Whose skin are you in?

Nosso mundo: The Story of Stuff

Infelizmente nao tenho tido como escrever nesse blog e também nao terei como faze-lo nos próximos meses. Entretanto, gracas ao Joao, que teoricamente escreve nesse blog e que agora passa de qq forma a ser colaborador, "posto" (do verbo "postar") o video abaixo, que resume 99% do que eu já pensei ou quis pensar, escrevi ou quis escrever.

O video é longo (para os padroes desse blog), cerca de 20 minutos, mas com certeza ABSOLUTA vale a pena - e mais a pena do que os últimos 20 minutos que voce gastou na televisao.

(clique aqui, caso o video nao carregue na janela abaixo)



(clique no "play" para iniciar o video e nessa caixinha engracada com quatro setinhas, aa direita, para ve-lo em tela cheia)

É isso. Em nosso mundo, em que TUDO está de uma maneira ou outra baseada no Consumo, a solucao para nossos problemas só pode obviamente estar na forma em que consumimos.

Nao se engane, nao se iluda e nao tire o corpo fora. Pense nas consequencias de suas acoes e de suas compras no futuro de seus filhos e netos. Faca sua parte e seja feliz.

Até "breve".

Agentes do Maláui em Angola para liberar as armas de Mugabe?

Clique aqui para notícias atualizadas sobre a questao do Maláui e para participar da campanha lancada pelo This is Zimbabwe, para impedir essa transacao.

Malawi set to clear Zimbabwe arms

Segue notícia saída no jornal Nyasa Times, do Maláui, sobre o carregamento trazido pelo An Yue Jiang, abandonado pela grande mídia internacional.

----

The Malawi team is comprised of Mr Clement Kapalamula - Head of Secret Intelligence Services (SIS), Mr George Masinga - Acting Director of Foreign Relations (Intelligence) and a Mr Matanga - Technical Engineer (Intelligence).

The delegation left the country on Sunday through Kamuzu International Airport via South Africa to Luanda, Angola's capital to assess the means of clearing the arms in disguise as if they have been donated to Malawi by the Chinese Defence Forces.

"Malawi Secret Intelligence Services (SIS) was approached by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) of Zimbabwe to help in clearing the arms if the ship docked in Angola," said a State House source speaking on condition of anonymity.

Clique aqui para ler a notícia completa.

An Yue Jiang, o navio chinês com 77 toneladas de armas para o Zimbábue descarrega em Angola

Conforme noticiou a agencia portuguesa de notícias, LUSA, o navio chines que leva ou levava 77 toneladas em armas para o Zimbábue descarregou sábado em Luanda.

Embora o Governo tenha insistido que apenas as "mercadorias destinadas a Angola" seriam descarregadas, informacoes do Sindicato Independente dos Marítimos Angolanos apontam que os conteiners nao tinham nenhuma informacao sobre seu conteúdo e que eles nao tinham como saber qual carga havia de fato sido descarregada e qual havia ficado no navio.

Importa lembrar que a existencia dessas "mercadorias destinadas a Angola" foi anunciada apenas há 3 dias atrás, coincidentemente no mesmo dia em que o Ministro da Habitacao Rural e Servicos Sociais do Zimbábue, Emmerson Munangagwa, visitou Luanda, acompanhado de um colega do setor da Defesa, para entregar uma mensagem de Mugabe sobre a situacao no Zimbábue. Luanda informara anteriormente desconhecer o destino do návio, quando a localizacao e o destino deste "eram desconhecidos da comunidade internacional".

Enquanto isso e enquanto a África do Sul ameaca deportar os manifestantes zimbabueanos presos em manifestacao anti-Mugabe em frente aa Embaixada chinesa, o New York Times publica que a "decisao" de Angola de permitir apenas a descarga das mercadorias destinadas ao país e nao autorizar a entrada das armas em território nacional era um "tapa na cara" no Zimbábue. Embora a chamada do NYT seja condizente com o fato dessa notícia ter sido dada em primeira pelo Presidente angolano aa representande de Bush que o visitava, eu realmente nao tenho tanta certeza se ela condiz com a realidade. Espero seja eu o pessimista (assim como os blogueiros africanos) e nao o NYT agindo ingenuamente ou de má-fé.

Segue abaixo a notícia da LUSA:

26-04-2008 12:05:17
Navio chinês com arma para Zimbábue descarrega em Angola

Luanda, 26 abr (Lusa) - O navio chinês "Na Yue Jiang", carregado com material de guerra para o Zimbábue, já atracou no porto de Luanda e começaram as operações de descarga, disse neste sábado à Agência Lusa fonte do Conselho de Coordenação dos Direitos Humanos (CCDH) de Angola.

