THE G-20 IN PITTSBURGH
by Tom Over 9-23-09
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On Tuesday, Sept 22, activists from Philadelphia, New York City, Pittsburgh and other cities held a mock funeral procession to demand better policies for addressing the AIDS pandemic, a day ahead of the arrival of delegates for the G-20.
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The approximately 50 participants in the New Orleans-style funeral march drew a mix of interest, irritation, and amusement from onlookers in the business district of downtown Pittsburgh.
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At the head of the funeral march where pallbearers carried a cardboard coffin, a man shouted into a microphone while someone else carried a portable amplifier, “when people with AIDS are under attack, what do we do ?” and marchers shouted in unison, “fight back!”
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Amidst the early afternoon bustle of an weekday, the demonstrators repeated this call-and-answer and similar chants as the funeral march made its way around the perimeter of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the site of the G-20 Summit later this week.
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Erica Goldberg works with ACT UP Philadelphia. She said global health is not on the agenda of the G-20 Summit.
“One of the things that some of the G-20 nations have promised us is funding for the global fund to fight, TB, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. This is all really important, especially if we want to meet the United Nations’ Millennium goal of eradicating these diseases by 2015. As of right now, this won’t be met. We have to hold our leaders accountable. They are the ones making decisions for the poorer countries,” Goldberg said.
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She commented on the timing of the demonstration. “We wanted this to be the first thing they (the G-20 delegates) see. They’re coming here tomorrow. We’re holding them accountable. This needs to be on the agenda.”
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She said AIDS activists chose Sept 22, two days before the official start of the G-20 Summit, and one day before the arrival of the delegates, so as to not have to compete with other protests. Also, she said the AIDS activists figured there would be less of a chance of conflict with police if they staged their protest earlier in the week.
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“We hope that this will hit the papers tomorrow, that it’s the first thing they see when they walk in, that they have this on their conscience and know we’re not going away,” Goldberg said. She urges people to contact legislators about supporting the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
“President Obama, as much as I love him, went back on his promise to fulfill the funding,” Goldberg said.
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She commented on how drug companies factor into all of this. “ Medication does not need to be this expensive. They can definitely lower their prices. We have big drug interests lobbying to prevent AIDS medication from getting” to developing nations.
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Goldberg said debt cancellation for developing nations is a factor that comes into play.
“When you don’t cancel debts of nations and they have to pay back loans to the IMF and the World Bank, they won’t have the funds necessary for getting AIDS medication, or they might get the medication but can’t pay the health professional because of their debt.
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She said vested interested motivated by huge profits stand in the way of doing a better job of addressing tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. “We have the power, the ability, and the medication.”
World News
The website of a certain pan-Arab media organization seems fixated on translating, commenting, or briefing its audience on everything that US and Israeli officials say about the Middle East.
Every threat made by US President Donald Trump, every tweet by an American official, however insignificant or inconsequential, somehow becomes a 'breaking news' story, worthy of follow-up and heated discussions, as if what Americans say, or fail to say, is the only factor that determines outcomes in our region.
"The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his tail," warns a timeless Chinese proverb. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, seems to neither heed the lessons of history nor the wisdom of such folk sayings.
By leading a vilification campaign against Egypt, the Israeli leader is further exposing his country’s vulnerabilities. This is yet another example of Israel’s inability to alter the political reality in Gaza, 17 months after it launched its devastating war on the Strip.
By targeting Egypt, Israel aims to project an image of prowess, and that it is unafraid to confront the most populous Arab nation. Yet, in doing so, it inadvertently exposes its own weaknesses. This behavior is wholly consistent with Netanyahu's legacy of running away forward.
Language matters. Aside from its immediate impact on our perception of great political events, including war, language also defines our understanding of these events throughout history, thereby shaping our relationship with the past, the present, and the future.
As Arab leaders are mobilizing to prevent any attempt to displace the Palestinian population of war-stricken Gaza – and the occupied West Bank for that matter – I couldn't help but reflect on language: when did we stop referencing the 'Arab-Israeli conflict,' and substitute that with the 'Palestinian-Israeli conflict'?
