Sunday Roundup - December 14, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at the U.S. Senate's torture report, Ebola, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, John Lennon, the Lima Climate Conference, Mars, and in brief, China's economy, Brazil's torture report, and Hong Kong.

U.S. Senate's Torture Report
The Senate Intelligence Committee released its report on torture carried out by the CIA in the years after the 9/11 attacks.  The report concludes that the CIA repeatedly misled the public, Congress and the White House about the agency’s aggressive questioning of detainees — including waterboarding, confinement in small spaces and shackling in stress positions — after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, minimizing the severity of the interrogations and exaggerating the usefulness of the information produced.  [Politico, Dec. 9]  Just about every media outlet has a summary of the key findings or a list of the "most shocking" revelations:  "The Most Gruesome Moments in the CIA ‘Torture Report’ " [Daily Beast], "10 Craziest Things in the Senate Report on Torture" [Rolling Stone], "America’s Shame: What’s in the Senate Torture Report?" [The New Yorker], etc.  The Guardian had this lead in its December 10 post on world reaction to the report's findings:  The UN has led international condemnation of the CIA’s interrogation and detention programme laid bare by the Senate’s intelligence committee. Its special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights has called for the criminal prosecution of Bush-era officials involved.  

This is not what the United States is supposed to be about.  The report is an indictment of what happens when we allow fear to cloud our reasoning.  It's what happens when we allow a distorted sense of exceptionalism to destroy our democratic ideals and to refuse to grant "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind."  It looks like, for now at least,  there will be no prosecutions for these crimes. Thanks to Congressional interference, the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison remains open nearly six years after President Obama pledged to close it.  Nearly all of the 136 remaining prisoners are being held without charges.   And extrajudicial killings by US drones continue. Torture may have been stopped when Obama came into office but we have a long way to go.  Let's hope that making the report public will be seen as a beginning, a return to our country's true values.  This may require legislation from a soon-to-be-even-more-dysfunctional Congress since a future President would be able to reverse Obama's executive order.
Related
"From Bush to Obama, Eyes Wide Shut: the same memo Bush used to wall himself off from the details of CIA torture is keeping Obama’s drone war alive." [Foreign Policy, Dec. 12]
Sunday Round-Up - May 19, 2013  "Guest Op-Ed"

Ebola
The number of probable, confirmed and suspected deaths from the Ebola virus stood at 6,388 as of December 7.  The World Health Organization has declared the outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal officially over. The number of reported cases is slightly increasing in Guinea but falling in Liberia, the country reporting the most deaths from the outbreak.  Health officials in Sierra Leone have discovered scores of bodies in a remote diamond-mining area, raising fears that the scale of the Ebola outbreak may have been underreported.  The World Health Organization said they uncovered a "grim scene" in the eastern district of Kono.  A WHO response team had been sent to Kono to investigate a sharp rise in Ebola cases.  [BBC News, Dec. 11]
Related
Time Magazine announced its person of the year award - very rightfully given to the local and international Ebola fighters, the men and women with "the hero's heart" who are fighting the disease at great personal risk.

Occupied Palestinian Territory
With the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks earlier this year and after the widespread devastation and civilian death toll in Gaza during the Israeli attacks this summer, European states are beginning to seriously debate recognition of a Palestinian State.  As Richard Youngs writes in a post for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Considerable momentum has built up behind the idea that giving formal recognition to a Palestinian state is now the only way forward in attempts to reach some form of peace settlement.  The advantages of recognition would be many.  With formal recognition, the Palestinians could have the possibility of taking legal action against Israeli human rights abuses. Support could be given for the Palestinian Authority to join the International Criminal Court as a means of bringing legal cases against Israeli soldiers. Yet, crucially, debates on recognition will not be sufficient and we should not expect that they can address all current challenges.  One key area for Europe to rethink its current policy is that the EU must start to engage with Hamas. The EU appears to be counting on the Palestinian Authority regaining control of Gaza, but Hamas cannot simply be side-lined without risking major instability – that would set back the Palestinian cause even if formal statehood were recognised. Some form of engagement is necessary if the EU is to help the fragile unity government merge the different institutional structures of Gaza and the West Bank into a single political space.  Youngs warns that the EU must also focus on short-term imperatives to prevent another period of violence.  Recognition cannot become a pretext for European governments pulling back from a stronger engagement on the ground in the Occupied Territories.  

John Lennon
Last Monday marked the anniversary of the death of John Lennon.  Hard to believe it's been 34 years since the life of this peaceful, creative genius was snuffed out by a crazed gunman.  I was a young father then and remember well the huge gathering on the campus of Louisiana State University.  Our sons wandered through the friendly crowd while my wife and I listened to the musical tributes and remembered this great man who meant so much to our generation. "Imagine all the people living life in peace."  We could use some political leaders today that have the insight, consciousness and compassion of John Lennon.  We miss you, John.
Related
Hong Kong protesters to rebuild 'Lennon Wall' [Daily Mail, Dec. 12]

Lima Climate Conference 
Negotiators went into overtime and worked through Friday night trying to work out differences among the 195 countries attending the climate change conference in Lima, Peru, for the past two weeks.  As negotiations continued, National Geographic presented 5 takeaways:
1. The big question of whether the agreement will be binding is still unresolved.
2. Vulnerable countries want to be compensated for damage from global warming.
3. Environmental groups want a 100 percent phaseout of fossil fuels by 2050.
4. Many cities will start measuring their emissions.
5. The UN's Green Climate Fund has raised ten billion dollars.  The US commitment to the fund is 3 billion dollars but Republicans in Congress have attached a rider to the recently passed $1.1 trillion budget that would block the government from spending the money.
One of the key areas of contention is the divide between industrialized and developing nations.  The US and other industrialised countries require all countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.  That would be a departure from the original UN classification of the 1990s – which absolved China, India and other developing countries which are now major carbon polluters – of cutting their emissions. Developing countries are suspicious that the text being developed in Lima is an attempt to rewrite those old guidelines.  [The Guardian, Dec. 12]  Times change and as countries become major carbon polluters, they need to recognize their obligations to join in the fight against global warming.  The recent bilateral agreement between the United States and China should serve as a model for a way forward.  This is the last major climate conference before the critical Paris conference in December, 2015 and the frustration with the draft text is widespread.  The proposals, still under discussion on Saturday, a day after the talks were scheduled to end, were too weak to keep global warming to the agreed limit of two degrees above preindustrial levels, setting the world on course to a climate disaster...“We are on a path to three or four degrees with this outcome,” said Tasneem Essop, international climate strategist for WWF.  She said the final draft text, a five-page document put forward for approval on Saturday, offered little assurance of cutting emissions fast enough and deeply enough to curb warming. [The Guardian, Dec. 13]

Mars

Depiction of a lake partially filling Mars' Gale Crater
Image Credit:NASA/JPL/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS

Was life present on ancient Mars?  NASA’s Curiosity rover has found the strongest signs yet that the surface of Mars, roughly 4 billion years ago, had conditions that would’ve been almost ideal for the genesis of life. NASA says that Curiosity has found evidence to suggest that Gale Crater was once filled with lakes, rivers, and deltas that contained water for tens of millions of years — long enough that some small organisms could have emerged....The next step in the hunt for life on Mars is getting a better grip on the prevalence (or lack thereof) of organic compounds on the surface and in the atmosphere — and then actually digging down into the crust of the Red Planet, to look for actual signs of life, either in the form of fossils or actual living microorganisms.  [Extreme Tech, Dec. 9]
Related

"Could Ancient Mars Have Supported Life? Water Isn't the Only Key" [space.com, Dec. 11]

In Brief/Links

"China's Overhyped Debt Problem" [CEIP, Dec. 3]

"Brazil's President, Herself a Victim, Cries While Addressing Past Regime's Use of Torture" [Slate, Dec. 11]

"Hong Kong Occupy Protests Wind Down as Police Clear Camps" [Slate, Dec. 11]

Other Image Credits
John Lennon Quote is from the InkTank website.
Imagine Peace Tower, Reykjavick, Iceland is from the Imagine Peace website.

Sunday Roundup - November 2, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Ukraine, recent Latin American elections, the Jerusalem protests, Hong Kong, Ebola, and, in brief, the U.S. midterm elections.

Ukraine
On October 26. parliamentary elections were held in the parts of Ukraine controlled by Kiev's troops. It was a victory for the pro-European parties.  With 98.02 percent of ballots having been counted, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front party is ahead of its rivals, with 22.16 percent. President Petro Poroshenko's party is only slightly behind, with 21.82 percent.  The Opposition Bloc, which campaigns for a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis, has received 9.36 percent, mostly from voters in southeast Ukraine – Kharkov, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, and Donetsk Region – where the balance has shifted away from the pro-EU trend, which is widely supported in other regions....Most of the east is still under rebel control. Voting did not take place there, as the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk plan to hold their own parliamentary elections on November 2. [Russia Times, Oct. 29]  The separatist eastern region of the country, known as "Donboss", will be holding its own elections on Sunday November 2 in spite of the ongoing skirmishes and shelling occurring in violation of the ceasefire.  Russia is backing a plan by separatists in eastern Ukraine to hold a vote in areas under their control ostensibly as part of a deal with Kiev to allow limited self-rule in the region. The vote, set for Nov. 2 would come days after Ukrainian elections that saw pro-Western parties allied with President Petro Poroshenko sweep to power.  But the Ukrainian government says the elections come too early and has urged Russia to put pressure on the rebels it backs to hold off. Western governments have also opposed the poll. [NPR, October 28] Finally, Ukraine, Russia and the European Union signed a deal on Thursday on the resumption of Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine for winter after several months of delay during the conflict in Ukraine....Talks had been broken off in the early hours as Moscow sought more guarantees from the EU that it would help Ukraine pay for its natural gas. They resumed on Thursday evening before reaching a deal....European energy commissioner Günther Oettinger...said the $4.6bn deal should extend to the spring and that it was “perhaps first glimmer of a relaxation in the relations between neighbours.” [The Guardian. Oct. 30]

Bolivia and Brazil Elections
Presidential elections were held in Bolivia and Brazil. The leftist incumbents won both elections.

On October 12, Bolivian voters returned Evo Morales for a third term with 61.4% of the vote - more than 35 points ahead of his nearest rival.  President Morales told cheering supporters at the presidential palace in La Paz that "this win is a triumph for anti-imperialists and anti-colonialists". He dedicated "this triumph" to the Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and Venezuela's late president, Hugo Chavez.  Mr Morales has overseen strong economic growth since taking office in 2006, using Bolivia's commodity wealth to reduce poverty levels. [BBC News, October 13]

Supporters of Brazil's President and Workers' Party (PT) presidential candidate
Dilma Rousseff react to first results of the Brazil general elections in Porto Alegre, October 26, 2014. 
CREDIT: REUTERS/PAULO WHITAKER

The October 26 election in Brazil, the world's seventh largest economy, was much closer.  Brazil's leftist President Dilma Rousseff narrowly won re-election on Sunday after convincing voters that her party's strong record of reducing poverty over the last 12 years was more important than a recent economic slump.  After one of the closest, most divisive campaigns in Brazil in decades, Rousseff won 51.6 percent of votes in a runoff against centrist opposition leader Aecio Neves, who won 48.4 percent....The result means another four years in power for the Workers' Party, which since 2003 has virtually transformed Brazil - lifting 40 million from poverty, reducing unemployment to record lows and making big inroads against hunger in what remains one of the world's most unequal countries. [Reuters, Oct. 26]

East Jerusalem Protests

"I urge you to pray so that the Holy City, dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims, which has experienced several tensions in these days, may be more and more a symbol and a precursor of the peace that God wishes for the entire human family."

- Pope Francis, All Saints Day (November 1) in Jerusalem

Israel reopened the al Aqsa mosque to Muslim men over 50 for Friday prayers after the "Day of Rage" protests, but tensions in East Jerusalem continue.  The closing of the mosque was prompted by the wounding of an Israeli extremist on Wednesday.  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said through his spokesman that the closure of al Aqsa combined with other dangerous escalations by Israel were "tantamount to a declaration of war."  Abbas has requested that US Secretary of State Kerry get involved in order to stop Israeli settlement projects in the city, which, in his view, will cause a dangerous escalation and continue the cycle of violence, anger and radicalization in the area.

Palestinian protester stands near burning tires
during clashes with Israeli police in East Jerusalem
Photo is by Ammar Awad/Reuters and appeared in The Guardian 

The Netanyahu government had announced that it will go ahead with the construction of 1,000 settler units in East Jerusalem despite widespread condemnation of the action.  As reported in The Guardian on October 27, The Israeli government is to advance construction plans for 1,000 housing units to be built in parts of Jerusalem that Palestinians demand for their future state.  The move, revealed by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu,, is the first in what is expected to be a series of announcements .... on new settlement construction work in East Jerusalem and on the occupied West Bank.  It comes despite a warning from the US this month that continued construction would “poison the atmosphere” and distance Israel from even its closest allies...The announcement was immediately condemned by the finance minister, Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party, who warned that it would damage US-Israeli relations, which are already at a low ebb. Last week, the White House refused the Israeli defence minister’s requests to meet several top national security aides. 

