12/12/2011
By Socialist Worker*
Anti-union, anti-poor, anti-taxes, anti-women, anti-Black, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-environment. But if you’re rich or run a big corporation, then you’re in luck.
Source: Socialist Worker
From Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann on the right to the “moderate” Mitt Romney on the just slightly less right, it’s hard to imagine a more vile bunch of people running for the Republican Party presidential nomination. And the Democratic Party wouldn’t want it any other way.
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12/12/2011
Cairo – ”You proved that you are right, that we were wrong. You are catalysts for reforms. Recognise your capabilities for changing the world”, said Qatar’s first lady sheikha Moza in Doha to 400 “leaders of tomorrow” from 100 countries.
AoC logo: Credit: UN
Addressing a youth meeting on the eve of the fourth Forum of Alliance of Civilisations (AoC) in the Qatari capital on Dec. 11-13, both AoC ambassador sheikha Moza, the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, and the top AoC representative Jorge Sampaio, stressed the “new role of the 2 billion young people of the world who can be now educated and connected like no other generation in the history of humanity.”
”You are equipped to make your generation a true alliance of civilisations,” said Sampaio, while Ban Ki-moon urged the youth ”Don’t just stay connected! Be united!“.
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11/12/2011
Geneva – “In 2011, the very idea of ‘power’ shifted,” High Commissioner for Human Rights said on the occasion of this year’s Human Rights Day on December 10. “We know there is still too much repression in our world, still too much impunity, still too many people for whom rights are not yet a reality,” Navi Pillay said.
Credit: UN
“During the course of this extraordinary year, it was wielded not just by mighty institutions in marble buildings, but increasingly by ordinary men, women, and even children courageously standing up to demand their rights,” she said. This year’s Day is building on the pro-reform movements witnessed across North Africa and the Middle East, and social media’s contribution to them, to encourage more people to get involved in the global human rights movement.
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11/12/2011
By James Asfa* – Think Africa Press
Cairo – Morocco’s legislative elections, that took place a year early following constitutional changes as part of the kingdom’s response to the Arab Spring, resulted in a triumphant victory for the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD). It gained 107 of 395 seats, just over 27%, making it by far the largest party in parliament.
Benkirane (right) | Thinkafricapress.com
As a result, Morocco’s King Mohammad VI appointed the PJD’s leader Abdelillah Benkirane as Morocco’s first Islamist Prime Minister.
The PJD victory means that Morocco takes pride of place in the Islamist wave sweeping North Africa in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, with Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt all dominated by Islamist political forces.
Islamist governments, until this year, were associated with the autocratic Iran and Sudan. Recently, attention has shifted to the democratic Islamist model offered by Turkey, Tunisia, and Egypt.
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09/12/2011
Geneva – Global forced displacement figures already stood at a 15-year high at the end of 2010, with 43.7 million people uprooted by conflict and persecution worldwide. Recent events indicate that this number is likely to rise again by the end of the year. The number of stateless people is estimated to be at least 12 million, according to UN.
In Search of Identity: an ailing 75-year-old Bihari sits alone in his room in a camp in Bangladesh | Credit: UN
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, called on the international community to assume its shared duty to protect and assist millions of forcibly displaced and stateless people around the world.
Guterres noted that “dramatic events have forced hundreds of thousands of people to seek refuge across borders in 2011. More than three quarters of a million people became refugees, following upheaval and conflict in Africa and the Middle East.”
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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
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09/12/2011
By Shahira Amin*
Cairo – Since its very beginning in January, the Egyptian revolution has been an all inclusive people’s movement: the Islamists, the Christians or Copts, men, women, the young, the elderly… entire families were there.
February 11, celebrating Mubarak's fall. **Photo: Mariam Soliman | Wikimedia Commons
Like in the last few days, Tahrir square was boiling. And it wasn’t just the men who had camped out there vowing to stay put until Mubarak steps down. It was also the women.
They conducted security checks at the entrances and exits to the square. They treated and nursed the injured, they distributed food and they protested alongside the men. Often it was the women who were at the podium chanting anti regime slogans with the men chanting after them.
There has been no discrimination based on gender, age, religion or political ideology. The gaps were bridged and no one cared who was taking the lead.
Who were these women in Tahrir and what had they achieved until then?.
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08/12/2011
By Snehal Shingavi – SocialistWorker
Gunfire from NATO helicopters killed 24 Pakistani soldiers November 25 in Mohmand Province near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, in an attack on a military outpost that highlights the deep split between the Pakistani and U.S. governments over the war in Afghanistan.
Pakistani protesters against U.S. attacks | SocialistWorker
NATO officials made contradictory claims about the attack–that it was a strategic error, but also that they had the go-ahead from the Pakistani leadership for the strike. Both of these claims were different from the original story–that NATO forces were fired on from across the Pakistani border.
Accusations are also flying in Pakistan itself that there may have been communication between Pakistan and NATO forces approving the strike.
What’s impossible to believe, though, is that NATO forces–that is, the U.S. military– didn’t know that they were targeting Pakistani military installations during a two-hour-long firefight.
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07/12/2011
Afghanistan provides 90 per cent of the world’s opium, most of which is shipped through Iran and Pakistan, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports.
*Photo: Todd Huffman | Wikimedia Commons
According to the UNODC Opium Survey 2011, released last month, despite increased efforts to combat poppy harvests, “rising prices and growing demand boosted cultivation by seven per cent in 2010, spreading to new regions of Afghanistan.”
“Drugs pose a threat to the health and security of not only Afghanistan, but Iran and Pakistan as well, and many other countries beyond,” its adds. Since 2007, the three countries have been involved in the UNODC-sponsored Triangular Initiative to coordinate their efforts to combat trafficking.
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06/12/2011
By Baher Kamal*
Everybody is entitled to have dreams and anyway every one has, maybe some people more than others. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon appears to be very active in this field—he now pretends that big corporations, banks and eventually all the private sector everywhere, to be more active in combating modern forms of slavery!
True, he said that. Just few days ahead of “celebrating” the so-called “Human Rights Day” on 10 December, the UN top official “urged” the private sector “to play a more active role in combating modern forms of slavery.”
“Humanity still lives in a world blighted by serfdom and other practices” despite efforts by governments and civil society to end the scourge, etc., etc., etc., he declared.
“To eradicate contemporary forms of slavery, we need new strategies and measures that can unite all actors,” said Ban in a message to mark the “International Day for the Abolition of Slavery” on December 2. “While governments bear the primary responsibility, the private sector has an integral role to play.”
Then the man appealed to all of them “to demonstrate their commitment to fighting slavery.” How? By making a financial contribution to the UN “Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons”, according to him.
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04/12/2011
By Charles Mercieca*, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND
We are all familiar with the proverb: Not all that glitters is gold. The Romans had a saying which ran as follows: Aliud est theoria, aliud est practica – On thing is theory, another thing is practice. On the other hand, the Italians are very familiar with the statement: Parole si, fatti no – Words yes, facts no. This refers to those who do not mean what they say. These elements are very useful to keep in mind in order to understand well the contents of this presentation.
**Photo: US Army, Office of War Information (OWI) | Department of Defense visual information (DVIC) | Wikimedia Commons
In the United States, you often hear individuals expressing their love for their country. However, the word “America” means different things to different people. Unless we are aware of this, we may experience needless frustrations unnecessarily.
For example, when the vast majority of politicians, especially Republicans, express their concern and love for America they mean something different from what the people in general mean.
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Posted in Africa, Asia, Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 