The "other" Nobel

Yes, you read that correctly!   There are alternative Nobels - just awarded yesterday.  BBC News reports:

"Chinese solar power pioneer Huang Ming is one of four winners of the 2011 Right Livelihood Awards, sometimes also called the alternative Nobel prize.

Mr Huang was honoured for developing "cutting-edge technologies for harnessing solar energy".

Also honoured were Chadian human rights activist Jacqueline Moudeina, Spain-based farmers' advocacy group Grain and US midwifery educator Ina May Gaskin.

The awards are granted by a Sweden-based foundation.

They were founded in 1980 by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull to recognise work he felt was being ignored by the Nobel Foundation.

In a statement, the Right Livelihood Awards Foundation said this year's winners "turn the spotlight on solutions to global wrongs".

Mr Huang received the honorary award while the other three won 50,000 euros (£43,000; $68,000) each.

Ms Moudeina was cited "for her tireless efforts at great personal risk to win justice for the victims of the former dictatorship in Chad and to increase awareness and observance of human rights in Africa".

She has worked to represent the victims of Chad's former President, Hissene Habre, who is blamed for killing and torturing tens of thousands of opponents between 1982 and 1990, charges he denies.

He has been sentenced to death in Chad but has been living in Senegal since he was ousted in 1990.

Grain, international non-profit organisation supporting small farmers and rural communities in the developing world was lauded for "their worldwide work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities and to expose the massive purchases of farmland by foreign financial interests", the foundation's citation said.

And the foundation said Ina May Gaskin was recognised for "her lifelong work to promote natural childbirth methods in a society where medicated deliveries and caesarean sections are the norm".

Your mood.....by the hour!

Mining technology has provided some intriguing info......our mood over the 24 hour day.

"However grumpy people are when they wake up, and whether they stumble to their feet in Madrid, Mexico City or Minnetonka, Minn., they tend to brighten by breakfast time and feel their moods taper gradually to a low in the late afternoon, before rallying again near bedtime, a large-scale study of posts on the social media site Twitter found.

Drawing on messages posted by more than two million people in 84 countries, researchers discovered that the emotional tone of people’s messages followed a similar pattern not only through the day but also through the week and the changing seasons. The new analysis suggests that our moods are driven in part by a shared underlying biological rhythm that transcends culture and environment.

The report, by sociologists at Cornell University and appearing in the journal Science, is the first cross-cultural study of daily mood rhythms in the average person using such text analysis. Previous studies have also mined the mountains of data pouring into social media sites, chat rooms, blogs and elsewhere on the Internet, but looked at collective moods over broader periods of time, in different time zones or during holidays."

Drones as part of war

Reading this piece "As the Drone Flies" by Ralph Nader on counterpunch highlights how the nature and extent of war is changing - and with potential diabolical ramifications. 

"The fast developing predator drone technology, officially called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, is becoming so dominant and so beyond any restraining framework of law or ethics, that its use by the U.S. government around the world may invite a horrific blowback.

First some background. The Pentagon has about 7,000 aerial drones. Ten years ago there were less than 50. According to the website longwarjournal.com, they have destroyed about 1900 insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal regions. How these fighters are so clearly distinguished from civilians in those mountain areas is not clear.

Nor is it clear how or from whom the government gets such “precise” information about the guerilla leaders’ whereabouts night and day. The drones are beyond any counterattack—flying often at 50,000 feet. But the Air Force has recognized that a third of the Predators have crashed by themselves.

Compared to mass transit, housing, energy technology, infection control, food and drug safety, the innovation in the world of drones is incredible. Coming soon are hummingbird sized drones, submersible drones and software driven autonomous UAVs. The Washington Post described these inventions as “aircraft [that] would hunt, identify and fire at [the] enemy—all on its own.” It is called “lethal autonomy” in the trade.

Military ethicists and legal experts inside and outside the government are debating how far UAVs can go and still stay within what one imaginative booster, Ronald C. Arkin, called international humanitarian law and the rules of engagement. Concerns over restraint can already be considered academic. Drones are going anywhere their governors want them to go already—Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and countries in North Africa to name a few known jurisdictions."
  

Your mobile [aka cell] funding war in the Congo?

Women in the Congo live under the threat of rape by armed gangs who take over mines and sell precious metals to electronics firms




 From The Telegraph [UK]:

 "Insurgents in the central African state are earning up to £118 million every year by selling four so-called “blood minerals” that are vital in making electronic goods.

Warlords take over the mineral mines by systematically raping women and murdering men, and now a pressure group is asking British consumers to sign a petition demanding a ban on the use of metals sourced from Congo."


****


"The worldwide demand for gold, tantalum, tungsten and tin for use in mobiles, laptops, MP3 players and games consoles is driving up the price for the metals and making them a highly-prized commodity for rebels in mineral-rich Congo.

Rape is used by the rebels to drive out mine owners because, in the words of Amnesty International, "rape is cheaper than bullets".

Almost 5.5 million people are estimated to have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in 1998."

With almost 7 billion of us.....a global agenda for the future

There isn't all that much positive which can be said about the United Nations, but its Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, raises the critical issue that the world must have an agenda to tackle the world's problems as we approach the birth of the 7 millionth amongst us.

"Late next month, a child will be born – the 7th billion citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born. We do know that the baby will enter a world of vast and unpredictable change – environmental, economic, geopolitical, technological, and demographic.

The world’s population has tripled since the United Nations was created in 1945. And our numbers keep growing, with corresponding pressures on land, energy, food, and water. The global economy is generating pressures as well: rising joblessness, widening social inequalities, and the emergence of new economic powers.

These trends link the fate and future of today’s seven billion people as never before. No nation alone can solve the great global challenges of the twenty-first century. International cooperation is a universal need."

Climate change wreaks havoc

As is so typical the media has hardly given any coverage to the fact of scientists saying the widespread floods in Pakistan are a result of climate change - let alone the devastation caused to the local populace.

"Environmentalists are blaming climate change for the unprecedented massive monsoon rains in Pakistan, which so far this year have affected eight million people, claiming 350 lives and damaging 1.3 million homes.

Over the past month, the country's southern region has received the highest monsoon rains ever recorded, local metrological experts confirm.

In August, the southern parts of the country received 270 percent above-normal monsoon rains. And in September, the monsoons rains were 1,170 percent above normal, says Dr. Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, Adviser Climate Affairs.
 

The Sindh province, where six million acres of land were inundated in current floods, had experienced severe drought conditions before the monsoon season and had not received any rainfall at all during the past 12 months.

Aid agencies are scrambling to help the multitude of flood victims - more than 1.5 million people are living in temporary camps.

Pakistan has witnessed swift climate change because of rising temperature and flooding downpours in the past two years. Climate experts consider this unexpected change as a part of broader regional climate changes also happening in the neighboring countries."

