In Copenhagen, President Barack Obama made his pathetically inadequate proposal to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent of 2005 levels by 2020, which in essence will amount to driving off the environmental cliff at 83 miles per hour rather than 100 miles per hour.
Source: The Independent
At first glance, the Copenhagen climate summit seems like a Salvador Dali dreamscape. I just saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu being followed by a swarm of Japanese students who were dressed as aliens and carrying signs saying "Take Me To Your Leader" and "Is Your Species Crazy?". Before that, a group of angry black-clad teenage protesters who were carrying spray cans started quoting statistics to me about how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can safely absorb. (It’s 350 parts per million they pointed out, before sucking their teeth.) Before that, I saw a couple in a pantomime cow costume being attacked by the police, who accused them of throwing stones with their hooves.
In Burlington, Vermont over 100 people gathered on December 12 to say "No more war in Afghanistan" and to denounce Barack Obama's 30,000 person troop surge to Afghanistan. The rally took place one day after 350 members of the Vermont National Guard departed for training before deployment to Afghanistan early next year. Vermont is sending more than 1,500 National Guards people to Afghanistan - the largest deployment of Vermont's National Guard since World War II. Joseph Gainza, VT Action for Peace
As in most other areas of the world, Hungarians feel that the H1N1 virus is nothing more than a scare campaign in order to help generate profits for multinational pharmaceutical corporations. Sadly, this view is often reinforced by some sobering facts.
Concerned over the supply of oil to the US and a supposed need to continue the global 'War on Terror', President Barack Obama has essentially maintained the militarised approach to Africa that was the hallmark of his immediate predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The escalation of AFRICOM (United States African Command) activities underlines a troubling commitment to an approach based on might and dominance, one entirely at the expense of promoting sustainable economic development and democracy.
Source: The New Internationalist
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Photo by: Ana Areanas |
Like the wall that separates the Israeli and Palestinian populations in the West Bank, the Berm has become a potent symbol of the occupation and focus for protests. Last April 19-year-old Ibrahim Hussein Leibeit was taking part in one of the frequent marches to the wall organized by Saharawis living in the refugee camps. In a symbolic gesture, Ibrahim was attempting to get close enough to the wall to throw a pebble to the other side when he trod on a land mine. He lost his right leg below the knee and in the following months has become something of a hero to the Saharawi cause.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019