Patna,India,oct 16-Authrities in eastern India are painting a crime-infested town pink in the hope that an image makeover will lift the sagging morale of residents who are fed up with the decline in law and order, officials said monday (for further info see Reuters)
Maby according to this concept we should all start to wear pink colloured shades, if it looks better maby the world becomes better ;-)
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
The Edukators (Die fetten jahre sind vorbei)*
Is the society system that we are living in the best system?
I don’t have a straight answer for this question, but the question itself is becoming stronger. Many people are starting to doubt that this is the best system to resolve our problems. Many issues arouse from this question – poverty, fair trading, world justice, international law, welfare distribution, security, liberty and eventually day-by-day lifestyle.
In my mind it is becoming clearer that a change will happen. We can no longer ignore the inequality in our world or in our own home country. Every 5 seconds a child dies of hunger-related problem while I happily eat my meal, or how many people have to suffer fighting for this simple right that is freedom of speech?. (to be continued…)
[*Note: Taken from a german movie with the same title which inspired this article]
Arabic bloggers
From a dutch newspaper:
In some countries bloggers are overheard or even arrested.In the article it is stated that in 2003 in Iran the first blogger gets arrested, other bloggers came in action to get him(journalist Sina Matlabi) released.2005 Bahrein owner ( Ali Abdulemam) of Bahreinonline.com gets arrested.In the summer of 2006 the Egyptian blogger Alaa Seif gets arrested and spents 45 days in jail.
In Arabic bloggers there are noticable many women that speak for womensrights/female liberation.
Popular Arabic blogs:Egypt:Http://www.manalaa.net/ (weblog of Alaa Seif)
Saudi-Arabia:Http://saudijeans.blogspot.com
Saudi-Arabia:Http://eveksa.blogspot.com (saudi-eve)
Irak: Http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
Libanon: Http://anecdotesfromabananarepublic.blogspot.com
Palestinian arias:Http://www.bethlehemghetto.blogspot.com
Also interested in this context Book: Bagdad Burning from author Riverbend which inspired the stageplay Girl Blog
In some countries bloggers are overheard or even arrested.In the article it is stated that in 2003 in Iran the first blogger gets arrested, other bloggers came in action to get him(journalist Sina Matlabi) released.2005 Bahrein owner ( Ali Abdulemam) of Bahreinonline.com gets arrested.In the summer of 2006 the Egyptian blogger Alaa Seif gets arrested and spents 45 days in jail.
In Arabic bloggers there are noticable many women that speak for womensrights/female liberation.
Popular Arabic blogs:Egypt:Http://www.manalaa.net/ (weblog of Alaa Seif)
Saudi-Arabia:Http://saudijeans.blogspot.com
Saudi-Arabia:Http://eveksa.blogspot.com (saudi-eve)
Irak: Http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
Libanon: Http://anecdotesfromabananarepublic.blogspot.com
Palestinian arias:Http://www.bethlehemghetto.blogspot.com
Also interested in this context Book: Bagdad Burning from author Riverbend which inspired the stageplay Girl Blog
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Bush Signs Law on Treatment and Interrogation of Terror Suspects
by NEDRA PICKLER From ABC
"WASHINGTON Oct 17, 2006 (AP)— President Bush has signed legislation that authorizes new standards that expedite the interrogation and prosecution of terror suspects.
Bush's plan becomes law just six weeks after he acknowledged that the CIA had been secretly interrogating suspected terrorists overseas and pressed Congress to quickly give authority to try them in military commissions.
The bill would protect detainees from blatant abuses during questioning such as rape, torture and "cruel and inhuman" treatment but does not require that any of them be granted legal counsel. Also, it specifically bars detainees from filing habeas corpus petitions challenging their detentions in federal courts.(...)"
goedendag to everybody
As most people live their live in ignorance and some who should know better as to have a fixed oppinion, i am glad to join the wall of speech openminded.If noticing i'm stubborn or fixed in my opinion try me and you'll notice i'm the opposite.Not that i go with all winds(although i like sailing :) Sofar for now, looking forward for all your input, as you can look forward to mine.
Ewout
Ewout
It Happen Today in Rome
By Massimiliano Di Giorgio from Reuters
"ROME (Reuters) - A train on Rome's underground metro system rammed into the back of another at high speed on Tuesday, killing at least two people and injuring as many 50 others, several seriously.
The fire brigade said two people, including a 30-year-old woman, were pulled out of the wreckage dead and some passengers were still trapped underground.
"We are working to free people who are still trapped in the metal wreckage, our aim at the moment is to save lives," fire brigade officer Luca Cari told Reuters outside the station.
