February 01, 2007
The Ciudad Juarez Declaration and the New Wave of Border Activism
Kent Paterson, IRC
Nearly one thousand people gathered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Oct. 12-15, 2006 at the first ever Border Social Forum (BSF). Modeled after the massive World Social Forum that draws tens of thousands of people every year, the Ciudad Juarez gathering featured dozens of workshops, a border “reality tour” and street demonstrations against the Bush administration’s planned series of new border walls and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
November 30, 2006
Haiti: Interview with Edwidge Danticat and Annette “So An” Auguste
WBAI, 99.5 FM
Transcript Of Interviews On Haiti: The Struggle Continues, with acclaimed author Edwidge Danticat and Annette “So An” Auguste, the singer and political activist who was jailed two years and three months as a political prisoner
October 18, 2006
Torture Inc, America’s prisons - “the brutality has become customary”
Arcturus
Tasers are a little less controversial than the use of attack dogs that Human Rights Watch recently criticized. Davies notes the siege mentality guards work under, and one guard readily admits about beatings: “We cover up. Because were the good guys.” One prison reformer she talked to says: “Weve become immune to the abuse. The brutality has become customary.”
October 08, 2006
America’s Collective Delusion Must Endure:
Jason Miller
This so-called “bum hunting” has resulted in the murder of at least one homeless person per month for the past 60 consecutive months. Accurate statistics are elusive at best (since few people notice when a homeless person “disappears”). However, the National Coalition for the Homeless determined that 500 of its lost souls have been victims of “bum hunting” since 1999. 180 of them met violent deaths as a result of this appalling blood sport in which the hunters stalk human prey
September 22, 2006
Pakistan: Marginalised male sex workers vulnerable to HIV/AIDS
IRINnews.org
The ‘good’ customers he refers to are men who seek sex and will pay less than US $8 or so for a few hours with Pervaiz. They also pay for the room usually rented out in a cheap, ‘bazaar’ hotel, although some take him to the rooms or apartments in which they live.
The San, the diamonds and Leonardo DiCaprio
IRINews
In a full-page advertisement in Variety, Hollywood’s influential entertainment industry magazine, representatives of the Gana and Gwi groups of the San appealed for help from DiCaprio, star of the biggest box-office success in film history, Titanic.
August 27, 2006
Amnesty Accuses Israel of War Crimes in Lebanon
londonbear
Amnesty International has issued a report which, while asking the UN to investigate violations by both Hezbollah and Israel, directly accuses Israel of War Crimes.
July 30, 2006
Qana Massacre…
Riverbend
We saw the corpses of the children on television, lifeless and twisted grotesquely, what remained of their faces frozen in expressions of pain and shock. I just sat there and cried in front of the television. I didnt know I could still feel that sort of sorrow towards what has become a daily reality for Iraqis. Its not Iraq but it might as well be: Its civilians under lethal attack; its a country fighting occupation.
July 04, 2006
U.N. Declaration On Rights Of Indigenous People Signed
Artemio Dumlao
With 30 states voting in favor and only Canada and Russia against it, the declaration marks a milestone in the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples around the world and brings to an end indigenous peoples long struggle for self-determination.
April 11, 2006
Instead of mourning a genocide…
edgery
Following the genocide in Rwanda, Senator Paul Simon said, “If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, then I think the response would have been different.”
...what if we could STOP one? And what will history say about us if we don’t?
March 28, 2006
Survival is Greatest Challenge for Haiti’s Children
UNICEF - Press Release
Report calls for new Haitian government to act on child woes
Children and Young People Missing in Regional Response to HIV/AIDS
UNICEF - Press Release
Regional Consultation on Children and AIDS Opens in Hanoi
Telling Their Stories, One-by-One
Manuel Guzman
...until these deaths are no more than a gut-wrenching memory.
November 20, 2005
Darfur News Briefs
Genocide Intervention Network
As casualties continue to mount and the international community continues to stall, two independent agencies issued reports this week stating that the international community has failed to properly support the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
November 02, 2005
Afghanistan: Editor’s Arrest On Blasphemy Charges Highlights Difficulties Facing Journalists
Golnaz Esfandiari
The arrest of the editor in chief of an Afghan women’s magazine is causing concern and fear among journalists in the country. Ali Mohaqiq Nasab ran the respected monthly magazine called “Women’s Rights” (Hoquq-e Zan). He was arrested earlier this month for publishing articles deemed blasphemous and anti-Islamic.
July 16, 2005
Yesterday Rwanda, Today Darfur
Shanikka
I’m not sure which troubles me more - the willful lack of caring of the political right, who I truly don’t expect to give a damn about human suffering no matter how much they claim to be Christian Soldiers fighting for Life™ or the equally bad shrug of silence from most of the political left. Whatever the case, both approaches result in more people dying.
July 04, 2005
Robbing the Congo II: Unspeakable Richness (Part II)
Gisle R Tangenes
This second installment looks at the forgotten holocaust that played out between 1885 and 1908, when the equitorial rain forest became the private labor camp of a European playboy king - the so-called Congo Free State.
Ending the worst forms of child labour on cocoa farms
IRINnews.org
People and organizations in Cote dIvoire working together to end the practice of basically enslaving children on the cocoa farms. Solutions found, progress made.
June 07, 2005
Robbing the Congo I: A deal with the Devil (Part I)
Gisle R. Tangenes
In theory the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) should be among the richest countries on earth. Its vast territory virtually brims with cobalt, copper, cadmium, oil, industrial and gem diamonds, coltan, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, germanium, uranium, radium, bauxite, iron ore, timber, coal, and hydroelectric potential. And yet the DRC consistently ranks in the bottom ten of the Human Development Index. In its northeastern region the deadliest conflict since WWII continues to claim about 1,000 lives a day. Not inappropriately then, the name of the capital Kinshasa, where nearly 80% dwell in slums or squatter settlements, comes from the word kinsasa, meaning “why are things happening this way?”
This series of entries on Congolese history seeks to shed some light on the reasons why. The first installment takes a look at how the advanced Kongo Kingdom fell prey to the slave trade that began in the 16th century, robbing the country of no less a resource than its population.
May 16, 2005
Landless Peasants March in Brazil, Build a new Road by Walking
Deborah James
On May 17th, Brazilian news media reported that 50 people were injured as landless peasants clashed with police. Like our corporate media in the U.S., this focus overshadowed the real story; that 12,000 poor landless peasants had recently completed a Herculean 150 mile, 17 day-long march across the country to raise awareness about the crucial need for land reform in Brazil.
What motivated thousands of Brazilians to leave their homes to march across hot, dusty terrain, sleep on the ground, and eat camping food for over two weeks? What did they want to accomplish? And most importantly, what can we learn from it here in the U.S.?
