Global
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's U.S.-trained military appears to
support next February's endangered election, and oppose a right-wing
insurrection bent on destroying the government, seizing power,
blacklisting politicians, and cancelling the polls.
The blockades and sit-ins, mostly by Bangkok's wealthy and middle class, are also trying to prevent poorer urban and rural voters repeatedly electing politicians who the comparatively well-off protesters despise.
In some ways, the protesters can be perceived as Thailand's "opulent minority" against the working class, wrote analyst Apivat Hanvongse.
Another commentator said the goal of the insurrection is to clamp this poorly educated Southeast Asian country under a closed system of "elites electing elites to rule the majority."
Wedging itself into this split is the military.
Army generals, including some who participated in a bloodless 2006 coup, are mediating between the protesters' rich and loudly threatening leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, and the damaged government of Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The blockades and sit-ins, mostly by Bangkok's wealthy and middle class, are also trying to prevent poorer urban and rural voters repeatedly electing politicians who the comparatively well-off protesters despise.
In some ways, the protesters can be perceived as Thailand's "opulent minority" against the working class, wrote analyst Apivat Hanvongse.
Another commentator said the goal of the insurrection is to clamp this poorly educated Southeast Asian country under a closed system of "elites electing elites to rule the majority."
Wedging itself into this split is the military.
Army generals, including some who participated in a bloodless 2006 coup, are mediating between the protesters' rich and loudly threatening leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, and the damaged government of Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Statement by the European Section Global Anti-Drone Network
Ban Weaponized Drones!
We oppose the use of drone technology for killing, surveillance and repression.
We oppose weaponized and surveillance drones because their deployment lowers the threshold to armed aggression, is used for “targeted” killing of people within and outside warzones – without indictment, trial and conviction, terrorizes the population of the targeted territories, fuels hatred, thereby increasing the cycle of violence, leads to the development of autonomous kille robots, thereby making even more horrifying wars likely, initiates a new round in the arms race.
We demand that all governments cease the production and acquisition of armed drones, as well as their research and development, and work towards a worldwide ban of these weapons.
Endorsed by:
Althaler, Birgit – Palestine Solidarity Basel, Switzerland
Aune, Björn – Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment (BDS) Campaign Berlin, Germany
Baloch, Farooq – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Germany
Benjamin, Medea - Code Pink (Co-Founder), USA
Björkmann, Rosie – Women for Peace, Sweden
Ban Weaponized Drones!
We oppose the use of drone technology for killing, surveillance and repression.
We oppose weaponized and surveillance drones because their deployment lowers the threshold to armed aggression, is used for “targeted” killing of people within and outside warzones – without indictment, trial and conviction, terrorizes the population of the targeted territories, fuels hatred, thereby increasing the cycle of violence, leads to the development of autonomous kille robots, thereby making even more horrifying wars likely, initiates a new round in the arms race.
We demand that all governments cease the production and acquisition of armed drones, as well as their research and development, and work towards a worldwide ban of these weapons.
Endorsed by:
Althaler, Birgit – Palestine Solidarity Basel, Switzerland
Aune, Björn – Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment (BDS) Campaign Berlin, Germany
Baloch, Farooq – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Germany
Benjamin, Medea - Code Pink (Co-Founder), USA
Björkmann, Rosie – Women for Peace, Sweden
Dear friends on Jeju Island : Sung Hee, Paco, Silver, Sister Stella, Dr Park and many others at Gangjeong Village,
I lived in a gorgeous agricultural village in Bamiyan Province of Afghanistan for seven years and like yourselves on Jeju Island in South Korea, every morning, I woke up to a window scene of ‘heaven’. No eyes would believe that wars had brought ‘hell’ to occupy this land.
I imagine you walking on the simple yet unpolluted paths in Gangjeong Village and that if you stopped for a little breather, you’ll be caressed and cared for by the tree shadows with their sunlight, the chatty play of the neighbourhood children, and the wafts of floral perfume dancing by. Neither you nor the villagers I lived among would want to lose your aviary-like homes to Greed.
Save Jeju Island Now
The Afghan Peace Volunteers and I recognize the love which has compelled you to stop the military base construction trucks with your young and old bodies, demonstrating again that the human spirit can speak to heavy, metallic machines.
