[GreenYouth] 64th Annivesary of Hiroshima Nuking: Mayor Akiba Calls for Global Nuclear Disarmament!
I/II. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jb7aYlanpMk7_1iLgokikpzKFh8wD99T562O0 Hiroshima mayor calls for abolishing nuke weapons By SHIZUO KAMBAYASHI (AP) – 1 hour ago HIROSHIMA, Japan — Hiroshima's mayor urged global leaders on Thursday to back President Barack Obama's call to abolish nuclear weapons as Japan marked the 64th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack. In April, Obama said that the United States — the only nation that has deployed atomic bombs in combat — has a moral responsibility to act and declared his goal to rid the world of the weapons. At a solemn ceremony to commemorate the victims of the Aug. 6, 1945, attack, Hiroshima's Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba welcomed that commitment. We refer to ourselves, the great global majority, as the 'Obamajority,' and we call on the rest of the world to join forces with us to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020, Akiba said. The bombed-out dome of the building preserved as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial loomed in the background, and hundreds of white doves were released into the air as he finished speaking. About 50,000 attended the ceremony, including officials and visitors from countries around the world, though the United States did not have an official representative at the ceremony. Hiroshima was instantly flattened and an estimated 140,000 people were killed or died within months when the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped its deadly payload in the waning days of World War II. Three days after that attack on Hiroshima, the U.S. dropped a plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II. A total of about 260,000 victims of the attack are officially recognized by the government, including those that have died of related injuries or sickness in the decades since. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso also spoke at Thursday's ceremony, saying he hoped the world would follow Tokyo's efforts to limit nuclear proliferation. Japan will continue to uphold its three non-nuclear principles and lead the international community toward the abolishment of nuclear weapons and lasting peace, he said. The three principles state that Japan will not make, own or harbor nuclear weapons. Later in the day, Aso signed an agreement with a group of atomic bomb survivors who had been seeking recognition and expanded health benefits from the government. The anniversary passed during a period of heightened tensions in the region, just months after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test blast in May. A similar ceremony will be held in Nagasaki on Sunday. *Associated Press writer Jay Alabaster contributed to this report.* II. http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/hugh-gusterson/hiroshima-and-the-power-of-pictures Hiroshima and the power of pictures BY HUGH GUSTERSON | 5 AUGUST 2009 Sixty-four years ago this week the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs. Whether we endorse or condemn the bombings, how do we grasp the enormity of the destruction that befell those two unfortunate Japanese cities? The last survivors of the bombings are passing into history, taking with them the power of their living witness. But for me, the full force of the bombings has always come from pictures more than words. There is, of course, the iconic imagehttp://static.open.salon.com/files/hiroshima145155.jpg of the mushroom cloud rising above Hiroshima, and the famous aerial picturehttp://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2004/12/31/hiroshima_wideweb__430x323.jpg of an almost entirely flattened city. But both pictures have a distanced and abstract quality, bereft as they are of people. As aerial shots, both pictures also embody the point of view of those who dropped the Bomb more than those who experienced its destructive power close-up. The naïveté about the physical effects of nuclear weapons after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki deformed public debates about nuclear weapons policy in the years after World War II just as our ignorance today about the full range of detainee abuse in Iraq is inhibiting a fully candid and informed debate about that war. To grasp the victims' experience, you have to move to the ground and zoom in. Images like this incongruously formal portraithttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PgfRBZetNGE/SJmvmAcg6dI/AI8/H3RfT1McG9Q/s400/hiroshima-portrait-100days-ga.jpg of mother and child use urban destruction as a backdrop to evoke the existential isolation of survivors stranded in a ruined landscape. This image also reminds us that, with most adult men fighting at the front, the majority of victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were women and children. Harder to look at, pictures like thishttp://www.tamilnation.org/images/humanrights/hiroshima1.gif show what the Bomb did to human bodies. In her book *Regarding the Pain of Others*, Susan Sontag describes the best war pictures as the visual equivalent of sound bites,
[GreenYouth] Re: Right to Education Bill passed by the Lok Sabha Unanimously
Nothing is farcical than this Bill. Firstly, it states nothing about pre-schooling to prepare the child for the first standard thereby impliedly approving the multi-million dollar nursery school business. Apparently students in the govt. schools lack adequate skills than their peers in private schools; Secondly, When the 10th standard has the public exam and students who pass through it have a decent asic qualification to their credit, this Bill talks nothing about free education upto 10th standard; When minister Sibal says his govt. will focus on higher education, it plainly means the govt. would support the plunderers who run the private educational institutions and will even provide education loan to the students to join these criminal institutions who evade tax to the govt. in the name of running a CHARITABLE TRUST . Nothing prevents the govt. from passing a pro-people law rather than a PRO- PLUNDERER'S LAW like this. V.P.SARATHI On 5 Aug, 20:30, Sukla Sen sukla@gmail.com wrote: Indian Parliament has unanimously passed the Right to Education bill on Tuesday. It will pave way for free and compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years in India. Also look up for the history (till July 19 2006): http://www.ilpnet.org/rte/ and another news item: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/ india/Education-is-now-a-right/articleshow/4858277.cms. http://abclive.in/abclive_national/india_right_to_education_bill.html Indian Parliament Passes Right to Education Bill05 August, 2009 07:05:00Jatinder - Kaur http://abclive.in/abclive_national/author/jatinder/ *New Delhi (ABC Live): Indian Parliament has unanimously passed the Right to Education bill on Tuesday.