caravia/politics

Nathalie Rothschild make a point critisizing the new English law forbidding pöhotographers take pictures of policemen or army.

"PHOTO ESSAY: Warning! These photos may be useful to terrorists

8. spiked was able freely to photograph police officers around the Houses of Parliament yesterday; several policemen happily posed for tourists. Yet they could at any point demand to know a snapper's intentions and to arrest anyone they deem suspicious. Not only is the formulation of the law vague and open to wide interpretation, it also shows up the government's cavalier attitude to our liberties."

Gourmet cruelty, we should change our food habits and try alternatives to caviar and foie grad. And we should remember that the majority of the planet have never tasted caviar or foie gras.

I met them in Tel Aviv, the Coalition of Women for Peace, an Israeli women organization keeping tags on the economy of the occupation.

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The Occupation Industry Research Project

This database reflects an on-going grassroots investigation effort by activists in The Coalition of Women for Peace, a leading Israeli feminist peace organization, dedicated to ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights and reaching a just peace in Israel/ Palestine. In exposing companies and corporations involved in the occupation, we hope to promote a change in public opinion and corporate policies, leading to an end to the occupation.

Along with various political, religious and national interests, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights is fueled by corporate interests. Israeli companies and multinational corporations lead real estate deals, develop the Israeli infrastructure and settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories and the Golan Heights, contribute to the construction and operation of an ethnic separation system, including checkpoints, walls and roads, design and supply equipment and tools used in the control and repression of the civilian population under occupation.

Currently, we focus our attention on three main areas of corporate involvement in the occupation: The Settlement Industry, Economic Exploitation and Control of Population. At this stage in our project, we are not investigating the vast industry of military production and arms trade. The information we provide on the exploitation of Palestinian labor and production is also very limited. Other organizations (Kav LaOved, Adva Center, and The Alternative Information Center) have investigated these fields of involvement in depth, and wherever necessary, we show a link to their publications."

The vicepresident of the European Parliament is a strong supporter of Human Rights. She is member of Women in Black, a woman organization fighting against the wars and the gender discrimination.

I really hope the US can go beyond bipartisan struggles and show a good leadership. We, as non Americans, are ultimate dependant of a good and healthy US.

From the page: "McCain: I will help Obama fix America

By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
President-elect Barack Obama and his former rival John McCain pledged yesterday to launch "a new era of reform" after a dramatic meeting in Chicago appeared to dispel much of the election campaign's bitterness.

There was a mood of conciliation as the rivals pledged to put aside differences in order to rid Washington of its "bad habits" and solve the "urgent challenges of our time".

The joint statement, unprecedented in recent White House history, saw both politicians undertake "to work together in the days and months ahead on challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation's security."

The aim, they said, was to "restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family."

Senator McCain had already shown himself to be magnanimous in defeat. On the night he lost the election he declared: "I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face." "

Awesome!! Just such a great idea and to make people take care of their own!

"James Brett is an Englishman who, in 1999 while on a business trip to Peshawar in the north west province of Pakistan, had his first glass of pomegranate juice, and fell in love with it. He founded the first pomegranate juice drink in the UK, Pomegreat (.pdf). Further research led him to Afghanistan, where the best pomegranates in the world are grown, particularly in the Kandahar region. A recovering substance abuser, Brett was also aware that Afghanistan was a major producer of heroin.

In 2007, Brett was invited to Kabul to talk to farmers from various regions of Afghanistan about growing pomegranates. He flew to Peshawar and drove through the Khyber Pass heading to Kabul While driving through the Nangarhar Province, he noticed a farmer in a field of opium poppies. After the seminar in Kabul, Brett bought a large piece of card and a blue marker pen, and wrote 'Pomegranate is the Answer'. On his return drive back to Peshawar, he saw the same farmer again in the field, jumped out of the car and ran toward the farmer with his makeshift sign. His horrified translator chased after this mad ginger-haired Brit, yelling, 'Don't go in there, you could be shot!' Undetered, Brett talked to the bewildered farmer through his translator, about the farmer's life, his family, his children, how he lived and why he grew opium, about Brett's own addiction to drugs. Brett explained that pomegranate was not only the best option as an alternative crop to opium poppies, but was the only feasible one for the Afghan climate and growing conditions, and promised to return to the farmer's land a couple months later with pomegranate saplings. He went home and set up a charity called Pom354.

Brett followed through on his promise, returning a few months later to find the farmer had discussed this idea with sixteen other families with land around his own; all of them wanted to become involved. From there, the plan snowballed - in January, 2008, Afghanistan Television interviewed him, and other farmers asked him for help in changing their fields from poppies to pomegranates. The local member of Parliament and a respected Elder in the Tribal system wanted to know more. A tribal meeting covering the entire Nangarhar Province was called, and 200 Tribal elders invited."