“Government murderers!”

Image of the day: Corruption, rising unemployment and poverty

A protester throws a stone at policemen guarding Greece’s parliament in Athens December 10, 2008. REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis. Image may be subject to copyright!

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Her 15 minutes of fame!

Image of the Day: The Price of Poverty!

The body of an Ethiopian woman lies on the beach of Rada after she washed up on the beach in the southern Yemeni province of Sabwa September 29, 2008. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah. Image may be subject to copyright.

Haiti: An Unending Nightmare of Humanitarian Crisis

The Haiti Nightmare

“I have never seen anything so painful,” as what he has just seen in Haiti. — Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer is a professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Partners in Health.  http://pih.org. He is the author of The Uses of Haiti,  Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor and From Outrage to Courage: Women Taking Action for Health and Justice. 

Recent interview: Haiti Struggles with Humanitarian Disaster in Aftermath of Deadly Storms

The catastrophe in Haiti

“The catastrophe in Haiti is only a partly natural disaster. It is not natural that Haiti will once again suffer more deaths in the storms than all the other countries in the storm paths, combined. The deadly combination of poverty, weak governance and foreign interference has left the country unable to enforce laws on cutting down trees, install adequate drainage systems or effectively execute disaster planning and response. Haiti has never recovered the governmental capacity it lost in the U.S.-supported coup d’état in 2004, and we are now seeing the consequences.

“Although the international community’s emergency help is needed now, it is even more important in the long term for the donor countries to let Haiti develop its governmental capacity, so it can respond to the next, inevitable natural disaster. This means no more undermining of Haitian governments, even if we do not like their policies; canceling Haiti’s unfair debt to the International Financial Institutions like the World Bank; and implementing trade policies that allow Haiti to develop a broad-based, sustainable national economy.” —BRIAN CONCANNON

Brian Concannon,  is the Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. http://www.ijdh.org.

Stop Flying in the Face of the Poor!

Use Videoconferencing!

Following our organization’s strong condemnation of the United Nations and its Secretary General for their “addiction” to the “carbon habit,” getting endless fixes through flying tens of millions of miles each year, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has now taken the lead on condemning the business world’s unbridled flying habits.

Tutu condemned businesspeople who contribute to global warming by taking flights rather than using video conferencing, thereby “condemning millions of the world’s poorest people to death.”

He wants developed countries that have caused global warming to take the lead slashing emissions of climate changing greenhouse gases.

“It is the countries which are the least responsible for causing climate change that are paying the heaviest price,” he said in a video message to a meeting of the World Development Movement lobby group Thursday.

“Do not fly in the face of the poor by allowing the emissions produced by endless and unnecessary business flights to keep growing.” He said, adding that scientists predicted as many as 185 million Africans would die this century because of climate change.

Desmond Tutu (Former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. (Photo date: 2004)

Tutu, a Nobel Peace laureate who campaigns tirelessly for global justice and equality, said: “Climate change is for real. As I speak, famine is increasing, flooding is increasing, as is disease and insecurity globally because of water scarcity,” he said.

“As an African I urgently call on ordinary people in rich countries to act as global citizens, not as isolated consumers. We must listen to our consciences, and not to governments who speak only about economic markets.

“These markets will cease to exist if climate change is allowed to develop to climate chaos,” he added.

“In South Africa we confirmed that if we act on the side of justice we have the power to turn tides,” Tutu said.

“I urge you … to work together with campaigners in the global South and call for strong climate change laws in your own countries in the North, as well as internationally.” (Source: Reuters).

Related Links:

• UN Hypocrisy: Kick the CO2 Habit!
• Stop New Zealand Committing Eco-Terrorism!

• Cyprus Collapse May Be Imminent!
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

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Corn for Food, NOT for Fuel

“We are hungry!”

Food riots have broken out in Port Au Prince, Haiti, due to soaring food prices. The violent clashes that have paralyzed the city left 5 people dead.

In El Salvador, sky-high food prices, especially corn, the staple diet of South America, led to protests. Women took to the streets banging their pots and pans, shouting “we are hungry!” Video report

Related Links:

• Riots across Egypt amid rising food prices

Poverty, Hunger, Disease

Image based on CIA world map showing percentage of population living below their national poverty line. Right click on the image, then click View Image to see original. (Image Credit: user:Sbw01f via Wikimedia; GNU Free Documentation License)

Country In Focus
India: A soul-sick nation with a diseased psyche that spends billions of dollars on its military and nuclear armament, instead of her people!

Democracy and Freedom [sic.] Indian Style: Women washing clothes in a filthy ditch alongside a main road in Mumbai, India. This file is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Brazil License Este arquivo está licenciado sob a Licença Creative Commons Atribuição licença 2.5 Brasil. This photograph was produced by Agência Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency. Their site states: O conteúdo deste site é publicado sob a licença Creative Commons Atribuição 2.5 Brasil (Content of this site is published under the Creative Commons License Attribution 2.5 Brazil)

Main Entry:

Food Riots Grip Egypt, Haiti, El Salvador

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