Hi Penny,
I think that a fantastic response. I have e-mailed my MP too.
Here is my message to my MP:
"In light of the recent survey, published in The Lancet medical journal,
that has conservatively estimated 100,000 civilians have been killed as a
result of the coalition's military intervention in Iraq, would you, as my
Member of Parliament, ask Parliament the extent to which its military
actions in Iraq have been in accord with Geneva Convention IV, Article 27
(that states that protected persons ". . . shall be at all times humanely
treated, and shall be protected especially against acts of violence . . .")
and to call for a an urgent re-evaluation of the use of air-strikes and
other weaponry by coalition forces in populated areas in Iraq."
I contacted my MP by searching on the following list:
http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/alcm.cfm
There has been some discussion on this e-mail forum about us engaging in
some collective action (ie. recently in relation to the UK Mental Health
Bill). Though collective action for us in the Com Psy UK network (also for
the European network actually) is desperately problematic while we remain a
fuzzy, lose, informal network of people with no discernable organisational
structure and little public accountability, it does seem we all need to
stand up at times in synch with one another so as to try and make our ripple
into a wave.
kind thoughts
paul
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of pennypriest
Sent: 29 October 2004 12:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed
Hello Paul
I often feel that DOING is better than TALKING. Changes are more likely to
happen. But I don't know what to do.
On Tuesday night, I went to the pub with a friend who is half Iraqi. Her
father couldn't visit his homeland when Saddam Hussein was in power. But nor
could he visit recently when his mother was dying. His family in Mosul were
safer with Saddam, being people who did ordinary jobs and kept their heads
down. It seems no-one is safe now.
I visited some websites. Amnesty International, StopTheWar Coalition. I have
done two things:
1) I have now emailed my MP, providing the links to the Guardian article and
the Lancet article. This took less than 5 minutes. I got the email address
by following links on the Stop the War Coalition website.
2) I have donated £10 to Amnesty International, online. This too took about
5 minutes. Whilst this money may not go to addressing the situation in Iraq,
it is a small contribution towards achieving 'justice for us all', as
Amnesty urges. Frighteningly, on arriving at the Amnesty home page, I was
confronted by a briefing on the situation in Sudan (The 1.4 million people
driven from their homes in Darfur are still at risk of unlawful killing;
displacement, rape, detention, torture, starvation and disease).
By chance I have been approached today to provide some training in Applied
Behavioural Analysis. I was feeling reticent about this, but then it
occurred that I could charge liberally and use that money to do something
more. It feels hopelessly insignificant, and I am haunted by a criticism I
once received on David Smail's forum, that no revolutions would be spawned
from attitudes like mine. But I try and comfort myself with other ideas, for
example, the one about the ripples: 'Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lots of others, or strikes out against injustice, he
sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million
different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which
can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance'.
If you have any ideas, please let us know.
Penny
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul@home" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 12:34 AM
Subject: 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed
> This is breaking news. Now I understand Shock and Awe.
>
> First 'scientific' survey on the civilian death toll of the recent war on
> Iraq conservatively estimates 100,000 civilians have died. The less
> conservative figure the researchers cite is 200,000.
>
> I didn't want to sit tonight with this alone, so wanted to pass it on to
my
> colleagues and friends. Here is how the survey has been reported in the
> Guardian (link below). The survey has been published in The Lancet.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1338749,00.html
>
> ___________________________________
>
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