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Iraqi Survey Volunteers Needed
by Sidney Lambert
Sunday July 20, 2003 at 11:45 PM
Sid@DeepRedAnimation.com (email address NOT validated)
Volunteers are needed for data entry of several thousand surveys filled out by Iraqi household members in regards to human rights violations. July 21st-23rd CMU, Baker Hall 239 8am-10pm.
Volunteers are needed for data entry of several thousand surveys filled out by Iraqi household members in regards to human rights violations. Its at CMU, Baker Hall 239 8am-10pm Monday through wednesday (21st-23rd) no appointments necessary, there is tons of work to do. There will be breaks around noon and 5pm for uploading and refreshing data. It might not get finished (my guess is it won't) within these three days. The organizer is a grad student at CMU named Jana Asher ( asher@stat.cmu.edu ) as part of Physicians for Human Rights. Thanks, Sidney Lambert Sid@DeepRedAnimation.com
Not a leftist cause- be aware
by bugg
Wednesday July 23, 2003 at 02:29 AM
Not a leftist cause. They're looking for volunteers to publish fancy reports about how brutal Saddam Hussein was. Sounds like a retroactive attempt to justify the war.
Where are the studies on the US-funded and supported occupations that occur over the world?
Just be aware if you're out there considering this.
Iraqi Survey
by Mary Hart
Wednesday July 23, 2003 at 09:35 AM
mh5r@andrew.cmu.edu (email address NOT validated)
I've seen the surveys, but they are in Arabic, so I can't read them, and therefore don't know which way they lean. It might be a good idea to ask Jana rather than assuming, and then make a decision about the politics.
A couple of students with whom I work are doing data entry work on this as job-skills practice. Jana has spent time getting them set up, showing them what to do, and overseeing them. The effort on her part to help us probably exceeds the amount of work that got done. I appreciated her help, and just want to encourage people to get info about content (which I don't have) before making a decision.
Politics, schmolitics
by Mike
Wednesday July 23, 2003 at 10:15 AM
Who cares which uniform is worn when civilians are abused?
Iraqi? American? What's the difference?
Some Facts
by Jana Asher
Wednesday July 23, 2003 at 12:57 PM
asher@stat.cmu.edu (email address NOT validated)
"Not a leftist cause. They're looking for volunteers to publish fancy reports about how brutal Saddam Hussein was. Sounds like a retroactive attempt to justify the war. "
It is true that Physicians for Human Rights is not a leftist cause, but that is because we are simply a human rights organization; we don't take a political stance on the validity of the war. Questions on human rights abuses asked in the survey included abuses by Saddaam Hussein's forces and abuses by coalition forces as well. This survey is certainly not an attempt to justify any US action, nor is it an attempt to prove why such an action was wrong.
Yes, we publish reports; that is how we get the information out to the general public.
"Where are the studies on the US-funded and supported occupations that occur over the world?"
See the above; we asked questions on all abuses experienced from 1991 on.
"Just be aware if you're out there considering this."
Each volunteer is given an English version of the survey to read so that they will know what they are entering (Mary's students received an English version of the survey as well, sorry you didn't see it Mary!).
Anyone who has further questions is welcome to contact me at asher@stat.cmu.edu.
Jana Asher
(the person organizing the data entry)
Hussein was insane
by 2 beers
Wednesday July 23, 2003 at 02:49 PM
The Hussein regime had to go. The human rights abuses are appalling. Even if the American troops may not have restored electrical and utility services immediately after the cessation of major military efforts, the American soldiers are not systematically torturing, raping and klling Iraqi civilians.
FREE THE IMC OPPRESSED !!!!! FRE EWAN KENKESMEARSE!!!!!!!! (The actions of IMC are a civil and human rights violation.)
check it out
by Therese
Wednesday July 23, 2003 at 10:25 PM
t_libert@att.net (email address NOT validated)
http://www.phrusa.org/
if this isnt a leftist organization, i dont know what is. educate yourselves!
Re: 2 beers
by Sam
Thursday July 24, 2003 at 04:09 PM
It's true that Hussein was a horrible dictator. But there are horrible dictators all over the world. Surely we can't remove them all.
Furthermore, the matter of Hussein's human rights abuses could've been more easily resolved through the International Criminal Court, which the U.S. has shunned.
The U.S. put Saddam in power. There's no reason to believe the U.S. won't put another puppet just as brutal in power, as they have in Afghanistan. If you hired someone to mow your lawn, and they ended up burning and destroying your lawn, flowers, shrubs and all, instead, you wouldn't be inclined to hire that person again. Yet the U.S. has been "hired" again for regime change.
This war will kill more people in Africa than it will in Iraq. The financial and monetary policies that the U.S. will use its control of Iraqi oil to push will kill far more people than were ever killed by Saddam Hussein. These policies have already killed 15-20 million people.
let me rephrase
by bugg
Friday July 25, 2003 at 03:15 AM
Let me restate. I have much respect for groups like PHR, MSF, AI, etc. and they are all human rights groups and consequently left of center (which says a lot about the center, eh?)
I'm not criticizing PHR for this study, as they are merely the messenger, but the overwhelming odds are this report will be used by the neocons to provide justification after the fact for the war. It's sleight of hand, it's trickery: Saddam's human rights abuses were not the reason we went to war yet at this time they could be presented as such.
The study will shift the world's attention away from Bush's regime and back onto Saddam's. The problem isn't the report, it's how it will be used and interpreted.
what someone might do with the info
by Mary Hart
Friday July 25, 2003 at 07:19 PM
mh5r@andrew.cmu.edu (email address NOT validated)
I can see refraining from engaging in research that you have a pretty good idea is going to be used in a bad way (developing software that is designed for use in waging war, for instance), but I'm a little concerned about saying you shouldn't engage in research even if the intentions are good, because someone else *might* make bad use of it.
It is helpful to hear what your specific concern is, as that gives people the oportunity to make an informed decision. The original response to the request for volunteers was suggestive of the researchers having some motives that they probably didn't have.
faux concerns about stifling of research
by Saleh
Monday July 28, 2003 at 05:10 AM
salehw@yahoo.com (email address NOT validated)
it's a mistake to think that reseach is done in isolation, and typical of ruling-class thinking to ignore the politics of what you're doing. It's like being a chemical engineer and being told that it shouldn't matter if you're being asked to make poison gas for WWII concentration camps, your job is just to do the research to make the gas (I use this example because I was actually told this in academia, as a response to a question I asked of an ultra-capitalist ChemE prof who said we shouldn't worry about what the business*man* tells us to make).
It certainly does matter what the research will be used for, and it certainly is remarkable that people think they can ask progressives to volunteer for imperialism-supporting social research while ignoring the human rights abuses going on today in Iraq by US occupation forces, something people in the US can actually change democratically and in fact have a responsibility to change. It takes even more nerve to say that it makes you uncomfortable that some people argue against research because of what it could be used for - that's the whole point of research, of intellectual inquiry, in a world where people have to live with each other.
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