http://oneturkeyrun.blogspot.com/2016/12/aleppo-and-cambodia.html
I posted the above link on my Maine Writer Blog. It's titled "Aleppo and Cambodia".
Po Pot was a Cambodian who murdered his own people.
Assad is a Syrian who is destroying his own nation.
Both of them being the perpetrators of evil ambition.
Monday, December 19, 2016
Saturday, November 5, 2016
YouTube interview with Martha Gellhorne - reference Khmer Rouge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj9D3GIczW4
In this YouTube interview (link above) dated 1983, Gellhorn speaks candidly about her experience entering Dachau Concentration Camp, a chilling first person history.
Moreover, she described the "stupidity" (in her words) of the 1970s, political situation in Vietnam, whereby it became the Vietnamese, who defeated the US in their nation, that were then the liberators of the Cambodian people, who were suffering from the terrorism inflicted on them by the Khmer Rouge.
Martha Ellis Gellhorn was an American novelist, travel writer, and journalist, who is now considered one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. She was one of writer Ernest Hemingway's wives.
Born: November 8, 1908, St. Louis, MO
Died: February 15, 1998, London, United Kingdom
Spouse: T.S. Mathews (m. 1954–1963), Ernest Hemingway (m. 1940–1945), Bertrand de Jouvenel (m. 1933)
Parents: Edna Gellhorn, George Gellhorn
Martha Gellhorn was a distinguished war correspondent who covered every war that occurred across the globe over a period extending nearly 60 years.
Born in 1908 in St. Louis, Missouri, Martha Gellhorn began her writing career as a crime writer in the late 1920s.
Her storied life as a war reporter began when she met Ernest Hemingway in late 1936, and she traveled with him to Madrid the following year to cover the Spanish Civil War. Gellhorn went on to cover every war that broke out during her lifetime, until the mid-1990s when her health began to give out. Stricken with cancer, she committed suicide in 1998.
Martha Gellhorn was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 8, 1908. She attended Bryn Mawr College, in Philadelphia, but dropped out in 1927 to pursue journalism, writing early on for New Republic. She soon moved to Paris, working for various publications and joining the United Press Bureau, where she sought to become a foreign correspondent. While there, she aligned herself with the pacifist movement and wrote a book about her experiences in a novel, What Mad Pursuit (1934).
When Gellhorn returned to the United States, she was hired as an investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, who sent her around the country to document the impact of the Great Depression. Her reports caught the eye of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the two women became friends for life.
Gellhorn turned what she had witnessed into another work of fiction, The Trouble I've Seen (1936). The same year her book was published, she met Ernest Hemingway in a bar in Key West, Florida, and within months she was traveling with Hemingway to Spain to cover the rise of fascism and the Spanish Civil War for Collier’s Weekly. In 1940, Hemingway and Gellhorn were married, and he dedicated his Spanish Civil War novel, For Whom the Bells Toll (1940), to her.
Covering WWII and Vietnam
Gellhorn soon went to Western Europe to cover World War II, and in 1944 she allegedly stowed away on a hospital ship to report on the D-Day landings. The next year, she entered Dachau with American troops for the liberation of the infamous concentration camp (that same year, she and Hemingway split up), and her harrowing account was a landmark piece of journalism.
In 1966, she covered the war in Vietnam, which she found supremely disturbing and horrific, full of victims on both sides of the battles lines. In the 1980s she continued to travel extensively, writing about the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the U.S. invasion of Panama, and in the mid-1990s she went to Brazil to write about street children there.
That would be her last significant article before her death, as, dying of cancer, she took her own life in 1998.
In this YouTube interview (link above) dated 1983, Gellhorn speaks candidly about her experience entering Dachau Concentration Camp, a chilling first person history.
Moreover, she described the "stupidity" (in her words) of the 1970s, political situation in Vietnam, whereby it became the Vietnamese, who defeated the US in their nation, that were then the liberators of the Cambodian people, who were suffering from the terrorism inflicted on them by the Khmer Rouge.
Martha Ellis Gellhorn was an American novelist, travel writer, and journalist, who is now considered one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. She was one of writer Ernest Hemingway's wives.
Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway
WikipediaBorn: November 8, 1908, St. Louis, MO
Died: February 15, 1998, London, United Kingdom
Spouse: T.S. Mathews (m. 1954–1963), Ernest Hemingway (m. 1940–1945), Bertrand de Jouvenel (m. 1933)
Parents: Edna Gellhorn, George Gellhorn
Martha Gellhorn was a distinguished war correspondent who covered every war that occurred across the globe over a period extending nearly 60 years.