Iraq pretty much still a basket case

Iraq is now off, as it were, off the air and radar.    The media and politicians are concentrating on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and other "hot" spots.    

The public might be forgiven in thinking that things have battened down in Iraq.    The International Crisis Group would suggest otherwise.

"By 2009, a combination of factors allowed the state to reassert itself. The U.S. surge (2007-2009) was an important initial factor in improving security, but insofar as institutions were concerned, the rebuilt security forces sufficiently enhanced safety to enable officials to go back to work without protection or assistance from the U.S. military. Today judges are protected by interior ministry forces. The Council of Representatives (parliament) is reliant solely on local police and private contractors for its security. The state has resumed most of its functions.

Despite this improved environment, public services continue to be plagued by severe deficiencies, notably widespread corruption, which spread like a virus throughout state institutions during the years of lawlessness that prevailed until 2008. One of the major causes of this depressing state of affairs is the state’s failing oversight framework, which has allowed successive governments to operate unchecked. The 2005 constitution and the existing legal framework require a number of institutions – the Board of Supreme Audit, the Integrity Commission, the Inspectors General, parliament and the courts – to monitor government operations. Yet, none of these institutions has been able to assert itself in the face of government interference, intransigence and manipulation, a deficient legal framework and ongoing threats of violence.

***

"Meanwhile, the judicial system (in particular the Federal Supreme Court, supposedly the arbiter of all constitutional disputes) has been highly vulnerable to political pressure. It decided a number of high-profile disputes in a way that gave the Maliki government a freer hand to govern as it pleases, unrestrained by institutional checks.

The impact is palpable: billions of dollars have been embezzled from state coffers, owing mostly to gaps in public procurement; parties treat ministries like private bank accounts; and nepotism, bribery and embezzlement thrive. Partly as a result, living standards languish, even paling in comparison with the country’s own recent past. This applies to practically all aspects of life, including the health, education and electricity sectors, all of which underperform despite marked budget increases. Also of great concern has been the deterioration in environmental conditions, especially an alarming increase in dust storms and desertification. Pervasive corruption has impeded the state’s capacity to deal with these problems.

If corruption has taken root, it is not because of a lack of opportunities for reform. Technical experts have excelled in presenting workable proposals, but almost none have been adopted. Because of its deficient framework, and also because of government obstruction, parliament has been unable to pass any of the legislative reforms that have been on the table since at least 2007. These include, among others, a law that would force political parties to disclose their financial interests; rules that would improve the oversight institution’s performance; and a law that would protect the Supreme Court’s independence. The few reforms that have been adopted restate the existing framework’s deficiencies and will not significantly improve the state’s performance. Until these, as well as other, actions are taken, the government will continue to operate unchecked, bringing with it the type of chronic abuse, rampant corruption and growing authoritarianism that is the inevitable result of failing oversight."

Some "world" Tony Blair inhabits

For an ex PM Tony Blair is doing very nicely, thank you.    No less than 7 homes, etc.   

"Since resigning in June 2007, Tony Blair has financially enriched himself more than any previous ex-prime minister. Reporter Peter Oborne reveals some of the sources of his new-found wealth, much of which comes from the Middle East.

On the day Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister, he was appointed the official representative Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East. By January 2009 he had set up Tony Blair Associates - his international consultancy - which handles multi-million-pound contracts in the Middle East. It is so secretive we don't know all the locations in which they do business.

Dispatches shows that at the same time as Blair is visiting Middle East leaders in his Quartet role he is receiving vast sums from some of them. If Blair represented the UK government, the EU, the IMF, the UN or the World Bank, this would not be permitted.

He would also have to declare his financial interests and be absolutely transparent about his financial dealings. But no such stringent rules govern the Quartet envoy.

However, he could opt to abide by the rules and principles of public life. They were introduced by John Major, and Tony Blair endorsed and strengthened them for all holders of public office - but chooses not to himself."

Go here to view a British Channel 4 TV documentary on Blair.

What goes around.....

Reading this piece from CommonDreams it is hardly surprising that what the Americans have been doing - and not doing! - at Gitmo has come back to bite its own citizens.

"What the coverage of American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal getting released from prison in Iran often leaves out: When they complained of their treatment, how often their guards cited the "comparable conditions" facing detainees in Guantanamo and CIA prisons around the world. Their full statements here.


"In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay. They would remind us of CIA prisons in other parts of the world, and the conditions that Iranians and others experience in prisons in the U.S. We do not believe that such human rights violations on the part of our government justify what has been done to us. Not for a moment. However, we do believe that these actions on the part of the U.S. provide an excuse for other governments, including the government of Iran, to act in kind."

For another prospective, and angle, on the Americans' detention in Iran, Glen Greenwald, in Salon in "What media coverage omits about U.S. hikers released by Iran":


"Their story deserves the attention it is getting, and Iran deserves the criticism.  But the first duty of the American "watchdog media" should be highlighting the abuses of the U.S. Government, not those of other, already-hated regimes on the other side of the world.  Instead, the abuses at home are routinely suppressed while those in the Hated Nations are endlessly touted.  There have been thousands of people released after being held for years and years in U.S. detention despite having done nothing wrong.  Many were tortured, and many were kept imprisoned despite U.S. government knowledge of their innocence.  Have you ever seen anything close to this level of media attention being devoted to their plight, to hearing how America's lawless detention of them for years -- often on a strange island, thousands of miles away from everything they know -- and its systematic denial of any legal redress, devastated their families and destroyed their lives?"

DIY internet coming your way

Technology just keeps on changing and challenging us on a daily basis.....

The internet has the potential to be used to positive effect as also for repressive purposes.   Just reflect on this piece "Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets".

"Computer networks proved their organizing power during the recent uprisings in the Middle East, in which Facebook pages amplified street protests that toppled dictators. But those same networks showed their weaknesses as well, such as when the Egyptian government walled off most of its citizens from the Internet in an attempt to silence protesters.

That has led scholars and activists increasingly to consider the Internet's wiring as a disputed political frontier.

For example, one weekend each month, a small group of computer programmers gathers at a residence here to build a homemade Internet—named Project Byzantium—that could go online if parts of the current global Internet becomes blocked by a repressive government."

Targetting and profiling

Scary stuff.....even in the country of the free and the brave and a Constitution which is "generous" in interpreting what constitutes free speech.    It looks like profiling and targeting one group of the population for scrutiny is alive and well in New York.

"What prevents government from singling out a religious or political group for heightened, invasive surveillance and coercive recruitment into the ranks of state informants? In the Big Apple, the answer seems to be, not much.

In August, the Associated Press’s Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman reported that the NYPD, with training and support from the CIA, has developed an extensive network of informants, long-term undercover officers and agents provocateurs targeting New York’s Muslim communities.