Al Jazeera traces the escalating tensions back to this summer:  Tensions in Jerusalem had risen to a boiling point over the summer, when Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and burned alive by Israelis, who said they were avenging the murder of three Israeli teenagers near Hebron.  Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem erupted in protests, prompting an Israeli crackdown. At the same time, angry crowds of Israelis marched through the city’s streets demanding revenge.  At least 760 Palestinians, including 260 children, were arrested in the security sweeps that followed, according to the Israeli news outlet Haaretz. “The mass arrests in Jerusalem … the settlers’ invasion of Arab neighborhoods with the support of the government and courts … all this will have a price,” Israeli columnist Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz on Thursday. Between 1967 and 2013, he wrote, Israel revoked the residence status — or the identification card that allows Palestinians to live in East Jerusalem — of over 14,000 Palestinians, “with strange claims that don’t apply to any of its Jewish residents. Isn’t that apartheid?”

Hong Kong
The Hong Kong protests have been pushed off the front page but they are still going on.  Peter Thal Larsen in an October 28 op-ed blog for Reuters writes of the "polite impasse" on the streets of Hong Kong:  The three-lane highway that passes in front of Hong Kong’s central government buildings has been transformed into an impromptu city-centre campsite. Wandering between the hundreds of numbered, multicoloured tents on Harcourt Road feels more like attending a nerdy music festival than a hotbed of political agitation....Hong Kong’s large financial district has mostly continued to operate as normal....The protesters have...defied predictions that they would quickly lose interest. The government’s clumsy and sometimes heavy-handed attempts to end the protests have helped. The use of tear gas; the decision to call and then cancel talks with student leaders; the policemen caught on film beating up a handcuffed protester – all have spurred crowds to return to the streets.  The other surprise is that China has not ordered a crackdown. ...Beijing’s relative tolerance does not mean it is prepared to meet the movement’s requests, however. China has stuck to the proposed system for selecting Hong Kong’s chief executive that ignited the protests in the first place. 

Ebola
As the US and Canada sort out protective gear, medical procedures, quarantines, and visas to reduce the likelihood of Ebola infections here, West Africa's battle against the epidemic continues in the face of a massive overload of their medical systems.  The World Health Organization (WHO) published figures on Friday, October 31, showing 4,951 people have died of Ebola out of a total of 13,567 reported cases.  WHO acknowledges that the official figures are under-reported.  Ebola has wiped out whole villages in Sierra Leone and may have caused many more deaths than the nearly 5,000 official global toll, a senior coordinator of the medical aid group MSF [Doctors Without Borders] said Friday. "The WHO says there is a correction factor of 2.5, so maybe it is 2.5 times higher and maybe that is not far from the truth. It could be 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000," said [Rony] Zachariah.  "You have one nurse for 10,000 people and then you lose 10, 11, 12 nurses. How is the health system going to work?"  [AFP, Nov. 1]

Links/In Brief - The US Midterm Elections
The US midterm elections will be held Tuesday, November 4.  Control of the US Senate is up for grabs and, with it, control of the Federal courts and ambassadorial nominations.  Republicans have held up confirmation of Obama nominations to these posts by a variety of procedural motions in spite of the filibuster reform of November 2013.

The Guardian 's take on the election is given in an October 31 article: Republicans are entering the final stretch of the midterm election campaign convinced they stand poised to retake control of the Senate and possibly even extend their majority in the House of Representatives to the largest enjoyed by the party since 1928.  For me, this is an ominous thought.  The last time the Republicans held that large a majority in the House, they presided over the Great Depression.

If, as many predict, the Republicans do take control of the Senate for the next session of Congress, Democrats will make a major push to confirm as many of the 156 pending nominations as they can in the lame duck session. [Daily Kos, Oct. 23]

Republican dirty tricks and voter suppression continue unabated: Grimes Files for Injunction Against McConnell for Illegal Voter Suppression/Intimidation [Daily Kos, Oct 31]

How can Democrats hold the Senate? [The Left Bank Cafe, Oct. 6]

The World Series, Halloween, and the Election [The Left Bank Cafe, Oct. 30]

Sunday Roundup - July 20, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at the war against Gaza, the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, the Iran nuclear talks, the World Cup, and Nelson Mandela.

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

- Nelson Mandela

Gaza

Nelson Mandela would have been 96 on Friday.  His quote on the Palestinians came after South Africa had shaken off the shackles of apartheid.  The Palestinians remain oppressed 66 years after they were driven from their homes during the civil war for Palestine and the first Arab-Israeli War.  Their situation parallels that of black South Africans in many ways.  As was the case with South Africa, the US is late in denouncing oppression in the Occupied Territories.

Bad as the general situation of the Palestinians is, the conditions in Gaza border on the horrific.  The UN estimates that Gaza will become unlivable by 2020.  Both the EU and the US are complicit in the situation.  When Palestinian elections brought Hamas to power in the Occupied Territories in 2006, the West decided to ignore the results and isolate the elected government, Abbas took power in the West Bank, and Israel instituted a devastating blockade on Gaza that continues to this day.

The current war against Gaza marks the third time in the last 5 years that Israel has bombed and invaded Gaza.  After sabotaging the "Kerry" peace talks and after Hamas and the Palestinian Authority formed a unity government, Israel waited for an excuse to bring down the unity government and destroy Hamas.  The weakening of the unity government was aided and abetted greatly by the West's actions.  As Nathan Thrall writes in a July 17 Op-Ed for the New York Times: ...the most immediate cause of this latest war has been ignored: Israel and much of the international community placed a prohibitive set of obstacles in the way of the Palestinian “national consensus” government that was formed in early June....Israel immediately sought to undermine the reconciliation agreement by preventing Hamas leaders and Gaza residents from obtaining the two most essential benefits of the deal: the payment of salaries to 43,000 civil servants who worked for the Hamas government and continue to administer Gaza under the new one, and the easing of the suffocating border closures imposed by Israel and Egypt that bar most Gazans’ passage to the outside world.

The Israelis found their excuse for resuming hostilities against Hamas by wrongly blaming the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers on Hamas and then whipping up resentment and hatred of Palestinians to a fever pitch and assassinating seven members of Hamas.  The IDF's killing of Palestinian civilians has not yet reached the level of 2008-9 invasion ("Operation Cast Lead") but the current ground invasion was proceeded by a particularly tragic incident in which four Palestinian children were killed by Israelis warplanes.  How a nine year old playing hide and seek on a coastal road looks like a militant to one of the world's most powerful and sophisticated armed forces is incomprehensible.

And so the violence continues.  As the editors of The Nation write:  Achieving a cease-fire will be difficult, given the regional upheavals... But unless the deeper issues are addressed, the cycle [of impunity] will continue... Impunity is what happens when an aggressor fractures the norms of international law and basic human rights yet is never held to account, and so is free to commit the same crimes again and again. That is what we’re seeing now, and that is exactly what the Goldstone Report—the findings of the UN investigation of Operation Cast Lead in 2008–09—so presciently warned against. It said then that bringing to justice those who committed war crimes—Israel as well as Hamas—was perhaps the only effective way to prevent another round of violence.  It was the United States that prevented Goldstone’s recommendations from getting a fair hearing in the UN—and it’s the United States, the world’s sole superpower, the key bankroller of Israel’s military, and the unconditional defender of Israel in international forums, that bears deep responsibility for the continuation of the decades-long occupation. 

