Archive for November 27th, 2016

27/11/2016

Comandante Fidel: Combatant to the End

Human Wrongs Watch

By: Dr. Helen Yaffe*, (telesur)*  

26 November 2016, Fidel’s genius was his ability to meet the need for tactical steps, responding to the day’s urgencies, without losing sight of the strategic direction.

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This file photo taken in the 1960s shows then Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro (L) lighting a cigar while listens Argentine Ernesto Che Guevara. | Photo: AFP | Source: telesur

It could have been the armed struggle, terrorism, assassination or the serious illness which, at his own admission, nearly killed him in 2006; but in the end Fidel Castro lived through it all to die in peace.

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27/11/2016

The Cuban Revolution Has Lost Its Founder and Leader

Human Wrongs Watch

HAVANA, Nov 26 2016 (IPS) – Fidel Castro, who survived more than 600 assassination attempts and remained in power longer than any other leader in the history of Cuba, died Friday night at the age of 90.
A picture of Fidel Castro behind an empty desk in a city government office in Havana on Saturday Nov. 26, a few hours after the death of the leader of Cuba’s revolution, at age 90. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

A picture of Fidel Castro behind an empty desk in a city government office in Havana on Saturday Nov. 26, a few hours after the death of the leader of Cuba’s revolution, at age 90. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Visibly moved, President Raúl Castro, his younger brother, made the announcement in a brief televised speech. The president said Fidel died at 22:29 local time, and provided no further details. He said his brother’s remains would be cremated.

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27/11/2016

Trump, Putin, and the New Middle East

Human Wrongs Watch

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Image from Middle East Forum | Arab Awakening

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The presidency of Donald Trump, symptomatic of a deep crisis in the liberal capitalist order, can spell wide ranging structural changes in Middle East international relations, changes that will serve to embolden and strengthen the hands of autocrats, from Sisi in Egypt to Assad in Syria.

Even though Trump remains a wild card, his campaign as well as his cabinet choices to date offer a glimpse on the direction of the policies he intends to follow in the Middle East.

The Trump campaign revolved around the notion that America had become international laughing stock because it had been taken advantage of by its allies.

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27/11/2016

MEPs Draw Map of Pro- and Anti-Russian Countries in the EU

Human Wrongs Watch

The Parliament passed on 23 November the very polarising “EU strategic communication to counteract anti-EU propaganda by third parties”.

The resolution, based on a draft by Anna Elżbieta Fotyga (PiS, Poland) doesn’t focus exclusively on Russia (it also speaks of the propaganda by Islamic State), but it generally mobilised MEPs in two camps – those who supported the view that Russia pursues hybrid warfare aimed at destroying the EU, and those who thought such language can only be counterproductive.

The vote was passed with 304 votes “For”, 179 “Against” and a very high number of abstentions  – 208.

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27/11/2016

Fidel’s Death: New Round of US vs. Cuba Political Football, or The End?

Human Wrongs Watch

27 Nov, 2016 (RT)* – One of the world’s most iconic figures, Cuba’s former president and leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, died Friday at the age of 90. RT contacted political analysts and experts on Castro’s legacy, the country’s future, and the prospects for US-Cuba relations.
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**Photo: Fidel Castro, Monumento a José Martí, Habana, Cuba. | 27 September 2003 | Source: Agência Brasil.| Author: Ricardo Stuckert/ABr. | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Brazil license. | Wikimedia Commons

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27/11/2016

Fidel Castro’s Legacy: Cuban Conversations

Human Wrongs Watch

The announcement of Fidel Castro’s serious intestinal illness at the end of July 2006, and the occasion of the Cuban leader’s 80th birthday on 13 August, inevitably have raised a mountain of commentary about the imminence or otherwise of a transition of power in the Caribbean communist state.

But if “what comes after Fidel” is a well-worn topic of op-eds and broadcast interviews, the focus of the answer is less often where it should be: on an assessment of the character – a combination of the institutional, political, and personal – of the Cuban revolutionary experience as a whole.

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27/11/2016

‘EU Votes for Citizens to Fund Their Own Brainwashing’

Human Wrongs Watch

By Finian Cunningham*

26 November 2016 (RT)* – A fledgling group set up by the European Commission to allegedly counteract “Russian propaganda” is to be expanded with more public cash and resources. European citizens will be funding mechanisms inducing their own ignorance and misinformation.
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The Hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg during a plenary session in 2014.| Author: Diliff | This file was a finalist in Picture of the Year 2014. | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Wikimedia Commons

This week, the European Parliament in Strasbourg voted by a dubious majority for a cash injection to expand the work of a media watchdog aimed at “debunking Russian propaganda.”

The little-known media group, reportedly comprising 11 “diplomats,” was established a year ago by the all-powerful, but unelected European Commission.

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27/11/2016

Transport, Responsible for Quarter of Energy-Related Gas Emissions

Human Wrongs Watch

26 November 2016 – Opening the first-ever Global Sustainable Transport Conference, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegations gathered in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, that the world has the resolve, commitment, imagination and creativity “to transform our transport systems in a sustainable manner that will improve human wellbeing, enhance social progress and protect our planet.”

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Photo: WHO

“This sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. And that is expected to substantially increase in the future,” said Ban in his opening remarks to the conference, which opened today in the Turkmen capital and wraps up on 27 November 2016.
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