A autorização para que o polêmico navio entrasse no porto de Luanda foi dada na sexta-feira pelo governo angolano, excluindo a autorização de quaisquer descarregamentos do armamento que tinha como destino o regime de Robert Mugabe.

Na nota oficial do executivo angolano era destacado que a embarcação fora autorizada a atracar no porto de Luanda única e exclusivamente para descarregar material não especificado que tinha, na origem, como destino este país.

No entanto, ao longo da última semana, tempo durante o qual o "Na Yue Jiang" esteve em águas sul-africanas e moçambicanas, países que impediram a aproximação, não foi divulgada nenhuma informação de que o navio continha carga destinada a Angola.

Até o momento, quando as operações de descarga do navio no porto da capital angolana estão em curso, não é conhecido o tipo de material desembarcado.

Francisco Tunga Alberto, secretário executivo do Conselho de Coordenação dos Direitos Humanos em Angola, disse à Lusa que a informação disponível é transmitida pelo Sindicato Independente dos Marítimos Angolanos (SIMA, membro do conselho), que aponta unicamente para a certeza de que foram descarregados alguns contêineres.

Estes contêineres, informa Tunga Alberto, "não têm - segundo informação do SIMA - nenhuma informação sobre o seu conteúdo", não sendo, por isso, possível "distinguir o que está a ser colocado em terra e o que permanece nos porões do navio".

A Lusa tentou, sem sucesso, obter informações junto do Porto de Luanda.

A carga do navio inclui, além do material para Angola, que até à chegada a Luanda era desconhecido, três milhões de munições para as espingardas automáticas AK-47, 1.500 RPG (morteiros com auto-propulsão) e mais de três mil granadas de morteiro.

A chegada do navio a Luanda acontece depois de o porta-voz do governo chinês ter dito, na quinta-feira, que este estava retornando à China depois das abortadas tentativas de entrar nos portos da África do Sul e Moçambique.

O An Yue Jiang atracou em Luanda apesar de o Conselho de Coordenação dos Direitos Humanos de Angola ter entrado na quarta-feira com uma providência cautelar junto do Tribunal Marítimo de Luanda para impedir que armamento chinês destinado ao Zimbábue seja descarregado em portos angolanos.

Em declarações à Lusa, o presidente do CCDH, David Mendes, citou que a iniciativa tem como pressuposto haver "uma forte possibilidade" de o armamento servir como "instrumento de repressão" das autoridades de Harare contra a oposição, que exige a divulgação dos resultados eleitorais de 29 de março.

A China confirmou a venda do armamento ao governo do Zimbábue, mas afirma que a transação foi feita em 2007 e que a entrega neste momento não está relacionada com a crise política que se vive naquele país africano.

A atual crise no Zimbábue é fruto da recusa do governo do presidente Robert Mugabe em divulgar os resultados das eleições presidenciais de 29 de março, que a oposição afirma serem desfavoráveis ao chefe de Estado.

Nas declarações à Lusa, David Mendes citou igualmente que outro pressuposto da providência cautelar interposta pelo CCDH é que Angola integra a Convenção das Nações Unidas para os Direitos Humanos e assinou a Carta Africana para os Direitos dos Povos.

O advogado e presidente da Associação Mãos Livres, organização que se dedica à defesa legal de pessoas fragilizadas perante a Justiça angolana, destacou ainda que Luanda preside acualmente à Comissão para a Paz e Segurança da Comunidade de Desenvolvimento da África Austral (SADC, de que fazem parte também o Zimbábue e Moçambique).

"Estas condições impõem responsabilidade acrescida ao país quando se trata de agir corretamente face a uma possibilidade real de poder ter um papel decisivo na facilitação da repressão por razões políticas", especialmente num país com que partilha uma organização geográfica, frisou.

A chegada da embarcação a Luanda aconteceu no dia, sexta-feira, em que o presidente da República de Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, recebeu um enviado especial do presidente zimbabueano, Robert Mugabe, e a sub-secretária de Estado norte-americana, Jendayi Frazer, que entregou ao chefe de Estado angolano uma mensagem do seu homólogo George W. Bush.

A enviada de Washington tinha como um dos pontos da sua agenda convencer os líderes da África do Sul e Angola de não permitirem a descarga do navio chinês com armas para Harare.

An Yue Jiang, o navio chines com 77 toneladas de armas para o Zimbábue, é autorizado a atracar em Angola

Ao contrário do que informou o Ministério das Relacoes Exteriores de Beijing na última quinta-feira, An Yue Jiang, o cargueiro chines levando 77 toneladas de armas para o Ministério da "Defesa" do Zimbábue, nao está retornando aa China e foi autorizado a atracar em Angola, conforme informou a agencia estatal de notícias AngolaPress.

