Local and Global Community News – Activism / Protests - Animal Advocacy - Animal Rescue- Archaeology/Anthropology/Paleontology/Crypto-zoology , Corporate Assault on our Lives and Our Health, Environmental- Internet/IT - Signs of the Times – Wildlife : News Affiliate of Family Survival Protocol.com
Rescue
workers carry the body of a Muslim pilgrim after a stampede at Mina,
outside the holy Muslim city of Mecca, in this September 24, 2015 file
photo.
Reuters/Stringer/Files
The
deadly crush that occurred at the haj near Mecca last month killed at
least 2,070 people, nearly triple the number accounted for in a death
toll maintained by Saudi authorities, a Reuters tally indicated on
Thursday.
Saudi Arabia has come under heavy criticism for its
handling of the disaster. Safety during the pilgrimage is a politically
sensitive issue for the kingdom's ruling Al Saud dynasty, which presents
itself as the guardian of Islam and custodian of its holiest sites in
Mecca and Medina.
The figure, based on information provided by the
state and religious authorities and local media reports in the home
countries of the victims, would make it the worst such catastrophe to
befall the annual pilgrimage since 1,400 people were crushed to death in
a tunnel in 1990.
Saudi officials have stood by their official
counts of 769 dead and 934 injured, which have not been updated since
two days after the crush. The healthy ministry has said any
discrepancies in death tolls may stem from countries counting pilgrims
who had died of natural causes.
Yes, quite a shocker brought to you by the same
organization that bestowed the Peace Prize upon a man who talked a good
game. One who in truth has continued, expanded upon and mechanized the
wars attributed to war criminals Bush/Cheney. I suppose civilian deaths
by drone are not taken into account either?
Not
to mention the expansion of the continued erosion of the rights of
his own citizens by way of the former war criminals "Patriot Act",
NSA, Homeland Security and any number of Black Ops being funded by
taxpayer dollars at any given time . The very same war criminals in fact that many
nations wish to imprison for their crimes against humanity. But Obama
gets the Peace Prize and his killing spree continues without so much as
a peep from said organization.
All victims of human rights abuses should be able to look to the Human Rights Council as a forum and a springboard for action. (Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, 12 March 2007, Opening of the 4th Human Rights Council Session.)
Article
55 of United Nations Charter includes: “Universal respect for and
observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without
distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.”
In diametrical
opposition to these fine founding aspirations, the UN has appointed
Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council to head
(or should that be “behead”) an influential human rights panel. The
appointment was seemingly made in June, but only came to light on 17th September, due to documents obtained by UN Watch (1.)
…
Mr Faisal Bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador at the UN in
Geneva, was elected as Chair of a panel of independent experts on the UN
Human Rights Council.
As head of a five-strong group of
diplomats, the influential role would give Mr Trad the power to select
applicants from around the world for scores of expert roles in countries
where the UN has a mandate on human rights.
Such experts are often described as the “crown jewels” of the HRC, according to UN Watch.
The
“crown jewels” have been handed to a country with one of the worst
human rights records in the world. Saudi Arabia will head a Consultative
Group of five Ambassadors empowered to select applicants globally for
more than seventy seven positions to deal with human rights violations
and mandates.
In a spectacular new low for even a UN whose former
Secretary General, Kofi Annan, took eighteen months to admit publicly
that the 2003 invasion of, bombardment and near destruction of Iraq was
illegal, UN Watch points out that the UN has chosen: “a country that has
beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be head of a key Human
Rights panel …” (2)
In May, just prior to the appointment, the
Saudi government advertised for eight extra executioners to: “ … carry
out an increasing number of death sentences, which are usually
beheadings, carried out in public” (3.)
Seemingly: “no special
qualifications are needed.” The main function would be executing, but
job description: “also involves performing amputations …”
The advert was posted on the website of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of the Civil Service.
