Tuesday, August 31, 2010

راوي حاج

في أي حال، يجب أن لا ننسى أن الغرب يستعملنا أيضا بصفتنا كتابا من عالم آخر. يعطينا مهمة معينه إذا جاز التعبير. يستطيع الغرب أن يظهرنا ليظهر نفسه كبلاد تستقبل هؤلاء المهاجرين، وتقدم إليهم الفرص الخ


Monday, August 30, 2010

Fair Trade Impact

"The Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO), which represents 23 certifying organisations and owns the Fairtrade mark that signifies that the standards underlying it have been met, this month published the second edition of its monitoring and evaluation report entitled The Benefits of Fairtrade. It is based on data from audits conducted in 2008, which indicated that 1 million producers benefited from Fairtrade in 2008. The 1.2 figure is calculated based on growth rates for 2009."

Link

Friday, August 27, 2010

Badael بدائل

Today in Badael (al akhbar): my editorial livelihoods or lifestyle? Rameh Hamiyyeh wrote how the cooperatives in the Bekaa are using raw materials imported from Syria to prepare the mouneh, as the season was terrible this year in Lebanon. Maya Yaghi wrote about the disappearing aromatic plants garden of Arabsalim in the South.

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/taxonomy/term/16833,19097

Monday, August 23, 2010

إسرائيل: التحديات الاستراتيجية في القرن الواحد والعشرين



إسرائيل: التحديات الاستراتيجية في القرن الواحد والعشرين

تواكب إسرائيل، بدقة، التغيّرات الجذرية التي ترى أنها تحصل في البيئة الاستراتيجية المحيطة بها. وهي تعتقد أن هذه التغيرات تحمل في طياتها تحديات متنامية، تقرّ بأن بعضها من نوع جديد، يختلف عما كانت تواجهه في العقود الأولى لنشأتها. في ما يأتي إطلالة نادرة على خصوصية الرؤية الإسرائيلية للتحديات الاستراتيجية الماثلة أمام الدولة العبرية، التي تأتي على لسان المسؤول عن «التقدير القومي» لإسرائيل، رئيس شعبة الاستخبارات العسكرية، اللواء عاموس يدلين. ألقيت محاضرة يدلين بتاريخ 15/12/2009، في سياق ندوة نظمها مركز دراسات الأمن القومي ـــــ جامعة تل أبيب، حاضر فيها إلى جانب يدلين، كبار المسؤولين الإسرائيليين، تحت عنوان «التحديات الأمنية في القرن الواحد والعشرين»، وأعيد نشرها في إصدار خاص، بتاريخ 19/08/2010.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Badael بدائل

In Badael, I wrote about the evolution of food wars to documentaries of food wars and about the imbecile Lebanese diplomat. Kamel Jaber wrote about Sanabel el Kheir, a farming program for children with special needs and Amal Khalil on sumac in Lebanese cooking.

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/taxonomy/term/16833%2C19082

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Our struggle

""Our struggle is not against actual corrupt individuals, but against those in power in general, against their authority, against the global order and ideological mystification which sustains it." 
For Žižek, and many of the rest of us, much needs to be done."

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Ramadan cartels

"CAIRO, Aug 15 (IPS) - Opportunistic food traders have been blamed for soaring food prices across the Middle East that have added a financial burden on families observing the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"Every year it's the same story," complains Abeer Salem, an Egyptian widow supporting two children. "Merchants know we have an obligation to feed our families and the poor during Ramadan. They exploit this by raising food prices.""

