URUGUAY APOLOGIZES OVER ALLEGED HAITI SEX ASSAULT

URUGUAY APOLOGIZES TO HAITI
FOR ALLEGED SEX ABUSE

Montevideo (AFP) - Uruguay’s president has apologized or the “outrage” carried out by peacekeepers accused of sexually assaulting a young Haitian man and vowed the “maximum penalty” for anyone found guilty. The soldiers, who were based in southern Haiti, stand accused of raping an 18-year-old man in the small coastal town of Port-Salut. Video footage of the alleged attack on a Uruguayan base has been circulated on the Internet. “I come at this terrible time to offer you and the dear and heroic people of Haiti my apologies for the outrage that some soldiers of my country committed,” Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica said in a letter. “I share your sadness, which I feel as my own,” he said, adding that authorities would investigate and apply the “maximum penalty” to those responsible. 

Uruguay’s defense minister had earlier admitted that the incident had caused “a lot of damage” to the armed forces, which provide around 2,400 peacekeepers worldwide, mostly in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The five peacekeepers accused of sexual assault must be tried in their home country for any crimes allegedly committed during their deployments abroad.  Haitian President Michel Martelly has condemned the alleged attack and demanded a detailed report on the exact circumstances of the incident, according to his office.  Martelly has also requested a meeting between Haitian officials and UN mission staff so that “measures can immediately be taken to ensure that such acts do not reoccur,” his office said in a statement. On Monday, hundreds of people demonstrated in Port-Salut to demand justice for the alleged victim, while some Haitians have asked for the UN mission - in the country since 2004 - to be shut down.

Several hundred Haitians demonstrated Monday in support of an 18-year-old man who says he was sexually assaulted by peacekeepers from Uruguay on a U.N. base along the southern coast of Haiti. Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica has apologized to Haiti for alleged sex abuse involving his country’s peacekeepers in the Caribbean nation, and promised that those responsible will receive the maximum penalties.  It is said that the UN mission - formed to help maintain peace - has already committed other anti-social actions in Haiti.  When it comes to sex and violence, heartless and lustful men do not distinguish between male and female.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

For the practitioner of devotional service, dhairya - patience  - is extremely necessary. Those who possess the quality of dhairya are called dhira, sober. Due to lack of this quality, men become restless. Those who are impatient cannot do any work. By the quality of dhairya, a practitioner controls first himself and then the whole world. ... There are six types of urges: namely, the urges of speech, mind, anger, belly, tongue, and genitals. ... The urge of the genital is formidable for persons who are averse to the Lord. In the Shrimad Bhagavatam (11.5.11) it is said: “In this material world the conditioned soul is always inclined to sex, meat-eating, and intoxication. Therefore religious scriptures never actually encourage such activities.” ... Persons who are filled with attachment for material enjoyment can never tolerate the urge of the genital.

Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinoda Thākura :
“Śrī Bhaktyaloka: Illuminations on Bhakti”
“Six Qualitis That Enhance Bhakti” - Dhairya Patience
Translated by Bhumipati Dasa

DELHI STAGES ‘SLUTWALK’ AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE

INDIAN WOMEN HELD SLUTWALK
SEX HARASSMENT PROTEST IN DELHI

http://www.bbc.co.uk - A rally has taken place in India’s capital inspired by the “Slutwalk” protests held in a number of countries.  The protest is to challenge the notion that the way a woman looks can excuse sexual abuse or taunting - “Eve teasing” as it is known in India.  The protests originated in Canada after a policeman said women could avoid rape by not dressing like “sluts”.  The organisers are trying to challenge the mindset that the victims of sexual violence are to blame for the crimes committed against them.  Delhi can be a very difficult city for women, with sexual harassment commonplace, and rapes and abduction all too frequent.  And according to a recent survey, India remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women.  One protester told: “Every girl has the right to wear whatever she wants, to do whatever she wants to do with her body.  It’s our lives, our decisions, unless it’s harming you, you have no right to say anything.”

Hundreds took part in Delhi, though there was little of the skimpy dressing that has marked protests elsewhere.  Most of the marchers in Delhi were soberly dressed in jeans and T-shirts or traditional shalwar kameez.  “You stare at me not because of my clothes but because I’m a woman”, read one of the placards.  Another protester said: “There are a lot of problems for women in Delhi because a lot of women do face sexual harassment and just a couple of weeks ago the chief of police of Delhi said that if a women was out after 02.00 she was responsible for what happens to her, and I don’t think that’s the right attitude.”  India recorded almost 22,000 rape cases in 2008, 18% up on 2004.  “The purpose of this Slutwalk is to address three issues of gender inequality, gender stereotypes and victim blaming,” Mishika Singh, one of the organisers said.