O Governo angolano esclareu que o návio foi autorizado a descarregar apenas a mercadoria destinada ao país (até entao aparentemente desconhecida, já que Luanda informara desconhecer que o cargueiro navegava em direcao ao país) e que o armamento destinado ao Zimbábue nao foi autorizado em território nacional. É realmente um pouco difícil acreditar nessa notícia, assim como na boa vontade e eficiencia dos agentes do governo angolano para garantir qual conteiner pode ou nao ser descarregado; e caso essas armas cheguem ao Zimbábue nós já sabemos qual será o o resultado.

Diante da passividade da ONU e da SADC, o impedimento de um genocídio anunciado depende por enquanto da forca dos estivadores angolanos, para que eles se recusem a descarregar o návio com fizeram os trabalhadores portuários sul-africanos. Entretanto, a menos que eles obtenham expressivo apoio externo, se o Governo quiser que o navio seja descarregado será improvável/impossível que se repita o que ocorreu na África do Sul.

Ajude a pressionar os países da SADC e suporte os cidadaos e trabalhadores portuários africanos que estao lutando para impedir a entrega dessas armas. Clique na foto abaixo para assinar a peticao RIGHTS, NOT GUNS FOR ZIMBABWE, promovida por uma coalizao incluindo Avaaz, IANSA, Anistia Internacional e Oxfam.







Clique no botao abaixo para informacoes atualizadas sobre o An Yue Jiang (veja os últimos comentários):

"Gostaríamos de informá-lo de que amanhã seremos mortos com nossas famílias"

Há um excelente e terrível livro com esse título sobre o genocídio ocorido em Ruanda em 1994 (de autoria de Philip Gourevith). O pungente título é uma citacao de uma carta escrita por um pai de família tutsi a seu líder religioso, frente a seu extermínio imediato.

A capa preta desse livro foi a primeira coisa de que lembrei ao ler a matéria de capa de hoje do The Independent, retratada ao lado.

Dessa vez o aviso (MAIS UM) é dado em conjunto pelos líderes religiosos do Zimbábue.

A matéria segue mais abaixo e contém uma aparente boa notícia sobre o návio chines An Yue Jiang, carregado de 77 toneladas de armas de pequeno e médio porte destinada ao Ministério da Defesa do Zimbábue voltará a Beijing sem ter conseguido descarregar.

Entretanto, a realidade pode nao ser tao animadora, pois como consta em um site de notícias sul-africano:

• The ship carrying weapons from China for Zimbabwe is heading to Angola, and could secretly transfer its cargo to another ship.
  
  On Monday, London-based maritime research company Lloyd's MIU said there were 32 ports in Africa capable of taking the An Yue Jiang.
  
  "Given the intense media interest and the fact that this ship has six cranes on board, an increasingly likely scenario is the possibility of a ship-to-ship transfer of the controversial cargo 'over the horizon' while the vessel is at sea," said Lloyd's MIU.
  
  It said there were 311 vessels in the area capable of taking the cargo, two of which were owned by the An Yue Jiang's owners, the China Ocean Shipping Company.

Para informacoes atualizadas sobre o An Yue Jiang clique no botao a seguir.

Zimbabwe's church leaders warn the world: intervene to avert genocide
By Raymond Whitaker in HarareWednesday, 23 April 2008

Zimbabwe is a deeply religious country. Daily discussions of the country's crisis end with Zimbabweans, black and white, saying: "We can only pray." So when the leaders of Zimbabwe's churches unanimously warn that the country faces "genocide" unless the international community intervenes, it is an important moment.

The clerics were speaking more than three weeks after a presidential election whose result President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party refuse to disclose, almost certainly because he was soundly defeated by Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). A recount of 23 parliamentary seats is under way in an apparent attempt to restore Zanu-PF's lost majority, and a wave of violence and intimidation has swept the country ahead of any possible presidential run-off.

"Organised violence perpetrated against individuals, families and communities who are accused of campaigning or voting for the 'wrong' political party ... has been unleashed throughout the country," said a joint statement by the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.

"People are being abducted, tortured, humiliated by being asked to repeat slogans of the political party they are alleged not to support, ordered to attend mass meetings where they are told they voted for the 'wrong' candidate."

The religious leaders call for voter intimidation to stop, adding that there is "widespread famine" in the countryside, that basic goods are unavailable or too expensive and that there are no medicines to treat people injured in the post-election violence. But their message to the international community is an uncomfortable reminder of previous occasions on which the world failed to act in time.

