word and set out to silence opposing or dissenting voices .

The fact that very few of these cases are solved points to official involvement in the crimes In addition, investigations when they do take place, are often impeded by threats, corruption and indifference;
As long as authorities in such countries remain incapable of carrying out serious impartial and effective investigations that lead to the identification and punishment of those responsible for the murder of writers and journalists, the number of cases solved will continue to be alarmingly low.

I believes that the judicial system in such countries must be capable of eliminating human rights abuses and putting an end to impunity around the world, as long as the international community accepts the continued killing of writers and journalists, and the de-facto amnesty granted to their killers
there can be no real freedom of expression, no right to life and no respect for any human rights.

Challenging impunity In order to fight for justice in the cases of murdered journalists and writers, they marked International Human Rights Day last December 10 by announcing a year-long campaign to challenge impunity for violations of the right to freedom of expression. The initiative will include direct actions throughout the year and will culminate with the release of and on the problem of impunity and a series of public programs during International 69th World Congress of Writers in Mexico City in November 2003.
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<> A VISTING DURBAN IN SOUTH AFFRICA <>

It was a dream, down there.
That waves and warps through clear shallow water.
Yearning wonder at all the beauty that is out there.
But it is vibrant and real and alive,
a whole new world more fun.

Durban's latest tourist attraction is an
aquatic wonder world of thrilling theme parks,
breathtaking marine life and dreamy underwater adventure.

"If you get eaten by a shark don't come crying to me,"
I said, blushing furiously as I realized immediately what I'd said.

If you substitute 'fall off that bike and break your neck'
for 'get eaten by a shark' I might have been my father, 25 years ago.Still, kids will be kids.Or maybe boring grown-ups will just be boring grownups.

I was talking to Eid, my eight-year-old nephew,
who was clambering on the low wooden fence
surrounding the surface of the shark tank at
uShaka Marine World, the new and rather thrilling watery theme park that opened this year at Durban's Point.

Formerly the seedy and seamier part of town,
The Point is being renovated with restaurants,
sundowner bars and now uShaka;
the world's fifth-largest marine park.
The municipality has invested R 735m in the expectation of
generating 1,5 million visitors in the first year.
None of which was of the slightest interest to Eid.
Eid wanted to see sharks.

“It's a bit unsafe”said a woman pushing a baby in a pram.
“Your son could fall in.”“A couple of bites and he'll learn his lesson”I assured her, trying to sound like a parent.
She gave me a peculiar look as I dragged- Eid
towards the Phantom Ship.

uShaka is actually three theme parks in one.
First there is the Village Walk retail section,
a kind of Lost City by the sea without the casino.
Themed to suggest a Zulu village (with what is proudly described as 'the biggest thatched roof in the country').
Village Walk is the kind of large-scale retail heaven
the rich and famous would feel at home in,
with metal Zulushield light fittings
and banisters shaped like geckos.

The second park is Wet 'n Wild, with its water-rides and super-tubes, but it was an uncharacteristically chilly day in Durban so we skipped Wet 'n Wild. Besides, there are no sharks there and Eid had only one thing on his mind.

Entrance to Sea World,
the third and best part of the uShaka complex,
is through the Phantom Ship,an extraordinary 80m replica of a 1920s cargo steamer whose hull I had to physically touch before.

I would believe it wasn't an actual ship driven ashor by an Indian Ocean tempest and rusting in stately retirement amid the palm trees.

The upper decks and stern are
home to a variety of restaurants
with views into the tanks,
but we raced down the staircase,
down below the water line,
down to where the fishes live.

It is wonderful down there.

The aquarium spreads out through tunnels and ghostly blue chambers.
Atmospheric maritime sounds play over the PA -
gurgles and creaks and moans, morse-code transmissions,
distant eerie music
as though from some spectral Marie Celeste.

The galleries resemble the holds of ships-
you walk between coiled ropes and hawsers,
cargo in wooden boxes,
rivets in the grey-steel walls and water-tight doors,
and you don't have to be eight to dream you are in a sunken ship,
saved by a trapped air bubble,
looking out through the portholes at the bottom of the ocean.

EID's eyes were wide.

He stared for hours at the eels and the octopus,
and for days at the turds in their large tank,
those wise old men of the sea
who always look as though they're taking their morning dip before retiring to the nearest teashop to smoke pipes and play dominoes.
Eid stared agog at the devil fire fish -
the gauzy, red-white-and-black phantoms often found haunting actual wrecks.

Their tank is designed like a flooded cabin on an old liner -
they hang against the walls and furniture like hellish Christmas decorations in the Bermuda Triangle.

But it was the sharks that held Eid,
as they hold us all.
uShaka has the largest collection of sharks in the southern hemisphere,
even after the unfortunate recent events
when a number died in one of the tanks
after teething problems with algae control and oxygenation. yap.

One tank holds the reef sharks-
fast, darty, nippy, like terriers on a Sunday walk-
but it is the big fellows that hold a dark fascination.

We stood in the blue gloom,
staring out at the heavy solemnity of the Zambezi and Ragged-Tooth.

Eid held his breath and his eyes shone darkly.

Finally we made our way up to the light like returning deep-sea divers,
not rushing up too fast for fear of the bends.
Outside, Sea World is a sprawling series of interconnected lagoons
- the surfaces of the larger tanks -
winding between green grass and walkways and palms.

