WELL SAID FARAGE

At least someone is trying to make the voice of the ordinary voter heard on the issue of the money draining waste of EU space.

Note the arrogant response from the Irish minister in the middle of the report who thinks he knows better how the people of his country should be spending their money.

END THIS BARBARISM NOW!

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

Images taken from here

As charities, politicians and community leaders over here spend wasted time, effort and money on telling us how to live our social lives healthily, over in Iran a woman is staring death in the face in the most barbaric way imaginable.

If this army of busy-body do-gooders put their energies into this case and our leaders - instead of being concerned whether we have one pint or two, smoke 10 or 20 fags a day - actually used their power and influence on a cause of so much greater importance then they would actually earn my respect.

Meanwhile, the campaign to end stoning and to save the life of a women in Iran is left to the little people - us.

Perhaps you can also do your bit and help Maryam Namazie of Iran Solidarity who has sent out this appeal:

WE WILL BE GATHERING AT THE EMBASSY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN IN PARIS AT 2PM (4 Avenue d'Iéna 75116 Paris) AND MARCHING TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN BRUSSELS. JOIN US. WE MUST SAVE SAKINEH’S LIFE AND SECURE HER FREEDOM AND THAT OF HER SON, LAWYER AND THE TWO GERMAN JOURNALISTS. AND WE MUST END STONING NOW!

According to news received by the International Committee against Stoning and International Committee against Execution on 1 November 2010, the authorities in Tehran have given the go ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday 3 November.

We had previously reported that the casefile regarding the murder case of Ms Ashtiani’s husband had been seized from her lawyer’s office, Houtan Kian, and found missing from the prosecutor’s Oskoo branch office so as to stitch Ms Ashtiani up with trumped up murder charges. [Another man has already served a prison sentence and is now free for her husband’s murder.] Ms Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, have warned of the regime’s plan to do so on many occasions. With the arrest of Ms Ashtiani’s son and lawyer on 10 October and her not having had any visitation rights since 11 August and after fabricating a new case against her, the “Human Rights Commission” of the regime has announced that: ‘according to the existing evidence, her guilt has been confirmed.’ In fact, the regime has created a new scenario in order to expedite her execution.

In other news, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh and Houtan Kian have been severely tortured in order to obtain confessions against Sakineh and themselves since their arrests on 10 October along with two German journalists. The initial interrogations by the Ministry of Intelligence have now been completed and the casefile sent to the National Prosecutor General and Judiciary Spokesperson, Mohsen-Ejehi, in Tehran rather than being handled in Tabriz. Their families are concerned for their wellbeing. When attempting to secure lawyers for the two, authorities have said that the two men did not need legal representation.

Sajjad and Houtan Kian’s only ‘crime’ has been to defend Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and proclaim her innocence with facts and evidence. That their contact with Mina Ahadi is considered a crime is absurd given that Ahadi has been contacted by death row prisoners and their families and lawyers for many years now, including directly from prison. This is because of her many years of work against stoning and executions.

The International Committees against Stoning and Execution call on international bodies and the people of the world to come out in full force against the state-sponsored murder of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Ms Ashtiani, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, Houtan Kian and the two German journalists must be immediately and unconditionally released.

ACT NOW!

1. Contact government officials, MPs, MEPs, and the UN asking them to intervene urgently. Governments must immediately summon the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassadors and demand that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s execution be stopped and that she along with her son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and lawyer, Houtan Kian, and the two German journalists be immediately released.

2. Send letters of condemnation to the Islamic regime of Iran right away:

Head of the Judiciary
Sadeqh Larijani
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary)
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri
Tehran 1316814737, Iran
Email: info@dadiran.ir or via website: http://www.dadiran.ir/tabid/75/Default.aspx
First starred box: your given name; second starred box: your family name; third: your email address

Head of the Judiciary in East Azerbaijan Province
Malek-Ashtar Sharifi
Office of the Head of the Judiciary in Tabriz
East Azerbaijan, Iran

Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Iran
Email: via website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=letter (English)
http://www.leader.ir/langs/fa/index.php?p=letter (Persian)

Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights
Mohammad Javad Larijani
Howzeh Riassat-e Ghoveh Ghazaiyeh
Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhuri
Tehran 1316814737, Iran
Fax: +98 21 3390 4986
Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com

3. Please urgently donate to the Save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani campaign by making your cheque payable to ‘Count Me In – Iran’ and sending it to BM Box 6754, London WC1N 3XX, UK. You can also pay via Paypal (http://countmein-iran.com/donate.html).

For more information, contact:

Mina Ahadi, International Committee against Execution and International Committee against Stoning: minaahadi@aol.com; Tel: +49 (0) 1775692413, http://stopstonningnow.com, http://notonemoreexecution.org

Maryam Namazie, Iran Solidarity, iransolidaritynow@gmail.com, +44 7719166731, www.iransolidarity.org.uk, iransolidarity.blogspot.com

HEROIN v ALCOHOL

There's a great debate on heroin addiction v alcohol addiction over at Taking Liberties.

I do know a bit about both as one of my friends is a heroin addict and another is a clinical alcoholic. Both depend on the their drug of choice physically. Both are violently ill when they stop.

The alcoholic beats herself up constantly because of her addiction. The help she gets from NHS funded services makes her feel worse about herself. She can and often does, on her own volition, go on the waggon and I've known her stay clean for months. Life circumstances and sheer bloody poverty tend to drag her back to her addiction because straight life achieves nothing. Drunken life numbs the pain.


My heroin addicted friend is the subject of the newspaper articles featured here that I wrote back in 2002. I knew him before he was an addict. Before smack came to my city. Rumour has it an ex-police officer set up the networks here. Certainly a former PC was jailed about five years ago for being a "big fish" dealer.

Like a lot of other people at the time my friend had no idea what he was messing with when he started taking heroin. He only found out when he didn't want to take it any more.

I've always lived, until recently, on council estates. Many of friends fell victim to hard drugs. Many did and still do use "softer" drugs with no desire to "move up". I think I'm lucky because I got a life. I've always believed that there but for the grace of God ...

One of our old crowd, and an ex-girlfriend of my other half - a beautiful young woman - died of an overdose in her late 30s. Another friend thought he was using speed. It's what he asked for. When he stopped buying it and got physically ill, his dealer told him it was because he was now addicted to heroin. My mate's girlfriend punched the dealer in the face. The dealer needed to sell it because he owed his dealer one step up.

I've rubbed my friend's name out of the features because in truth I don't know where he is now. He could have got free of his addiction and be living the life he wanted. The last I heard he got sent to prison about three years ago.

My alcoholic friend took five years of very heavy drinking to become physically addicted to alcohol. My heroin addicted friend took just a few hits before the smack took a grip. I know which in reality - not theory - is worse.

The other piece below is about the parents of drug addicts, an article about St Gillian of Merron, former MP and health minister, and the role she played in response to the parents' desperate cry for help.

Shame on her for wasting so many billions on anti-smoker money when that funding and effort could have saved real lives and made a real difference.






* Duh - obviously any figures and info in these newspaper features is out of date. The articles go back to May 2002.