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
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A deadly Emerald Triangle border feud between Thailand and Cambodia has worsened to include economic boycotts, frontier closures, disputed claims over Hindu temples north of Angkor Wat, and an embarrassing, trust-breaking leaked phone call between the two nations' leaders about Thailand's military.
Also at stake is Thailand's political stability and survival of its fragile, rival-packed coalition government which is denying perceptions of being obsequious and soft on Cambodia while the Royal Thai Army favors a strong response.
Claiming to defend their side of the frontier, Thai armed forces shot dead one Cambodian soldier on May 28 in jungle and scrubland known as the Emerald Triangle where eastern Thailand, northern Cambodia, and southern Laos meet.
The Thai-Cambodian border includes a no man's zone that is not officially demarcated, attracting human and wildlife traffickers, illegal loggers, smugglers, fugitives, and other criminals.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A deadly border feud between Thailand's U.S.-trained military and Cambodia's Chinese-assisted troops has resulted in a surprise agreement with Phnom Penh retreating and abandoning a freshly dug trench after one Cambodian soldier was killed and both sides reinforced their armies in the disputed Emerald Triangle jungle.
The face-to-face gunfight at the border also sparked questions about Bangkok's fragile civilian-led coalition government and its ability to control Thailand's politicized military which has, when displeased, unleashed 13 coups since the 1930s.
While villagers hurriedly dug schoolyard bunkers, and thousands of travelers were left stranded due to temporary checkpoint closures, Thailand announced on Sunday (June 8) that Cambodian troops agreed to withdraw to their pre-confrontation positions and make other concessions.
"Cambodia agreed to fill in the trenches, to restore the area to its natural state," the Bangkok Post reported on June 9.
The Thai Army displayed photos of what it said showed a 2,100-ft.-long (650-meter) trench dug by Cambodian troops in the disputed zone.
America is heading towards a Constitutional crisis, with the President of the United States, on his own instance, federalizing the California National Guard and sending in the Marines to support the quasi-military fugitive operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), rounding up thousands of Angelenos in one of the most densely populated Hispanic and Latino counties in America—Los Angeles.
The President was not asked by local officials for help in controlling violent protests, perhaps because Los Angeles city and county together employ nearly 20,000 sworn law enforcement officers, trained and experienced in handling ambiguous and confrontational situations.
Yet, the President chose to bypass local authority, sending in 4,000 Guardsmen and 700 Marines under the authority of Title 10 of the U.S. Code, dealing with the Armed Forces, Chapter 13, which defines military operations in an insurrection, a violent uprising against the government.
Drugmakers want drugs that people take for decades (which is why they don't develop antibiotics, taken for a measly 10 days.)
Pharma's top revenue streams include kids with ADHD (remaining on drugs until adulthood), people "living with mental illness," the obese and diabetic, those "at risk" of cardiovascular disease (who will take statins), and women.
Until 2003, approximately 61 million US women took hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the "disease" of menopause, once called simple aging. Drugmakers increased the take by moving the "start date" for menopause ahead ten years through inventing the term "perimenopause." Then the wheels fell of the menopause franchise.
Remonetizing Menopause
When HRT was found to increase the risk of breast cancer by 26 percent, heart attacks by 29 percent, stroke by 41 percent and to double the risk of blood clots, millions of women quit. For a while, "hormone" was even a dirty word.
But Pharma could not let millions of women be non-customers.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The loudest cheers of victory in the brief India-Pakistan war are congratulating the Pakistani pilots who flew Chinese-built jets firing impressive PL-15 missiles, purportedly enabling them to shoot down six of India's French and Russian warplanes.
China is sharing Pakistan's military success.
Since the mid-20th century China has been arming, investing in, and helping to construct Pakistan which is a crucial nation in Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and a non-NATO ally of the U.S.
Pakistan is China's only overland access to the Arabian Sea which opens onto the Indian Ocean and the Middle East's vital petroleum shipping lanes.
"The confirmed kill of a sixth Indian Air Force jet, a Mirage 2000 near Pampore on the night of May 6-7, once again demonstrates the superior combat performance of the Pakistan Air Force and the unwavering resolve of our armed forces to defend the motherland at any cost,” Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif said on May 16 while visiting a PAF base.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a skilled salesperson, though the product he peddles is deeply flawed. His current challenge is to convince himself, his people, the region, and the world that, despite significant setbacks, he is winning the strategic war against his adversaries.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Some people imagine seeing a famous person's face on a burnt piece of toast.
Online viewers and international media however were wondering if the embroidered crotch and rear of a sexy bodysuit branded by Louis Vuitton (LV) intentionally portrayed the late Black civil rights leader Rosa Parks' face.
And, if so, why did one of Thailand's most cherished celebrities, Lisa, wear and display the dazzling, no-pants outfit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala on May 5 in New York?
"People think the Louis Vuitton panties Lisa wore to the 2025 Met Gala have Rosa Parks' face on them," People magazine headlined its report.
"According to Vogue, artist Henry Taylor embroidered portraits into her [Lisa's] ensemble.
"Taylor was previously commissioned by Pharrell Williams -- Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director and 2025 Met Gala co-chair -- to embroider the same design for the brand’s Men's Spring-Summer 2024 show," People reported.
After photos and questions about Lisa's outfit went viral online, Louis Vuitton said in a statement to The New York Times:
BANGKOK, Thailand -- China is tightening control over Tibet and flexing its strategic roof of the world advantage by cyber-spying on the Dalai Lama's supporters "worldwide from Lhasa to London," opening Tibet's international airport to Singapore and Nepal, and building the world's biggest hydroelectric dam on a glacier-fed river.
China prizes resource-rich Tibet's lofty Himalayan heights which allow the People's Liberation Army to "look down" on India, China's regional rival, and provide a formidable buffer between Beijing and New Delhi.
The United Kingdom's GCHQ intelligence agency meanwhile is warning Tibetan and foreign activists, researchers, and supporters of the self-exiled 14th Dalai Lama that they are in danger of infection from "malicious actors" who created international surveillance malware identified as MOONSHINE and BADBAZAAR.
The British government's National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) which is part of the GCHQ, said Chinese also created snooping apps deceptively resembling WhatsApp and Skype which allow text, audio, and video.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- It's a long way from China's Great Wall to Egypt's pyramids, but for the first time Chinese and Egyptian warplanes are conducting a joint military exercise above the Nile River, extending Beijing's reach into the African continent.
Chinese fighter jets, Airborne Early Warning and Control planes, aerial refueling tankers, and helicopter gunships have been roaring across the sky alongside Egyptian Air Force warplanes, after taking off from Egypt's Wadi Abu Rish Air Base in the desert.
The China-Egypt Eagles of Civilization 2025 joint air force exercise began on April 19 and ends in early May, and is expected to strengthen Beijing's links with Africa's strongest military and a strategic U.S. ally.
China maintains an East African naval base in Djibouti on the Red Sea.
Cairo, hoping to diversify, is now welcoming Beijing's interest and possible Chinese weapons sales.