It is time for Hamas to accept the terms brokered by the international community if only to prevent additional Israeli war crimes.  Hamas' refusal to accept an unconditional cease-fire - they want the release of the 400 political prisoners recently jailed by Israel and an end to the seven-year blockade - is apparently isolating them in the eyes of the international community.  Unfortunately, much of the world is turning a blind eye to the Israeli atrocities and there is little hope that Israel will end the violence unless Hamas agrees to the unconditional cease fire.  Of course, little mention is made in the Western press of the disproportionate Israeli response to the Hamas rocket firings: As Israel pressed ahead with a ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday morning, the death toll of Palestinians rose above 300, many of them children. An early morning air strike outside a mosque in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed seven people on Saturday, including a woman, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. Other raids shortly afterwards killed another four, bringing the total death toll to 307 Palestinians and two Israelis. [The Guardian, July 19]  Most of the deaths have been civilians - estimated before the ground invasion to be on the order of 80%.

If Israelis are not held accountable for their crimes this time and if the West does not give strong support to the Palestinian unity government, there is little hope that the blockade on Gaza will ever be lifted or that Palestinians will ever have a viable homeland.  With the death tolls being what they are and with the widespread destruction of civilian facilities and homes wreaked by Israeli bombings, it seems the IDF is a more effective terror organization than Hamas.  It also seems incredible that the international community is not pressuring Israel to stop the onslaught against Gaza given that there is no effective resistance and no damage being done by Hamas rockets.  Yes, Hamas is being obstinate but all the killing is being done by Israelis.

Malaysian Airlines MH17

Tragedies continue for Malaysian Airlines.  Flight MH17 was apparently shot down by a missile in the Ukraine war zone.  Both sides in the civil war deny responsibility.  This is the kind of disaster that might have occurred over Syria had the US armed the rebels fighting the Assad regime with missile launchers as some of our stupider Congressional hawks were advising several months ago.  Deutsche Welle lists five previous incidents of civilian air craft being shot down by missiles: the 1973 downing of a Libyan passenger plane by Israeli fighter jets, the 1980 Italian airliner brought down near Sicily (no admission of responsibility), the 1983 South Korean airliner shot down by Soviet fighter jets, the 1988 Iranian Airbus shot down by missiles from a US warship in the Strait of Hormuz, and the 2003 Russian airliner shot down by an accidentally fired Ukrainian missile during a military exercise in Crimea.

Iran
Iran and six world powers have agreed to a four-month extension of negotiations on a nuclear deal with Tehran after failing to meet a July 20 deadline due to "significant gaps" between the two sides, the European Union and Iran said on Saturday....It has been clear for days that Iran and the six powers would miss the Sunday deadline to reach an accord on curbing Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for the gradual lifting of sanctions due to disagreements on a number of key issues. 

Among the issues dividing them are the permissible scope of Iran's nuclear fuel production capacity and how to address the country's suspected past atomic bomb research. [Al Jazeera, July 19]  I hope I'm wrong. but I expect the next step for Congressional hawks and AIPAC-supported Senators will be to try to sabotage the talks by passing additional sanctions against Iran.

Brazil and the World Cup
After all the talk about Neymar and Brazil and about Messi and Argentina, it was methodical, "boring" Germany that came away with the 2014 World Cup.  I watched, stunned with most of the world, as Germany dismantled Brazil in the semi-final with five goals over a span of 18 minutes in the first half. Germany went on to beat Argentina in overtime in the final and earned a #1 rating along with the World Cup. On July 14, Mother Jones ran an interview with Brazilian journalist Juliana Barbassa who discussed the soccer protests, the potential political fallout for president Dilma Roussef, and the rise of the Brazilian middle class.  Now that the World Cup is over, will the protests return?  It's very unpredictable...I do think people are more awake and aware about their rights and what's owed to them. I don't know if they're unhappy enough to change it...We haven't grown since 2010. Jobs are still plentiful. Inflation is rising, but it's not out of control. If those numbers start to change and people start to feel like they're going to the supermarket and they can't get as much as they used to—if it starts hitting people in the areas where it matters—I think that we might see more unrest.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela's 96th birthday was celebrated Friday.  The Nobel Peace Prize winner was instrumental in ending apartheid in South Africa.  The Common Dreams website published a list of Mandela quotes you were not likely to see in the mainstream press remembrances of the man.  Besides the quote above on the oppression of the Palestinians, here's another one of the dozen quotes in the article: “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.”  

Links

Where is the outrage?  (July 16)

History of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict -  World War I - 1949, 1950-2000, 2000-2012

Sunday Roundup - June 1, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream corporate media. Today we look at the Greenpeace and the Amazon rainforest, Pope Francis in Bethlehem, the New Populism conference, US gun violence, Guantanamo, and Ukraine.


Greenpeace and the Amazon

Amazon parrot (Greenpeace)

Greenpeace has turned its focus once again towards the Amazon rainforest - specifically, the illegal logging there. Besides being one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world (an estimated one-quarter of all known land and fresh water species live there), the rainforest is also one of the world's largest "carbon sinks", thus playing a major role in reducing the impact of human-induced climate change.  On May 15, Greenpeace released its report "The Amazon's Silent Crisis".  Describing how deforestation increases the risk of runaway climate change, the report warns that as climate change impacts are felt, there are concerns that the Amazon forest may reach a ‘tipping point’ in which it undergoes a rapid transition to savannah.  Besides deforestation (or clear-felling), selective logging is an important agent of forest fragmentation and degradation of the forest’s ecological integrity.  Even though the damaging selective logging of mahogany of the past has been stopped, selective logging remains a massive problem in the Amazon...If left unchecked, forest fragmentation will ultimately lead to the disappearance of whole tracts of forest. One of the main drivers of fragmentation today is the demand for high-value species such as Ipê.  In some states, as much as half to three-quarters of the logging is done illegally.  According to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, the federal environmental agency responsible (alongside state environmental secretariats) for monitoring and inspecting the Amazon timber industry, in Maranhão and Pará states alone almost 500,000m³ of timber had fraudulent documents in 2013 – enough to fill 14,000 trucks.  Greenpeace calls for a different way of approaching the forest and those whose livelihoods depend on forest products... Investment and capacity building need to be focused on giving communities the skills to undertake quality community forest management. The Brazilian government must strengthen the regulation of timber harvesting, and the enforcement of regulations. Command and control measures and monitoring systems should be transparent and able to operate in real time.  

Pope Francis in Bethlehem

Pope Francis at the separation barrier (AP photo appeared in The Guardian)

Pope Francis' trip to the Holy Land drew much attention from the world's press.  The Guardian, May 25:  It is an image that will define Pope Francis's first official visit to the Holy Land. Head bowed in prayer, the leader of the Catholic church pressed his palm against the graffiti-covered concrete of Israel's imposing "separation wall", a Palestinian girl holding a flag by his side. It was, as his aides conceded later, a silent statement against a symbol of division and conflict.

