US hypocricy on chemical weapons

According to the Guardian: "History will judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turn a blind eye to a dictator's wanton use of weapons of mass destruction," John Kerry, US Secretary of State said in a briefing to reporters at the state department in Washington.

Perhaps he was talking about the use of white phosphorus in Falluja in 2005? Maybe it was the use of depleted uranium in Iraq in 2003 that is now causing birth defects? Maybe it was an earlier event, perhaps the backing of chemical weapon use against Iran in the 1980's?

So is the tactical missile strike going to be made against the country that seems happy to use white phosphorus, depleted uranium and other chemical weapons? Somehow I doubt that the Pentagon staff are worried.

Perhaps too, the UK just ought to stop exporting weapons to Syria. £12bn of sales being licenced to countries including Iran and Syria seems a smidgen excessive?

Glass houses and stones spring to mind for both countries.

Syria: guiding principles not guided missiles

"Our guiding principle now must be to do all we can to protect lives." - a great quote from Caroline Lucas yesterday and one that I completely support. The situation is clearly appalling and complex but one thing is for certain, the UK and US should NOT attempt to unilaterally act as the world's police yet again.

Assad's actions are deplorable and he should face the ICC for war crimes, but there is no UN mandate to go into Syria or to target sites for missile strikes and arguing a humanitarian need for military intervention is questionable, especially as the consequences of such intervention could cause greater problems, i.e. an escalation of aggression.

Until the UN agrees a course of action, what is clear is that there is a need to drastically increase the humanitarian aid for the refugees.

Arab Autumn

The Arab uprisings have moved into a new phase with Tripoli close to falling to the rebels last night - let us hope that the new regime is more democratic and more peaceful than the last.

Of course the rebels may not have managed this without intervention by the US and its allies, but then there is a lot of oil at stake. Sadly the death toll in Syria continues, 2000 is the current estimate, and there seems to be little progress on reform and clearly not as much oil at stake.

Grapes of Wrath: 2011 sequel?

The US predicament is looking increasingly like the dust bowl / poverty sceanrio that was the setting for John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

There is a monster heatwave and drought raging across the country and while there is little talk of a return of the 1930's dust bowl, the weather pattern is certainly impacting on the country.

Alongside the weather, the US economy seems on the brink of collapse. The budget talks are in difficulty with a breakdown on Friday although they seem to have restarted yesterday. They are still discussing how to handle $14 trillion of debt with an assumption that this needs to be reduced and of course the Republicans want to cut benefits and taxes to do so.

It is worth remembering that in general terms the size of the money supply is defined by the totality of debt, so reducing the government's debt can only be achieved by either shrinking the money supply or shifting the debt to someone else. I doubt neither option would be palatable to them.

The real impact is being shown on the streets. Unemployment has been running between 9% and 10% for last two years and there are stories about the displaced people with no jobs and no homes. Worse still are the actions by authorities to confiscate and destroy the vehicles and tents that people are living in. If you haven't read Grapes of Wrath, I would recommend it.

Geronimo wasn't killed in Pakistan

This is from Intercontinental Cry:

Geronimo wasn't killed in Pakistan. Geronimo wasn't even his name.

Avaaz: Uganda anti gay laws

This from Avaaz - please sign it. Over 1 million have so far and the number is growing quickly:

In 12 hours, the Ugandan Parliament may vote on a brutal new law that carries the death penalty for homosexuality. Thousands of Ugandans could face execution -- just for being gay.

We've helped stop this bill before, and we can do it again. After a massive global outcry last year, Ugandan President Museveni blocked the bill's progress. But political unrest is mounting in Uganda, and religious extremists in Parliament are hoping confusion and violence in the streets will distract the international community from a second push to pass this hate-filled law. We can show them that the world is still watching. If we block the vote for two more days until Parliament closes, the bill will expire forever.

We have no time to lose. Let’s get to one million voices against Uganda's gay death penalty in the next 12 hours -- sign now then spread the word about this campaign!

Bin Ladin's death will change nothing

Screwing with other country's politics, bombing them in the name of democracy and invading them in case they might have WMDs, are all wrong on so many levels especially when the real reason is to get our hands on their oil.

