Daily Archives: July 1, 2014

Fail!, Global Politics, human rights, Palestine, racism

Israel opens gates to collective reprisals for youth murders – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Speaking to reporters, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified acts of revenge. “Vengeance for the blood of a small child, Satan has not yet created; neither has vengeance for the blood of three pure youths, who were on their way home to meet their parents, who will not see them anymore. Hamas is responsible — and Hamas will pay,” Netanyahu said.

Not long after the news of the discovery of the bodies of the three Israeli teenagers, army units demolished a Palestinian suspect’s home, and ran bombing raids on Gaza.

Settlers have also taken up their own acts of revenge. On the roads, Palestinian media reported two cases of Palestinian children being run over by settler cars. The situation in Hebron was nothing short of a volcano waiting to erupt.

But some of the worst reaction to the despicable act of killing the Israeli teens has come from politicians and pundits. When the incitement comes from the very top of the government, it is no wonder how the rest of the population acts.

International humanitarian law and the basic principles of justice are based on the concept of individual responsibility. Justice is served when violators are tried in a fair court and personally punished. Holding an entire family, clan, city or a nation responsible is nothing short of barbarism. Some Israelis justify their reaction by saying that the act of the killing of the three Israeli hitchhikers was barbaric and a result of the collective responsibility of a community that created the killers.

via Israel opens gates to collective reprisals for youth murders – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

human rights, peace, Rock on-Peace Out, Viva!

US ship arrives in Italy port for Syria chemical weapons | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

The U.S. ship MV Cape Ray sailed into the southern Italian port of Gioia Tauro on Tuesday to handle the unprecedented transfer and destruction of about 1,300 tons of Syrian chemical weapons.

The 648-foot (197.5-meter) U.S. government cargo ship has been fitted with two machines designed to neutralize the most toxic chemicals – including mustard gas and the raw materials for sarin nerve gas – that were removed from Syria as part of the international effort to destroy its chemical weapons.

via US ship arrives in Italy port for Syria weapons | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

environment, Fail!, human rights, Palestine, racism, terrorism

Israeli groups call for more settlements in response to the killing of the three settlers

A group of Israeli settlers led by the mayor of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, Benny Kashriel, set up a tent today in the area between the settlement and Jerusalem, known as Area E1.

Kashriel called on the Israeli authorities to construct new settlement units in the area in response to the killing of the three Israeli settlers.

Construction in E1 is very controversial, as building settlements there would create a physical link between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem, dividing East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and its Palestinian population centers. It would also divide the West Bank into two almost separate parts, jeopardizing the prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Moreover, the Israeli right-wing political women’s group Women in Green also set up a tent, in order to pressure the authorities to build new settlements in the area between Jeba’at Auz and Gush Etzion, in the north of Hebron.

via Israeli groups call for more settlements in response to the killing of the three settlers.

All show-no go - spin, animal rights, environment, Fail!

Interior Department Releases Report on Bison Management

The report, “DOI Bison Report: Looking Forward” outlines plans to work cooperatively with tribes, states, landowners, conservation groups, commercial bison producers, agricultural interests and others interested in bison to restore the nation’s bison population to a proper ecological and cultural role on appropriate landscapes within its historical range.

via Interior Department Releases Report on Bison Management.

No Bison input – no wolves or cougars to do nature’s work – people know best how to slaughter and decide how many Bison are OK from a human perspective and not a natural perspective…

Fail!, healthcare

Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts > Bristol-Myers Squibb Issues Voluntary Nationwide Recall of COUMADIN (Warfarin Sodium) for Injection Due to Presence of Particulate Matter

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) is voluntarily recalling six lots of COUMADIN® FOR INJECTION, 5 mg single-use vials in the U.S. This recall is a precautionary measure based on the company’s investigation of visible particulate matter found in a small number of COUMADIN FOR INJECTION unreleased samples. Bristol-Myers Squibb believes the safety risk to patients is low, and is further mitigated by the product’s prescribing information advising that intravenous drug products be inspected visually prior to administration.

via Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts > Bristol-Myers Squibb Issues Voluntary Nationwide Recall of COUMADIN (Warfarin Sodium) for Injection Due to Presence of Particulate Matter.

