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 coup-installed defense minister has
offered to resign over his involvement in a worsening financial
scandal which threatens to derail Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's
chances of remaining in power after elections in November or 2019.
Prime Minister Prayuth is already under fire by pro-democracy
activists and others who are dismayed that he has repeatedly delayed
stepping down to allow elections after leading a 2014 coup.
His defense minister's financial scandal adds to claims that Mr.
Prayuth is not enforcing his coup's promise to stop corruption, but
instead wants to keep this Southeast Asian U.S.-treaty ally under
military control for the foreseeable future.
Mr. Prayuth continues to warn that the politicians he toppled,
including fugitive former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, might
return to engage in corruption again.
Ms. Yingluck fled overseas days before being sentenced in August by
the Supreme Court to two years imprisonment for "criminal negligence"
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Twenty-five wristwatches totaling $1.24 million
have become painful tourniquets on the arm of Thailand's
coup-installed defense minister.
The luxury timepieces are also threatening to derail Prime Minister
Prayuth Chan-ocha's chances of remaining in power after elections in
November or 2019.
For the past six weeks Defense Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwon, who
is also deputy prime minister, has been targeted by media photographs
purportedly documenting the dates and venues when he has worn 25
different expensive watches in public.
"I have friends, and my friends lent me those watches. They did not
buy them for me," a visibly irritated Mr. Prawit told reporters on
January 16.
That explanation drew immediate demands by activists and others for
a public naming of people who lent watches to Mr. Prawit, plus serial
numbers and receipts proving the purchases.
The escalating scandal over possible corruption is now impacting
upon the upcoming election to change the military regime into a
civilian-led government.
A long-standing French protectorate briefly occupied by Japan during World War II, Cambodia became independent in 1953 as the French finally withdrew from Indochina. Under the leadership of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia remained officially neutral, including during the subsequent US war on Indochina. However, by the mid-1960s, parts of the eastern provinces of Cambodia were bases for North Vietnamese Army and National Liberation Front (NVA/NLF) forces operating against South Vietnam and this resulted in nearly a decade of bombing by the United States from 4 October 1965. See ‘Bombs Over Cambodia: New Light on US Air War’.
In 1970 Sihanouk was ousted in a US-supported coup led by General Lon Nol. See ‘A Special Supplement: Cambodia’. The following few years were characterized by an internal power struggle between Cambodian elites and war involving several foreign countries, but particularly including continuation of the recently commenced ‘carpet bombing’ of Cambodia by the US Air Force.
Good things and bad things happen daily here. Daily we get to meet great
visitors and work with great volunteers and staff that are making amazing
progress on the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the botanical
garden (palestinenature.org). We received good news on some grants and
submitted several others just in the past two weeks and got three more
research papers submitted and two more accepted. But politics keeps sending
us bad news. Tribalism and nationalism are rearing their ugly heads and
people suffer.
The people of the world are waking up despite the fact that most mainstream
media is now "managed" to give that Zionist message of danger from Iran,
Hizballah etc while ignoring war crimes and crimes against humanity being
perpetuated daily by Israel and its puppets like Mohammad Bin Salman. What
News gets more bizarre every week. It was revealed that Mohammad (Kushner)
Bin Salman has spent a billion dollars to buy a home in France and one
Leonardo da Vinci painting and another half trillion dollars buying weapons from
US Corporations (whose only use will be to kill more Yemeni civilians).
More bizarre for me was that Mahmoud Abbas dutifully condemned the rocket
fired from Yemen in self-defense after Saudi Jets have dropped tons of US
and British bombs on Yemeni cities. Then we hear the Zionist puppets
Nimrata Randhawa (who changed her name to Nicki Haley) and the (orange)
bully Trump threaten countries who were about to vote at the UN based in
support of international law (which says Israel is an occupying power in
Jerusalem). Despite these bizarre threats, 128 countries voted with, 9
against, and 35 (shamefully) abstained (those who did not vote with
international law should be held accountable by their people so please
check how your country voted and challenge them). Nimrata and the Orange
puppets were really angry!! Their bosses in Tel Aviv were acting their
The unfortunate Donald Trump Administration decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel serves no visible American interest, in spite of what some of the always-loyal-to-Israel punditry has been suggesting. Israel is already moving to exploit the situation in its usual fashion. Immediately after the announcement was made, Israeli Ambassador in Washington Ron Dermer suggested that the decision on Jerusalem could now be extended to include other disputed areas, most particularly Syria’s Golan Heights that were occupied in 1967. And the decision on Jerusalem itself will quite likely prove elastic as the Israeli government has already prepared legislation to incorporate large chunks of settlements into the city limits, far beyond the historic boundaries.
Like Pavlov's dog, the mainstream media slobbers platitudes every time North Korea launches another test missile. Listening to the blather one would think that once Kim Jong-un has a missile capable of reaching the US, he is going to use it in an unprovoked nuclear attack on the US mainland killing millions of Americans.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Pope Francis' first-ever visit by a Roman
Catholic pontiff to Buddhist-majority Myanmar which started on
November 27 will be closely watched for his reaction to the country's
bloody military campaign against more than one million ethnic Rohingya
Muslims.
Among the leaders he will meet during his four-day trip is Aung San
Suu Kyi whose silence about the suffering of the Rohingya sharply
contrasts with Francis' August statement lamenting the "persecution of
our Rohingya brothers and sisters."
The pope will also meet the military's Commander-in-Chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
If the Argentine-born pope mentions the Rohingya while in Myanmar, it
will embarrass and dismay his hosts.
But if he silences himself, many others will be deeply disappointed.
During the pope's November 27-30 visit, "he will speak for all
suffering people belonging to all groups present in Myanmar," Fr.
Carlo Velardo, an attache at The Holy See's Apostolic Nunciature or
embassy in Bangkok, said in an interview.
Indubitably Mexico’s present conjuncture imposes great challenges on political organization and creativity which test consistency for strugglers with ecosocialist and human rights principles.
The political atmosphere is delimited by recent natural disasters: two very strong hurricanes in August immediately followed by two powerful earthquakes in September. Curiously and ironically, the last quake happened on the very anniversary of the devastating 1985 earthquake, about two hours after the annual drills, leaving unmasked once again how insincere and useless these drills are.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Millions of mourners are gathering for the
opulent royal cremation on October 25-29 of Thailand's king who had a
Golden Death Mask placed over his face and has lain, for the past one
year, in a coffin blessed by chanting Buddhist monks and a distraught,
weeping public.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej ("Poom-ee-pon Ah-doon-ya-det"), also known as
Rama IX, died in a Bangkok hospital after a lengthy illness on October
13, 2016, aged 88.
He was still reigning as a constitutional monarch after 70 years on the throne.
Today, his coffin and urn rest atop a tall, glistening, golden
catafalque in the Grand Palace's exquisite Dusit Maha Prasad Hall
under an ornate spired roof.
The hall's porticos feature wood-carved golden images of the Hindu god
Vishnu astride his mythical half-man half-bird winged Garuda, because
Thailand's monarchs are presented as living incarnations of Vishnu.
Bhumibol's passing has left many Thais feeling orphaned in a society
where the late monarch is still described officially and informally as
"father".