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 -- President Donald Trump's White House invitation to meet Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on October 2 allowed Bangkok's coup-installed military government to gain prestige and legitimacy while the junta's political opponents are fearful, muzzled and without a strong leader.
"Prayuth and the generals crave legitimacy, particularly from the U.S. and E.U. who have criticized revolving-door coups and governments in Thailand over the past 10 years," Paul Quaglia, a former C.I.A. officer in Bangkok, said in an interview.
"The U.S. press corps, unrestrained by Thai military censorship and hostile to a Trump administration, is likely to raise embarrassing questions about...palling around with coup-sponsoring generals," said Mr. Quaglia, 68, who is now the Bangkok-based director of PQA Associates, a private security concern in Hong Kong.
"President Trump looks forward to reaffirming the relationship between the United States and a key partner and longstanding ally in Asia, the Kingdom of Thailand," the White House said September 25.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Supreme Court sentenced fugitive former Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to five years in prison on September 27
after ruling in absentia she was guilty of negligence for not stopping
alleged corruption costing billions of dollars during her failed rice
crop subsidies.
The military junta, which ousted Ms. Yingluck in a bloodless 2014
coup, is now using "spies" to track her after she missed a court
ruling on August 25 and reportedly smuggled herself out of Thailand
with the help of police, decoy cars and a black surgical face mask.
Ms. Yingluck, 50, has not been seen in public since.
"She has not yet applied for political asylum and I don't know
whether she will be able to get it," coup-installed Prime Minister
Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters on September 26 amid speculation that
Ms. Yingluck was trying for asylum in England.
"I know [her whereabouts]...I have spies," said Mr. Prayuth who led
the 2014 coup when he was army chief.
Before disappearing, she insisted on her innocence and portrayed
CAT CAT, Vietnam -- Northern Vietnam's minority Hmong tribe here in
Cat Cat village is escaping poverty and isolation by cleverly
marketing their lush mountains and waterfalls, rustic village
lifestyle, vivid traditional weaving and other tourist-friendly
attractions.
Their tribal tourism venture near the rugged mountainous border
with China is one of the newest and most successful attempts in
Vietnam to profit from a nationwide tourism boom.
Cat Cat village's name is said to be a mispronunciation of a former
French colonial description of the location's "cascade" waterfalls.
-The reasons we have high incidence of hurricanes, floods, and other
catastrophe is man made climate change
-The reason we are not doing much about climate change is that there are
greedy individuals who profit from the trends
-We have wars to distract us from the inequalities and injustices and to
make money for a few already very rich people
-There are no just wars. There are understandable and justified resistance
of native people to colonialism
- North Korea watched what the US did in places like Libya (after Libya
ended its nuclear program), in Syria and in Iraq. North Korea learned from
its own history (US committed near genocide in the 1950s) and from these
other attacks and acted in its best interests.
-Israel is not an asset to the US or to any other country but a liability.
It is a country that supported genocide and brutal dictatorships from South
America in the 1970s to Saudi Arabia and Burma/Myanmar today.
-A world Zionist network created Israel and supports it at the cost of
millions of native Arab rights
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's
"Great Escape" from Thailand last week allows her to dodge a possible
10-year prison sentence and enjoy a billionaire's international
lifestyle, but she gave the military government, which toppled her in
a 2014 coup, a surprise victory.
Her sudden, secret flight overseas means the junta will not be
troubled by her supporters' scenario of a Ms. Yingluck cast as a
woeful, politically victimized, jailed martyr for democracy.
Her absence also decapitates her shocked Pheu Thai ("For Thais")
opposition party which attracted millions of "Red Shirt" voters.
Today, the two biggest questions in this Southeast Asian country were:
Who enabled Ms. Yingluck to become a mysterious fugitive hours or
days before the Supreme Court's verdict was to be announced on August
25?
And will Ms. Yingluck, 50, ask for political asylum in England if
she goes there?
Thai media, investigating her escape, splashed accusations and
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Supreme Court verdict on August 25 could
imprison former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for 10 years for
alleged "negligence" after she paid multi-billion dollar subsidies to
rice farmers before the military toppled her government in a 2014
coup.
