Disposable women, disposable society

Loosely based on several of the many Ciudad Juárez murders, BORDERTOWN is two parts docudrama/political commentary and two parts suspense/thriller. Though the subject of the film is an important one, the movie does suffer from a few major flaws.

Most likely, you’ve heard little or nothing about the 15-year serial killing spree(s) in the neighboring Mexican cities of Juárez and Chihuahua. Probably you’ve read a short article, maybe buried in the back of the “international” section of your local paper, about the latest death toll. Maybe you’ve seen a few pieces over the years, each giving rise to an eerie sense of déjà vu: “Haven’t I read this before? Didn’t the police already catch this killer? Surely this is a different case…”

Between 1993 and the present day, at least 400 women, primarily employed in the maquiladoras established along the Mexican/American border, have been found dead. Raped, murdered, strangled, mutilated. Dumped like trash. Another 5,000+ women are reported missing. Most likely they are dead, but their families will never know, can never rest, because there is no outcry, no investigation, no justice. Government corruption, police incompetence, and international indifference have all conspired against justice. After all, these are poor brown women we are talking about. Disposable women in a disposable society.

BORDERTOWN attempts to tell the tales of all these women through the story of one girl, Eva Jimenez, a 16-year-old factory worker who is kidnapped on her way home from work, raped, and buried alive. Left for dead. Though her assailants – two men, gang rapists – thought they killed her, she survives and, with the help of two reporters (played by Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Baderes), tries to bring them to justice.

While I generally enjoyed the movie (as much as you can “enjoy” a movie about femicide), it does tend towards the melodramatic at times. The acting is generally adequate, though Maya Zapata is a standout as Eva. (So much so that I immediately hopped onto Netflix and put all her films in my queue.) Most of the melodrama is due to the script, rather than overacting. There are also a few plot holes, which I won’t get into for fear of spoiling the ending. However, one is so large that you’ll know it when you see it. (Just in case you don’t, a hint: it involves the trial and the immediacy of Eva’s testimony.)

Even so, BORDERTOWN is monumental film, in that it addresses an ongoing situation of gross human rights abuses that the mainstream media has largely ignored. Any time you can get A-list stars to sign on to such a project, it’s a big f’in deal. And while the film itself isn’t as rigorous in detailing the Ciudad Juárez gender-cide as I would prefer – the subplot about Lopez’s childhood and her character’s relationship with Banderes was distracting at best – it’s still a good vehicle for getting the message out, for letting people know what is and isn’t happening south of the border. The DVD extras, which include two documentaries (“Exposing the Juarez Murders: The Making of Bordertown” and “La Frontera – The Border”), as well as a “get involved” menu (the first time I’ve ever seen that on a DVD!) are particularly poignant and compelling. So while it certainly isn’t a great movie – maybe a B-/C+ at best – it is still a movie that you, along with your friends and family (and Lou Dobbs, if you can compel him!), should see.

And, after the movie’s over, don’t forget about these women like the rest of the world. Use the resources provided to learn more, to take action, to get involved. As Eva Canseco explains in “La Frontera – The Border”, we’re all citizens of the same community; we need to protect one another, to care what happens to our neighbors, to act while we still have the agency to do so. The women raped and murdered, the men tortured into confessing – they could easily be you or I. Human rights abuses are not limited to “developing” or “third world” nations. Read the paper more closely (better yet, a feminist blog or two) and you’ll be surprised to see what’s happening in your own backyard.

Additional Links

Bordertown @ Amnesty International – More about the movie

Demand Justice for the Women and Girls of Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, México @ Amnesty International – Learn more and take action

Amnesty USA Blogs – Entries tagged “ciudad juarez”

Disposable Women of Juarez – A blog devoted to chronicling media reports of the Ciudad Juárez murders

Border Echoes: The Truth Behind the Juarez Murders – A documentary film by Lorena Mendez-Quiroga

Ciudad Juarez:The Serial Killer’s Playground – An informative (if sadistically titled) article on trutv.com

Bibliography about the Women of Ciudad Juárez, México @ Los Angeles Valley College – An exhaustive list

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hey! yous! i iz also on



kthnxbai.