"If nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hot spots in Africa and elsewhere," they warn. "We appeal to the Southern African Development Community [SADC], the African Union and the United Nations to work towards arresting the deteriorating political and security situation in Zimbabwe."

This directly confronts the issue of what other countries can, or should, do to prevent abuses of the kind happening in Zimbabwe. Britain is in a particularly difficult position: Mr Mugabe has cast Mr Tsvangirai as a puppet of the former colonial power, and British criticism can be seen as making the 84-year-old autocrat's case.

But Gordon Brown and now the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who called on African leaders this week to isolate Mr Mugabe, have clearly decided that tactful silence is no longer an option when the Zimbabwean leader, in the Foreign Secretary's words, is "clinging to power and beating his own people to death to ensure he retains it".

There is very little that Britain, its European partners, the UN or even the African Union can do about Zimbabwe if its neighbours are not prepared to act, but here there is at last some hope for Mr Mugabe's battered opponents.

The feeble response of SADC at a summit called 10 days ago by Levy Mwanawasa, Zambia's President, caused outrage among the more democratic of its 14 member countries, particularly in South Africa, where the "quiet diplomacy" of the designated mediator, President Thabo Mbeki, came to be seen as simple appeasement of Mr Mugabe.

The rising tide of discontent at the region's failure found its bluntest expression yesterday when Jacob Zuma, the man who ousted Mr Mbeki as president of the African National Congress, said Africa must send a mission to Zimbabwe to end the delay in issuing election results. "It's not acceptable," said Mr Zuma, who is favourite to succeed Mr Mbeki as South African president next year. "It's not helping the Zimbabwean people who have gone out to... elect the kind of party and presidential candidate they want, exercising their constitutional right."

Mr Zuma, who is visiting European countries and is due to meet Mr Brown in London today, was the first to express public dissatisfaction with President Mbeki's approach, drawing support from many sections of the ANC.

Eventually, Mr Mbeki himself was forced to acknowledge the inaccuracy of his statement in Harare the weekend before last, while holding Mr Mugabe's hand, that there was "no crisis" in Zimbabwe.

Breaking southern Africa's conspiracy of silence over Zimbabwe has now had a tangible effect: yesterday Beijing said a shipment of weapons bound for the landlocked country may head home after the vessel was turned away from one port after another. First South African dockers refused to unload the vessel, upon which it headed for Mozambique, then Angola.
There are tentative signs that Zimbabwe's neighbours, many of whom have absorbed millions of economic migrants due to the ongoing crisis, may have run out of patience with the erstwhile liberator in Harare.

Mr Mwanawasa yesterday called on all African countries to follow suit and refuse entry to the arms. It seems that even those of Mr Mugabe's neighbours who regard his oppression as none of their business, or possibly even praiseworthy, could not quite stomach the idea of sending him bullets and grenades for use on his own people.

The Rhodesian leader Ian Smith knew he was finished when South Africa pulled the plug on him, and while no one expects Mr Mbeki to do the same to Mr Mugabe, there is much that pressure groups in South Africa can do to squeeze the regime in Harare, which is more fragile than it seems to the country's desperate opposition. If Mr Mugabe is open to reason, he might realise it would be better to do a deal before Mr Zuma takes over as leader of his powerful southern neighbour.


What happens next?


HAND-WRINGING
For
Everyone except Thabo Mbeki agrees something must be done to get rid of the Mugabe regime, but there is no clear strategy yet as all approaches have been rejected. The international community needs to consult before taking a rash decision that could backfire.
Against
This crisis has been going on since Mugabe rigged the elections in 2000. How many more million Zimbabweans will be forced out of the country or beaten up by Mugabe's so-called war veterans before the international community takes a stand? Handwringing brings nothing but shame on countries which have stood by while other African dictators have ignored the will of their people.
How likely? 9/10

NEGOTIATIONS
For
Mugabe's henchmen need more gentle persuasion to ditch their leader in favour of a negotiated solution which would allow them to keep their corruptly obtained wealth. Southern African leaders need to make Mugabe and his allies aware that the game is up.
Against
Mugabe should not be allowed to get off scot free but should pay the penalty for his crimes against hispeople, preferably in court. There can be nocompromise with members of a regime who have been tainted by their association with Mugabe, who has deliberately isolated himself from the rest of the world.
How likely? 6/10

SANCTIONS
For
A travel ban in the European Union and United States and an assets freeze is already hurting Mugabe and 130 of his cronies, and tougher sanctions could be put in place. An EU arms embargo has also been in place since 2002. The existing sanctions could be tightened in order to be more effective, and should not have get-out clauses.
Against
Existing sanctions are a joke and have been waived at every opportunity, allowing Mugabe to thumb his nose at the international community. Broader economic sanctions would hurt the Zimbabwean people. And Mugabe has turned to China for weapons.
How likely? 4/10

INVASION
For
Even the Pope highlighted the UN principle of "responsibility to protect", providing for collective action against states which refuse to protect their citizens from human rights abuses. If UN Security Council authorisation cannot be obtained, a coalition of the willing should go in to save the Zimbabwean people from catastrophe.
Against
South Africa, with a seat on the UN Security Council, will ensure no UN action is ordered to unseat Mugabe by force. The Iraq invasion proved military action can produce unintended consequences.