Saudi air raids kill dozens of Yemeni civilians amid humanitarian crisis
1.6K293
The
latest Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen have left dozens of civilians dead
and nearly 160 injured at a time that sees medical facilities
struggling to provide even the most basic services. The country is
suffering from a shortage of vital supplies due to the ongoing blockade.
The
coalition air raids against Houthi forces in Sanaa overnight on Friday
killed at least 40 civilians and injured at least another 130 people,
Yemen News Agency (SABA) reported.
One
strike leveled an apartment building in the center of the city killing a
family of nine, while another strike killed a man who had been
searching for his family in the rubble, AP reported. The coalition has
even managed to attack Yemen’s interior ministry in the capital,
launching about 10 strikes at the building as well as at a police camp
and a military building close to it.
The airstrikes also hit the residence of Oman’s ambassador in Sanaa.
The
particular cluster munition systems HRW said were used are CBU-105
Sensor Fuzed Weapons, which are guided bombs intended to take out tanks
and other armored vehicles with a flurry of explosions spread out over
an area.
If the cluster bombs fail to
detect their target, they are designed to self-destruct in the air, or
if that fails, to deactivate themselves after a short time. But
sometimes those mechanisms don't work, posing a lethal danger for those
who later encounter them.
UN condemns ‘virtual silence’ on civilian casualties in Yemeni conflict
248317.
UN
officials have openly criticized the “the virtual silence” with regards
to civilian suffering in the Yemeni conflict from the world community,
warning that unless violence on the ground is stopped via political
compromise more people will suffer.
Adama
Dieng, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Jennifer
Welsh, the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, “expressed
concern at the ever increasing impact on civilians of the ongoing
conflict in Yemen, and the virtual silence of the international
community about the threat to populations.”
RIYADH,
Saudi Arabia — MIKHLIF AL-SHAMMARI has been jailed repeatedly, declared
an infidel, ruined financially and shot four times — by his own son —
all for this: He believes his fellow Sunni Muslims should treat Shiites
as equals.
In
a Middle East torn by deepening sectarian hatred, that is a very
unusual conviction. He has made it a kind of crusade for eight years
now, visiting and praying with prominent Shiites and defending them in
print, at enormous personal cost. The government of this deeply
conservative kingdom continues to file new accusations against him,
under charges like “annoying other people” and “consorting with
dissidents.”
But
Mr. Shammari, a gaunt 58-year-old with an aquiline nose and a jaunty
smile, is not easily discouraged. “I’m not against my government or my
religion, but things must be corrected,” he said in a furtive interview
in a hotel lobby (he has been banned from talking with the news media).
“We must all encourage human rights and stop the violence between Sunni
and Shia.”
Photo
‘I’m ready to pay with my life for my beliefs.’ MIKHLIF AL-SHAMMARICredit
Abdurahman al Shammari
Mr.
Shammari is not Saudi Arabia’s best-known human rights activist, and
others have put in more time and suffered much longer prison terms. But
he has a rare distinction: No other member of the kingdom’s Sunni Muslim
majority has made it a mission to demand equal rights for the Shiite
Muslim minority.
Even
the most educated and cosmopolitan Saudis often look down on Shiites,
who make up about 10 percent of the Saudi population, as closet Iranians
or undesirables. Some of the religious conservatives who wield great
influence here go much further, saying Shiites are worse than Jews
because, unlike genuine infidels, they have been exposed to the truth of
Islam and nevertheless choose to pervert it. Shiites have long
complained of discrimination of various kinds, as well as the vitriolic
abuse hurled at them by government-employed clerics.
Mr.
Shammari believes this is not just ancient religious prejudice, but a
deliberate strategy by the Saudi monarchy to keep its subjects divided
and therefore less likely to demand a voice in their government.
Whatever
the reasons, it is clear that the sectarian divide helps to tamp down
dissent in the kingdom. In 2011, for instance, even liberal and
democratic-leaning Saudis were frightened off by protests in the
kingdom’s eastern province and in neighboring Bahrain because they were
carried out mostly by Shiites, the majority population there. Street
protests are illegal in Saudi Arabia.