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Tagged: amazon.com flickr review movie movie review bordertown docudrama jennifer lopez antonio banderes martin sheen Ciudad Juárez Mexio racism misogyny rape murder

I go to comedy gigs almost every week, but I’ve never seen anything quite like what I witnessed at the Bloomsbury theatre in London last Friday night. [...]

Along with hundreds of others I watched a set during which Johnny Vegas, without any discernible artistic or comedic merit, gratuitously groped a young woman on stage. Judging from some of the furious postings on the internet that followed the gig, I was not the only person asking if he had crossed a line.

Vegas stepped on stage to cheers and immediately announced that he had no material, and that he was there mostly to get laid. There followed a short meandering ramble (mainly about lap dancers) before he turned his attention to the audience – and to one young woman in particular in the front row who, he announced, he wanted to be “inside”. [...]

The woman he focused on was about 18 or 19 and was very obviously unnerved by his attention. I saw her expression clearly – I was in the front row too, just three seats along. Vegas insisted that she allow herself to be carried on to the stage by six members of the audience – he called them “pall bearers”. She must pretend to be dead, he said, and he would bring her back to life with an onstage kiss. He warned her that there probably would be tongues. As James Williams, writing on the NOTBBC forum after the gig, put it, “Honestly, you couldn’t have found a nervier or more passive girl if you’d scoured all of London – she was like a rabbit in the headlights, but she was giggling and clearly somewhat enjoying the attention, so it just sort of went ahead without so much as a yes or no from her.” As she was carried on stage, Vegas repeatedly goaded one of the pallbearers to “finger” the girl.

Once she was on stage, Vegas told her to lie very still. She couldn’t stop her nervous giggling; he threatened to kick her in the ribs. It didn’t come across to me as a joke – and near to where I was sitting, no one was laughing. Eventually Vegas crouched down beside the nervous girl and started stroking her breasts while repeatedly saying, “don’t fucking move”. Then he ran his hand up her leg and began pulling her skirt up. Every time he looked up to address the audience, she would reach down and pull her skirt back down, but he kept pulling it back up. According to Williams, who had a different view of the stage from me, Vegas ended up “fingering her through her clothes for a second or two”. What I heard was an audible sharp intake of breath from the audience as they realised that the woman was getting much more than the kiss Vegas had told her to expect.

There was an air of menace from the outset, made worse by the fact that Vegas clearly had no idea where he was going with his act. The more the young woman was groped, the more anxious one of the “pallbearers” looked. Then Vegas straddled the young woman, pinning her to the floor, and kissing her for quite a while. Most disturbing, perhaps was that around half the audience seemed to find this really funny. Vegas asked if the curtain could be brought down; when it wasn’t, Simon Munnery, the comedian who had been on stage before him, came on stage and used his coat to screen the pair from the audience.

Like I said, this man is a rapist.

Via just about every feminist blog on the internets.

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Tagged: rape sexual assault johnny vegas misogyny rapist

Do you remember the Dunbar Village rape case? I’m not sure how you could forget; this is the case where a woman was gang raped by 10 men in her own home for over three hours, forced to have sex with her own 12-year-old son and survived an attempt to light both of them on fire. In an update that is a couple of weeks old but I’m just hearing from now via Document the Silence, Al Sharpton and the NAACP are taking to the streets to defend the four arrested rapists. This is despite conclusive DNA evidence and apparent photographic evidence that the rapists took on their cell phones during the attack.

Please, please, please read the call to action from Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems, which is pasted in full after the jump. Please take time to undertake the requested actions and to pass this story along.

I really have nothing to add to what Cara said, and even if I did, I’m fucking dumbfounded and speechless at the moment. Clearly, I don’t think any gang rapists should be let out on bail, white, black or brown. Anyone who cares a whit about the rights of the victims would agree. So, when faced with a disparity in the treatment of white and black rapists, wouldn’t the correct – hell, moral – response be to petition the judge to revoke the white rapists’ bail instead of calling for the release of the black rapists? Particularly when the victims in the latter case are people of color as well?

Common sense, people. Christ on a stick. Or FSM on a plate. Pick your flavor.

