Libreto pri forgesita koncentrejo en Francio.
Tiu libreto temas pri koncentrejo, kiu funkciis en sud-okcidenta Francio inter 1939 kaj 1945. La unuaj malliberigantoj estas eksaj porrespuplikaj batalantoj, kiuj eskapis en Francion por eviti areston kaj morton en la reĝimo de Franco en Hispanio.
Komence de la dua mondmilito tiam aperis en la koncentrejo eksterlandaj nedezirinduloj – malamikoj de Francio. Tiam – post la kapitulacio de Francio en 1940 kaj la estigo de la reĝimo de Petain la koncentrejo estis uzata por enkarcerigi franciajn kaj eksterlandajn judojn. Multaj estis deportitaj al eksterminejoj. Fine post la liberigo la koncentrejon oni uzi ĝin por enhavi germanajn militkaptitojn kaj franciajn naziajn kunlaboranojn.
La libreto enhavas multajn bildojn, fotojn, mapojn kaj desegnojn.
LAHARIE, Claude, Gurs: 1939-45, Atlantica 2005.
Showing posts with label imprisonment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label imprisonment. Show all posts
23 June 2013
The Jeremy Forrest Affair
In June 2013, teacher Jeremy Forrest, who absconded with his fifteen year old pupil to France, was sentenced to five and half years in jail.
As a teacher Jeremy Forrest is a disgrace and should never teach teenagers again: as an adult man he should have said no to the relationship. He didn’t and it happened.
Yet the state did much worse. To Forrest it branded him a paedophile, which he is not, and incarcerated him for a period more suited to a rapist. To the girl it took away her partner (now she is of marriageable age), forced her into anonymity and told her that everything she thought and felt was false and valueless.
The media coverage, the English legal system and the so-called child welfare agencies are a disgrace.
As a teacher Jeremy Forrest is a disgrace and should never teach teenagers again: as an adult man he should have said no to the relationship. He didn’t and it happened.
Yet the state did much worse. To Forrest it branded him a paedophile, which he is not, and incarcerated him for a period more suited to a rapist. To the girl it took away her partner (now she is of marriageable age), forced her into anonymity and told her that everything she thought and felt was false and valueless.
The media coverage, the English legal system and the so-called child welfare agencies are a disgrace.
1 December 2012
Incarceration & Punophilia in Britain
Britain has a blooming love affair with punishment
I can remember in 1977-78 delivering newspapers (mostly the Telegraph, Mail and Express) around leafy lanes in Surrey. One outraged headline demanded what was happening to Britain with the prison population exceeding 40 000. The 1970s, after all, were a time when class discontent was supposedly making Britain ungovernable and law and order was breaking down. Mrs Thatcher, then on the verge of office, was preaching authoritarianism and shock capitalist therapy.
Today, more than three decades later in a richer but more unequal Britain, government boasts a prison population of over 80 000, representing the highest incarceration rate in Europe. Maybe the dreck of society is always present, but the size of a country's lumpenproletariat and the proportion of it dumped into jails are determined by social and political factors.
Two factors stand out in explaining this. One is the increasing inequality in British society in which any sense of a community-of-equals is ebbing away, with the result that the shared public morals binding social behaviour have weakened, particularly so in the junk estates and inner cities.
The other, and perhaps related, factor is Britain’s current addiction to punophilia, the love of punishment: a person sent down for six months for stealing a bottle of water, or another receiving three months for making a sick joke on Facebook. Increasingly, imprisonment is used not as an unavoidable last resort, but to “send a message” by government and the judiciary grabbing a headline.
On a more positive note: if Britain imprisoned the same proportion of its population as the US there would 400 000 people rotting in Britain’s jails. But America aside, if you judge a country by the proportion of its population in jail – not a bad measure – then Britain performs very badly indeed.
I can remember in 1977-78 delivering newspapers (mostly the Telegraph, Mail and Express) around leafy lanes in Surrey. One outraged headline demanded what was happening to Britain with the prison population exceeding 40 000. The 1970s, after all, were a time when class discontent was supposedly making Britain ungovernable and law and order was breaking down. Mrs Thatcher, then on the verge of office, was preaching authoritarianism and shock capitalist therapy.
Today, more than three decades later in a richer but more unequal Britain, government boasts a prison population of over 80 000, representing the highest incarceration rate in Europe. Maybe the dreck of society is always present, but the size of a country's lumpenproletariat and the proportion of it dumped into jails are determined by social and political factors.
Two factors stand out in explaining this. One is the increasing inequality in British society in which any sense of a community-of-equals is ebbing away, with the result that the shared public morals binding social behaviour have weakened, particularly so in the junk estates and inner cities.
The other, and perhaps related, factor is Britain’s current addiction to punophilia, the love of punishment: a person sent down for six months for stealing a bottle of water, or another receiving three months for making a sick joke on Facebook. Increasingly, imprisonment is used not as an unavoidable last resort, but to “send a message” by government and the judiciary grabbing a headline.
On a more positive note: if Britain imprisoned the same proportion of its population as the US there would 400 000 people rotting in Britain’s jails. But America aside, if you judge a country by the proportion of its population in jail – not a bad measure – then Britain performs very badly indeed.
9 January 2011
David Chaytor, guilty yes, but a fall guy
Every time a chink of light falls on the British establishment, be it Iraq or parliamentarians expenses, mendacity and corruption are revealed.
We can debate whether imprisoning David Chaytor at great public expense is necessary. Learning about his humiliation in Wandsworth prison as his anus is searched for contraband can indeed gratify the revenge lust, but much better would be to have him do several years of community service, so he would contribute something to society rather than becoming a further drain on it.
That said, it is clear to me that the man is a fall guy. He, and perhaps later a couple of others, are to be thrown to the lions in an attempt to prove that wrong-doing is being taken seriously when overall it is not.
We should be careful to avoid the situation in which savouring the humiliation of Chaytor, the petty cheat, serves to divert public attention away from those who have done far worse.
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