Al Jazeera, May 25:  On his second day of a visit to the Holy Land, the pope on Sunday called for Palestinians and Israelis to work together, saying the breakdown in talks between the two sides earlier this year was "unacceptable".  "In this, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, I wish to invite you, president Mahmoud Abbas, together with president Shimon Peres, to join me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace," he said during mass in Manger Square. The offer was accepted by both sides.  He then made [an] unscheduled stop at the Israeli separation wall, which divides Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The pope prayed for five minutes near an Israeli military watchtower, near graffiti which read, "Pope, we need someone to speak about justice", "Free Palestine" and a reference to the Warsaw ghetto.  The pontiff had earlier made references to Palestinian statehood, and addressed Christians with words of encouragement....The pope called for forging a peace that "rests on the acknowledgment by all of the right of two states to exist and to live in peace and security within internationally recognised borders".  

New Populism
As I see it, the drivers behind the "New Populism" in the US are simple:

• The majority of the American people support economic fairness and other progressive tenets
• But this doesn't translate into public policy because politicians are too timid and/or too influenced by big money to enact populist measures
• All popular social movements start with the people and it's up to us to influence our political leaders - to bring them along, so to speak, to the progressive positions held by the majority.

Whether or when the movement will be successful is a matter of debate.  It's certainly not going to happen any time soon.  Almost no coverage was given to May 22's New Populism Conference in the press or media.  I guess it's easier to get attention when you're spouting divisive, fear-mongering rhetoric than when you're proposing measures to promote justice and fairness.  People's World covered highlights of the conference, which was held at the Washington Court Hotel and attended by about 500 activists.  

Maya Rockeymoore, President of Global Policy Solutions, noted that the X and Y generations have been so badly economically screwed by the great recession they will not recover for the rest of their lives. Black families have been excluded from the economy for 80 percent of U.S. history. The Supreme Court is in the back pocket of the Republican majority that has taken over state government in multiple states....Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke of the moneyed interests who spent more than $1 million per day for one year to fight the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau....She reminded us that rebuilding the middle class, equal pay for equal work and raising the minimum wage are not just slogans but legislative bills. She urged the audience to "make (legislators) vote as often as possible" on these and other progressive issues....Sophia Zaman, president of the U.S. Student Association, concluded her talk stating that what the millennial generation needs...is a strong progressive movement; one that supports quality union jobs, reduction of student debt, divestment from fossil fuels. In return, progressive youth are building power that goes beyond elections...Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ...cautioned..."Now is not the time to turn our backs on the political process." Rather we need to continue to push the middle class's issues of jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, raising minimum wage, creating more daycare, making higher education free, and amending the constitution to end the unlimited power of billionaires.  "There are more people living in poverty than ever in U.S. history," he said, but by increasing workers' participation in elections by only 5 percent (from 60 percent to 65 percent) progressive goals can be achieved.

Link to video of full New Populism conference 

US Gun Violence
A few of the posts in the aftermath of the UC-Santa Barbara tragedy last weekend:

This is what legislative courage on gun control looks like [Daily Kos, May 28]

The Mother Jones Facebook page has a discussion of its Jan 2013 post "10 Pro-Gun Myths Shot Down"

The Onion, the digital news satire organization, condemns the political  paralysis that prevents a solution: ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens [The Onion, May 27]

Guantanamo
On May 29, Andy Worthington wrote in Al Jazeera of the lack of progress on releasing prisoners from Guantanamo.  A year after Obama's promise to resume releasing prisoners from Guantanamo, 78 men cleared for release are still there.  Worthington notes the Congressional obstacles and Obama's inability to overcome those obstacles.  Obama touched on Guantanamo in a speech about America's foreign policy at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  The president said, "I believe in American exceptionalism with every fibre of my being. But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it's our willingness to affirm them through our actions. That's why I will continue to push to close GTMO - because American values and legal traditions don't permit the indefinite detention of people beyond our borders." One year on from his promise to resume releasing prisoners from Guantanamo, the president's words were as commendable as ever, but unless they are followed up with relevant actions they will reveal nothing but a gulf between words and action that has become rather predictable over the last five and a half years. 

Ukraine
The partially-boycotted presidential elections in Ukraine provided an overwhelming majority vote to EU-leaning billionaire Petro Poroshenko.  Violence between the government and separatist forces continued unabated in the ensuing days.  The Guardian May 26 editorial struck a somewhat optimistic note - not about the ongoing violence but about the hope for an eventual end to it.  It may be that, in spite of the dangers represented by events like the battle for Donetsk airport, Ukraine has turned the corner. Invasion is yesterday's threat, the extreme federalisation which Russia apparently wanted at an earlier stage has also faded as an idea, and the separatists in the east now seem more on their own than they were before. We are perhaps heading back to a more "normal" situation in which Moscow will still have a great deal of leverage in Ukraine, especially through its control of gas supplies and prices, and will lay down some red lines, but otherwise accept that for the time being the country has made a European and not an Eurasian choice.

Sunday Roundup - May 25, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Israeli-Palestinian relations,  honeybees, the World Cup, and, in brief, Memorial Day, Libya, escalating food prices, and Pope Francis on climate change.

Quote of the Week

“Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will; or, even less, is the property of only a few: Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude.”

- Pope Francis

Israeli-Palestinian Relations
The "Price Tag" movement has been around since 2008 but has been little covered by the US media.   "Price Tag" attacks "target mosques, churches, Arab and Jewish homes and property, Israeli military bases and vehicles, as well as other Israeli Jews. They involve the desecration of property with anti-Arab and anti-government slogans including the phrase 'price tag', often accompanied by hateful and racist slogans."  The attacks are carried out "by extremist Israeli Jews against Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, often in reprisal for Israeli government action against illegal settlement activity." [Anti-Defamation League, May 7]  Price Tag is getting some attention in the Western press as Pope Francis plans a trip to the Holy Land and a US State Department report has issued a travel warning.  Much to the dismay of Israelis and the powerful Jewish Lobby in Washington DC, the US State Department have even issuing travel warnings now regarding extremist ‘Jewish hate groups’ in Israel [with]... Israelis ...angry that such warnings have been posted on a US government website.  [21st Century Wire, May 11] The attacks have been roundly condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and Peace Now but they continue as enforcement or punishment has been absent or ineffective.  Haaretz reported on May 19 of a demonstration by Israeli Army reservists against ongoing attacks against Palestinians.  Dozens of Israeli reservists staged a protest against what they termed "hate crimes and racism" outside the radical West Bank settlement of Yitzhar on Sunday evening.  Yair Fink, one of the organizers, told the rally: "We regard defending Israel to be the highest value – both against terrorists from the outside and terrorists from within."  

