March 19th, 2010
Sue Dunlevy; 18/3/10
It is costing taxpayers $4400 a year to ensure an unemployed person doesn’t spend their welfare payments on drugs and alcohol – but we’re spending only $500 helping them find a job. That is the stark economics of the Government’s controversial move to hold back 50 per cent of the welfare payments of the unemployed and single mothers to ensure the money is spent on food, clothing, rent and utility bills. The push for mutual obligation in welfare – the idea that recipients have a duty to look for work, send their kids to school and spend their money on good food and rent – has great merit but it doesn’t come cheaply. Federal Parliament this week approved a new $350 million welfare quarantining scheme that will affect people who have been unemployed for 12 months, single mothers, those assessed as “vulnerable” to financial crisis, domestic violence or economic abuse and those referred to Centrelink for income management by child protection officers.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
As’ad Abdul Rahman; 19/3/10
Since 1948, Israel has worn various disguises. This became acutely evident with the release of the Goldstone Report, with Israel trying to minimise the damage, leading a battle to sway public opinion of global TV witnesses of the carnage committed against civilians in Gaza.The ensuing diplomatic campaign evolved to contain the negative effects of the report, especially after high-ranking Israeli officials were accused of war crimes. “The Israel Defence Forces is not taking the Goldstone Report lightly,” said army Major General Amir Eshel. “The issue of legitimacy for Israel is very significant, because we are not living in a vacuum … There is no doubt that the state of Israel has a problem, and the Goldstone Report has reflected it more strongly.”Israel has been pathologically focused on any threat against its existence. This obsession has led to a military mindset which feels a continuous need for war, and also explains its fixation on possessing the most advanced deterrent forces.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Israel & Palestine, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
Bassam Za’za’, 19/3/10
An Iraqi supervisor and his son were on Thursday jailed for five years each after being convicted of forcing two Iraqi teenage girls into prostitution and dirty dancing. The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 47-year-old father, Q.D. and his 30-year-old son, W.D., of human trafficking. The court ruled that both father and son had exploited the financial hardships faced by the girls, a 13-year-old student and a 19-year-old visitor, and forced them into the sex industry after conspiring with their mothers.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Dubai, Prostitution, Womens Rights
Posted in Aid / Trade, Asia, Womens Rights | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
Habib Toumi; 19/3/10
Kuwait’s parliament is heading towards more divisions after a conservative lawmaker pledged to bring up in the parliament the issue of making the veil mandatory for elected and appointed officials. “It is obvious that according to the constitution that states that Islam is the country’s religion, and to the rules, women elected to parliament or appointed as ministers should wear the veil,” MP Mohammad Al Hayef said. “The government is not able to apply the law or to impose the veil on its minister, Moudhi Al Humood. The government seems not able to choose a veiled ministry. Therefore, we will take up the issue to the parliament and allow the nation to see how the law is being broken,” he said at the weekly parliamentary session.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Human Rights, Kuwait, Religion, Womens Rights
Posted in Asia, Human Rights, Religion, Womens Rights | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
Wesley Aird; 19/3/10
Wesley Aird is a member of the Gold Coast Native Title Group and a board member of the Bennelong Society.