The accident occurred when one train arriving at the station at high speed crashed into the back of another that was still discharging passengers at the Piazza Vittorio underground station in the city center.
The crash occurred at 9:47 a.m. (0747 GMT), at the crowded station. Unconfirmed early reports said the driver of the second train did not stop at a red light.(...)"
"ROME (Reuters) - A train on Rome's underground metro system rammed into the back of another at high speed on Tuesday, killing at least two people and injuring as many 50 others, several seriously.
The fire brigade said two people, including a 30-year-old woman, were pulled out of the wreckage dead and some passengers were still trapped underground.
"We are working to free people who are still trapped in the metal wreckage, our aim at the moment is to save lives," fire brigade officer Luca Cari told Reuters outside the station.
The accident occurred when one train arriving at the station at high speed crashed into the back of another that was still discharging passengers at the Piazza Vittorio underground station in the city center.
The crash occurred at 9:47 a.m. (0747 GMT), at the crowded station. Unconfirmed early reports said the driver of the second train did not stop at a red light.(...)"
Monday, October 16, 2006
Europe needs to become more secular
[First of all: thank you to the establishers of this blog for allowing me to post material here - I think they have a great idea, and it deserves to be successful]
What with all the panic over events in North Korea and the Middle East, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the real need for action closer to home - for me, the UK. In light of current tensions, one of the most important issues is how the British, and other European states relate to the various beliefs and outlooks found among their increasingly diverse populations. The argument for increased secularisation, resisted by a number of religious groups, needs to be made, strongly and repeatedly.
It’s increasingly common to see secularism portrayed as anti-religious, with talk of “Secular Fundamentalists” intent on imposing their materialistic philosophy on the rest of the, God-fearing, country. However, it’s wrong to confuse secularism with atheism (or, more accurately, anti-theism), and it’s important to realise that establishing a secular state is in almost everyone’s best interest.
Secularism, in its most basic form, is simply the idea that the everyday business of the state should be conducted on atheistic (in the sense of lacking religion, not opposing it) grounds only – government should not dictate, fund or interfere with religious matters.
In a multi-faith nation, such as the UK, it’s impossible to see how the government can maintain any other position for long, as interfering in religious matters will inevitably involve discriminating against one minority or another. The British government is currently involved in a perilous plate-spinning act, trying to keep various faiths happy through state funding and (often) token representation in government business for self-proclaimed “community leaders”. This is leading to increasing tensions.
Separation of Church(es) and State is the only democratic way forward. We need to reduce religious figures to the position of ordinary private citizens, with no more voice than the rest of us. Religious organisations should be treated no different from secular groups. And funding for purely religious activities should cease.
Government-funded “faith schools” are the most prominent example of state interference in religious matters, and the best evidence against it. Segregated schooling, on whatever lines, will ultimately prove divisive and bad for social cohesion. Educating children from different backgrounds together is the best way to create the sense of an inclusive, united society which the government seems to desperately desire. They also breach the right to freedom of religion, with the government colluding in the imposition of beliefs onto children not yet old enough to make rational choices about their life. While parental (and community pressure) in religious matters will always exist, it’s another matter altogether when the state actively encourages it.
Religious groups which benefit from state support are also in a risky position in supporting it, as, should future governments take a less favourable view of their particular beliefs, they might find themselves being heavily discriminated against in favour of other faiths. The recent commotion about the veil clearly shows the danger of the government wading into these issues.
Secularisation should put all faiths on a level playing field, and put individual choice (the keystone of democracy) in religious matters at the forefront of the state’s involvement.
What with all the panic over events in North Korea and the Middle East, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the real need for action closer to home - for me, the UK. In light of current tensions, one of the most important issues is how the British, and other European states relate to the various beliefs and outlooks found among their increasingly diverse populations. The argument for increased secularisation, resisted by a number of religious groups, needs to be made, strongly and repeatedly.
It’s increasingly common to see secularism portrayed as anti-religious, with talk of “Secular Fundamentalists” intent on imposing their materialistic philosophy on the rest of the, God-fearing, country. However, it’s wrong to confuse secularism with atheism (or, more accurately, anti-theism), and it’s important to realise that establishing a secular state is in almost everyone’s best interest.
Secularism, in its most basic form, is simply the idea that the everyday business of the state should be conducted on atheistic (in the sense of lacking religion, not opposing it) grounds only – government should not dictate, fund or interfere with religious matters.
In a multi-faith nation, such as the UK, it’s impossible to see how the government can maintain any other position for long, as interfering in religious matters will inevitably involve discriminating against one minority or another. The British government is currently involved in a perilous plate-spinning act, trying to keep various faiths happy through state funding and (often) token representation in government business for self-proclaimed “community leaders”. This is leading to increasing tensions.