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

أزمة القمح في مصر: القدر ليس تفسيراً مصطفى بسيوني

وربما كانت أزمة منع أميركا القمح عن مصر في الستينيات وتدخل روسيا السوفياتية للإنقاذ وأزمة احتياطي النقد الأجنبي في نهاية الثمانينيات والأسعار العالمية في عام 2008 من أهم الأزمات التي شعر بها النظام في مصر. ولكن رغم الحديث الدائم عن محاولات تحقيق الاكتفاء الذاتي من القمح، لم تكن السياسات المطبقة بالفعل تتفق مع المعلن. فكيف يمكن الحديث عن اكتفاء ذاتي من القمح بينما السياسات المطبقة تدمّر تدميراً منظماً حياة الفلاحين. لقد كان أبرز ملامح السياسة الزراعية تحرير العلاقة بين المالك والمستأجر في الأراضي الزراعية في عام 1997، والذي كان يعني القضاء على استقرار ما يزيد على 900 ألف أسرة ريفية وطرد أعداد واسعة من الفلاحين من الأراضي، وقفزت ساعتها إيجارات الأراضي الزراعية من 660 جنيهاً إلى أكثر من ألفي جنيه ووصلت حالياً إلى أربعة آلاف جنيه سنوياً. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، رُفعت أسعار الأسمدة ومستلزمات الزراعة وأُلغي الدعم عليها وتُركت للسوق السوداء وأُثقل الفلاحون بديون بنك الائتمان الزراعي، ما أدى إلى صدور أحكام بالحبس على أعداد كبيرة من الفلاحين. ناهيك بالأزمات المتكررة في مياه الري التي تذهب لملاعب الغولف، والتي يزيد عددها حسب تحقيق في جريدة الأهرام على 20 ملعباً تستهلك ما يقرب من مليار ليتر مياه أسبوعياً

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/202425

Monday, August 16, 2010

Arab Food Security

"The Gulf countries now depend on four main sources for food production:
  1. The new initiatives in developing countries, where Gulf nations can use their investment abilities more aggressively. Woertz referred to these sources as having the classical colonial agro-export and food import dependencies.
     
  2. Emerging developing countries, such as Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, Argentina, who cannot afford to subsidize their national agriculture and are therefore at a disadvantage when selling to global markets.
     
  3. Large suppliers that subsidize food production within their own borders, such as the United States and the European Union.
     
  4. Production within their own borders." 
(Thanks Sami)

I disagree with the appellation "colonial", which implies a totally different political balance of forces. The West just can't bear that some Arab countries, regardless of how lousy these regimes are. And look at the Saudi response:

"The Saudi government argues that the relationship benefits both parties; if Saudi investors quintuple the food output of these countries, the host country would have more agriculture revenue and food for itself and they could increase exports to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government compares the venture to the West’s investment in oil."

And look at this:

"International tension might occur, for example, if Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, or the UAE sought to build large agro-projects in Sudan, which shares its water source, the Nile, with Egypt. "

I have said it before and will say it again: this is the Arab Nation and Sudan is part of it, whether the West likes it or not. Arab agricultural investments in other Arab countries are required, this is called Arab integration. The important thing is that they be fair and benefit the poor.

http://carnegie-mec.org/events/?fa=2798&lang=en

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The new face of the (bankrupt) terrorist empire

"For its part, the Pentagon is becoming more like the C.I.A. Across the Middle East and elsewhere, Special Operations troops under secret “Execute Orders” have conducted spying missions that were once the preserve of civilian intelligence agencies. With code names like Eager Pawn and Indigo Spade, such programs typically operate with even less transparency and Congressional oversight than traditional covert actions by the C.I.A.

And, as American counterterrorism operations spread beyond war zones into territory hostile to the military, private contractors have taken on a prominent role, raising concerns that the United States has outsourced some of its most important missions to a sometimes unaccountable private army. "

I can tell from now that this is going to lead to one of those messes involving "civilians"...
...

And look here: the execution of "suspects". Why bother with tribunals?

"The officials said that they have benefited from the Yemeni government’s new resolve to fight Al Qaeda and that the American strikes — carried out with cruise missiles and Harrier fighter jets — had been approved by Yemen’s leaders. The strikes, administration officials say, have killed dozens of militants suspected of plotting future attacks. The Pentagon and the C.I.A. have quietly bulked up the number of their operatives at the embassy in Sana, the Yemeni capital, over the past year."

and here cluster bombs: 

"A Navy ship offshore had fired the weapon in the attack, a cruise missile loaded with cluster bombs, according to a report by Amnesty International. Unlike conventional bombs, cluster bombs disperse small munitions, some of which do not immediately explode, increasing the likelihood of civilian causalities. The use of cluster munitions, later documented by Amnesty, was condemned by human rights groups."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/15shadowwar.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

Friday, August 13, 2010

Badael بدائل

In Badael today: My editorial about Israel starving Gaza and the implications on Lebanon. Muhammad Muhsin wrote on Ramadan diet

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/taxonomy/term/16833%2C19064

Thursday, August 12, 2010

That's going to infuriate the market fundamentalists


Economy Minister Mohammad Safadi and Agriculture Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan banned the export of wheat from Lebanon effective immediately until further notice, “due to global wheat market conditions and actions by some large countries,” according to a joint statement issued by the Economy and Agriculture Ministries.

