Sunday, March 15, 2009

Toxic Sludge, ch. 10: The Torturer's Lobby

I find the coverage of Columbian events [particularly in the beginning of this chapter] to be quite disturbing. The idea of people slaughtering members of their own community in order to appear to be doing their rightful tasks as members of the Columbian military either shows a lack of dedication to their job or a frantic scurry to cover up mistakes or sloppy work.

The other passage which stuck out when I read it was the description of Escobar's "prison". I firmly believe that if most people can't afford the luxeries of the prison you're staying at, you probably have too many privileges for one of the current condition. Then again, I never thought I'd have to set a guideline for the luxeries of prisoners. Perhaps it's my upbringing of bad American television, or my general disgust for drugs and those who make a living off of them, but I feel that even taken out of Escobar's personal offense, no prisoner should be held in a 'cell' comparable to a celebrity's summer home.
Maybe that's just me. (::shrugs::)

1 comment:

  1. The Columbian military description in this book also disturbed me. My value system and questioning the correctness of another's actions came into my mind set after reading this. I also agree that one who is serving any sort of sentence in prison should never have luxuries. It is called prison for a reason. Luxuries are for those who earn them not prisoners and outlaws.

    ReplyDelete