Humanitarian Texts

• 2010-06-01: Abortion and Christian Pregnancy Crisis Centers CPC;
• 2010-06-02: Overcoming Biophobia in Sustainable Development;
• 2010-06-02: La société malade de la gestion;
• 2010-06-03: BP’s Oil and pawns’s death;
• 2010-06-03: La Fenech connection;
• 2010-06-04: Kyrgyzstan’s ‘Roza Revolution’ – Cui Bono, Part 3;
• 2010-06-05: India, South Africa ink three pacts, discuss ways to improve ties;
• 2010-06-06: NON AU PROJET DE LOI FACILITANT LES INTERNEMENTS PSYCHIATRIQUES;
• 2010-06-07: The Black Art of News Management;
• 2010-06-08: For a more ethical civilization;
• 2010-06-09: The Battle for Thailand;
• 2010-06-10: A Warning from Noam Chomsky on the Threat posed by Elites;
• 2010-06-11: Sri Lanka: Widespread malnutrition among women and children;
• 2010-06-12: Preliminary draft Protocol on Matters specific to Space Assets – Study LXXII J;
• 2010-06-13: New efforts, new claims from the failing Christian Right;
• 2010-06-14: Mean Girls in Politics;
• 2010-06-15: Nukes not sustainable for the Baltic states say activists;
• 2010-06-16: The Role of the Communes in Venezuela;
• 2010-06-17: Reflections on the 29th Convention of the CPUSA;
• 2010-06-17: Diskussionsveranstaltung des wissenschaftlichen Beirats von attac Schweiz;
• 2010-06-18: Arizona GOP targets children born to undocumented immigrants;
• 2010-06-19: Kyrgyz interim leader visits volatile south, death toll 10 times higher;
• 2010-06-20: Class and Race in the US Labor Movement: The Case of the Packinghouse Workers;
• 2010-06-21: Corporate Entities as Modern-Day Street Gangs;
• 2010-06-22: Indigenous Wisdom Speaks;
• 2010-06-23: How a traffic jam occurs? – Wie entsteht ein Stau?
• 2010-06-24: Lybia of tomorrow – what hope for Human Rights?
• 2010-06-24: Demoaufruf 26. Juni 2010: Freiheit Gleichheit Würde;
• 2010-06-24: Appel à manifester le 26 juin 2010: Liberté Egalité Dignité;
• 2010-06-25: China’s top political advisor urges Taoists to contribute to social harmony;
• 2010-06-26: The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order;
• 2010-06-27: Government Targets Red Shirts with Harsh Law, Propaganda;
• 2010-06-28: Gangsters, politicians, cocaine and bankers;
• 2010-06-29: The Jerusalem International Conference on Integrative Medicine;
• 2010-06-30: The Hitler option in Afghanistan.

*****

See also our pages:

• people by first name;
• PEOPLE BY COUNTRY;
• All NGOs sorted alphabetically;
• All NGOs sorted chronologically;
• Economy and Society: all articles sorted chronologically;
• Humanitarian Texts: all articles sorted chronologically;
• KASHMIR and IDPs: all articles sorted chronologically;
• Geopolitical Analysis: all articles sorted chronologically;
• History – Past and Present: all artic les sorted chronologically;
• Berhane Tewolde’s Development Blog: all articles sorted chronologically;
• Mein privater Garten: all article sorted chronologically;
• Heidi Barathieu-Brun: all articles sorted chronologically.

Published on OpEdsNews, by Patrick Martin, June 29, 2010 (see also included videos).

The removal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the US commander in Afghanistan and his replacement by Gen. David Petraeus is not, as portrayed by Obama’s political apologists, a principled defense of civilian control over the military. Nor is it, as the official line emanating from the White House would have it, a change in personnel only, not in policy.

