Danielle Levy

–It took the lives of many diamond diggers to refocus attention on the lax human rights enforcement, making those lives those of real martyrs–A few years ago the movie “Blood Diamonds” publicized the relationship between diamond and human rights. Since 2003 a human rights group, Global Witness, set up the Kimberley Process, whereby the mining and sale of diamonds is to meet human rights standards. Whether or not the certification the Kimberley Process entails is working, is now moot. One of the reasons is the alleged massacre last year of diamond diggers by the Zimbabwe military. The diamond trade has long been suspected of providing funds for the regime or at least to those who benefit from it. There have also been other infringements leading Annie Dunnebcke, a spokeswoman for Global Witness, to say “the clock is running out on Kimberley Process credibility. As a result officials are now meeting in Namibia to discuss how the certification process can mean something again.
It took the lives of many including those 150 diggers in Zimbabwe to bring the issue to the table once again. If that’s true, then those lives belong to real martyrs.

–An announcement that Britney Spears will star in a concentration camp romance arouses the ire of German Jews–Britney Spears is slated to appear in “The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton” the working title of a film about a concentration camp romance and many Germans Jews are up in arms. The Central council of Jews in Germany is horrified that someone like Britney Spears will be making a holocaust film. The president, Charlotte Knobloch, said” In films that deal with the Holocaust, the script should be carefully chosen and the cast picked with care…ethical considerations should have priority.” Her objection brings up what looks to be an underlying question, who owns history? Isn’t history something that belongs to every human? Can anyone lay claim to it and order how it shall be portrayed? I am no particular fan of Britney Spears and her brand of commercialism. To my mind her way of handling her career contributes to the vulgarization of our culture. Nevertheless she has the right to star in a story set in a concentration camp just as Ms Knowbloch has the right to criticize the film whether or not she opts to go see it.

–The NYT initiated a news blackout about one of their reporter held hostage by the Taliban—A New York Times reporter has just escaped the Taliban after having been held hostage for 7 months. The NYT asked news organizations to not report on the item because they said it would endanger his safety. So for the last few months there has been no word about his kidnapping or his fate. Since his freedom, however, there has been discussions about how much freedom the press is to have, how did dozens of organizations covering news manage to agree, was there really cause for a news blackout, does a news blackout hurt anyone, was it warranted in this case, why was it abided? Of all the questions raised, thus far at least, no one has raised what may be one the most important one, why was a journalist treated differently in the press than any other hostage, any aid worker, UN official, doctor, or citizen being held hostage? Why does the life of a journalist appear more valuable than that of any other hostage? Why wasn’t there equal treatment? Asking the right questions is usually a prerequisite to getting the right answers.