All posts by nedhamson

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

Convergence Determines Governance – Within and Without. Reset | DQ-en

The longer we remain in denial on what the emerging economies have achieved, the longer we keep global governance gridlocked and ineffective.

Longer-term growth in the emerging economies is not slowed down by secular stagnation in the advanced ones, even if short-term the emerging and advanced economies are highly correlated.

Convergence across nation-states is about the poor catching up with the rich, even as growth continues for all. Convergence is about the Global South achieving parity with the Global North. Convergence is about the distribution of incomes of people around the world flattening towards equality, and thus about the shift in the planet’s economic landscape curving to fit better the world’s spatial distribution of people.

via Convergence Determines Governance – Within and Without. Reset | DQ-en.

U.S. Sailors Assaulted by Turkish Nationalists in Istanbul – NYTimes.com

As the sailors broke free, their assailants chased them and shouted “Yankee go home!” and “Down with U.S. imperialism!”

The United States Embassy in Ankara issued a strong condemnation. “The video showing an assault on three visiting American sailors is appalling,” it said in a statement published on Twitter. “While we respect the right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression, we condemn today’s attack in Istanbul.”

The Turkish government’s immediate response to the assault was conspicuously less forceful.

via U.S. Sailors Assaulted by Turkish Nationalists in Istanbul – NYTimes.com.

Mali Reports a Second, Larger Ebola Outbreak – NYTimes.com

The first case in the new outbreak was a 70-year-old religious figure, a grand imam, who fell ill in Guinea and traveled to Mali for better treatment at a major private clinic in Bamako, Mali’s capital.

He died there on Oct. 27, and because of his importance, his body was washed at a large Bamako mosque before being returned to Guinea for burial.

But the Pasteur Clinic, where he was treated, failed to diagnose Ebola as the underlying cause of the kidney failure it was treating him for. According to a World Health Organization description of the case, numerous tests were performed, but not one for Ebola.

It was only realized how infectious he was after a nurse at the clinic fell ill and died, and when the chief W.H.O. representative in Mali heard from his counterparts in Guinea that the imam’s family members were dying.

“It was a real failure by the clinic,” said Dr. Ibrahima Soce Fall, the W.H.O. Mali team leader, in a telephone interview.

via Mali Reports a Second, Larger Ebola Outbreak – NYTimes.com.

AFRICA/SUDAN – Alarm: haemorrhagic fever in Southern Kordofan – Fides News Agency

The inhabitants of the town of Kadugli, Abu Jubaiha and Habila, Southern Kordofan, have complained about the appearance of a fever unknown to them. Meanwhile, the local Ministry of Health has been informed about the spread of this potentially deadly hemorrhagic fever, known as leishmaniasis and have sent a team of doctors. The symptoms reported by people are high fever, vomit and headache. The mortality rate is increasing, there is lack of medicines and medical centers. The Minister of Health in the Country has declared the contagion of 25 people who are isolated in hospitals, but so far there have been no deaths. The government has told health officials to intensify surveillance in areas where the disease has been recorded, including the three locations indicated. According to WHO, the definition of viral hemorrhagic fever refers to very serious diseases that can be caused by various viruses. Visceral leishmaniasis, also known as “black fever”, is a parasitic disease that kills almost all of those who contract it. It is caused by the bite of a pappataceo.

via AFRICA/SUDAN – Alarm: haemorrhagic fever in Southern Kordofan – Fides News Agency.

Taylor Swift in the Blank Space video is the woman we’ve been waiting for | Jessica Valenti | Comment is free | The Guardian

And now, in her new Blank Space video, Swift performs the very unflattering image that the public has foisted upon her, as if to say: You want boy-crazy? I’ll give you boy-crazy!

Did Taylor Swift make you mad? (Courtesy of Ryan Seacrest)

This is the Taylor Swift we’ve been waiting for: the Taylor Swift who smiles while she offers up a hearty “fuck you”.

The video for Blank Space is a sort of dystopian feminist fairy tale: Swift is surrounded by woodland creatures and dressed in gorgeous gowns. She has picnics of champagne and sweets, all while in the company of a generically handsome, if unremarkable, man. (Blank Space, indeed!)

via Taylor Swift in the Blank Space video is the woman we’ve been waiting for | Jessica Valenti | Comment is free | The Guardian.

Israeli forces order arrest of a 2-year-old child from Jerusalem

Zidani family from Silwan neighborhood South the old city of Jerusalem, was shocked to hear the order of Israeli forces arresting their 2-year-old son, Hamza Zidani on Monday.

The family denied the order, when an Israeli occupation intelligence officer stormed into their house, kidnapped another son of the Family, Mohammad, and stole three computers.

