A commenter on this blog recently asked that the HP Alliance focus more on Burma and Zimbabwe. While we have more to do in addressing what’s going on in Burma, for a minute I want to point out that the events in Zimbabwe right now are horrible. Their so-called president, Robert Mugabe has quite literally stolen an election by forcing the opposition to resign out of fear of being killed. I normally don’t like reporting on issues without giving people something they can do about it. But I haven’t done any research on this yet. So if any one knows of actionable things we can do about helping the people of Zimbawe, please comment here or on the forums or email me at andrew@thehpalliance.org -I will do some research. In the mean time, please expect to hear more on Burma in the coming weeks.

The Ministry’s reasons for locking up Stan Shunpike were completely unfounded. A commenter on this blog said that it turns out that Stan was a Death Eater any way. I don’t think that’s actually true. Stan was unjustly sentenced to Azkaban. When the Death Eaters freed him they put him under the Imperius Curse. In effect, the Ministry helped Voldemort add another Death Eater to their number - in this case a completely innocent man.

This reminds us that oftentimes the logic of governments when locking people up in times of terror sort of breaks the whole idea of logic.

This concert is going to be awesome! Below is the long and the short of it:

Wizard Rock band, Dobby Kills Hedwig is throwing a Wizard Rock concert that is a fund raiser for the HPA and Book Aid International.This show is going to be incredible as it features the following INCREDIBLE Wizard Rock bands: The Butterbeer Experience, Tonks and the Aurors, Swish and Flick, The Chocolate Frogs, The Chinese Chomping Cabbages and Tom Riddle and Friends.

The show is on July 25, 2008 at 7:30pm at L’Inconditionnel, an all-age venue (4584, Papineau ave., Montreal, Québec)
It costs $11 in advance, $13 at the doorl

But here’s the thing: they need people to pre-order tickets before July 1 so they have enough to keep this venue. So PLEASE, if you live near Montreal and can come, order your tickets HERE rather than pay at the door.

And check out there web site! or contact them at dobbykillshedwig@gmail.com - this show is going to be AMAZING!!!!! And thank you to Dobby Kills Hedwig and all the other bands for doing a fund raiser for the HP Alliance!

I was just at the kick off to Harry and the Potters Unlimited Enthusiasm tour two nights ago and it ROCKED!!!! During the Dumbledore song all of these people made a big circle, all swaying arm and arm and then at the moment that it went “Dumbledore we’ll fight for you tonight….” the circle broke and everyone just started rocking out like crazy. It was an amazing feeling of community and so medicinal for me.

Their new videos including their Wizard Rock the Vote video were amazing! Remus and the Lupins, Math the Band, Uncle Monster Face, and Potter Puppet Pals rocked!

HATP can be so medicinal. Being in the crowd, yelling, dancing like crazy, and singing and whoo-ing and all of that as you watch a whole room WROCK about the power of love. It really hit the spot.

There are many characters of course in Harry Potter that are tortured. Whether it’s Neville’s parents, Sirius Black and all the prisoners in Azkaban, Ollivander, Grindewald by Voldemort, Voldemort’s countless victims, Kreacher, and so many others torture is a theme that we are very familiar with in Harry Potter. Today happens to be the UN’s International Day in Support of Victims of Terror. The event this year will have a special focus for victims of torture in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

In the mean time, let’s keep working to create spaces where those who are victims of torture can take a journey to become survivors and ultimately as Father Michael Lapsley of the Institute for Healing of Memories puts it, “victors.” Let’s be grateful for people like Michael whose own trauma of losing both hands and one eye by the Apartheid government of South Africa brought him to a place where he works to create spaces where people can heal from personal and collective trauma. And let’s keep working with groups like Amnesty International to end the use of torture worldwide!!!

This was back when Hillary Clinton was still a candidate for President of the United States, but if you click here you’ll see a joint statement by Senators Clinton, McCain, and Obama on ending the genocide in Darfur. Please visit askthecandidates.org

It seems that there is more and more evidence of certain authorities in the US government fully understanding that some of the people they had locked away in Guantanamo Bay (without trial mind you) were innocent. All, I imagine, so people would feel like we were winning a war - you know lifting morale. This is Rufus Scrimgeour with many Stan Shunpikes. Thankfully there are still organizations like Amnesty International fighting to end these indescribably atrocious actions.

JKR has reminded us that in many ways Harry Potter is a treatise on tolerance. I am happy to read today this:

“Although a majority of Americans say religion is very important to them, nearly three-quarters of them say they believe that many faiths besides their own can lead to salvation, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.”

There are those in what I like to call the Vernon Dursley Alliance who don’t like that the Harry Potter Alliance has taken a stand against prisoner abuse in Guantanamo Bay. Dedicated to the preservation of the STATUS QUO, NORMALCY, and MEN WITHOUT NECKS the Vernon Dursley Alliance doesn’t believe that any individual or group of individuals should ask questions or agitate whatever the authorities say is okay. The Harry Potter Alliance on the other hand believes that the status quo should be challenged, particularly when that status quo allows for stories like the one below, that I just received from Amnesty International.

This is the story of a real life “Sirius Black” or “Stan Shunpike” - an innocent man imprisoned and tortured even when the “authorities” knew him to be innocent for four years - knew that he was nothing more than someone who was kidnapped and sold to be a prisoner in the war on terror. I wish the Vernon Dursley Alliance would get it:

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