Weeping, wealthy and worried, Ms. Yingluck, 50, said she was
innocent of all allegations.
Ms. Yingluck's case has gripped this Southeast Asian country
because a ruling either way could determine Thailand's future
stability under a junta trying to justify its regime and control her
supporters and opponents.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) charged Ms. Yingluck
for allegedly failing to stop massive financial losses after her
government paid farmers -- her key constituents -- much more than the
international price for 20 million tons of rice, to boost their living
standards.
During her 2011-14 administration, Ms. Yingluck hoped to sell that
rice at a profit after predicting the international price would zoom
higher, but prices dropped.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- When U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Glyn T. Davies
recently asked Bangkok's coup-installed military government to support
international sanctions against North Korea, he reflected concerns by
analysts that Pyongyang could build nuclear and other weapons with
dual-use imports and profits from exports.
"As a leader of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations),
Thailand has an important role to play in the broad effort to signal
to North Korea it will be isolated if it does not suspend its weapons
programs and return to talks on the basis of a verifiable commitment
to denuclearize," Mr. Davies said.
"Cutting off the financial lifelines that enable North Korea's
proscribed programs," is vital, the ambassador said.
When asked what, if any, businesses in Thailand enable Pyongyang's
prohibited programs, U.S. Embassy Spokeswoman Melissa Sweeney replied:
"The ambassador's op-ed speaks for itself."
The envoy's 827-word statement was published on the Bangkok Post's
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's belief in
lying Vietnamese spies, "ghosts," "slicky boys" and "marketplace mush"
contributed to America losing its Vietnam War in 1975, according to
James Parker, the last CIA officer to evacuate Vietnam.
When asked in an interview about CIA-run Vietnamese spies who
fabricated information for the CIA's reports during the war, Mr.
Parker, 73, replied:
"Ah, the lying spy syndrome."
When the CIA operates in any country, "you cannot get intel [CIA
intelligence] operatives to stay in a battle zone for more than a
couple of years at a time, so the occupational problems of fabricators
was unavoidable.
"I was in Afghanistan [during] 2010 and 2011," Mr. Parker said,
describing one of his most recent CIA assignments.
"The best intel service there was probably the Israel Mossad,
wouldn't you think? Because they had been operating in that area for
years."
Worldwide, for the CIA, "it's hard to recruit spies, to find them,
BANGKOK, Thailand -- An American Buddhist nun said the U.S. Embassy
rescued her from Thai men who wanted to kidnap her, but they later
allegedly burned down her temple dormitory because she intentionally
disobeys Thai Buddhist clergy by supporting women to become nuns.
Leaura M. Naomi's confrontation earlier this year is the most vivid
example of a wider revolution by women across Southeast Asia demanding
equality to allow female ordinations within Theravada Buddhism.
In Theravada -- the oldest and more conservative of Buddhism's two
main branches -- a male monk's ancient Pali-language title is
"bhikkhu".
A nun is a "bhikkhuni".
About 95 percent of Thailand's population are Theravada Buddhists.
Theravada also exists in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India
and Indonesia.
In Thailand many, if not most, families arrange for at least one
young adult son to live in a temple -- perhaps for several days or a
season -- to be ordained as a novice or monk.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A chubby Thai woman sits on a plastic sheet on
the ground, meticulously hand-sewing colorful wristbrands embroidered
with the words, "CUNT PAIN" "FUCK MY LIFE" "FREE BOOM BOOM" and an
array of similarly poetic declarations.
Other females, wearing the bubbly silver hats of Thailand's
minority ethnic Akha tribe, are selling gaudy gewgaws while stroking
wooden frogs which produce an obnoxious but attention-getting,
croaking sound.
Nearby, giddy foreigners chew fat black scorpions and other fried insects.
Some people are getting tattoos or having their hair braided with
bright plastic beads.
Throbbing and wondrous, Bangkok's amusing Khao San Road flaunts
itself at the swarms of sweaty culture-shocked tourists who are
walking and gawking at their first revelations in Thailand, hours
after arriving by air.
Other travelers are wistfully saying farewell during their last
night in Bangkok before departing to less vivid destinations.
The desperate, decadent touts have seen it all.