A so-called “Demographic Unit” and a “Terrorist Interdiction Unit” within the New York Police Department (NYPD) deployed “mosque crawlers” and “rakers” to trawl Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities to “rake the coals, looking for hot spots.” Allegedly, these units have singled out businesses and civil associations for monitoring based on citizens’ First Amendment–protected speech. And they and exploit arrest and charging discretion powers to “leverage” people from those communities into becoming informants against their friends and neighbors."

It's pretty obvious who is calling the tune.....and blow the Palestinians

IPS puts the speech of Obama, in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict, to the UN General Assembly the other day, into context  - with the Palestinians yet again clearly not on the US radar.     My, what the support of the Israel Lobby and the need for prospective Jewish voters at next year's presidential election can do!   One might have thought that Obama would have been a tad more astute in not trying to further alienate the Arab world.    One thing is clear.     The Americans cannot sit at any negotiating table and be seen as anything like neutral or even-handed. 

"The right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could not be more pleased.

Not only did the allegedly most "anti-Israel" president ever repeat, for the nth time, that "America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakeable," but also made crystal clear that Washington will veto any Palestinian application to the U.N. Security Council for statehood in his speech this week to the U.N. General Assembly.

Not once did he refer to Jewish "settlements" on Palestinian lands; nor did he even use the word "occupied" - or any declension of that word - to describe those lands and their people in an address that was largely, if ironically, devoted to celebrating this year's Arab struggles to end autocratic rule in their region.

Nor was there a word about the plight of the still-besieged population of Gaza, or about the "1967 borders" as being the basis for any eventual two-state solution, a formula to which Netanyahu and his U.S. allies vehemently objected much to the consternation and exasperation of the White House only four months ago.

Indeed, President Barack Hussein Obama, as his right-wing and Islamophobic critics like to call him, said nothing to which even the most right-wing faction of Netanyahu's government could object.  in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict into context - and, not for the first time, the Palestinians are the losers on the American radar-screen.     My, what the Israel Lobby and the need for Jewish support in next year's presidential election can lead to.    One might have thought Obama would have been a little more astute not to alienate the Arab world further than the US has already done.

"The right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could not be more pleased.

Not only did the allegedly most "anti-Israel" president ever repeat, for the nth time, that "America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakeable," but also made crystal clear that Washington will veto any Palestinian application to the U.N. Security Council for statehood in his speech this week to the U.N. General Assembly.

Not once did he refer to Jewish "settlements" on Palestinian lands; nor did he even use the word "occupied" - or any declension of that word - to describe those lands and their people in an address that was largely, if ironically, devoted to celebrating this year's Arab struggles to end autocratic rule in their region.

Nor was there a word about the plight of the still-besieged population of Gaza, or about the "1967 borders" as being the basis for any eventual two-state solution, a formula to which Netanyahu and his U.S. allies vehemently objected much to the consternation and exasperation of the White House only four months ago.

Indeed, President Barack Hussein Obama, as his right-wing and Islamophobic critics like to call him, said nothing to which even the most right-wing faction of Netanyahu's government could object."

Blair: Deserving of no credibility

Why on earth governments and corporations listen to Tony Blair, let alone seemingly throw large sums of money at him is a puzzle.  He is a chameleon, show-pony and obviously has little understanding about conflict of interest, what is appropriate in the circumstances in which he finds himself or being above seeing to it that his interests (financial) are well served.

"Roman Polanski might want to start working up a sequel to The Ghost Writer. The British press is ravenously anticipating the airing on Monday of a TV documentary that will unearth new details about the business activities of former Prime Minister Tony Blair. What's been revealed so far is enough to raise eyebrows.

The former prime minister operates a “Byzantine” network of businesses and charities, The Sunday Telegraph reports, brokering deals for major banks and other heavy-hitters throughout the Middle East and in Africa, even as he retains statesman-like status in attempts to broker peace in the region. Blair's business activities reportedly earn him more than 7 million pounds per year.

And Blair met at least six times after leaving office with Col. Muammar Qaddafi, the recently deposed Libyan strongman who was trying to resurrect his public image. (The meeting wouldn't have been too difficult to arrange; Blair employed three people who also worked for the U.S. consulting group to which Qaddafi was paying millions to clean up his image, The Telegraph reports.)

And Monday's broadcast of Channel 4's Dispatches, an investigative news-magazine, will focus on Blair's role in “two multi-billion-dollar contracts in Palestine,” the Guardian reports.

Blair has “financially enriched himself more than any ex-Prime Minister ever,” Dispatches notes in its advance of their broadcast. The show will take a particular focus at Blair's dual responsibilities as both the official envoy of the Quartet attempting to broker Middle East peace, and as head of Tony Blair Associates, which is doing business, with little disclosure, throughout the same region."

Continue reading here.

Working at Amazon....is, litrerally, like working in a jungle

Who would have thought that the sort of conditions employees are experiencing at Amazon - yes, the "big" Amazon which so dominates commercial "life" on the web - in 2011.   And just look at what Amazon does for when employees get ill on the job?   Incredible!

The Morning Call reports:

"Workers said they were forced to endure brutal heat inside the sprawling warehouse and were pushed to work at a pace many could not sustain. Employees were frequently reprimanded regarding their productivity and threatened with termination, workers said. The consequences of not meeting work expectations were regularly on display, as employees lost their jobs and got escorted out of the warehouse. Such sights encouraged some workers to conceal pain and push through injury lest they get fired as well, workers said.

During summer heat waves, Amazon arranged to have paramedics parked in ambulances outside, ready to treat any workers who dehydrated or suffered other forms of heat stress. Those who couldn't quickly cool off and return to work were sent home or taken out in stretchers and wheelchairs and transported to area hospitals. And new applicants were ready to begin work at any time."
 

Google and the War for the Web

Is there anyone out there who doesn't resort to Google or "Googling" something?    

The web search engine is engaged in a war to maintain its dominance.      But look at what Google is doing to ensure its place on your computer - and everyone elses for that matter.    The Huffington Post reports on the goings on in Washington.

"You can't swing a dead cat video in Washington lately without hitting a lobbyist, consultant, attorney or adviser on retainer to Google or one of its tech rivals. Google, whose top executives have long been a bottomless cup of campaign coffee for Democrats, is finally entering its bipartisan phase, theatrically hiring Republican operatives and broadcasting the news through insider Washington publications, pumping air into a K Street tech bubble.

The shift in political strategy comes as Google faces a serious antitrust threat, punctuated by a high-profile hearing on the company held Wednesday afternoon in the Senate. But Google's investment in the infrastructure of the conservative movement goes much deeper than what's been reported this summer."

Borders' employees final word!

Borders, the book stores, are no more.   In the process of wrapping up the business, the employees have made their frustrations known....

The Arc of Instability

Scary reading.....and the implications even more so.    