How likely? 0/10

Fonte: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/zimbabwes-church-leaders-warning-to-world-intervene-to-avert-genocide-814042.html

The stuff of life

O filme a seguir foi produzido pela Anistia Internacional e retrata o waterboarding, "forma de interrogatório" adotada pelos EUA e que Bush defende nao ser tortura.

Action: Stop the An Yue Jiang from delivering Chinese weapons to Zimbabwe

An Yue Jiang - próximo destino: Angola??

Clique aqui.

Onde está An Yue Jiang, o navio chines carregado de armas para o Zimbábue???

Já que os Governos e a ONU se mostram mais uma vez lentos e ineficientes, só nos resta torcer que os trabalhadores portuários de Mocambique sejam tao conscientes quanto os da África do Sul, que se recusaram por 4 dias a descarregar o návio An Yue Jiang, até a Suprema Corte decidir ontem bloquear a carga.

An Yue Jiang, o navio chines que leva 77 toneladas de armas de pequeno e médio porte originárias de Pequim e destinadas ao Ministério da Defesa do Zimbábue deixou ontem Durban com provável destino de Mocambique. Como apontou a líder da oposicao sul-africana, Helen Zille, caso a carga chegue ao seu destino final o resultado poderá ser um genocídio. Como ela aponta, um carregamento de machetes precedeu os massacres de Ruanda. O que Mugabe fará com 3.5 milhoes de balas de AK-47 e milhares de morteiros, mísseis e granadas?

Se os lacos que unem Brasil e Mocambique sao mais que retórica, que sirvam eles para pressionar Maputo a nao permitir o desembarque das armas. Entretanto, enquanto a ONU e a UA continuarem mudas e passivas a vida de milhoes no Zimbábue dependem provavelmente apenas da forca dos estivadores mocambicanos.

Enquanto isso, enquanto soldados chineses sao vistos nas ruas de cidade no Zimbábue e 20 dias após as eleicoes, é finalmente iniciada a recontagem dos 23 distritos eleitorais, onde o governo apontou ter ocorrido fraudes. A recontagem dessas urnas, poderá mudar o resultado das eleicoes, pois Mugabe havia inicialmente perdido em 21 dos 23 distritos.

Feliz Páscoa!!!!

Feliz Páscoa com muito Ovo de Chocolate Fair Trade ou organico para todo mundo!

É isso, conciencia ou barbarie...

Mais

The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn

Robert Fisk: The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn
Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a "hell-disaster".

But we have used these parallels before and they have drifted away in the Tigris breeze. Iraq is swamped in blood. Yet what is the state of our remorse? Why, we will have a public inquiry – but not yet! If only inadequacy was our only sin.

Today, we are engaged in a fruitless debate. What went wrong? How did the people – the senatus populusque Romanus of our modern world – not rise up in rebellion when told the lies about weapons of mass destruction, about Saddam's links with Osama bin Laden and 11 September? How did we let it happen? And how come we didn't plan for the aftermath of war?
Oh, the British tried to get the Americans to listen, Downing Street now tells us. We really, honestly did try, before we absolutely and completely knew it was right to embark on this illegal war. There is now a vast literature on the Iraq debacle and there are precedents for post-war planning – of which more later – but this is not the point. Our predicament in Iraq is on an infinitely more terrible scale.

As the Americans came storming up Iraq in 2003, their cruise missiles hissing through the sandstorm towards a hundred Iraqi towns and cities, I would sit in my filthy room in the Baghdad Palestine Hotel, unable to sleep for the thunder of explosions, and root through the books I'd brought to fill the dark, dangerous hours. Tolstoy's War and Peace reminded me how conflict can be described with sensitivity and grace and horror – I recommend the Battle of Borodino – along with a file of newspaper clippings. In this little folder, there was a long rant by Pat Buchanan, written five months earlier; and still, today I feel its power and its prescience and its absolute historical honesty: "With our MacArthur Regency in Baghdad, Pax Americana will reach apogee. But then the tide recedes, for the one endeavour at which Islamic people excel is expelling imperial powers by terror or guerrilla war.

