Archive for October, 2012

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31/10/2012

European Finance Crisis: Germany-GIPSI

Human Wrongs Watch

By Johan Galtung*, TRANSCEND — A crisis so massive–with the health network in Greece collapsing and 50 percent of Spanish youth unemployed–begs for big causes.

Angela Merkel – Photo credit: Armin Linnartz | Wikimedia Commons

Some unknown planet with great gravitation pull, some super-radioactive element not yet identified?

Probably; there may be more causes lining up–efforts to destroy the welfare state and to save the US$ as the world currency-but for the time being we have to do with what we have.

Here are Four Big ones:

[1] The West is outcompeted.  For some time we have had the USA, its empire and the West in general declining, and the Rest, China in particular, emerging–BRICS being a formula spanning four continents.

We have also seen states (except the biggest) declining, with local communities and nations emerging from below, and regionalization and globalization, particularly for the finance economy, from above. What happens in Europe is within that general context.  Less pie expansion, less sharing. Closing North to industrial and agricultural exports from the South boomerangs; they trade South-South, lifting each other.

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31/10/2012

Israel ‘Postpones’ Nuclear Iran Red Line by ‘8 to 10 Months’

Human Wrongs Watch

By RT*, 31 October, 2012 — Iran’s decision to produce fuel rods from a third of its medium-enriched uranium stockpile delayed its alleged nuclear weapon program, says the Israeli defense minister. But Tel Aviv continues to advocate a military solution to halting it.

Ehud Barak | Wikimedia Commons

­The Iranian move, which clearly clashes with its alleged goal of obtaining a nuclear bomb as soon as possible, is just a temporary set-back in Israel’s eyes and apparently does not change its aggressive rhetoric.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak estimates that Israel and its allies will have to take decision over a military solution of the stand-off in “eight to ten months”, because sanctions and diplomacy will fail to curb Iran’s nuclear ambition, Britain’s Daily Telegraph cites the minister as saying.

Tehran denies having any intention of weaponizing its nuclear program, but refuses to stop uranium enrichment, which it says is needed for civilian purposes. The US, the EU and their allies have slapped Iran with crippling economic sanctions to force it to shut down its centrifuges, but so far the Islamic Republic remains defiant.

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30/10/2012

Don’t Blame the Tigers, Blame Deforestation

Human Wrongs Watch

By Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace Indonesia* — As a teenage boy is killed by a tiger forced out of its natural habitat by deforestation, we ask how serious must this get before KFC publicly cut ties with companies pulping rainforests.

A small child from a forest village in Indonesia – where as more rainforest is cleared, tigers stray into villages putting lives at risk. Photo: Greenpeace

Following huge public outcry, KFC recently announced the start of a process to examine where they get paper for items like napkins and chicken buckets.

But examination is not enough! Despite having months to reflect, they’ve still not announced zero tolerance on deforestation. And they still haven’t said whether they will cut ties with companies like Asia Pulp & Paper, who are pulping tiger habitat.

And while KFC dither the situation is becoming increasingly grave.

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30/10/2012

Beyond the Hype of ‘Climate Wars’

Human Wrongs Watch

Johannesburg, by IRIN* – A new study set in East Africa, one of the most detailed yet to examine the links between conflict and climate change, calls for a more balanced view on the issue – beyond the widely hyped “climate wars” said to be erupting over dwindling natural resources. The study’s authors are among a chorus of emerging voices warning against viewing climate change exclusively through the lens of security.

**Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN. A changing climate’s influence is rather complex

The study, led by researchers at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder in the US, shows that the risk of conflict in East Africa increases somewhat as the climate gets hotter and drops a bit with more rainfall, but concludes that “socioeconomic, political and geographic factors play a much more substantial role [in conflict] than climate change”.

It is well-established that climate change affects the availability of resources like water and food, but this fact has led to often alarmist stories and studies on the potential rise of conflicts over these resources, a tendency described as the “securitization” of climate change.

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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 | 2 Comments »

30/10/2012

Crisis and Nationalisms – The Rise of Separatist Agitation in Europe

Human Wrongs Watch

By WSWS*, 30 October 2012 – Recent months have seen one example after another of gains for parties advocating the creation of new, small states in Spain, Belgium, Italy, Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.

**Photo: Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, HQs of regional government: Credit: Mutari | Wikimedia Common

The growth in support for such tendencies has been fuelled by the savage cuts and austerity measures being imposed by central governments on the instructions of the troika—the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund—at the behest of the banks and global speculators.

But the exploitation of legitimate social grievances does not mean that the political beneficiaries represent the interests of the broad masses who are being exploited.

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29/10/2012

Israel‘s Formula for a Starvation Diet – How 400 Trucks To Feed Gaza Became Just 67

Human Wrongs Watch

By Jonathan Cook* – TRANSCEND – Six and a half years go, shortly after Hamas won the Palestinian national elections and took charge of Gaza, a senior Israeli official described Israel’s planned response. “The idea,” he said, “is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”

**Photo source: Arab American Newspaper Watan

Although Dov Weisglass was adviser to Ehud Olmert, the prime minister of the day, few observers treated his comment as more than hyperbole, a supposedly droll characterisation of the blockade Israel was about to impose on the tiny enclave.