It's a shame that it took the defamation of Christian churches and an upcoming papal visit to get coverage in the Western press of these hate crimes.  But this is no surprise here in the US.  The widespread ignorance of the facts of the Israeli Occupation and the strength of right-wing Israel lobbyists pretty much assure that.  Aaron Mann writes in New Jersey Jewish News on May 15: In March, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at an RNC fundraiser hosted by extreme right-wing “superdonor” -- and prominent Likud supporter -- Sheldon Adelson. The governor’s comments about Israel were just as uncritically hawkish and hardline as one would expect. Until a bit of uncomfortable truth slipped out when Christie mentioned the “Occupied Territories.”  It mattered little that Christie had referenced a term used by almost the entire world, including previous Republican presidents. Many in the audience were aghast, and the governor subsequently offered a personal apology to Adelson for the supposed affront.  Thus, Christie joined ranks with occupation-deniers...[but] the reality is not that complicated. Israel has never annexed the West Bank or Gaza, and the Palestinians living there are under Israeli control, subject to Israeli military law, and have no political rights in Israel. The occupation exists, and the only way to end it is through a two-state solution that brings an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...To deny the occupation and oppose a two-state solution might make one pro-Likud, but that’s not the same thing as being pro-Israel. 

Americans for Peace Now's "Price Tag" Escalation Timeline: Jan 2011 - Present [APN website, May 9]


Honeybee Colony Collapse

European honeybee extracting nectar (Wikipedia)

Honeybees pollinate several hundred billion dollars worth of global crops every year.  So when honeybees started dying off in Europe and North America at unprecedented rates in the 2000's, scientists worked to find the cause. Studies have pointed to neonicotinoid pesticides as a contributor to colony collapse disorder.  The EU voted to impose a two-year moratorium on these pesticides last April but the US is still studying the problem.  On May 20, Mother Jones reported on a Harvard study that strengthens the argument against this widely used pesticide class.  Harvard researcher Chensheng Lu and his team treated 12 colonies with tiny levels of neonics and kept six control hives free of the popular chemicals....Come winter,...the bees in six of the treated hives vanished, leaving behind empty colonies—the classic behavior of colony collapse disorder. None of the six control hives experienced a CCD-style disappearing act....What makes the new Harvard study remarkable is that it actually simulated colony collapse disorder—neonic-treated bees suddenly abandoned hives that had been healthy all summer, while untreated bees hung around and repopulated their hives....More research is needed to identify the mechanism by which neonic pesticides trigger the evacuations, they write, but the results point to "impairment of honeybee neurological functions, specifically memory, cognition, or behavior."  There is a bit of good news.  The USDA has released a preliminary report on its nationwide survey asking beekeepers how their hives fared over the winter. The report found that 23.2 percent of hives collapsed—the lowest levels since CCD began in 2005-06, and down from a peak of about 35 percent in the winter of 2007-08. The previous year's losses clocked in 31 percent.  Note that this is an average for the entire country with some areas exhibiting much higher losses.  Ohio, for example, reported losses from 50 to 80 percent.

Link to other posts on honeybee colony collapse

World Cup
The World Cup tournament kicks off in Brazil on Thursday June 12.  Team USA plays its first game against Ghana on June 16.  The Azzurri's opener is against England June 14.  You can find the complete Group Stage schedule here.  The pre-tournament favorite, currently at 3 to 1, is Brazil.  Italy is 28 to 1.  USA is 225 to 1.  Oh well.

The May 21 Sydney Morning Herald carried a story on Pele's thoughts on the preparations for the games: Brazil legend Pele was critical of his country's preparations.  "It's clear that politically speaking, the money spent to build the stadiums was a lot, and in some cases was more than it should have been," Pele said.  He said "some of this money could have been invested in schools, in hospitals.... Brazil needs it. That's clear. On that point, I agree (with the protests)." 4 billion US$ have been spent on stadiums alone.  Several are still incomplete with just 3 weeks to go until the first game.  Pele was particularly critical of the stadium in Sao Paulo, the venue for the opening match between Brazil and Croatia on June 12.  Officials acknowledged last week that a portion of the roof won't be completed until after the World Cup ends on July 13.  

Brazilian star Marta Vieira da Silva (from The Far Post article)

The April 29 article in The Far Post series from Roads & Kingdoms relates the slow development of women's soccer in Brazil.  The article leads with the story of Marta Vieira da Silva (aka "Pele in skirts").  Marta’s game—like Pelé’s—is Brazilian football: quick, explosive, and exhibiting the impeccable ball control that comes from a childhood spent playing in the streets and in the country’s ubiquitous enclosed concrete courts.She also shares the narrative so common to male Brazilian footballers, of rising to stardom from humble origins. ...she played street football as a child but like the neighborhood girls (and most girls in the country), she was discouraged from participating...She would rise through the ranks of the women’s team associated with Rio’s Vasco de Gama club,...has played for numerous professional clubs in her country and abroad, and has starred for the Brazilian women’s national team, becoming a World Cup and Olympic medalist, a five-time FIFA Player of the Year, and an international icon.  As striking as Marta’s story is, her success is even more striking in the context of her country. In the land of the jogo bonito, women still face immense hurdles to simply participating in the sport, let alone achieving recognition for their footballing talent.  The article also relates the story of Aline Pellegrino, another Brazilian woman soccer star, and former American player Caitlin Fisher who played in Brazil and was a co-founder of the Guerreiras Project.  Led by professional female football players, the project ...uses football as the language with which to address gender justice. The group runs workshops...to open discussions about gender norms, it trains young girls to be leaders, and it encourages the creation of more opportunities for girls and women to play.

In Brief
Link to The Left Bank Cafe post "Remembering the Fallen" (Memorial Day 2013)

While House Republicans play politics on Benghazi, Libya is on the verge of imploding.  The Guardian May 22 post describes "Khalifa Haftar: renegade general causing upheaval in Libya".

The price of popular breakfast cereals is set to soar over the next 15 years as a result of climate change...Staples like corn and rice will double in cost by 2030, with half of that increase due to climate change [Mother Jones]

Pope Francis made the religious case for tackling climate change...calling on his fellow Christians to become “Custodians of Creation” and issuing a dire warning about the potentially catastrophic effects of global climate change: “Safeguard Creation,” he said. “Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us!" [Think Progress/Climate Progress]

Sunday Roundup - February 23, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Iran nuclear talks, Arctic ice, Gaza, soccer in Brazil, video games as treatment for learning disabilities, the Syrian Civil War and the chaos in the Ukraine.