Once again, we are reminded there are things we should and shouldn’t say in relation to indigenous people. When Tony Abbott recently called into question the practice of the welcome to country ceremony, his comments attracted strong reactions for and against. There is a time and a place to respect culture but not for tokenism. When it comes to the common welcome to country ceremony, what happens far too often is an in-house event manager looks around at the last minute for an elderly Aborigine to do the welcome or the event host delivers some droll recitation lacking any feeling for relationships or land. To hear our culture being used to tick a policy box is infuriating. Ceremonies such as this probably do more harm than good and, to quote the federal Opposition Leader, “seems like out-of-place tokenism”
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Reconciliation
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Racism | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
Anne Chaon; 19/3/10
Lobbied aggressively by Japan, delegates at a UN wildlife trade meeting on Thursday massively rejected a ban on cross-border commerce in Atlantic bluefin tuna, a sushi mainstay. The controversial proposal was crushed with 68 votes against, 20 in favour and 30 abstentions at a meeting in Doha of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). To pass, the measure needed the support of two-thirds of the nations present. Industrial-scale harvesting on the high-seas has caused bluefin stocks to plummet by up to 80 percent in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, the two regions that would have been affected by the ban.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Environment, UN
Posted in Aid / Trade, Environment, United Nations | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
19/3/10
DNA tests have allowed a judge in Miami to reunite a baby rescued from the rubble of the earthquake in Haiti with her parents. Aid workers, meanwhile, say the 33 children illegally taken by US missionaries in the aftermath of the quake have been reunited with their families. The baby was two months old when she was pulled alive from the ruins in Port-au-Prince, four days after the quake in which 220,000 people died. An American rescue team believed baby Jenny was an orphan and flew her to the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami for treatment. She was dubbed ”the miracle baby” after surviving for so long without milk or water. DNA tests proved she was the daughter of Nadine Devilme and Junior Alexis, who lost everything in the earthquake on January 12.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Christianity, Haiti, Human Rights, USA
Posted in Christianity, Health & Children, Human Rights, USA | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
AHoward Godenburg; 18/3/10
Howard Goldenberg is a GP whose work in remote Aboriginal communities is described in his recent book, Raft (Hybrid, 2009).
The battle with the bottle is not restricted to Australia’s outback.I AM working in my city general practice when the phone rings. The receptionist’s voice is urgent: Howard, there’s a man collapsed outside on the street. Can you go? I can. Grabbing a few tools, I race out into the street, where a small crowd is gathering around a man in a suit. He lies flat on his back on the footpath outside the bookshop. Behind his head is a cylindrical object in a brown paper bag. Liquor leaks through the paper. The man lies hard against the foot of a large window displaying the cream of our written culture. He would have leaned against the window for support, fallen and stayed where he fell.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Drugs
Posted in Aboriginal, Australia, Drugs | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
Roger Boyes; 19/3/10
The most famous choir in the world has been caught up in the wave of paedophile scandals sweeping Germany and Austria, with eight former choristers denouncing their teachers in the past few days. An open letter from the management of the Vienna Boys’ Choir to parents expressed regret at the incidents, which were recounted by former singers now aged between 40 and 70. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, called yesterday for truth and clarity in investigating paedophile abuse not only in church institutions but everywhere within the educational system. “We all agree that sexual abuse against children is a despicable crime,” she told parliament. So far about 300 claims of sexual abuse have been made by former pupils of German church schools and of non-denominational boarding schools, which have upset Church-State relations.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Christianity, Germany, Pedophilia
Posted in Christianity, Health & Children, Human Rights | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
John Lyons; 19/3/10; (4 Items)
Israel’s inner cabinet is trying to formulate a response that will satisfy the Obama administration as a way to restart the Middle East peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held marathon meetings with the six most powerful ministers to come up with a course of action that will satisfy the US, particularly Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In a 43-minute phone call this week between Mrs Clinton and Mr Netanyahu, a fiery Secretary of State demanded that Israel reply to questions following the visit to Israel of US Vice-President Joe Biden. The deliberations with the six ministers – Avigdor Lieberman, Eli Yishai, Ehud Barak, Moshe Yaalon, Dan Meridor and Benny Begin – came as US President Barack Obama denied a crisis, saying: “We and the Israeli people have a special bond that’s not going to go away. But friends are going to disagree sometimes … there is a disagreement in terms of how we can move this peace process forward,” he said, urging Israelis and Palestinians to rebuild trust.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Settlers, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Israel & Palestine, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
March 18th, 2010
18/3/10; http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/18/2849996.htm?section=justin
A committee of the European parliament will consider evidence that more than 15 countries in the European Union are exporting torture equipment. Amnesty International says regulations introduced four years ago to outlaw the trade are failing. The devices named by Amnesty include thumb screws, electric stun belts and body hangers, which it says can be used in conjunction with what are known as foot heaters. Amnesty says the companies that make the equipment are often the same companies that make regular police equipment, like handcuffs and batons. These sidelines, according to Amnesty, are produced by companies in Germany, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic and sold to regimes around the world with little respect for human rights.