Last week, however, the evidence finally emerged to prove that this did indeed become Israeli policy.

After a three-year legal battle by an Israeli human rights group, Israel was forced to disclose its so-called “Red Lines” document. Drafted in early 2008, as the blockade was tightened still further, the defence ministry paper set forth proposals on how to treat Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Health officials provided calculations of the minimum number of calories needed by Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants to avoid malnutrition. Those figures were then translated into truckloads of food Israel was supposed to allow in each day.

The Israeli media have tried to present these chilling discussions, held in secret, in the best light possible. Even the liberal Haaretz newspaper euphemistically described this extreme form of calorie-counting as designed to “make sure Gaza didn’t starve”.

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29/10/2012

‘Boycott Businesses Profiting from Israeli Settlements’ – UN Human Rights Expert

Human Wrongs Watch

A United Nations independent expert called on the world body’s General Assembly, as well as civil society, to take action against Israeli and international businesses that are profiting from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

“Gas the Arabs” painted on the gate outside a Palestinian home in Hebron by Isaraeli settlers. It is signed “JDL” (Jewish Defence League) | Photo: Magne Hagesæter

“My main recommendation is that the businesses highlighted in the report – as well as the many other businesses that are profiting from the Israeli settlement enterprise – should be boycotted, until they bring their operations into line with international human rights and humanitarian law and standards,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, said in a news release issued  on 25 October 2012 as he presented a report on his work to the Assembly.

Highlighting the activities of companies such as Caterpillar Incorporated of the United States, Veolia Environment of France, G4S of the United Kingdom, the Dexia Group of Belgium, Ahava of Israel, the Volvo Group of Sweden, the Riwal Holding Group of the Netherlands, Elbit Systems of Israel, Hewlett Packard of the USA, Mehadrin of Israel, Motorola of the USA, Assa Abloy of Sweden, and Cemex of Mexico, Falk noted that a wide range of Israeli and international businesses are involved in the establishment and maintenance of the Israeli settlements.

“All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been established in clear violation of international law,” said the Special Rapporteur.

“Yet today Israeli settlements control over 40 percent of the West Bank and between 500,000 and 600,000 Israeli citizens are living in Palestinian territory,” he added. “In the last 12 months alone, the settler population has increased by over 15,000 persons.”

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28/10/2012

Ecocide, a Catastrophic Consequence of Nuclear Weapons

By Xanthe Hall, IPPNW*, 28 October, 2012 –Over the many years that we have been trying to educate the public on the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons we have mostly concentrated on the destruction of human life and health, not surprisingly, as we are a physician’s organisation.

**“Killer” Lake Karachay, known as the most polluted place on Earth, near the Mayak nuclear plant in Chelyabinsk, reportedly has enough radiation in it to kill a human being in an hour. Image: Google

Recently, IPPNW has begun to focus on the environmental effects, particularly on the climate, of a nuclear war, limited to one region but affecting the whole world and the knock-on effects for human life and health.

The work with climatologists Alan Robock and Brian Toon has enabled us to show that a relatively “small” nuclear exchange could cause millions of people to die from starvation – this we have termed “nuclear famine”.

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28/10/2012

Human Impact on Climate, ‘More Than Just the Emission of a Trillion-plus Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide Since 1750.’

Human Wrongs Watch

‘Humanity’s increasing impact on the Earth’s climate system involves more than just the emission of a trillion-plus tonnes of carbon dioxide since 1750.’

The Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina. Photo by S. Rossi | IEA

By Julian Smith* – Each day, the Earth receives on the order of 15 billion terajoules (TJ) of solar radiation. Approximately 30% of this is immediately reflected, refracted or scattered back into space, while the planet’s surface or atmosphere absorbs the remainder before re-emitting it.

Viewed from space and based on the absorption rate, the theoretical average temperature on the Earth should be -18°C, not the 14°C that was the 1951 to 1980 annual global mean.

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28/10/2012

“Liberated” Afghans — Unnourished, Homeless, Exposed to Harsh Winter

Human Wrongs Watch

Kabul, by IRIN* – After last year’s Afghan winter – the harshest in 15 years – killed dozens of displaced children in urban settlements, government and aid agencies in Afghanistan are preparing themselves for the coming winter.

**Photo: Mohammad Popal/IRIN. Children are exposed to cold weather in a makeshift settlement in Kabul

As of 30 September 2012, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported 445,856 persons internally displaced due to conflict. Many of these live in informal settlements in and around Kabul, but their numbers can be hard to track.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is compiling data on the size of the settlements, where the deaths occurred, to scale up its winter assistance stocks accordingly, the deputy head of the Afghanistan office, Arnhild Spence, told IRIN.

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