"They drove the Brits out of Palestine and Aden, the French out of Algeria, the Russians out of Afghanistan, the Americans out of Somalia and Beirut, the Israelis out of Lebanon. We have started up the road to empire and over the next hill we will meet those who went before. The only lesson we learn from history is that we do not learn from history."

How easily the little men took us into the inferno, with no knowledge or, at least, interest in history. None of them read of the 1920 Iraqi insurgency against British occupation, nor of Churchill's brusque and brutal settlement of Iraq the following year.

On our historical radars, not even Crassus appeared, the wealthiest Roman general of all, who demanded an emperorship after conquering Macedonia – "Mission Accomplished" – and vengefully set forth to destroy Mesopotamia. At a spot in the desert near the Euphrates river, the Parthians – ancestors of present day Iraqi insurgents – annihilated the legions, chopped off Crassus's head and sent it back to Rome filled with gold. Today, they would have videotaped his beheading.

To their monumental hubris, these little men who took us to war five years ago now prove that they have learnt nothing. Anthony Blair – as we should always have called this small town lawyer – should be facing trial for his mendacity. Instead, he now presumes to bring peace to an Arab-Israeli conflict which he has done so much to exacerbate. And now we have the man who changed his mind on the legality of war – and did so on a single sheet of A4 paper – daring to suggest that we should test immigrants for British citizenship. Question 1, I contend, should be: Which blood-soaked British attorney general helped to send 176 British soldiers to their deaths for a lie? Question 2: How did he get away with it?

But in a sense, the facile, dumbo nature of Lord Goldsmith's proposal is a clue to the whole transitory, cardboard structure of our decision-making. The great issues that face us – be they Iraq or Afghanistan, the US economy or global warming, planned invasions or "terrorism" – are discussed not according to serious political timetables but around television schedules and press conferences.

Will the first air raids on Iraq hit prime-time television in the States? Mercifully, yes. Will the first US troops in Baghdad appear on the breakfast shows? Of course. Will Saddam's capture be announced by Bush and Blair simultaneously?

But this is all part of the problem. True, Churchill and Roosevelt argued about the timing of the announcement that war in Europe had ended. And it was the Russians who pipped them to the post. But we told the truth. When the British were retreating to Dunkirk, Churchill announced that the Germans had "penetrated deeply and spread alarm and confusion in their tracks".
Why didn't Bush or Blair tell us this when the Iraqi insurgents began to assault the Western occupation forces? Well, they were too busy telling us that things were getting better, that the rebels were mere "dead-enders".

On 17 June 1940, Churchill told the people of Britain: "The news from France is very bad and I grieve for the gallant French people who have fallen into this terrible misfortune." Why didn't Blair or Bush tell us that the news from Iraq was very bad and that they grieved – even just a few tears for a minute or so – for the Iraqis?

For these were the men who had the temerity, the sheer, unadulterated gall, to dress themselves up as Churchill, heroes who would stage a rerun of the Second World War, the BBC dutifully calling the invaders "the Allies" – they did, by the way – and painting Saddam's regime as the Third Reich.

Of course, when I was at school, our leaders – Attlee, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, or Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy in the United States – had real experience of real war. Not a single Western leader today has any first-hand experience of conflict. When the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq began, the most prominent European opponent of the war was Jacques Chirac, who fought in the Algerian conflict. But he has now gone. So has Colin Powell, a Vietnam veteran but himself duped by Rumsfeld and the CIA.

Yet one of the terrible ironies of our times is that the most bloodthirsty of American statesmen – Bush and Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfovitz – have either never heard a shot fired in anger or have ensured they did not have to fight for their country when they had the chance to do so. No wonder Hollywood titles like "Shock and Awe" appeal to the White House. Movies are their only experience of human conflict; the same goes for Blair and Brown.

Churchill had to account for the loss of Singapore before a packed House. Brown won't even account for Iraq until the war is over.

It is a grotesque truism that today – after all the posturing of our political midgets five years ago – we might at last be permitted a valid seance with the ghosts of the Second World War. Statistics are the medium, and the room would have to be dark. But it is a fact that the total of US dead in Iraq (3,978) is well over the number of American casualties suffered in the initial D-Day landings at Normandy (3,384 killed and missing) on 6 June, 1944, or more than three times the total British casualties at Arnhem the same year (1,200).

