Goal 3

But we can also have a bit of laughing...

The best way to make our best wishes to all women is by speaking of the third of the United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDGs): promote gender equality and empower women, mainly by eliminating gender inequity in primary and secondary education throughout the world, preferably by 2005 and in all levels of education no later than 2015. (reference Millennium Devepolment Goals)

The gender inequities are unequivocal. The 60% of the 115 million children who do not attend school are girls. The illiteracy rate among adult women in poor countries is very high. Two-thirds of all illiterate in the world are women. Women perform two-thirds of working hours in the world but earn only 10% of global income. Women hold only 1% of the world agricultural land. In the world, women occupy only 14% of parliamentary seats and meet the 30% only in seven countries. One woman in three is the victim of physical or sexual abuse at some time in their life; about half of the victims of sexual violence in the world are younger than 16.

MDG are not empty words. Anyone who wants to get an idea of how to intervene practically on MDG 3 can read this article taken from the website of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, in Italian or

http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/millennium_development_goals/

Thinking globally, acting locally

This article by Stefano Varlese, National Coordinator of YAP Italy, appeared in Italian on Selvas.org on 9 December 2007. It talks of Equador as an experiment in regulated economy, participatory democracy, social redistribution, regional integration, socialism of the twenty-first century, and especially moratorium on oil extraction from the area ITT - Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini in Yasunì park. It is well worth reading all of it.

This is a passage from the article, in translation:

"This is not just an attempt to protect an area unique in the world for its biodiversity but the introduction of a new model that changes the way in which man, until now, has used the natural resources. We will experiment with a model that would allow us to live without oil, which is likely to be normal in the future; oil use should decrease right now because of the environmental damage that it causes. The challenge is not just about Equador but all humanity."

On the same topic, but from a point of view somewhat different, I point out an article appeared on Andinamedia of October 27, 2007 and another article on the Global Project on 12 November 2007.

The general framework of this problem is made clear by the campaign Saving Yasuní spread in Italy from the organization Asud

Let's play peace games

Watch the video

When I was a child I liked to play war games. It was fun.

When I became an adult I understood, completely independently and without any help from society, that war is not a game and it's not fun.

The culture of peace starts by saying that war is not a game.
Let children seek their own hierarchies without toy guns and swords, without carnage on videogames. Let them not kill for fun.
There is no fun in war. Harm is done and harm is received.

I found on Voltaire Network an interview with Jimmy Massey, a former soldier returning from war. It is a long article but I invite everyone to read it carefully. It doesn’t matter what army Jimmy was in, and which war he went to. All soldiers, he says, are at war because war is not a game. Harm is done and harm is received.

"I had been trained to run blindly on the orders of President (...) and bring to the country what he had requested without any moral consideration. I was a psychopath because I learned to shoot first and then ask, as a patient and not as a professional soldier who faces just another soldier. If necessary we were to kill women and children, and we did. "

In a French magazine I read this sentence: If the answer is war, the question must be wrong!


Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

Talking about Tibet

Listen to the song

I report some parts of an article from BBC NEWS whose title is: "Bjork makes 'free Tibet' gesture"

Bjork, has caused controversy among fans in China by shouting "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of a concert in Shanghai.
The cry followed a powerful performance of her song Declare Independence.
Talk of Tibetan independence is considered taboo in China, which has ruled the territory since 1951.

After the concert some negative reactions were posted on Chinese websites.
"I like Bjork", said one, "it's OK for her to have a different point of view, but for her to do this is disrespectful to fans here - very selfish of her".
Another fan said Bjork had "behaved like an angry young person, acting in an underhand manner, not like Brad Pitt and Richard Gere, who are better known Free Tibet supporters".

The song Declare Independence has previously been used by Bjork to highlight other struggles for self-rule. She dedicated a performance of it in Japan last month to Kosovo. She has also used the song to campaign for Greenland and the Faroe Islands - territories controlled by Denmark.
Bjork performed in two Tibetan Freedom Concerts in the United States in the 1990s.

I must add few words.
Tibet was far from being a perfect state but was a free state when it was "liberated" by the Chinese army in 1951. (read the BBC timeline). The English wikipedia has an article about the invasion of Tibet: "The Chinese government has been accused of a campaign of terror after the invasion, which has led to the killings of up to 1.2 million Tibetans and the destruction of 6000 monasteries. The PRC denies these claims. Charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, state terrorism and torture are currently being investigated by a Spanish court."

Kosovo declared independence on February 17, 2008 (read the BBC NEWS report) despite protests by Serbia, Russia and People's Republic of China.

Greenland is a self-governing overseas province of Denmark since 1979. It originally joined the European Community with Denmark in 1973, but withdrew in 1985 after a dispute over fishing rights and a referendum on the issue. A substantial proportion of Greenland's population favours independence.

The Faroe Islands are a self-governing province of Denmark since 1948. They are not part of the European Union and Danish people living in the Faroes are not citizens of the European Union. The islanders are about evenly split between those favouring independence and those who don't. Support for independence has recently grown and is the objective of the government.

Flowers play, batons respond

In recent days there has been an interesting exchange of letters between the National Coordinators of "Tavola per la pace" (The Table of Peace) and the premier candidate of the Italian centre-left Veltroni.

