Archive for November, 2012

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18/11/2012

Israel Ranked Most Militarized Country

Human Wrongs Watch

Bonn — Israel has been ranked on top of the Global Militarization Index, according to a new report.


Credit: “Wikimedia Commons, User:Andux, User;Vardion, and Simon Eugster”.

The 2012 Bonn International Center for Conversion‘s (BICC) updated Global Militarization Index (GMI) shows the degree of militarization of 135 countries for the year 2011 and documents the development of up to 153 countries since 1990.

The update confirms the trend of the past years according to which the countries of the Middle East show the highest degree of militarization in the world. Tendencies towards higher regional militarization can also be found in Asia and the Caucasus.

Israel, Singapore, Syria, Russia, Jordan, Cyprus, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Saudi-Arabia are now the top ten of the Global Militarization Index (GMI).

This is the result of an evaluation of the most recent data (based on the latest surveys of 2011). With US $689 billion, the United States still has the highest military budget in the world. In the GMI 2012, it holds position 30 of 135.

The Index defines the degree of militarization of a country by, amongst others, the comparison of military expenditures with its gross domestic product (GDP) or other indicators, such as health expenditure or number of physicians.

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17/11/2012

Another Superfluous War

Human Wrongs Watch

By Uri Avnery* — How did it start? Stupid question.

Uri Avnery

Conflagrations along the Gaza Strip don’t start. They are just a continuous chain of events, each claimed to be in “retaliation” for the previous one.

Action is followed by reaction, which is followed by retaliation, which is followed by …

This particular event “started” with the firing from Gaza of an anti-tank weapon at a partially armored jeep on the Israeli side of the border fence.

It was described as retaliation for the killing of a boy in an air attack some days earlier. But probably the timing of the action was accidental – the opportunity just presented itself.

The success gave rise to demonstrations of joy and pride in Gaza. Again Palestinians had shown their ability to strike at the hated enemy.

However, the Palestinians had in fact walked into a trap prepared with great care. Whether the order was given by Hamas or one of the smaller more extreme organizations – it was not a clever thing to do.

Shooting across the fence at an army vehicle was crossing a red line. (The Middle East is full of red lines.) A major Israeli reaction was sure to ensue.

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17/11/2012

US, the Generals and Their ‘Pen Pals’

Human Wrongs Watch

By Ernest Corea*, IDN-InDepthNews, Washington DC –– There’s nothing like a real-life scandal involving a spymaster, who is also a bemedalled and highly regarded retired general, to deprive a big-time political event of major headlines, whether in the print or electronic media.

Photo: Barack Obama and Joe Biden on Election Day – November 6th | Credit: Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America

The scandal turned convolute, and the entire activity considered worthy of even more headlines, when the FBI informed the Pentagon that the retired general’s successor in the army (another general) had exchanged “potentially inappropriate” emails with the woman whose informal complaint to an FBI agent sparked the investigation that initially exposed the scandal.

Neither public curiosity about the scandals nor the news coverage they have generated raises them to a higher level of significance than the re-election of America’s first African-American president.

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17/11/2012

More than 7 in 10 Workers Worldwide Lack Unemployment Protection

Human Wrongs Watch

Geneva, ILO*  – More than 70 per cent of workers worldwide have no statutory access to unemployment insurance or any type of unemployment assistance, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said. Unemployment insurance schemes exist in 72 countries out of 198 monitored by the ILO, most of them being middle- and high-income countries.

Photo: ILO

The proportion of unemployed workers without any such income security is even higher (86 per cent) if one includes those who haven’t paid social security contributions long enough to qualify for unemployment benefits, as many unemployment insurance schemes are based on contributions.

“This means that more than 86 per cent of the almost 40 million people who dropped out of the labour market since 2008 found themselves without a regular income from one day to the other,” says ILO social protection expert Florence Bonnet.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

16/11/2012

It’s Arithmetic: $4.5 Billion Is Small Change for BP

Human Wrongs Watch

By Mark Floegel, Greenpeace*, 16 November 2012 — Let me apologise in advance for all the numbers that follow, but they’re important.

Eleven men died on Deepwater Horizon the night BP’s Macondo well blew out in April 2010.  It’s one number we shouldn’t forget and no number can be placed on the loss their families and communities suffered and continue to suffer.

The number announced on Thursday – US$4.5 billion – represents BP’s criminal settlement with the US government and a victory for the giant oil corporation.