There is every indication that the change in command is the result of growing dissatisfaction with McChrystal’s counterinsurgency methods, which have failed to dislodge the Taliban-led guerrilla forces that control the bulk of southern and eastern Afghanistan. It presages a drastic increase in the level of US military violence, and especially the scale of civilian casualties among the Afghan population. Their “crime” is to sympathize with and support the anti-US insurgency … // Continue Reading…

October 19-22, 2010. – Published on medconvention.com.

The Conference: In the last 100 years the world of medicine has seen a true historical revolution. The accomplishments of modern medicine surpass the imagination, from overcoming diseases and saving lives, to organ transplants and improving the quality of life.
But modern medicine is based on the principal of “Evidence-Based Medicine” and anything that doesn’t conform to this criterion is pushed aside. Thus all therapies not based on scientific proof have been expelled from the world of western medicine.

However, the public has continued using these therapies, which were given outside the formal medical system, and therefore referred to as “alternative medicine”.  Continue Reading…

Published on Pambazuka News, by Horace Campbell, June 24, 2010.

Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, alleged drug lord and leader of Jamaican gang, the Shower Posse, was arrested on 22 June. Coke’s arrest, writes Horace Campbell, opens up the possibility to ‘reveal the full extent of the corruption of the politics of Jamaica and the Caribbean by their rulers in collaboration with the intelligence, commercial and banking infrastructures of the United States’. Noting that ‘political retrogression, gangsterism and violence have now reached the proportions that were similar to the period of enslavement’, Campbell says the ’struggle against the cocaine business in the Caribbean is a struggle for a new form of society’ … //

… TRUTH COMMISSION IN JAMAICA   Continue Reading…

Published on IPS, by Marwaan Macan-Markar, June 26, 2010.

With the force of an emergency law behind it, the Thai government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is tightening the screws on an opposition protest movement that, if mishandled, could extract a heavy political price.

On Jun. 28, the powerful department of special investigations (DSI) will begin to question 83 individuals and companies named as the alleged funders of the protesters, known as the ‘red shirts’ for their signature protest colour, who had occupied iconic areas of Bangkok for over two months, till May 19.

The wide-ranging powers of the emergency law is pivotal to trace the flow of money linked to the red shirt movement, admits Tharit Pengdit, the DSI’s director-general, who plans to summon the clan of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, former cabinet ministers, retired senior military and police officers and leaders of the red shirts.  Continue Reading…

The Technological Revolution and the Future of Freedom, Part 1

Published on Global Research.ca, by Andrew Gavin Marshall, June 24, 2010.

There is a new and unique development in human history that is taking place around the world; it is unprecedented in reach and volume, and it is also the greatest threat to all global power structures: the ‘global political awakening.’ The term was coined by Zbigniew Brzezinski, and refers to the fact that, as Brzezinski wrote:   Continue Reading…

Published on english Xinhuanet, June 23, 2010.

BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) — China’s top political advisor, Jia Qinglin, Wednesday called on the country’s Taoists to contribute to social harmony.

Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, made the call at a meeting with the newly elected leaders of the China Taoist Association.

He urged the association to promote and adapt the ideals of harmony embodied in classic Taoist works to socialist society … //   Continue Reading…

Reçu par e-mail, De: Liste d’ATTAC-Suisse, Date: 23/06/2010 – A transférer largement!

Liberté Egalité Dignité Pour moi et toi – MANIF 26.6.2010 14h30 BERNE. AU WAISENHAUSPLATZ. RASSEMBLEMENT FINAL: PLACE FÉDÉRALE   Continue Reading…

Per e-mail erhalten, Von: Infoliste von ATTAC-Schweiz, Date: 23/06/2010 – Bitte weiterleiten!

Freiheit Gleichheit Würde – Für mich und dich – DEMO 26.6.2010 14.30 Uhr BERN. BEGINN WAISENHAUSPLATZ. SCHLUSSKUNDGEBUNG BUNDESPLATZ.  Continue Reading…

Find on Amnesty International’s Lybia website the report Lybia of tomorrow, Index Number MDE 19/007/2010, 23 June 2010 – Download:

• in english, 136 pdf pages;
• in arabic, 130 pdf pages;

See also some few pages text about Lybia:

• in pdf en français; 8 pdf pages;
• in html en français;
• in html en espanol;
• in html in arabic.