Stopping an excavator on Jeju island
I lived in a gorgeous agricultural village in Bamiyan Province of Afghanistan for seven years and like yourselves on Jeju Island in South Korea, every morning, I woke up to a window scene of ‘heaven’. No eyes would believe that wars had brought ‘hell’ to occupy this land.
I imagine you walking on the simple yet unpolluted paths in Gangjeong Village and that if you stopped for a little breather, you’ll be caressed and cared for by the tree shadows with their sunlight, the chatty play of the neighbourhood children, and the wafts of floral perfume dancing by. Neither you nor the villagers I lived among would want to lose your aviary-like homes to Greed.
Save Jeju Island Now
The Afghan Peace Volunteers and I recognize the love which has compelled you to stop the military base construction trucks with your young and old bodies, demonstrating again that the human spirit can speak to heavy, metallic machines.
Stopping an excavator on Jeju island
Earlier this year I had the great pleasure to visit South Africa. Compared to most Americans, the passing of Nelson Mandela brought tears to my eyes many times as I recalled being in many of the places being shown on countless news shows.
In particular, I was fortunate in spending significant time with several black elderly South Africans who knew Mandela and were prisoners also, and who spoke in considerable detail about the horrors of living in the apartheid society. Nothing I have seen and heard on many news outlets has presented the true horrors of what life was like for not only blacks but also other people of color in the apartheid society. There were virtually no freedoms whatsoever for nonwhites and the blacks suffered the most. I recall listening to these apartheid experts and feeling absolutely bewildered that the apartheid government and society could actually have been created and prospered for so many decades.
In particular, I was fortunate in spending significant time with several black elderly South Africans who knew Mandela and were prisoners also, and who spoke in considerable detail about the horrors of living in the apartheid society. Nothing I have seen and heard on many news outlets has presented the true horrors of what life was like for not only blacks but also other people of color in the apartheid society. There were virtually no freedoms whatsoever for nonwhites and the blacks suffered the most. I recall listening to these apartheid experts and feeling absolutely bewildered that the apartheid government and society could actually have been created and prospered for so many decades.
As Nelson Mandela’s body is laid to rest, the leaders from across the world who came to pay tribute to him leave with shared perspectives. They see the fruits of the remarkable triumphs of Mandela and the African National Congress — the defeat of apartheid, the transition of power from the oppressive minority to the newly empowered majority, the creation of a great democracy. And they see the continued inequality that scars South Africa, the gulf between the wealthy and the impoverished, still largely reflecting a color line.
We see the same in this country. We celebrate, as we should, the remarkable triumphs of Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement: the end of apartheid in the South, the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the legal prohibition of racial discrimination in employment and education.
Yet we also see the gulf between rich and poor, a gulf still often tracing a color line in many of our cities and regions.
We see the same in this country. We celebrate, as we should, the remarkable triumphs of Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement: the end of apartheid in the South, the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the legal prohibition of racial discrimination in employment and education.
Yet we also see the gulf between rich and poor, a gulf still often tracing a color line in many of our cities and regions.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A court on Thursday (Dec. 12) indicted former
prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for alleged murders, but his deputy
did not arrive for the same indictment because he was whipping up a
right-wing "people's revolution" which cut off the prime minister's
electricity and water to force her resignation.
The murder charges date back to 2010 and are echoing in Bangkok's current month-long "insurrection" which is fueled mostly by urban-based royalists and military officers, plus middle and upper classes who favor dictatorial, appointed officials instead of popularly elected politicians.
In the latest twist, a man standing in the street on Thursday (Dec. 12) afternoon used a lengthy pole to disconnect overhead electric cables leading to Interim Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's now-vacant Government House office, while a curious crowd watched.
Others cut the water supply and some barbed wire protecting the building.
Ms. Yingluck refuses to resign and now uses police and army buildings as her office.
The murder charges date back to 2010 and are echoing in Bangkok's current month-long "insurrection" which is fueled mostly by urban-based royalists and military officers, plus middle and upper classes who favor dictatorial, appointed officials instead of popularly elected politicians.
In the latest twist, a man standing in the street on Thursday (Dec. 12) afternoon used a lengthy pole to disconnect overhead electric cables leading to Interim Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's now-vacant Government House office, while a curious crowd watched.
Others cut the water supply and some barbed wire protecting the building.