Born in 1908 in St. Louis, Missouri, Martha Gellhorn began her writing career as a crime writer in the late 1920s.
Her storied life as a war reporter began when she met Ernest Hemingway in late 1936, and she traveled with him to Madrid the following year to cover the Spanish Civil War. Gellhorn went on to cover every war that broke out during her lifetime, until the mid-1990s when her health began to give out. Stricken with cancer, she committed suicide in 1998.
Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway
Martha Gellhorn was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 8, 1908. She attended Bryn Mawr College, in Philadelphia, but dropped out in 1927 to pursue journalism, writing early on for New Republic. She soon moved to Paris, working for various publications and joining the United Press Bureau, where she sought to become a foreign correspondent. While there, she aligned herself with the pacifist movement and wrote a book about her experiences in a novel, What Mad Pursuit (1934).
When Gellhorn returned to the United States, she was hired as an investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, who sent her around the country to document the impact of the Great Depression. Her reports caught the eye of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the two women became friends for life.
Gellhorn turned what she had witnessed into another work of fiction, The Trouble I've Seen (1936). The same year her book was published, she met Ernest Hemingway in a bar in Key West, Florida, and within months she was traveling with Hemingway to Spain to cover the rise of fascism and the Spanish Civil War for Collier’s Weekly. In 1940, Hemingway and Gellhorn were married, and he dedicated his Spanish Civil War novel, For Whom the Bells Toll (1940), to her.
Covering WWII and Vietnam
Gellhorn soon went to Western Europe to cover World War II, and in 1944 she allegedly stowed away on a hospital ship to report on the D-Day landings. The next year, she entered Dachau with American troops for the liberation of the infamous concentration camp (that same year, she and Hemingway split up), and her harrowing account was a landmark piece of journalism.
In 1966, she covered the war in Vietnam, which she found supremely disturbing and horrific, full of victims on both sides of the battles lines. In the 1980s she continued to travel extensively, writing about the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the U.S. invasion of Panama, and in the mid-1990s she went to Brazil to write about street children there.
That would be her last significant article before her death, as, dying of cancer, she took her own life in 1998.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Sydney Schanberg obituary 1934-1016
Sadly, I'm just learning about the work of Sydney Schanberg through his obituary. I regret never having the opportunity to meet him, because I certainly would have appreciated a conversation about Cambodia.
As the evil dictator Pol Pot's Maoist guerrillas closed in on Phnom Penh in the spring of 1975, Sydney Schanberg's editors at The New York Times instructed him to leave the Cambodian capital. The veteran war journalist ignored the order and together with his Cambodian interpreter Dith Pran, he continued reporting.
Within days of the Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge seizing the capital city, Dith would be expelled to the contryside, along with millions of other educated and urban Cambodians- the start of Pol Pot's genocidal attempt to creat an agrarian utopia.
Schanberg won a Pulitzer for his reports on the Khmer Rouge and Dith's remarkable survival story, which inspired the 1984 film, "The Killing Fields". Dith's mission, "was to tell the world what suffering his people were going through," he wrote. "It became my mission too."
Killing Fields journalist Sydney Schanberg dies at 82- BBCNews
US journalist Sydney Schanberg, whose reporting inspired the Oscar-winning Hollywood film, The Killing Fields, died at the age of 82, the New York Times reports.
Schanberg worked for the Times and won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
His colleague, Dith Pran, was unable to leave and his four-year ordeal inspired Schanberg's work.
Schanberg died in Poughkeepsie after a heart attack earlier in the week.
His death was confirmed by Charles Kaiser, a friend and former Times reporter, the paper said.
In 1980, Schanberg described his Cambodian colleague's ordeal of torture and starvation at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in a magazine article, and later a book called The Death and Life of Dith Pran.
The Khmer Rouge was the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, during which time, it was responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th Century. The genocide claimed the lives of more than a million people - some estimates say up to 2.5 million.
Under the Maoist leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge tried to take Cambodia back to the Middle Ages, forcing millions of people from the cities to work on communal farms in the countryside.
But the attempt at social engineering had a terrible cost, and whole families died from execution, starvation, disease and overwork.
As the evil dictator Pol Pot's Maoist guerrillas closed in on Phnom Penh in the spring of 1975, Sydney Schanberg's editors at The New York Times instructed him to leave the Cambodian capital. The veteran war journalist ignored the order and together with his Cambodian interpreter Dith Pran, he continued reporting.
