Category Archives: human rights

Lebanon, a land of fat boys: study | News , Lebanon News | THE DAILY STAR

After ranking highly on a string of top 10 lists, Lebanon can now add being one of the fattest countries for young boys to its list of achievements.

The percentage of boys under twenty who are obese in Lebanon range between 13 to 19.1 percent, placing the Mediterranean nation at fifth in the world, tied with the Caribbean nation The Bahamas. The findings are according to a recently released global analysis on country-by-country obesity funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“This is largely due to low physical activity,” said Stephanie Nehme, a dietitian at the So7i W Sari3 clinic in Ashrafieh.

Nehme said that the changing of lifestyle and exchanging homemade food for fastfood was among several factors that led to an increase to obesity in youngsters.

via Lebanon, a land of fat boys: study | News , Lebanon News | THE DAILY STAR.

Food Politics » Historic! First Lady and President actively support school nutrition standards

Today, the House Appropriations Committee will discuss the annual spending bill for the Agriculture Department, meaning that it will consider proposals to weaken nutrition standards for school meals.

In what has to be a groundbreaking move, First Lady Michelle Obama has an Op-Ed in today’s New York Times.

Yet some members of the House of Representatives are now threatening to roll back these new standards and lower the quality of food our kids get in school. They want to make it optional, not mandatory, for schools to serve fruits and vegetables to our kids. They also want to allow more sodium and fewer whole grains than recommended into school lunches.

…Remember a few years ago when Congress declared that the sauce on a slice of pizza should count as a vegetable in school lunches? You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that this doesn’t make much sense. Yet we’re seeing the same thing happening again with these new efforts to lower nutrition standards in our schools.

Our children deserve so much better than this.

Yes, they do, and how terrific that she is saying this.

via Food Politics » Historic! First Lady and President actively support school nutrition standards.

Only Chinese-born parliamentarian in UK to quit politics over racist abuse | UK news | theguardian.com

The Hong-Kong-born immigrant, who has lived in Northern Ireland for four decades, said she was also considering leaving the province for good because of enduring sectarianism and now rising racism.

Lo, who represents South Belfast in the regional parliament, blamed continual racist behaviour towards her, as well as first minister Peter Robinson’s support for a born-again Christian preacher’s depiction of Islam as “the spawn of the devil”, as her reasons for wanting out of Ulster politics.

In an interview with the Guardian on Thursday, Lo said she was shaken up by a recent incident during the European election campaign when a loyalist mob followed her out of an east Belfast shopping centre.

“They started hurling abuse at me and I decided to get out of Connswater shopping centre as quickly as possible. About three or four individuals then followed me to the car park but I kept ahead of them walking as quickly as I could. Even when I got inside my car there was a young girl who climbed out of the wound-down window of a parked car and started shouting vile things at me. If I hadn’t decided to act quickly and get out of there I don’t know what would have happened to me,” Lo said.

via Only Chinese-born parliamentarian in UK to quit politics over racist abuse | UK news | theguardian.com.

Watch: Israeli forces detain 4 teenage girls in south Hebron hills | Maan News Agency

Israeli forces on Tuesday detained four Palestinian girls in the south Hebron hills after a settler accused them of stealing cherries, human rights group B’Tselem said.

The girls, aged 11 to 15, were on their way home from school with an Israeli army escort when Israeli police arrested them. They were taken to an Israeli police station in Hebron with no adult accompaniment and held for four hours until being handed over to Palestinian police and released.

via Watch: Israeli forces detain 4 teenage girls in south Hebron hills | Maan News Agency.

Texas woman files federal lawsuit after birth in solitary confinement results in baby’s death

The claim further goes on to describe Guerrero’s night in solitary confinement, where she tried in vain to get medical attention all night and ended up delivering a baby that was not breathing and had its umbilical cord wrapped around its neck.

Though shocking, I wish I could say this news is surprising. Given what we know about access to reproductive health care in prison and the criminalization of drug-addicted pregnant women, it really isn’t – it is a mere continuation of the long list of degradations and indignities people suffer when imprisoned. I’ve quoted Cece McDonald on this and before and will do so again: prisons aren’t safe for anybody.

via Texas woman files federal lawsuit after birth in solitary confinement results in baby’s death.

Jimmy Carter’s Call to Action – Women, Religion, Violence and Power – Look to the Stars

“It’s kind of a subtle thing that men enjoy their superiority in getting the best jobs, the best opportunity to go to university and that sort of thing,” says Carter. “Two of the most revered institutions in the United States of America is our university system and our military. Sexual abuse or assaults on campuses in our major universities, like Harvard and Yale and Emery University where I teach, is really horrendous and only four percent of the rapes on college campuses are reported. There are about six times as many reported in civilian life outside of universities, and this is primarily because presidents of colleges and universities and deans and so forth don’t want to bring discredit or a bad reputation on their own institution. So they encourage girls not to report.

“And soon, a few boys on the campus who are students realize that they can commit these crimes with impunity. So they become serial rapists and get away with it. The department of defence found that in the US military alone, 26 thousand sexual assaults took place, and only about 300 actually resulted in anybody being punished. That’s about one percent.

“You see, there’s an aversion to admit what goes on even in our most cherished institutions.”

via Jimmy Carter’s Call to Action – Women, Religion, Violence and Power – Look to the Stars.

The Hindu fundamentalists: request to ban the Muslim call to prayer in India – Fides News Agency

Feeling big after win of fundamentalist to lead India – shame!

The protest follows a series of incidents in Mangalore in recent days, in which groups of thugs threw stones against two mosques. In another incident, some Hindu extremists entered a madrassa (Islamic religious school) in the village of Vittla, shouting slogans of victory. In other cases, the individual Muslim citizens were beaten by radical militants.

via The Hindu fundamentalists: request to ban the Muslim call to prayer in India – Fides News Agency.

Mississippi Judge Accused of Striking Young Black Man, Then Yelling ‘Run, Nigger, Run!’ and being as abusive to a female vendor| Hatewatch

“I do not care if this young man was being a nuisance,” said the first witness, who is white. “I do not care if he were breaking a law, I do not care if he were loitering, but I do care that a man of authority, one that is sworn to protect and serve, was slapping a young man.”

She added that she also saw Weisenberger verbally assault a female vendor at the market, threatening to make her move her car to a distant location before she could unload. When the woman asked him to change his tone, he reportedly replied that he would only deal with her husband, “because he didn’t take orders from a woman.”

The executive director of the state Judicial Commission, Darlene Ballard, told Mitchell that if the allegations are true, they would “violate multiple canons” of the state’s Judicial Code of Conduct.

Former Canton Mayor William Truly, president of the Canton branch of the NAACP, led a press conference Friday denouncing Weisenberger.

“This is 2014, not 1960, where someone could slap a young man and call out, ‘Run, nigger, run,” Truly said. He called on Weisenberger either to simply resign or to step aside from hearing cases until the matter is resolved.

“No citizen should have to face justice before a judge who holds such a high degree of racial animus and hatred,” Truly said.

via Mississippi Judge Accused of Striking Young Black Man, Then Yelling ‘Run, Nigger, Run!’ | Hatewatch.

Rupert Murdoch paper prints picture of Duchess of Cambridge’s bare bottom | Media | theguardian.com

Sick, sick, sick – Rupert Murdoch paper prints picture of Duchess of Cambridge’s bare bottom

Sydney Daily Telegraph criticises ‘ridiculous’ UK media ban as it follows German tabloid Bild in printing controversial image

Daily Mail follows Bild in racing to the bottom

via Rupert Murdoch paper prints picture of Duchess of Cambridge’s bare bottom | Media | theguardian.com.