Last October Ofman International published that:
"Five months after countries pledged to give more than $12bn (£6.9bn) to address the global food emergency, less than $1bn has been given.... The number of malnourished people in the world rose by 44 million in 2008. Nearly one billion people are now going hungry. When you consider the speed of the world's response to the credit crisis, the delay in acting is shocking."
This news by the Word Bank.
Read more at this link with the news given by The Guardian
But, one good news we can say today is that:
The European Parliament: MEPs adopted a compromise agreement between Parliament, Council and Commission allowing for adoption in first reading of the regulation establishing the 1 billion euro food facility.
The report by Gay MITCHELL (EPP-ED, IE) which says that the Commission's proposal for a 1-billion-euro fund to address the food crisis is a major, and very timely, contribution to meeting this urgent challenge. The report sets out that the total financial reference amount for the implementation of this Regulation over the period 2008-2010 will be €1 billion. The legislative resolution was adopted with 561 votes in favour, 24 against and 34 abstentions.
Read more at the European Parliament web site
Read more at the Oxfam web site
martes, 16 de diciembre de 2008
domingo, 19 de octubre de 2008
Good News about death penalty! Iran
According to a statement by Hossein Zabhi, Assistant Attorney General for Judicial Affairs, a recently-issued directive instructs all judicial officials, when passing sentence, to apply the regulations of the Amnesty and Clemency Commission, which would allow the commutation of death sentences of juvenile offenders firstly to life imprisonment, and then in a second stage to 15 years.
In his interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency, Hossein Zabhi referred to all types of crime currently punishable by execution.
Iran was one of last remaining countries in the world that imposes the death penalty on juveniles aged under 18 at the time of the crime.
This news by Amnesty International.
The news by BBC News.
The Guardian October´s report reveals more countries abolishing death penalty
The world is moving closer to the final abolition of the death penalty, according to the latest figures published to coincide with World Day against the Death Penalty yesterday. At present, five countries are responsible for almost all the state executions carried out in the past year.
In his interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency, Hossein Zabhi referred to all types of crime currently punishable by execution.
Iran was one of last remaining countries in the world that imposes the death penalty on juveniles aged under 18 at the time of the crime.
This news by Amnesty International.
The news by BBC News.
The Guardian October´s report reveals more countries abolishing death penalty
The world is moving closer to the final abolition of the death penalty, according to the latest figures published to coincide with World Day against the Death Penalty yesterday. At present, five countries are responsible for almost all the state executions carried out in the past year.
jueves, 25 de septiembre de 2008
UN advises people (western people) to eat less meat in order to tackle global warming.
The UN´s Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.) estimates that 18% of the greenhouse gas production comes from the meat industry. As a comparative data, the transport industry is considered responsible of the 16%.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further. Even he went further by saying that people should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change.
On top of that, most health authorities considered, from long a go, that most western people’s health would improve if there were less meat in their diets.
You can read more on this at:
TheGuardian
NaturalNews
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further. Even he went further by saying that people should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change.
On top of that, most health authorities considered, from long a go, that most western people’s health would improve if there were less meat in their diets.
You can read more on this at:
TheGuardian
NaturalNews
miércoles, 27 de agosto de 2008
Olympic hangover – Self criticism would be seemly for the press
Press release 25 August 2008
Olympic hangover – Self criticism would be seemly for the press
It is hypocrisy of the worst kind, when the press wonders why there hasn’t been more about the human right in China during the Olympics. The truth is, that the 20,000 sports reporters in Beijing were untamable about the sports performances. They have been acting like a bunch of students from a continuation school on a picnic.
China could not dream of a better coverage of the Olympics. Associations to the media coverage during the Olympics in Berlin in 1936 seem obvious. It must be the media’s duty to inform the millions of people who are interested in the Olympics, partly about the sports results, but also about the Olympics being held in a totalitarian dictatorship with a massive violation of the human rights.
The sports journalists have failed totally – critical questions to athletes, the appearing politicians and the Chinese authorities have been almost absent. Even when Ussain Bolt during his 3 legendary races, was wearing an orange bracelet, which could have been a silent signal that there is something wrong with the human rights in China. Maybe it was a coincidence, but it is remarkable that the journalists avoided asking him. Self censorship seems to be looming large.