Europe, Terrorism
Tags: Europe, Terrorism
Posted in Terrorism | No Comments »
March 18th, 2010
18/3/10
A professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh has called for the construction of extra floors just for women at the Grand Mosque in Makkah in order to prevent them from mingling with men during tawaf (circling of the Holy Kaaba) and prayers. “Mingling of sexes is not allowed in the Grand Mosque and outside the mosque according to the Shariah,” Dr. Yousuf Al-Ahmed told Arab News. “There are two types of mingling of sexes; mingling that takes place casually in the passages and at the Jamrat in Mina; and permanent mingling that takes place during tawaf causing congestion and harm to women,” Al-Ahmed told Arab News. Al-Ahmed called for the building of separate floors for women after demolishing the expansions carried out during the Ottoman era and the rule of King Saud, adding that it would create more room for the increasing number of pilgrims who come for Haj and Umrah.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Human Rights, Religion, Saudi Arabia
Posted in Asia, Human Rights, Religion, Womens Rights | No Comments »
March 18th, 2010
Francis Matthew; 18/3/10
The present crisis between the US and Israel bears all the marks of a classic Netanyahu scheme in which he establishes some minor points with a lot of noise to distract attention from the main issue. Unfortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is close to succeeding, so the Palestinian leadership need to keep their nerve and focus on the main agenda.Too many people are getting distracted into talking about stopping the building of 1,600 extra houses that Israel has announced, and they are not talking about the main issue which is the removal of the thousands of colonies from all over the West Bank.Netanyahu is thoroughly untrustworthy, and people who remember his first term as prime minister will remember how he managed to run rings around the Palestinians and Americans. He gave no ground at all on important issues as he strung out the peace talks, but he continually floated distractions which he would defend to the bitter end and then give way with a lot of drama and shouting.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Human Rights, Isarel, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Israel & Palestine, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
March 18th, 2010
Diarmuid Jeffreys; 18/3/10
The three-year conflict that set Communist North Korea against a South Korea supported by a UN coalition headed by the US. It was the first armed confrontation of the Cold War and by the time a truce was agreed in 1953, two million soldiers and two million civilians had been killed or wounded. Six decades on, the conflict is still not formally resolved. Troops from both sides continue to face each other across the 38th parallel, while the relationship between Washington and Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, is dominated by acrimonious quarrels over the latter’s nuclear weapons programme. But there is another bitter and intractable dispute that continues to haunt both sides. North Korea alleges that the US used biological weapons against Korean civilians during the war– dropping “germ” bombs containing insects, shellfish and feathers infected with anthrax, typhoid and bubonic plague on villages across the country.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Arms, Korea, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Arms, Asia, Human Rights, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
March 18th, 2010
Mark Metherell; 18/3/10
Rising alcohol abuse in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands, partly spurred by Australian beer, has prompted calls for alcohol companies to contribute more to counter the problem. A survey commissioned by the Australian National Council on Drugs found there has been a dramatic increase in alcohol-related violence and other drug problems in Pacific countries. The report, compiled by the Burnet Institute, names five countries – Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Fiji, the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu – where alcohol has been blamed for increases in domestic violence. Some countries, including Tonga and the Cook Islands, reported increases in illicit drug availability.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Australia, Drugs, Pacific
Posted in Australia, Drugs, Pacific Region | No Comments »
March 18th, 2010
Christopher Hitchens; 18/3/10
On March 10, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, the Reverend Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, and that “when one speaks of `the smoke of Satan’ in the holy rooms, it is all true, including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia”. This can perhaps be taken as confirmation that something horrible has indeed been going on in the holy precincts, though most inquiries show it to have a perfectly good material explanation. Concerning the most recent revelations about the steady complicity of the Vatican in the ongoing, indeed endless, scandal of child rape, a few days later a spokesman for the Holy See made a concession in the guise of a denial. It was clear, said the Reverend Federico Lombardi, that an attempt was being made “to find elements to involve the Holy Father personally in issues of abuse”. He went on to say that “those efforts have failed”. He was wrong twice. In the first place, nobody has had to strive to find such evidence: it has surfaced, as it was bound to do. In the second place, this extension of the awful scandal to the top-most level of the Roman Catholic Church has only just begun.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Christianity, Pedophilia
Posted in Christianity, Health & Children, Human Rights | No Comments »
