FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND EXPRESSION IS PEOPLE'S RIGHT...

Charlie Hebdo and the Peoples of the World will not be silenced...

Hebdo is published again...

They attacked Paris and killed 17 people across France...
The Global Village reacted and “Je suis Charlie” became a rallying cry...
Million plus demonstrated in Paris... and I joined them... I condemned the attacks and defended the right to free speech...
Free speech an freedom of expression are rights that must be defended always...
I was happy by the response...

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They attacked Nigeria and killed 2000 people and maybe more...
They strapped a 10-years-old girl with explosives and exploded her by remote control... at least 20 people died in that attack which heralded a larger attack on a village which killed 2000 people...men, women and children...
The Global Village remained silent... and we forgot “#BringBackOurGirls”...
I am ashamed... that we neglected and marginalized the lives of 2000 plus human beings...

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I guess we are still Eurocentric... and some lives are worth more than others... that's why “Black lives matter” takes an extra dimension...

Read a Reporters Account... of the incident...

Kano, Nigeria (CNN)The attackers sped into a Nigerian town with grenade launchers -- their gunfire and explosions shattering the early morning calm.

As terrified residents scattered into bushes in Baga town and surrounding villages, the gunmen unloaded motorcycles from their trucks and followed in hot pursuit.

Residents hid under scant brush. Bullets pierced them.

Some sought refuge in their homes. They were burned alive.

Many who tried to cross into neighboring Chad drowned while trying to swim through Lake Chad.

By the time the weapons went quiet, local officials reported death tolls ranging from hundreds to as many as 2,000 people.

Indeed... ALL lives matter... ALL OVER the GLOBAL VILLAGE...

Let's come together... and live in PEACE and HARMONY...

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A former student, still in university, sent me the following yesterday...
I am very pleased to receive it and glad that he still has interest in the blog posts...
I think he rushed a bit... and confused the coherence of his argument, but in its general contours it is quite clear... I am posting it as it is... and I will post all that I receive... Freedom of speech requires uncensored thoughts...
Dear friend,
I indeed will defend your right to say it all and write it in the manner that you desire... 
I may disagree with you... But I will defend your right to swear at me... I may disagree with you... But I will defend your right to blasphemy...
There are NO SACRED COWS... that we should relinquish our rights of free speech and freedom of expression...
Here it is...

Previous cartoons from Charlie Hebdo...

People have the right to express themselves in a way they feel right...

It is indeed analogous to enforcing students to wear uniforms or wearing according to their personality and liking and mood...

The new cover of Charlie Hebdo...

Tearful... and compassionate Mohammad... "All is forgiven"... Indeed...

Without organized religion... PEOPLE WILL LIVE IN PEACE and HARMONY...

This is the note that I received from one of my former university students...

I am publishing it without changing anything... Without editing it... He has all the right to write in the style he desires and use the words he chooses and express himself in the tone that he chooses... All the teachers should shut up and listen and all the world should respect his right to express himself...

I have paid dearly for my right for free speech... and I will defend it without hesitation...

Here it is...

Hello, I haven't sent you anything in a while partly because there was nothing I thought was worthy of sending. But I finally found something that sparked my brain to thinking about it. And this something is Freedom of Speech and the whole terrorist attack in France. I've seen your blog posts about it but they still don't answer some of my questions. This might sound a bit hypocritical but here goes nothing. I totally agree with everyone having freedom of speech, I even wrote an essay on it for a philosophy class, but when does freedom of speech cross the line? Or does it ever cross the line? People are defending Charlie Hebdo because they have freedom of speech right? But I don't agree with this. Sure what they post doesn't give anyone the right to murder them but why is it okay for them to make fun of others? I was talking to a friend about it and he just argued that it still isn't as bad as murdering people. which means he is implying that just because someone doing something that is more wrong than you makes what you're doing okay. Which to me and the morals I have been taught is wrong. I told him this and he argued back saying that they built their reputation around making fun of everybody no matter what religion or group you are in. Which to me doesn't make what they are doing any better than someone making fun of one type of person... I don't understand what the difference is between making fun of one person or making fun of 1 billion people, you are still doing something wrong in the eyes of society aren't you?  I think both the terrorists are wrong and charlie hebdo is wrong. Terrorists for the obvious reason, and charlie hebdo for an even simpler reason. I've grown up in a Christian home that isn't really open to any other religion or just don't care about other religions. I myself think other religions are an interesting thing to talk about. I've learned to accept other people's beliefs and accept that not everyone needs to believe in the same thing. So when I saw the charlie hebdo cartoons about Mohammed I thought to myself why would they do that? They are making fun of someone's beliefs. In a way they are limiting Muslims from their freedom of speech by making it seem that Mohammed and being Muslim is a bad thing. They do this with everyone's views on certain things which to me is making things worse in society than better.  From the beginning of your blog posts you have been promoting peace and freedom. With this situation I feel that charlie hebdo is doing the opposite of this. They are instigating war and violence with their freedom of speech. Isn't that the complete opposite of what freedom of speech is supposed to be? Like you are using freedom of speech to create blog posts about how things are flawed and you explaining why, while they are creating posts that create hatred.  I hope I'm not to confusing to understand but I tried my best.  And Merry Late Christmas. And when do Armenians celebrate the New Year? SMILE

The line up in Paris to buy the new issue of Charlie Hebdo...

Bravo...! People Que to buy Charlie...

They may kill us... but they will not be able to 

silence us...

...