Iran
With the breakdown in the Syrian Civil War talks and with the apparent stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, it's encouraging to find at least one ray of hope for the troubled Middle East.  As reported in The Guardian Thursday: "Three days of talks between Iran and six world powers in Vienna have ended to 'a good start' as diplomats negotiating for a final nuclear deal, agreed on a mutual framework before they could discuss details in future sessions."  EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who acts as "the convenor of talks on behalf of Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the US – the group known as P5+1 – is negotiating directly with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister."   Ashton said both sides had "agreed to start the technical work and further political discussions as early as March. They would set a timetable over four months to discuss the differences that have so far prevented settlement of the decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme."



Climate Change
It's been a wild winter in the Northern Hemisphere - drought in California, avalanches in the Rockies, winter storms in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast, massive flooding in the UK.  Anyone out there still unconcerned about global climate change or humankind's role in causing it?  Ryan Koronowski reported Thursday on the ClimateProgress website of a new "record".  In February, Arctic sea ice dipped to "record low levels in February. On the 18th, sea ice covered 5.544 million square miles of the Arctic, while the previous low on that date was in 2006, at 5.548 million square miles."   The sea ice is dwindling even in the almost perpetual darkness of winter "because there is less of its bright whiteness to reflect back sunlight into space. As the ice melts, more of the surface area changes to darker ocean water, which absorbs the sun’s energy, warming the ocean and allowing more ice to melt."  Some researchers are blaming the frequent strong winter storms in the UK on this phenomenon.
(Image of flooding near Tewksbury is from the Daily Mail; copyright by Adam Gray/SWNS.com)



Gaza
Bad as the Palestinian situation is in the West Bank, it's much worse in the Gaza Strip, where Israel, with assistance from Egypt, has maintained a blockade on Gaza's 1.7 million inhabitants since 2007.  Gaza is back in the news in recent weeks.  After the Arab Spring there was some easing of restrictions on the Egyptian side.  Unfortunately,  Egypt closed supply tunnels on its border with Gaza after the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power.  Earlier this month, far-right members of the Israeli Knesset walked out on a speech by European Parliament President Martin Schulz when he criticized Israel for its blockade of the Gaza Strip and for the Israeli water policy in the Occupied Territories.  On February 12, a dozen human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, called upon the European Union to urge Israel to "immediately, unconditionally and completely...lift the unlawful closure of the Gaza Strip, and demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law."  Calling Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip a collective punishment of 1.7 million Palestinians and a "breach of international humanitarian law", the rights organizations noted that the "impact of the closure and the violence on the population’s right to life, health, education, food, water and an adequate standard of living has never been clearer."
(Photo of two Gaza children looking through rubble after an Israeli airstrike is by EPA/Mohammed Saber and appeared in The Telegraph in Nov 2012)


Brazil and Soccer - The Beautiful Language
As we all know, the World Cup is being played in Brazil this year.  In a brilliant article for Roads & Kingdoms' "Far Post" series, sportswriter Jack Lang writes about the unique Brazilian "language" for the sport.  As the World Cup approaches "amid the FIFA-approved images of soccer stars in sun-drenched stadiums, much of what truly defines Brazilian football will be concealed, lost in translation. For while Neymar, Thiago Silva et al represent one aspect of this nation’s continuing clout in the sport, there is another sphere in which it excels. No other nation can match the verve with which Brazil talks and writes about o jogo bonito."  From players' nicknames to sportscasters' commentary to their creative shorthand descriptions of play, the article is a great romp through the language and character of Brazil's soccer culture. 


Your Brain and Video Games
On Tuesday, the Utne Reader reported on an Oxford University study that "indicates that video games may be able to help the 5 to 10 percent of the world’s population who are affected by dyslexia.  UR notes that this is not the first study to point out the benefits of video games. "Past research has shown that playing video games can improve mental reasoning and decision-making skills as well as precision and self-esteem."


Ukraine
The violence in the Ukraine, which has resulted in as  many as 100 deaths over the past week, seems to have ended thanks to a deal to cut the President's powers, revise the Constitution and release an opposition leader.  Mother Jones tries to describe "why Kiev is burning":  "The EuroMaidan protests, which started on November 21 in response to President Viktor Yanukovych's rejection of a European Union trade deal, have been going on for nearly three months....the conflict is fueled by sharp political and ethnic divides. A significant portion of the population wants closer ties to Europe, but Putin has been pressuring Yanukovych's government toward closer economic integration with Russia."

In Brief/Other Links 

For more on the second reason for the Israeli far-right-wing walkout during Martin Schultz' address to the Knesset, see  Haaretz, February 16 "The Israeli 'watergate' scandal: The facts about Palestinian water"


For other soccer culture articles, here's a link to the home page of "The Far Post" series.


Syrian and American diplomats "blamed each other for a lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva aimed at opening a dialogue between Damascus and opposition representatives from the Syrian National Coalition, who are fighting a civil war that activists say has claimed 140,000 lives. The peace talks broke off Saturday (Feb 13), and it’s not clear when, or if, they’ll resume." [Al Jazeera, February 16]

World Cup 2014

[Photo from FIFA 2014 World Cup website: Rio de Janeiro's legendary Maracana Stadium]

 

The FIFA World Cup tournament is the most watched sporting event, well, in the world. About 2.2 billion people watched at least 20 consecutive minutes of one or more matches in the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa. And an estimated 3.2 billion people watched at least one minute. For the Spain-Netherlands final alone, 620 million people watched at least 20 consecutive minutes. [FIFA]

Unlike the World Series, the Super Bowl, and the NCAA College Basketball Tournament, the World Cup tournament is played just every four years. Suspended during the war years of the 1940's, there have been 19 World Cups played since its initiation in 1930. And in the 83 years of the Cup's existence, only 8 countries have managed to win the title game - Brazil (5), Italy (4), (West) Germany (3), Uruguay (2), Argentina (2), England, France and Spain.

The buildup and preparations for the tournament start almost as soon as the last cup is over. If a team had a bad tournament, the search for a new national team coach may begin. Over the next couple of years, the national team itself is gradually re-formed with aging stars replaced and weaknesses corrected. Then come the preliminary qualifying matches which are currently underway.

 

 [Photo from FIFA 2014 World Cup website: Brasilia]

The 2014 World Cup is now just one year away. Brazil will be the host country for World Cup XX and the 64 matches will be played from June 13 until the championship game on July 13. Qualifying matches are about 60% complete in most regions and the field of 32 will be finalized later this year. It's a long way to go but if the current point leaders hold through the remainder of the qualifying rounds, the teams competing for the 2014 World Cup would be:  

  

 

Europe (13)

Belgium

Netherlands

Germany

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Italy

Switzerland

Montenegro

Portugal

Spain

Croatia

Russia

Greece

England

 

South America (5 plus intercontinental playoff)

Brazil*

Argentina

Colombia

Ecuador

Chile

Africa (5)

Egypt

Ivory Coast

Ghana

Algeria

Tunisia

Asia (4 plus intercontinental playoff)

 

Iran*

Korea*

Japan*

Australia*

North, Central America and Caribbean (3 plus intercontinental playoff)

USA

Costa Rica

Mexico

Intercontinental Playoffs

Honduras (North, Central Am, Carib) vs. New Zealand (Oceania)

Winner of Uzbekistan-Jordan (Asia) vs. Venezuela or Uruguay (South America)

* signifies qualification is complete.

