last beautiful girl

18 June 2009 @ 03:19 pm

i realize now i do not fear death... i fear my daughter will not be free when i die

- From the Twitter of an Iranian medical student

"If it bothers you so much, then why don't you stop watching?" seems to be the question of the last few days from my friends and family who know how invested I have become in the cause of the Iranian people (as I have explained in great detail here) The answer is simple: one day of caring is not enough. We must be the voice for the people of Iran who would otherwise be silenced. They are without reliable news sources, they are without mobile phone calls, text messaging, facebook, twitter, youtube, AIM, Yahoo, Google, and pretty much every other useful outlet for information you can think of. Yet they persist on the streets and on the internet in any way they can. The least we can do, whether we are across continents, oceans, or time zones, is spread their words safely.

My death is irrelevant.Wht is important is that u do not forget my words.We want freedom.i will die 4that

- From the Twitter of a protester in Tehran

Right now, brave men and women in Iran, both young and old, are sacrificing their lives for their voices to be heard. They must fear not only the police, but also the Basij -a force of men loyal to the government who plant themselves among crowds in plain clothes in order to discretely attack protesters and incite chaos.The protesters are peaceful. They mass together in crowds that are reported to grow in size every day. At night they have very few, if any, safe places to stay. Houses with satelite dishes were attacked by the Basij tonight, and during the 50 minutes of Twitter's maintenance, another university was attacked.

140 characters is a novel when you're being shot at.

- From another Iranian Twitter

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

The most obvious thing to do is stay informed. Keep an eye on reliable sources on Twitter, refresh blogs and news sites that are covering the stories.

If you are on twitter, retweet information from reliable twitters, but REMOVE THE USERNAME if they are in Iran. People have died because of the lack of responsibility by fellow tweeters and the media in this front. They can be tracked down by the government of Iran.

Spread the information elsewhere. Repost this article or write your own on Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, or anywhere else you can think of. If you write your own, make sure you are concise and accurate. Link to your sources for people to learn more.

Discretely change your location on Twitter to Tehran or Iran, and your time zone to GMT +3:30. Don't post to brag about how you did it, otherwise it was useless.

DO NOT auto-refresh and take down websites, even if you are asked. It slows down the internet for the rest of the people in Iran.

If you make a proxy DO NOT post it publically, otherwise it is useless. Send it in a direct message to a trusted source.

DO NOT spam the hash tag #IranElection with useless things to "confuse the government". This does not help at all.

USEFUL SITES TO FURTHER HELP

Cyber War Guide for Iran Elections

Green Revolution - How to Help

Anonymous - Why We Protest - Iran

STAY INFORMED!

Follow on Twitter: @ProtesterHelp and @StopAhmadi

(REMINDER: DO NOT REPOST PERSONAL TWITTERS OF THOSE INSIDE THE COUNTRY, EVEN IF THEY ARE RELIABLE!)

Chronology of events

Live-blogging by Andrew Sullivan

General information from a poser on Fark.com

Live-blogging on HuffingtonPost

دنیارابگوییدچطورآنهاانتخاباتمان دزدیده اند
Tell the world how they have stolen our election

- original article by one_hoopy_frood on LJ

more on the book blockade

So, long story short,

1) Books are import tax-free in the Philippines. Period. Forever. Doesn't matter if you get them via air, sea, or land, but you do not pay taxes for them. Why? Because this country signed a treaty called The Florence Agreement that states "Under the Agreement, books, newspapers, periodicals and many other categories of printed matter are granted duty-free entry. Printed music, maps and even tourist posters are similarly exempt. All the items of this annex to the Agreement, except architectural plans and designs, enjoy exemption from customs duties regardless of destination. Books are the most important category. The exemption granted to books is not subject to any qualifications as to their educational, scientific and cultural character."

2) Some geniuses at the Department of Finance are looking for a quick way to make a buck so they imposed a 1%/5% tax on any books that come into the Philippines through any means possible. Then when the treaty in question was presented to them, they created a set of *air quotes* "guidelines" */air quotes* that will help Customs officials discern whether a book is "educational" or "non educational".

→ Not to mention this incident, as reported by Robin Hemley:

Customs Undersecretary Espele Sales explained the government's position to a group of frustrated booksellers and importers in an Orwellian PowerPoint presentation, at which she reinterpreted the Florence Agreement as well as Philippine law RA 8047, providing for "the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing." For lack of a comma after the word "books," the undersecretary argued that only books "used in book publishing" (her underlining) were tax-exempt.