Fail!, human rights

Tim’s El Salvador Blog: Maura’s death and preventing more like it

Unfortunately, Maura’s story is all too familiar in El Salvador. A thousand or more people die on El Salvador’s roads each year. Through June 25, 454 persons had been killed in traffic accidents in El Salvador in 2014.   That is more than two per day.   Of those deaths, 247 people who died were pedestrians.   More than 3600 people have been injured.

via Tim’s El Salvador Blog: Maura’s death and preventing more like it.

Fail!, homeless, human rights, Palestine, racism, terrorism

Israeli forces ‘blow up homes’ of Palestinian suspects | Maan News Agency

{“Guilt?” being Palestinian and relatives of two – suspects, not convicted people – this is democracy?}

The two houses, which are both located in the same neighborhood in northwest Hebron, belong to the families of Marwan al-Qawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Eisha, 33.

After Israeli forces in Halhul north of Hebron found three bodies presumed to be those of three Israeli teens who went missing on June 12, soldiers surrounded the houses, forcibly removed the families, and declared the area a closed military zone, locals said.

Witnesses said the homes were then blown up by explosives.

Locals had told Ma’an earlier that soldiers were preparing to demolish the homes.

via Israeli forces ‘blow up homes’ of Palestinian suspects | Maan News Agency.

homeless, human rights, innovation, Rock on-Peace Out, Viva!

Spain’s unlikely squatters — New Internationalist

The Platform is best known for actively obstructing evictions. But it has also occupied 15 blocks of flats and countless more houses, specifically those owned by banks that were bailed out by the government.

It is negotiating for evicted homeowners to live there legally while paying ‘social’ rent – no more than a third of their income. So far, banks have acquiesced in two buildings.

The group reports that over a thousand Spaniards are now squatting these homes, including more than 300 children.

‘Spain has three million empty buildings – the most in Europe – and more than a million of them belong to the banks,’ says the Platform’s Gala Pin. ‘We don’t need to build more houses. We rescued the banks with our money – millions of euros of public money – and they have to give something back.’

Pressure from the Platform and its cohort of disgruntled citizens secured new social housing and mortgage relief laws last year. But the policies have largely been branded a failure. Of the more than 6,000 bank- owned properties given over to social housing under the new laws, as many as two-thirds remain empty because application conditions are so strict. Particularly galling is the clause that requires families to apply through the same financial entity that evicted them in the first place.

via Spain’s unlikely squatters — New Internationalist.

Fail!, human rights, peace

Japan Moves to Permit Greater Use of Its Military – NYTimes.com

 

The new policy cannot go into effect until at least this autumn as Parliament must still clear legal barriers to broader military action by revising more than a dozen existing laws, experts and lawmakers said. However, with Mr. Abe’s governing coalition enjoying a comfortable majority in both houses, the change seems all but certain to become reality.

Still, even under the new policy, the Japanese military, called the Self-Defense Forces, will face strict limits that will allow it to act only when there is a “clear danger” to Japan or its people, and to use only “the minimum level of force necessary,” according to the text of the cabinet decision.

via Japan Moves to Permit Greater Use of Its Military – NYTimes.com.

environment, healthcare, pandemic

Liberia: At Redemption Hospital – Fear Grips Nurses, Patients After Ebola Outbreak (Page 2 of 2)

“We have been working since the outbreak of Ebola here but the fear is there and you cannot erase that. Working has slow down because the patients are not coming like before. Some of the patients on beds before the outbreak also left,” one of the nurses stated.

According to them, patients are afraid of being admitted at the hospital.

The nurses said some residents of the community are allegedly engage into stigmatizing health workers at the hospital.

“Even if we are in our bus passing, they (residents) will be on the road calling us Ebola, Ebola and so, the patients themselves are not coming because they are afraid,” another nurse added.

Meanwhile, the nurses have called for more awareness to be made to help curtail the spread of Ebola in Liberia.

The nurses urged citizens to report cases of persons showing symptoms of the Ebola virus including constant vomiting, fever, amongst others to the hospital.

Prior to the outbreak of the Ebola virus, the Redemption Hospital provides free medical treatment to hundreds of patients on a daily basis.

Sometimes ago, the administration of the hospital called on the GOL and donor partners to help provide more beds to the hospital to help curtail the influx of patients.

But presently, most of the hospital beds are left unoccupied because patients are not seeking medical treatment there.

via allAfrica.com: Liberia: At Redemption Hospital – Fear Grips Nurses, Patients After Ebola Outbreak (Page 2 of 2).