MR.
SHAMMARI says his protest derives partly from his origins: He is a
leader of the Shammar tribe, which includes both Shiites and Sunnis and
straddles the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The Shammar suffered
discrimination in the early days of the Saudi kingdom, because they
were viewed as having divided loyalties.
Analysis highlights the small number of
profit-driven entities that are driving us towards destruction, but can a
climate revolution from below challenge their rule?
- Jon Queally, staff writer
ChevronTexaco
was the leading emitter among investor-owned companies, causing 3.5% of
greenhouse gas emissions to date, with Exxon not far behind at 3.2%. In
third place, BP caused 2.5% of global emissions to date. (Guardian)Narrow
it down to the real power-brokers and decision-makers—the CEO's of
fossil fuel companies or the energy ministers from the largest
petro-states—says climate researcher Richard Heede, and the actual
individuals most responsible for the political world's continued refusal
to address the planetary crisis of climate change "could all fit on a
Greyhound bus or two."
In a newly compeleted study by Heede and his colleagues at the Climate Accountability Institute,
their analysis shows that a mere 90 companies, some private and some
state-owned, account for a full two-thirds of all greenhouse gas
emissions that are now driving perilous rates of global warming.
Offered in advance to the Guardian newspaper, which created an interactive representation
of the study's findings, the report comes as climate negotiators from
around the world continue talks in Warsaw, Poland this week in the
latest (what looks so far like a failed) attempt to solidify an emissions agreeement designed to stave off the worst impacts of climate change this century.
As the Guardian's Suzanne Goldenberg reports:
Between them, the 90 companies on the list of top emitters produced
63% of the cumulative global emissions of industrial carbon dioxide and
methane between 1751 to 2010, amounting to about 914 gigatonne CO2
emissions, according to the research. All but seven of the 90 were energy companies producing oil, gas and coal. The remaining seven were cement manufacturers.
The list of 90 companies included 50 investor-owned firms – mainly
oil companies with widely recognised names such as Chevron, Exxon, BP ,
and Royal Dutch Shell and coal producers such as British Coal Corp,
Peabody Energy and BHP Billiton.
Some 31 of the companies that made the list were state-owned
companies such as Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco, Russia's Gazprom and
Norway's Statoil.
Nine were government run industries, producing mainly coal in
countries such as China, the former Soviet Union, North Korea and
Poland, the host of this week's talks.
Though the global public has been flooded with one scientific
research paper after another warning of the perils of not addressing the
role of carbon emissions, experts agree that the political will on the
state, national, and global level has simply not been created.
The reason for that, of course, is the stranglehold that the very profitable fossil fuel companies—whether
state-owned entities or private corporations—retain on the political
systems within which they operate. At the global level, that political
system is known as the United Nations, but so far the talks taking place
in Warsaw are seeing almost no progress on a deal. On Wednesday, the
world's poorest nation's walked out of the COP19 talks and the wealthiest nations—including the US, Canada, Australia, and the EU states—showing less and less courage despite the increasingly dire warnings from experts and scientists.
Michael Mann, a U.S. climate scientist who spoke to the Guardian
about the possible impact of the list, said he hoped it would bring
greater scrutiny to the gas, oil and coal companies who are most
responsible for past emissions because these are the same companies
poised to continue burning the vast carbon reserves still in the ground.
"What I think could be a game changer here is the potential for clearly
fingerprinting the sources of those future emissions," he said. "It
increases the accountability for fossil fuel burning. You can't burn
fossil fuels without the rest of the world knowing about it."
And Al Gore added: "This study is a crucial step forward in our
understanding of the evolution of the climate crisis. The public and
private sectors alike must do what is necessary to stop global warming.
Those who are historically responsible for polluting our atmosphere have
a clear obligation to be part of the solution."