"It’s a story that should take your breath away: the destabilization of what, in the Bush years, used to be called “the arc of instability.”  It involves at least 97 countries, across the bulk of the global south, much of it coinciding with the oil heartlands of the planet.  A startling number of these nations are now in turmoil, and in every single one of them -- from Afghanistan and Algeria to Yemen and Zambia -- Washington is militarily involved, overtly or covertly, in outright war or what passes for peace.

Garrisoning the planet is just part of it.  The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence services are also running covert special forces and spy operations, launching drone attacks, building bases and secret prisons, training, arming, and funding local security forces, and engaging in a host of other militarized activities right up to full-scale war.  But while you consider this, keep one fact in mind: the odds are that there is no longer a single nation in the arc of instability in which the United States is in no way militarily involved."

Continue reading this piece, from AlterNet and TomDispatch, here. 

Exploding a myth! Junk food isn't less expensive

It seems the canard that junk food is cheaper than so-called regular food simply doesn't stack up factually.

The New York Times reports in "Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?":

"The “fact” that junk food is cheaper than real food has become a reflexive part of how we explain why so many Americans are overweight, particularly those with lower incomes. I frequently read confident statements like, “when a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli ...” or “it’s more affordable to feed a family of four at McDonald’s than to cook a healthy meal for them at home.”

This is just plain wrong. In fact it isn’t cheaper to eat highly processed food: a typical order for a family of four — for example, two Big Macs, a cheeseburger, six chicken McNuggets, two medium and two small fries, and two medium and two small sodas — costs, at the McDonald’s a hundred steps from where I write, about $28. (Judicious ordering of “Happy Meals” can reduce that to about $23 — and you get a few apple slices in addition to the fries!)

In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home. You can serve a roasted chicken with vegetables along with a simple salad and milk for about $14, and feed four or even six people. If that’s too much money, substitute a meal of rice and canned beans with bacon, green peppers and onions; it’s easily enough for four people and costs about $9. (Omitting the bacon, using dried beans, which are also lower in sodium, or substituting carrots for the peppers reduces the price further, of course.)"

 

The world's top executioners

With the execution of Troy Davis still fresh in mind, one would not have thought the US would be too pleased to share the company of some of the world's top executioners.

FP reports....."This week's execution of Troy Davis has provoked an international outcry and renewed debate in the United States over the death penalty. With the fifth-most executions per year of any country, America finds itself on a list with some of the world's worst human rights abusers."

Time's running out......

Credited to Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

Loose tongue sets back health-care

A none-too bright politician sets back health-care, on a wide scale, through her simpleton and stupid words.     And this woman wants to be president of the USA? 

"During a debate last week for Republican presidential candidates and in interviews after it, Representative Michele Bachmann called the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer “dangerous.” Medical experts fired back quickly. Her statements were false, they said, emphasizing that the vaccine is safe and can save lives. Mrs. Bachmann was soon on the defensive, acknowledging that she was not a doctor or a scientist.

But the harm to public health may have already been done. When politicians or celebrities raise alarms about vaccines, even false alarms, vaccination rates drop.

“These things always set you back about three years, which is exactly what we can’t afford,” said Dr. Rodney E. Willoughby, a professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a member of the committee on infectious diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The academy favors use of the vaccine, as do other medical groups and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The vaccine, recommended by the medical groups for 11- and 12-year-olds, protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted infection that can cause cancer. Use of the vaccine was disturbingly low even before the Bachmann flap, health officials say. That is partly because of the recent climate of fear about vaccines in general, and partly because some parents feel that giving the vaccine somehow implies that they are accepting or even condoning the idea that their young daughters will soon start having sex."

Flawed process leads to dud outcome

"The Palestinian Authority's bid to the United Nations for Palestinian statehood is, at least in theory, supposed to circumvent the failed peace process. But in two crucial respects, the ill-conceived gambit actually makes things worse, amplifying the flaws of the process it seeks to replace. First, it excludes the Palestinian people from the decision-making process. And second, it entirely disconnects the discourse about statehood from reality.

Most discussions of the UN bid pit Israel and the United States on one side, fiercely opposing it, and Palestinian officials and allied governments on the other. But this simplistic portrayal ignores the fact that among the Palestinian people themselves there is precious little support for the effort. The opposition, and there is a great deal of it, stems from three main sources: the vague bid could lead to unintended consequences; pursuing statehood above all else endangers equality and refugee rights; and there is no democratic mandate for the Palestinian Authority to act on behalf of Palestinians or to gamble with their rights and future."

Written by a pro-Israeli?    No, none other than Ali Abunimah, Executive Director of The Electronic Intifida.

Read the full piece here. 

The loose cannon speaks

There is no doubting that the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a loose cannon.   Some of his statements have been, to say the least, outrageous.    However, to ignore the man, and his country - or, as happened today for many countries to walk out of UN as the president addressed the General Assembly - is plain daft.     Perhaps engaging with the man might get at least some accommodation with Iran and its leader.

Nicholas Kristof did sit down with Ahmadinejad whilst the president is in New York.

"Before sparks began flying between me and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, he began my interview with an unusual olive branch: “I would like to, with your permission, greet all of your readers as well as Web viewers and wish all of them the success and blessings of the Almighty.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad is a complex, even bizarre, figure. A firebrand with a penchant for making explosive public statements, he is small in person, subdued and very soft-spoken. Even when I pushed him hard on human rights abuses and nuclear deceptions, he responded in even tones while claiming that Iran is manifestly more democratic than the United States.

Another olive branch came hours after our conversation with the release of the two American hikers who had been imprisoned unjustly for two years in Iran. Mr. Ahmadinejad didn’t even attempt to suggest that they were spies, but he bristled at my questions about them. He claimed that they had entered Iran illegally and would have merited punishment in any country.

This was Mr. Ahmadinejad’s only print interview on his visit to the United Nations General Assembly, and he made a significant effort to be friendly and conciliatory. Most important, he repeated an offer made in a Washington Post interview this month to stop all nuclear enrichment if the West would supply nuclear fuel enriched to a 20 percent level. He insisted that Iran will happily give up its enrichment processing if it can get this enriched uranium for “cancer treatment medication.”

“If they were willing to sell us the 20 percent enriched uranium, we would have preferred to buy it,” he said. “It would have been far less expensive. It’s as though you wish to purchase a vehicle for yourself. No one is willing to sell it to you, then you must set up your own production line to produce your own vehicle.”
 

Aah.....its depends on who is doing it!

MediaLens, once again, highlights how things are reported.    If "they" do something it's "terrorism".   If "we" do it, it's "counter-terrorism".

"A defining feature of state power is rhetoric about a ‘moral’ or ‘ethical’ role in world affairs. Errors of judgement, blunders and tactical mistakes can, and do, occur. But the motivation underlying state policy is fundamentally benign. Reporters and commentators, trained or selected for professional ‘reliability’, tend to slavishly adopt this prevailing ideology.