They count for just over a third of the total fatalities (11,014) of the entire British Expeditionary Force from the German invasion of Belgium to the final evacuation at Dunkirk in June 1940. The number of British dead in Iraq – 176 – is almost equal to the total of UK forces lost at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944-45 (just over 200). The number of US wounded in Iraq – 29,395 – is more than nine times the number of Americans injured on 6 June (3,184) and more than a quarter of the tally for US wounded in the entire 1950-53 Korean war (103,284).

Iraqi casualties allow an even closer comparison to the Second World War. Even if we accept the lowest of fatality statistics for civilian dead – they range from 350,000 up to a million – these long ago dwarfed the number of British civilian dead in the flying-bomb blitz on London in 1944-45 (6,000) and now far outnumber the total figure for civilians killed in bombing raids across the United Kingdom – 60,595 dead, 86,182 seriously wounded – from 1940 to 1945.

Indeed, the Iraqi civilian death toll since our invasion is now greater than the total number of British military fatalities in the Second World War, which came to an astounding 265,000 dead (some histories give this figure as 300,000) and 277,000 wounded. Minimum estimates for Iraqi dead mean that the civilians of Mesopotamia have suffered six or seven Dresdens or – more terrible still – two Hiroshimas.

Yet in a sense, all this is a distraction from the awful truth in Buchanan's warning. We have dispatched our armies into the land of Islam. We have done so with the sole encouragement of Israel, whose own false intelligence over Iraq has been discreetly forgotten by our masters, while weeping crocodile tears for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died.

America's massive military prestige has been irreparably diminished. And if there are, as I now calculate, 22 times as many Western troops in the Muslim world as there were at the time of the 11th and 12th century Crusades, we must ask what we are doing. Are we there for oil? For democracy? For Israel? For fear of weapons of mass destruction? Or for fear of Islam?

We blithely connect Afghanistan to Iraq. If only Washington had not become distracted by Iraq, so the narrative now goes, the Taliban could not have re-established themselves. But al-Qa'ida and the nebulous Osama bin Laden were not distracted. Which is why they expanded their operations into Iraq and then used this experience to assault the West in Afghanistan with the hitherto – in Afghanistan – unheard of suicide bomber.

And I will hazard a terrible guess: that we have lost Afghanistan as surely as we have lost Iraq and as surely as we are going to "lose" Pakistan. It is our presence, our power, our arrogance, our refusal to learn from history and our terror – yes, our terror – of Islam that is leading us into the abyss. And until we learn to leave these Muslim peoples alone, our catastrophe in the Middle East will only become graver. There is no connection between Islam and "terror". But there is a connection between our occupation of Muslim lands and "terror". It's not too complicated an equation. And we don't need a public inquiry to get it right.

Fonte: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/robert-fisk-the-only-lesson-we-ever-learn-is-that-we-never-learn-797816.html

Sopa de entulho

Voce sempre sonhou em ir ao Hawai, mas nunca teve a chance? Nao se preocupe, pelo menos os sacos plásticos das compras que vc faz no supermercado foram e andam matando mais de 1 milhao de aves marinhas por ano, assim como mais de 100.000 mamíferos marinhos. Cientistas acabam de descobrir o que chamaram de "sopa de lixo", ou "sopa de plástico" no oceano pacífico.

Trata-se de duas manchas translúcidas de lixo, em constante movimento giratório devido aas correntes maritimas, com mais de 10 metros de profundidade e que juntas ocupam uma área que pode chegar a duas vezes o tamanho dos EUA continental (aquele sem as colonias).

Se vc tem tao pouco tempo para ler este post como eu tenho para escreve-lo pare agora mesmo e vá direto ao artigo de leitura obrigatória para todos:

The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan
The Independent - 06/02/08

Desde que cheguei nos UK eu uso o mínimo, mesmo, de sacos pláticos e sempre levo mochila vazia e sacos antigos dentro dela ao supermercado - agora vou me policiar para nao usar nem mesmo esses esporádicos. Eu acordei para essa questao após ler algumas reportagens relatando a lenta morte de tartarugas marinhas, que cacam os sacos plásticos achando que sao aguas vivas, mas eu nao fazia idéia do número de animais que morrem anualmente - sem falar nos demais danos ao ecosistema.

Nao tem blablabla. Podemos tentar nos enganar e inventar mil desculpas, mas o uso de sacos plásticos em nosso dia-a-dia é absurdo, irresponsável e totalmente evitável - ainda mais no Brasil onde os sacos sao muitas vezes vagabundos (ou pelo menos assumimos que sao) e sempre sao usados em dobro.

É triste, mas eu realmente acredito que nao há outra solucao para o curto prazo que nao o uso do poder coercitivo para acabar com esse e outros absurdos. Infelizmente, a concientizacao (que é fundamental) só conseguirá gerar resultado a médio/longo prazo (sendo bastante utópico) e aí já será tarde demais. 3 vivas para o governo da China, que vai simplesmente proibir o uso de sacos plásticos em mercados - e lá nos sabemos como eles fazem a lei ser cumprida...