*head desk*

Action alert after the jump.

Right-thinking black people everywhere are stunned by the recent betrayal of Al Sharpton and the NAACP in a situation that is just too outrageous to ignore.

This is a painful story to tell, but it’s important for the moral, law-abiding majority of black Americans to understand exactly why Al Sharpton and the NAACP must be immediately stopped.

On June 18, 2007, a black woman was gang raped by 10 youths and forced at gunpoint to have sex with her own 12 year old son in a housing complex called Dunbar Village in West Palm Beach, Florida. The young men not only viciously punched, kicked and sliced this sister and her son with glass objects, but they also blinded her boy by pouring nail polish remover into his eyes.

The young men forced this sister and son to lay naked in a bathtub together, and attempted to set them on fire (they could not find matches). The youths boldly took cell phone pictures so that they could enjoy their violent, immoral and sadistic acts at a later time. The violence continued for more than three hours, and although this sister’s neighbors heard her screams, no one called the police or came to her aid.

This sister and her son had to walk a mile to the hospital, because the assailants stole her car, and threatened to kill her and her family if she told the authorities.

Only four of the young men have been apprehended, while the remaining six are on the loose, doing Lord knows what in our communities. There is no manhunt for the remaining suspects.

As devastating as this story is, what the NAACP and Al Sharpton have done about it will simply take your breath away:Not only did the NAACP ignore hundreds of requests to assist this woman because it was ‘outside the scope of their mission’, but they joined forces with Al Sharpton, and sent their lawyers to speak out IN SUPPORT OF THE RAPISTS.
You heard me right.

Even though there is conclusive DNA evidence and signed confessions, the NAACP and Al Sharpton are saying that it is ‘unfair’ to not offer bail to these four alleged rapists. They even had a press release about it.

IT IS TIME FOR SENSIBLE BLACK PEOPLE TO STOP THIS KIND OF NONSENSE ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Al Sharpton and the NAACP are banking on the belief that you and I will be just like this black woman’s neighbors. Join me by saying NOT THIS TIME. We will not turn a deaf ear to when we hear calls for help from one of our sisters and brothers who are being victimized.

Stop the NAACP and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network from committing this disgrace in our community. Just this once, let’s stand up and be counted by saying that we demand safe neighborhoods for our women and children.

Here is what you can do:

1. Spread the word. Forward this email if your conscience and concern have been raised. Send it to every concerned black citizen that you know.

2. Demand an explanation from your local NAACP chapter about this case. Cancel your membership to these organizations, and write a letter explaining that you will return when they prioritize the public safety needs of black women and children.

3. If you do not belong to these organizations, call and write them to tell them of your outrage and displeasure:

NAACP National Headquarters
4805 Mt. Hope Drive
Baltimore MD 21215
Toll Free: (877) NAACP-98
Local: (410) 580-5777

National Action Network
Rev. Al Sharpton
106 W. 145th Street
Harlem, New York 10039
212-690-3070
877-NAN-HOJ1

If you know an African American reporter or a black radio talk show host, forward this story to them and ask them to follow up on it.

Read the history of the Dunbar Village problem here:

www.dunbarvillage2008.blogspot.com/

Something Within is collaborating with a network of other black women bloggers who are committed to staying on top of this story. Please check any one of the following blogs out on Fridays for an update on this story.

blackwomenvote.blogspot.com

adifferentstory.wordpress.com

anonymissblog.blogspot.com/

auntjemimasrevenge.blogspot.com

blackfirewhitefire.blogspot.com/

charactercorner.blogspot.com/

electronicvillage.blogspot.com

episcopalienne.blogspot.com

essentialpresence.blogspot.com

focusedpurpose.blogspot.com/

h-essays.blogspot.com/

lareinacobre.blogspot.com/

mynewblog-ravenelvenlady.blogspot.com/

politicalseason.blogspot.com

privyconcepts.blogspot.com/

thesowingcircle.blogspot.com/

tributetoblackwomen.com/news

web.mac.com/roslynholcomb/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html

whataboutourdaughters.com

whattamisaid.blogspot.com

www.blacksapience.blogspot.com

yanmommasaid.blogspot.com

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Tagged: rape gang rape crime discrimination feminist feminism misogyny racism al sharpton naacp action alert Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems Dunbar Village rape case Dunbar Village