There have been many actions in Beijing by activists, who have tried to hang up banners etc. They have all been arrested and sent out of the country. Also these actions have only been mentioned sporadically. Many have used orange as a signal color, we don’t know how many, because the journalists, who were supposed to keep an eye on this, have just been interested in sports, and according to IOC rules it’s not allowed to display political symbols, and therefore they can’t tell why they wear orange.
TheColorOrange.net group in Denmark has applied the Chinese authorities for permission to demonstrate in the ‘permitted’ areas. Even though we have sent 10 reminders and personally went to the Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen, they won’t respond to our request for a visa and the permission to legal demonstration. The authorities say that 77 have applied, and 77 have been denied. But it is probably only the top of the iceberg. How many have they ignored totally like us? Why aren’t there any questions about that?
All media have apparently sent one or two journalists to cover the critical part of the Olympics, and that has – of course, triggered some critical on-the-spot reports, but they have been few and sporadic.
Operation successful – the Patient Died. We have to admit that our ambitions to get the athletes and others to use the color orange in front of the cameras to focus on the human rights in China, has only partially succeeded. Even though some athletes, including Ussain Bolt, have been wearing an orange bracelet, the interest from the press has been nearly gone. It is at this point, that we from TheColorOrange.net group have made a mistake. We thought that the sports journalists were interested in other things beside sport, and that they would catch every opportunity to bring a story about athletes, who may have been criticizing China. This confidence in the journalists has appeared to be an Achilles’ heel to our project about using the color orange during the Olympics 2008.
On the other hand, we, the grassroots all over the world have managed to put human rights on the agenda ahead of the Olympics, where most of the articles have had a focus critical to China.
TheColorOrange campaign has been very successful, besides the 16 days where the frenzies Olympic fever was going out of control. All over the world local groups have carried out Orange activities. There have been 270,000 hits on our website, and the Orange project has been mentioned in more than 20,000 media.
“Maybe in the future the color orange will be used as a symbol in defense of human rights, both inside and outside China. So in the end we are satisfied with the project”, says the initiator of the Color Orange, Jens Galschiot, and concludes: “We shut down the project now, but we will leave our website www.TheColorOrange.net in function, so it can be used as inspiration to others, who want to use the color orange as a symbolic color.”
Olympic hangover – Self criticism would be seemly for the press
It is hypocrisy of the worst kind, when the press wonders why there hasn’t been more about the human right in China during the Olympics. The truth is, that the 20,000 sports reporters in Beijing were untamable about the sports performances. They have been acting like a bunch of students from a continuation school on a picnic.
China could not dream of a better coverage of the Olympics. Associations to the media coverage during the Olympics in Berlin in 1936 seem obvious. It must be the media’s duty to inform the millions of people who are interested in the Olympics, partly about the sports results, but also about the Olympics being held in a totalitarian dictatorship with a massive violation of the human rights.
The sports journalists have failed totally – critical questions to athletes, the appearing politicians and the Chinese authorities have been almost absent. Even when Ussain Bolt during his 3 legendary races, was wearing an orange bracelet, which could have been a silent signal that there is something wrong with the human rights in China. Maybe it was a coincidence, but it is remarkable that the journalists avoided asking him. Self censorship seems to be looming large.
There have been many actions in Beijing by activists, who have tried to hang up banners etc. They have all been arrested and sent out of the country. Also these actions have only been mentioned sporadically. Many have used orange as a signal color, we don’t know how many, because the journalists, who were supposed to keep an eye on this, have just been interested in sports, and according to IOC rules it’s not allowed to display political symbols, and therefore they can’t tell why they wear orange.
TheColorOrange.net group in Denmark has applied the Chinese authorities for permission to demonstrate in the ‘permitted’ areas. Even though we have sent 10 reminders and personally went to the Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen, they won’t respond to our request for a visa and the permission to legal demonstration. The authorities say that 77 have applied, and 77 have been denied. But it is probably only the top of the iceberg. How many have they ignored totally like us? Why aren’t there any questions about that?