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=193534

The provision of subsidised bread is a key strategy in the region for maintaining social peace.

Mideast and N Africa seek fresh grain supplies

ByHeba Saleh in Cairo and Javier Blas in London

Published: August 11 2010 18:50 | Last updated: August 11 2010 18:50

Middle East and north African countries, the world’s biggest cereal importers, have moved quickly to replace supplies from Russia following the country’s grain export ban, and the region has so far escaped the panic of the 2007-08 food crisis.

Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan have all launched grain tenders this week to replace supplies from the Black Sea region of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. However, with stocks relatively high, officials in the region said they were not in a hurry to buy.

“Egypt has in stock enough wheat to produce subsidised bread for the upcoming four months,” said an official in the Egyptian trade ministry. “The policy to plan ahead to secure strategic commodities has worked.”

Middle East and north African countries buy almost a quarter of all the cereals traded globally. The provision of subsidised bread is a key strategy in the region for maintaining social peace.


Wednesday, August 11, 2010

How to transfer US technology to Israel free of charge

"The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has signed an agreement with Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to collaborate on research to help meet the world’s food and agricultural needs.

The ARS said on Tuesday that the five-year agreement will focus on high-priority agricultural issues such as climate change, international food security, alternative energy production, precision agriculture, sustainable natural resources management, capacity building and rural development.

...

The agreement was signed in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, and is intended to complement current research activities that are underpinned by funding from the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD).

“This goes beyond that,” Herrera said.

She said that although the agreement does not include any funding, its purpose is to allow researchers to work together more easily, to co-publish and compare notes.
“Collaboration could take place without the MOU but it opens doors, lays out the framework or the direction this could take,” she said.""

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Gaza Dietitian-2

"As for food, it is in good supply, having found its way here either through Israeli crossings or the vast network of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. Of course, this leaves aside the question of who in Gaza's largely impoverished population (the overwhelming majority of whose income is less than $2 a day, 61% of whom are food insecure) can really afford mangoes at $4 a kilo or grapes at $8 a kilo. A recent trip to the grocery store revealed that meat has risen to $13 a kilo. Fish, once a cheap source of protein, goes for $15 to $35 a kilo. And so on.

Prices are on par with those of a developed country, except we are not in a developed country. We are a de-developed occupied territory." (Thanks Marcy)

The Israeli dietitian

'In February 2006, following Hamas' electoral victory, a top advisor to Ehud Olmert, the then Israeli prime minister, Dov Weisglass, described the essence of Israel's Gaza policy.
"It's like a meeting with a dietitian," Weisglass said. "We need to make the Palestinians lose weight, but not to starve to death."' (Thanks Bessma)

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/20108975319492772.html

Land and People on the farm

"I traveled to southern Lebanon in the company of Rami Zurayk, a professor at the American University of Beirut. Zurayk’s Land and People group provides strategic marketing and technical services to Lebanese farmers, helping them carve out a niche, effectively brand their unique farm products and earn more money, whilst sustaining natural resources and strengthening Lebanons rural social fabric." (Thanks Dave) http://www.greenplanetmonitor.net/news/2010/07/land-and-people/
Rami Zurayk and farmer colleague
Rami Zurayk and friends with agro-engineering plans

Where things are worse...

"Things are worse in the Middle East. Studies by the FAO have shown that the region imports more than 50pc of its consumed calories every year. This proportion is expected to increase substantially as its population rises.
According to the CIA World Factbook, a staggering 38pc of people in Saudi Arabia are under the age of 14, compared with just 16.5pc in the UK. This difference in demographics between the region and the West is why the population is rising faster. In the UK, the population growth rate is just 0.28pc, compared with 3.56pc in the United Arab Emirates, 3.5pc in Kuwait and 2.71pc in Yemen.
The reason that the Middle East has to import half of its food from abroad is because of its lack of water.
One tonne of grain requires 1,000 tonnes of water and, according to Standard Chartered's analysis, with agricultural production currently consuming 70pc of all freshwater available globally.
The Middle East may have a lot of oil – but it does not have much water. Recent price spikes have raised concerns about food inflation in the short term. It's likely that prices will ease because global stocks of wheat are not as tight as the recent jump in futures contracts would imply.
However, the fear of food shortages has emerged for good reason – you should expect prices to be on a slow trend upward for many years to come. But the real concern should be for those living in rapidly gentrifying areas of Asia and the Middle East."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/7933390/Food-inflation-is-a-rumble-that-wont-go-away.html

Made in China

"The failure of the Russian wheat harvest has caused a temporary spike in prices, but these high prices won't last for long because of excess production in China and the US.
"Global wheat ending stocks are forecast to decline from 193m tonnes in 2009-10 to 178.8m tonnes in 2010-11," says Luke Chandler, an agriculture analyst at Rabobank. "The relative small decline in global ending stocks is due primarily to a 6.9m tonne surplus in Chinese wheat production and higher-than-expected US production.""