I cannot say why you saw fit to change your description of a sexual assault, perpetrated by six douchebag cops on a seemingly drunk and vulnerable woman, from “SLINKY BABE + 6 COPS = TROUBLE” to “BEHAVING BADLY: POLICE STATION’S LUSTFUL LOBBY”, however, I have no illusions that you did so because this uppity cunt “fired off” a complaint to you last night. I don’t get the impression that you much care what your female viewership thinks about your “reporting” and “journalism.” Cunty 4 Hills, am I right bitchez?

Either way, you are a bunch of clueless fuckwits, particularly if you think that this morning’s headline is any better than last night’s. They both make an LOL out of a sexual assault situation, and while “SLINKY BABE + 6 COPS = TROUBLE” clearly blames the victim for her assault, “BEHAVING BADLY: POLICE STATION’S LUSTFUL LOBBY” implies that the assault was a simple case of horndogs behaving badly, rather than abusing their power by violating someone whom they’re supposed to be protecting. Wrong, wrong, fuck you, wrong, and did I say fuck you?

And are we sure that Tony Harris isn’t a closet MRA? Here he is, laughing after the segment aired on the CNN “Newsroom” this morning.

I mean holy shit, he can Barely! Hold! It! In!

ROTFL!!!1!!111!!!

Normal people don’t usually see sexual assault and gross abuses of power as occasions for a good tee-hee!. At least Heidi Collins looked sufficiently pissed off. Next time call him on his misogyny, sister.

With even lower regards than last night,

- Some sour cunt

PS – Liberal media my ass. CNN = Faux News Lite.

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Tagged: cnn headline news cnn headline news msm mainstream media sexual assault rape victim blaming blaming the victim police police officers police station consent misogyny misogynist sexism sexist douchebags flickr photos screenshots tv richelle carey action alert Tony Harris Heidi Collins CNN Newsroom WTF

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job. [...]

In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave.

“It felt like prison,” says Jones, who told her story to ABC News as part of an upcoming “20/20″ investigation. “I was upset; I was curled up in a ball on the bed; I just could not believe what had happened.”

Finally, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone so she could call her father in Texas.

“I said, ‘Dad, I’ve been raped. I don’t know what to do. I’m in this container, and I’m not able to leave,’” she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.

“We contacted the State Department first,” Poe told ABCNews.com, “and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen” — from her American employer. [...]

According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by “several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally.”

Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped “both vaginally and anally,” but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers. [...]

Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case.

Legal experts say Jones’ alleged assailants will likely never face a judge and jury, due to an enormous loophole that has effectively left contractors in Iraq beyond the reach of United States law.

And we were gonna spread freedom and democracy over there. Right.

(Via.)

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Tagged: feminism misogyny rape war on terra iraq coverup conspiracy men hate you Halliburton Kellogg Brown & Root KBR Jamie Leigh Jones Green Zone crime abc news 20/20

(Via Kinship Circle.)

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Tagged: michael vick animal abuse animal cruelty cruelty to animals animal animal rights animal welfare animal fighting dogfighting blood sports dog canine pitt bulls Lassie cartoon assholes

Originally posted @ www.kellygarbato.com/blog/2007-09-02/
Filed under: Animals — Kelly @ September 2, 2007 5:07 pm

You know, like incarcerated canines.

If only. *

Anyway, that’s enough for Vick-related alerts tonight. You can view an extensive archive here.

* Oh, and Jamie Foxx is a fucking dolt. Just for the record.

(xposted from, just because)

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare pet companion animal dog canine dogfighting animal fighting blood sports Michael Vick NFL National Football League Atlanta Falcons Atlanta Falcons animal abuse animal cruelty cruelty to animals plea deal gambling conspiracy cartoon political cartoon flickr justice Jamie Foxx

Originally posted @ www.kellygarbato.com/blog/2007-08-27/
Filed under: Animals, Celebrity, Law & Disorder — Kelly @ August 27, 2007 7:28 pm