I have been to the Gaza Strip twice
and southern Israel once since the 2008-09 war, where I had the opportunity
to listen to accounts from both people about what had happened to them
during that time. Israelis showed me thickly walled rooms that act as
bomb shelters and explained air raid siren systems in Sderot and Ashqelon.
As difficult as their situation was, nothing could have prepared me
for the level of destruction I found in Gaza.
In a stunning
blow against international law and human rights, the U.S. House of
Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Tuesday
attacking the report
of the United Nations Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission on
the Gaza conflict.
Shame on the House of Representatives, and on the Democratic
leadership of the House, for pushing through a resolution once again
blindly taking the side of Israeli aggression.
I’m referring to the vote on Tuesday, by a lopsided 344-to-36 margin, to condemn the Goldstone report on Gaza.
Last winter, a remote Texas prison convulsed in a cry of outrage, voicing the desperation of the immigration system’s silenced captives.
Why does H1N1 call for a Presidential designation as a national emergency while the preventable deaths of 45,000 Americans every year (122 every day) is not?
Swine flu leads the news. You can die from swine flu, or should we say H1N1, even if you have no underlying health conditions. Young people have died, and pregnant women are at risk. People are lining up to be vaccinated. Health professionals are at risk due to poor preparations at some health facilities. As many as 1,000 deaths have occurred due to this flu outbreak. It's scary out there.
I have been asked to testify Monday about my experience with health insurance to a panel of clergy who will meet to discuss the moral issues of providing health care. What a terrific idea!
Ms. Magazine's inaugural cover featured President Obama in Superman pose, ripping open his suit coat and dress shirt to reveal a T-shirt that proclaims: "This is what a feminist looks like." Photoshop tricks aside, Honduran women need this to be true. They need the Obama administration to fully grasp the plight of Honduran women and their families and act decisively on their behalf.
BOGOTA --
Human rights defenders in Colombia are under constant attack for their
work, facing murder, death threats, illegal surveillance, arbitrary
detentions and prosecutions, activists told a congressional panel in
Washington on Tuesday.
Five months ago, shortly after the Pakistani government had
begun a military offensive against suspected Taliban fighters in the
northernmost area of the country, we arrived in Islamabad, the capital, as part of a small
delegation organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org). Our
initial travel plans had focused on learning more about civilian suffering
caused by U.S.
drone attacks.
The British mining corporation Monterrico's plan was to create Peru's second largest copper mine at Rio Blanco, a vast site in the Huancabamba mountains in the north-west of the country.
Peru
is already the world's third-largest copper-producing nation, and the
mine in the province of Piura was to have increased output by around a
quarter, producing exports worth up to $1bn (£600m) a year for the next
20 years.