Dear Friend,
I am pleased that we are having this civilized form of debate and not resort to violence or bullets as the attackers on Charlie Hebdo did...
If I understood your argument your are advocating that even free speech has its limits... specially when it comes to religion...
I am a very spiritual person and I am sure you know this... but I have issues with organized religion... be it Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Islam or any other like Confucianism or Shintoism... or any other... organized form of "beliefs"... be it called religion or politics or by any other name... It still stinks...
So each one has its beliefs... and if you are saying that we should not make fun of religion because of..., then that will limit our freedom of speech very much... and place us on a dangerous slippery slope... 
What if a "new religion" gathers, let's say, 100 followers and declares that they want to worship the donkeys... Now according to your reasoning donkeys will be off limit too and we will not be able to write and ridicule donkeys...

I am pleased that you had the insight and courage to write and to discuss and bring the issues to my readers... 

But Check our historical evolution... All the major wars are initiated in the name of religion and ethnic cleansing... Now because organized religion has promoted violence and wars... should we ban religion...? I say NO... we have to critique and show the deficiencies and short comings and hope that things will change...

When the printing machine was invented... people wanted to print the Bible and distribute it to the people... The Church opposed this act... The Church argued that the people will misinterpret the scriptures... The organized hierarchy wanted monopoly on reading the Bible... I guess we have the right to disagree with them and ridicule and print cartoons if that's how we want to express ourselves...

This is a cartoon from the time of the French Revolution...

During the French revolution... The Bishop-Cardinal on the left... going through the press in the middle and coming out like us... the people... leaner and healthier...

Dear friend(s)...

I had seen this cartoon when I was in my last year of high school... and it had impressed me so much that I wanted to share it with you...

Organized religion is unhealthy and has accumulated riches and ignored the people... Organized religion has caused major wars... too...

But I will oppose banning them... The times of the Roman Empire had long gone... and disappeared...

People have the right to express themselves... even if it "offends"... 
After all, the question is: WHO WILL DECIDE WHAT IS OFFENSIVE... ? The Big Brothers...? or may be the Islamist-Jihadists... or... ?

The Big Brothers are abusing everything because they have the power... and I do not want to legitimize their usurpation of people's rights....

Couple of incidents from my past...

Long, very long time ago... I used to publish a monthly magazine... for the people and by the people...

But it was criticized because of its writing style... The establishment deluged us with letters and criticism in media... they were saying that we are bastardizing the language and printing articles with spelling mistakes... with wrong punctuation... with "abusive" language... with "offensive" words... and all the rest...

My response to these critics, and some were very famous writes, was to stop their "mental masturbation" and listen to the people... 

I refused to correct the spelling, the punctuation and if the article had swearing in it, I published it as it is... 

If I refused articles from the people... from students and workers, because they were not "well written" according to some asshole-pundit, then I would have been just like them... shutting the venue for people to express themselves... 

On another occasion I was criticized because "I was wearing inappropriately"... to a public debate-forum... they said, "what will the people think"...? The next time I went to the debate-forum in slippers and while there I poured some of the water from my glass on my feet, and I excused myself by; "It is too warm inside..."

We have to be irreverent to make a point, if we so desire...

We have to be impolite to make a point, if we want to...

The Hebdo and I and any others who express themselves and others take offense... then they should debate and attempt to convince... NOT resort to violence... or like Big Brothers do... legislate a ban... !

***

How to succeed at work? 
Censor yourself suggests OZYMANDIAS website... It adds, “Studies show that political correctness in today's increasingly diverse workplace is a must.”
Dear friend(s),
Political correctness sucks... 
The French Revolution had adopted the slogan, "Equality, Fraternity, Liberty..."
In the name of political correctness, "Equality and Fraternity" have trumped up 
"Liberty"... and the way we are going... soon Big Brothers will legislate all... everything and anything...

Check the hypocrisy below...

British Prime Minister David Cameron called for a ban on messaging services that the government can't snoop on.

"Are we going to allow a means of communications which it simply isn't possible to read?" Cameron said Monday. "My answer to that question is: 'No, we must not.'"

This is the same Prime Minister who was in Paris arms-in-arm in solidarity with the French people... 

He was in Paris defending free speech... now he is in London advocating censorship...

Big Brothers, all of them, are not to be trusted... 

People should defend their rights of free speech and expression...

And of course Prime Minister Cameron is not alone... all the rest of the Big Brother entourage have repressive legislation to their credit...

Here are some of them...

• Ahmed Davitoglu... Turkish Prime Minister...                 Turkey recently, in December, occupied the offices of daily Zaman, a leading Turkish newspaer, and arrested 30 people mostly journalists...And today the Turkish government warned everyone that it will close "Twitter" and "Face Book" and other social media if they do NOT STOP reporting about the cour findings that the Turkish secret police (MIT) was sending truckloads of weapons to the Islamist-Jihadists in Syria and Iraq...
• Benjamin Natanyahu... The Israeli prime Minsister, who has not qualms in killing Palestinians and Arabs... be they women, men, or children and confiscating Palestinian lands...
• Petro Poroshenko... who has allied himslef with the far right Ukrainian fascists... and bombs and kills Eastern Ukrainian "separatists"... with the blessing of the Western powers...
• Sergey Lavrov... who attacked Ukraine and kills and maims Ukrainians and bans democratic rights and free press in Russia...
• Avigdor Lieberman... a far right Israeli leader who advocated "bombing Gaza like the U.S. bombed Japan..."

And if we acquaint ourselves with the other Big Brothers who were in the Paris People's March... we will learn more atrocious and disappointing biographical notes...

 Only the people can defend their rights... and the people should not rely on the crumbs thrown at them by this double-talking Big Brothers...