Humanitarian Texts

2010-08-01: Afghanistan: Don’t go back;
2010-08-02: WikiLeaks Posts Mysterious Insurance File;
2010-08-02: More about WIKILEAKS;
2010-08-02: WORLD E-CONFERENCE – Culture of Peace and Sustainability;
2010-08-03: The Nation at Stake;
2010-08-04: Slavery in Our Time;
2010-08-04: Turning the Key;
2010-08-05: WikiLeaks: The German Armed Forces and the policy of targeted killings in Afghanistan;
2010-08-06: Australian government and media block discussion over Wikileaks revelations;
2010-08-07: Afghan Women and the Return of Taliban;
2010-08-08: Revealed: how asylum detention centres damage children;
2010-08-08: Opération Beatles;
2010-08-09: Radical Islamic States and Political Movements in the Mid-East/Arab World: The Islamic ‘Threat’ Part XII;
2010-08-10: Libya to compensate innocent prisoners;
2010-08-11: Political prisoners in hunger strike protest in Iran;
2010-08-12: Commentary: From the ashes of capitalism, militarism and elite rule;
2010-08-12: Europe: URGENCE OGM /Urgency GM organism;
2010-08-12: Greenpeace petition: 1 million voices for a GE-free future: no GE crops / GMOs;
2010-08-13: Dan Mitrione in Uruguay … news from the NSA;
2010-08-14: Moonlighting: How does it affect the poor?
2010-08-15: Weekly Diaspora: Will $600 million border security bill target innocents?
2010-08-15: Canada: the Public Work Protection Act;
2010-08-16: Pentagon rejects new investigation into killing of Spanish cameraman by US troops in Iraq;
2010-08-17: ASEAN Concludes Cyclone Nargis Operations in Myanmar;
2010-08-18: Universal access to HIV treatment threatened by failure of will;
2010-08-19: Blast From the Past: The History of the Presumption of Innocence;
2010-08-20: How can Gemany Overcome the Social and Identity Crisis?
2010-08-21: The threat and consequences of nuclear war;
2010-08-22: Verizon and Google Want to Kill the Open Internet – Media Mogul Confirms Their Bad Intentions;
2010-08-23: Why the Wars can’t be Won;
2010-08-24: What You Will Not Hear About Iraq;
2010-08-25: What BlackBerry shows is our technological backwardness;
2010-08-26: The Torture of Credo Mutwa and the Theft of the Necklace of Mysteries;
2010-08-26: Horizons et débats, no. 33, août 2010;
2010-08-26: 5em anniversaire de Graines de Paix;
2010-08-27: Newly-Discovered Species of Bacteria Claimed to be Breaking Down Oil in Deepwater Plumes in the Gulf;
2010-08-28: Einstein’s legacy;
2010-08-29: Psywar: The Real Battlefield is the Mind;
2010-08-30: Accusations against Rwanda;
2010-08-31: Gender pay gap signals need for Constitutional rights guarantee.

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Published on political affairs pa, From NOW.org, August 26, 2010.

As students return to school this week, many will open their history books to learn that 90 years ago today women were given the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was signed into law. The history books will explain how this event began to radically transform the role of women in our society. Today, women have more opportunities than ever before. For the first time, more women attend and graduate college than men, and women now make up half the workforce.  Continue Reading…

Published on The Economist, by R.C. in London, August 27, 2010.

AT LAST, it’s out. Or rather, as is the way with these things, large chunks of it have been leaked to the press. The report by the United Nations high commissioner for human rights  into war crimes and human-rights abuses during Congo’s wars from 1996 to 2003 has been long in the making, and is also long in the reading—about 600 pages, apparently. The collapse of the country then known as Zaire in the mid-1990s precipitated Africa’s first continental war, involving eight countries, and caused the high number of deaths of any single conflict since the second world war—maybe as many as 4m in all.  Continue Reading…

Watch this Video, published on Global Research.ca, by Scott Noble, 4.31 min, August 26, 2010.

This film explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an emphasis on the “elitist theory of democracy” and the relationship between war, propaganda and class … //

… WATCH THE FULL-LENGTH FILM ONLINE, 99.02 min.

(full text).

Linked on our blogs with Eric Walberg – Canada. – Published on Eric Walberg.com, by Eric Walberg, August 11, 2010.

October 2003 — The America I once knew seems like a distant memory, says one journalist after another these days. But how about this: “Times such as ours have always bred defeatism and despair.” Re-reading Einstein’s writings on peace, it is clear that America has been through an equally insane fit in the past – such as the madness following World War II.