We wandered to the penguin enclosure, where the birds stood dolefully like London commuters at a station.
Then to the 1 200-seat canvas-topped auditorium for the dolphin show.

When I was Eid's age,
I used to visit the old dolphinarium to watch Gambit,
the world's largest captive dolphin.
He's still there, still breathtakingly massive,
still displacing vast amounts of water
onto the first 10 rows of the auditorium,
to the amusement of everyone sitting further back.
Of course we sat in the front row.

There is something about an eight-year-old cry of delight when he is unexpectedly drenched by a dolphin that simply should not be resisted.

Besides, we were going to get even wetter.
Best of all at Sea World is the opportunity to snorkel in the coral lagoon -
the huge tank with reef fishes and man-made coral, fronting through a glass window onto the reef-shark tank.

R40 affords 45 minutes of snorkeling
and there is no better way to introduce a small child to the giddy delights of the marine world.

Supervision and mandatory buoyancy vests cut out safety worries
Within mere seconds you are drifting weightless
in a wonder world of angelfish and triggerfish,
parrotfish and rays.

Of all the modern innovations that would have enlivened my own youth,
it is the snorkeling lagoon I envy the most.
It is designed to resemble the reef around a desert Indian Ocean Island
where pirates have scuttled their treasure.
On the seabed there are chests overflowing with jewels and doubloons, replica ivory tusks and gold ingots strewn across the white sandy bottom, and even, for some reason
a World War II jeep rusting away in sunny silence.

It was a dream, down there.
I bobbed and breathed and watched Eid,
while he giggled underwater at the fish brushing against his feet.
He would have stayed there all day and through the night too.

For Eid it was a new world,
a day his horizons were not only broadened but deepened,
when his eyes lit with the light that dances on the sea,
that waves and warps through clear shallow water.

I doubt he will ever get over it.
For me it was a day of being eight all over again
and rediscovering that aching,
yearning wonder at all the beauty that is out

To compare uShaka Marine World to the V&A Aquarium is like comparing Durban and Cape Town themselves -
some parts are a little tacky, even kitsch.

Sophisticates may smirk and snoot.
But it is vibrant and real and alive,
and it quickens the pulse and
inspires daydreams far more than Cape Town ever does.
Cape Town may be more elegant, more ethereal
but Durban is, quite frankly,
A whole world more fun.

<>  HEAVY B U R D E N   <>
ILLUSIONS OF THE MIND
ALL PROBLEMS ARE ILLUSIONS BY THE MIND :

It feels as if a heavy burden has been lifted.
A sense of light. ness. I feel clear. . .
But my problems are stal there waiting for me, aren't they?
They haven't been solved.
I am I not just temporarily evading them?

Yes If you found yourself in paradise,
It wouldn't be long before your mind would say "yes,
But...." Ultimately, this is not about solving your problems.

It's about realizing that there are no problems.
Only situations - to be dealt with now, or
To be left alone and accepted as part of the "isness" of
The present moment until they change or can be dealt with.

Problems are mind-made and need time to survive.
They cannot survive in the actuality of life.

Focus your attention on and
Tell me what problem you have at this moment.
I am not getting any answer
Because it is impossible to have a problem when your attention is fully in ,
A situation that needs to be either dealt with or accepted - yes.

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<> FREE OF THINKING <>
THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION

In life-threatening emergency situations,
The shift in consciousness from time to presence sometimes happens naturally.

The personality that has a past and a future momentarily
Recedes and is replaced by an intense conscious presence,
Very still but very alert at the same time.

Whatever response is needed then arises out of that state of consciousness.

The reason why some people love to engage in dangerous activities,
Such as mountain climbing,
Car racing, and so on,
Although they may not be aware of it,
Is that it forces them into
The intensely alive state that is free of time,
Free of problems,
Free of thinking,
Free of the burden of the personality.

To Slipping away from the present moment even for a second may mean death.
Unfortunately, they come to depend on a particular activity to be in that state.

But you don't need to climb the north face of the Eiger.
You can just enter that state now.
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Yahoo Acquires Social Network del.icio.us

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (Dec. 10) -- In its latest acquisition of a social networking service, Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. on Friday devoured del.icio.us Inc., a startup that enables people to more easily compile and share their favorite content on the Web.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company didn't disclose how much it paid for New York-based del.icio.us because the purchase price wasn't large enough to have a significant impact on its finances.

Del.icio.us will continue to run its own Web site, which allows users to create a personal account so they can create a page devoted to their favorite online articles, music and reviews. The material can be shared with others simply by sending along the Web link. The content also can be identified with labels, or "tags," to make it simpler to find.

More than 300,000 users have signed up for the service since del.icio.us' inception two years ago, founder Joshua Schachter said in a Friday phone interview. Schachter intends to work at Yahoo's headquarters, but del.icio.us's other eight employees will be scattered around the country.

During the past year, Yahoo has been adding more tools that promote sharing among friends and family as it battles for Web traffic with its biggest rivals - Google Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. All of them are trying to widen their Internet audiences so they can make more money from steadily increasing volume of online advertising.

Yahoo's other recent social networking acquisitions include a popular photo-tagging service, Flickr, and an event-planning service, Upcoming.org.