Happy Earth Day

Yes, yes — today is the day hippies rejoice and we ponder what our malevolent human activities are doing to ruin the planet we inhabit. Happy Earth Day everyone!

Happy New Year!

In 2008 we will witness events as gargantuan as the 2008 US presidential elections and the 2008 Summer Olympic games in Beijing, China. We will also see how issues like climate change play out in both local and international arenas. In Europe, we will witness the aftermath of the signing of the EU treaty; in America we will see several major Supreme Court cases decided; in Burma we will stand by for more uprisings against the military junta. We will see whether post-election Kenya turns to turmoil and worry about the fate of Pakistan following the death of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Economically the worldwide reverberations of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis will be felt, most of all in the United States. How will the rising price of oil affect the markets, as well as individuals? Hopefully 2008 will be a year of peace in the Middle East — will the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq finally be quelled; will Israel and its neighbors resolve disputes?

I look forward to blogging about all these matters in 2008.

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day.

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between 2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005, of which more than half a million (570,000) were children.

Even though AIDS fears have been slightly downgraded recently, the disease is still one of the most pressing global health issues. Over 33 million people worldwide live with HIV/AIDS, the majority (22.5m) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country with the largest AIDS problem is South Africa, followed by Nigeria and India.

More and more resources are being pledged in the fight against the AIDS pandemic, but some issues — such as poverty, lack of education, and the Catholic Church and other religious conservatives being opposed to safety measures such as condoms — continue to plague the anti-HIV/AIDS effort. Governments also need to stop denying they have an AIDS problem, like we've seen Russia, China, and many African governments do. We need to teach about, treat, and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS; there must be a coordinated effort between local and national governments, NGOs, and religious and community authorities in this mission.

It's UN Day!

Today — 24 October — is the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in 1945, UN Day.



The UN is an important actor in international affairs. While it has plenty of faults — e.g. corruption, ineffectiveness because of it's too tough not tough enough, lack of agreement among member nations and support from the world's peoples, lack of scope in missions — the United Nations has overall made the world a better and safer place.

Climate change will be its biggest, truly global challenge yet, spanning its political, humanitarian, and scientific (policy) realms. Capturing the hearts and minds of the public while managing bickering nations are among other major, continuing challenges. The organization is dependent on its members. America especially must not lose hope in the organization and it, along with other world nations, should increase funding, which the UN is short of.

Happy 62, UN, hopefully the state of the world will improve in the years to come.

Blog Action Day + Bush's inept global warming policy

Today is Blog Action Day, a day for bloggers to focus on the pressing issue of the environment.

http://www.blogactionday.org/resources

Tomorrow, as usual, I will do an "Earth-friendly living tip of the week"; but today I will focus on the political, as opposed to practical, side of global warming...

Mr. President, define 'flexible'
At his own climate change meeting a couple of weeks ago, President Bush stated a vague plan that is far from a compromise with even the moderates on the global warming issue. The American president's biggest step to meeting in the middle with the rational people who believe in scientific data instead of what lobbyists and pastors tell them — and this should be an indicator of not only how stubborn this man and his administration are, but how blind their policy is — was speaking of 'flexible' (i.e. industry-written) greenhouse gas targets, which mean nothing. Bush is sticking with White House policy of denying global warming and the human impact on the earth, and occasionally making a side-comment on how America shouldn't have to save the world if no one else will. (Perhaps the last thing he wanted to do was start a scientific debate against him, but that's what happened.)

Mr Bush stressed that combating climate change should not damage the economy.

And he again hinted that the US would not commit itself to mandatory CO2 cuts.

A few points on President George Bush's climate change policy:

Bush doesn't to justice to the climate change issue;

He pussyfoots the important issue of global greenhouse gas caps;

He is trying to appear somewhat eco-friendly to an increasingly aware American and global audience

Bush does know that global warming will hurt the economy more in the long run than can even be imagined now, right? The costs will be much greater the longer America and the world wait to take action. It's amazing, but not altogether surprising, that such a person of power can value money, an artificial human creation, over nature, a target of man's massive destructive powers.

Pundits have asked if Bush's latest environmental moves are stunts or real, albeit very small, progress; for now I'm erring on the side of the former.