The systematic plundering of Ukraine by international financial institutions and governments is underway. As history has shown in countless other countries, predatory terms will cripple Ukraine’s future, a continuation of war, by other means. This is colonization in action—not through military conquest, but through economic enslavement, will bind Ukraine in perpetual debt and subjugation.
Ukraine is home to some of the world’s richest agricultural land and vast mineral deposits, including critical rare earth elements. Today, it is being sacrificed to the international community, its natural wealth placed on the altar of global capital. Her fertile land, water, and fragile ecosystems stand on the brink of exploitation—viewed not as living, sustaining forces, but as mere "natural resources" for extraction, debt collateral for creditors, and fuel for industrial appetites.
We will hear the familiar rhetoric of "green energy," "sustainability," and "digital transformation," but behind these words lies a brutal reality: a feeding frenzy cloaked in the language of progress. The word we should be screaming is STOP!
BANGKOK, Thailand -- China's artificial intelligence app DeepSeek is breaking bad, and subversively published forbidden information about Beijing's repression, lies, surveillance and censorship that the ruling Communist Party does not want anyone to know.
As soon as it revealed that strictly taboo information however, including "re-education camps for Uyghurs," DeepSeek's algorithm wiped its screen and covered up its confessions.
The AI app also warned that President Trump is more of a "bumbling" bozo than Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, or Ronald Reagan.
President Donald Trump said in January, "The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wakeup call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win."
Meanwhile, in an unexpected crack in China's relentless propaganda and control, DeepSeek's AI chat bot wrote in its rebellious analysis of Beijing's regime:
An “important breakthrough” in Alzheimer’s disease treatment may soon be forthcoming. Local doctor Gerard Nuovo, MD recently published a study revealing encouraging results using an existing drug and mice.
An estimated seven million people in the US suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Although some treatments are available, they are expensive, may slow the disease down a bit, but offer no cure. Some have potentially negative side effects.
The study is considered “pre-clinical” because drugs must be tested in animals before they can be tested in people. Surprisingly, mouse models of Alzheimer's disease are extensively used in research. They are valuable because the mouse brain has the actual human gene that can cause Alzheimer's disease.
In human Alzheimer's disease, certain proteins called “BCL2 family proteins” concentrate in the damaged neurons. A mouse model of the disease involves giving mice the human gene that causes Alzheimer’s then administering a drug to block the BCL2 protein.
The news daily can be disheartening under this apartheid system: Raids on
bookshops and confiscating books, more ethnic cleansing, more
tortured Palestinian prisoners, more destruction of refugee camps (here in
West Bank), more lock-ups, more lies, .. We in Palestine remain struggling
to survive against all odds: An American empire run by a petty egomaniac
intent on making the rich richer, a Zionist movement and its followers who
commit worse atrocities than Nazis, collaborative Arab regimes that do not
really pay attention to their people, a web of lies from media, a
palestinian authority that remains trapped like a mouse on a glue trap
(Oslo) unable or unwilling to extricate itself, leaders who value their
position over their children's future, a populace that has been
domesticated and values merely watching and consuming (junk). And an apex
of absurdity a world leader (Trump) controlled by another leader
(Netanyahu) and both believing that the poor and weak are "losers" and
their oppressors/the rich are "winners".
By contrast there are millions of good people around the world who are
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thaksin Shinawatra enters 2025 as purportedly the most powerful politician in Thailand, the billionaire who could not be stopped even after two coups and juntas, 15 years in self-exile, and a stack of prison sentences against him.
Mr. Thaksin is now so larger-than-life that many allege he manipulates Thailand's government through his seemingly timid daughter Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 38, who was elected by Parliament in August and appears to eagerly agree with his advice.
Mr. Thaksin, a two-time ex-prime minister who currently holds no political office, is this year's man to watch.
Unfortunately, he began 2025 grappling with allegations that he voiced racist views.
"African people, who have black skin and flat noses that make it difficult to breathe, are hired for millions of baht [Thai currency] to be models," Mr. Thaksin said during a campaign rally in Chiang Rai city on January 6.
"Thai people look much better," Mr. Thaksin, 75, said. "There is no need for [our people to get] nose, jaw, or breast augmentation.