The alternative, however—as almost zero progress, and possibly lost
ground, has been the result of the last several rounds of international
climate talks—is a global uprising from below, led by social justice
organizations, environmentalists, and civil society who are willing to
act where governments and the private sector have refused.
As Michael T. Klare, an energy expert and professor at Hampshire College, wrote earlier this week at TomDispatch:
If, as is now the case, governments across the planet back an extension of the carbon age and ever increasing reliance on “unconventional” fossil fuels
like tar sands and shale gas, we should all expect trouble. In fact,
we should expect mass upheavals leading to a green energy revolution.
None of us can predict the future, but when it comes to a mass
rebellion against the perpetrators of global destruction, we can see a
glimmer of the coming upheaval in events of the present moment. Take a
look and you will see that the assorted environmental protests that have
long bedeviled politicians are gaining in strength and support. With
an awareness of climate change growing and as intensifying floods, fires, droughts, and storms
become an inescapable feature of daily life across the planet, more
people are joining environmental groups and engaging in increasingly
bold protest actions. Sooner or later, government leaders are likely to
face multiple eruptions of mass public anger and may, in the end, be
forced to make radical adjustments in energy policy or risk being swept
aside.
In fact, it is possible to imagine such a green energy revolution
erupting in one part of the world and spreading like wildfire to
others. Because climate change is going to inflict increasingly severe
harm on human populations, the impulse to rebel is only likely to gain
in strength across the planet. While circumstances may vary, the
ultimate goal of these uprisings will be to terminate the reign of
fossil fuels while emphasizing investment in and reliance upon renewable
forms of energy. And a success in any one location is bound to invite
imitation in others.
Oil, coal and gas
companies are contributing to most carbon emissions, causing climate
change and some are also funding denial campaigns. Photograph: David
Gray/Reuters
The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely
by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of
the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the
industrial age, new research suggests.
The companies range from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP – to state-owned and government-run firms.
The analysis, which was welcomed by the former vice-president Al Gore as a "crucial step forward" found that the vast majority of the firms were in the business of producing oil, gas or coal, found the analysis, which has been published in the journal Climatic Change.
"There
are thousands of oil, gas and coal producers in the world," climate
researcher and author Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability
Institute in Colorado said. "But the decision makers, the CEOs, or the
ministers of coal and oil if you narrow it down to just one person, they
could all fit on a Greyhound bus or two."
Half of the estimated
emissions were produced just in the past 25 years – well past the date
when governments and corporations became aware that rising greenhouse
gas emissions from the burning of coal and oil were causing dangerous climate change.
Many
of the same companies are also sitting on substantial reserves of
fossil fuel which – if they are burned – puts the world at even greater
risk of dangerous climate change.
Climate change experts said the
data set was the most ambitious effort so far to hold individual carbon
producers, rather than governments, to account.
The United Nations climate change panel, the IPCC, warned in September that at current rates the world stood within 30 years of exhausting its "carbon budget"
– the amount of carbon dioxide it could emit without going into the
danger zone above 2C warming. The former US vice-president and
environmental champion, Al Gore, said the new carbon accounting could
re-set the debate about allocating blame for the climate crisis.
Leaders
meeting in Warsaw for the UN climate talks this week clashed repeatedly
over which countries bore the burden for solving the climate crisis –
historic emitters such as America or Europe or the rising economies of
India and China.
Gore in his comments said the analysis underlined that it should not fall to governments alone to act on climate change.
"This
study is a crucial step forward in our understanding of the evolution
of the climate crisis. The public and private sectors alike must do what
is necessary to stop global warming," Gore told the Guardian. "Those
who are historically responsible for polluting our atmosphere have a
clear obligation to be part of the solution."
Between them, the 90
companies on the list of top emitters produced 63% of the cumulative
global emissions of industrial carbon dioxide and methane between 1751
to 2010, amounting to about 914 gigatonne CO2 emissions, according to
the research. All but seven of the 90 were energy companies producing oil, gas and coal. The remaining seven were cement manufacturers.
