Category Archives: Viva!

Donald Trump: 73 per cent of people in poll say he should be banned from entering Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Almost 10,000 people have voted in a poll asking if Donald Trump should be banned from entering Australia, with a whopping 73 per cent of them saying he should be denied entry.

Source: Donald Trump: 73 per cent of people in poll say he should be banned from entering Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Knesset attacks Arab members for visiting Palestinian martyr families

PNN/Jerusalem

Earlier this week, Knesset members (MK) of the Joint (Arab) List Hanin Zoabi,  Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas visited the families of some Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupation forces.

This Friday they spoke out to defend themselves once that now, they are being attacked by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by the majority of the Israeli political spectrum.

Their visit came after a request from the relatives of some Palestinians killed by the IOF whom bodies were not return to them.

“We are defending national and human dignity. It is our duty and our right. The real crime is holding onto bodies. It is our duty to do our utmost to get the bodies released,” MK Hanin Zoabi wrote in Arabic on her Facebook page on Friday.

Zoabi was referring to Israel’s policy of delaying the return of bodies of Palestinians killed by the IOF, in an effort to prevent their families to give them proper funerals.

Ghattas also took to Facebook on Friday to defend their actions, accusing Israel of “fascism,”:

“When the trumpets of fascism incite against us, it means that we are protecting human values. We condemn the incitement against party members [as they] perform their duty to help families to return the bodies of their children, which the Israeli authorities hold contrary to international laws and values.”

According to the Israeli media, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein filed complaints with Knesset’s Ethics Committee against the three of them.

“Israeli MKs who visit the families of terrorists who murdered Jews are not worthy of their Knesset seat. I have asked the Knesset speaker to see what actions can be taken against them over this disgrace,” Netanyahu said Thursday.

Yuli Edelstein stated that for him “the meeting constituted outright incitement and encouragement to commit murder. This meeting was a gross infringement against the Knesset and the State of Israel. I hope the High Court of Justice remembers this the next time it debates petitions seeking to disqualify potential MKs.”

Other Knesset members strongly condemned the meeting, and urged both the Ethics Committee and the Attorney General’s Office to censure Zoabi, Zahalka and Ghattas.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said:

“The Arab MKs are not missing an opportunity to support terrorism. They harm first and foremost their own public, they represent nothing and promote nothing except supporting terrorism and actively working against the State of Israel. The Arab public is the first that should come out against its representatives who act as agents of terrorism and not as its representatives in the Knesset.”

As stated by the Israeli news outlet the Jerusalem Post, if the Israeli Ethics Committee determines the visits of the three MKs were a violation, it can sanction them with suspensions of up to six months from all Knesset activity but voting – a punishment Zoabi received in the past for comments sympathizing with Hamas during Operation Protective Edge (2014 assault on the Gaza Strip) – or a new punishment that has yet to be used, docking their salaries.

 

 

 

 

More drinking water contamination linked to the oil and gas industry in Texas and Pennsylvania

Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.

Two recent drinking water investigations in Texas show dangerous levels of contamination.

The larger study tested 550 water samples collected from public and private water wells in the north Texas Barnett Shale region over a three-year period and found that the closer a water well is to a fracked gas well, the higher the concentration of contaminants including arsenic, selenium, strontium, and barium. This investigation also found “alarming” levels of benzene, a known carcinogen.

A smaller study in in south Texas sampled water quality in 80 homes in the Eagle Ford shale region. Of the 80 samples, 20 (25%) showed contamination with high levels of bromide. According to the scientist who conducted the investigation: “almost exclusively those were found within one kilometer of the drilling sites.” The sampling also found a few occurrences of volatile organic compounds that are dangerous to human health.

Bromide is known to be found in oil and gas wastewater, and when combined with chlorine, which is often used in drinking water disinfection, it can form highly toxic byproducts known as trihalomethanes.

In Pennsylvania, a 2015 report issued by Public Herald, a non-profit team of journalists, looked at transparency and procedural problems at the Pennsylvania Department of the Environment by reviewing hundreds of files where water had been contaminated. Back in 2014 I blogged about 248 cases in Pennsylvania where oil and gas companies contaminated private drinking water supplies. Public Herald looked at those and others. Among other things, the report found:

  • DEP used post-drilling water tests to determine contamination in some cases, instead of baseline water tests.
  • DEP never issued determination letters on some cases.
  • DEP does not issue determination letters when a homeowner is working to resolve the issue directly with the oil and gas company, so there are no public records of contamination for those cases.
  • Files were destroyed after only five years.
  • DEP issued different conclusions to homes near each other with similar complaints.