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/7933390/Food-inflation-is-a-rumble-that-wont-go-away.html

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Badael بدائل

In Badael this week, I wrote about the absence of true, pro-poor agricultural and rural development strategy in Lebanon, and how the Ministry has adopted an approach that is market based and not in the interest of the small farmers. Nadine Kanaan, who is making a film about organic farming in Lebanon, wrote an article about it, and Maya Yaghi about bad quality feed used in Lebanon.

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/taxonomy/term/16833%2C19042

Thursday, August 5, 2010

حكاية موسم بطيخ

وفي الحسابات النهائية، يشير مهنا إلى أن المزارع يتكلّف على الـ400 دونم نحو 160 ألف دولار، لكنه خسر هذا الموسم 70 ألف دولار! أما تعويض هذه الخسارة فهو في الموسم المقبل أو عبر بيع مزروعات أخرى قد تحقق أرباحاً تعدّل في ميزان الربح والخسارة. ويقول مهنا: «نحن المزارعين كمن يلعب القمار، سنة نربح وأخرى نخسر، ولا نعرف مسبقاً إن كانت الغلة ستكون وافرة أو خاسرة».
ويلفت إلى أن المزارعين ملّوا من مطالبة الحكومات المتعاقبة ووزارات الزراعة بإنشاء أسواق للمزراعين أو تعاونيات زراعية لتصريف المنتج مباشرة من المزارع إلى المستهلك، لافتاً إلى أن الوسيط التجاري أساسي لكي يستطيع المزارع بيع إنتاجه، لافتاً إلى أن القطاع الزراعي في لبنان يعيش فوضى كبيرة يدفع ثمنها المزارع والمستهلك على حد سواء. فمثلاً كيلوغرام البندورة يبيعه المزارع بـ80 ليرة للوسيط، فيصل إلى المستهلك بألف ليرة!
http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/200805

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Israel oppresses everyone. The weakest suffer most

"Bsharat’s home is a canopy of sewn-together sacks propped up over bare ground. It can easily be rebuilt. His other problems are more difficult to solve. 



Photo: Phoebe Greenwood/IRIN 
Bsharat in front of his home, which has an Israeli demolition order against it
Al-Hadidiya is in a part of the West Bank under complete Israeli control, known asArea C. The estimated 40,000 Palestinians living there are unable to build or repair their homes, schools, hospitals or sewage systems under Israel’s strict permit system, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In a region where almost all families are herders, Israel’s restrictions on Palestinian access to and development of agricultural land mean thousands are going hungry, aid agencies say. "


http://www.IRINnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89991

Water pressure on Moubarak

"CAIRO, 27 July 2010 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people in Egypt - Africa’s second most populous country - have taken to the streets in recent months to protest against water shortages, a fact which goes some way to explaining the government’s reluctance to relinquish its current share of River Nile water.

On 26 July, 600 people from the southern governorate of Minya staged a sit-down protest outside the Irrigation Ministry in Cairo to protest about the lack of water for their land. While there have been water shortage protests in previous years, the size and frequency of protests in 2010 has been unprecedented, local observers say."

http://www.IRINnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89981

عساف ابو رحال

الحزب الشيوعي اللبناني

ينعي

الشهيد عساف ابو رحال

الذي إنضم الى قافلة شهداء الحزب والمقاومة والوطن

 ينعي المكتب السياسي للحزب الشيوعي اللبناني الرفيق الشهيد عساف ابو رحال، مراسل جريدة الاخبار، الذي استشهد وهو يقوم بواجبه الاعلامي في تغطية المواجهة البطولية للجيش اللبناني مع العدو الاسرائيلي بعد ظهر اليوم( الثلاثاء 3/8/2010 في بلدة العديسة في الجنوب.

