| October 6th, 2004 10:19 PM |
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| CS |
Bush 'a threat to world peace'
From correspondents in Montreal, Canada
07oct04
THE first wife of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger opened an international conference on abolishing the death penalty today by calling US President George W. Bush a threat to world peace.
The three day Second World Congress Against the Death Penalty, which was first held in Strasbourg, France in 2001, gathers hundreds of participants with the goal of urging countries to ratify a UN protocol against the death penalty.
Although nonbinding, the protocol signed by over 50 countries would be an important step toward eliminating capital punishment, organisers said.
"I think President Bush is in my view, if I may say so, the most dangerous man in power today," Bianca Jagger said.
"There is a threat not only for the people of the United States but if he is elected, I feel it would be a threat for the world and would unfortunately put us in a position where we will be confronting the possibility of a third world war," Jagger said.
Jagger, who is a goodwill ambassador for the Council of Europe, said she appealed in 2000 to the former Texas governor to block the execution of a man who was imprisoned when he was 17. When he refused, she witnessed the execution along with the man's family and other death penalty opponents.
The council monitors human rights and democracy in more than 40 countries.
"The execution of a condemned man is barbaric," she told conference delegates. "The execution of an innocent man is murder."
The 59-year-old Jagger said living in Nicaragua under a dictatorship taught her the meaning of oppression.
Amnesty International says 1146 people were executed last year in 28 countries and more than 2756 were sentenced to death in 63 countries.
The US and Japan are listed as the only democratic countries to execute more than one death row inmate every year and the US is among three countries that execute minors.
According to Amnesty International, 38 child offenders - people under 18 at the time of the crime - were executed worldwide since 1990, half of them in the US.
Next week the US Supreme Court will review whether convicted juveniles should face the death penalty.
Event organiser Michel Taube said Montreal was chosen in part because of its proximity to the US, a country where he said "the death penalty is not the subject of a major societal debate".
High-profile attendees include former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and French actress Catherine Deneuve.
Debates during the conference are to focus on issues such as the death penalty in the face of terrorism and whether there should be a boycott of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing because of China's record on executions.
Conference organisers also want countries to pass laws that prevent the extradition of citizens to states where they face the death penalty and to welcome refugees who face it in their own country.
So far 80 countries have completely abolished the death penalty while 78 continue to execute people. Others may allow capital punishment, but not routinely apply it. |
| October 6th, 2004 10:27 PM |
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| gypsy |
Why couldn't she have just become a heroin addict? |
| October 6th, 2004 10:56 PM |
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| Soldatti |
quote:
gypsy wrote:
Why couldn't she have just become a heroin addict?
 |
| October 6th, 2004 11:16 PM |
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| glencar |
Who's she sponging off now - Michael Moore? |
| October 6th, 2004 11:25 PM |
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| Soldatti |
 |
| October 6th, 2004 11:37 PM |
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| kath |
bless her heart. she is fighting for what she thinks is right. bush IS a madman and we are in some serious shit. i admire her for standing up against him. some people actually think that is treason or being a traitor!! of course, that is absurd. it's america and we have the right to speak out against the government if we think they are fuckin up. if it was some nobody and not bianca, i wonder how reactions to this would change?
although, i have to admit that at this point, heroin addiction might just be what the doctor ordered.....i had 7 1/2 years of being a heroin addict, so i know of what i speak. |
| October 6th, 2004 11:40 PM |
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| glencar |
Well, it's hard to argue with anyone who thinks Bush is a madman. Outside the realm of normal political discussion, you know? |
| October 6th, 2004 11:52 PM |
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| Poplar |
quote:
Soldatti wrote:
That's odd - from the looks of this picture, she doesn't strike me as the kind of girl that would line up with the French.
Still love you Jumacfly.
[Edited by Poplar] |
| October 7th, 2004 01:14 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
quote:
Poplar wrote:
That's odd - from the looks of this picture, she doesn't strike me as the kind of girl that would line up with the French.
Still love you Jumacfly.
[Edited by Poplar]
 hi Poplar |
| October 7th, 2004 01:20 AM |
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| Bloozehound |
I'd love to wipe my ass with that bitch
maybe I'll print a few of those pictures out |
| October 7th, 2004 04:24 AM |
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| Poplar |
Jumac - ever heard of a band called Antibalas? |
| October 7th, 2004 04:35 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
quote:
Poplar wrote:
Jumac - ever heard of a band called Antibalas?
No hombre, never heard about them..Are they french?? |
| October 7th, 2004 04:41 AM |
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| FotiniD |
quote:
CS wrote:
"I think President Bush is in my view, if I may say so, the most dangerous man in power today," Bianca Jagger said.
