Micky and I chatted just the other day about how glad we are we’re not Americans. The topic came up after we’d each read a few blogs which detailed reactions from Americans to atheists doing various things. Really offensive things, such as saying there are in fact people who are good without God. Or participating in a Christmas parade and saying stuff like “Howdy!” and “Happy holidays!” to people as they marched past.
I’ve been asked directly once what my religion is. It was at a lecture thing which could score my triathlon club points for bringing together people from both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds, as this is a problem here. The only reaction to my “I’m an atheist” was: “Damn. We get no points for that.” Nobody batted an eye otherwise.
I just read another article that has me hugely relieved not to live in the land of the free (and what a joke it is to call the USA that). The article deals with the way Bradley Manning has been treated. That, now, is the young man who is accused – accused - of leaking the documents to Wikileaks which have caused so much uproar. He hasn’t been convicted, he hasn’t been shown to be guilty, he has only been accused. It is possible that he has in fact done nothing wrong.
I’m going to give you three descriptions here. Guess which countries are meting out this treatment:
1. Common methods of torture and abuse in prisons included prolonged solitary confinement with extreme sensory deprivation (sometimes called “white torture”)…
2. … solitary confinement for up to six days on a rice-and-water diet…
3. …held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for seven months… allowed only to walk in a figure of eight in a bare room for the hour’s ‘exercise’… subjected to sleep deprivation…
4. Sleep deprivation and solitary confinement were other forms of abuse reported in… prisons…
The answer?
1. Iran.
2. Indonesia.
3. The United States of America.
4. Yemen.
Do yourself a favour and read about what’s being done to Bradley Manning, a guy who may have leaked documents to an organisation which published those they decided would not endanger anyone’s lives. He is accused of leaking documents. Accused, not convicted. And he’s subjected to punishment feared by hardened criminals.
Go America. Well done.
