All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

‘Islamic State’ is fighting with weapons made in the EU: study

Foreign sales of military arms and equipment across the world totalled $374.8 billion in 2016, the first year of growth (by 1.9 per cent), after five years of decline. American companies had a $217.2 billion lion’s share of foreign arms sales. Seven out of ten of the world’s top arms companies were American, earning $152.1 billion, with Lockheed Martin leading with $40.8 billion.

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More than a third of the weapons used by “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria came from European Union states — including Germany, a new report has found. The data shows that deadly arms can often up in the wrong hands.

Yemen’s Houthis are using missiles ‘made in Iran,’ US says

Foreign sales of military arms and equipment across the world totalled $374.8 billion in 2016, the first year of growth (by 1.9 per cent), after five years of decline. American companies had a $217.2 billion lion’s share of foreign arms sales. Seven out of ten of the world’s top arms companies were American, earning $152.1 billion, with Lockheed Martin leading with $40.8 billion.

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US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has accused Iran of violating international law by supplying missiles to Houthi rebels in Yemen. Tehran has rubbished the claims as “unfounded” and “fabricated.”

Climate Change Threatens Mexican Agriculture

Mexican agriculture has begun to feel the impacts of climate change, affecting the productivity of some staple foods in the local diet. The photo shows a vegetable street market, with products that go directly from the producers to consumers, in the west of Mexico City. Credit: Emilio Godoy / IPS

Mexican agriculture has begun to feel the impacts of climate change, affecting the productivity of some staple foods in the local diet. The photo shows a vegetable street market, with products that go directly from the producers to consumers, in the west of Mexico City. Credit: Emilio Godoy / IPS

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Dec 14 2017 (IPS)

Azael Meléndez recalls the tornado that in May 2015 struck his hometown of San Gregorio Atlapulco, in Xochimilco, on the outskirts of Mexico City.

“I had never seen anything like it, and I asked my parents, and they said the same thing,” the farmer told IPS.

The tornado lifted fences protecting gardens in the area, whose name means “place in the middle of the water” in the Nahuatl language, and which is located on the south side of greater Mexico City, which is home to 22 million people.

For Meléndez, who has a horticultural project with two other farmers, this is one of the manifestations of climate change, “which has devastated the area along with urbanisation.” The group uses the ancestral method of “chinampas” to grow lettuce, broccoli, radish, beets and aromatic herbs.

They grow crops on an area of about 1,800 square metres, harvesting about 500 kilograms of products per week, which they sell to 10 restaurants, in the wholesale market in the capital and tianguis (street markets).”Agriculture is highly dependent on local weather conditions and is expected to be very sensitive to climate change in the coming years. In particular, a warmer and drier environment could reduce agricultural production.” — Eduardo Benítez

Water shortages, an unstable climate, proliferation of pests, infrequent but more intense rainfall, hail and the effects of human activities are affecting an area that is crucial for the supply of food and for climate regulation in the Mexican capital, says a study by the international environmental organisation Earthwatch Institute.

The system of chinampas, a Nahuatl word that means “the place of the fertile land of flowers”, was practiced by the native peoples long before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 15th century.

The Aztec technique is based on the construction of small, rectangular areas of arable soil to grow crops in the microregion’s wetlands, with fences made of stakes of ahuejote (willow), a water-tolerant tree typical of this ecosystem.

The chinampa method is used on a total of 750 hectares, where about 5,000 farmers work.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) classifies it as one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), for preserving agrobiodiversity, helping farmers adapt to climate change, guaranteeing food security and fighting poverty.

But not only this microregion is affected by climate change. Indeed, it is difficult to find a place in Mexico that is not exposed to it.

The May report “Estimates of potential yields with climate change scenarios for different agricultural crops in Mexico”, by the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change, projected a decline in rainfall in the country.

The report, focused especially on crops of corn, beans, wheat, soybeans, sorghum and barley, found that water productivity is decreasing for most crops, which means water requirements will increase in the medium term. It also found yield loss for the seven crops, especially marked in the case of corn, beans and wheat.

In the southern state of Chiapas, farmers are already facing water shortages, sudden and heavy rains, floods and rising temperatures.

“The areas need water, we need water for the land, renewed soil, because that is the baseline. And it’s not exclusive to Chiapas, it is happening throughout Mexico,” Consuelo González, a farmer in Chiapas who grows corn on 40 hectares of land, told IPS.

González, a representative of a producers committee for her state, said there are also problems of deforestation and bad agricultural practices.

Chiapas, the second-poorest state in the country, has a sown area of 1.42 million hectares and 62 crops. Among its main products are corn, pastures, coffee, sugar cane, bananas, mangoes, beans and oil palm, which account for nearly 90 percent of the state’s total production.