Anti-nuclear demonstrators march in Cologne, Germany, in March 2011. Photograph: Roberto Pfeil/AP
A week after the most powerful "super typhoon" ever recorded pummeled the Philippines, killing thousands in a single province, and three weeks after the northern Chinese city of Harbin suffered a devastating "airpocalypse", suffocating the city with coal-plant pollution, government leaders beware!
Although individual events like these cannot be attributed with absolute certainty to increased fossil fuel use and climate change,
they are the type of disasters that, scientists tell us, will become a
pervasive part of life on a planet being transformed by the massive
consumption of carbon-based fuels. If, as is now the case, governments
across the planet back an extension of the carbon age and ever increasing reliance on "unconventional" fossil fuels
like tar sands and shale gas, we should all expect trouble. In fact, we
should expect mass upheavals leading to a green energy revolution.
None
of us can predict the future, but when it comes to a mass rebellion
against the perpetrators of global destruction, we can see a glimmer of
the coming upheaval in events of the present moment. Take a look and you
will see that the assorted environmental protests that have long
bedeviled politicians are gaining in strength and support. With an
awareness of climate change growing and as intensifying floods, fires, droughts, and storms
become an inescapable feature of daily life across the planet, more
people are joining environmental groups and engaging in increasingly
bold protest
actions. Sooner or later, government leaders are likely to face
multiple eruptions of mass public anger and may, in the end, be forced
to make radical adjustments in energy policy or risk being swept aside.
In
fact, it is possible to imagine such a green energy revolution erupting
in one part of the world and spreading like wildfire to others. Because
climate change is going to inflict increasingly severe harm on human
populations, the impulse to rebel is only likely to gain in strength
across the planet. While circumstances may vary, the ultimate goal of
these uprisings will be to terminate the reign of fossil fuels while
emphasizing investment in and reliance upon renewable forms of energy.
And a success in any one location is bound to invite imitation in
others.
A "green revolution" is unlikely
to arise from a highly structured political campaign with clearly
identified leaders. In all likelihood, it will erupt spontaneously,
after a cascade of climate-change induced disasters provokes an
outpouring of public fury. Once ignited, however, it will undoubtedly
ratchet up the pressure for governments to seek broad-ranging, systemic
transformations of their energy and climate policies. In this sense, any
such upheaval – whatever form it takes – will prove "revolutionary" by
seeking policy shifts of such magnitude as to challenge the survival of
incumbent governments or force them to enact measures with
transformative implications.
What recent episodes such as the mass environmental protests in Turkey last June, farmers and students blocking the construction of a petrochemical facility in Ningbo, China, and post-Fukushimaanti-nuclear demonstrations
tell us is that people around the world are becoming ever more
concerned about energy policy as it affects their lives and are prepared
– often on short notice – to engage in mass protests. At the same time,
governments globally, with rare exceptions, are deeply wedded to
existing energy policies. These almost invariably turn them into
targets, no matter what the original spark for mass opposition. As the
results of climate change become ever more disruptive, government
officials will find themselves repeatedly choosing between long-held
energy plans and the possibility of losing their grip on power.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled to neighboring Jordan from their home country in light of the ongoing war in Syria. The distress in the hopelessly overcrowded refugee camps is great. Unscrupulous traffickers have recognized this and made a business out of it. So-called 'matchmakers' sell Syrian refugee teenager girls to rich Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia.
Subtitles by: SyrianFight
Source: RTL (Germany)
I suppose that since they can no longer
claim that Women driving is against Sharia Law they must say
something. The excuse of damaged ovaries is as good as any ,
especially if you are counting on compliance and
subservience.......Hmmmm.
How's that compliant and subservient thing working for you ????