Einstein was referring to the rush to build more A-bombs, to develop H-bombs, the plans to launch preventive war against a destroyed and helpless Russia (no UN “food for oil” program then), conscription, the Korean war, loyalty oaths, McCarthyism, and the electrocution of the Rosenbergs.  Continue Reading…

Good News for a Change, Or More Faulty Science? – Published on Global Research.ca, by Washington’s Blog, August 25, 2010.

A team of scientists published a paper today in the journal Science which provides some hopeful news.

Specifically, a team of scientists have discovered a new species of oil-eating microbes which thrive in the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico:

The biological effects and expected fate of the vast amount of oil in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon blowout are unknown due to the depth and magnitude of this event. Here, we report that the dispersed hydrocarbon plume stimulated deep-sea indigenous {gamma}-proteobacteria that are closely related to known petroleum-degraders.  Continue Reading…

Reçu par e-mail, De: Graines de Paix,

Pour fêter ses 5 ans d’existence et vous remercier pour votre soutien, l’ONG Graines de Paix vous convie à un verre de l’amitié. Nous vous attendons avec plaisir le Mardi 7 septembre 2010, de 18h30 à 20h30, RSVP avant jeudi 2 septembre

Graines de Paix, Rue Cornavin 11, CH-1201 Genève, Tel +41 22 700 9414, e-mail, Website /Homepage. A trouver aussi sur fr.wikipedia.
Voir aussi: Graines de Paix et l’Europe: en français; ainsi qu’en anglais; en russe, en arabe et en espanol.

Horizons et débats, no. 33, août 2010, (Edition française du journal Zeit-Fragen) – 4 articles remarquées:

• Nouvelle donne géopolitique au Proche-Orient, par Thierry Meyssan, 23 août 2010;
• Campagne contre l’indépendance de la Suisse –Cessons de trahir notre pays petit à petit, par Marianne Wüthrich, no 33, 23 août 2010;
• La Russie dessèche: l’arme climatique américaine est-elle en jeu? août 2010 – Source: RIA Novosti du 3/8/10;
• Le travail au service de la communauté, complément au travail rémunéré, par Hans Christoph Binswanger et Yolanda Kappeler*, août 2010. – Extrait du livre «Vorwärts zur Mässigung. Perspektive einer nachhaltigen Wirtschaft» par Hans ­Christoph Binswanger, Murmann-Verlag, Hamburg 2009.

Watch this video and listen to Credo Mutwa, 20.01 min, published on David Icke.com, August 23, 2010.

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/37830-the-torture-of-credo-mutwa-and-the-theft-of-the-necklace-of-mysteries-

and another video: CREDO MUTWA and DAVID ICKE: TEMPLES OF PEACE, 8.23 min.

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/37884-credo-mutwa-and-david-icke–temples-of-peace

Published on Daily News Analysis DNA, by Anil Dharke in Mumbai, Aug 23, 2010.

Recent statistics show that there are nearly one million BlackBerries in use in India compared to over 600 million other mobile phones. The obvious question one asks is this: why is the government so agitated by BlackBerry when its numbers are so small, while no fuss was made in the mass proliferation of Nokias, Samsungs and Motorolas?

Does this mean that the BlackBerry company, RIM (Research in Motion), is the only one bothered about our right to privacy, while all the other mobile phone brands and service providers like Airtel, Loop, and Vodafone don’t give a damn?

As it happens, the right to privacy isn’t an issue that particularly bothers us as a nation. It bothers Americans a lot and they are constantly fighting legal and political battles to preserve their privacy, sometimes going to absurd lengths, at least to our unconcerned eyes.  Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Prof. Adil E. Shamoo, August 23, 2010.

… According to the U.S. Census of 2000, 80 percent of the 285 million people living in the United States are urban dwellers. Those living in slums are well below 5 percent. If we translate the Iraqi statistic into the U.S. context, 121 million people in the United States would be living in slums.

If the United States had an unemployment rate of 25-50 percent and 121 million people living in slums, riots would ensue, the military would take over, and democracy would evaporate. So why are people in the United States not concerned and saddened by the conditions in Iraq?  Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Prof. John Kozy, August 20, 2010.

… All wars, even when carried on by the strongest of nations against weak opponents, are chancy, and their costs, in every respect, are always much more than anticipated, even putting aside the physical destruction and the lives lost.