انتسب عساف ابو رحال الى صفوف الحزب الشيوعي اللبناني منذ اوائل السبعينيات، مناضلاً في صفوفه، مدافعاً عن حقوق العمال وكادحي الريف، خصوصاً في بلدته الكفير ـ حاصبيا، الى ان التحق بصفوف جبهة المقاومة الوطنية اللبنانية منذ تاسيسها عام 1982 متابعاً نضاله ضد الاحتلال الاسرائيلي، وهو اليوم يتابع مسيرته النضالية في مواجهة العدو الاسرائيلي حيث قضى شهيداً جنباً الى جنب مع شهداء الجيش اللبناني، وانضم الى قافلة شهداء الحزب الشيوعي اللبناني الذين سقطوا وهم يؤدون واجبهم الوطني دفاعاً عن ارضنا وسيادتنا.

Raison d'être

There are many people who are predicting a war in Lebanon and possibly in the whole region in the near future. Of course, the conjecture is there, and the build up against Iran and the Lebanese Resistance by the US and the self declared Free World (where consumerism and money and media and image are the only alienations) is more intense than ever. Yet, I wonder: who is going to fight this war? The US? They are stuck in the Afganiraq quagmire. The UNIFIL forces? They know it would be suicidal. The Lebanese militias? See UNIFIL forces. Israel? Well Israel has always fought the wars of the Empire, this is its raison d'être. But is Israel ready for another war after the humiliation of 2006? Can it take the chance of another defeat? And how could it win? What could it win? They have destroyed, no annihilated, all the south and dahiyeh and a big part of Lebanon in 2006 and were not able to hold their ground. They don't seem to be more ready. In fact it seems to me that their army is scared. Of course they can attack unarmed flotillas with peace activists on board. They can bomb with drones a mega refugee camp, Gaza. But Lebanon? The South? Jaba `Amel? I don't think so.

But this has at least one important implication: if Israel cannot fight the wars of the Empire, if it cannot be the mercenary, the bully, the hired killer, it will lose its raison d'être. Maybe it already has.

This is Israel

The zionist terror army tried to enter Lebanon today. The Lebanese army opposed them. They shelled the army outpost in Lebanon and killed 3 soldiers and one journalist, my colleague from Al Akhbar. Assaf Abu Rahhal, was a frequent contributor to Badael and his articles are linked on this blog.

As far back as I can remember, I have always had people die around me from the war. One day they're here and then suddenly they are not. And you learn to receive these news and deal with them in a matter-of-fact way: this is where we live, this is Israel.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Alert: Wheat Crisis


"MOSCOW — A severe drought destroyed one-fifth of the wheat crop in Russia, one of the world's largest exporters, and now wildfires are sweeping in to finish off some of the fields that remained.

Expectations that Russia will slash exports by at least 30 percent have sent wheat prices soaring and this is good news for farmers in the world's largest wheat exporter — the United States.

The higher wheat prices may mean that Americans and Europeans pay slightly more for bread, but the bigger burden will fall on people in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia, analysts say. "

and from the FT:

"Wheat prices have seen the biggest one-month jump in more than three decades on the back of a severe drought in Russia, prompting warnings by the food industry of rising prices for flour-related products such as bread and biscuits.

Food executives are also warning about surging prices for feeding and malting barley, which could push higher the retail cost of products from poultry to beer. "

And also note that the harvests have been lousy in Western Asia this year! In Lebanon, it was 50% less than the usual harvest.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Liberating Iraq---Afganistan---and soon Iran

"Already in 2005, Iraqi doctors in Fallujah stated that they were being overwhelmed by the number of babies born with serious defects, and they also reported on the high number of cancer and miscarriages suffered by the city’s population. The rate of babies born with heart defects is said to be 13 higher those born in Europe.

Professor Chris Busby, an expert in the effects of radiation on humans said that uranium particles can alter the DNA of sperm and eggs from contaminated adults and cause a multitude of birth defects in any baby they conceive. A doctor in Fallujah quoted by Inter Press Service stated, “I can say all kinds of toxic pollution took place in Fallujah after the November 2004 massacre.”

