Psychotic assholes"Money and principle," Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson told me this morning, "are battling for U.S. foreign policy supremacy. Money is winning." He was referring particularly to trade policy, especially the TransPacific Partnership on which he is probably the top congressional expert. Congress appears to be slowing the TPP down a little, but, alas, not killing it off. Maybe a Hollywood boycott, though, can help.Ever hear of Brunei? It's a small (population 408,000, same as Omaha), extremely rich (5th wealthiest nation in the world, entirely based on oil and gas), fascist dictatorship on the island of Borneo that somehow escaped being incorporated into Indonesia or Malaysia. The dictator is an hereditary sultan and this one is a homophobic psychotic who has just mandated the death penalty (by stoning) for gays. He's one our our esteemed partners in the TPP. And here's where the boycott comes in. Even if you had never heard of Brunei, you well may have heard of the Dorchester Collection luxury hotel chain (which includes the Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air in L.A., the Hotel Eden in Rome, London's Dorchester and 45 Park Lane, Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris, Hotel Principe di Savoia, and several others). They are all being boycotted starting this week. Virgin's Richard Branson is one of the organizers of the boycott. So are the Oscars.
Brunei's all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announced last Wednesday that he would push ahead with the syariah law that will eventually include tough penalties such as death by stoning.Branson said on the weekend that Virgin employees would not stay at the Dorchester Collection luxury hotel chain, which includes The Dorchester in London and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles."No @Virgin employee, nor our family, will stay at Dorchester Hotels until the Sultan abides by basic human rights," the British billionaire posted on Twitter.Others who have called for a boycott include comedian Stephen Fry, TV host Sharon Osbourne and comedian Ellen DeGeneres.The US group Feminist Majority Foundation said it had also pulled its annual Global Women's Rights Awards, co-chaired by Jay and Mavis Leno, from the Beverly Hills Hotel in protest.
Our old friend Curtis Ellis, the Executive Director of the American Jobs Alliance, wants to make sure people upset about the floggings, dismemberments and stoning-to-death are also aware that just as Brunei was phasing in the barbaric practices, "Obama’s chief trade negotiator Michael Froman was on Capitol Hill selling the TransPacific Partnership agreement, which would bind the U.S. to Brunei and give the Islamic Sultanate special economic privileges." It would also allow Brunei to bypass U.S. courts and go before an international tribunal to sue for lost profits from the boycott being pushed by the city of Beverly Hills and human rights advocates.
“The fact that President Obama seeks the TransPacific Partnership to reward Brunei, which has institutionalized the torture to death and violent punishment of gay men, lesbians and women in general, represents a new low in the administration’s abandonment of America’s traditional role in upholding human rights,” says feminist author and activist Naomi Wolf.“The TransPacific Partnership is a terrifying development for Americans because it forces us to live under decisions that we have no say about whatsoever, and takes legislation and legal rulings out of the hands of Americans and puts them in the hands of international courts beyond the reach of the will of the people,” says Wolf.While human rights groups, religious freedom advocates, LGBT and women’s rights groups protest a regime that supports the public flogging of women who have abortions, the jailing of women who become pregnant outside of marriage, the stoning to death of gay men and lesbians and the outlawing of Bibles and Christian missionaries, the Obama administration is seeking deeper ties with the Islamic Sultanate of Brunei.The TransPacific Partnership (TPP) is a sweeping pact with twelve nations that would tie the U.S. more closely to Brunei and give the Brunei government special investment privileges in the United States.“The barbarism in Brunei shows us everything that’s wrong with the TransPacific Partnership. We should not give special privileges to countries that spit on basic American values. The Obama administration should be standing up for American values and human rights, not the Sultan of Brunei,” says American Jobs Alliance executive director Curtis Ellis.
Mark Pocan, who has ProgressivePunch's #1 progressive crucial vote score of any Member of Congress, was not happy. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership," he told us, "must not provide special trade privileges to countries that continue to violate human rights and restrict equality. American trade agreements should be the economic reward for developing countries that promote human rights, not reinforcing bad actions by nations like Brunei." Shenna Bellows, the progressive Democrat running for the Maine Senate seat occupied by TPP supporter Susan Collins, felt the same way as Rep. Pocan. "The situation in Brunei demonstrates the need to halt the Trans Pacific Partnership and to take a different approach to ensure the human rights, labor and environmental standards are key parts any international trade agreements."Ted Lieu is the state senator for Beverly Hills and if he wins the primary next month and the election in November, he'll be the congressman that covers the Beverly Hills Hotel as well. I don't think he had politics in mind this evening when he told us how horrified he was by the whole Brunei mess. "I join with others in calling for a boycott of the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air until a new owner is found. The current owner, the government of Brunei, has passed a series of shockingly repressive and brutal laws against women and homosexuals. For example, stoning homosexuals to death was wrong in the 16th century and is wrong today. It is the equivalent of the government murdering people based on their sexual orientation. There are many other hotels in Beverly Hills for people to stay. I also note that it would be ridiculous for the U.S. to reward Brunei with the TPP."
