Category: World News & Politics

(PRODUCT) RED

“What we collectively choose to buy, or not buy, can change the course of life and history on this planet.”
— From the (RED) Manifesto

(PRODUCT) REDThe (RED) project was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world’s most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)RED branded products.

A percentage of each (PRODUCT)RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Apple and Motorola began selling red-colored electronics in the United States yesterday to raise awareness and money for the fight against AIDS in Africa, as well as tuberculosis and malaria.

San Francisco retailing giant Gap Inc. also rolled out an entire line of red clothing and accessories, much of it made in Africa, and pledged to donate half the profits from it to the Global Fund.

Other businesses who have already jumped on the (PRODUCT) RED bandwagon are: Converse, Emporio Armani and American Express.

I think this is a great idea and project which I hope will help in making the situation in Africa even a bit better. I truly respect Bono for all the work he’s been doing to help in the African continent over these past years, and this project with Bobby Shriver is another great initiative by him. Bravo to both men.

[More: (PRODUCT) RED, (BLOG) RED, Flickr (RED)]

The Israeli Strategy

“[S]hooting Palestinian civilians is not like shooting Vietnamese or Chechen civilians. The Palestinians aren’t ‘collateral damage’ in a war against well-armed communist or separatist forces. They are being shot because Israel thinks all Palestinians should vanish or die, so people with one Jewish grandparent can build subdivisions on the rubble of their homes. This is not the bloody mistake of a blundering superpower but … the deliberate strategy of a state conceived in and dedicated to an increasingly vicious ethnic nationalism.”

— What is Antisemitism? by Michael Neumann; 4 June 2002.

Israeli Realtor

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]
[Cartoon: Mr Fish, for Harper’s Magazine.]

The Israeli Pressure Cooker Experiment

The experiment was a success: The Palestinians are killing each other. They are behaving as expected at the end of the extended experiment called “what happens when you imprison 1.3 million human beings in an enclosed space like battery hens.”

These are the steps in the experiment: Imprison (since 1991); remove the prisoners

Earth Hottest in Thousands of Years

The world’s temperature has increased to levels not seen in at least 12,000 years, U.S. climate scientists report in today’s issue of “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” Rapid warming has occurred in the past 30 years, the researchers said, and there is little doubt that human activities are the primary factor.

Study coauthor James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said the new findings imply that the world is “getting close to dangerous levels” of manmade greenhouse gases.

The study concludes the Earth is now reaching and passing through the warmest levels in the current interglacial period, which has lasted nearly 12,000 years. This warming is also forcing a migration of plant and animal species toward the poles, the researchers said.

“But if further global warming reaches 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know.” Hansen said.

European scientists recently reported dramatic openings over large areas of the Arctic’s perennial sea ice pack in August and a study released last week found Greenland’s ice sheet is melting far faster than scientists had previously thought.

Two other studies published this month by NASA scientists indicate that Arctic sea ice is melting at extraordinary rates.

Furthermore, British scientists reported this month that ice core records from Antarctica show the current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide – the leading greenhouse gas – are higher now than at any time in the past 800,000 years and increasing at an unprecedented rate.

[Source: Environment News Service]

Study: Muslims, Arabs saw pay drop after 9/11

Post-9/11 anti-Islamic and anti-Middle Eastern sentiment hasn’t just taken an emotional toll on Muslim and Arab men living in the United States. It has also put a dent in their checkbooks, a study indicates.

Arab and Muslim men saw their wages and weekly earnings drop by 10 percent after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the research reveals.

The largest decreases, according to the data collected from over 4,000 men between 1997 and 2005, occurred in locations that reported higher rates of ethnic and religious-based hate crimes.

Part of the reason pay fell is that these men, mostly from predominantly Islamic countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, found fewer opportunities and had to find work in different industries that paid less than the jobs they used to be employed in after 9/11, said the study’s co-author, Robert Kaestner, a University of Illinois at Chicago economics professor.

In addition, Kaestner said, most Muslim and Arab men, possibly wary of the reception they might receive in another state, curbed their travel within the country after 9/11, which may have kept them from seeking better jobs.

[Source: Chicago Sun-Times]
[Via: The Emirates Economist]

Europe Gets Its First Pro-Israel Lobby

Europe gets its AIPAC…

A new organization named “European Friends of Israel” is expected to be inaugurated next week in Brussels with the aim of becoming an AIPAC-type pro-Israel lobby in Europe.

Several pro-Israel European Union parliament members who were recently joined by a number of Jewish businessmen sponsoring their activity have decided to institutionalize their endeavor in order to boost cooperation between pro-Israel parliamentarians throughout the continent and help in improving Israel

US Knew of Israeli Bombing Plan

More and more is coming out about how the US knew in advance about the Israeli plans to bomb Lebanon, even before the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers…

“Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah, and shared it with Bush administration officials, well before 12 July”, wrote Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, whose past work includes exposing the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and Vietnam’s My Lai massacre.

Israeli officials visited Washington to secure US support for its plans before Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on 12 July, the ostensible cause of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.

“Israel began with [Vice-President Dick] Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of … the National Security Council,” an unnamed US government consultant told Mr Hersh.

With Mr Cheney’s backing secured, “persuading [President] Bush was never a problem, and [Secretary of State] Condi Rice was on board,” the source added.

Israel’s plan for an air war to turn the Lebanese people against Hezbollah was “the mirror image of what the United States has been planning for Iran,” the article quotes an unnamed former senior intelligence official as saying.

The White House wanted Hezbollah’s missiles eliminated so they could not be used as retaliation against Israel in case the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, Mr Hersh says.

[Source: BBC News]

A lot of indications have pointed at how all this wasn’t just a reaction by Israel to the kidnapping of it’s two soldiers, mainly because Israel has been kidnapping hundreds of Lebanese for decades and Hizbullah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers in return shouldn’t really generate a response which is so out of proportion.

It’s clear this was a pre-meditated and pre-planned attack, and that the kidnapping was just a reason Israel jumped on to mask it as a reaction rather than an assault which was totally uncalled for.

And of course Israel wouldn’t go ahead and do something like this without informing and consulting with the US about it first, not so much to secure their backing really, as they always have the US’ unconditional support, but more to align themselves with the future US plans for Iran and Syria and to plan what the cover-up story should be.

So the whole thing about Israel being a victim simply reacting to an event and the US being a dedicated mediator for peace pretty much goes up in flames, much like the whole region has, as a result of their plans.

Many Americans Harbor Strong Bias Against U.S. Muslims

Just came across this…

A new Gallup poll finds that many Americans — what it calls “substantial minorities” — harbor “negative feelings or prejudices against people of the Muslim faith”. Nearly one in four Americans, 22%, say they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbor.

While Americans tend to disagree with the notion that Muslims living in the United States are sympathetic to al-Qaeda, a significant 34% believe they do back al-Qaeda. And fewer than half — 49% — believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States.

Almost four in ten, 39%, advocate that Muslims here should carry special I.D. That same number admit that they do hold some “prejudice” against Muslims. Forty-four percent say their religious views are too “extreme.”

In every case, Americans who actually know any Muslims are more sympathethic.

[Source: Editor & Publisher]

Mohsan writes:

“2 out of 5 Americans believe Muslims should carry special I.D. … While they