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 -- Thailand's prime minister and public appeared
horrified after watching provincial police chief "Joe Ferrari"
allegedly torture and kill a drug suspect by wrapping his head with
layers of plastic bags until he suffocated.
"I put the bag on his head only because I did not want him to see my
face," Police Col. Thitisan Utthanaphon, 39, told this shocked nation
which saw the suffocation and death in a nine-minute video on
nationwide TV news and online.
"But he tried to rip the bag off, so I had to tie him down and put
handcuffs on him, or else he would try to rip the bag.
"My intention was to get information, so we could find the drugs that
are hurting the people in Nakhon Sawan," Col. Thitisan said on August
26 in the police-supervised broadcast from in his town 150 miles (250
km) north of Bangkok.
"I admit what I have done is wrong, and I will accept whatever the
court rules. They can sentence me to life imprisonment. I had no
intention to kill him."
The unfolding case is gripping the public, because it provides a rare,
For twenty years, two dominant narratives have shaped our view of the illegal US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and neither one of these narratives would readily accept the use of such terms as ‘illegal’, ‘invasion’ and ‘occupation.’
The decision by the African Union Commission, on July 22, to grant Israel observer status membership in the AU was the culmination of years of relentless Israeli efforts aimed at co-opting Africa’s largest political institution. Why is Israel so keen on penetrating Africa? What made African countries finally succumb to Israeli pressure and lobbying?
To answer the above questions, one has to appreciate the new Great Game under way in many parts of the world, especially in Africa, which has always been significant to Israel’s geopolitical designs. Starting in the early 1950s to the mid-70s, Israel’s Africa network was in constant expansion. The 1973 war, however, brought that affinity to an abrupt end.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- During the first days of America's bombardment
and invasion of Afghanistan 20 years ago, the Taliban government
collapsed in panic, abandoning Kabul in November 2001.
Simultaneously, their Arab allies including Osama bin Laden and other
al Qaeda fighters fled their expensive homes and weapons-stocked
training camps in Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad and elsewhere.
In Jalalabad, 88 miles east of Kabul, bin Laden and al Qaeda abandoned
all sorts of things during their rushed escape.
In their former homes and schools, I found bullet-punctured targets of
silhouetted heads, foreign passports, forged visas, hand-drawn
bomb-making instructions, and freshly printed news clippings
downloaded from the Internet reporting about the hijackers who crashed
planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Today, the US and other countries fear a possible return of al Qaeda
Islamists -- perhaps renamed and much more secretive -- and a
continuation of their previous deadly behavior which went far beyond
the 9/11 attack.
A unique but critical conversation on Israel and Palestine is taking place outside the traditional discourse of Israeli colonialism and the Palestinian quest for liberation. It is an awkward and difficult - but overdue - discussion concerning American Jews’ relation to Israel and their commitment to its Zionist ideology.
For many years, Israel has conveniently dubbed Jews who do not support Israel, or worse, advocate Palestinian freedom, as ‘self-hating Jews’. This term, designated to describe dissident anti-Zionist Jews, is similar to the accusation of ‘antisemitism’ made against non-Jews, which includes Semitic Arabs, for daring to criticize Israel. This approach, however, is no longer as effective as it once was.
Jonah Goldberg and Michael Ledeen have much in common. They are both writers and also cheerleaders for military interventions and, often, for frivolous wars. Writing in the conservative rag, The National Review, months before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Goldberg paraphrased a statement which he attributed to Ledeen with reference to the interventionist US foreign policy.
When the Palestinian Olympic delegation of five athletes - adorned in traditional Palestinian attire and carrying the Palestinian flag - crossed into the Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium during the inauguration ceremony on July 23, I was overcome with pride and nostalgia.
I grew up watching the Olympics. All of us did. Throughout the month-long international sports event, the Olympics were the main topic of discussion among the refugees in my refugee camp in Gaza, where I was born.
Unlike other sports competitions such as football, you did not need to care about the sport itself to appreciate the underlying meaning of the Olympics. The entire exercise seemed to be political.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The U.S. Embassy in Laos has publicly apologized
and blamed Facebook's auto-translation for describing an ethnic
Hmong-American Olympic Games teenage gymnast as "a terrorist" on the
American Embassy's official site, days before she won gold.
The embassy repeatedly posted its written apology on its official
Facebook site during July 26-27, after Hmong-Americans expressed
outrage on the site for displaying the incorrect description of U.S.
Women’s National Gymnastics Team member Suni Lee.
That mangled translation introduced the embassy's otherwise cheerful
and congratulatory update about Ms. Lee, including photos of her
performing.
A few days later Ms. Lee, 18, won a gold medal in gymnastics.
"Sunisa 'Souni' Lee is Lao-American and a terrorist who participated
in the Olympic race from the United States," an incorrect
Lao-to-English translation said when viewers clicked "translate" on
the embassy's Lao-language text.
An alternative Facebook translation of the embassy's Lao-language text
Ben & Jerry’s decision to suspend its operations in the occupied Palestinian West Bank is an event that is proving critical to Palestinian efforts, which ultimately aim at holding Israel accountable for its military occupation, apartheid and war crimes.
By responding to the Palestinian call for boycotting apartheid Israel, the ice cream giant has delivered a blow to Israel’s attempts at criminalizing and, ultimately, ending the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- In Southeast Asia's crime-infested Golden
Triangle, Chinese entrepreneur Zhao Wei is constructing a sprawling
casino resort and airstrip despite being sanctioned by the U.S.
Treasury Department as a "threat to the United States" because of his
"horrendous illicit activities".
In addition to those projects in northwest Laos, Mr. Zhao is expanding
his financial reach into northeast Laos' prehistoric Plain of Jars and
delving into southern Laos close to Vietnam's frontier.
U.S. allegations sanctioning Mr. Zhao include "engaging in drug
trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, bribery, and
wildlife trafficking, much of which is facilitated through the Kings
Romans Casino," the Treasury Department said.
"Zhao is an unsavory Chinese gangster, and founder of the Hong
Kong-registered Kings Romans Group," Paul Chambers, an American
lecturer in Southeast Asian studies at Thailand's Naresuan University,
said in an interview.
"Geopolitically, he represents the informal head of a semi-formal,