Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Candidate questionnaire, August 09: Palestine

Posted by Murph on 30. July 2009

Continuing our candidate questionnaire results…

#5 – Would you support Council discussion of a resolution to support sanctioning Israeli actions towards the Palestinian people? What is your opinion on past Council discussion of resolutions on divestment from South Africa (1986), urging the lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq (2000), or opposing war with Iraq (2002)?

Kunselman: From the examples that are provided, it’s pretty clear that previous Councils have avoided deliberating the “hot topic” international issues that are obviously under the purview of the federal government. While I have my own views on these issues, bringing them to the Council table is not what I believe a Council member is elected to do and thus, no, I do not support discussing issues pertaining to the Mideast, Tibet, Somalia, North Korea, China, or any other country where human lives are being trampled by repressive authorities.

Greden: No. I do not believe the City Council should involve itself in foreign policy matters.

(Candidates Bullington, Anglin, and Rosencrans did not provide responses.)

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Newshawk Report -- May '09

Posted by Matt Hampel on 27. May 2009

The Chronicle has a mention in their New Media feed, but this quality reporting demands top billing.

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Third anniversary, start of Iraq War

Posted by David Boyle on 20. March 2006

See, e.g., CNN, Protests mark Iraq war’s third anniversary: Demonstators take to streets in cities around world . There were some protests in Ann Arbor, I believe.
R.I.P. to all the war dead. Peace to everyone else.

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Olympic update: Weir with you

Posted by David Boyle on 17. February 2006

Soviet Union-jacket-wearing U.S. Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir :
“I know that a lot of people, especially the more Republican-style people, are very afraid of what I mean to the sport and what I’m going to say, what kind of revolutionary, crazy things are going to come out of my mouth. Good for them, they should be scared.”
Is this guy from Ann Arbor or something?

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Japanese Womens Solidarity Tour

Posted by MarkDilley on 7. February 2006

This is a friend’s project. Tomomi is a person that brought focus on international students within GEO, the Graduate Employees Organization at U of M before I worked there.

Thirty Years of Sisterhood

On the US tour of a Japanese documentary film by Yamagami Chieko and Seyama Noriko, “Thirty Years of Sisterhood: Women of the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement in Japan” in Feb. 2006.

The screening of the film, as well as the panel discussion with the directors and feminists featured in the film, will be held in the following university campuses and community locations in Feb, 2006.

Feb 10 (Fri)—University of Chicago
Feb 11 (Sat)—University of Iowa
Feb 12 (Sun)—Grinnell College
Feb 15 (Wed)—Yale University
Feb 16 (Thu)—LGBT Community Center, NYC
Feb 19 (Sun)—Bluestockings Books, NYC
Feb 21 (Tue)—University of Michigan
Feb 23 (Thu)—University of Minnesota
Feb 27 (Mon)—University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Feb 28 (Tue)—Washington University in St. Louis

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Muhammad cartoon controversy

Posted by David Boyle on 4. February 2006

Partially inspired by my seeing “Syriana” (good movie, but has basically nothing to do with Syria) tonight and thinking about the Mideast: today’s Guardian, “Cartoons and their context”, notes,

”...The right to freedom of speech which allows newspapers to publish such provocative cartoons has been hard won, is inextricably essential to liberty, must be robustly defended….

But that is not the end of the matter. There are limits and boundaries – of taste, law, convention, principle or judgment. ...In any case, the right to publish does not imply any obligation to do so. ...It would not be appropriate, for instance, to publish an anti-semitic cartoon of the sort that was commonplace in Nazi Germany. Nor would we publish one which depicted black people in the way a Victorian caricature might have done. Every newspaper in the country regularly carries stories about child pornography, yet none has yet reproduced examples of such pornography as part of their coverage.

...Context matters very much in the case of the cartoons of Muhammad too. It is one thing to assert the right to publish an image of the prophet. ...But it is another thing to put that right to the test, especially when to do so inevitably causes offence to many Muslims and, even more so, when there is currently such a powerful need to craft a more inclusive public culture which can embrace them and their faith. ...There has to be a very good reason for giving gratuitous offence of this kind. ...What is the message that is being sent…by insisting on publishing such images? ...”

In any case, we can (I hope) agree that a free press is good, but a free press with some taste and dignity is even better.

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Ann Arborite journalist/hostage Jill Carroll nears deadline for killing

Posted by David Boyle on 20. January 2006

See, e.g, today’s Detroit News,
”...The kidnappers – identified as the previously unknown “Revenge Brigade” – have set a deadline of Friday evening for all Iraqi female detainees to be freed or they will kill Carroll. ...Carroll grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., and received an undergraduate degree in journalism in 1999 from the University of Massachusetts. She worked as a reporting assistant for The Wall Street Journal before moving to Jordan and launching her freelance career in 2002, learning Arabic along the way. ...The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations flew to the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Thursday and scheduled a news conference Friday in Baghdad. The group said it hopes to reach Arab television audiences and persuade Carroll’s captors to free her. The Bloomfield Hills-based Islamic Shura Council of Michigan, which represents about 20 Muslim groups in the state, told the Detroit Free Press that Carroll’s kidnapping would not help the Iraqi cause. ...”
I hope prayer works, since a lot of us are no doubt doing that, including many a blogger/journalist.

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Happy New Year 2006 from Arbor Update!

Posted by David Boyle on 1. January 2006

Best wishes to all! “For auld lang syne…”

Happy Hanuk-Kwanz-mas

Posted by David Boyle on 25. December 2005

     Happiest holidays to you, whatever your faith or background, or even if you don’t live in Ann Arbor.
     ”Chrismukkah” has nothing on Hanuk-Kwanz-mas, by the way. And the real OC is Oakland County, as we all know….

     Drive safely! And watch out for flying reindeer and spinning dreidels!!

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Breaking: Largest Asian Earthquake in Last 100 Years

Posted by Ari Paul on 8. October 2005

If Katrina, the Asian tsunami and a possible flu pandemic wasn’t enough, South and Central experienced the largest earthquake in a century’s history today.

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