"There is a threat not only for the people of the United States but if he is elected, I feel it would be a threat for the world and would unfortunately put us in a position where we will be confronting the possibility of a third world war," Jagger said.
I like the change in Bianca. From rich girl to talking politics and defending human rights.
And I agree with her on Bush. If some people don't see what she's talking about, that's what scares me most.
But, why the heck does she keep the Jagger surname?! Just puzzling. |
| October 7th, 2004 04:43 AM |
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| Poplar |
No. great band though. Very much in the spirit of Fela Kuti.
What about Stereolab? They had a French element. |
| October 7th, 2004 04:54 AM |
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| Mathijs |
That Bush is a complete idiot and a threat to world peace is widely known and accepted. What scares me more is that half the Americans will again vote for him...
What's wrong with half the Americans?
Mathijs |
| October 7th, 2004 04:56 AM |
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| Poplar |
A world where people fly jetliners into buildings and blow up children in discoteques... and Bush is the bad guy. |
| October 7th, 2004 05:04 AM |
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| FotiniD |
quote:
Poplar wrote:
A world where people fly jetliners into buildings and blow up children in discoteques... and Bush is the bad guy.
Yes, but what do you think led things to this world? Not Bush alone, but God, did he do his share... Think about it. What about a world where civilians, houses, innocent people and children are bombed and then it is proclaimed a "mistake"? Or where "war for peace" is held?
He's an idiotic madman. That's my opinion.
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| October 7th, 2004 05:34 AM |
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| Poplar |
"War for peace" liberated nearly the entire continent of Europe, barely a half century ago. How soon we forget.
Sadly, we've reached a point in human history where intervention is required in the Middle East. It's a sorry collection of 15th Century regimes that is breeding Islamic Fascist terror. There is no rationale or excuse for what these people are doing around the globe in the name of Islam. It threatens everyone, and it needs to be stopped. Will anyone dispute that the Taliban should not have been removed? Of course not. In a similar way, in light of all the circumstances, Saddam Hussein not longer deserved appeasment.
No, I'm sorry. George Bush is not worse than Saddam Hussein, or Hitler ... blah blah blah. For christ's sake, some people need to just stop and listen to themselves, and the outright insanity of what they're saying.
The only thing the United Nations ever accomplished in Iraq was funding Saddam through the oil for food debacle, as he slaughtered his own people by the tens of thousands. The United Nations is currently enjoying about the same amount of success in Africa.
The Iraqi people will take control of their coutry, and 10 years from now, their nation will have progressed the equivilant of 100 years. The world will be better off because of it.
[Edited by Poplar] |
| October 7th, 2004 05:56 AM |
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| FotiniD |
quote:
Poplar wrote:
The Iraqi people will take control of their coutry, and 10 years from now, their nation will have progressed the equivilant of 100 years. The world will be better off because of it.
Should there by ANY Iraqi people that will have survived this hell, you mean.
The point I'm trying to make Poplar is that wars are NOT made for peace / setting people free / making the world a better place. If there's anything that history has taught us on this field, is that the sole motivation of a war in the vast majority of cases (if not all) is profit / money / power / oil; you get the picture.
You can't honeslty expect me to believe that Bush is the good savior of this world and that we should all be greatful for him saving the world peace. The only thing he has managed to achieve is cause worse mayhem. And I hope to be proven wrong, but I think that his actions have initiated a whole new circle of violence. Terrorists are not born like that - in no way am I saying what they're doing is right (killing people is insanity, regardless of the motivation); all I'm saying is that someone and some certain actions started it. You don't wake up one fine morning and decide you're going to self-explode and kill people. Something led things there, and it's not just Islam. Islam is a religion - has nothing to do with violence. It's an excuse, if you ask me.
Kind of like mass destruction weapons. Where are the famous mass destruction weapons? Another cheap excuse. The proof is there Poplar.
Having control is what this war was about. Control and power. And oil and the position of the Middle East allows for that. Simple stuff. |
| October 7th, 2004 05:58 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
Hi there...i ve decided to stop arguing about politics here
may the best wins... |
| October 7th, 2004 05:59 AM |
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| FotiniD |
quote:
Jumacfly wrote:
Hi there...i ve decided to stop arguing about politics here
may the best wins...
