Archive for March 30th, 2015

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30/03/2015

"‘Hydro-Diplomacy’ Needed as World Faces Growing Water Shortages"

Human Wrongs Watch

The international community must gear up for a new era of “hydro-diplomacy” as the threat of water scarcity risks plunging the world into a period of geopolitical tension and stunted development, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson on 30 March 2015 told delegates gathered at the General Assembly.

Photo: UNICEF/Wathiq Khuzaie

“Water is one of the highest priorities for development and lives in dignity, as well as a serious factor in maintaining peace and security,” the Deputy Secretary-General said in remarks to open the High-Level Interactive Dialogue on the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life,’ 2005-2015.*

“The lack of water causes individual tragedies,” he continued. “And it also, growingly, constitutes a threat to international peace and security. There is a need for ‘hydro-diplomacy’ – making scarce water a reason for cooperation, rather than a reason for conflict.”

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | 1 Comment »

30/03/2015

Europe Must Not Be Forced Into a Nuclear War with Russia

Human Wrongs Watch

By John Scales Avery*

30 March 2015, TRANSCEND Media Service – A thermonuclear war today would be not only genocidal but also omnicidal. It would kill people of all ages, babies, children, young people, mothers, fathers and grandparents, without any regard whatever for guilt or innocence.

Source: ICAN-International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Source: ICAN-International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Such a war would be the ultimate ecological catastrophe, destroying not only human civilization but also much of the biosphere. Each of us has a duty to work with dedication to prevent it. Europe must not be the close ally (or vassal) of the world’s greatest purveyor of violence and war.

Our Leaders Do Not Seem Interested in Protecting Us

In an important recent lecture, Institute Professor Noam Chomsky of MIT has pointed out that our leaders act to preserve their own power, and the power of the state.

They seem to have little interest in protecting the general population from destruction.

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Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | 8 Comments »

30/03/2015

'It is heart breaking to see the extraordinary scale of devastation' of Cyclone Pam in Vantuatu

Human Wrongs Watch

30 March 2015 – Two weeks after Tropical Cyclone Pam struck Vanuatu, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the archipelago on a tour through one of the most severely affected provinces Saturda [28 March 2015], warned of a “secondary emergency” and urged a scale-up in efforts to provide the essentials to people in need.

Many families affected by Tropical Cyclone Pam are forced to prepare their meals outdoors as seen here in Vanuatu. Photo: WFP/Victoria Cavanagh

“It is heart breaking to see the extraordinary scale of devastation,” said Osnat Lubrani, touring the island of Tafea.*

On 13 March, Tropical Cyclone Pam swept through the archipelago, wiping out homes and infrastructure, destroying the electricity network and razing crops in the mainly agricultural country.

So far, aid has reached all 22 storm-affected islands of the country, despite significant logistical challenges due to the geographic spread of the archipelago.

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Posted in Asia, Mother Earth, The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

30/03/2015

Battle Hots Up to Curb ‘Vulture Funds’

Human Wrongs Watch

By Martin Khor*

Many countries are facing a worsening debt situation, and thus feel urgency to curb ‘vulture funds’ and to set up a global debt restructuring mechanism. Recent resolutions adopted by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly are moving this process forward but the battle will be an uphill one.

**Photo: A wake (group of feeding vultures) of white-backed vultures eating the carcass of a wildebeest | Author: Magnus Kjaergaard | Wikimedia Commons

**A wake (group of feeding vultures) of white-backed vultures eating the carcass of a wildebeest | Author: Magnus Kjaergaard | Wikimedia Commons

External debt is rearing its ugly head again. With the global economic slowdown, lower commodity prices and less tourism, many developing countries are facing reduced export earnings and foreign reserves.

No country would like to have to seek the help of the International Monetary Fund to avoid default. That could lead to years of austerity, high unemployment, cuts in social development and at the end of it, still no light at the end of the tunnel.

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30/03/2015

Stalin the Communist and Mao the Commune-ist

Human Wrongs Watch

By Johan Galtung*

30 Mar 2015 – TRANSCEND Media Service – Churchill and Hitler made history but did not change it; after the war their societies found their old forms. Stalin and Mao changed their much bigger societies basically, and gave the Westphalian state system new fault-lines, alliances: anti-Russia-USSR, anti-China-DPRC.

**Stalin and Mao Zedong on a Chinese postage stamp | Author: Soerfm | Wikimedia Commons

**Stalin and Mao Zedong on a Chinese postage stamp | Author: Soerfm | Wikimedia Commons

There was also a short lasting USSR-DPRC alliance 1949-53, when Stalin was alive. But when he was murdered the banner as leader of the rapidly expanding Communist World was not passed on to the biggest country, but stayed in Moscow. The new leader was not Mao Zedong but the colorless Malenkov. Surface level conflict; and important.

But the concept of a monolithic Communist as opposed to a Free world survived in a US mind slow at capturing or admitting deeper aspects of reality, but quick at projecting themselves on the world.

The deep differences between the Western civilization of which Russia was and is a part, and Chinese civilization of course also affected their communisms.

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Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

30/03/2015

Another World Is Possible, Without the 1%

Human Wrongs Watch

By Winnie Byanyima*

Activists from around the world will defy the terrorists to attend the World Social Forum in Tunis on March 25, determined to make the occasion a beacon for free speech, justice and equality.

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I am proud to join the leaders of Greenpeace, ActionAid, Civicus and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) in highlighting the urgent need to tackle the vested interests of the 1 percent, in order to build a better world for all of humanity.

If you are in the top 1 percent of the global wealth stakes, our economic system works exceptionally well. Since the financial crisis in 2008, most of the wealth created in the world has ended up in your bank accounts.

By next year, you could own more wealth than the rest of the world put together.

This is not just a global phenomenon. The growing gap between rich and poor is a reality for seven out of ten people on the planet.

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Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

30/03/2015

Beijing Calling: Australia and Denmark Defy US by Applying to join China-led Bank

Human Wrongs Watch

30 March 2015 (RT)* – Australia and Denmark, despite previous American objections to the move, say they will join a new Beijing-backed investment bank that some in Washington say could supplant the US-dominated International Monetary Fund.

**Pudong in Shanghai in January 2014 | Author: Yhz1221 | Wikimedia Commons

**Pudong in Shanghai in January 2014 | Author: Yhz1221 | Wikimedia Commons

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Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey expressed their country’s willingness to join AIIB as a founding member, but have attached tough conditions to their membership.

“The government has discussed the AIIB extensively with China and other key partners inside and outside the region,” Abbott and Hockey said in a joint statement.

“Key matters to be resolved before Australia considers joining the AIIB include the Bank’s Board of Directors having authority over key investment decisions, and that no one country control the bank,” they said.

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