All posts by nedhamson

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

IRIN Asia | Record harvest loss, food shortages hit dry Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka | Aid Policy | Disaster Risk Reduction | Environment | Food Security | Governance

Sri Lanka’s government is scrambling to ease the impact of record harvest losses on millions of farmers as the country enters its tenth month of an acute dry spell.

“It’s severe. In some areas in the North, North Central and Eastern Provinces, the water levels in the irrigation reservoirs will be sufficient only for drinking purposes and that, too, will be barely enough. No harvesting will be possible [until the next rains],” Lalith Weeratunga, secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the country’s top-ranked public official, told IRIN.

via IRIN Asia | Record harvest loss, food shortages hit dry Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka | Aid Policy | Disaster Risk Reduction | Environment | Food Security | Governance.

Israeli forces deliver ‘deportation order’ {just because they can} to PFLP lawmaker | Maan News Agency

Khalida Jarrar told Ma’an that dozens of soldiers raided her house in Ramallah early Wednesday and delivered a deportation order “by an Israeli court” to Jericho for an unspecified period of time.

Jarrar added that the place of residence in Jericho was specified in the order.

She said the order was in Hebrew and that she refused to sign it when soldiers told her to, and that she was also provided a map for her movement inside Jericho.

Jarrar added that the raid was a form of house arrest and that she was given 24 hours to move out of Ramallah to Jericho.

She said she will take the paper to relevant parties to determine the response.

via Israeli forces deliver ‘deportation order’ to PFLP lawmaker | Maan News Agency.

And of course – anyone who happens to be in the home – oops – Israeli minister says Hamas leader Deif ‘deserves to die’ | Maan News Agency

Among the dead were Deif’s second wife, Widad, 27, and his seven-month-old son Ali. Rescue workers on Wednesday pulled the bodies of a 48-year-old woman and a 14-year-old boy from the rubble, Qudra said.

Witnesses said at least three rockets were fired at the building, home to the al-Dalou family, pulverizing it into a pile of dust, debris and twisted metal and leaving a huge crater in the ground where the building once stood.

via Israeli minister says Hamas leader Deif ‘deserves to die’ | Maan News Agency.

Avian Flu Diary: PNAS: A Vaccine Evading Variant Poliovirus

For those born after 1960, it is probably difficult to understand the kind of fear that Polio generated in the United States and around the world during the 1950s.  While only one infection in a hundred resulted in paralysis or death, polio was extremely infectious, and the United States routinely saw between 18,000 and 25,000 paralytic cases each year – mostly among young children.

 

Hospital wards were filled with paralyzed children trapped in iron lungs (a grim technology many younger adults have no memory of), which were used to keep them alive. The following short film clip may be hard for some to look at, but is a reminder of how things were . . . not so very long ago.

 

 

 

In 1954  the first major field trials of the Salk vaccine took place, and the following year – after review of the data – a national vaccination campaign was launched. By 1957, after two years of vaccination – the number of new polio cases in the United States dropped to under 6,000, and by 1964 that number had dropped to just 121 cases.

via Avian Flu Diary: PNAS: A Vaccine Evading Variant Poliovirus.

Yoga guru B. K. S. Iyengar passes away – The Hindu

Mr. Iyengar, a sickly youth in his teens, is credited with integrating the eight aspects of astanga yoga known as ‘Iyengar’s Yoga’, and having thought such luminaries as English writer Aldous Huxley (who authored Brave New World and Eyeless in Gaza), philosopher and spiritualist J. Krishnamurti and violin titan Yehudi Menuhin.

via Yoga guru B. K. S. Iyengar passes away – The Hindu.

Immigration Talk with a Mexican American: TWINS: Arpaio and Ferguson’s Chief Thomas Jackson — Why Latinos Should PAY ATTENTION to what’s Happening in Ferguson Missouri

I’ve been reading the posts by these Far Right Wing sites. They are disgusting and racists, blaming Teenager Brown for his own murder. However those attacking young Mike are the same nutcases that support Arpayaso, the Tea Party, Ted Cruz and all the other crazy racists that HATE LATINOS, Blacks, Gays, Women and all minorities. They are using THE SAME LANGUAGE they use when they attack us.

They are blaming poor Mike Brown, the dead victim who cannot speak for himself.

They are blaming the civil protesters who are utilizing their 1st amendment rights to rally. Yet these right wing racist websites call them “animals” and “let them kill themselves.” You should read their despicable spew. (However, you don’t have to read their vile spew. I’ll report it so you don’t have to read their garbage!)

These are the same WORDS they use against LATINOS in Maricopa County / in Guadalupe!

These folks don’t believe in EQUALITY!

Their EQUALITY only encompasses WHITE MEN, not ALL PEOPLE – not ALL MINORITIES!

WE LATINOS NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT’s Happening in Ferguson, Missouri.

via Immigration Talk with a Mexican American: TWINS: Arpaio and Ferguson’s Chief Thomas Jackson — Why Latinos Should PAY ATTENTION to what’s Happening in Ferguson Missouri.