Watch this Video, 4.50 min, 12 october 2007: a traffic jam experience: Take 24 drivers with 24 cars, let them drive in a circle. Conditions: hold the same distance to the front car and a constant speed:

• First: every driver is concentrated and holds distance and speed.
• After 10 minutes first traffic jam, but drivers reach to resolve it.
• After 20 minutes: drivers begin to phone, look for their hair or make up, are no more concentrated … again a traffic jam which remains (question to drivers: why there is a jam? Answer: because the car in front is standing).
• After 30 minutes: the jam definitively can no more be resolved, the experience is stopped.

Linked with Slow Food International – Published on Slow Food, June 16, 2010.

In a land where the harsh winter can last up to 200 days, temperatures fall lower than -30°C and the sun does not rise for months, the Sápmi Convivium, that represents the indigenous Sámi people, welcomed members of the Slow Food International Council last weekend for its annual meeting. The indigenous group’s inextricable link with their often severe environment was the inspiration for the meeting’s location in Samì territory in northern Sweden, and identified as a core value in the future direction of Slow Food and Terra Madre.  Continue Reading…

Published on Gonzalo Lira’s Blog, by Gonzalo Lira, June 18, 2010.

This past Monday, June 14, 2010, the Unites States Supreme Court let stand without comment or dissent the Second Circuit Appeals Court decision to dismiss Maher Arar’s suit against the U.S. Government. (Arar v. Ashcroft, No. 09-923)

Mr. Arar was illegally detained by U.S. officials while in transit back to his home in Canada, and then handed over to Syrian intelligence officials using “extraordinary rendition”. The Syrians kept Arar for ten months, interrogating him using torture, and finally releasing him when they concluded that Mr. Arar was neither a terrorist, nor in possession of any relevant intelligence.  Continue Reading…

Published on Diary of a Heartland Radical, by Harry Targ, June 2, 2010.

The Connection Between Class Struggle and Peace:

Foreign policy has long been used to divide workers. During the Cold War “anti-Communism” linked an external enemy with so-called domestic enemies in the labor and civil rights movements. The external enemy and its domestic collaborators justified the construction of a permanent war economy, worker sacrifices through taxes, loss of shop floor rights, and the “need” to limit labor organizing. Paradoxically, the weaknesses of the labor movement today have their roots in the mobilization of the American people to respond to the “threat of international communism.” In the post-Cold War international system cheap labor overseas and the threat of international terrorism have been used to manipulate workers and limit their ability to organize. But even during the height of the Cold War, sectors of the labor movement resisted the simplistic claims such as that declared by one CEO that the threat to America came from “the Soviet Union abroad and the labor movement at home.” Continue Reading…

Published on english Xinhuanet, June 18, 2010.

BISHKEK, June 18 (Xinhua) — Kyrgyz interim leader Roza Otunbayeva arrived in the southern city of Osh Friday after a state of emergency was declared there following deadly ethnic clashes.

Authorities put the death toll from the riots at 191, but Otunbayeva said the real figure could be 10 times more than the official figure.

Earlier reports said at least 191 people died and 1,971 were wounded in the worst ethnic clashes to hit the impoverished Central Asian nation since the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Continue Reading…

Published on People’s World, by Pepe Lozano, June 15, 2010.

Arizona Republicans say they plan to introduce new legislation this fall that, if passed, would block the children of undocumented immigrants from becoming citizens if they were born in the United States.

Arizona is already facing a national boycott by other U.S. states and cities following its introduction of a controversial law, S.B. 1070, signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer in April. That law requires police to determine a person’s immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” they are undocumented.