Se vc me disser que parou de comer/beber chocolate produzido com cacao fruto de trabalho escravo, parou de fumar maconha originária do tráfico, realmente pensa nas consequencias de suas acoes no meio ambiente e age para neutralizá-las eu talvez mude de idéia. Caso contrário, Viva o Leviatã e o novo contrato social de que precisamos.

Segue abaixo o gráfico no Independent retratando a gracinha que construímos:


Clique na imagem ou no link a seguir para ver o gráfico em tamanho descente: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html?action=Popup&gallery=no

Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

By Kim SenguptaThursday, 31 January 2008

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

The Independent is launching a campaign today to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. The UN, human rights groups, journalists' organisations and Western diplomats have urged Mr Karzai's government to intervene and free him. But the Afghan Senate passed a motion yesterday confirming the death sentence.

The MP who proposed the ruling condemning Mr Kambaksh was Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of Mr Karzai. The Senate also attacked the international community for putting pressure on the Afghan government and urged Mr Karzai not to be influenced by outside un-Islamic views.
The case of Mr Kambaksh, who also worked a s reporter for the Jahan-i-Naw (New World) newspaper, is seen in Afghanistan as yet another chapter in the escalation in the confrontation between Afghanistan and the West.

It comes in the wake of Mr Karzai accusing the British of actually worsening the situation in Helmand province by their actions and his subsequent blocking of the appointment of Lord Ashdown as the UN envoy and expelling a British and an Irish diplomat.

Demonstrations, organised by clerics, against the alleged foreign interference have been held in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where Mr Kambaksh was arrested. Aminuddin Muzafari, the first secretary of the houses of parliament, said: "People should realise that as we are representatives of an Islamic country therefore we can never tolerate insults to reverences of Islamic religion."

At a gathering in Takhar province, Maulavi Ghulam Rabbani Rahmani, the heads of the Ulema council, said: "We want the government and the courts to execute the court verdict on Kambaksh as soon as possible." In Parwan province, another senior cleric, Maulavi Muhammad Asif, said: "This decision is for disrespecting the holy Koran and the government should enforce the decision before it came under more pressure from foreigners."

UK officials say they are particularly concerned about such draconian action being taken against a journalist. The Foreign Office and Department for International Development has donated large sums to the training of media workers in the country. The Government funds the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in the Helmand capital, Lashkar Gar.

Mr Kambaksh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, is also a journalist and has written articles for IWPR in which he accused senior public figures, including an MP, of atrocities, including murders. He said: "Of course we are all very worried about my brother. What has happened to him is very unjust. He has not committed blasphemy and he was not even allowed to have a legal defence. and what took place was a secret trial."

Qayoum Baabak, the editor of Jahan-i-Naw, said a senior prosecutor in Mazar-i-Sharif, Hafiz Khaliqyar, had warned journalists that they would be punished if they protested against the death sentence passed on Mr Kambaksh.

Jean MacKenzie, country director for IWPR, said: "We feel very strongly that this is designed to put pressure on Pervez's brother, Yaqub, who has done some of the hardest-hitting pieces outlining abuses by some very powerful commanders."

Rahimullah Samander, the president of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association, said: "This is unfair, this is illegal. He just printed a copy of something and looked at it and read it. How can we believe in this 'democracy' if we can't even read, we can't even study? We are asking Mr Karzai to quash the death sentence before it is too late."

The circumstances surrounding the conviction of Mr Kambaksh are also being viewed as a further attempt to claw back the rights gained by women since the overthrow of the Taliban. The most prominent female MP, Malalai Joya, has been suspended after criticising her male colleagues.

Under the Afghan constitution, say legal experts, Mr Kambaksh has the right to appeal to the country's supreme court. Some senior clerics maintain, however, that since he has been convicted under religious laws, the supreme court should not bring secular interpretations to the case.

Mr Karzai has the right to intervene and pardon Mr Kambaksh. However, even if he is freed, it would be hard for the student to escape retribution in a country where fundamentalists and warlords are increasingly in the ascendancy.

How you can save Pervez

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh's imminent execution is an affront to civilised values. It is not, however, a foregone conclusion. If enough international pressure is brought to bear on President Karzai's government, his sentence may yet be overturned. Add your weight to the campaign by urging the Foreign Office to demand that his life be spared. Sign our e-petition at www.independent.co.uk/petition

Fonte: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-death-afghan-who-dared-to-read-about-womens-rights-775972.html