Manifesto of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence

An open letter from an ordinary citizen to the world's powerful.

Violence has embedded itself in human life throughout the planet and there is no way of stopping it. There is no government, nor army, nor religion, nor political party, nor economic group capable of defeating the violence in the world. There is no power capable of ending the violence that grows day by day, infiltrating all of our activities and our most intimate life. The destructive power of violence that is overpowering humanity is becoming increasingly terrible and dangerous. If the rate of growth of violence continues to accelerate together with its destructive capacity, the consequences will be disastrous.

Can we change the direction of events that forewarn of human calamities of never before seen dimensions? There is an enormous quantity of lethal, nuclear, biological, chemical and conventional weapons with the power to annihilate life on the planet. This year in which we had the most serious world-wide financial crisis, in which we all experienced the repercussions of a recession, has once more become the year in which there have been record breaking investments in weapons.

We are all responsible for what is happening and we have to make a profound decision in our interior. Either we continue supporting our governments with their militarist policies, continuously justifying them with fear and vengeance, or we unite our voice and our sentiment to those of millions of human beings of different languages, races, beliefs and cultures to ignite the human consciousness with the light of nonviolence.

Nuclear weapons have proliferated to many countries and are within the reach of groups that are not under the control of Nation States. Today their justification as a deterrent or defence has reached the limit of absurdity and we believe that the only path is Total Worldwide Nuclear Disarmament.

To the Presidents and Prime Ministers of; the United States of America; the Russian Federation; the People's Republic of China; the Republic of France; the United Kingdom; the Republic of India; the Islamic Republic of Pakistan; the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the State of Israel:

The responsibility in this moment in which the future of humanity is decided falls to you. You are those who will decide between history and prehistory, between humanization and animalization, between an earth for all and a world of fear, between a generous earth and a contaminated desert. You will be responsible for the social atmosphere that we breathe in the coming years.

We are in motion, travelling around the planet to strengthen the voice that is clamouring for a human world. We cannot bear more suffering in our fellow man. We don't want any more wars. These aggressions we feel within us. A change has been produced in our consciousness and there is no going back. It is necessary to dismantle the weapons of mass destruction as well as to reconvert the economic system that produces poverty, discrimination, and death. It is necessary to safeguard life in order to construct a world of equal rights and opportunities for all.

Today we demand that you prioritize in your policies of defence and foreign relations:

+ nuclear disarmament at a global level
+ the immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories
+ the progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons
+ the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries
+ the renunciation by governments of the use of war as a means to resolve conflicts

We will not allow the World March for Peace and Nonviolence to go unnoticed in ourselves, in our families, in our towns, and in our world.

We will let this determination, which shows the best of each one of us, grow with the best of the human being.

We are thousands, we will be millions and the world will change.

Source: World March for Peace and Nonviolence

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6 milliards d'Autres, 6 billion Others, 6 miliardi di Altri

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is perhaps the best known aerial photographer on our planet. I feel privileged to hold one of the 3 million copies sold worldwide of his seminal photo essay Earth From Above.

Yann seeks to uncover the story behind the landscape, not just create a pretty picture. Indeed, his subjects are not always photogenic -- his prints show poverty and strife as well as green tranquility; and everywhere in his work is the encroaching hand of humanity and its enterprise.

Yann's newest project takes a different view -- focusing more closely on the people who live on our planet. Called 6 milliards d'Autres, the project was a centerpiece of Pangea Day 2008.

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World Day Against Child Labour

The worst thief is he who steals the playtime of children! - Big Bill Haywood

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the landmark ILO Convention No. 182, which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of child labour.

Of an estimated 218 million child labourers, about 100 million are girls. Exposed to danger in hazardous labouring are an estimated 58 million girls.

Yet yesterday, today, and tomorrow, the plight of these millions of abused children is unlikely to be on the front page of your local commercial newspaper nor the lead story on your television news channel.

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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka needs to be looked at now. I'd been working (slowly) on the next post in the alphabetic sequence I've taken so far, but I received this call to action from my friends at Avaaz and it has to be shared:

Dear friends,

A modern day bloodbath is unfolding on the small island of Sri Lanka and the key to stopping this humanitarian disaster lies with Sri Lanka’s largest donor and closest partner in the region -- Japan. Let´s send a powerful message to the Japanese Foreign Minister asking for pressure to stop the killing.