Slavery and more

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. See here (official UN site) for more details.


"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Article 4, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It's been about 200 years since the abolition of slavery in Britain and the British Empire, and an odd altruistic sort of crusade against slavery by the British. It's also around two centuries since US President Thomas Jefferson signed an act banning the slave trade, though slavery continued for years to come.

Of course, slavery and similar practices are still around today.

technorati tags: slavery, history, holidays, UN, british, jefferson, human+rights, racism

Happy Christmas (?)

Present to the needy [in the nearly forgotten genocide]:
-— Sudan 'to accept UN Darfur force'.
This is a possible beginning of UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur, After so many years, is a bright light finally looming on the horizon for those suffering in the Darfur genocide — that much of the US media has basically ignored? Let's hope this positive step may help.

Present to the world [of foreign policy]:
-— End of the core of the traditional neoconservative movement in the US [for now]. About time!

Present to the deserving and distraught [Palestinians]:
-— Palestinians get a little Christmas present: some of their tax money back from Israel — with one usual hindering caveat.
-— Some good news for West Bank residents.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz has announced an easing of restrictions on Palestinians, including dismantling roadblocks in the West Bank.

Present to the global balance (or, rather, imbalance):
-— Iran gets slammed with sanctions by UN Security Council. See, it can happen. Iran got what was coming to it, and the government knew that. Ahmadinejad rejects the sanctions. What else is new?

Present to NYT op-ed/free speech/transparancy/news source haters:
-— CIA redacts parts of New York Times op-ed piece by former government employees. Redacted information was sources available to all (e.g. news articles available online) say the op-ed writers. Interesting, nearly Orwellian news. Just to clarify, the article went through a publishing review process that exists to censor out classified information. In this case the information taken out was seemingly not classified at all. The piece was on Iran and the US policy with Iran. The authors' explanation of the redaction was also published.

National security must be above politics. In a democracy, transparency in government has to be honored and protected. To classify information for reasons other than the safety and security of the United States and its interests is a violation of these principles. It is for this reason that we will continue to press for the release of the article without the material deleted.

Present to the Daniel Denett, Sam Harris, et al of Britain:
-— Religion more bad than good, poll says. perfect news for the holidays.

More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension - greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good.
The poll also reveals that non-believers outnumber believers in Britain by almost two to one. It paints a picture of a sceptical nation with massive doubts about the effect religion has on society: 82% of those questioned say they see religion as a cause of division and tension between people. Only 16% disagree. The findings are at odds with attempts by some religious leaders to define the country as one made up of many faith communities.

The UK is much more liberal in a cultural and religious sense than the United States — which has seen an increasing rise in far right-wing religious politics. In the US, about half are religious in the traditional sense and believe in creationism (i.e. the Earth was created by God about 6,000 years ago; men lived alongside dinosaurs; humankind started in an enchanted garden with a talking snake). Also, about one forth of Americans are evangelicals, quite conservative Christians backing the religious right.

Present to death [penalty advocates]:
-— Saddam Hussein to be executed 'within 30 days'. His appeal had failed as expected (see background).
-— Japan executes four on death row; first executions since new prime minster Shinzo Abe took office. ( See this and this post. Correction to previous posts: Japan and US two developed capital punishment countries; US not sole industrialized nation that has capital punishment.)

technorati tags: christmas, holidays, merry+christmas, presents, news, iran, christians, religion, united+states, united+kingdom, britain, america, saddam, saddam+hussein, death+penalty, capital+punishment, japan, politics, in+the+news, current+affairs, current+events, darfur, sudan, UN, united+nations, palestine, israel, gaza, west+bank, neocons, op-ed, nyt, media, news+media, CIA

World AIDS Day

Sorry, Internet troubles kept me offline.

Today is the day of one of the few special interest days I actually care about and pay attention to. If you have not already seen from the red ribbon on Google's homepage, it is World AIDS Day. Let's all see if we can make a difference in the battle against the spreading disease. I just wonder how many have died as a result of more conservative religions' contraception and/or medical policies.

Happy first of December!

technorati tags: aids, world+aids+day, google, religion, holidays, hiv