* New Delhi (ABC Live): Indian Parliament has unanimously passed the Right to Education bill on Tuesday. It will pave way for free and compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years in India. Debate on the Bill was taken up in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, which passed the bill. Speaking about the Bill, Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said that it is responsibility of the state governments to implement the provisions of the Bill. He said as far as disabled clause is concerned, proper care has been taken in the Bill in this regard. He also said that availability of money for implementing the bill would not be a problem and the Centre and state governments would settle the matter. The HRD Minister also said that availability of money for implementing the bill would not be a problem and the Centre and state governments would settle the matter. Clarifying the doubts raised by members about absence of any mechanism to provide pre-school education to children before attaining the age of six years, Sibal said, This Bill is drafted in accordance with the the constitutional amendment that provides for free and compulsory education for children between the age of 6 and 14 years. http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=128224090688h=HX1vbu=Ocki... --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] UK National ID card cloned in 12 minutes
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/06/237215/uk-national-id-card-cloned-in-12-minutes.htm cite Using a Nokia mobile phone and a laptop computer, Laurie was able to copy the data on a card that is being issued to foreign nationals in minutes. He then created a cloned card, and with help from another technology expert, changed all the data on the new card. This included the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and other information. /cite --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~--- pgpQDfnhdZ89n.pgp Description: PGP signature
[GreenYouth] Re: Right to Education Bill passed by the Lok Sabha Unanimously
The Bill falls significantly short of what it should have had been. In very many ways. No doubt about that. But it also marks a significant improvement over, at least opens up very real possibilities in that direction, the actual situation as obtains today. Hence, the struggle ahead should be twofold. One, close monitoring of the actual implementation of the Act at the ground level including enabling legislations by the concerned state governments. Two, fight for extending the present, and inadequate, ambit taking off from the legtimisation of the right to education through this enactment. Hysterical shrieks are hardly any substitute for a sound and well thought out strategy for taking the struggle to the next higher phase. In fact, these are obviously self-defeating tending to encourage disengagement from actual struggles. Sukla On 8/6/09, sarathi vpslawf...@gmail.com wrote: Nothing is farcical than this Bill. Firstly, it states nothing about pre-schooling to prepare the child for the first standard thereby impliedly approving the multi-million dollar nursery school business. Apparently students in the govt. schools lack adequate skills than their peers in private schools; Secondly, When the 10th standard has the public exam and students who pass through it have a decent asic qualification to their credit, this Bill talks nothing about free education upto 10th standard; When minister Sibal says his govt. will focus on higher education, it plainly means the govt. would support the plunderers who run the private educational institutions and will even provide education loan to the students to join these criminal institutions who evade tax to the govt. in the name of running a CHARITABLE TRUST . Nothing prevents the govt. from passing a pro-people law rather than a PRO- PLUNDERER'S LAW like this. V.P.SARATHI On 5 Aug, 20:30, Sukla Sen sukla@gmail.com wrote: Indian Parliament has unanimously passed the Right to Education bill on Tuesday. It will pave way for free and compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years in India. Also look up for the history (till July 19 2006): http://www.ilpnet.org/rte/ and another news item: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/ india/Education-is-now-a-right/articleshow/4858277.cms. http://abclive.in/abclive_national/india_right_to_education_bill.html Indian Parliament Passes Right to Education Bill05 August, 2009 07:05:00Jatinder - Kaur http://abclive.in/abclive_national/author/jatinder/ *New Delhi (ABC Live): Indian Parliament has unanimously passed the Right to Education bill on Tuesday.* New Delhi (ABC Live): Indian Parliament has unanimously passed the Right to Education bill on Tuesday. It will pave way for free and compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years in India. Debate on the Bill was taken up in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, which passed the bill. Speaking about the Bill, Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said that it is responsibility of the state governments to implement the provisions of the Bill. He said as far as disabled clause is concerned, proper care has been taken in the Bill in this regard. He also said that availability of money for implementing the bill would not be a problem and the Centre and state governments would settle the matter. The HRD Minister also said that availability of money for implementing the bill would not be a problem and the Centre and state governments would settle the matter. Clarifying the doubts raised by members about absence of any mechanism to provide pre-school education to children before attaining the age of six years, Sibal said, This Bill is drafted in accordance with the the constitutional amendment that provides for free and compulsory education for children between the age of 6 and 14 years. http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=128224090688h=HX1vbu=Ocki... --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] Fwd: Forwarded from Human Rights Watch: Abusive and Abused