Thus, on the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an editorial in the Independent on Sunday gushed about ‘Bush's desire to spread democracy as an end in itself’. It was, the paper said, ‘the germ of a noble idea’. There was  ‘an idealism’ about Blair’s support for Bush. The drawback was that the execution of the righteous vision had been ‘naive, arrogant and morally compromised by torture and the abrogation of the very values for which the US-led coalition claimed to fight’.

But now we have Nato’s ‘successful’ mission in Libya to help wipe the slate clean. The paper writes that ‘the deserts of North Africa ... turned out to be more fertile soil for democracy than could have been imagined.’ Libya is the great cause ‘where the idea of liberal intervention could be rescued and to an extent redeemed from the terrible mistake of Iraq.’

Note that the invasion-occupation of Iraq is described as a ‘mistake’, not the supreme international crime as judged by the standards of the post-WW2 Nuremberg Trials.

The horrendous murder of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi civilian, by British soldiers ‘was a reminder of how much the Iraq war tarnished Britain's reputation abroad.’ The implication is that Britain’s ‘reputation’ is fundamentally decent, only occasionally ‘tarnished’."

How to lose hearts and minds

This is either plain dumb or inept.   But whatever, if the Coalition forces in Afghanistan are seeking to have the local populace on side, this report on what the military is doing in the already strife-torn country is certainly not going to help.

"U.S. Special Operations Forces have been increasingly aiming their night-time raids, which have been the primary cause of Afghan anger at the U.S. military presence, at civilian non- combatants in order to exploit their possible intelligence value, according to a new study published by the Open Society Foundation and The Liaison Office.

The study provides new evidence of the degree to which the criteria used for targeting of individuals in night raids and for seizing them during raids have been loosened to include people who have not been identified as insurgents.

Based on interviews with current and former U.S. military officials with knowledge of the strategic thinking behind the raids, as well as Afghans who have been caught up in the raids, the authors of the study write that large numbers of civilians are being detained for brief periods of time merely to find out what they know about local insurgents – a practice the authors suggest may violate the Geneva Conventions on warfare."

Robert Fisk: Why the Middle East will never be the same

Leaving to one side the manoeuvring in NY surrounding the application by the Palestinians being granted Statehood - Obama's address to the General Assembly can only leave one speechless! - veteran journalist, author and commentator, Robert Fisk, ventures the view that what is happening in and surrounding the Middle East will see the region change forever.

"But we are now talking of much greater matters. This vote at the UN – General Assembly or Security Council, in one sense it hardly matters – is going to divide the West – Americans from Europeans and scores of other nations – and it is going to divide the Arabs from the Americans. It is going to crack open the divisions in the European Union; between eastern and western Europeans, between Germany and France (the former supporting Israel for all the usual historical reasons, the latter sickened by the suffering of the Palestinians) and, of course, between Israel and the EU.

A great anger has been created in the world by decades of Israeli power and military brutality and colonisation; millions of Europeans, while conscious of their own historical responsibility for the Jewish Holocaust and well aware of the violence of Muslim nations, are no longer cowed in their criticism for fear of being abused as anti-Semites. There is racism in the West – and always will be, I fear – against Muslims and Africans, as well as Jews. But what are the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, in which no Arab Muslim Palestinian can live, but an expression of racism?"

More of the same in Burma

Although there have been suggestions of there being an amelioration of the oppressive regime in Burma, it would seem not all that much.  

"Burma will continue to be a major source of refugees until the needs of people with no choice but to flee their homeland are addressed. This would require some serious changes in Burma.

Ongoing military attacks targeting civilians, in violation of international law, must stop. Since March over 50,000 men, women and children have fled their homes because of military attacks in Kachin and Shan States in northern Burma. They join half a million displaced persons in eastern Burma who are hiding in the jungle for extended periods of time in appalling conditions because it is not safe for them to return home.

The systematic and widespread violation of human rights by the Burmese army and authorities also must stop. These include, but are not limited to: the rape of ethnic women and girls; the use of villagers as slave labour; the destruction or confiscation of land and property; forced evictions; beatings; torture; and extra-judicial killings.

Improvements in Burma’s human rights crisis are unlikely to come while those in power continue to deny that such abuses are occurring. Nor will they come while perpetrators of such crimes have impunity. Article 445 of Burma’s 2008 Constitution states that:

"’No proceeding shall be instituted against the said Councils (SLORC/SPDC) or any member thereof or any member of the Government, in respect of any act done in the execution of their respective duties".

This means that any person who has been an official of the regime since 1988 cannot be held legally accountable for any actions they take including the gross and systematic violation of human rights abuses.

Another push factor is the lack of democracy. There have been some changes in Burma over the past year, such as the elections last November, the formation of the new parliament and the transfer of power to a nominally civilian Government, but real democratic reform is still lacking.

The most visible demonstration of the lack of will for real reform is the continued imprisonment of 2000 political prisoners in Burma. Their unconditional release would send a strong signal that there is a real commitment to reform on behalf of the Burmese authorities. However, rather than release political prisoners, the authorities deny that any such individuals exist in Burma." 

Georgia executes Troy Davies

Against a background of it being understood that the Parole Board of Georgia split 3-2 in denying Troy Davis' application to stay his execution, Davis was executed a few hours ago.

This is the letter Amnesty International has just sent out worldwide:

"I've been down here at death row, and we just heard the horrific news.

After a torturous delay of more than 4 hours, the state of Georgia has just killed Troy Anthony Davis.

My heart is heavy. I am sad and angry. The state of Georgia has proven what we already know. Governments cannot be trusted with the awful power over life and death.

Today, Georgia didn't just kill Troy Davis, they killed the faith and confidence that many Georgians, Americans and Troy Davis supporters worldwide used to have in our criminal justice system.

Wende, on our Abolish the Death Penalty Campaign team, met with Troy Davis yesterday to convey the support that he has had from all of you. He asked us to deliver this message back to you:

"The struggle for justice doesn't end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I'm in good spirits and I'm prayerful and at peace."

Let's take a moment to honor the life of Troy Davis and Mark MacPhail. Then, let's take all of our difficult feelings and re-double our commitment to abolition of the death penalty."
 

Waste

Here there are millions of people around the world who barely have something to eat - let alone fresh water either - and this piece reveals the abject wastage of food in America.    Not that there are likely many other countries in the West which are not much better.

"Every day, America wastes enough food to fill the Rose Bowl. Yes, that Rose Bowl--the 90,000-seat football stadium in Pasadena, California. Of course, that's if we had an inclination to truck the nation's excess food to California for a memorable but messy publicity stunt.

