Category: News (Page 12 of 13)

Granted, I’m not the most well-informed person in the world, but I was pretty surprised to learn today that almost two weeks ago, on March 30th, Israel bombed the Palestinian National Soccer Stadium in Gaza. Am I that clueless? Nope, the American and much of the world media seems to have slept through that story.
Though nobody was hurt, the rocket bomb created a large crater in the middle of the field turning it unplayable. Israel first said that it did so because Palestinians were using the stadium to launch rockets against Israel. When that was proven false, they intimated that they wanted to “send a message” to the Palestinians. That didn’t play out well with FIFA, so they changed their story to say that rockets where being launched from somewhere close to the stadium. Aha.
This is not the first action against Palestinian soccer that Israel has taken, a couple of years ago Israel assured that the Palestinians wouldn’t qualify for the world cup by stopping several players from leaving the Gaza strip so they could play in a qualifying game. Predictably, the Palestinians lost.
FIFA has said that it will pay to fix the stadium and it’s considering sanctions against Israel. You can add your voice to those calling for sanctions by going to:

http://www.petitiononline.com/FIFAPal/petition.html

I must be out of the loop, ’cause I didn’t know that Myanmar (AKA Burma) has moved its capital from Rangoon (AKA Yangon) to Pyinmana, 400 km to the north. Apparently the move – which happened last November – took everyone by surpirse. Civil cervants were given one day notice, and then abruptly bused with their belongings to the new capital.
Apparently the move to the new capital may be linked to a re-establishment of the monarchy, with Than Shwe, the top military general, as the new king. The location also has strategic advantages, however, as it has better access to the country’s borders with India, China and Thailand – where ethnic rebel groups often take refuge. It also isolates the civil servants from the public discontent evident in the streets of Rangoon. In 1988 government workers joined students and monks to call for democracy. To make the move sweeter to them, the government has announced a ten-fold increase in government salaries. Inflation is expected and an acute economic crisis is likely.
Myanmar has also intensified its isolationist practices, including persecution and interference of international and non-governmental organizations. The ICRC has been impeded from visiting prisons and the ILO office received a number of death threats. Activists who lodge a complaint about forced labor with the ILO have been prosecuted for their actions.
For more information see:
Asia Times Online : Uneasy lies the crown in Myanmar
Asia Times Online :
Myanmar’s generals build their ‘Xanadu’

I haven’t seen information about mysterious disease that’s killing displaced Bushmen in Botswana in the mass media. This article comes from Survival International (http://www.survival-international.org/), an organization that works with indigenous peoples all over the world. The mysterious disease comes in the text of the San Bushmen being expelled by the Botswanan government from their ancestral lands at the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The government claims it’s for their own good and to protect the natural resources at the Game Reserve, but they have awarded diamond mining concessions in the reserve to large diamond companies, including De Beers.
BOTSWANA: Mystery disease killing evicted Bushmen 22 Mar 2006
At least fifteen Bushmen have died suddenly of unknown causes this year in New Xade resettlement camp and three remain in a critical condition. The deaths come as British Baroness Jenny Tonge and other peers insist in the House of Lords that the evictions have benefitted the Bushmen.
Gaseitsiwe Gaorapelwe died very suddenly after spots appeared all over his body. After being tortured by wildlife guards in 2000 for hunting, he said to a Survival researcher,

“For all the passions they generate, laws that require minors to notify their parents or get permission to have an abortion do not appear to have produced the sharp drop in teenage abortion rates that some advocates hoped for, an analysis by The New York Times shows.”
The NY Times analysis of states that enacted laws from 1995 to 2004 “found no evidence that the laws had a significant impact on the number of minors who got pregnant, or, once pregnant, the number who had abortions.”
Indeed in some cases, the abortion rate went up when these laws were instituted. “For instance, in Tennessee, the abortion rate went down when a federal court suspended a parental consent requirement, then rose when the law went back into effect. ” A similar rise in abortion rates was seen in Arizona and Idaho after parental consent laws were passed. Indeed, workers at abortion clinics say they more often see parents pressuring their daughters to have abortions than trying to stop them.