Mandatory Infant Circumcision is Weird, No?

Isn’t it weird to perform permanent elective surgery on the genitals of male infants? Shouldn’t that be something up to an adult to decide on, since it is his body and maybe as an adult he would want to have his genitals intact?

It’s extra weird that birthers are so concerned with whether Obama is circumcised or not. Because not being circumcised is ‘foreign’.

And it is concerning that there are advocates of mandatory circumcision for all male infants born in the US because of a misapplied study on HIV-transmission done in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. Advocates may soon include the Center for Disease Control… which is scary.  This could actually happen.  Men, time to rise up!

Read what Smile Pretty & Watch Your Back sez.

See the New York Times article.

Help Stop the Eviction of UK’s Roma Community

Urgent Action Appeal
UNITED KINGDOM: Forced Eviction of Dale Farm

17 August 2009

Dear friends,

More than 100 families living in chalets, mobile-homes and caravans in the largest Romani Gipsy and Irish Traveller community in the United Kingdom, at Dale Farm, Crays Hill and nearby Hovefields, Essex County, are facing imminent forced eviction. Approximately 1,000 people have been residing on the estate for more than seven years, including many children. The community has been resisting forced evictions attempts by Basildon District Council (BDC) since May 2005 when it voted to clear a large part of the settlement. Although all residents hold land ownership titles, sections of the site had no planning permission and Basildon Council has subsequently refused all attempts to regularise the situation, preferring the enforcement option.

Dale Farm community

Enforcement orders have been served by Basildon Council requiring plot owners to remove their homes, although previously much of the site had been licensed as a large scrap-yard from 1978 until 2001. After the BDC voted to take direct action, the residents sought a judicial review of this decision and won in the High Court. This judgment was overturned by the Court of Appeal in January 2009 and an appeal to the House of Lords was denied in May. Despite the fact the UK Government has told Basildon it is required to provide land for a minimum of 62 additional pitches by 2011, no alternative site have been made available by Basildon District Council to which the residents can lawfully move.

The wishes of the residents are to remain where it is and not to be split up. There is a strong communal ethic, with the elderly being cared for by the younger generation and small children protected. No one, young or old, wants to be accommodated in bricks-and-mortar housing. Romanies and Travellers feel that having lost the possibility to follow the old nomadic life-style, it is essential to the preservation of their culture and ethnicity to keep Dale Farm community intact.

In line with the Housing Act 1996, it is incumbent on the BDC to consider the claim of the occupants to not be evicted as the families threatened with forced removal have no place to go.

The community is therefore seeking your support to urge the Basildon Council to:

• Put on hold the forced eviction of the Dale Farm community and engage in meaningful consultation discussions with the residents and their representatives for the purpose of seeking to achieve an amicable solution;
• Consider both the possibility of a) issuing planning permission to allow their permanent residence on their present properties; or b) utilising the 4 million Euro set aside for the eviction to provide an alternative area to which the residents can relocate;
• Respect and protect the housing and property and family rights of the Dale Farm community, and in particular the rights of the children.

Suggested Action

Please send an appeal letter by e-mail or fax to the addresses listed below requesting the Basildon Council to act on this issue. Sample letters and further background information are provided below.