Archive for September 13th, 2015

  |  
13/09/2015

Where Is Nuclear-free New Zealand?

Human Wrongs Watch

By ICAN*
.
10 September 2015 – For close to three decades, New Zealand has been a leading voice in global efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons – but is the Pacific nation starting to drag its feet on disarmament? Anti-nuclear campaigners there are urging the government to end its equivocation and endorse the 115-nation Humanitarian Pledge issued last December in Vienna.
.
nuclear-free-nz

Source: ICAN

New Zealand has so far been a prominent and constructive player in the Humanitarian Initiative on nuclear disarmament.

At the United Nations session on disarmament in October 2014, it delivered a joint statement on behalf of 155 nations declaring it “in the interest of the very survival of humanity that nuclear weapons are never used again, under any circumstances”.

But the Humanitarian Pledge goes a step further, committing nations to work together “to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”.

read more »

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

13/09/2015

The Boat Cleaners of Masirah Island

Human Wrongs Watch

Oman relies on a large workforce from south Asia to do most manual labour, including boat workers from Bangladesh

Most of the boat workers on Masirah Island off Oman are from Bangladesh (MEE/Jerzy Wierzbicki)

.
By Jerzy Wierzbicki & Joe Gill*
.
12 September 2015 (Middle East Eye) – As one of the oil-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Oman is still undergoing vast and rapid development. This expansion, including the protracted construction of a major new airport in Muscat, needs a growing workforce, which is mostly drawn from poorer Asian countries.

The great majority of expat workers in the Sultanate are from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. According Omani government data for August 2015, there are 641,000 Indian, 561,000 Bangladeshis and 216,000 Pakistanis out of a total 1.631m expat workers. This compared to just 206,000 Omanis working in the private sector.

read more »

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

13/09/2015

Holding a Mirror to the US – on Exceptionalism, Double Standards & Global Police Supra-state

Human Wrongs Watch

By Catherine Shakdam*
.
11 September 2015 (RT) – As the Middle East continues to descend into madness, wrecked by wars and convulsed by human tragedies, America stands at the center of it all – the grand engineer of instability, the architect of a world system which cornerstone is profoundly democratic.
.
**Obama stands on stage with his wife and daughters just before announcing his presidential candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, February 10, 2007 | Author: Ben Stanfield | Source: The Future First Family Waves | Wikimeida Commons

**Obama stands on stage with his wife and daughters just before announcing his presidential candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, February 10, 2007 | Author: Ben Stanfield | Source: The Future First Family Waves | Wikimeida Commons

.

For well over a decade now the world has been force-fed American exceptionalism; taught to believe that America knows best what the world needs, how it needs to be organized and more importantly under whose leadership countries should be allowed to function.

read more »

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

13/09/2015

The Real Menace

Human Wrongs Watch

By Uri Avnery*

12 September 2015

Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery

I AM AFRAID.

I am not ashamed to admit it. I am afraid.

I am afraid of the Islamic State movement, alias ISIS, alias Daesh.

It is the only real danger that threatens Israel, that threatens the world, that threatens me.

Those who treat it today with equanimity, with indifference, will come to regret it.

IN THE year I was born – 1923 – a ridiculous little demagogue with a funny mustache, Adolf Hitler, staged an attempted putsch in Munich. It was put down by a handful of policemen and soon forgotten.

The world had far more serious dangers to contend with.

There was the galloping inflation in Germany.

There was the young Soviet Union.

There was the dangerous competition between the two mighty colonial powers, Great Britain and France.

There was, in 1929, the terrible economic crisis that devastated the world economy.

read more »

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

13/09/2015

Millions Going Hungry Because of Boko Haram

Human Wrongs Watch

By Fragkiska Megaloudi and Jennifer Lazuta*
.
ABUJA/DAKAR, 11 September 2015 (IRIN)* – Families driven out of villages, farmers unable to tend crops, food stocks of entire communities raided: Boko Haram’s impact on the people of Western and Central Africa lingers long after the rape and slaughter.
.

**Photo: Fragkiska Megaloudi/IRIN | Many families in northeastern Nigeria are forced to survive off just one meal a day, after being displaced by Boko Haram and losing their main sources of income.

.

More than 5.5 million people living in conflict areas in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad, nearly half of whom have been displaced due to ongoing attacks by the Islamist militant group, don’t have enough to eat or else lack access to nutritious foods, according to the UN’s emergency aid coordination body OCHA.

read more »

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

13/09/2015

Every 10 Seconds…

Human Wrongs Watch

By Elizabeth Monaghan*

10 September 2015 (Greenpeace) – 24 hours per day. 7 days per week. For weeks on end. The Arctic Ocean is being blasted by deafening 259 decibel explosions. Why? To map oil deposits under the ocean floor so that Shell and other big oil companies know where to set their greedy gaze for future oil exploration.

Until now, all this was happening in near-secret, at the top of the world, far from the public eye. But 7 million people and counting have registered their concerns for the Arctic region. And the Arctic Sunrise ship is in north-east Greenland to expose how seismic blasting is disrupting and harming ocean life.

We invite you to share in this epic journey set against a breathtaking Arctic backdrop:

Credit: Christian Aslund/Greenpeace

Credit: Christian Aslund/Greenpeace

The tour gets off to a great start in picturesque Nuuk, Greenland’s capital…

read more »

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

  |