Nations that have started wars with the psychological certainty of winning rarely have, and when they have, the results were rarely lasting or those sought. As Gandhi once observed, “Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.”

The Crusaders, fighting under the banner of Christ, could not make Palestine a part of Christendom. France, under Napoleon, conquered most of Europe but lost it all and Napoleon ended up a broken man. Prussian militarism prevailed in the Franco-Prussian War, but in less than a century Germany had lost all.  Continue Reading…

Google’s market capitalization is $150 billion. Verizon’s is $85 billion. They don’t care about our wellbeing. Even if one of them tells us it won’t “be evil.”

Published on AlterNet, by , August 20, 2010.

(Read first in The New York Times: Web Plan Is Dividing Companies, by CLAIRE CAIN MILLER and BRIAN STELTER, August 12, 2010).

… The Verizon-Google Net Neutrality Proposal begins by stating that “Google and Verizon have been working together to find ways to preserve the open Internet.” Well, that’s nice. Imagine what they would have come up with if they had been trying to kill off the open Internet.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. Because that’s what this is. An effort to kill off the open Internet … //  Continue Reading…

Published on Pambazuka, by Fidel Castro, August 12, 2010.

‘Given the fact that Iran will not give an inch to the demands of the United States and Israel, which have already mobilised several of the means of warfare to their disposal, they will have to launch the attack as soon as the date agreed by the Security Council on June 9, 2010 – with the established rules and requirements – expires. There is a limit to all what man hopes to achieve, which he cannot surpass. In this critical case, President Barack Obama is the one who would give the order to start the so much announced and publicised attack, following the rules of the gigantic empire,’ proclaims Fidel Castro … //  Continue Reading…

Published on Current Cooncerns, by Professor Dr Eberhard Hamer, Mittelstandsinstitut (SME Institute), Hanover, Germany, No, 14 /July 2010.

The onset of the financial crisis surprised most people. And until today most people have not yet realized the importance of it.

About 50 experts in my institute published a book as early as 2002 studying the question “What to do if the crash happens”? (“Was tun, wenn der Crash kommt?”), a book, which the dominant circles among bankers, politicians, journalists and unfortunately also my scientific colleagues laughed about and dismissed as absurd. In the meantime, however, our hypothetical analysis has become reality … //   Continue Reading…

Published on Talk Left, the politics of crime, by Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy, August 18, 2010 – (see also: Coffin v. United States – Blast From the Past: The History of the Presumption of Innocence, and Presuption of Innocence).

It is better than 5, 10, 20, or 100 guilty men go free than for one innocent man to be put to death. This prinicple is embodied in the presumption of innocence. In 1895, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision in the case Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S.  432; 15 S. Ct. 394, traced the presumption of innocence, past England, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, and, at least according to Greenleaf, to Deuteronomy … //

… Greenleaf traces this presumption to Deuteronomy, and quotes Mascardus De Probationibus to show that it was substantially embodied in the laws of Sparta and Athens. Greenl. Ev. part 5, section 29, note. Whether Greenleaf is correct or not in this view, there can be no question that the Roman law was pervaded with the results of this maxim of criminal administration, as the following extracts show:  Continue Reading…

Linked with AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa ARASA. -  Published on NAM aidsmap.com, by Rebecca Hodes, 20 July 2010.

… “If we cannot afford to treat people, are we going to be able to afford the carnage?” asked Peter Mugyenyi, Director of Uganda’s Joint Clinical Research Centre, in a double session on the future of universal access at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna today.

Mugyenyi, a clinician who pioneered ART provision in Africa, focused on the remarkable healthcare advances that have been made since the introduction of public treatment programmes in the developing world.  Continue Reading…

Published on ASEAN, by ASEAN Secretariat, 13 August 2010.

The ASEAN Post-Nargis humanitarian effort in Myanmar came to an end on 31 July 2010 with the closure of the Coordinating Office of the ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force (AHTF) in Yangon.

Since it was set up in May 2008, the AHTF was instrumental in raising more than USD 600 million with the major contributions coming from Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Norway, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Contributions also came from Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland. Continue Reading…

Published on WSWS, by Vicky Short, August 14, 2010.

Last week, the Pentagon responded to the decision of the Spanish Supreme Court to reopen the investigation into the death of cameraman José Couso in 2003 in Iraq. It declared that US authorities had already acquitted the three soldiers involved of any crime. The Pentagon spokesman said that he did not want to discuss the content of the Supreme Court’s decision, adding that “it is the Spanish authorities who must deal with the particular details of this affair”.