All media have apparently sent one or two journalists to cover the critical part of the Olympics, and that has – of course, triggered some critical on-the-spot reports, but they have been few and sporadic.
Operation successful – the Patient Died. We have to admit that our ambitions to get the athletes and others to use the color orange in front of the cameras to focus on the human rights in China, has only partially succeeded. Even though some athletes, including Ussain Bolt, have been wearing an orange bracelet, the interest from the press has been nearly gone. It is at this point, that we from TheColorOrange.net group have made a mistake. We thought that the sports journalists were interested in other things beside sport, and that they would catch every opportunity to bring a story about athletes, who may have been criticizing China. This confidence in the journalists has appeared to be an Achilles’ heel to our project about using the color orange during the Olympics 2008.
On the other hand, we, the grassroots all over the world have managed to put human rights on the agenda ahead of the Olympics, where most of the articles have had a focus critical to China.
TheColorOrange campaign has been very successful, besides the 16 days where the frenzies Olympic fever was going out of control. All over the world local groups have carried out Orange activities. There have been 270,000 hits on our website, and the Orange project has been mentioned in more than 20,000 media.
“Maybe in the future the color orange will be used as a symbol in defense of human rights, both inside and outside China. So in the end we are satisfied with the project”, says the initiator of the Color Orange, Jens Galschiot, and concludes: “We shut down the project now, but we will leave our website www.TheColorOrange.net in function, so it can be used as inspiration to others, who want to use the color orange as a symbolic color.”
martes, 29 de julio de 2008
Shahidulnews: Another View
It was a grand opening. The 'Who's Who' of development in Britain was there, championing the noble cause – the Millennium Development Goals, making poverty history.
The Bob Geldof circus could perhaps be pardoned. Geldof is neither a development worker nor someone particularly knowledgeable about the subject. But for the organizers of the 'bash' at the OXO Tower on London's South Bank to produce such a culturally insensitive event was revealing.
Apart from parading a few young black people from Africa, who extolled the virtues of 'development', there was little contribution from the Majority World. The key speakers, typically white Western development workers, spoke of the role that they were playing in saving the poor of the Global South. The token dark-skinned people, having played their part, were soon
forgotten.
The centrepiece of this celebration was an exhibition entitled Eight Ways to Change the World. All the photographs were taken by white Western photographers. No-one questioned the implication of such an exercise. When I confronted one of the organizers he explained that the curator – a director of a Western photographic agency – had decided not to use Majority World photographers because they ‘didn’t have the eye’. The sophisticated visual language possessed by the Western audience was presumably beyond the capacity of a photographer from the South to comprehend, let alone engage with at a creative level.
Full article at: http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/another-viewanother-view-- Shahidul Alamhttp://shahidul.wordpress.comwww.majorityworld.comwww.drik.net
The Bob Geldof circus could perhaps be pardoned. Geldof is neither a development worker nor someone particularly knowledgeable about the subject. But for the organizers of the 'bash' at the OXO Tower on London's South Bank to produce such a culturally insensitive event was revealing.
Apart from parading a few young black people from Africa, who extolled the virtues of 'development', there was little contribution from the Majority World. The key speakers, typically white Western development workers, spoke of the role that they were playing in saving the poor of the Global South. The token dark-skinned people, having played their part, were soon
forgotten.
The centrepiece of this celebration was an exhibition entitled Eight Ways to Change the World. All the photographs were taken by white Western photographers. No-one questioned the implication of such an exercise. When I confronted one of the organizers he explained that the curator – a director of a Western photographic agency – had decided not to use Majority World photographers because they ‘didn’t have the eye’. The sophisticated visual language possessed by the Western audience was presumably beyond the capacity of a photographer from the South to comprehend, let alone engage with at a creative level.
Full article at: http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/another-viewanother-view-- Shahidul Alamhttp://shahidul.wordpress.comwww.majorityworld.comwww.drik.net
miércoles, 25 de junio de 2008
An interesting article about the way the news and photographic images are shown in western countries
I have read and done a resume about what I have considered interesting from the following web page:
http://www.today.ucla.edu/people/070719_majority-world_voice/
Majority world finds its voice in photos
By Ajay Singh
According to one recent study, Alam said, more than 90% of the photographic images about the majority world are taken by non-indigenous photographers, including those working for development organizations and charities raising money from the Western public. Far too many of these images tend to either romanticize the non-Western world or depict it as a hopelessly poor and violent region, said Alam.