“For 50 years, everyone has misinterpreted the treaty and now you alone have interpreted it correctly?” she was asked.

“Yes,” she told the stunned booksellers.

Sarap pag-uuntugin, di ba? The genius minds of my country, ladies, and, well, more ladies. A flash of inspiration from their legal department that is more akin to imagination bordering on delusion.

A mega comprehensive timeline of events compiled by Manuel Quezon III, of events leading up to what is now known as the "Great Philippine Book Blockade of 2009". An awesome read and excellently researched, I particularly keep going back just to read this brilliant, humorous analysis of the Department of Finance's FAQ and legalese whatnot from Bahay Talinhaga. What I loved:

The DOF guidelines contain a lot of legal definitions so as to allow Customs to distinguish between books in general, educational books, historical books, cultural books, book publishing etc.

With all due respect: none of that matters.

No. Import. Duties. On. Books.

Once more, with feeling:

* Under the Florence Agreement, a binding international treaty which the Philippines has already ratified, any book–whether textbook or bodice-ripper-romace–that isn’t an advertisement should be exempt from customs duties, whatever its content;
* Under Article 46 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, except in extreme circumstances a State party to a treaty cannot use its municipal/national laws to justify failure to comply with a treaty;
* Applying a customs duty on the importation of books contravenes the Florence Agreement;
* No law or interpretation of the law, whether the TCCP or RA 8047 or what-have-you, can justify duties on the importation of books.

So, again, in the humble opinion of one who knows the basics of international law: these guidelines are legally infirm; and as municipal law cannot overturn treaties, much less can municipal “guidelines” have any effect.

In your face.

Please, please, please, flist, Filipinos or no, if you love books at all, SIGN THE PETITION. This shit is bananas. Thankfully, some senators also think this shit is bananas and are now investigating the case. Other measures being taken include a letter to the president by Rep. Teddy Locsin and various other internet organisation methods (A Facebook cause, apparently? I don't have one of those, but please join it if you have one.) Tell your friends. Tell the TV networks.

Hell, if you won't do it for me, do it for NEIL GAIMAN.

When all else fails, I say litigate the motherfuckers. LEAVE THE BOOKS IN PEACE.

(This post has been left public. Link at will.)

Current Mood:

angry

13 comments | Leave a comment

19 May 2009 @ 10:10 pm

dismantle an atomic bomb

I would have more words, but right now all I've got is lsjdghslkdghdlgjfsdhlgk.

Only in the Pilipins can you find government officials putting taxes on books (which is against the law and violating an international treaty because books are educational material) in order to fuel their own greed. The entire thing is atrocious and an utter outrage. If this goes on, novels from foreign countries will never find their way into our bookstores because the taxation rate is too high. This makes me a) sick and b) want to kill someone. Specifically that motherfucking Undersecretary of whatthefuckingever who imposed these taxes. Books, for crying out loud! It's like the government wants to worsen the literacy problem! ksjdfghsdkgd.

Please sign the petition fighting this stupid book blockade here, you guys.

(And I've got to say? I am damn proud of the woman who wrote it. Yes, even when I haven't spoken to her in a year. I called her my sister once. Good on you, Maia-oneesama.)

Current Mood:

bitchy

3 comments | Leave a comment

14 June 2008 @ 05:34 pm

that's funny--

I thought the last one was REALLY going to be the last one, and yet apparently not?

Time for an update.

Kids, kids, kids.

THIS JOURNAL IS FRIENDS-ONLY.
Completely. Friends only.

Meaning, if you add me and not tell me? You get a big hunk'a nothin'. This is a sticky post! Use it. If you're new, tell me about yourself. I want to be able to put a face to a name. Or something. But first, an introduction:

I am ~~the artist formerly known as Ekai~~ Erika. I'm 24 and a nursing graduate. This journal is locked for a very simple reason: a few years ago a psycho harassed me on here, and I'd rather not it happen again.

I like Sawajiri Erika. I like her more with Nishikido Ryo. I talk about Japanese drama, real life drama, the process of writing, cute Asian boys of mostly Japanese descent, music, movies, food, and fandom. I'm fairly harmless, or so they tell me. I created

heat_up_je, the first JE het fanwork community on LJ, with my best friend. This is perhaps the cause of my internet infamy.

If you're here for the writing, let me reroute you to

honeymilk_tea.

I make graphics and icons on the fly. All of that is on

code_fantasy.

A final warning: If you don't like Sawajiri Erika, you probably won't like me. Which is okay, I probably won't like you either. D: