Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Arabic News
Al-Jazeera
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BBC
For photos see here
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The story of Alice who applied for a job as a civil engineer and ended up as a domestic servant, unable to get out of the contract because she had to pay back the agency that recruited her..from Stop Human Traffic.

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An article in the Boston Review about American sweatshops

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Trafficking is the "...recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons..." by improper means, such as force, abduction, fraud or coercion, for an improper purpose, like forced or coerced labour, servitude, slavery or sexual exploitation. Countries that ratify the Protocol are obliged to enact domestic laws making these activities criminal offences, if such laws are not already in place (Art.3).

UN: The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons

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Economic and sexual slavery is a highly lucrative global industry controlled by powerful criminal organizations, such as the Yakuza, the Triads and the Mafia. These groups amass an estimated $7 billion a year while making use of electronic technology to expand their networks in both developed and developing nations. Young women and teenagers are often lured into prostitution rings by advertisements for domestic positions abroad and find themselves bought and sold via catalogues or by close family members.
Once enslaved, the women are often beaten and raped before being traded from one master or brothel owner to the next, frequently working up to 18 hours a day. They are at the mercy of the brothel owner, finding themselves in many cases illegally without a passport in a foreign country and forced to repay the debt owed to the middleman, expenses for the journey and the sum that the brothel owner paid for them. Asian prostitutes in the United States and Japan may sell for up to $20,000 each. The United Nations

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Tuesday, June 28, 2005

OK rant: This morning, (maybe where I work maybe not) one of the kwti employees comes and asks that the tea and coffee man to remove his car from the boss' covered parking space (the boss is not in the country)...no one in the office agreed to tell the sweet man to move his car...which I bet has no AC, is parked in the blistering sun all the time, so now that he has a chance to have it shaded, shouldn't he bloody well have the right to that? So the disgruntled kwti employee went and told him to remove it, and must have done it in a pretty insulting way because the sweet man who makes the coffee was crying after it all. Now the space stands empty with no one's car in it..and what's the point of that really?..anyway a bunch of employees offered to move their cars out of the shade so he could park in the shade (and so that mean 'get your car outta here' man can get a hint), which is a good thing... so now he won't have to bake in the fire hot car after a day of being nice and working hard...

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not a rant:
Driving to work can often be pretty dreary, especially in traffic...and it usually takes about 40 minutes to an hour to get to work...but on days like today, when I get the bright notion of taking a detour and manage to have that flash of brilliance just before the exit that takes you onto the beach road (khaleej)... let me tell you..it turns into a morning of smiles all around...the colour of the sea is that turquoise green/grey (which might be kinda unhealthy, but it sure looks pretty) and the city is sitting back across the inlet and enjoying the breeze...pretty pretty day.

Friday, June 24, 2005

With LIVE 8 coming round the corner...and people and television stations gearing up for the concerts to be telecast around the world from different cities...here are a couple of opinions about the event, the crisis and why the situation is the way it is...
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First a humbling lesson from the Ethiopian famine of the 80's, and how Live Aid might have fueled as many deaths as it saved lives...

"there is no necessary connection between raising money for a good cause and that money being well spent, just as there is no necessary connection between caring about the suffering of others and understanding the nature or cause of that suffering."
From Cruel To Be Kind David Rieff

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Here is a reponse to Rieff kindly passed on to me by Owen Barder
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Another article is from DR Tajudeen and it talks about the shift of focus from Africa as a charity case, to putting pressure on governments to take action...
"Live 8 differs from its predecessor in that it seeks to facilitate action – encouraging demonstrations against poverty in Africa and in favor of free trade, debt write-off and more aid – not simply raise awareness. While this commentary lauds the change of tactic, the author still emphasizes the need for an alternative to the image of Africa as "humanitarian disaster," wherein Africans are not responsible for their own actions, and Western influence will keep them from starving. He stresses a global view of the problem, acknowledging important bridges between African poverty and the wealth of the West. Finally, he criticizes Live 8 for its lack of African performers, concluding, "We cannot be spectators in our own affairs." Marching in Europe Will Not End African Poverty

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Want to know the why and how and what the hell?

  • The Causes of Poverty
  • Third World Debt
  • Fair Trade
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    On a more cheerful note, a fourth poem by the Greek poet Sappho has been discovered...2,600 years after it was written...isn't that something? To have your poem resurrected and also appreciated after so long..... It has been bublished in the Times Literary Supplement...
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    On hearing one of Sappho's poems sung, the sixth century BC Greek ruler Solon, a contemporary of hers, asked for someone to teach him the song "because I want to learn it and die"John Ezard (Guardian)
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    Who wouldn't want something like that said about their work or effort or creation?...That such beauty exists and that there are people who have the heart and the senses to experience it is something to smile about don't you think? Humans be hopeful..

    Thursday, June 23, 2005

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    If you happened to catch last night's leno (Showtime) then you might have been just as blown away as I was by the dance show put on by the subjects of the new documentary RIZE...it's an expressive dance marvel that evolved on the streets South Central L.A...I seriously cried while I was watching the show they put on last night, wept, sobbed, and was completely hypnotised...I highly recommend you get the documentary made about it (which I haven't seen)or try to catch some coverage of it anywhere...or if you are anywhere where this amazing stuff is going on, enjoy it...It's been a while since I've seen anything so expressive of oppression/resistence and amazing creativity. I cannot recommend it enough and that's just from watching a few minutes on Leno...RIZE ! yes indeed.

    Wait you thought that was it? Let me tell you some more...the dance apparently developed from Clowning into Krumping (i learnt new words today)...the former was a dance style which was created by
    Tommy the Clown as a response to the Rodney King beatings and ensuing riots...Krumping is a developed form of the original, which includes mind-blowing, intense, aggressive, expressive moves...phew...as you can see, I have fallen in love with a dance..

    Wednesday, June 22, 2005

    Firstly to the little lady who nearly ran me over on the road today...you know who you are, big SUV, never seen anything like it, black and more obnoxious than a Hummer...when you are on the merge lane, and I am on the main lane it is you who slows down and waits for the cars to pass before you politely and carefully merge onto the road..you do not get to honk at the cars who are in the correct lane to get out of your way...and what the hell do you need a monster truck for??

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    Ok folks it's GM food debate time:

    first some quotes from todays news about it:

    "A recent study conducted by Monsanto itself indicated abnormalities in the kidneys and blood of rats fed MON863, a strain of Bt corn that many Americans eat every day without our knowledge. Monsanto has resisted calls from the European Food Safety Agency to release the full study to the public, leading to a court order to do so from a German judge...
    What of the famed argument that GM crops are worth it because they will resolve world hunger? GM crops fundamentally cannot end hunger because hunger isn’t caused by a lack of food. The world currently produces enough food for everyone on earth to consume over 2,800 calories a day – that’s enough to make most people a bit pudgy. The problem is that food doesn’t go the hungriest people because they don’t have the resources to buy it or grow it. Pennsylvania is full of productive farms, yet one in ten residents of the City of Brotherly Love know hunger all too well. Hunger is caused by a lack of access to basic human rights, including good education, health care, housing, and living wages – in the Untied States and throughout the world. Hunger is also caused by racism and inequality. These topics aren’t on the agenda of this year’s BIO conference."
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    Who/What is Monsanto??
    If you're talking about PCBs, Agent Orange, Bovine Growth Hormone, water privatization, biopiracy, untested/unlabeled genetically engineered organisms, or persecuting small family farmers, you're talking about the Monsanto Corporation.(organicconsumers.org)
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    • Revealed: health fears over secret study into GM food(Independent)
    • The Guardian has a special report on GM Food
    • Toxic pollen from widely planted, genetically modified corn can kill monarch butterflies, Cornell study shows
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    "Syngenta admitted this week that, for over four years, it "mistakenly" sold hundreds of tons of an experimental corn seed not yet approved for human consumption.

    Contaminating the world's food supply is becoming a habit for big agribusiness.

    Back in 2000, a genetically-modified (GM) corn called StarLink was discovered in Taco Bell tacos. Manufactured by Aventis, StarLink was modified to be more insect-resistant through the insertion of a bacterial toxin into the corn's DNA. When eaten, however, it can provoke intense allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock...

    In 2002, Friends of the Earth released a report documenting how StarLink and other banned GM-corn brands were sent as food "aid" to poor countries by USAID and the World Food Programme."Liza Grandia

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    Greenpeace

    Seeds of Deception: How To Avoid GM Foods

    Monday, June 20, 2005

    For those of you that enjoy freakshows...ok..wednesday's Oprah will be the one where Tom Cruise makes an ass of himself jumping around on her couch in an embarassing attempt to convince everyone that he and Katie Holmes don't have a business deal..
    So tune in MBC4 at 9pm...for the scariest thing since Tom Cruise had seizures screaming 'show me the money'...
    Not recommended for sensitive viewers...

    Sunday, June 19, 2005

    Happy Birthday to the Lady

    The Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi Celebrates her 60th Birthday today...She has been under house arrest since 1989, for non-violently struggling for democracy in Burma...She is a believer in Gandhi's methods...
    She has also been awarded the Sakharov human rights prize for freedom of thought..

    An album was made in tribute to her called For The Lady...the artists included Paul McCartney Pearl Jam Sting Ani DiFranco R.E.M. Bonnie Raitt U2 Eric Clapton Peter Gabriel Coldplay Avril Lavigne ManĂ¡ matchbox twenty Damien Rice Indigo Girls Travis Natalie Merchant Ben Harper Bright Eyes among others...


    Photo's of Aung San Suu Kyi for the BBC
    Anti-Myanmar protesters mark Suu Kyi's birthday reuters

    Friday, June 17, 2005

    Wednesday, June 15, 2005

    It's the season for graduating students and there are a couple of commencement speeches that were published on commondreams.org...one is by Granny D Haddock and here are some quotes (was she giving this speech in kwt?) :

    "Radical religious leaders—unlike the wiser men and women of their faiths—promote that hatred when they make people feel powerless; when their people are made to believe that all power comes from some selfish, egomaniacal God who shares none of His power with His people. With some shared power from on High, might not the people be able to shape a happier world—a world where the beautiful differences of lifestyle and belief are tolerated and celebrated--like so many different birds and flowers in God’s garden?