Western images either romantic or hopelessly poor.
It's no secret that most humans live in the "majority world," a relatively recent term that refers to the developing world. Acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam has long been concerned that most photographic images of this vast region are taken not by locals but by Western photographers.
A noted human rights activist, Alam is the first Asian to win the prestigious Mother Jones Award, famously given to individuals who "fight like hell for the living." His photographs have been exhibited in some of the world's leading venues, including New York's Museum of Modern Art.
"I have no problem with white, Western photographers working in my country, but it is their exclusivity that worries me," said Alam, who is a major figure in Bangladesh's public, intellectual and cultural life. He added: "I want people to look at the things I look at."
Alam, who has the distinction of first introducing e-mail to Bangladesh, has worked tirelessly to present local realities in the media. In 1989, he launched Drik, a photo agency in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, devoted to showcasing the works of what he calls "invisible photographers ignored by the mainstream world but who can often sense important stories before they are broken by the mainstream media."
Alam's agency, which has a host of major international clients, including United Nations organizations, regularly organizes mobile photo exhibitions in public on such themes as social exclusion, inequality and people's movements. Among Alam's latest initiatives is a Website, majorityworld.com, that champions the cause of indigenous photographers from the majority world.
You can also read more interesting articles at Shahidul Wordpress at: (this link brings you to one of the latest news, that I have also found thrilling and interesting)
http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/dancing-amidst-the-baobabs/
http://www.today.ucla.edu/people/070719_majority-world_voice/
Majority world finds its voice in photos
By Ajay Singh
According to one recent study, Alam said, more than 90% of the photographic images about the majority world are taken by non-indigenous photographers, including those working for development organizations and charities raising money from the Western public. Far too many of these images tend to either romanticize the non-Western world or depict it as a hopelessly poor and violent region, said Alam.
Western images either romantic or hopelessly poor.
It's no secret that most humans live in the "majority world," a relatively recent term that refers to the developing world. Acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam has long been concerned that most photographic images of this vast region are taken not by locals but by Western photographers.
A noted human rights activist, Alam is the first Asian to win the prestigious Mother Jones Award, famously given to individuals who "fight like hell for the living." His photographs have been exhibited in some of the world's leading venues, including New York's Museum of Modern Art.
"I have no problem with white, Western photographers working in my country, but it is their exclusivity that worries me," said Alam, who is a major figure in Bangladesh's public, intellectual and cultural life. He added: "I want people to look at the things I look at."
Alam, who has the distinction of first introducing e-mail to Bangladesh, has worked tirelessly to present local realities in the media. In 1989, he launched Drik, a photo agency in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, devoted to showcasing the works of what he calls "invisible photographers ignored by the mainstream world but who can often sense important stories before they are broken by the mainstream media."
Alam's agency, which has a host of major international clients, including United Nations organizations, regularly organizes mobile photo exhibitions in public on such themes as social exclusion, inequality and people's movements. Among Alam's latest initiatives is a Website, majorityworld.com, that champions the cause of indigenous photographers from the majority world.
You can also read more interesting articles at Shahidul Wordpress at: (this link brings you to one of the latest news, that I have also found thrilling and interesting)
http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/dancing-amidst-the-baobabs/
miércoles, 14 de mayo de 2008
Orange Press Release: The Dutch Olympic Committee fears
TheColorOrange Press Release 13 May
The Dutch Olympic Committee fears that The Netherlands will be taken as Orange hostage in Beijing 2008. In a letter to the Dutch NOC, the initiator of TheColorOrange.net campaign Danish artist Jens Galschiot claims that the Dutch should be proud. As the only ones, they have the opportunity to support the human rights in China without risking being expelled from the stadium. So the artist emphasizes that his campaign by no means is an attack against the Dutch athletes.
Read more at:
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