As a nation, we grow and raise more than 590 billion pounds of food each year. And depending on whom you ask, we squander between a quarter and a half of all the food produced in the United States. Even using the more conservative figure would mean that 160 billion pounds of food are squandered annually--more than enough, that is, to fill the Rose Bowl to the brim. With the high-end estimate, the Rose Bowl would almost be filled twice over.

If those numbers don't hit home, consider that the average American creates almost 5 pounds of trash per day. Since, on average, 12 percent of what we throw away is or once was edible, we can estimate that each one of us discards half a pound of food per day. That adds up to an annual total of 197 pounds of food per person. Ominously, Americans' per capita food waste has increased by 50 percent since 1974."

So what people of which countries are supporting the Palestinian bid for Statehood at the UN

Interesting poll undertaken by the BBC on what people, in which countries, support the upcoming bid for Statehood by the Palestinians at the UN .     Despite all the politicians in the USA, more than obscenely, falling over each other to covet favour with the Jewish vote in opposing the Palestinian move, 45% of Americans agree with the proposal.

"Despite the drumbeat of negativity heard virtually every day in the American media from the Obama-Clinton-Ross crowd, Americans support by a strong plurality independence for Palestine.  A BBC global poll of 19 countries including the U.S. found that overall 49% backed statehood and 21% opposed.  In the U.S. it was 45% for and 36% against.   In France, Germany and Britain, support was over 50% and opposition ranged from 20-28%.  Overall, 30% of all respondents said either their country should abstain or could not give a definitive answer.  Unfortunately, one country missing from the poll appears to be Israel.  I’d love to know the numbers for Israel (though they would certainly be negative, but I wonder how negative).

But hey, whoever said anything about democracy influencing world diplomacy?  As far as the U.S. is concerned democracy is for chumps, especially when the power brokers get to work divvying up slices of the pie–or in Palestine’s case, withholding them."

Tomorrow, Georgia Murders Troy Davis

From The Nation a plea - and despair - in relation to the barbarity of executing a man in Georgia, in America, who on any objective assessment appears innocent of the crime he has been convicted of and sentenced to death.   On any view, there must be considerable doubt about the original conviction.

"It’s with shock that I report that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis. The 42-year-old Davis is now due to be executed tomorrow, Wednesday September 21, at 7 pm. For those unfamiliar with the case, let’s be clear: Davis’s execution is little more than a legal lynching. This is a demonstrably innocent man that the state is about to execute in the premeditated manner of a murder.

The facts speak for themselves. Back in 1989, nine people testified that they saw Troy Davis kill Officer Mark MacPhail. Since that time, seven have recanted their testimony. Please allow me to repeat: of the nine people who testified that Troy killed Officer Mark MacPhail, seven have recanted their testimony. Beyond the eyewitnesses, there was no physical evidence linking Troy to Officer MacPhail’s murder. None. Three jurors have signed affidavits saying that if they had all the information about Troy, they would not have voted to convict. One juror even arrived in person to the Board of Pardons and Paroles to say to their faces that she would not have voted to convict if she’d had the facts. Another woman has even come forward to say that a different man on the scene that night, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, bragged afterward about doing the shooting. Of the two witnesses who still maintain that Troy was the triggerman, one is Sylvester “Redd” Coles.

From day one, Troy has maintained his innocence. But he was the wrong color, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong bank account and the wrong legal team, so he was thrown into the death house with little fanfare. Yet the tireless work of Troy’s family, particularly his sister Martina, brought international attention to the case. From former President Jimmy Carter, to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher, to Pope Benedict XVI, to Reagan’s former FBI Director, William Sessions, to the more than one million people who signed petitions, the call has gone out to spare Troy’s life. But the Board of Pardons and Paroles didn’t care. Previously the Board issued a statement that they would only allow the execution to go through, if there was “no doubt” as to his guilt. They lied.

As Brian Kammer, one of Davis’s attorneys, said Tuesday after the decision was announced, “I am utterly shocked and disappointed at the failure of our justice system at all levels to correct a miscarriage of justice.” He’s correct. Demonstrations have been planned for today in cities around the country. I know that Washington, DC, will see people come out at 6 pm at 14th and Park Rd. NW. I know the Supreme Court could still intervene or the board could withdraw its death warrant. These are slim options, but I also know that this isn’t over until they send the poison into Troy’s veins. Troy himself has refused a “last meal,” choosing to fight until his last breath. We owe him nothing less."

To be ignored at our peril

On reading this piece from The Guardian, can anyone, seriously, question climate change and its devastating consequences?

"More than 30 million people were displaced last year by environmental and weather-related disasters across Asia, experts have warned, and the problem is only likely to grow worse as climate change exacerbates such problems.

Tens of millions more people are likely to be similarly displaced in the future by the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, floods, droughts and reduced agricultural productivity. Such people are likely to migrate in regions across Asia, and governments must start to prepare for the problems this will create, the Asian Development Bank warned.

The costs will be high – about $40bn is the likely price for adapting and putting in place protective measures, from sea walls to re-growing mangrove swamps that have been cut down, and that can help to protect against the impacts of storm surges.

But the problem is already taking effect, though at a much lower scale than is likely in the future. "While large-scale climate-induced migration is a gradual phenomenon, communities in Asia and the Pacific are already experiencing the consequences of changing environmental conditions including eroding shorelines, desertification and more frequent severe storms and flooding," the bank said at a workshop last week. This could lead to a widespread crisis across the region in coming years, if preparations are not made to deal with the current and probable future consequences."

Pilger on the state of things.....

From the ABC [Australia] on John Pilger, award-winning journalist, author, film-maker and commentator, speaking at the Byron Bay Writers Festival recently:

"The world, according to expat Australian journalist, author and filmmaker John Pilger, is a consistently dark and disappointing place. Delivering the keynote address at the Byron Bay Writers Festival, Pilger takes aim at various Australian and world political leaders on the left and the right.

George W Bush was a "criminal on a magnitude we can't imagine". The military is at the centre of American government. Barack Obama is nothing more than a brand. And, no more than a "cigarette paper" separates the major Australian political parties.

"The rulers of the United States at every level are so far to the right, so extreme from the views of the population, that any kind of formal democracy, that is those elected representing the people, has virtually ended," is how Pilger sees it. But, he saves some of his strongest words for Australia's political leaders, claiming Australia has become a satellite state of America.

"If this is going to be a socially and culturally proud society ... two things have got to happen. First, nationhood has to be given back to the first Australians - second, (we need to) start speaking as a nation, not as a satellite state of the US." Other subjects in the wide-ranging discussion include drone warfare, Julian Assange, asylum seekers and mandatory detention. Pilger gets a standing ovation from the Byron audience and a "ten out of ten and a koala stamp" from his questioner, ABC Radio National stalwart Phillip Adams."

Go here to read or listen or view Pilger's full talk.