Within days of the Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge seizing the capital city, Dith would be expelled to the contryside, along with millions of other educated and urban Cambodians- the start of Pol Pot's genocidal attempt to creat an agrarian utopia.
Schanberg won a Pulitzer for his reports on the Khmer Rouge and Dith's remarkable survival story, which inspired the 1984 film, "The Killing Fields". Dith's mission, "was to tell the world what suffering his people were going through," he wrote. "It became my mission too."
Killing Fields journalist Sydney Schanberg dies at 82- BBCNews
Schanberg worked for the Times and won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
His colleague, Dith Pran, was unable to leave and his four-year ordeal inspired Schanberg's work.
 |
| Sydney Schanberg 1934-2916 died in Poughkeepsie NY |
His death was confirmed by Charles Kaiser, a friend and former Times reporter, the paper said.
In 1980, Schanberg described his Cambodian colleague's ordeal of torture and starvation at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in a magazine article, and later a book called The Death and Life of Dith Pran.
Oscar awards
In 1975, Schanberg and Dith Pran ignored directives from Times editors to evacuate and stayed in Cambodia as almost all Western diplomats and journalists fled.
 |
| Pictures of some of the victims of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror |
Born in Clinton, Massachusettes, Schanberg joined the Times as a copy boy in 1959, and "rose quickly through the organization," said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.) He reported on the civil war in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1971, and met Dith a year later while covering the US bombing of North Vietnamese sanctuaries inside Camobida. Four years after the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh, "there was no news of Dith," said The New York Times. Racked with guild, Schangergtook time off to write about his experiences and to help Dith's wife and children to settle in the US.
Then, in 1979, word arrived that Dith had escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand. He had endured unimaginable hardship, surviving beatings, back breaking labor, and a diet of insects, rodants and as litle as a tablespoon of rice a day.
Schanberg immediately flew to Thailand and arranged for his friend to move to the US. Dith died in 2008.
Under the Maoist leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge tried to take Cambodia back to the Middle Ages, forcing millions of people from the cities to work on communal farms in the countryside.
But the attempt at social engineering had a terrible cost, and whole families died from execution, starvation, disease and overwork.
Schanberg began writing a column about New York City for the Times, in 1981, said The Washington Post. But, the "abrasive, headstrong manner" that had served him well overseas led to clashes with his bosses, and his column was canceled in 1985. Schanberg went on to write for other outlets and became a mentor to young journalists, but he never turly got over the horrors of Cambodia. "You tell yourself things in order to function, but you're going to break down," he said.
"Eventually, you need to find room where you can sit alone and cry."
Friday, February 19, 2016
Open Letter to Maine Governor Paul LePage
"Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’” 2 Corinthians 3:17 (In other words: Second Corinthians)
Donald Trump made a Biblical fool of himself when he couldn't state "2 Corinthians" correctly. Worse than being unable to state scriptural text, was the inability to understand the meaning of the passage.
Unfortunately, America's right wing Republican party might be adept at reciting scriptural text and references, but they ignore the meaning of the words they often memorize. This is particularly true when faced with the immigration issue.
Recently, Maine's Governor Paul LePage made immigrants and asylum seekers the victims of his horrible racist rhetoric. There's absolutely no reason, whatsoever, for Governor LePage to stigmatize immigrants and asylum seekers. LePage stereotyped them with terrible lables, called them names and accused them, without cause, of carrying "germs" into Maine. What's worse, Governor LePage ignores the reality of his own family. In fact, he grew up in Lewiston, Maine, in a family directly related to French-Canadian immigrants! When Governor LePage ran for office, he was complimented for being a Franco-American. Now, unfortunately, he has become an embarrassment to his heritage.
Now, the Holocaust and Human Rights Center on the campus of the University of Maine Augusta (UMA), has published an open letter to challenge the unjust ethnic criticisms of Maine's immigrants and asylum seekers. Shame on Governor Paul LePage!
Here is the text of the HHRC letter:
In the wake of the world's response to the (terrorist) tragedies in Paris and turmoil in Beirut this week (recently) our (Maine Governor LePage) Governor has announced that he would oppose any efforts to bring Syrian refugees to Maine. While our history is crowded with efforts to limit groups of people from coming to the US, there is little question that immigration has been one of the most important factors in making the US a world power, and is, arguably, the key to Maine's success as a state.
U.S. law is very clear on immigration. The issue is under Federal control, based on article six of the US Constitution, and has been reviewed several times by the Supreme Court,most notably in Hines vs Davidowitz in 1941. (Under the preemption doctrine, enforcement of a state alien registration law was barred by the federal Alien Registration Act.)