Now that the US has begun to increase its pressure, the solution to stopping this humanitarian disaster lies with Sri Lanka’s key donor and closest partner in the region -- Japan. It has powerful political and economic influence over the Sri Lankan government and a swing vote at the UN Security Council, which up until now has turned a blind eye to this mounting catastrophe.

Click here to send a message to the Japanese Foreign Minister, who is deciding his government's next steps. Japan cares about its international reputation and a flood of messages from abroad would encourage them to act. If Japan moves then the Sri Lankan government will be forced to immediately respond to protect civilians.

As last weekend´s carnage testifies, every minute counts for the estimated 50,000 civilians still trapped inside the shrinking conflict zone and for those 200,000 more who are barely surviving in overcrowded camps. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which rarely makes public comment, called this conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels, 'nothing short of catastrophic'.

Until now, the divided UN Security Council has abdicated their responsibility to protect Sri Lankans from war crimes and other atrocities. But in this conflict Japan cannot be ignored – it's powerful voice could tip the balance and influence the conflict dynamics, saving lives in the short-term and promoting peace and development in the long run.

Asia's longest-running civil war is entering its final stage – the only question is how many will die before it ends. Let´s send a powerful message urging Foreign Minister Nakasone to act responsibly and lead international efforts to push the Tamil rebels to release the remaining civilians, stop the government bombing and bring sustainable peace to Sri Lanka. Japan's political and economic weight means that they cannot be ignored.

As other donor nations increase the pressure behind the scenes this week, a truly global citizens' outcry can further turn the heat on the Japanese government to use its leverage and push for a robust and concerted international action that stops the bloodshed and protect the Sri Lankan civilian population at risk. Thank you for sending your message today.

With hope

Luis, Brett, Alice, Graziela, Pascal, Ben, Ricken, Paula, Iain, Paul, Raj and the rest of the Avaaz Team

Update May 14, 2009:

The United Nations Security Council has asked the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to ensure the safety of civilians trapped in the conflict.

A UNSC statement expressed grave concern at the worsening humanitarian crisis in the northeast.

The International Red Cross report that their workers on the ground in Sri Lanka are "witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe."

Update May 23, 2009:

According to some mainstream media outlets, the United Nations has stated that up to 10,000 civilians died in the Sri Lankan army's advance across the north of the island between January and May. In fact, the United Nations has not stated a casualty count at this stage. To properly assess the human cost of the Sri Lankan army's advance, the UN needs access to the suffering survivors. The Sri Lankan government has not, as yet, provided the necessary access.

orana gelar

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See also: bloody venerable island on webdiary-libre
Google news on Sri Lanka
Wikimedia Atlas of Sri Lanka

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Ascension Island

Almost invisible on a world map, the small island called Ascension seems to be reduced only to a fragment of land lost in the South-Atlantic Ocean and devoid of any interest. However it is strategically positioned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Ascension has no indigenous population. It was first inhabited in 1815 when the British garrisoned it as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon I on St Helena (1,287 km to the southeast). Now it is a British Overseas Territory which, together with St Helena and Tristan da Cunha, forms a single territorial grouping under the sovereignty of the British Crown.

Much of the island is a wasteland of lava flows and cinder cones. Then there's Wideawake Airfield, a joint facility of the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force. Both the BBC and Cable & Wireless have communications posts there. The European Space Agency has a tracking station. There's also one of five ground antennas used in the operation of the Global Positioning System.

In his 1996 book Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network, investigative journalist Nicky Hager claimed that Ascension Island was the location for a station that represented a missing piece in the secretive ECHELON world-wide electronic spy network. [Another station in that network may be located within the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia. One is certainly located in central Australia.]

Last year, at the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, British diplomats requested sovereignty over 200,000 km2 of submarine territory around the island. It's to enable British control of exploration into new reserves of oil, gas and minerals.

orana gelar

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Wikimedia Atlas of Ascension Island
Ascension Island Web Cam

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