The impending one-sided vote

Neve Gordon is an Israeli activist and the author of Israel's Occupation.    Yinon Cohen is Yerushalmi Professor of Israel and Jewish Studies, Department of Sociology, Columbia University, New York.

They write in relation to the upcoming vote at the UN for Palestinian statehood.....

"The US has never considered using its veto power to stop Israel from carrying out unilateral moves aimed at undermining peace.

Instead, the US has frequently used its veto to prevent the condemnation of Israeli policies that breach international law. Now the Obama Administration wants to use the veto again, with the moral justification that unilateralism is misguided. But the real question is: Why is unilateralism bad when it attempts to advance a solution, yet warrants no response when unilateralism threatens to undermine a solution?

President Obama should keep in mind that the Palestinian appeal to the international community might very well be the last chance for salvaging the two-state solution.

If the Palestinian demand for recognition falls through due to a US veto, then the necessary conditions for a paradigm shift will be in place: The two-state solution will be even less feasible, and the one-state formula will emerge as the only alternative."

Take an autumnal Parisian stroll

Place des Vosges, in Paris, in its autumnal finery.......

The Best Places in the World for Women

The Daily Beast [from Newsweek] has done the research, here, and reveals where in the world the best place is to be woman.

"We examined five measures that affect women’s lives. Of 165 countries, these 10 earned top marks in factors from health care to political power. We graded each country on 5 factors, using a scale of 1 to 100

JUSTICE
Laws protecting women from domestic violence, adolescent marriage and marital rape, and also women’s access to land and bank loans

HEALTH
Includes rates of maternal death, HIV, and infant mortality, and also access to safe abortions and skilled health workers

EDUCATION
Education level, literacy, and gender parity in schools

ECONOMICS
Includes percentage of women in the labor force, gender pay gap, access to all industries, ability to climb the ladder

POLITICS
Share of women in government, including senior positions"

Palestine: UN Recognition? etc.

The UN will later this week consider whether Palestine should be granted status as a State in its own right.    

Not surprisingly, the main players have gone into over-drive as has commentary here, there and everywhere.     

Gideon Levy in "Israel does not want a Palestinian state. Period." in Haaretz:

"Yesterday, a coalition of Israeli peace organizations published a list of 50 reasons for Israel to support a Palestinian state. Assuming that you only accept five of them, isn't that enough? What exactly is the alternative, now that the heavens are closing in around us? Can anyone, can Peres or Netanyahu, seriously contend that the regional hostility toward us would not have lessened had the occupation already ended and a Palestinian state been established?

The truths are so basic, so banal, that it hurts even to repeat them. But, unfortunately, they're the only ones we have. And so, a simple question to whoever will be representing us at the UN next week: Why not, for heaven's sake? Why "no" once again? And to what will we say "yes"?"

Thomas Friedman in "Israel: Adrift at Sea Alone" in The New York Times:

"I have great sympathy for Israel’s strategic dilemma and no illusions about its enemies. But Israel today is giving its friends — and President Obama’s one of them — nothing to defend it with. Israel can fight with everyone or it can choose not to surrender but to blunt these trends with a peace overture that fair-minded people would recognize as serious, and thereby reduce its isolation.

Unfortunately, Israel today does not have a leader or a cabinet for such subtle diplomacy. One can only hope that the Israeli people will recognize this before this government plunges Israel into deeper global isolation and drags America along with it."

Gideon Levy, again, in "Obama's historic opportunity" in Haaretz:

"The American president this week has the historic opportunity of improving the status of his country, of justifying retroactively the Nobel Prize for Peace that he was awarded, of demonstrating real commitment to imposing peace in the most dangerous region for the fate of the world, and of showing genuine concern for the well-being of Israel - but what do we get instead?

George Bush. George Bush for the poor."

Seconds anyone?

Credited to Randy Bish, Pittsburgh, PA -- the Tribune-Review

Freedom? Er, perhaps not as much as you thought

The video, produced for the Center for Investigative Reporting, calls for no commentary......other than to be concerned at the erosion of civil liberties.    And it's not only in America.

Oh, that is why we are in Afghanistan

In what seems a war with no end in sight, Glenn Greenwald in "Major discovery: a purpose of the war in Afghanistan" in Salon examines a report just published in The Washington Post and concludes that the war would seem endless if the premise of the Post's article is correct.

"To summarize: our invasion and occupation is what enables the Taliban to recruit massive numbers of Afghan teenagers into their cause.  And now, we have to stay until we either kill all the people who hate us and want us gone from their country or propagandize deradicalize them into meekly accepting our presence.  Once there are no more Afghans left who want us gone, then we can leave.  For those of you who have been cynically claiming that this war has no discernible purpose other than the generalized benefits of Endless War for political officials and the Security State industry, now you know.

(Of course, the goal of ridding Afghanistan of all those who want to fight us will never happen precisely because the American military presence in their country produces an endless supply of American-hating fighters -- just as the Soviet military presence there once did, and just as the general War on Terror [and its various bombings, detentions, occupations, assassinations and the like] ensures that Terrorism never ends by producing an endless supply of American-hating Terrorists -- but that's just a detail.  All wars have challenges.  At least we can now see the very important purpose of the war in Afghanistan: we stay until there's nobody left who hates us and wants us gone, then we triumphantly depart.)"

iPad, is that a fly in my soup?

Oh, where are we headed?   From the LA Times:

"The quest for efficiency and maximum profits has led some restaurateurs to do away with wait staff and enable customers to place orders through tablet computers installed at their dining table. The trend toward automation is not new. Major supermarkets began using self-checkout machines years ago. But new devices such as the iPad are expanding the practice to other industries.

One wonders how many jobs will be lost in the switch to automation. Also, what businesses, if any, will pass the additional profits made from eliminating staff on to remaining employees, or to reduced prices for their customers?"

Insidious racial profiling

Reproduced from truthdig, without any real commentary here, this report ought make us reflect on where we have gone in the years since 9/11.   It's dangerous and communities will ultimately "pay" for racial profiling and plain ol' bigotry.

"Every week, Truthdig recognizes an individual or group of people who spoke truth to power, blew the whistle or stood up in the face of injustice. You can see past winners here, and make your own nomination for our next awardee here.

On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, FBI and Homeland Security officials took extra security measures because, as one official told the Associated Press, “The public would rather us err on the side of caution than not.” Unfortunately for nonwhite Americans who chose to travel that day, that meant being subjected to blatant racial profiling. Shoshana Hebshi, our Truthdigger of the Week, was one such victim, but she had the presence of mind to remember the details and later the courage to blog about her experience, bringing to light the truth about where America stands 10 years after the Twin Towers fell.