Since the end of the Civil War, when Republican Governor Samuel Cony declared, "From the very foundation of our government, it has been our policy to invite the freest immigration from every portion of the earth," Maine has had a love/hate relationship with its immigrants. But, for Governor LePage to take an anti-immigrant stance seems somewhat disingenuous. The largest group for immigrants to Maine in the 19th century were the French Canadians, including the Governor's ancestors. At the time, there was also a good deal of rhetoric and discrimination against them. Most people know that the Ku Klux Klan movement in Maine in the 1920s, was mostly focused on the French-Catholic immigrants from Canada. Governor LePage has talked about the racism he felt growing up in "Little Canada", in Lewiston. He is, by all accounts, a self-made man, and a proud model of the success an immigrant can have in Maine, as are our Senator Susan Collins (Irish and English), former Senator Snowe (Greek), former Senator Mitchell (Lebanese) and many other prominent Mainers.
This fall, at the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, we have had a chalkboard in the lobby asking visitors, "What Country Are Your Ancestors From?" After two months, the board is filled with answers that reveal that Maine, like the rest of the country, is made up of people from all over the world. Of course, we'd expect to see Canada, France, Ireland, England, Sweden, Germany, Finland and mostly western European countries listed on the board. But, we might be surprised to see Guam, Jamaica, Belarus, Senegal, Lithuania, Cuba, Haiti, Somalia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Russia, Poland, China, Humgary, Turkey, Brazil, Iceland, Australia, Rwanda, Lebanon and Sudan were listed; and, of course, a few people wrote that their ancestors are Native Americans.
It's interesting to note that our post Civil War interest in immigrants was fueled mostly by the fact that so many of our Maine boys got out, saw the possibilities in the rest of the country and decided not to come back home. That's what caused Governor Cony to make his bold statement that immigrants would be welcomed in Maine.
A few years later, Maine's Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain was Governor. He encouraged Maine residents to think differently about the issue of the outward migration of our youth. "We have been too long content with the doubtful compliment that 'Maine is a good State to go from.' She must be made a good State to come to and to stay in." We've complained for about 150 years now about our young people leaving, perhaps it's time for us to revisit that argument as well. Maybe, we should try harder to welcome everyone who wants to come to Maine or stay in Maine. And yes, that includes immigrants and the children of immigrants.
Maine is a rich tapestry made up of individuals from around the world, and while we know that most immigrants and all refugees are vetted, we disagree with the concept that someone should be considered subversive or a danger to the American people simply because of their country of origin, religion, color of their skin, sexual orientation, or any other broad measure of a group of people. That's surely not an American or Maine measure of a person. As Dr. (Martin Luther) King suggested, many years ago, we should measure people by the content of their character. Maine's character is clearly composed of people from all over the world. Rather than opposing those who would seek refuge in a safe land and contribute to our society, we should embrace them and remember, in their quest for a new home, they're very much like our own ancestors.
Written by David Greenham, Program Director, Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine.
Obviously, Republicans have a big problem understanding the Scripture they claim to revere. 2 Corinthians. Sadly, they do not advocate for the intent of this Biblical passage. For selfish reasons, Republicans do not believe in providing liberty for those who are seeking the spirit of freedom.
Donald Trump made a Biblical fool of himself when he couldn't state "2 Corinthians" correctly. Worse than being unable to state scriptural text, was the inability to understand the meaning of the passage.
Unfortunately, America's right wing Republican party might be adept at reciting scriptural text and references, but they ignore the meaning of the words they often memorize. This is particularly true when faced with the immigration issue.
Recently, Maine's Governor Paul LePage made immigrants and asylum seekers the victims of his horrible racist rhetoric. There's absolutely no reason, whatsoever, for Governor LePage to stigmatize immigrants and asylum seekers. LePage stereotyped them with terrible lables, called them names and accused them, without cause, of carrying "germs" into Maine. What's worse, Governor LePage ignores the reality of his own family. In fact, he grew up in Lewiston, Maine, in a family directly related to French-Canadian immigrants! When Governor LePage ran for office, he was complimented for being a Franco-American. Now, unfortunately, he has become an embarrassment to his heritage.
Now, the Holocaust and Human Rights Center on the campus of the University of Maine Augusta (UMA), has published an open letter to challenge the unjust ethnic criticisms of Maine's immigrants and asylum seekers. Shame on Governor Paul LePage!