Separation of Church(es) and State is the only democratic way forward. We need to reduce religious figures to the position of ordinary private citizens, with no more voice than the rest of us. Religious organisations should be treated no different from secular groups. And funding for purely religious activities should cease.
Government-funded “faith schools” are the most prominent example of state interference in religious matters, and the best evidence against it. Segregated schooling, on whatever lines, will ultimately prove divisive and bad for social cohesion. Educating children from different backgrounds together is the best way to create the sense of an inclusive, united society which the government seems to desperately desire. They also breach the right to freedom of religion, with the government colluding in the imposition of beliefs onto children not yet old enough to make rational choices about their life. While parental (and community pressure) in religious matters will always exist, it’s another matter altogether when the state actively encourages it.
Religious groups which benefit from state support are also in a risky position in supporting it, as, should future governments take a less favourable view of their particular beliefs, they might find themselves being heavily discriminated against in favour of other faiths. The recent commotion about the veil clearly shows the danger of the government wading into these issues.
Secularisation should put all faiths on a level playing field, and put individual choice (the keystone of democracy) in religious matters at the forefront of the state’s involvement.
Freedom of speech -sine qua non-!
What we need is dialogue to understand eachother and bring an end to the clash of civilizaitions.Actually there are no borders between the different world views of human kind but we all bounded eachother with artificial ones.Believing that internet is the most available and qualified instrument to bring people together regardless their nationality,gender,race etc. I hope that this blog will contribute to the harmonization of civilizations.Besides if we leave this crucial mission totally to the politicians,it will take plenty of time.I am very pleasant to take place in such an hamble but bright event.
lots of love
Pinar
What we need is dialogue to understand eachother and bring an end to the clash of civilizaitions.Actually there are no borders between the different world views of human kind but we all bounded eachother with artificial ones.Believing that internet is the most available and qualified instrument to bring people together regardless their nationality,gender,race etc. I hope that this blog will contribute to the harmonization of civilizations.Besides if we leave this crucial mission totally to the politicians,it will take plenty of time.I am very pleasant to take place in such an hamble but bright event.
lots of love
Pinar
Welcome to the Nuclear Club!!!
Welcome to this new hip club. Feel free to join in, you just have to have nuclear bombs or technology. We have different groups so you feel comfortable.
If you are big and western, then you join the group of "i have them in the name of peace".
If you are shy, no problem, you join the group "we are only developing nuclear for civil purposes". To join this last group is easy, gather some nuclear scientist, buy uranium in international market and say to the world that you are not developing a nuclear bomb but if you wanted you could.
If none of this groups interested you then you have the "i just have a nuclear bomb to defend myself".
Come and join now, we are an expanding club and in a near future you can even have the possibility of using one in a coming new war.
Note: if you join the last two groups financial and arms sanctions are part of the package...
If you are big and western, then you join the group of "i have them in the name of peace".
If you are shy, no problem, you join the group "we are only developing nuclear for civil purposes". To join this last group is easy, gather some nuclear scientist, buy uranium in international market and say to the world that you are not developing a nuclear bomb but if you wanted you could.
If none of this groups interested you then you have the "i just have a nuclear bomb to defend myself".
Come and join now, we are an expanding club and in a near future you can even have the possibility of using one in a coming new war.
Note: if you join the last two groups financial and arms sanctions are part of the package...
More countries could develop nuclear bombs: IAEA
By Karin Strohecker from Reuters
"VIENNA (Reuters) - As many as 30 countries may develop the capacity to produce nuclear weapons swiftly unless more is done to tackle the spread of the technology, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said on Monday.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), issued the warning a week after North Korea said it had tested a nuclear bomb.
"We are dealing with almost as I call them virtual nuclear weapons states," ElBaradei said in an opening speech to a nuclear safeguards conference in Vienna.
He added a new approach was needed "so not to end up with nine weapons states but another 20 or 30 who have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons in a very short time span."
Five countries -- the U.S., Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom -- have formally declared their nuclear weapons and signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The four other nations known or suspected to have an atomic bomb are India, Pakistan, Israel, and now North Korea.
ElBaradei said new challenges had emerged as the nuclear technology was available for both peaceful and non peaceful purposes.(...)"
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Nuclear weapons - The Power of choice
I know that each country has the right to defend themselves, but i believe that the Nuclear choice is the worst choice of defense. A nuclear weapon has such an destructive power that if a nuclear war goes off then nobody will win. So each money (dollar, euro, pound, etc...) is a waste, because, in the end, it will not be used. It is a choice that each country has, spend their efforts in nuclear guns or spend efforts in developing themselves...