The Supreme Court in Spain has ordered the reinvestigation into Couso’s death after revoking the decision of the National Court to shelve the case against three suspects—Sergeant Thomas Gibson, Captain Philip Wolford and Lieutenant-Colonel Philip de Camp. It has ordered the investigation to be reopened, following a successful appeal by Couso’s family.  Continue Reading…

Watch this video: MARTIAL LAW G20 CHARGE DISAPPEARS, published on The Real News Network, 13.14 min, August 15, 2010.

Read: Public Work Protection Act, à voir aussi en français.

Linked with rabble.ca / rabble podcast network rpn. – Published on rabble.ca, by Catherine A. Traywick, August 12, 2010.

Anti-immigrant forces have adeptly shaped the ongoing immigration debate into an issue of crime and punishment. Now, the pending passage of a $600 million border security bill could breathe new life into the narrative of the criminal immigrant – despite the increasing safety of our border communities.

The sentiment is familiar, if false: Crime in Mexico fuels migration, which breeds violence on the border, which must then be combated within our cities. The undocumented must be punished for stealing our jobs, stealing our services and ruining our neighborhoods. In Arizona, lawmakers like state senator Russell Pearce (who claims that his ring finger was shot off by a Latino gang member) used just that rhetoric to justify the passage of SB 1070 and other anti-immigrant laws.  Continue Reading…

Published on Poverty Portal, by Sumadi Samaraweera, July 5, 2010.

An individual holding dual or multiple jobs is defined as moonlighting. Today, moonlighting has become a key strategy among individuals in many developed and developing countries, where high competition exists to achieve economic goals. Moonlighting occurs when people are willing to work more hours than that demanded by their primary job with its fixed hours of work.

The poor, facing absolute or relative poverty, are one key group who are willing to moonlight to uplift their living conditions while professionals are another group for whom moonlighting plays a significant role. There are positive and negative factors with respect to this moonlighting. On the one hand, moonlighting encourages low income workers to earn more through for example, self employment than they could achieve merely with their primary employment, hence it would serve to uplift the living conditions of their families.  Continue Reading…

TO SAVE DAN MITRIONE NIXON ADMINISTRATION URGED DEATH THREATS FOR URUGUAYAN PRISONERS – In Response Uruguayan Security Forces Launched Death Squads to Hunt and Kill Insurgents

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 324, by Carlos Osorio and Marianna Enamoneta, With the Collaboration of Clara Aldrighi, August 11, 2010. For more information … //

… Documents posted by the National Security Archive on the 40th anniversary of the death of U.S. advisor Dan Mitrione in Uruguay show the Nixon administration recommended a “threat to kill [detained insurgent] Sendic and other key [leftist insurgent] MLN prisoners if Mitrione is killed.” The secret cable from U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers, made public here for the first time, instructed U.S. Ambassador Charles Adair: “If this has not been considered, you should raise it with the Government of Uruguay at once.”  Continue Reading…

Published on Greenpeace:  Sign the petition now here! – Linked with Europe: URGENCE OGM /Urgency GM organism.

The European Commission has just approved growing genetically engineered (GE) crops in the EU for the first time in 12 years, putting the agri-chemical industry’s profits over safety concerns and public interest. The vast majority of Europeans are against GE crops.
A new initiative allows 1 million EU citizens a unique chance to make official requests of the European Commission. Let’s build a million voices for a GE free future and call for a moratorium on GE foods in Europe. Sign the petition below and spread the word. Don’t forget to include your address so that all of our signatures count for the citizens’ initiative.

Greenpeace is working together with Avaaz who are kindly collecting all the details for this initiative. Avaaz will only be using your information for this petition and will not be subscribing you to their email list – unless you check the box for that on the form below. Continue Reading…

Il manque 140 000 signatures sur 1 million pour pouvoir déposer une demande auprès de la commission européenne

Lié sur nos blogs avec Greenpeace petition: 1 million voices for a GE-free future: no GE crops / GMOs – Reçu par e-mail, De: Brigitte, Date 10/08/2010

Je participe rarement à des pétitions à signer, mais celle-ci me parait nécessaire. Allez sur ce site / ou AVAAZ.org – le monde en action, et signez la petition.

Links: Homepage AVAAZ.org, in many languages. Voir aussi les links sur fr.wikipedia/ Organisme génétiquement modifié en bas de la page, et de même sur Greenpeace petition: 1 million voices for a GE-free future: no GE crops / GMOs.