Both measures are the brainchild of state Sen. Russell Pearce who argues that children born on American soil to non-U.S. citizens should be barred from attaining birth certificates … //   Continue Reading…

am 19. Juni 2010 in der Universität Fribourg, Miséricorde, avenue de l’Europe 20, 1700 Fribourg, Saal 3113 – per e-mail erhalten, Von: Infoliste von ATTAC-Schweiz, Datum: 16/06/2010 – Weiterbildungs- und Diskussionstagung

Finanzplatz, Steuerpolitik und soziale Gerechtigkeit

Programm: Continue Reading…

Published on political affairs pa, by John Case, June 2, 2010.

… Return of the Specter:

But time has not been kind to those forces who believed Bush the First when he proclaimed the dawn of a new world order in love with the vicissitudes of capitalism, and lawless globalization. Despite vigorous attempts to bury the socialist and communist movements – and social democratic regimes too – and poison the atmosphere against their ideologies, both organization and ideas on the Left appear to be returning in new, more robust and energetic forms, judging by the new wave of activists and rebels attending the 29th CP convention … //

… Delegates to the convention appeared steeped in trade union and working class movements. The African American, Latino, Asia and Pacific island, LGBT, Native American, gender, youth and senior, immigrant and naturalized composition genuinely reflected the real colors and shades, cultures, traditions, lifestyles, dialects and languages of this land. Watching them struggle and reach for agreement on an advanced but realizable progressive platform gives one hope about our country, despite the many storms and furies that seek to divide us.

Sam Webb’s Report:

• The convention opening report of National Chair Sam Webb focused on the compelling need to accelerate the democratic upsurge of working people and all progressive forces combating persistent joblessness, which stands near 20% of the workforce when all are counted, and to defeat a resurgent ultra right-wing, racist offensive designed to derail and destroy the entire Obama progressive reform agenda, and Obama’s historic presidency as well. Webb targets the 2010 midterm elections were as the focus of political activity for the next 6 months. Both the ultra-right challenge, and the prospects for deepening reform and kicking up the strength of the coalition that elected Obama, will meet their next big test on November 2, 2010. That’s just 160 days from now.
• Webb made strong appeals not to underestimate the important and positive changes in the political environment since the campaign and election of Barack Obama. The broad coalition that gave birth to the Obama phenomenon went to sleep for a while after the election. But if the recent primary elections are any sign, it is waking up again! And none too soon! This movement is taking us all to school in the art of grassroots majority politics.

The Ultra-right, racist danger:

• The dangers posed by unambiguously racist propaganda emanating from not just the fringes but the leadership of the Republican Party — were specifically addressed by Executive Vice Chair Jarvis Tyner. He argued that the so called “tea party” forces’ unchecked resorts to vicious slurs, threats of violence, and provocations are well organized and are picking up steam in some areas of the country. The goal being to distract and divide folks who are in near panic over the prolonged economic crisis. Rand Paul, an open opponent of the old Republican establishment, wins the Kentucky Senate primary. Like his father, so-called Libertarian Ron Paul, this “Tea Party” candidate is a front and cover for outright white supremacist organizations, as was revealed in press conferences following the election where Paul criticized the foundations of de-segregation laws. Fox news pundits and the Limbaugh-talk radio, drug-crazed crowd running the new Republican Party are also riding these racist diversions to challenge longstanding civil rights legislation on affirmative action and bars against public segregation, as well as celebrations of the Confederacy.
• Tyner, and many speakers, noted the intense anti-immigrant fever that has broken out like an infected sore in Arizona. The state legislature and Governor enacted a draconian law directing state law enforcement to arrest and demand “papers” of anyone they “suspect” is “illegal.” A large, multi-racial and multi national movement to “legalize Arizona” has emerged in response, gaining a hat tip from President Obama, and direct pledge of support from the President of Mexico and other international forces. Yet, as convention participants noted, polls currently show two to one support for the law, both in Arizona and across the US, reflecting again both a profound level of panic over jobs, and frustration with failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Highlights:

• Despite warnings about the danger from the ultra right, the mood was upbeat at the convention. Convention reports noted the results of the recent primary elections that, in the main, repudiated Republican and ultra right campaigns, and asserted that the majority of voters, while divided on some questions, are in support of the Obama reform agenda and in many cases moving toward even more progressive proposals.
• Expressions of greeting and solidarity were received from many communist, socialist and workers’ parties, including remarks from an official rep of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
• Highlights also included reports of many rich experiences of delegates in electoral, grassroots, trade union, health care, May Day, financial reform, and varied community struggles and campaigns. Communists are winning or in serious contention in several races across the country. They are running primarily in the Democratic party. There were strong messages of solidarity from UE Republic Windows, victorious sit-down strikers in Chicago, and from organizers and leaders in the immigrants rights movement, and from the many moving and emotional song, letter and speech tributes, from many nations, at the Saturday evening international solidarity and 90th anniversary celebration.
• Reports on the struggle for peace focused on accelerating and advancing the withdrawal from Iraq, returning to regional diplomacy over war in Afghanistan, and addressing the urgent needs to implement the two state solution in Israel-Palestine. The world wide improvement in unity in preventing the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction needs to be buttressed with legislation.
• Much attention was paid to building and expanding online media initiatives and responding to increased demands for flexibility in tactics.

Unity: … (full long text).

Building Socialism from Below: The Role of the Communes in Venezuela, an Interview with Antenea Jimenez, a former militant with the student movement who is now working with a national network of activists who are trying to build and strengthen the comunas

Published on The Bullet, by Susan Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber, June 13, 2010.

… What is the main aim of the comunas?

The aims of the comunas are diverse, and take different forms. Before the comuna existed there were all kinds of community organizations where people would participate looking for solutions to their problems, their neighborhood association, the municipal government, etc. The goal of the comunas is to build on these processes and consolidate them by organizing on the basis of territory where people live.  Continue Reading…

Published on CEE bankwatch network, by ATGAJA community, June 4, 2010.

Under the banner “Nukes are not sustainable”, Bankwatch’s member group in Lithuania – Atgaja – this week joined forces with other environment groups and citizens to greet the heads of the Baltic Sea states and European Commission president Juan Manuel Barroso as they arrived at the Baltic Development Forum Summit and the Baltic Sea States Summit – the so-called ‘Baltic Davos’ – in Vilnius … //

… Referring to the example of the massively over-budget and delayed building Olkiluoto-3 reactor in Finland, the groups cautioned against the growing number of nuclear gambles that are now on the table in other Baltic Sea states, including proposals to mine uranium in the Baltic Sea Region, as well as plans to store radioactive waste in rocks near the Baltic Sea.  Continue Reading…

Published on TruthDig, by Ruth Marcus, June 10, 2010.

What is this, middle school? I was all set to sit down and write about women in politics, and applaud Tuesday’s results, when off pops the new Republican nominee for senator from California, Carly Fiorina, with a comment that takes you back to the cattiness of the school cafeteria … //

… At the risk of incurring the wrath of PTA moms—they’re not just PTA moms anymore. Or widows and daughters of male politicians. Fiorina and Whitman are former chief executives of major companies (Hewlett-Packard and eBay, respectively). Lincoln is an incumbent senator. Haley broke some kind of gender barrier as a female candidate for major office caught up in an alleged sex scandal. Angle seems like a nut, but at least a self-made nut.  Continue Reading…

Published on Online Journal, by Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D., June 11, 2010.

For decades, leaders of the Christian Right have screamed “activist judges!” whenever a ruling was not to their liking. They were also fond of calling such judges “godless,” a standard slur for anyone who disagreed with their so-called “biblical worldview.”