U.N. sanctions on N.Korea expected Saturday
By Evelyn Leopold from Reuters
"UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council expects to impose arms and financial sanctions on North Korea on Saturday for its reported nuclear weapons test, with U.S. intelligence pointing to confirmation that it took place.
Russia and China submitted new amendments to a U.S.- drafted U.N. resolution, which are expected to delay the vote by several hours, but U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said he was confident the resolution would be adopted on Saturday.
In Washington, a preliminary U.S. intelligence analysis has shown radioactivity in air samples collected near a suspected North Korean nuclear test site, a U.S. official said on Friday, five days after Pyongyang announced it conducted the test.(...)"
Welcome in!!!
Welcome in. The first member, besides me have now just accepted my invitation. Today is an historical day. I don't have words to express so i will simply say Thank you! And i hope that you post soon.
Today
Today i don't have any news or personal opinion to write. I am now concentrating my efforts in managing the blog. I hope that all the people that i send the invitation will accept it so that we can start reading your posts.
See you soon,
Stran
See you soon,
Stran
Friday, October 13, 2006
Nobel Prize Award
Congratulations to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank.
Articule by John Acher from Reuters
"OSLO (Reuters) - Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for grassroots efforts to lift millions out of poverty that earned him the nickname of "banker to the poor".
Yunus, 66, set up a new kind of bank in the 1976 to give credit to the very poorest in his native Bangladesh, particularly women, enabling them to start up small businesses without collateral.
In doing so, he invented microcredit, a system that has been copied in more than 100 nations from the United States to Uganda.
"In Bangladesh, where nothing works and there's no electricity," Yunus once said, "microcredit works like clockwork."
The Nobel committee awarded the prize to Yunus and Grameen Bank "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below," it said in its citation.
"Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights," it said.
Yunus and Grameen were surprise winners of the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.36 million) award from a field of 191 candidates. The prize will be handed out in Oslo on December 10.
"This is fantastic, unbelievable. Thank you," Yunus, whose autobiography is called "Banker to the Poor," told Norway's NRK television after the announcement. (...)"Thursday, October 12, 2006
French, Armenians and Ottomans
I don't get this relation, i just don't get it. What a waste of time, instead of building bridges they are trying to destroy it.
I don't now many things about Ottoman History, so i can't judge the fact by itself (How many people got killed, etc...). What i don't get is what happened to the freedom of speech in France, and one thing that i would like an answer is: since when politicians are historians?
I don't now many things about Ottoman History, so i can't judge the fact by itself (How many people got killed, etc...). What i don't get is what happened to the freedom of speech in France, and one thing that i would like an answer is: since when politicians are historians?
Nobel Price
Congratulations To Orhan Pamuk for wining this year Nobel Prize for Literature.
Quoting Article written By Sarah Edmonds and Niklas Pollard from Reuters (complete article)
"STOCKHOLM, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Turkey's best-known novelist Orhan Pamuk, who faced trial this year for insulting his country, won the 2006 Nobel prize for Literature on Thursday in a decision some critics called politically charged.
"I am very glad and honoured. I am very pleased," the Turkish writer told Sweden's Svenska Dagbladet newspaper when asked how he felt about winning the 10 million Swedish crown prize. "I will try to recover from this shock."
The Swedish Academy declared Pamuk the winner on a day when, to Turkey's fury, the French lower house of parliament approved a bill making it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide.
In a what was seen as a test case for freedom of speech in Turkey, Pamuk was tried for insulting "Turkishness" after telling a Swiss paper last year that 1 million Armenians had died in Turkey during World War One and 30,000 Kurds had perished in recent decades.
Though the court dismissed the charges on a technicality, other writers and journalists are still being prosecuted under the article and can face a jail sentence of up to three years. (...)"
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Open Invitation
I now started to begin mine invitations to people around the world to participate in this blog.
I look into the world and i think that we live a great time, where, in a click you can talk to people around the world. What i want to create here is an international space of debate, where people can debate freely and where we will notice what unite and also what divides humankind.
People are free to debate what ever they want.
Anybody who is interested just needs to send me a valid email to stran_ger69@hotmail.com and i will invite them in.
I hope that you will be interested...
Stran
I look into the world and i think that we live a great time, where, in a click you can talk to people around the world. What i want to create here is an international space of debate, where people can debate freely and where we will notice what unite and also what divides humankind.
People are free to debate what ever they want.
Anybody who is interested just needs to send me a valid email to stran_ger69@hotmail.com and i will invite them in.
I hope that you will be interested...
Stran
Monday, October 09, 2006
Suggestion Box
Leave here any suggestion of improvement or complaint that you have. It will be very helpful to us and i thank you in advance your help.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