From the open letter to Walter Veltroni: Why is the world once again left out of the election campaign?
"After so many years of generous commitment to peace, after yet another march for peace from Perugia to Assisi we want to question the effectiveness of the political and cultural movement for peace. We will march again from Perugia to Assisi. To achieve what? What is the use of marching for peace if politics is increasingly blind and deaf?
On 7 October 200,000 of us marched to build "a new policy and a new non-violent political culture based on human rights. But by nightfall, that same day, the curtain also came down on that extraordinary march by the people. Media and politics have been filed without batting an eyelid. As if nothing had occurred. "

From the response letter of Walter Veltroni
"I appeal to a renewed political commitment for peace. Unless another path is found, the only way to express strong opinions now is through violence.
I believe that the core issue of our century is not a clash between civilizations, but between fanaticism and tolerance. And this is true for major tensions across the world as well as for the proclaimed history of our country: often unbridgeable distance is not so much between the bearers of this or that identity, but between those who choose to stay in the trenches and who discuss, between those who put the helmet and those seeking a virtuous conclusion. The commitment to peace, if not to remain mere talk, starts with these considerations. And so there must be real commitment to the policy and it must be taken to the women and men who aspire to live peacefully."

(In translation, please refer to original Italian text for accurate citation)

Winds of War in South America

Why have millions of Colombians fled home??

It is well known that much cocaine is produced in Colombia. There is also war but few know it, even though it has caused 40,000 deaths and 3 million refugees, the second ranked refugee emergency in the world after Sudan. Among the few who know, some talk about terrorism (which today is a term used for everything) while others speak simplistically of drug trafficking, just as in Russia they simplify Chechnya by talking of bandits and Cavour in the south of Italy by talking of brigands.

Álvaro Uribe is the President of Colombia. Since his election in 2002 he has maintained a policy of firmness against Marxist rebels of the FARC, who killed his father during an attempted kidnapping. The policy of Uribe has brought him great friendship with the United States and billions of dollars in aids against drug trafficking.

East of Colombia is Venezuela. It is not so well known that Venezuela is among the top ten oil-producers of the world. Hugo Chavez is the president of Venezuela, charismatic leader of the new Latin-American left, follower of Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara. The policy of Chavez, so close to Cuban Fidel Castro, made him "build", so to speak, in the USA. Chavez also shares the antipathy since he has done everything to remove the South American continent from North American policies (NAFTA, the war on terrorism ...).

The FARC consider Chavez an ally, for ideological and political issues. Chavez and Uribe do not like each other, and like each other even less since Chavez has used his influence on the FARC to release some hostages, including the collaborator of the Colombian-French Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate.

Two days ago Colombian planes bombed an area of the FARC over the border with Ecuador and killed two of the greatest leaders of the movement. The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, good ally of Chavez, broke diplomatic relations with Colombia to protest against the violation of its national sovereignty, and has sent troops to the border. Chavez, supporting Correa, has deployed ten battalions of tanks on the border with Colombia and has been put on alert aviation, as well as breaking diplomatic relations.
Analysts say that a war between the three countries is unlikely but not impossible.

Anyone who wants to understand more can read an extensive dossier on Reuters AlertNet.

Culture of war

On the 14th December 2007 the youngest prince of the United Kingdom, Harry, went to fight with the British troops in Afghanistan. This is not surprising if he, like many others, believes that peace can be brought about through war. Recalled home early for security reasons, all the patriotic and pro-government newspapers have rushed to tell the world about the courage that this young man has demonstrated.

The Sun printed a poster with the image of Harry and his patrol, showing the prince holding his rifle and ready to shoot, and invited people to study it. The same newspaper on its front page tells how Harry would have killed, or at least contributed to killing, thirty Taliban, directing by phone three air strikes on enemy positions. And that Harry, attacked by the Taliban on a mobile location where he was with his soldiers, promptly placed himself in front of a heavy machine gun, which he had never used before, and opened fire, repelling the attack.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica cites some interviews.

"He displayed exemplary conduct" is the comment of head of the Army, General Dannott. "All Britain is proud of him," says Prime Minister Brown.
Harry instead comments: "Finally I can seriously be a soldier, as I have always wanted to. ... I hope that my mum is proud, I hope that she watched me from heaven".

Ironically, Lady Diana Spencer, the mother of Harry, was at the forefront of the campaign to ban landmines. For this reason she was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize.
Today there are more than 100 million landmines in the world, 10 million in Afghanistan. In 2006 landmines have killed, mutilated or injured 5,751 people in 68 countries and territories: 1 / 3 of them are children. The price of a mine varies between $3 and $30, the cost of de-mining varies between $300 and $1,000. 33 billion dollars are needed to make inactive 110 million mines; experts have estimated that with the current speed of de-mining 1,100 years would not be enough to remove the mines from the entire planet, assuming no new mines were laid. But for every deactivated mine, 20 others are laid on the ground: in 1994 100,000 were removed, while 2,000,000 were buried.

After due consideration I doubt that Lady Diana, watching her son Harry from heaven, would be proud of him.

Posted in English for Bruno Picozzi