Blog

• Oct 24 2008

  To be aware

  posted by Raquel Lins

  - 40,000 Newly Displaced in Darfur -
  
  "Some 40,000 civilians have been displaced in Darfur in the past two months. Khartoum is denying United Nations allegations that more than 40,000 people were displaced during recent hostilities in the war-torn Darfur province.
  
  Last week the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Darfur, Gregory Alex, said many of these newly displaced people were living in the desert without shelter and in terrible conditions."
  
  
  
  - Thirty countries are at risk of violating the United Nations arms embargo on Darfur -
  
  "By either directly or indirectly exporting arms to Sudan, a human rights group said in a report published on Tuesday.
  
  While many of the countries whose weapons are being sent to Sudan by third parties claim they are investigating the situation and working to stop the transfers, they are falling short of the U.N. embargo's requirement that countries must take all possible measures to prevent arms from entering Darfur, the Human Rights First report said.
  
  The report, divided the countries into two categories:
  
  direct suppliers and producers.
  
  *Direct Suppliers
  
  Iran and Russia joined China, India and eight other states in supplying weapons directly to Sudan despite a U.N. embargo that has been in effect since 2004.
  
  China's position as Khartoum's top arms supplier is well known and has long been criticized by human rights activists and Western governments. Other suspected weapons suppliers, such as Iran, have rarely been mentioned.
  
  *Weapons Producers
  
  The report identified several Western countries, including the United States, Switzerland, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, based on Sudan's claims that their arms ended up in Sudan.
  
  The U.S.-based activist group Human Rights First said it used public databases to compile the data on weapons transfers to Sudan.
  
  [Originally posted by http://www.myspace.com/googledarfur]
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  [World Crisis]Gordon Brown’s solution : “ethical” markets
  
  From the Socialism Or Your Money Back blog[http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/]
  
  Writing in today's Daily Torygraph, he begins by buttering up his Tory readers assuring them that he too is pro-capitalist:
  
  "I admire the market's ability to release the dynamism and enterprise of people and so this new Labour government is pro-business and pro-markets and always will be."
  
  He then goes on to say that he doesn't believe in "unbridled free markets" (a rather odd term since if something is "free" then surely it is "unbridled" ?). So he wants to "bridle" free-market capitalism (not that he dares to use the c-word) . . . by ethics, those his father preached as a Presbyterian minister in the local kirk: "fairness, stewardship cooperation" :
  
  "Markets work best when underpinned by an ethic of fairness. The institutions of the market place need to be founded on the ethic of stewardship. And this new interdependent global economy cannot work for the world's people without an ethic of cooperation."
  
  Markets certainly can and do work without being underpinned by any "ethic" save that of getting the best price and making the most money. They are completely impersonal and work according to the principles of "can't pay, can't have" and "no profit, no production". If Brown thinks his appeal to market operators to apply Presbyterian ethics in their dealings will be heeded he's just a fool. How in fact this man has achieved a reputation for being a financial and economic genius is hard to understand. His claim to have engineered the end of boom-and-bust cycles has just blown up in his face as Britain and the rest of the world are now faced with the biggest bust for 80 years. And now he is proposing "ethical markets" as the way out.
  
  His "ethical market economy" will go down in history as a joke to rival the "ethical foreign policy" preached by his fellow Scotsman, the late Robin Cook.
  
  *****************************************************
  World Bank: Storm-struck Haiti at 'tipping point'
  
  By JONATHAN M. KATZ –
  
  (but they going to suck the last penney out of Haiti they can get any way)
  
  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned Wednesday that Haiti is at a "tipping point" after a spate of destructive tropical storms, but offered no immediate debt relief for the chronically impoverished country.
  
  Zoellick, ending a three-day visit, pledged long-term help to keep the desperately poor Caribbean nation from falling deeper into crisis but said the bank will not forgive its share of Haiti's US$1.7 billion in foreign debt for at least seven months.
  
  Nearly 800 people were confirmed dead after four devastating storms hit Haiti in August and September. Roads and bridges washed out and more than half the upcoming harvest was destroyed, worsening a hunger crisis that had already helped fuel riots several months before.
  
  Critics say forcing Haiti to keep making debt payments of more than US$1 million a week will hurt recovery efforts and further deplete meager resources in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
  
  "It's a humanitarian disaster down there. It's kind of ridiculous that Haiti has to go through bureaucratic hoops," said Dan Beeton of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. "There's no reason these institutions can't just say, 'OK, cancel it now.'"
  
  Zoellick said Wednesday that Haiti is on track to have its World Bank debt canceled by mid-2009 once it has met qualifications such as addressing corruption and increasing public investment, but that debt cancellation is up to the bank's shareholders.
  
  "Frankly, the issue is not just debt. In this case, given the interest payments it's a very small sum of money, and would be forgiven anyway over time. The key is to try and get the resources," he said.
  
  Zoellick's first visit to Haiti included a closed meeting with President Rene Preval and a helicopter tour of the flood-ravaged city of Gonaives, where he said the devastation "makes your eyes pop."
  
  "I sense that Haiti is at a tipping point. It could go either way," Zoellick said. "We have to deal with the immediate needs, to deal with the social instability, but there's also a chance to build."
  
  He stressed the need for infrastructure and watershed-management projects to prevent similar damage from future storms in Haiti, where rampant deforestation has denuded its hills and left it susceptible to deadly floods.
  
  The World Bank has pledged US$25 million for emergency storm-relief grants that are to be approved next month. Millions more have been invested in private companies, and a US$10 million grant was approved earlier for relief from the food crisis.
  
  But Haiti owes far more in debt to multilateral organizations, including US$540 million to the World Bank. It is slated to pay US$54 million in debt servicing in the next fiscal year, even after some debt relief and rescheduling, the World Bank said.
  
  From The AP
  [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iqC6OA_PgaAefE9M81-_7GlTsshQD93VS2800]
  
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  RAISE Hope for Congo[Reported by Genocide Intervention Newtwork]
  
  Since 1996, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has played host to the world's deadliest conflict since World War II. More than 5.4 million people have died from the ravaging effects of war and its aftermath. Today, eastern Congo is caught in an epidemic of appalling sexual violence, as militias use rape as a military tactic to destroy communities and exert control over natural resources. The conflict has been marked by cycles of escalation, and the international response has been wholly inadequate.
  
  Congolese women and girls in particular bear the vicious brunt of this crisis. Indeed, eastern Congo right now is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or a girl. Used as a weapon of war, sexual violence and rape exist on a scale seen nowhere else in the world. Often successful in its intent to destroy and exterminate, rape is causing the destruction of women, their families, and their communities. Congo's women are the backbone of Congolese society and are the country's best, brightest hope. Yet efforts to protect women and girls in the Congo are failing spectacularly.
  
  With violence and atrocities again on the rise again, the Enough Project launched a multifaceted national campaign this week called RAISE Hope for Congo. Its mission: to protect and empower Congo's women and girls.
  
  You can raise your voice and become an activist to help end the suffering of women and girls in eastern Congo. The campaign already has several celebrity activists including Emile Hirsh, Mia Farrow, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Joel Madden, Robin Wright Penn, and Dayle Haddon. Check out the campaign's website at www.raisehopeforcongo to find out what they are doing to RAISE Hope for Congo. You can take action today by signing our petition to the future president, and urge your member of Congress to support I-VAWA, an important piece of legislation to end violence against women around the world.
  
  You can take action here:http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/