    When people are made to feel powerless, either by religious despot or political preacher, they feel despair, even if they disguise the anxiety and pain of that powerlessness as piety or as patriotism--or both. "Doris “Granny D” Haddock

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    Red meat linked to bowel cancer says a new study, but didn't we know that already ? Get your fibre and your water and eat your veggies folks..please...The Guardian has an article about how Michael Jackson ended up 270Million $'s in debt....Microsoft is helping China censor bloggers, WHAT?-By blocking words like "democracy' 'freedom' 'human rights' and communism' among others....

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    Now this story about a Pakistani woman deserves to be quoted at length from today's Independent:

    "On a terrible June day three years ago, 14 men from the dominant Mastoi tribe in Meeranwalla volunteered to rape Ms Mai as a way to settle a score after her 12-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor was seen walking with a Mastoi girl. The decision on retribution had been taken by a village court to preserve tribal honour. The jirga, or council of village elders, summoned Ms Mai to apologise for her brother's sexual misdeed. When she apologised, they gang-raped her anyway.

    After the atrocity was carried out, Ms Mai was paraded naked before hundreds of onlookers. Finally, her father covered her with a shawl and took her home."...

    ..."The President even threatened to "slap" a reporter "in the face" for publishing details in an international magazine about Mr Mai's defiance. The reporter in question was Pakistan's leading women's rights activist, Ms Jehangir, who is also a UN special rapporteur on human rights."...Jan McGirk

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    Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

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    Tuesday, June 14, 2005

    I'm really starting to wonder about those speeding electronic boards they have hung over the highways that tell you how fast you are going...it keeps saying that I am going at 133 km/hr when I am only just above 80km/hr... I drive like a grandma ...(and my mom who is really a grandma, drives like a fiend, so watch out for a senior citizen in a speeding caddy)..
    Anyway, someone needs to fix those machines...

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    Once again, since we are talking about cars...I know, I know... I do this a lot...find an excuse to encourage everyone to drive eco-friendlier cars...bear with me.
    Here are some sites that you can look at to make a decision about buying your next car..
    And just for fun:
    Feel the need to balance out the environmental damage we all take part in?
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    Final Notes
    Michael Jackson is a free person...Guess who makes a surprise appearance after a year of no news from him...the big bad Saddam...just in time to coincide with all the news about the war having lost popular support...hhhmmm what a coincidence...oh it also happens to coincide with the leaked memo showing that MP's were told they had to find and excuse to go to war...
    will playing the tape of Saddam being questioned about massacres help to boost support for the badly ailing war drive??? We can only wait and see..
    The guy who made 'Supersize Me" now has a tv show called 30 Days which sounds interesting..
    Have a good day folks and I hope that one of my favourite bloggers out there remains the patient, awsome person she is (you are an example to us all) while she deals with foul mouthed children playing dirty on her blog...

    Sunday, June 12, 2005

    I'm wondering if we'll ever see blue skies again...losing faith..

    Ok maybe just start off with some news...just to get the engine working again:

    I woke up to the BBC talking about the third world debt relief deal...which on the face of it is a great thing...but no one makes concessions without expecting something seriously self serving in return...I hope that the shadow of debt is not lifted only to be replaced with an even darker one...
    For a background on the debt crisis see globalissues.org...an interesting quote from there is:

    "the developing countries' debt is partly the result of the unjust transfer to them of the debts of the colonizing States! A sum of US$ 59 billion external in public debt was imposed on the newly independent States in 1960"
    Here is an opinion piece about the news, from The Guardian, by Ken Wiwa (the son of the Nigerian writer/activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who was executed for protecting the Ogoni people from Shell Oil and the Dictatorship)
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    On a related note...Bob Geldof et al..Are putting together concerts (ala Live Aid of the 80's) Called Live 8...concerts will take place on Saturday 2 July 2005 in London, Rome, Paris, Berlin and Philadelphia...[click on the cities to see who is playing there]
    They were very appropriately criticised for not including African musicians in the concerts and for not staging any concerts in an African city...Read the critical article by Andy Kershaw which also includes some of his recommendations of Musicians from African nations---today's Independent reports that Bob Geldof is now trying to enlist African acts for Edinburgh...too little too late?... or better late than never?
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    On the Book front...I highly recommend Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
    It will take you just a couple of days to read and you will find yourself laughing out loud at some scenes and crying at others...get out and get this especially those of you who like comics and history and just a good read.
    Other graphic novels to look at are anything by Joe Sacco from Malta, who is a journalist/graphic novelist who invites you to dive into the places he has visited, including Palestine and Sarajevo, with his words and drawings and a cynical eye..
    I should order Maus, because hey, it's the king of the genre...