The 12 most important crops produce 10.11 million tons. In the case of corn, the yield reaches 1.5 tons per hectare, half of the national yield of 3.2 tons, due to the size of the plots and low level of mechanisation.

In 2010, the region passed the Law for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the State of Chiapas, and one year later it implemented the Climate Change Action Plan.

In its nationally determined contribution (NDC), incorporated two years ago in the Paris Agreement on climate change, Mexico included strengthening the diversification of sustainable agriculture among the measures to be adopted by 2030.

Among the instruments to achieve this goal, it establishes the conservation of germplasm and native species of corn and the development of agroecosystems through the incorporation of climatic criteria in agricultural programmes.

In its NDCs, the country pledged to reduce its polluting emissions by 22 percent by 2030, compared with 2013 levels.

That year, Mexican agricultural activity released 80.17 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By 2020, emissions of this potent greenhouse gas are expected to reach 111 million.

By 2030, the goal is to curb agricultural and livestock emissions to 86 million tons.

“Agriculture is highly dependent on local weather conditions and is expected to be very sensitive to climate change in the coming years. In particular, a warmer and drier environment could reduce agricultural production,” said Eduardo Benítez, assistant representative of Programmes at the FAO Partnership and Liaison Office in Mexico.

Among other consequences of climate change, he mentioned to IPS a higher prevalence of fungi and pests, soil transformation, less availability of land and water for agriculture and alterations in agrobiodiversity.

“They give something, but it’s not enough,” Meléndez said about the government’s support for helping the “chinamperos” – farmers who grow crops using the chinampa method – adapt to climate change.

“It has cost us a lot of work. We carry out prevention work, such as using biological filters, to raise water in the channels to a certain level for irrigation. We try to regulate the temperature with meshes of different sizes that provide shade for the crops,” he explained.

One of the problems lies in the lack of coordination among Mexican institutions, as shown by the assessment of the Government’s 2014-2018 Special Programme on Climate Change (PECC), implemented by the government to address the phenomenon.

This analysis shows that the Information System of the Cross-cutting Agenda that operated between 2009 and 2012 is not working since the programme came into force in 2014, which prevents a “close follow up” of the progress of its 199 lines of action.

In addition, it found that the National Climate Change System has not addressed the question of connecting programmes, actions and investments at the federal, state and municipal levels, with the PECC.

González, based on her experience as a farmer, recommended silvopastoral (combining forestry and grazing) systems to maintain the plots. “There are areas that can be well preserved. We focus on soil conservation. Another solution is agroecology,” to restore soils and preserve resources, she said.

FAO and the government Agency for Marketing Services and Development of Agricultural Markets (ASERCA) are working on a project of early warnings for agriculture based on agrometeorological information to monitor the climate impacts on food production and availability.

The aim is for this data to be available to “policy-makers, financial and risk management institutions and mainly to producers. Thus, public policy can be oriented in actions such as the promotion and use of crop insurance or the activation of contingency funds,” said Benítez.

The post Climate Change Threatens Mexican Agriculture appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Mauritania:Mauritania – New ‘Apostasy’ Draft Law

How is it that God needs the protection of politicians? Seems that politicians around the globe pretend to protect God in an attempt to protect themselves and divert attention away from their not so secret denial of God. [HRW] Mauritanian deputies should reject a new draft law that would make the death penalty mandatory for the crime of “insulting” or “mocking” God, the Quran, or the Prophet Muhammad, Human Rights Watch said today.

Bribes for TV soccer rights allegedly paid with ‘agreement and support’ of Murdoch’s Fox executives

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  • Documents form part of sprawling investigation into football corruption
  • Testimony in Fifa trial places Fox executives in meetings with corrupt officials

Senior executives at Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox corporation are alleged to have agreed for millions of dollars in bribes to be paid to South American soccer officials to secure major broadcast deals, according to US prosecution documents unmasked by sworn testimony.

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In Alabama, black women saved America from itself – as they’ve always tried to do | Charlene White

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African-American women came out in droves and voted 98% against Roy Moore, preventing what could have been a huge wrong

Black women have been trying to save America from itself for generations. So the breakdown of who voted in Alabama’s Senate election this week come as no surprise. Since as far back as the 19th century, African American women have been fighting for civil rights; they have always been front and centre in terms of mobilising support for equality and justice. Though it would not be surprising if you’ve never heard their stories – by and large black female trailblazers have tended to be erased from history.

Related: The African American voters at the heart of Doug Jones’ Alabama victory

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US gives evidence Iran supplied missiles that Yemen rebels fired at Saudi Arabia

They also announced that missiles from the US, UK, India, South Africa, Poland, France, Germany are supplied to everyone with enough cash around the world – so… What a load of crap propaganda!

