Archive for February 2nd, 2016

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02/02/2016

Meanwhile Around the World: Problems-Remedies

Human Wrongs Watch

By Johan Galtung*

 Jondal-Hardanger-Norway, 1 February 2016 – TRANSCEND Media Service

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Johan Galtung

Let us have a look, and see what can be done.

[1]     Economies. NYSE is falling; China is consuming, with problems; the West blames China, not itself, for all.

The truth is over-reliance on one commodity, oil-gas, hitting vulnerable economies doubly.

Steep fall in price: $120-130 to $30-20, close to 1973 from $1 to $10.

Steep fall in demand for that globally toxic product; a sign of rationality (but, the other globally toxic product, derivatives for speculation?)

The currencies of oil-producers tumble. stocks fall; in Norway to the tune of half the state budget in three weeks (Finansavisen 21Jan 2016).

And over-reliance on trade with vulnerable economies.

Remedies: To become less vulnerable, through [1] more self-reliance nationally and locally, indeed for basic needs like food, [2] fully-fledged economies with primary-secondary-tertiary-quaternary (care for people and nature) sectors. Simple, sustainable rules.

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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 | Leave a Comment »

02/02/2016

Op-Ed: Don’t Shoot the Messenger, Israel – Ban

Human Wrongs Watch

By Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General*

1 February 2016 (UN News Centre) – In Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, 2016 has begun much as 2015 ended — with unacceptable levels of violence and a polarized public discourse. That polarization showed itself in the halls of the United Nations last week when I pointed out a simple truth: History proves that people will always resist occupation.

On the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel, Muslims leave the Dome of the Rock after Friday prayers. Police presence is always tight and young males are not allowed or have their ID’s seized going in. Photo: Edward Parsons/IRIN

Some sought to shoot the messenger — twisting my words into a misguided justification for violence. The stabbings, vehicle rammings and other attacks by Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians are reprehensible. So, too, are the incitement of violence and the glorification of killers.

Nothing excuses terrorism. I condemn it categorically.

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02/02/2016

UN Launches New Initiative to Tackle Employment Crisis

Human Wrongs Watch

As more than 800 young leaders gather in New York for the annual United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum, UN officials on 1 February 2016 launched a new initiative to tackle youth unemployment, making it clear that success in fighting poverty and inequality will largely depend on them being a driving force.

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Youth in Peru. Photo: UNFPA/Leslie Searles

“The challenges we face may seem overwhelming and out of reach for us to solve. But that is not true. Each and every one of us can be an agent of change, no matter our age or means,” said Oh Joon, the President of ECOSOC, at the opening of the two-day event at UN Headquarters.

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Posted in Climate Crisis | Leave a Comment »

02/02/2016

Nuclear Weapons and Nuclearism: Abolish or Be Abolished

Human Wrongs Watch

By Jan Oberg – Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research*

1 February 2016

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Jan Oberg

The nuclear age is an age of terror

Nuclear weapons are the ultimate weapons of terror. You can’t use them without killing millions of innocent people.

Targetting innocent people, people who are not part of a conflict, is a central defining characteristics of terrorism.

That’s why the world’s governments decades ago decided to work for general and complete disarmament – i.e. for nuclear abolition – in the spirit too of Alfred Nobel.

As a matter of fact, the first UN General Assembly resolution of January 24, 1946 established a Security Council tasked with achieving ‘the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other weapons adaptable to mass destruction.’ 

70 years ago!!

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

02/02/2016

Doomsday Clock: Nuclear Arsenals More Dangerous Now than During the Cold War

Human Wrongs Watch

1 February 2016 (ICAN)* – The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) informed that on 26 January 2016 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists kept the “Doomsday clock” at three minutes to midnight, the closest it has been since the height of the Cold War in 1983. Despite the successful Paris Agreement on Climate, the current nuclear arsenals and their modernisation programmes increase the risk of nuclear war.

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Bombs No More Melbourne | ICAN campaigners in Melbourne held a Bombs No More action, encouraging passers-by to “disarm a nuclear bomb” by transforming it into something peaceful | Source: ICAN

The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board notes that decisive action on nuclear weapons is urgently needed. 

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

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