-- Forwarded message -- From: website-automa...@hrw.org Date: Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 7:27 AM Subject: Forwarded from Human Rights Watch: Abusive and Abused To: kmvenuan...@gmail.com HRW.org visitor sent you this article from Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org Abusive and Abused Published in the International Herald Tribune [1] Read the complete article: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/08/04/abusive-and-abused -- A visitor to the HRW website forwarded this article. Human Rights Watch is not responsible for the contents of the email message, which does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Human Rights Watch. -- [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/opinion/04iht-edshah.html?_r=1amp;ref=global -- http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[GreenYouth] The Right to Education Bill: An Informed Analysis
[This note is admittedly somewhat old. But, as it appears, there has been no (substantive) change in the Bill since. So the analysis still holds. This one is a rather harsh critique. It clearly brings out how it falls significaantly short of what it should have had been. But it comprehensively debunks the notion that the Bill, in any way, would worsen the situation as it actually obtains today. Hence the operative part: Quote (T)he Bill in the present form, on the other hand, perpetuates the inequality and unjust discrimination amongst the children in the matter of right to education. That while expressing the above concerns regarding the serious drawbacks of the RTE Bill, 2008 particularly when it fails the test of Constitutional mandate, it cannot be over emphasised that the Bill should not be delayed any further on account of need to have a more comprehensive national debate on the same in the interest of the future of the children. Unquote Evidently, all those concerned with universalising and actualising the right to eduction must gear up for two tasks now. One, closely monitoring the (purported) Act for implementation at the ground level including necessary legislations by the state governments, which are now to follow. Two, launch a campaign for expanding its ambit further capitalising on the legitimacy provided to the concept of ensuring right to education for every child by the state through active intervention through this Bill/Act. Sukla http://advashokagarwal.blogspot.com/2009/02/right-of-children-to-free-and.html TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2009THE RIGHT OF CHILDREN TO FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION BILL, 2008 FAILS THE TEST OF CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATEhttp://advashokagarwal.blogspot.com/2009/02/right-of-children-to-free-and.html The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008 (hereinafter referred to as RTE Bill, 2008) introduced by the Central Government in the Rajya Sabha on 15 December 2008 though appears to be a progressive legislation but on examination thereof, it is not difficult to conclude that the same does not stand the test of constitutional mandate guaranteed under Article 14 (right to equality), Article 21 (right to life with dignity), Article 21-A (right to education) and Article 38 (right to social justice) of the Constitution of India. Undoubtedly, some of the provisions of the RTE Bill, 2008 are laudable. Section 3 talks of right to free and compulsory education and admission in a neighbourhood school. Section 4 talks of admission of child in class appropriate to his or her age. Sections 8 9 talk of obligations of the government to provide compulsory education to children. Section 12 talks of obligation of the unaided recognised private schools to provide free seats to the extent of 25% to the children of the economically weaker sections. Section 13 (1) talks of “no capitation fee” and “no screening procedure” for admission. Section 14 talks of admission without insisting upon production of age proof. Section 16 talks of “no expulsion of a child”. Section 17 bans corporal punishment. Section 23 talks of formation of school management committees. Section 23 ensures recruitment of only qualified teachers. Section 25 talks of ensuring Pupil-Teacher Ratio as specified in the schedule. Section 32 talks of grievance redressal mechanism. On the other hand, several provisions of the RTE Bill, 2008 are meant to legalise and to perpetuate the existing unjust and discriminatory school education system based on socio-economic status. Section 3 (b) defines “capitation fee” means any kind of donation or contribution or payment other than the fee notified by the school. The import of this provision is that a school is free to notify any amount of fee whether needed or not and once it is notified, it will be legal. The Bill does not provide any fee regulatory mechanism to check the menace of commercialisation of education. Moreover, the right of every child to receive free and compulsory education as guaranteed under Articles 21 and 21-A of the Constitution does not depend on the capacity of the parents to afford fee or not. Therefore, every child whether studying in private or State-run school, is entitled to free education. The State should bear the entire expenses even of the children studying in private-run schools. On the other hand, Section 8 disentitles a child studying in such private school even to claim from the State the reimbursement of expenditure incurred. Section 2 (n) instead of permitting only same category of schools for all the children, sanctifies different categories of schools for the children of different socio-economic status. Most objectionable is; “a school belonging to specified category”. Section 2 (p) defines “specified category” in relation to a school, means a school known as Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sainik School or any other school having a distinct character which may be specified by notification, by the appropriate Government. How can you have
[GreenYouth] Fwd: link to Alternet essay on Corporates capitalism
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141668/consciousness_capitalism%3A_corporations_are_now_after_our_very_beings/?page=entire --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Green Youth Movement group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