Last Update: Saturday, 28 September 2013 KSA 07:27 - GMT 04:27
Saturday, 28 September 2013
Saudi Sheikh Salah al-Luhaydan said driving “could have a reverse physiological impact" on women. (Al Arabiya)
Al Arabiya
Saudi
women seeking to challenge a de facto ban on driving should realize
that this could affect their ovaries and pelvises, Sheikh Salah
al-Luhaydan, also a psychologist, told Saudi news website sabq.org.
Driving
“could have a reverse physiological impact. Physiological science and
functional medicine studied this side [and found] that it automatically
affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis. This is why we find for women
who continuously drive cars their children are born with clinical
disorders of varying degrees,” Sheikh al-Luhaydan said.
Saudi female activists have launched an online campaign urging women to drive on Oct. 26.
More than 11,000 women have signed the oct26driving.com
declaration that says: “Since there are no clear justifications for the
state to ban adult, capable women from driving. We call for enabling
women to have driving tests and for issuing licenses for those who
pass.”
Sheikh al-Luhaydan urged these women to consider “the mind
before the heart and emotion and look at this issue with a realistic
eye.”
“The result of this is bad and they should wait and consider the negativities,” he said.
Stuck in the passenger seat: Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia
A new campaign asking for the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia has attracted more than 11,000 signatures in support.
The
campaign has set 26 October as a day for Saudi women to take to the
roads - in defiance of the informal ban on women behind the wheel.
In a sign of how pervasive online social networks have become in Saudi Arabia, the campaign was started on Twitter.
It is the idea of the activist, Eman al-Nafjan, who set things in motion with a simple message saying that Saudi women would express their feelings about driving on 26 October.
"There
is no justification for the Saudi government to prohibit adult women
citizens who are capable of driving cars from doing so”
Petition for women's driving rights
The hope is that women will come out en masse to drive on that day, she told the BBC.
Ms
Nafjan says the campaign is meant to be a grassroots movement open to
all Saudis - men as well as women - to show their support.
Influential Saudis have given their public backing, while several videos of women driving have been posted on the campaign's website.
There is even a song linked to the campaign by the Saudi-born singer Shams, entitled It's Our Right to Drive. Photos have also been sent in showing supporters' hands with parts of the online petition written across them.
The
first point in the petition reads: "Since there is no justification for
the Saudi government to prohibit adult women citizens who are capable
of driving cars from doing so, we urge the state to provide appropriate
means for women seeking the issuance of permits and licenses to apply
and obtain them".
It goes on to say that the Saudi government must
provide a valid and legal justification if it continues to deny women
the right to drive.
Many Saudi women are dependent on paid male drivers to get around
'Window dressing'
Women activists in Saudi Arabia say the issue of being allowed to drive is key to gaining other rights.
There
have been moves in this direction recently with women allowed onto the
influential Shura council for the first time, as well as having the
right to vote in the next municipal elections.
Saudi Sheikh blasted on Twitter for saying women drivers ‘risk damaging ovaries’
Published time: September 29, 2013 17:43
Comments
by a Saudi psychologist that driving affects women’s ovaries and can
lead to their children having health problems have outraged many women
in the conservative Muslim country, who are protesting a de facto ban on
women driving.
In an interview Friday with the sabq.org website,
Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Luhaydan said campaigners should put “the mind
before the heart and emotion, and look at this issue with a realistic
eye.” “Physiological science and functional medicine [found that driving] automatically affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis,” the judicial and psychological consultant to the Gulf Psychological Association said. “This
is why we find [that] for women who continuously drive cars, their
children are born with clinical disorders of varying degrees.”
Many Saudis have expressed their anger in Twitter, mocking the Sheikh’s “great scientific discoveries.”
A special hashtag “Women_driving_affects_ovaries_and_pelvises” appeared on the social network, and is widely used.
![Reuters]({"default":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1QA0a.img?h=43&w=43&m=6&q=60&u=t&o=t&l=f&f=png","dpi":1.8}){kind=small}