The U.S. military, which at first denied it had used white phosphorus as an anti-personnel weapon in Fallujah, later retracted that denial and admitted using it. However, the Pentagon argues that white phosphorus doesn’t poison people but burns them. In consequence, it is covered by the protocol on incendiary weapons, which the U.S. hasn’t signed. While Saddam Hussein’s use of white phosphorus against the Kurds was severely criticized, the same criticism should apply to the use of white phosphorus against civilians in Fallujah." (Thanks Tima)

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/28-1

The story of Zaynab: Farming and boycott in Palestine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN-YGoZK0i4&feature=player_embedded

War is Peace: Obama doctrine. Read this article in context with the International Tribunal in Lebanon

"Amitai Eztioni is one of the most influential sociologists in the world.  Born in Germany, he emigrated to Israel during the years that state was being founded, settling later in the United States where he began a long academic career that led him to pass through some of the most prestigious universities in that country: Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, culminating in most recent years, as Professor of International Relations at George Washington University in Washington D.C. But his activities were not limited to university faculties: he was a permanent consultant to a variety of U.S. presidents, particularly Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. And since 9/11, with the inordinate rise of militarism, his voice has resonated with growing force in the U.S. establishment.  Just a few days ago he offered a new example.

An unconditional apologist for the State of Israel, he published an article in Military Review (the U.S. Army’s scholarly journal) that reveals the “climate of opinion” that prevails among the U.S. rightwing, the military industrial complex and the loftiest sectors of the administration, particularly the Pentagon.  The title of his article says it all:  “Can a Nuclear-Armed Iran be Deterred?”. The answer, needless to say, is negative. The publication of this article could not have arrived at a more opportune moment for U.S. warmongers, when repeated reports – silenced by the press that calls itself “free” or “independent” – speak of the deployment of U.S. and Israeli warships via the Suez Canal in Iran’s direction, raising fears of an imminent war.  In some of his latest “Reflections,” Comandante Fidel Castro has warned, with his customary lucidity, of the ominous implications of the military escalation unleashed by Washington against the Iranians, a pattern that is not dissimilar to that used to justify the aggression against Iraq: diplomatic hounding, denunciations before the U.N., increasingly rigorous sanctions from the Security Council; Tehran’s “failure to comply” and the inevitable military outcome."
http://www.tni.org/article/iran-obamas-war

That's an international tribunal I'd like to see

"During the last 6 years, social movements and organisations from Latin America and Europe, connected through the Europe-Latin America bi-regional network Enlazando Alternativas, have repeatedly exposed how voluntary codes of conduct, which form part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach, have failed to tackle human rights and environmental abuses of Transnational Corporations (TNCs). These movements denounce the current system of legislation, where the rights of  TNCs “are guaranteed by the judicial fortress of the Lex Mercatoria, but responsibilities and obligations are unmentioned, left to the good will of corporations. So far, TNCs have successfully resisted any binding international code that includes obligations."

http://www.tni.org/article/towards-international-tribunal-economic-crimes

Water Justice

In an historic victory for social movements, the UN declared water and sanitation a human right despite opposition from countries like the US, UK and Canada.

Summer camps Israeli style

"Arab Negev News publisher Ata Abu Madyam supplied me with a series of photos he took of the civilians in action. They depicted Israeli high school students who appeared to have volunteered as members of the Israeli police civilian guard (I am working on identifying some participants by name). Prior to the demolitions, the student volunteers were sent into the villagers’ homes to extract their furniture and belongings. A number of villagers including Madyam told me the volunteers smashed windows and mirrors in their homes and defaced family photographs with crude drawings. Then they lounged around on the furniture of al-Arakib residents in plain site of the owners. Finally, according to Matyam, the volunteers celebrated while bulldozers destroyed the homes. "What we learned from the summer camp of destruction," Madyam remarked, "is that Israeli youth are not being educated on democracy, they are being raised on racism."" (Thanks Mayssun)
maxblumenthal.com/2010/07/the-summer-camp-of-destruction-israeli-high-schoolers-
   join-in-the-destruction-of-a-bedouin-town/

News from home

I'm getting ready to leave the US. It has been a very interesting and educational trip, and I will write more about it from Beirut. I dont have a lot of time today, but I wanted to lay a few points down for further discussion later:

1. The situation in Lebanon is complex and dangerous. The US and its camp are playing a very dangerous game using the International Tribunal for Hariri in order to destroy the Resistance. The message is simple: the natives shall not be defiant, insubordinate or unruly. This could ignite the country and the region. But oddly enough, it hardly gets any mention in the US press.

2. Drones and targeted killings subcontracted to private companies are going to become the new way of doing war. And one cant help being amazed by the similarity in warfare between the US and Israel. Look at this article here,  Targeted Killing Is New U.S. Focus in Afghanistan ,
Drones, Deaths and Bribes: Mining the WikiLeaks Data
and compare with what goes on in Gaza everyday. Jonathan Cook: Do drone attacks make life and death worth less?