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POPS Murder of Natalia Estemirova ;Will Russia punish the killers? Natasha was well known outside Russia as someone who sought justice and accountability for abuses by all sides to the conflict in Chechnya. We honored her with the Human Rights Watch Defender Award in 2007. Natasha had also been honored by various European institutions: In 2005 she received the European Parliament's Robert Shuman medal and in 2004 was awarded the "Right to Life" award by the Swedish Parliament. She also was the first recipient of the Anna Politkovskaya prize -- named for the journalist who met the same fate. While the international community applauded her work, the Chechen authorities were not as pleased. She risked, and lost, her life for her cause. We are planning a concerted response to ensure that Russia does not let this crime go uninvestigated or forgotten.Shared sentiment with chara and thnx... www.hrw.org
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POPSEuphemisms and Obfuscations A discovery appropriate to some communities of various hucksters, shysters, con artists, manipulators and other interested parties to sound cozy and cuddly and altruistic.Click source for explanation of euphemisms and more.Much more !
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POPSMulti-nationals Big Oil and Timor Sea oil dispute Australia after mobilising the air force to the top end and coming to the brink of war with Indonesia it is of some concern to fair minded people that our actions were not purely alturistic.Aust aid has been extremely generous to our Indonesian neighbours with Billions of $ currently building 2000 schools there but East Timor to my mind seems cheated as with West Papua.Is it robbing peter to pay paul or appeasment to 240,000 000 sacrificing our smaller friendly neighbours.Fair go Aussie,s appeasment doesnt work and Prime minister Rudd is a fool to squander our principles, and ignoring human rights close to home while toadieing off all the way with USA to remote regions ignoring our own back yard.The Pacific Forum hates this US style bullying too.Wake up Australia!
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POPSFaroe Islands Barbarity abounds on the beautiful islands of Faroe. Can we excuse the bloodthirsty slaughter of these intelligent creatures on the basis that animals in food production also suffer, or that it's part of their culture, as some people do? Of course not! Quite apart from the fact that two wrongs do not make a right, if we justified this barbarity on the grounds of culture we'd also have to accept the practice of child marriage, suttee, clitorendectomies etc. Note too that the meat is not eaten...the animals are left to rot because heavy metal contamination renders their meat useless for human consumption according to EU standards for for human food. Aren't we a wonderful species - NOT!
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POPSObamas poor country formative education,blinkers OFF I recently heard Mick Dobson Aboriginal australian spokesman heartened by Obamas intention to embrace issues with the Indiginous Nations issues in USA.I hope like others that he is not blinkered to overseas exploitation of other indiginous cultures and walks the talk globally,, cherry picking will be the cowards way given his pride in statements that he grew up in the "poor" country till he was 10. That country has extremes between rich and poor and justice is often very expensive depending on colour and religion.Melanesians have no respect or rights and due to USA policy in cold war years had their self determination shredded by US and corrupt Sakano,s expansionist ambitions.
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POPSIslamic militants will be shot Australia does not endorse capital punishment but protest are muted in this case.Their lawyers say it is cruel and inhumane...As famous bushranger Ned Kellys last words were "Such is life" The burned maimed holiday makers ,victims did not die immediately either ,if they were more repentant clemency might have gained more traction here..
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POPSU.S. Corporations are Ugly Americans American corporations pay foreign countries for rights to extract oil, gas, and minerals from within their borders. Those governments have done nothing to regulate oil company practices that pollute the environment and otherwise endanger the lives of local residents. The Bush administration, in their typically arrogant, misguided, neocon, "corporations-can-do-no-wrong" attitude, have turned a blind eye to how U.S. corporations (as representatives of our country) have done little to provide for the locals needs and security. The security for these U.S. corporations are local military who use villagers as forced laborers and freely rape local women and children. U.S. corporations, stalwarts of democracy and human rights that they are, also turn a blind eye as long as they can keep their bottom line healthy.
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POPSArms Trade Flows Freely According to US state department figures this week, Iraq has signed more than $3bn worth of arms deals in the past two years. Amnesty estimates that more than 1m small arms have been sold to Iraq since the 2003 invasion and the Iraqi government plans to procure more than 250,000 from the US and China. And the irresponsible war profiteering continues. Russia has agreed to supply 27 helicopters to Sudan, says Amnesty. Last year, Sudan listed its main arms suppliers as China, Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Indonesia, Iran and Malaysia. Some of these weapons are being used by Al Qaeda against U.S. troops. Is there no better reason to halt this illegal/immoral war?
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POPSElderly women sentenced to 're-education' in China Living peacefully in China for over 70 years still will not allow you to ask for permission to protest over the government taking their homes away from them. Police set up protest zones in an apparent attempt to allow protest, or was it just a ruse to bring out would-be protesters so China could jail them?
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POPSWhat are Political Philosophies? # Anarchism fails to minimize coercion because it favors liberty's theoretical inviolability over its practical protection. Anarchism fails to * Prevent coercion by strong persons and aggressive foreign states * Prevent aggressive use or pollution of unowned resources * Prevent unfair treatment of creditors by bankrupt debtors * Regulate natural monopolies * Prevent anti-competitive artificial monopolies * Provide aid and sustenance to the indigent * Prevent torture and extinction of organisms
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POPSWhy do displays of compassion differ between East and West?
I am trying to understand A bit more: "In many Asian countries, favors invariably create obligations, which is perhaps why people are sometimes disinclined to interfere in the problems of others. You are obliged to take care of your family, your friends, or even your fellow countrymen. But the idea of universal charity is too abstract, and smacks of the kind of unwelcome interference that Western imperialists — and the Christian missionaries who followed them — practiced in the East for too long. The notion of "Asian values," promoted mostly by Singaporean official scribes, was partly a critique of universalist Western claims. Asians, according to this theory, have their own values, which include thrift, deference to authority, the sacrifice of individual to collective interests, and the belief that countries should not stick their noses into others' affairs. Hence, the hesitant response of Southeast Asian governments — and public opinion — to the Burmese disaster." see source
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POPSThe World's Worst Web Censors - Reporters Without Borders the last 6 countries in order of pics are: Saudi Arabia, Turkemenistan, Vietnam, North Korea, Syria, Uzbekistan. in source you can slide on, every pic got a short story on this specific state & it`s specific policy of internet censorship. Reporters without Borders Unite !! new kind of union?.. ))
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POPSWhen does waterboarding become just? Part of a statement by Malcolm Wrightson Nance, former member of the U.S. military intelligence community, prepared for his testimony at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on Thursday, Nov. 8. Another excerpt: But, does the ultimate goal of protecting America require us to adopt policies that shift our mindset from righteousness and self-defense to covert cruelty? Does protecting America "at all costs" mean sacrificing the Constitution, our laws and the Bill of Rights in order to save it? I do not believe that. The attacks of September 11 were horrific, but they did not give us the right to destroy our moral fabric as a nation or to reverse a course that for two hundred years led the world towards democracy, prosperity and guaranteed the rights of billions to live in peace.
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POPS14 Indicators of Fascism I believe I've posted this before but for those who haven't seen it here it is again. Disturbingly similar to the present Bush administration. Can we wait till '08?
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