Now, in a stunning display of hypocrisy and twisted reasoning, they’re trying to install their own activist “Christian judges” on California courts: … //

… Cherry-picking the Bible is easy. One can justify slavery, genocide, misogyny, murder, torture, mutilation, polygamy, and a host of what today we would call pathologies and crimes against humanity. But Mr. Hendry and those like him wish to focus only those passages that help them in their campaign against gay and lesbian Americans: a campaign to embed certain religion-based discriminations into the civil laws of the United States.

The other unspoken, but fundamental goal of Mr. Hendry’s Better Courts Now campaign seems to be the perpetuation of the myth that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. It wasn’t. Many of the most prominent Founding Fathers — Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson to name but a few — were not Christians. They were Deists, those who believe in “Divinity,” but in a more universal, open-minded way.

Then as now, Deists accept the notion of Divinity and respect Jesus as a teacher, but do not believe in his Divinity, the second-hand, politically motivated “revealed word” attributed to Moses and Old Testament prophets, or New Testament authorities such as Peter, Paul and John. And in the 18th century, Deists were particularly skeptical of the allegedly “God given” dogma created and propagated by politically motivated church leaders. Not surprisingly, the word “God” does not appear in the U.S. Constitution, and there is absolutely no mention of “Jesus,” which one would certainly expect if the U.S. had been founded as a Christian nation.

Why the need to have the United States be seen as a “Christian nation”? Because it would give those who have perverted Christianity into a political tool more clout? Perhaps. But more likely it’s an example of desperation.

The Christian Right is losing the campaign to embed religion-based bigotry and discrimination into civil law. More than a few of their shining stars have been busted. First there was the vehemently anti-gay Ted Haggard, founder of the New Life mega-church and president of the National Association of Evangelicals. While railing against homosexuality, Rev. Haggard was secretly paying a male prostitute (Mike Jones) for sex and some crystal meth to make it last longer. At first, in 2006, Rev. Haggard denied it, then admitted it, and then, in 2009 …

… (full long text).

Linked with International Institute for the Unification of Privat Law UNIDROIT, and with International Institute of Space Law IISL.

Published on UNIDROIT, bythe Unidroit Committee of Governmental Experts, June 9, 2010.

The transmission to Governments of a preliminary draft Protocol on Matters specific to Space Assets, prepared, at the invitation of UNIDROIT, by a working group the core membership of which was provided by manufacturers, financiers and users/operators of space property as well as the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the European Space Agency/European Centre for Space Law and the International Bar Association, was approved by the Governing Council of UNIDROIT in September 2001, subject to revision by a Steering and Revisions Committee of that body to take account of the changes made to the Convention and the Aircraft Protocol at the Cape Town diplomatic Conference … (full long text).  Continue Reading…

Published on WSWS, by Sujeewa Amaranath and Kapila Fernando, 10 June 2010.

Recently released surveys reveal that acute malnutrition is rife among Sri Lankan children and women, as a result of the country’s 30-year civil war and widespread poverty throughout the country.

Data from a Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) by Sri Lanka’s health ministry, published in the state-owned Daily News on May 29, revealed that child malnutrition is more than 50 percent in some areas of the East and North, with the national average at a record 29 percent.

In the Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara districts in the eastern province, child malnutrition is 53, 45 and 44 percent, respectively. In the northern districts of Vavuniya and Jaffna it is 51 percent and 43 percent. The highest numbers of underweight children in these areas were in the 12-35 month age group, with a slight reduction in those aged 36 to 59 months. Malnutrition among girls is 42 percent and 50 percent for boys. Continue Reading…

Published on AlterNet, by Fred Branfman, June 8, 2010.

As America’s economy and politics continue to unravel, it is clear that the elite mentality and the system it has created will produce more and more victims in the years to come.

Since 1981 the United States has followed a policy until the last year or so, when we started rethinking it, that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food so thank goodness they can lead directly into the industrial era.

It has not worked. It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. It was a mistake that I was a party to. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. I did that. I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did, nobody else.  Continue Reading…