Here is the text of the HHRC letter:
In the wake of the world's response to the (terrorist) tragedies in Paris and turmoil in Beirut this week (recently) our (Maine Governor LePage) Governor has announced that he would oppose any efforts to bring Syrian refugees to Maine. While our history is crowded with efforts to limit groups of people from coming to the US, there is little question that immigration has been one of the most important factors in making the US a world power, and is, arguably, the key to Maine's success as a state.
U.S. law is very clear on immigration. The issue is under Federal control, based on article six of the US Constitution, and has been reviewed several times by the Supreme Court,most notably in Hines vs Davidowitz in 1941. (Under the preemption doctrine, enforcement of a state alien registration law was barred by the federal Alien Registration Act.)
Maine Governor Samuel Cony (Governor 1864-1867) b. 1811 d. 1870 in Augusta ME "...invite the freest immigration...."
This fall, at the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, we have had a chalkboard in the lobby asking visitors, "What Country Are Your Ancestors From?" After two months, the board is filled with answers that reveal that Maine, like the rest of the country, is made up of people from all over the world. Of course, we'd expect to see Canada, France, Ireland, England, Sweden, Germany, Finland and mostly western European countries listed on the board. But, we might be surprised to see Guam, Jamaica, Belarus, Senegal, Lithuania, Cuba, Haiti, Somalia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Russia, Poland, China, Humgary, Turkey, Brazil, Iceland, Australia, Rwanda, Lebanon and Sudan were listed; and, of course, a few people wrote that their ancestors are Native Americans.
It's interesting to note that our post Civil War interest in immigrants was fueled mostly by the fact that so many of our Maine boys got out, saw the possibilities in the rest of the country and decided not to come back home. That's what caused Governor Cony to make his bold statement that immigrants would be welcomed in Maine.
A few years later, Maine's Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain was Governor. He encouraged Maine residents to think differently about the issue of the outward migration of our youth. "We have been too long content with the doubtful compliment that 'Maine is a good State to go from.' She must be made a good State to come to and to stay in." We've complained for about 150 years now about our young people leaving, perhaps it's time for us to revisit that argument as well. Maybe, we should try harder to welcome everyone who wants to come to Maine or stay in Maine. And yes, that includes immigrants and the children of immigrants.
Maine is a rich tapestry made up of individuals from around the world, and while we know that most immigrants and all refugees are vetted, we disagree with the concept that someone should be considered subversive or a danger to the American people simply because of their country of origin, religion, color of their skin, sexual orientation, or any other broad measure of a group of people. That's surely not an American or Maine measure of a person. As Dr. (Martin Luther) King suggested, many years ago, we should measure people by the content of their character. Maine's character is clearly composed of people from all over the world. Rather than opposing those who would seek refuge in a safe land and contribute to our society, we should embrace them and remember, in their quest for a new home, they're very much like our own ancestors.
Written by David Greenham, Program Director, Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine.
Obviously, Republicans have a big problem understanding the Scripture they claim to revere. 2 Corinthians. Sadly, they do not advocate for the intent of this Biblical passage. For selfish reasons, Republicans do not believe in providing liberty for those who are seeking the spirit of freedom.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Comparing the Khmer Rouge with the ethnic cleansing of Yazidis
An article by journalist Rose George describes how one humanitarian woman compared the carnage perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (The Killing Fields), with the ongoing and systematic ethnic cleansing of the Yazidis population, in Syria.
In the article titled, "All I can do is tell their stories," she reports:
"Evin traveled to Cambodia, where, having read about the Khmer Rouge, she met people who had suffeed under the regime. "I learned so much," she says, and she shared her own knowledge with others...."
The Yazidi are a Kurdish people who follow an old religion related to Zoroastrianism, but which has remnants of Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They are located primarily in the Nineveh province of northern Iraq. The sacred valley of Lalish is the center point of their culture. (Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions. It was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran, approximately 3500 years ago.)
 |
| Rose George writes "All I can do is tell their stories" in the February 2016 "The Rotarian" magazine. |
"Evin traveled to Cambodia, where, having read about the Khmer Rouge, she met people who had suffeed under the regime. "I learned so much," she says, and she shared her own knowledge with others...."
The Yazidi are a Kurdish people who follow an old religion related to Zoroastrianism, but which has remnants of Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They are located primarily in the Nineveh province of northern Iraq. The sacred valley of Lalish is the center point of their culture. (Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions. It was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran, approximately 3500 years ago.)
An icon representing Zoroastrianism
Link to the Rose George article and blog are here:
http://oneturkeyrun.blogspot.com/2016/01/syrian-refugees-tragically-brave.html
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