Bin Ladin's death may now become the defining moment of Obama's presidency and pull him from the clutches of defeat by the GOP but the triumphalism that we will witness today will say more about our own lust for blood and need for a common enemy than Bin Ladin's terrorism.

Just as the West was responsible for hundreds of thousands, and possibly up to a million, deaths in Iraq following the invasions predicated on a supposed 45 minutes to mass destruction of the West but in reality a political need to secure oil, we are now attacking Libya in the name of democracy that hides the West's need to secure oil from them.

Libya considers diverting its oil supply to China and India and the US, UK and France start bombing them using civil liberties as an excuse. Strange how the West isn't intervening in Syria or Bahrain in the same was and how we completely ignored Gaza. Just look at oil reserves to get a feel for the liklihood of invasion.

Oil, the need to demonise and the economic benefits of war are driving the appalling foreign policy of the past 10 years. Bin Ladin may be dead but sadly that will not end our involvement in the Arab states.

No to Bahrain at the wedding

Disgusted to see that the Bahrain crown prince has been invited to the Royal Wedding. I wasn't at all interested in the wedding of someone who will one day become the unelected head of state to a woman whose family were portrayed as the ultimate social climbers until the Bahrain story broke.

This is from Al Jazeera:


The crown prince of Bahrain is on the guest list for the wedding of the UK's Prince William and Catherine Middleton in London next week, as criticism of the violent suppression of opposition protesters continues.
Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, was one of more than 40 foreign royals invited to attend the British royals' wedding in Westminster Abbey on Friday.

Law of Mother Earth

Good things happening in Bolvia:

"Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans.The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry."

It seems that the new law has been heavily influenced by their indiginous people. We have so much to learn from them.

Scenes from the Egyptian Revolution video please repost!

Please repost Tamer Shaaban's video!

“Violent clashes between police and demonstrators as over ten thousand gather on the streets of Cairo. The Egyptian people have endured a tyrant’s rule for far too long, millions struggle each day to find where their next meal is coming from. January 25th, 2011 marks the day when the people rise and take back what’s rightfully there’s. This isn’t the end, but hopefully the beginning to a long awaited regime change! Send to everyone and let them know.”

Song: “Into the Fire” – Thirteen Senses

Thanks to the following news sources for their footage
Daily News Egypt
The Guardian
CNN
New York Times
Al Masry Al Youm

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK. Let us hope the revolution becomes more peaceful.

2nd place in German polls

Stunning news from Germany, it looks like the German Green Party is now the second most popular party in the country on 24% and only 5% behind the leaders, the CDU. The SPD who were in coalition with the Greens until 2005 have fallen to 23%.

While Latin America might be doing interesting things with Green politics, it looks like our European friends are too.

Just think what could happen if the UK decided to introduce democracy!

Save Capitalism or Mother Earth?

Interesting speech by Bolivian President Evo Morales to the G77 at the UN on 7th May - snippets below, but worth reading a longer version here. The discussion about the rights of Mother Earth, the rights of indiginous peoples and the damage the West has inflicted on them both when it should be learning from them is seldom had. Good to see it here!

"The third component is the debt to our Mother Earth. This is because not only have human beings and developing countries been affected, but so has nature.

"To honor this debt, the conference considered it fundamental to discuss in the UN a proposal for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth that establishes obligations for all human beings with regard to nature and that recognises, in the form of rights, the limits that human activity must have if we are going to preserve planet Earth.

"There is not just a climate crisis, but an energy crisis, a food crisis, a financial crisis — the crisis of capitalism itself, which is destroying humanity and nature.

"If the cause is systemic, then the solution must be too. For this, the conference discussed the theme of alternatives for “living well” in harmony with nature.

"The conference said we must learn from the example of indigenous peoples living in harmony with nature.


"Our unity gives us the strength to guarantee that negotiations will be broadly participatory, transparent, and respectful of the equal rights of all UN member states, whether large or small, and to ensure that the voice of our peoples is heard and respected.

"In the unity of the developing countries lies our potential to forge a new world in which harmony exists among human beings and Mother Earth.

"We have two paths: to save capitalism, or to save life and Mother Earth."