All posts by nedhamson

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

Corrupt officials allow untested poultry to be sold in Vietnam | Society | Thanh Nien Daily

The lethal threat of bird flu is apparently not serious enough for some corrupt officials who help slaughterhouses evade checks in Ho Chi Minh City and allow a market to openly sell untested chicken in Hanoi.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported about two animal-health officials in District 12, HCMC, offering protection to a proposed slaughterhouse in exchange for VND4 million (US$190) a month for them and VND1 million a month to some ward officials also on the take.

via Corrupt officials allow untested poultry to be sold in Vietnam | Society | Thanh Nien Daily.

Raw

Poetry for Palestine

This poem is dedicated to my friend Genie (Palestine Rose)

When you write raw

You leave your heart exposed
Unmasked
Unprotected

It will carry many cuts and bruises

It might even bleed its life out

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Me too, I also write raw

Not to appease
Neither to please
And certainly not to hurt or cause harm

Not to praise or to be praised
Not to condemn or put anyone down

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But to heal and ease the pain
Of an injured world
With which I fell madly in love
Long before the day I was born

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I hear rivers and oceans weeping I go to pieces
I see the tears running down sky’s face,

I melt away, I go insane

I would peel off the kernel of my soul
I would crush my being to nothingness
I would dwindle and wither away
I would set my heart ablaze
To see a child…

View original post 57 more words

H5N1: More on the hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Guinea

“Symptoms appear as diarrhea and vomiting, with a very high fever. Some cases showed relatively heavy bleeding,” Keita said.

“We thought it was Lassa fever or another form of cholera but this disease seems to strike like lightning. We are looking at all possibilities, including Ebola, because bushmeat is consumed in that region and Guinea is in the Ebola belt,” he said. No cases of the highly contagious Ebola fever have ever been recorded in the country.

Keita said most of the victims had been in contact with the deceased or had handled the bodies. He said those infected had been isolated and samples had been sent to Senegal and France for further tests.

via H5N1: More on the hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Guinea.

Witness: “I’m being held as a slave in Lebanon”

Hummus For Thought

Image released on Koaci.com Image released on Koaci.com

Ivory Coast-based Koaci.com has learned that 6 women are currently held in slavery conditions in Nabatieh, South Lebanon within a “Mafia-like” network. The following is a rough English translation of the original article in French written 3 days ago.

Two Togolese, two Burkinabé and two Ghanaian have been kidnapped for the past week [now 10 days] and have been severely beaten in Nabatieh, South Lebanon, we’ve learned following the testimony of the two who have been able to reach Koaci.com’s Ivory Coast office (The number is +225 08 85 52 93).

Everything started when they attempted to escape their condition after realizing that they were tricked by a recruiting network that works in the African continent to provide cheap domestic workers in a country with a culture that considers blacks like sub-humans as we have noticed in all African countries where these recruiters are located.

“I want…

View original post 399 more words

New Pew study reveals shocking truth about “immigrant criminals” & why deportations are so high | Latina Lista

These individuals guilty of unlawful reentry were fathers, mothers, sons and daughters trying to get back to their families. Or they were trying to get to those pockets of the country where hard labor is the only passport needed to earn enough money to have a basic quality of life back in their home countries.

There’s no way to legally justify entering the country without the proper paperwork and going through the legal channels but there’s also no way to morally justify labeling masses of people as criminals when their only crime is to reunite with loved ones or earn a living that enables their families back home to have a basic quality of life.

via New Pew study reveals shocking truth about “immigrant criminals” & why deportations are so high | Latina Lista.

Pleased to start 2014 with insurance – I signed up for Obamacare insurance! – CNNMoney

The Affordable Care Act for me is reasonable enough that with the tax break, the premium ended up being in the range of $136 a month. I chose a platinum plan with a $1,000 deductible.

The process was painless. I applied online and had no issues at all. It was not difficult to navigate or to find the policies that would fit.

I don’t know how it’s going to be when I start using the insurance. The jury is still out. My first concern was being able to find a doctor that was close. I did find a doctor 10 minutes away.

I am diabetic. I’ve been doing pretty well. But as you age, you start to have more issues that go with it. I have a minor surgery procedure that I’ve put off for years and testing that I just couldn’t afford.

What the future holds is the problem. You can’t roll the dice with no insurance for as many years as I did it. I know that.

via Pleased to start 2014 with insurance – I signed up for Obamacare insurance! – CNNMoney.

Feministing Jamz: Talking feminism with Ana Tijoux

VBF: In Somos Sur you worked with Palestinian rapper Shadia Mansour. How was working with her? How did you relate Palestinian struggles with Chilean struggles?

AT: Incredible! It was an amazing experience. We had some friends in common and, as a great fan, I wrote her an email telling her that they’d given me her contact and basically told her that I’d like to collaborate. She knew my work and we collaborated long distance, and everything lined up so that we were able to bring her to Chile to do the video with her. It was incredible to meet her, she surpassed all my expectations and became a sister for life. Lots of intersecting histories…there was a lot of connection. Between Palestine and Chile, knowing that Chile has one of the largest Palestinian communities in the world outside of Palestine…it was incredible, something I carry in my heart and soul.

via Feministing Jamz: Talking feminism with Ana Tijoux.