An Indian version of Slut Walk was held on Delhi's streets on Sunday with women - mainly of school and college students - along with many men who support them to protest against harassment and abuse.  The concept of a Slut Walk started in Toronto, Canada in April this year after women there staged a protest against a police officer’s remark that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised,” which is another way of blaming the victim.  “The clothes we wear, don’t give anyone the right to rape us”, read one of the placards.  The consciousness of the conditioned living being is covered by lust.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Prema, and Kama (or sensual love in any form), are on two different levels. Prema is possible in the transcendental Realm of God alone, while Kama or sensual love is on the plane of mundane senses. It will be an utter mistake to attempt to understand Prema in terms of the knowledge of mundane love or lust (be it human or animal). It is only by honest and earnest spiritual practices or sadhana that an individual may gradually climb the different steps of the ladder, from the lowest step of Sraddha to the highest step of Prema. A mere jump from the lowest to the highest, from Kama or mundane love (which is only another form of mundane lust) to Prema will simply hurl one into the abyss of mundane lust, and such a person can never realise and relish the mellow-sweetness of supra-mundane Krsna-Prema.

Śrīla Bhakti Hridaya Bon (Vana) Mahārāja :
Sri Rupa Goswami’s “Bhakti-Rasamrta-Sindu”
Transliteration in English with Translation with Comments
http://bvml.org/SHBM/brs.htm - Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library

SOMALI WOMEN FLEEING FAMINE PREYED ON BY RAPISTS

KENYA’S REFUGEES: A PERILOUS
JOURNEY FOR FOOD AND FREEDOM

Dadaab, Kenya (AP) - Refugee Barwago Mohamud huddles silently beneath a few blankets stretched over sticks at night, fearing for her life after a neighbor was raped, and a naked woman who had been kidnapped and gang-raped for three days in front of her terrified children was delivered to the medical tent next door.  Only a few hundred feet away stands a newly built camp with a police station, toilet blocks and schools. Neat thornbush fences in the camp separate residential areas for families to move into. But all the facilities are empty. The Kenyan government is refusing to open the new refugee Ifo 2 camp, Dadaab, saying the desperate Somali refugees flowing into the country are a security risk.  But for the women and children who fled war and famine and are now forced to build their shelters farther and farther away from the center of the camps, the extension would be a refuge from the armed men who prowl the bush at night.

Some may be deserters from Somali forces across the border; others are Kenyan bandits who rob and gang-rape the stream of refugees fleeing the famine in Somalia.  The contrast between the squalid, insecure outskirts of the sprawling camp and the empty, silent facilities shows how regional politics can interfere with aid efforts, causing millions of dollars to be wasted and leaving women and children vulnerable to attack.  Mohamud and eight other women and girls share their rickety shelter on the outskirts of Dadaab, a camp designed for 90,000 people which now houses around 440,000 refugees. Almost all are from war-ravaged Somalia. Some have been here for more than 20 years, when the country first collapsed into anarchy. But now more than 1,000 are arriving daily, fleeing fighting or hunger.

After many families have made the long, perilous journey from Somalia to the refugee camps in Kenya, they are not yet safe. Research shows that women are often attacked when they leave their families to go to the bathroom or gather firewood.  The International Rescue Committee has recorded a spike in rapes and attempted rape. Since the beginning of June, they have had double the number of attacks reported from January-May.  More and more women are coming forward who have been raped but the vast majority of rapes go unreported.  Lust of the flesh along with cruelty and violence are demoniac propensities.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The heart disease of every Jiva is Lust (Kama). An enslaved Jiva cannot conquer Kama by his own capacity. We become victims of Kama (passion) when we become averse to Sri Krishna. This punishment has been inflicted upon those, who, being the eternal servants of Sri Krishna, are reluctant to serve Him. If the root cause of passion is not eradicated, how can we conquer Kama? When we become averse to Sri Krishna and want to enjoy Maya, Maya immediately envelops us and we get false egos relating to subtle and gross bodies. As such we are passing through cycles of births since time immemorial and burning in the conflagration of births and deaths and threefold affliction. The only way of getting emancipation from worldly suffering is total unconditional surrender to the Lotus Feet of Sri Krishna.

Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja :
“Desire for Money, Woman, Name and Fame”
www.sreecgmath.org  -  http://bvml.org/SBBTM/dfmwnaf.html