Category Archives: Justice?

Accountability, Death & Dying, Indictments, Jail & Incarceration, Justice?, Philippines, Terror and Terrorism, The Law — Inside & Outside it, Torture & Human Rights

Dyer: On Philippines Ex-President Duterte’s Arrest for Mass Murders

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Dyer: Philippines drama first step in long journey

Gwynne Dyer  — Mar 23, 2025

Everybody has heard the saying: “The mills of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine”. The saying is a promise that all crimes will eventually be punished
– but it is a lie.

Most crimes everywhere always have gone unpunished. So, while the arrest of former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last week was long overdue, it also came as a great surprise.

Duterte was elected president in 2016 on the promise he would wage a war on drugs, but he meant “war” literally. Once in office, he sent the police out with orders to kill drug dealers and drug users without trial or even arrest. Their bodies generally were left in the streets.

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"New Normal"?, 47, Catholics & Catholicism, Constitutional Crisis, Current Affairs, Ecumenical & Interfaith, Immigration, Jail & Incarceration, Justice?, Minority Rule, Quakers, Signs of the Times

Guest Post: Our “Friend” Il Papa Joins The Pushback & Kicks Authoritarian Anti-Immigration Butts

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I’m not sure Pope Francis would endorse my headline. But I didn’t ask his permission. He ostensibly wrote this letter to the (all-male) U. S. Catholic bishops, not to Quakers (or Quaker adjacents, who make up the bulk of this blog’s audience).

Vatican logo

But instead he released it to via the official Vatican website, in English & Spanish, which amounts to sending it to the world. And for that matter, Quakers flatter ourselves as being open to the movings of the universal Spirit from other corners than our own; if that’s so, this letter is a fine opportunity. So I don’t think Francis will mind my turning it into a guest blog post.

Which I decided to do after reading it over, and finding it one of the best statements about the combination immigration-and-governance crisis we’re sinking into here in Orange Gringo land.

Let’s hope his missive is arriving in the nick of time.

The letter is superior in many ways: first of all, clearly written, easily understandable even by non-religious folks; yet it shows full command of some of the deepest & most broadly appealing points of Roman Catholic social witness, borne lightly, but presented cogently.

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“New Normal”, Accountability?, Activism, CIA, Hard-Core Quaker, Iraq, Islam & Muslims, Justice?, North Carolina, Quakers, Terror and Terrorism, Torture & Human Rights

Quakers Quitting on QUIT: Torture Wins, this time. And maybe next time, too.

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I wish it wasn’t time to write this post.

But it is: Quakers are quitting on QUIT.

QUIT is — or rather was — the Quaker Initiative to end Torture. It began in the spring of 2005, with a call by Friend John Calvi,  just as the international scope, the vast evil plus the flagrant criminality of the U. S.  “War on Terror” torture  program — all this was becoming shockingly clear.

As detailed below, QUIT formally ended this week, on July 15, 2024.

Nineteen years.

We worked hard, we did stuff. We joined with others.  But in my view, we failed. At our most active and diligent, we didn’t really lay a glove on our three main targets.

Those targets were:

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