The report includes valuable analysis and offers a roadmap for state regulators to improve their complaint and enforcement process.

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A Hate Letter to the Taliban

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Oh, horrid people, I hope your Taliban houses lose their roofs
May the bloody nights of your city be always without magic.
Your ignorant generation has taken our lives
Our dearest ones with a light in their eyes have become orphaned.
Oh, thoughtless people who make our mothers taste the death of their loved ones.
Must the youth always have crying eyes to the death?
Can you think of nothing to do besides egging on atrocities?
Your generation is as unproductive as a fruitless tree.
You, who bomb our schools, our cities, our bazaars,
All you do is destroy our country.

By Fariba H.

Photo by RichardBH

Reza Gul, an Innocent Bird in a Violent Marriage

reza-gul-blurred-photo

Editor’s note: Reza Gul was expected to be taken to Turkey for reconstructive surgery after her husband attacked her with a knife on January 19, 2016 in the remote northern province of Faryab, which borders Turkmenistan. 

Once again, in our land of horror, a young Afghan woman was beaten many times by her husband until she finally lost her nose when he attacked her with a knife.

Reza Gul is like an innocent bird, married for six years and now, at twenty, she is a mother in the Shar Shar village in the Ghormach district of Faryab province. Her husband attacked her and sliced off her nose. She was taken to hospital, while he fled to a nearby Taliban-dominated village.

Reza Gul endured violence so many times. At an age when another girl would still be studying at school, she suffered terrible abuse while raising a child without the help of a husband.

There are many female victims of violence in a similar situation in my country. The Human Rights Commission reported that violence against women in Afghanistan increased seven percent in a six-month period from late March to September 2015 compared with the same months a year earlier. Human Rights Commissioner Qadria Haq Parast said that in that period 2,579 cases of violence against women were documented. This included 190 murdered women.

Why are so many women facing violence in their homes? Why does the violence increase day by day despite all of the organizations and a women’s ministry who work against violence? Does the government pay attention? Is it a lack of security? Are the organizations not doing the work they should? These are questions for the authorities to answer.

I ask all men who commit these acts against women: Would you be able to tolerate the same pain you inflict on your wife or daughter? Can you live without your nose, ear, lips, or fingers? How dare you commit this violence against women? Do you think they are not humans? Even animals do not hurt their co-gender.

If you love your wife and daughter, you will feel the real happiness of life. If you respect them, they will worship you. Being a human being is not so difficult. You lose nothing by acting humane.

My innocent sister Reza Gul, you are not alone. I feel your pain with my body and soul. I wish I could have saved you from your husband but I promise to support your power if you raise your voice. Do not be quiet. Fight for your rights. We are with you. You deserve all the beautiful things in the world. I love you, my innocent bird!

By Afsana

Photo by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission

Birzeit University ranked top Palestinian and 31st across the Arab World

Based on the volume of scientific material posted on the internet; the excellence of its content and the number of external links referencing the material, Birzeit University has climbed up the Webometrics Ranking and is now ranked 1st in Palestine and 31st in the Arab world, as of January 2016.

Globally, Birzeit ranked 2,140 amongst 24,000 universities worldwide. Based on this data, Birzeit now ranks in the top 3 percent in the Arab world and top 10 percent globally.

The survey used a composite ranking formula to evaluate universities, combining numerous criteria that include the number of links to the university’s website; the number of web pages published by the university; the number of academic publications on the internet; and the citation record of the University’s academic publications.

“This evaluation is live evidence of the University’s hard work in investing in research, innovation and scientific advancement. These are our core activities, enabling us to develop differentiated and effective academic systems, and making it possible for our country – Palestine – to join the global knowledge society and compete in sophisticated knowledge economies,” said Professor Abu Hijleh, University President.

According to Dr. Talal Shahwan, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, Webometrics can reveal useful information about a university’s scientific exposure to local and international communities through the web, and its accomplishments and research excellence. He added that an effective presence on the web is vital for the dissemination of academic knowledge and scientific material.

Similarly, Birzeit University has also been classified as the top Palestinian university by the QS Ranking, which also placed Birzeit in the 61-70 cohort amongst Arab universities.

The Webometric Ranking was initiated by a research group affiliated to the Spanish National Research Council, the largest public research body in Spain. This ranking is based on the quantitative analysis of internet and web contents specifically related to the process of generating and communicating scientific knowledge. The purpose of Webometric Ranking is to promote global access to academic knowledge produced by universities and institutions worldwide.