I've said that too Ju, but it still gets me... You're right though, it is a music board and politics should be avoided.. But it's part of life, so it's hard to keep my mouth shut |
| October 7th, 2004 07:02 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
quote:
FotiniD wrote:
I've said that too Ju, but it still gets me... You're right though, it is a music board and politics should be avoided.. But it's part of life, so it's hard to keep my mouth shut
i can understand my sweet luminous |
| October 7th, 2004 07:23 AM |
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| Mathijs |
poplar, sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. No one is doubting what an evil dictator Saddam was, but invading Iraq with only US troops (and too little troops even) was the worst thing to do. The US is now slowly being dragged in Vietnam II. At the moment the international community refused to intervene together with the US -as the EC thought that the results of an intervention were more severe than to not intervene- the US should not have invaded Iraq. George Bush has made this world much less safe, not the few Muslim terrorists. Globally the world is slowly getting on fire, but even on a smaller scale you notice it too -Americans are ignored, scolded, thrown out of coffee shops and restaurants and treated badly in genaral here in Amsterdam -the Capital of Tolerance.
It's also the arrogance of the US. The US imagines that it is an example of a free democracy. Well, here in Europe we don't want your democracy. We don't want elections were only money counts, we don't want to be able to buy AK-47's in a shop (causing 13000 deaths every year), we don't want your drugproblems, we don't want the death penalty, we don't want jurisdiction with a jury, we don't want a ban on abortion.
If Europe doesn't want it, imagine how a Arabic country feels.
Mathijs
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| October 7th, 2004 08:07 AM |
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| egon |
I like bush.
even as a little kid i liked those little wooden puppets that move their arms and legs when you pulled the string... |
| October 7th, 2004 09:03 AM |
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| Nellcote |
I think the question really is...
Bianca's had her Andy Warhol moment over 30 years
ago, being able to snag one Mick Jagger for a brief
period of time. That anyone would even consider
any statement on anything from her remotely credible
is simply amazing. She should concentrate on channeling
her fame towards the impovershed people of Nicaragua, her
home country, stop pontificating towards matters where
she is completely ill prepared to venture.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
[Edited by Nellcote] |
| October 7th, 2004 10:12 AM |
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| Dan |
Utterly moronic. I dont like Bush either but this is just ridiculous. First of all, there never has been world peace and probably never will be, at least in my lifetime. I dont even think he is the most dangerous world leader, I would give those honors to either Hu Xintao or Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
And why will half the people vote for Bush over Kerry?(actually a quarter since half wont even bother to vote) My sister and her husband dont have much time to pay any attention at all to world since they work hard all day every day building their small business to provide a good live for their 3 children yet Kerry would consider them wealthy and wants to raise their taxes and put an unfair burden on them. Thats just one of many reasons.
Or maybe its the devil you know? As much as I dont like Bush,I know where he stands. Kerry has flip flopped all over and the centerpiece of his campaign is to take advantage of all the Bush hatred by merely not being Bush. Oh and both campaigns have gone to great lengths to maximize what are really otherwise *MINIMAL* differences, ESPECIALLY in foreign policy.
Oh - and Americans arent leaving Iraq any time soon, especially not within the next 10 years unless driven out. The new long term plan is to have Iran completely surrounded. Part of a new missile defense plan released a few weeks ago with minimum fanfare and attention. |
| October 7th, 2004 10:25 AM |
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| glencar |
BTW Afghanistan is holding elections on Saturday, mathjis. I don't no if you approve but they're doing it anyway. Iraq follows in January. |
| October 7th, 2004 10:26 AM |
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| glencar |
I just love when people from other countries talk about the arrogance of Americans. I know only one person here did & his opinion is generally disregarded but it does make me giggle anyway. |
| October 7th, 2004 10:29 AM |
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| FotiniD |
quote:
Dan wrote:
And why will half the people vote for Bush over Kerry?(actually a quarter since half wont even bother to vote) My sister and her husband dont have much time to pay any attention at all to world since they work hard all day every day building their small business to provide a good live for their 3 children yet Kerry would consider them wealthy and wants to raise their taxes and put an unfair burden on them. Thats just one of many reasons.
Oh Dan... Your sister and her husband are right to want to provide a better life for their family, but you have to be able to see the bigger picture... World peace may be utopic, but if we end up not caring about what happens in the world, then there won't be that "better life" we all want, right?
And Kerry and the taxes... And why people support Bush.. Well maybe cause he's mild with the taxes and all! It's clever... Keeping people happy with the money and getting away with murder - literally...
Oh, whatever. I don't want to talk about politics anymore on the board. Hopefully |
| October 7th, 2004 10:39 AM |
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| glencar |
We had "world peace" (as if that'll EVER happen!) on 10 Sept 2001 & look where that got us. "Peace" is a laudable yet elusive goal. One must be realistic about such matters. Greece is especially prone to terroristic events. |
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