Greatest Games

 

Topping several lists of the greatest world cup matches is the 1982 quarter final match between Italy and Brazil. Here is a link to a highlight film of this classic game.

As for the greatest final of all-time, the vote seems to go to the 1950 Uruguay-Brazil championship game. Here's a link to a highlight video.

 

Sports Illustrated's list of 10 top world cup games

 

Goal.Com's list of top 10 world cup games

Other Links

 

Interactive FIFA World Ranking Table

Sunday Round-Up - June 23, 2013

Iranian Elections

In what nearly all observers think is a good sign for Iranian relations with the West, Hassan Rouhani won a landslide victory in the Iranian presidential elections "promising better relations abroad and more freedom at home".   Rouhani won the election outright after securing more than 50% of the vote - far ahead of the next candidate, who received just 16% of the vote - and thereby avoiding the need for a run-off.   Al Jazeera reported: "In a statement, reported by the Iranian media on Saturday, the president-elect hailed his election as a victory of moderation over extremism:  'This victory is a victory for wisdom, moderation and maturity... over extremism.' "  The jubilant crowds celebrating in the streets were a marked contrast to the demonstrations following the 2009 presidential election, when results showed the conservative Ahmadinejad had won over the reformist candidate.   According to Al Jazeera's analyst: "The outcome will not soon transform Iran's long tense relations with the West, call into question its disputed pursuit of nuclear power or lessen its support of Syria's president in the civil war there - matters of national security that remain the domain of [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei. But the president runs the economy and wields important influence in decision-making and Rouhani's meteoric rise could offer latitude for a thaw in Iran's foreign relations and more social freedoms at home after eight years of confrontation and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." The pace of change will ultimately be decided by the Ayatollah Khamenei, whom Rouhani visited on Sunday (June 16) after the election. [Reuters]

[Photo: Al Jazeera]

 

NSA Surveillance, Snowden and Hong Kong

The US has charged 29 year old whistle-blower Edward Snowden with espionage. Kind of ironic, isn't it?   They are charging the person who blew the cover on the NSA's warrantless surveillance with spying.   Snowden meanwhile remains in Hong Kong.   Thursday's South China Morning Post reported on the commentary in China's "party newspapers."  Reporting on an article in the Global Times, it noted the Times commentary "that Hong Kong should follow public opinion in handling the case, not worry about Sino-US relations and 'be more spontaneous'."   Public opinion in Hong Kong is strongly supportive of Snowden.  The People's Daily said "the Prism scandal was America's trouble in the first place", but some US politicians were trying to "create a new link between China and the scandal with their own imagination" by hinting that Snowden was a Chinese spy. It said such a link was 'nonsense' and Beijing should ask the 'big mouths' to shut up. "Pouring dirty water on China shows how American politicians are embarrassed and anxious," it said. Both articles indicate that China is determined to separate the Snowden case from overall Sino-American relationship.

[Photo from South China Morning Post A banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former contractor at the National Security Agency, is seen at Central district. Photo: David Wong]

 

UPDATE - 9AM EDT, 6/23/13

Edward Snowden is reported as having left Hong Kong today.  Hong Kong officials had rejected the US request for extradition "since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law."  Hong Kong had requested more information from the US and said that "there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

Palestinian Diaspora Forgotten?

Thursday was World Refugee Day. Press TV reported on the plight of the victims of what they termed the world's largest and longest standing refugee crisis:  "Following World Refugee Day, The Palestinian Liberation Organisation called upon the international community to hold Israel accountable for one of the largest refugee crises, since Israel displaced Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.   Palestinian refugees constitute the largest and longest standing refugee crisis in the world with up to 6 million 1st and 2nd generation Palestinian refugees scattered around the world unable to return to Palestine." Palestinian refugees have the right of return per UN resolution 194 which resolves "that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date. It further states that compensation should be paid if they do not wish to return." In the on again/off again push towards a two-state solution and the attempts to resuscitate the long-moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, many Palestinians feel that international law is being ignored as all parties "continue to insist that refugees should wait indefinitely to return home."   The Syrian Civil War has added significantly to the plight of the refugees.  530,000 Palestinians are registered with the UN as refugees in that country.  The United Nations News Centre reported on June 17: "Warning that the centrifugal force of the Syria crisis continues to imperil the region, a senior United Nations agency official today said that more than half of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria have become 'theatres of war,' where killings and kidnappings have become the norm.  According to the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Filippo Grandi, seven out of 12 of the agency’s camps are now virtually inaccessible." 

[Photo: UNRWA]

Brazil 2014 World Cup Protests

Brazil has won five World Cups - more than any other nation. It is the fifth most populous country and, depending on what list you use, has between the sixth and ninth largest economy. Still its social inequity has been as legendary as its Rio de Janeiro slums. Things have been improving somewhat for Brazil's poor especially since the election of "pink revolution" hero Lula (Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva) as President in 2002 and his succession by Dilma Rousseff.  Pulsamerica opined in a January article: "Though Brazil remains a country of stark contrasts, its strides against poverty and inequality cannot be underestimated. It can be argued that until recently the focus in Brazil has always been on reducing poverty rather than combating income and social inequality overall, however, an emphasis on distribution, creating more job opportunities, investing in structural education systems and addressing discrimination are being implemented to ensure more equality in the future." But the movement towards more social equality is far from complete. (See, for example, Harper's Magazine's June 2013 article "Promised Land" by Glenn Cheney about the efforts of Sister Leonora Brunetto for agrarian land redistribution.) Just how far from complete the march towards equality is was demonstrated this past week as protests erupted against the money being spent on 2014 World Cup preparations (~18 bln USD) . As reported Friday in the Daily Mail: "More than a million Brazilians took to the streets of at least 80 Brazilian towns and cities in demonstrations that saw violent clashes and renewed calls for an end to government corruption and demands for better public services. Riot police battled protesters in at least five cities, with some of the most intense clashes in Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 300,000 demonstrators swarmed into the city's central area." At least one person has been killed in the rioting.  President Rousseff , who was "a former Marxist rebel who fought against Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime and was imprisoned for three years and tortured by the junta, pointedly referred to earlier sacrifices made to free the nation from dictatorship. 'My generation fought a lot so that the voice of the streets could be heard,' Rousseff said. 'Many were persecuted, tortured and many died for this. The voice of the street must be heard and respected and it can't be confused with the noise and truculence of some troublemakers.' " The protests continued Saturday.

[Photo from Daily Mail website (copyright Marco Isensee/Demotix: "Revolution: A football shirt-clad protester waves the Brazilian flag through clouds of smoke and teargas during violent clashes between protesters and police in Rio de Janeiro"]