Do the Poor Have Human Rights?

What Has Soaring Food and Fuel Prices Got to Do with Human Rights?

Whose fault is it If the poor can’t afford food? Give them more money and you create a bigger problem: Inflation.

It’s not the job of your government to control these things you know, they have more important things to do: National security and the Economy (!)

The poor don’t come with engines and wheels; you can’t drive them like cars. Why should they get all the grains at dirt cheap prices, when biofuels bring in a decent profit and help turn the wheels?

Neither the UN nor the so-called global relief organizations seem to care about the plight of the world’s poor. So, once again, do the poor have human rights?

Related Links:

• We Need Food!
• Rome food protesters demand rethink (Video report)
• Human right to food denied in Haiti: Preliminary findings of the fact-finding mission

China Quake: Why Was the Girl Removed from Family?

Why was the Wenchuan girl photographed below separated from her parents? Where is she now?

[Why is this girl being taken away?] “A girl waves goodbye to her parents as she is airlifted out of the earthquake-hit city of Wenchuan, Sichuan province May 22, 2008. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause (CHINA)” (Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!)

• In China, stories of children sold for slavery

• Post-quake China on alert against disease
• Illegal China organ trade ends in tragedy
• Illegal Human Organ Trade from Executed Prisoners in China

• Quake-hit leg of Olympic torch relay postponed [O RLY]
  
• Bigger China Disaster Unfolds

• China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
• China Earthquake, Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
• The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
• Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath

• Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
• Almost five million left homeless, China says
• Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
• Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools

Video Links:

• Quake parents mourn their only child (Every Building survived the quake, except the school!)
• Quake parents grief turns to anger
• Terror in quake’s aftershocks

Bigger China Disaster Unfolds

We all know that earthquakes are natural disasters. But what happened to our children also has human causes, and they’re even more frightening. —A grieved parent who lost his son.

Zhao Deqin Lost Her 15-year-old Twins, Yajia and Yaqi

JUYUAN, China (Reuters) – Zhao Deqin keeps a kerbside memorial to her twin daughters killed when their school collapsed in China’s earthquake, and a petition-signing site alongside that has become a focus of protest by grieving parents.

The most lamented victims of the quake that shattered parts of Sichuan province in southwest China eight days ago have been the thousands of children killed when school buildings collapsed.

Earthquake survivor, Zhao Deqian, the mother of twins Zhao Yajia and Zhao Yaqi, 15, who were killed when their school building collapsed in the earthquake, cries at their memorial altar in the town of Juyuan in the quake-hit area of Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, May 20, 2008. REUTERS/Nicky Loh (Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF Fair Use Notice!)

As the ruling Communist Party seeks to maintain a staunch front of unity and stability after the quake, the incipient protests by parents could be troublesome, for many of them blame official graft and laxity, more than nature, for the deaths.

“How come all the houses didn’t fall down, but the school did? And how come that happened in so many places?” Asked Zhao.

“This was a tofu dregs project and the government should assume responsibility,” said Pu Changxue, whose son Pu Tong died in a classroom.

“To think that I lived and they died,” said an old woman living opposite Zhao’s shrine. “That is just too unfair.” (Source)

Related Links:

• China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
• China Earthquake, Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
• The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
• Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath

• Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
• Almost five million left homeless, China says
• Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
• Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools

Video Links:

• Quake parents mourn their only child (Every Building survived the quake, except the school!)
• Quake parents grief turns to anger

Another Race Murder in New Zealand?

Why do foreigners have the annoying habit of getting themselves killed in New Zealand?

The man whose body was found in the Waikato River is identified by New Zealand police.

He was 17-year-old Tianye LU, a Chinese national.

As expected, New Zealand police said, “there were no suspicious circumstances linked to Mr Lu’s death.” Report

Does it matter to the Chinese Government that its citizens are being killed [‘found dead’] in new Zealand rivers and on NZ roads, or do they have more important business to take care of?

Related Links:

• About New Zealand

• Racist killings in New Zealand

• NZ Tourism Claims More Victims

We Need Food!

Egyptians fight police amid rising food prices

The Associated Press

Egypt: Thousands of demonstrators angry about rising prices and stagnant salaries torched government buildings, looted shops and hurled bricks at police who responded with tear gas Sunday in the industrial town of town of Mahalla el-Kobra in the Nile Delta, as Egyptians defied government warnings and staged a nationwide strike.

Can Everyone Join the Police Force, Mr Mubark?

Thousands of officers chased rioters through the streets and amassed around Mahalla, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Cairo. About 150 people were arrested and 80 wounded as riots raged through the night among residents and disgruntled workers at the largest textile factory in Egypt.

In Cairo the government sent thousands of riot police to many of the main squares to intimidate people from showing up.

Will They Be Fed in Prison?

Nearly 100 others were arrested earlier elsewhere across Egypt, officials said, as thousands skipped work and school and hundreds protested over the rising cost of food and deteriorating working conditions.

The U.S.-backed government of President Hosni Mubarak strongly warned citizens against participating in the strikes and demonstrations. Strikes and demonstrations are illegal in Egypt under the country’s emergency law, and protesters are often detained by Egyptian security forces.

Fighting Hunger with Guns!

Nearly 40 percent Egypt’s 76 million people live below or near the poverty line of US$2 a day. The prices of staples such as cooking oil and rice have nearly doubled in recent months, amid widespread shortages of government-subsidized bread. Full report

Hep C Victims: Still NO Compensation

Hepatitis C Blood Transfusion Victims Still Awaiting Compensation

Some of the 486 victims who have applied for one-off payments including 25 victims with haemophilia are prevented from receiving compensation and cannot start treatment for hepatitis C, The Press newspaper reports.

Hepatitis C is a liver-attacking virus that can cause cirrhosis and cancer.

“The victims were among 55 haemophiliacs and 215 clients who signed up for a class action to sue the Government for failing to introduce national screening earlier.”

Unsurprisingly, the action against government never went ahead [action was sabotaged by the lawyers’ flank of the establishment.] However, the lawyers still demand the fees (about NZ$20,000 per person) that were agreed when the civil suit was being planned. Report

Related Links:

• New Zealand: The nadir of human aspirations