How’s that a victory?  It’s a victory because BP’s stock price rose and since stock price is the only number that means anything to people who run oil companies, it tells us today’s settlement was a reward, rather than a punishment, for BP.

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16/11/2012

Burma — Plight of 800,000 Muslim Rohingya Worsened

Human Wrongs Watch

Bangkok, 16 November 2012, (IRIN*) – Five months after communal violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the plight of the 800,000 Muslim Rohingya there has worsened: Renewed violence in late October left more than 100,000 displaced, according to the government.

Photo: OCHA Myanmar. More than 100,000 Rohingya have been displaced

Clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in June 2012 razed homes and places of worship in northern parts of the state, killed an estimated 80 and displaced tens of thousands more.

The government imposed a night-time curfew and declared a state of emergency in six townships, including Maungdaw and Buthidaung near the border with Bangladesh.

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Posted in Asia, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | 3 Comments »

16/11/2012

Time Capsule: Not to Be Opened Before Philosophy Day 2062!

“It’s you who will come and open these, not us,” Director-General Irina Bokova told an excited group of primary school children from the Paris region, during the “burial” of the “UNESCO* capsule for Future Generations”. The event was one of the highlights of 10th World Philosophy Day celebrations on 15 November at the Organization’s Headquarters.

© UNESCO/Isabelle Simon

The two metal cylinders are not to be opened before the same date in 2062.

They contain some 280 messages received from young people around the world, many of them expressing fear and fascination over technological developments, questions on the place of money in societies of the future, food, environmental concerns and values such as peace and equality.

They also contain various objects symbolizing the day’s communication tools. These include a mobile telephone, photos, videos and a USB key with a song written and sung by children from the Andre Malraux and Jean Vassal de Crépy-en-Valois schools (France), two of the five that took part in the event.

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16/11/2012

Ocean Life – Up to One Million Marine Species?

Human Wrongs Watch

Paris, 15 November 2012 — About 226,000 marine species have been identified and described so far. These are but a small portion of the total: researchers estimate that the ocean may be home to 700,000 marine species, and likely not more than a million, according to a new study*.

The study –which was published online in Current Biology today and coordinated by Ward Appeltans of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO — draws its conclusions from the World

© WoRMS Photo Gallery / Fransen, Charles, 2012. Hymenocera picta Dana on a large fungid coral, Indonesia

Well-known marine animals, such as whales or dolphins represent a tiny fraction of marine biodiversity.

Fish species only represent two to three per cent of all living things in the ocean.

While many species have yet to be discovered, the knowledge base is expanding faster than ever before and researchers estimate that the vast majority of unknown species may be found and documented by the end of this century.

More marine species have been discovered in the past decade than ever before with an average of 2,000 discoveries per year.

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16/11/2012

What Do an Egyptian Journalist, a Spanish ‘Indignado’, and a Palestinian Feminist Have in Common?

A total of 75 activists, bloggers, academics, journalists, and social leaders from Morocco, Egypt, Kuwait, Iran, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Romania, Italy, and Spain held a dialogue in Tunis about democratic transition in the region.

**Image source: Foundation for the Future

What do an Egyptian journalist, a Palestinian feminist, a Tunisian blogger, a Syrian activist, and a Spanish quincemayista have in common?

Furthermore, what do the religious and secular, men and women, young and old within a particular country have in common?

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16/11/2012

Washington Weighs Moving Climate Politics Beyond United Nations

Exclusive, by EurActiv*, 16 Novermber 2012 — The US is considering a funnel of substantive elements of the Doha Climate Summit away from the UN framework and into the Major Economies Forum (MEF), a platform of the world’s largest CO2 emitters, EurActiv has learned.

Source: EurActiv

Since 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has provided an umbrella for talks to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, and on 26 November, will host the COP18 Climate Summit in Qatar.

But it has been confirmed to EurActiv that Washington is increasingly looking to shift policy action to the MEF whose members account for some 85% of global emissions, and which the US views as a more comfortable venue for agreeing climate goals.

If the idea gains traction, it could demote the UNFCCC to a forum for discussing the monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions reductions projects, sources say.

Michael Starbæk Christensen, the deputy head of cabinet for EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, said he expected the US to convene another MIF forum soon which could be fruitful for discussing raised climate ambitions.

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