Romania is home to Europe's largest Roma population and is the setting for some of the most pervasive societal violence and discrimination against Roma. The Twentieth International Roma Day was celebrated in bittersweet events throughout Romania on April 8th. "This day offers the press the chance to reverse the usual negative stereotypes," says Roma journalist Rudolf Moca. Roma Day Event in Apalina
At first glance Obama seems to have softened U.S. policy toward Latin America, especially when compared to his predecessor. There has been no shortage of editorials praising Obama's conciliatory approach while comparing it to FDR's "Good Neighbor" Latin American policy. It's important to remember, however, that FDR's vision of being neighborly meant that the U.S. would merely stop direct military interventions in Latin America, while reserving the right to create and prop up dictators, arm and train unpopular regional militaries and promote economic dominance through free trade.
Alejandro Koehler showed up in Valdivia, Chile last October convinced he had the legal arguments in hand to block a large-scale dam project planned for the nearby San Pedro River. He was wrong. Soon after presenting his case before the regional environmental authority, the then mayor of Panguipulli found himself - along with 20 other critics of the project - being dragged out of the government office by riot gear-clad Carabineros. The Arrest of Mayor Koehler
Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a city of 2.5 million people, once had 11 percent of its population living in absolute poverty, and almost 20 percent of its children going hungry. Then in 1993, a newly elected administration declared food a right of citizenship. The officials said, in effect: If you are too poor to buy food in the market-you are no less a citizen. I am still accountable to you.
In the Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu, India there are 350,000 Dalit people who are under threat of being displaced by a government-approved iron ore company. The people of the area have spoken out against the presence of this facility but at present the government is not backing down.The iron ore facility will not only displace people but also their livestock, temples, homes, educational and health facilities as well as break apart communities that have been existing here foryears.
Any variation of the words "Palestine" and "massacre" are sure to yield millions of results on major search engines on the World Wide Web. These results are largely in reference to hundreds of different dates and events in which numerous Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army or settlers. But references to massacres of similar nature precede the state of Israel itself, whose establishment was secured through the ever-expanding agenda of ethnically cleansing Palestinians.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019