Archive for July 29th, 2015

29/07/2015

Tiger Day Is about More than Just Saving Tigers

Human Wrongs Watch

By Shuk-Wah Chung*

29 July 2015 — The lion may be the king of the jungle, but it’s the tiger that holds mystique and charisma. From the Chinese zodiac, to Buddhism, and even Rocky Balboa (cue trumpets), the largest of the cat species has been a symbol of strength and power throughout history and across cultures.

Greenpeace

Greenpeace

But unfortunately, the survival of these majestic beasts is in danger.

Today, there are only 3,200 tigers living in the wild globally; and very recently it was announced that there are only 100 tigers left in Bangladesh’s largest mangrove forest.

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29/07/2015

Morocco: The Forgotten Frontline of the Migrant Crisis

Human Wrongs Watch

Morocco has become a choke point for sub-Saharan African migrants aiming to reach Europe, pinched by the Moroccan and Spanish governments working together to halt the flow across the Mediterranean. In this multimedia special, IRIN talks to the migrants determined to cross, playing cat-and-mouse with the authorities, and explores Morocco’s role as outsourced “Gendarme” for Europe.
Source: IRIN

Source: IRIN

By Obinna Anyadike*

29 Juy 2015 (IRIN)* – It’s late afternoon on the forested slopes of Mount Selouane. In single file or knots of friends, young West African men are trudging down the hillside to the dusty, dishevelled outskirts of the Moroccan village of Shadia.

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29/07/2015

Human Trafficking – Labour Migration: The Dark Side of the Coin

Human Wrongs Watch

A new International Labour Organization (ILO) study exposes the pitfalls of labour migration for women domestic workers both within India and abroad and provides policy-makers and service providers with deeper insight into the nature of forced labour and trafficking in the region.

© B. Patel / ILO

© B. Patel / ILO

New Delhi, 29 July 2015 –  (ILO)* – Jameela, a 50-year old Indian woman, needed money to support her family. She didn’t think she would find much, if any, funds close to home.

She got in touch with an agent who arranged for her to leave Mallapuram, Kerala in southwest India to work abroad.

Upon leaving India, she, like many female labour migrants, had only a very minimal understanding of the working conditions at her destination. It didn’t turn out as she had hoped.

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29/07/2015

The Nuclear Age in Six Movements

By International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons*

27 July 2015 – This beautifully animated short film traces the history of the nuclear age, from the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb to the present efforts to achieve a treaty banning all nuclear weapons.

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Poignant and uplifting, it is both an educational resource and a work of art. It is dedicated to all hibakusha everywhere.

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29/07/2015

IS: Neither Islamic nor State, But Is It a Caliphate?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Mamoon Alabbasi*

27 July 2015, Middle East Eye – Observers argue that IS is neither Islamic nor a state, but what legacy would it have as a ‘caliphate’ compared to some of its predecessors?

An Islamic astronomical instrument (from the book cover of ‘The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization,’ written by Jonathan Lyons) | Source: Middle East Eye

Militants who named their group the Islamic State (IS), after capturing territory in Iraq and Syria, have had their brand challenged on two fronts: they are seen as neither Islamic nor a state.

Mainstream Islamic scholars have lashed out at the militant group’s use of religious terminology, seeking to refute its claims to faith by contrasting them to traditional practices of the Prophet Mohamed as well as placing theological references in historical context.

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29/07/2015

‘Libya is McDonalds for US’: How Gaddafi’s ‘Pro-democracy’ Son Stood Up against the West

Human Wrongs Watch

29 July 2015 (RT)* – Once hailed by the West as a ‘proponent of change,’ the son of Libya’s slain leader Muammar Gaddafi has been sentenced to death by the self-proclaimed government in Tripoli. RT looks back at Saif Gaddafi’s life and interviews.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was sentenced to capital punishment in absentia on Tuesday along with several other members of the country’s former government.

The trial, which lasted just two days, was conducted in Tripoli by an unrecognized Islamist government that came to power after forcing the rival government out of the Libyan capital.

A militia group from the town of Zintan is currently holding Saif and it’s unclear if the group will agree to give him up in order for the death sentence to be carried out.

Despite never having occupied any official positions in the Libyan government, Saif was the second most recognized person in the country and persistently denied claims that he was his father’s most likely successor.

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29/07/2015

Revolting World

Human Wrongs Watch

By Robert J. Burrowes*

There is much that is revolting about the current world and Andre Vltchek, Christopher Black and Peter Koenig are well placed to document it, which they have done in their new book The World Order and Revolution! Essays from the Resistance‘.

 Andre Vltchek

Andre Vltchek

Using a combination of political, legal and economic analyses, Vltchek, Black and Koenig carefully strip away the façade that the corporate media presents to us, and which the imperial elite wants us to believe, so that we can see some of the ugly, underlying truth about our world.

Investigative journalist, philosopher and film-maker Andre Vltchek, international criminal lawyer Christopher Black and geopolitical analyst and former World Bank economist Peter Koenig each bring many years of deep engagement resisting the US-European empire to provide unusual insight into the depth of its depravity.

But if you still believe that politics involves principles, the law is about justice, economics is concerned with the equitable distribution of resources and the military is about defence, then I recommend you avoid reading this book.

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29/07/2015

Middle East’s Largest Camp Turns Three as Syrian Refugees in Region Top Four Million

Human Wrongs Watch

Living conditions for more than half a million refugees living in Jordan is becoming increasingly tough, the United Nations refugee agency on 28 July 2015 warned on the eve of the third anniversary of the establishment of Za’atari camp, which has grown into the largest refugee camp in the Middle East.

View over Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan housing over 80,000 Syrian Refugees, which will on 29 July 2015, mark three years since it was set up. Photo: UNHCR/C. Herwig

“Lines of tents that housed the first refugees to arrive in Za’atari have now been replaced by prefabricated shelters,” the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a press release, but “more than half the population are children, presenting challenges not just on how to provide schooling and restore abruptly halted educations in Syria, but also in investing for the future.”

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