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Nikki Haley said that evidence shows Iran providing supply of short-range ballistic missiles to Houthi rebels, a violation of a United Nations resolution

The US has presented evidence that officials said proved that Iran had supplied short-range ballistic missiles to Houthi rebels in Yemen which were then fired at Saudi Arabia.

The US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, made the presentation at Bolling Air Force base in Washington, which is the headquarters to the Defence Intelligence Agency.

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The Best Jimikki Kammal Videos Yet Show Kerala Muslim Women Dancing with Blazing Political Purpose

Over the weekend, women in Kerala decided to express their political support for the Malappuram girls through the best medium: Jimikki Kammal dance videos.

Source: The Best Jimikki Kammal Videos Yet Show Kerala Muslim Women Dancing with Blazing Political Purpose

“The videos will exist for posterity. Maybe someday, some child in the future will ask her grandmother why these women were dancing so seriously to such a silly song. Where was there a cheering crowd of protesters around them? And she will tell her the story all over again, of how women came together to dance in support of other woman, and the child will smile, and be inspired by – and, possibly, a little alarmed at – the passion of her ancestors. And that will be enough.”

Can You Guess Which Theocracy In Asia is Banning Condom Ads On Prime-Time TV?

Male-fake-prudes will cause more deaths and disease!

The answer, it may surprise you to hear, is not in the Middle East, but is India.

This week, the right-wing, Hindu nationalist Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, banned condom ads on prime time television in India between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on accounts of these adverts being ‘indecent.’ The last straw, apparently, was an adv featuring actress, model, and former porn star Sunny Leone, who has often come under attack by conservative Indian commentators for her unapologetic sexuality and uncensored feminist views.

Needless to say, this move is seen locally as not only as hopelessly socially regressive, but also damaging for communities in India, who face: incomprehensive and flawed sex education resulting in unsafe abortions and early pregnancies among young women; already low and understudied rates of condom use; an increase in sexually transmitted infections among young people; and the third largest H.I.V epidemic in the world. Activists, child psychiatrists, healthcare workers and advertisement professionals have all together condemned the ban as “regressive method of functioning from right-wing politics”.

But this move should not be seen as surprising from a government that has been controlled by the religious right since at least 2014. In the past few years, India’s right has re-criminalized homosexuality; banned porn; attempted to roll back trans rights to a draconian degree; excluded women from political positions; stood against the criminalization of marital rape; protected and supported religious leaders arrested for large-scale sexual abuse and sexual slavery; seen an increase in politicians threatening sexual violence against minority women; seen an increase in violence, including sexual violence, against Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim women with impunity; and attempted to censor films that are ‘lady-oriented’ or that discuss female sexuality.

A ‘theocracy,’ as opposed to a democracy, is defined as a country that is ruled by those who claim to represent God and God’s religious principles. With these actions taken by the Hindu right in the name of the country’s cultural and religious values, it’s compelling to claim that India’s democracy is slowly being replaced by theocratic rule.

What does this mean for those of us living in the United States? Well, theocracy across the board has regressive and oppressive implications for women everywhere: whether it’s Saudi Arabia’s restrictions on the women’s vote; India’s condom advert ban; or the fact that the entirety of the United States had to come together to wrest control of Alabama out of the hands of a theocratic, Christian fundamentalist who sexually assaults young girls.

Yet our outrage over these issues is dictated by Islamophobia;  and the conversation around the dangers of a regressive, theocratic government curbing rights, especially for women and female sexuality, has always centered around the Middle East. We you don’t see the same medica coverage or cultural panic as when a member of India’s ruling party calls for the beheading of a Bollywood actress, or when Christian evangelical leaders authorize Trump to carry out the nuclear holocaust.

This Islamophobia has dangerous implications. It ignores the fact that our Muslim siblings are victims of oppression and marginalization and it allows us excuse religious fanaticism, state-sponsored repression of women, and conservatism when it comes from Hindu, Christian, Buddhist or Jewish right wing governments. We here in the United States ourselves face a crisis of theocratic extremism, with the religious right and the Republicans attempting to roll back abortion rights, birth control, and protections against gender violence. The United States is also instrumental in propping up alleged ‘democratic’ regimes underlined by strong right-wing, religious undercurrents. India’s right wing, Modi led government, for example, was propped up in part with the generous support of an allegedly ‘liberal’ diaspora community who may likely see themselves as opposed to Trump, and opposed to human rights abuses in the Middle East, but are oblivious to the parallels within the Hindu right in India.

Right-wing extremism is a problem in every country, including and especially the United States and India. These governments should not be allowed to hide behind the world’s Islamophobia and blinkered view of what constitutes a theocracy. They must be recognized for what they are and held accountable accordingly.

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