Category Archives: human rights

Organizers, Activists And More Honor Harry Belafonte At The Apollo Theater

Source: Organizers, Activists And More Honor Harry Belafonte At The Apollo Theater

After Paris, Is Peace Too Much To Ask For? | The Indignant Optimist

Look at the image below. It is a photograph, taken today, of a child in the Syrian city of Raqqah. Should she pay for Paris? This picture, just as sad and shocking as any we’ve seen coming from the carnage in France, was posted on Twitter by @PalmyraPioneer with the caption: ‘To the people & government in , #Raqqa City residents are not all , we please do not targets at random.’

Source: After Paris, Is Peace Too Much To Ask For? | The Indignant Optimist

A Baby Dies at Day Care, and a Mother Asks Why She Had to Leave Him So Soon – The New York Times

I wasn’t just up against the end of my parental leave. I was up against an entire culture that places very little value on caring for infants and small children. Parental leave reduces infant death, gives us healthier, more well-adjusted adults and helps women stay in the workforce. If we truly valued the 47 percent of the work force who are women, and the value of our families, things would look different. Mothers could go back to work after taking time off to recover physically from birth and bond with their young children. Health care could be available to bridge that return to work so that our children could get their wellness checkups and vaccinations.Yes, it’s possible that even in a different system, Karl still might not have lived a day longer, but had he had been with me, where I wanted him, I wouldn’t be sitting here, living with the nearly incapacitating anguish of a question that has no answer.There are plenty of good examples of how to create a national parental leave system that works. Our children can’t afford lobbyists. It’s up to us parents to demand more.

Source: A Baby Dies at Day Care, and a Mother Asks Why She Had to Leave Him So Soon – The New York Times

Danish MP: ‘Bomb women and children’ – The Local

Denmark joined the international coalition fighting Isis in October 2014. Danish F-16s have flown 547 missions over northern Iraq and have dropped a total of 503 bombs. The F-16s were recently brought back to Denmark for repairs but Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen has promised that they will return to action in early 2016. Jensen has also expressed an openness for extending the Danish mission to include striking targets in Syria.

Source: Danish MP: ‘Bomb women and children’ – The Local

The Two Suicides That Changed My Life | Narratively | Human stories, boldly told.

I hadn’t intended to drive across the bridge that puffy blue-sky Monday morning. It was an accident. I was visiting the East Bay for a weekend personal development workshop and planned to see a friend in Berkeley. I got on the freeway, humming along to a radio station and realized I was in the wrong lane, going towards the city. I took a deep breath and said to myself: I guess I’ll see San Francisco today.Driving up the rise of the bridge after pulling out of the tollbooth, a car swerved in front of me to avoid the parked car to the right. I braked hard, thinking there had been an accident. Then, in what seemed like slow motion, I watched a man walk to the edge of the bridge, climb onto the railing, spread his arms wide as though they were wings and step forward. It didn’t occur to me that I was seeing the last seconds of a man’s life until I saw his head on the other side of the railing. He had walked off the Bay Bridge.

Source: The Two Suicides That Changed My Life | Narratively | Human stories, boldly told.

Border Angels Celebrates Humanitarian Efforts | La Prensa San Diego

Emotional images depicted the opening of a door in the border wall between Playas de Tijuana and Border Field State Park to reunite families that have been separated by the border. Parents and their children melted in embrace for the first time in years. The door of hope opened this past April and for brief minutes, the border no longer mattered.With the intent of opening more doors, Border Angels, the local volunteer organization which has fought for the dignity and human rights of immigrants and the Latino community for over 29 years, held its fifth annual fundraiser dinner. The gala held at the Wyndham Bayside hotel in Downtown San Diego brought together members of the binational community to create awareness of of the humanitarian efforts of this organization, raise funds and recognize outstanding individuals and their work benefiting immigrants.

Source: Border Angels Celebrates Humanitarian Efforts | La Prensa San Diego

Chula Vista Ballet Fighting To Keep Classical Art In Chula Vista | La Prensa San Diego

Fight is a pretty strong word, and usually involves confrontation, but for Chula Vista Ballet, a non-profit youth ballet company, fighting is advocating, and that is something they are not backing down from as they strive to keep the classical art of ballet accessible and affordable to families in the South Bay.

Source: Chula Vista Ballet Fighting To Keep Classical Art In Chula Vista | La Prensa San Diego

Lebanon arrests five Syrians, one Palestinian suspect in Beirut bombings: security source | Reuters – {World solidarity with victims absent but progress made finding perpetrators.}

Lebanese authorities arrested five Syrians and a Palestinian in connection with the twin suicide bombings in central Beirut on Thursday that killed 43 people, a senior security source said on Saturday.The bombings in a busy residential and commercial area that is a stronghold for Lebanese Shi’ite movement Hezbollah were claimed by Islamic State.”Within 24 hours the network was arrested in the fastest uncovering of a bombing incident in the country,” the source said.

Source: Lebanon arrests five Syrians, one Palestinian suspect in Beirut bombings: security source | Reuters

Right way for refugees with Poland′s new Left | Europe | DW.COM | 14.11.2015

And yet for Swist, the real breakthrough was the emergence of a young, new leftist force, one with no ties to the old communist guard, and with a real social agenda to fight intolerance. Razem, or Together, the newest kid on the Polish political landscape, rose fast: It failed to win a seat in the Sejm, the lower chamber of parliament, but received enough support to bring it government funding.”I hope that the standards set by Razem will become standards in politics,” says Maciek Mandelt, another Nomada community worker.New ally in the fight against intolerance?”It’s time for a new Left in Poland, one that is no longer associated with communism,” says Katka Reszke, a Wroclaw-born documentary filmmaker working on the post-communist Jewish experience.”Because Poland has been homogeneous for so long, the refugee crisis will always trigger extreme reactions,” she says. “But what I read and hear in post-election discussions is very promising: People want to get involved, many young people who are making it a mission to fight xenophobia.”

Source: Right way for refugees with Poland′s new Left | Europe | DW.COM | 14.11.2015

Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad denounce Paris attacks | News | DW.COM | 15.11.2015

The leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad all issued statements Saturday denouncing the attacks in Paris, where 129 people were killed and more than 350 people were wounded on Friday night.Dozens of Syrian rebel groups have also denounced the attacks in a joint online statement as “against human values.”

Source: Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad denounce Paris attacks | News | DW.COM | 15.11.2015