Later, Israeli intelligence told the family that their youngest son, Hamza, was also ordered for kidnap, while the family rejected the order.

According to Defence for Children International Palestine, the number of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons reached 230 during the year of 2014, and children between the ages of 12-15 years reached about 36.

Israel has kidnapped Palestinian adults and minors, either for throwing stones, or for no charge at all.

Each year, occupation tightens the screws on Palestinians, and exerts pressure on them to leave their homes, especially in Silwan area in Jerusalem, to extend the building of Israeli settlements in the area.

The kidnap campaigns are getting wider and including two-year-olds, to exert pressure on Palestinian families.

via Israeli forces order arrest of a 2-year-old child from Jerusalem.

Ayotzinapa (Guerrero) – Show all the corruption and lies of those who have turned away from God and from the truth – Fides News Agency

Campeche (Agenzia Fides) – “We live in a very corrupt country, where the people and the politicians are not interested in living in the truth” complained the Bishop of Campeche, His Exc. Mgr. José Francisco Gonzalez, in his homily on Sunday November 9, during the Mass celebrated in the Cathedral. The Bishop recalled the massacre of the students in Ayotzinapa (Guerrero) with these words: “What happened in Iguala is not an isolated case”. Then he asked everyone not to cover or protect anyone, but rather, to point out and denounce irresponsible politicians, as it is necessary to show the corruption and the lies they live in because they have turned away from God and the truth. Finally, he recalled that “Jesus cleansed the Temple, which had become a den of thieves and corrupt people, and that is what is lacking in our country”.

Agenzia Fides continues to receive the reactions of missionaries and Catholic communities throughout Mexico with regards to the terrible story of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa (see Fides 10/10/2014). In Veracruz His Exc. Mgr. Eduardo Patiño Leal, Bishop of Córdoba, on Sunday urged: “We must unite all in Mexico, and say enough is enough to these gangs”. The country suffers great pain because of the cruelty with which organized crime operates in collusion with members of the municipal police, as for the alleged execution of 43 students in Ayotzinapa. According to sources of Fides, the Bishop pointed out that Mexican society is harmed by such crimes that mostly remain unresolved .

While demonstrations continue against the corrupt authorities, in Iguala, about thirty families have joined the Catholic faithful and other lay organizations to continue to search the remains of the missing persons in the area. The “Frente Igualteco por la Dignidad y la Paz Social” called on all families to break the silence and abandon the fear in which they lived under the administration of Mayor Abarca Velazquez, who was arrested on the assumption related to the criminal gang Guerreros Unidos, to find the mass graves and give Christian burial to the remains of so many missing family members.

via Show all the corruption and lies of those who have turned away from God and from the truth – Fides News Agency.

Is Jerusalem the Palestinians’ last battle? | Opinion , Columnist | THE DAILY STAR

Jerusalem today for Palestinians is about the battle between Israel’s attempts to Judaize the city after formally “annexing” it (which virtually the whole world does not recognize) and the Palestinian insistence on resisting the Zionist efforts to control and own the land of mandated Palestine. This battle has been taking place for nearly a century now. Israeli settlers have been trying for years to move into Arab areas of Jerusalem, like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, either by buying homes surreptitiously or forcibly by inhabiting real estate that Israel declares to be state-owned. Because the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization (the two overlapping but moribund leadership agencies for Palestinians) are not present in Jerusalem, the Arab residents of the city are on their own in defending their homes and lands.

via Is Jerusalem the Palestinians’ last battle? | Opinion , Columnist | THE DAILY STAR.

Nigeria slams US refusal of arms to fight Boko Haram | News , World | THE DAILY STAR

ummmm – Let’s see now – who is in charge in Nigeria, who has an army that is well armed but has done little to protect people in the north and the government has done little to accommodate the needs of people in the north? So, where does the fault lay and with whom?

The ambassador however insisted the fault lay with Washington.

“The US government has up till today refused to grant Nigeria’s request to purchase lethal equipment that would have brought down the terrorists within a short time,” he said.

“There is no use giving us the type of support that enables us to deliver light jabs to the terrorists when what we need to give them is the killer punch,” he said.

Washington’s allegations of widespread human rights abuses by the Nigerian army “cannot be substantiated by facts,” Adefuye said, adding “half-truths” had been spread by Jonathan’s rivals and human rights groups with an agenda.

“The terrorists threaten our corporate existence and territorial integrity,” the ambassador said, urging members of the Council on Foreign Relations to plead Nigeria’s case with the US administration.

“A friend in need is a friend indeed. The true test of friendship is in the times of adversity.”

via Nigeria slams US refusal of arms to fight Boko Haram | News , World | THE DAILY STAR.