Ms. Yingluck refuses to resign and now uses police and army buildings as her office.
Iran! So long our enemy-in-waiting, just asking for it, y’know?
No wonder Americans are confused about the idea of maybe not going to war with that country one of these days, at least according to USA Today, which reported: “The White House and Iran face an uphill selling job to convince Americans to embrace the interim nuclear pact negotiated with Tehran last month.”
Two out of three Americans who have actually heard something about the accord don’t trust it, the paper explains, because, in essence, Iran took American hostages that one time (for no reason) and have been uncooperative toward our interests ever since. Thus, however hopeful or problematic the Geneva agreement between Iran and the P5 + 1 nations (the U.S., Russia, China, France, U.K. and Germany) may be, here in the land of all-that-is-exceptional, pop culture and superficial opinion polls rule and cynical ignorance counts as news.
No wonder Americans are confused about the idea of maybe not going to war with that country one of these days, at least according to USA Today, which reported: “The White House and Iran face an uphill selling job to convince Americans to embrace the interim nuclear pact negotiated with Tehran last month.”
Two out of three Americans who have actually heard something about the accord don’t trust it, the paper explains, because, in essence, Iran took American hostages that one time (for no reason) and have been uncooperative toward our interests ever since. Thus, however hopeful or problematic the Geneva agreement between Iran and the P5 + 1 nations (the U.S., Russia, China, France, U.K. and Germany) may be, here in the land of all-that-is-exceptional, pop culture and superficial opinion polls rule and cynical ignorance counts as news.
As with any popular deal formulated in Washington, the singing that stems from both sides of the aisle urges politicians to rush to the table. Compromise is the key above all else, and the table is where real consensus-building can take place. In any negotiating scenario the situation practically describes itself. Two sides in opposition come together in harmony and hash out an agreement. But what happens when both sides already agree on the main points?
There have been spurious movements over the past several years in the U.S. to create viable third parties to disrupt a transparently broken political system. While Perot made the most headway, momentum has continued to grow against the stream of D.C. politics in small doses every election year. The problem, of course, is that before we begin to consult the possibility of a third party in this country a second party must arise.
There have been spurious movements over the past several years in the U.S. to create viable third parties to disrupt a transparently broken political system. While Perot made the most headway, momentum has continued to grow against the stream of D.C. politics in small doses every election year. The problem, of course, is that before we begin to consult the possibility of a third party in this country a second party must arise.
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Mary Corbett discovered something she hates more than losing this season. And that’s waiting on the sidelines. After breaking her wrist in a preseason practice, the 5-foot-7 guard had to watch from the bench as the Otterbein women’s basketball team started the season 0-2 overall.
Corbett responded by averaging 9.6 points a game in her first five games since being cleared to play. She had double digit performances against Wittenberg (11 points in a 72-62 win Nov. 25), Catholic University (11 in a 71-59 win Nov. 29) and Colorado College (15 in an 88-80 win Nov. 30).
“Mary’s very competitive,” says Otterbein coach Connie Richardson, whose team is 3-4 overall after losing to Muskingum 74-62 on Dec. 7. “She loves the game of basketball. She doesn’t like to lose. She’s not going to accept losing.”
“Sitting on the bench was definitely difficult for me,” says the Upper Arlington High School graduate who transferred to Otterbein from Ohio Wesleyan University in the offseason. “I wanted to be out there with my team but I knew I might mess up my wrist even more.
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Unless you’re a game developer yourself you probably didn’t know that Central Ohio is home to several independent game studios. At the Ohio Game Developer Expo, held December 7th at the Ohio Union building on the Ohio State University campus, these developers got to show off established, new and upcoming games made right here at home.
The popularity of Apple’s iPhone and iPad and devices running Google’s Android operating system has opened up an entirely new realm of opportunities for people looking to publish games without the backing of a major company like Activision or EA Games. Online distribution through the Steam platform has also made publishing accessible to those who never could have gotten their games out to a wider audience even a decade ago. It also means developers don’t have to be in Silicon Valley to get attention.
The Ohio natives at Soulfire Software have chosen to stay right here at home. They were at the Expo with an iPad and an early build of their iOS game Thieves’ Plummet, a 3D action game where you guide your character on a controlled descent through a cavern lined with jewels.