Hebshi, a self-described half-Arab, half-Jewish mother from the Midwest, was forcefully detained, interrogated and even strip-searched when her Frontier Airlines flight from Denver landed in Detroit, all because a nervous passenger reported that she and her two Indian seatmates had spent a suspiciously long time in a restroom. Hebshi said it did not dawn on her why she was being treated like a criminal until hours into the process when her interrogators told her, “... Judging from our line of questioning, you could probably guess.”

Her story quickly gained momentum across the Internet, sparking outrage from veteran law enforcement officials, constitutional lawyers and now the American Civil Liberties Union. The Guardian quoted a spokesperson for Hebshi from the ACLU, who said, “Law enforcement actions and decisions must be reasonable and must be credible, not based on stereotypes and appearance. We can all agree the arrest, the strip search and detention of an innocent mother of two was not reasonable or necessary.”

Hebshi might easily have been too humiliated or intimidated to share her story, but instead she chose to stand up and speak up in the face of injustice."

Obesity = Huge costs all round

All communities where obesity is rife will bear the cost - and already are now.   Just think of hospital beds occupied by people - depriving others from their use -  whose obesity has gotten them into some sort of medical fix.

"Half of Americans will be obese in 2030 according to one of four recently published studies about obesity in the medical journal The Lancet. The main culprits are overeating and a lack of exercise; in other words, the obesity epidemic can be attributed to some extent to our modern way of life, with food (especially processed and prepared) readily available and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

Currently, about 32 percent of men and 35 percent of women in the US are obese. Obesity is due to replace tobacco as the “single most important preventable cause of chronic non-communicable diseases,” notes Reuters,and it’s projected to cause an extra 7.8 million cases of diabetes, 6.8 million cases of heart disease and stroke, and 539,000 cases of cancer. Other health problems stemming from obesity include osteoarthritis and high blood pressure.

Obesity rates are also on the rise in Britain: By 2030, 41-48 percent of men and 35-43 percent of women in the UK will be obese. Currently, 26 percent of both sexes are. Obesity pays a huge toll on the healthcare costs. In the US, health costs for problems associated with obesity will increase by 2.6 percent or $66 billion per year and by 2 percent, or £2 billion per year, in the UK. Indeed, the Los Angeles Times points out that money spent on obesity-related problems in the US could increase 13 to 16 percent over 20 years.

Moreover, while the West is definitely the place where the obesity epidemic is well underway, obesity is “no longer just a Western problem,” says Majid Ezzati, a professor of public health at Imperial College London. Around the world, around 1.5 billion adults are overweight. A further 0.5 billion are obese, with 170 million children classified as overweight or obese. People are the heaviest in the Pacific Islands, such as American Samoa. In the industrialized world, people in the US are heaviest and those in Japan the slimmest."

Spin and unttruths....which the media allows to go unchallenged

Yet again FAIR is on the money for the media not at least challenging VP Biden's good feel statements when commemorating 9/11 the other day.

"Al-Qaeda, bin Laden, never imagined that the 3,000 people who lost their lives that day would inspire 3 million to put on the uniform and harden the resolve of 300 million Americans. They never imagined the sleeping giant they were about to awaken.

-- Vice President Joe Biden at September 11 commemoration (9/11/11)

Actually, that's precisely what bin Laden imagined: Al-Qaeda's central strategy was to draw its Western foes into economically ruinous wars in Muslim lands (Extra!, 7/11). But I suppose it would be bad form for journalists to raise this fact as the U.S. commemorates a decade of war and economic decline."

Another match into the Middle East fire

As if things weren't already combustible enough in the Middle East, as this piece "The Land of Gas and Honey" in FP explains, a new dimension has been added to the equation with Israel having discovered oil and gas fields in Israel.

"Mother Nature's distribution of oil and gas resources around the world suggests she has a mischievous sense of humor. In the Persian Gulf, South China Sea, and Caspian Sea, large fields lie in disputed zones between unfriendly neighbors.

Now we must add another hot spot to that list. New, giant, natural gas finds promise to transform the energy security and economy of Israel and, perhaps, its neighbors. But these treasures could hardly have been better placed to stir up trouble, complicating three of the world's most intractable conflicts: between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel and Lebanon, and Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The recent sharp deterioration in Turkish-Israeli relations makes disputes over gas even more fraught with danger."

So what if they die

It is hard to believe that we are in 2011 and reading about what occurred in the USA - a supposedly enlightened country.     Indifferent and outrageous.  Gob-smacking actually!    

"Back in 1980, just as America was making its political turn to the right, Milton Friedman lent his voice to the change with the famous TV series “Free to Choose.” In episode after episode, the genial economist identified laissez-faire economics with personal choice and empowerment, an upbeat vision that would be echoed and amplified by Ronald Reagan.

I’m referring, as you might guess, to what happened during Monday’s G.O.P. presidential debate. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Representative Ron Paul what we should do if a 30-year-old man who chose not to purchase health insurance suddenly found himself in need of six months of intensive care. Mr. Paul replied, “That’s what freedom is all about — taking your own risks.” Mr. Blitzer pressed him again, asking whether “society should just let him die.”

And the crowd erupted with cheers and shouts of “Yeah!”

The incident highlighted something that I don’t think most political commentators have fully absorbed: at this point, American politics is fundamentally about different moral visions.

Now, there are two things you should know about the Blitzer-Paul exchange. The first is that after the crowd weighed in, Mr. Paul basically tried to evade the question, asserting that warm-hearted doctors and charitable individuals would always make sure that people received the care they needed — or at least they would if they hadn’t been corrupted by the welfare state. Sorry, but that’s a fantasy. People who can’t afford essential medical care often fail to get it, and always have — and sometimes they die as a result."

The sacredness of marriage....until it's inconvenient

Hypocrisy reins supreme!   Marriage for life?   Sacred?  Yes, subject to certain conditions....

"Republican icon and religious leader Pat Robertson is very, very pro-marriage.  It is a sacred institution that needs to remain exclusive to heterosexuals and unmarred by divorce, just like in the Bible.  You know, til death do you part.

Unless, of course, you’re married to someone with Alzheimer’s disease.  Than you should just ditch your spouse.  After all, he or she is “already gone” so it’s like your partner is already gone.

That’s the advice that he gives on his show, anyway.  And an added benefit?  Divorcing your spouse means you’re off the hook for those medical bills, since the government will just take care of it."

Watch the video, here, and remember, this is what keeping marriage “sacred” looks like.

In the calm of post 9/11, why did they attack?

"...... one was that the claim that the U.S. was being attacked because, as the president put it, they hate our freedoms was completely untenable. They hated our policy. In fact, it would be more accurate to say we hate their freedoms. There’s plenty of documentation about that, going back to the 1950s. Shortly after the president’s speech, the Pentagon had a study of this, and they concluded, yes, it’s not that they hate our freedoms, it’s they hate our policies."

Noam Chomsky being interviewed on Democracy Now, here.