tagged w/ United Nations
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CNN...
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A nuclear clash could starve the world
By Jayantha Dhanapala and Ira Helfand, Special to CNN
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updated 7:57 AM EDT, Fri May 11, 2012
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Sunao Tsuboi, who suffered horrific burns in Hiroshima, holds a photo of himself and friends taken hours after the explosion.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Writers: India, Pakistan and North Korea missile tests bring up dangers of nuclear war
Study shows war using half of 1% of global nuke arsenals would set off world famine
U.S. and Russia have huge nuclear arsenals, they say, a lethal holdover from Cold War
It's urgent for talks about reducing arsenals, they write, with a ban on weapons the goal
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Editor's note: Jayantha Dhanapala is a former ambassador to the United States from Sri Lanka, U.N. under-secretary general for disarmament and chairman of the 1995 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference. Ira Helfand is the past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility and current North American vice president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
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(CNN) -- Recent ballistic missile tests by India, Pakistan and North Korea -- which has ominously threatened to "reduce to ashes" the South Korean military "in minutes" -- are once again focusing the world's attention on the dangers of nuclear war.
This concern was dramatically underscored in a new report released at the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit in Chicago. Titled "Nuclear Famine: A Billion People at Risk" (PDF), the study shows that even a limited nuclear war, involving less than half of 1% of the world's nuclear arsenals, would cause climate disruption that could set off a global famine.
The study, prepared by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and its U.S. affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility, used a scenario of 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs exploded in a war between India and Pakistan. If there were such a war, the study estimated that 1 billion people, one-sixth of the human race, could starve over the following decade.
Along with recent events, these findings require a fundamental change in our thinking about nuclear weapons.
The study, in positing a war between India and Pakistan, shows the importance of understanding that smaller nuclear powers, not just the United States and Russia, pose a threat to the whole world.
But the greater lesson concerns the forces of the larger nuclear powers. Each U.S. Trident submarine can destroy 100 cities and produce the global famine described in the study. The United States has 14 of them, a fleet of land-based nuclear missiles, and an arsenal of nuclear weapons that can be delivered by bombers. The Russians possess the same grotesque overkill capacity.
Even the most ambitious arms reductions under discussion would leave the United States and Russia with 300 warheads each, most of them 10 to 30 times larger than a Hiroshima sized bomb. This would be a massive arsenal capable of producing the global famine scenario many, many times over.
These arsenals are an archaic, but lethal, holdover from the Cold War. Their continued existence poses an ongoing threat to all humanity.
Steps can and should be taken immediately to lessen this danger. Substantial numbers of these weapons remain on what The New York Times has described as "hair-trigger alert." They can be fired in 15 minutes or less and destroy cities a continent away 30 minutes later. This alert posture creates the needless danger of an accidental or unintended launch, and the United States and Russia have had many close calls, preparing to launch a nuclear strike at the other under the mistaken belief they were under attack.
The most recent of these near-misses that we know about took place in January 1995, well after the end of the Cold War. The United States and Russia should stand down their nuclear arsenals so that it takes longer to launch their missiles, lessening the danger of an accidental war. U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladamir Putin can take this step on their own without negotiating a formal treaty.
Beyond this, it is time to begin urgent talks aimed at reducing the U.S. and Russian arsenals as the next essential step toward multilateral negotiations for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, a binding, verifiable, enforceable treaty that eliminates nuclear weapons altogether.
As former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev observed on reviewing the new "Nuclear Famine" study: "I am convinced that nuclear weapons must be abolished. Their use in a military conflict is unthinkable; using them to achieve political objectives is immoral.
"Over 25 years ago, President Ronald Reagan and I ended our summit meeting in Geneva with a joint statement that 'Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,' and this new study underscores in stunning and disturbing detail why this is the case."
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writers.
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A nuclear clash could starve the world
By Jayantha Dhanapala and Ira... more
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Worldwidehippies,UN - United Nations top officials today highlighted the power of press freedom to spark social and political change and to hold governments accountable, stressing that this vital right must be ensured across the world by creating the conditions that allow journalists to perform their work safely.Worldwidehippies,UN - United Nations top officials today highlighted the power of... more
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A film by Bryan Law and Dan Dicks "United We Fall" is a documentary about the North American Union that is being developed right now between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. For years this topic has been debated in the news and in political circles as being a possible future for North America. In recent years, the mood has shifted and a rift is developing between those who want a Deeply Integrated North American Community, and those who wish to retain their national sovereignty. This film takes a look at both sides by interviewing both insiders and activists who have been at the heart of this heated debate. The film also looks to the broader agenda of building a world government and its implications.
Featured Interviews:
Robert Pastor (Council on Foreign Relations)
Allan Gotlieb (Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg)
Herbert Grubel (Creator of the "Amero")
John Manley (President of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives)
Luke Rudkowski (We Are Change)
Dan Dicks (Press For Truth)
Vijay Sarma (Political Activist, Independent Journalist)
Dr. Andrew Moulden (Canadian Action Party)
Richard Syrett (Talk Radio Host)
United We Fall
Three Nations.
Two Sides.
One Union.
Directed by Bryan Law
Produced by Dan Dicks & Bryan LawA film by Bryan Law and Dan Dicks "United We Fall" is a documentary about... more
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NEW YORK, March 27 (IBON) — Civil society organizations (CSOs) and some government delegates, who are attending preparatory events this week for the United Nations’ upcoming Rio+20 conference in June, criticized attempts by a few powerful parties to weaken references to human rights obligations in the negotiating text.NEW YORK, March 27 (IBON) — Civil society organizations (CSOs) and some... more
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Eighty per cent of Bangladesh lies on a floodplain less than 5 metres above sea level. As sea levels rise and seasonal storms become more severe, millions of farmers living along the country's southern coast could lose their land and livelihoods, putting the entire country's food security at risk. Fighting against time, six branches of government and international donors work together to help farmers adapt.
http://youtu.be/auFoBr1PaqsEighty per cent of Bangladesh lies on a floodplain less than 5 metres above sea level.... more
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Hundreds of millions of children in cities across the world are growing up in poverty and enduring deprivation, according to a report unveiled today by the United Nations,Hundreds of millions of children in cities across the world are growing up in poverty... more
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"On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet. Dozens of countries, including Russia and China, are pushing hard to reach this goal by year's end. As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last June, his goal and that of his allies is to establish "international control over the Internet" through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a treaty-based organization under U.N. auspices.""On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new... more
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Even though most cities do not provide enough affordable housing, shelter space, and
food to meet the need, many cities use the criminal justice system to punish people living
on the street for doing things that they need to do to survive. Such measures often
prohibit activities such as sleeping/camping, eating, sitting, and/or begging in publicEven though most cities do not provide enough affordable housing, shelter space, and... more
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Two independent United Nations human rights experts today issued a joint call on Hungary to revise recent laws that criminalize homelessness and potentially imprison those living on the streets.Two independent United Nations human rights experts today issued a joint call on... more
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“Western politicians and media are not yet fighting World War III, but they are talking themselves into it.” What if pollsters put this question to citizens of the United States and the European Union : “Which is more important, ensuring disgruntled Islamists freedom to overthrow the secular regime in Syria, or avoiding World War Three?” ----------- I’ll bet that there might be a majority for avoiding World War III. ----------- But of course, the question is never framed like that. ------------ Who are Obama&Clinton's advisers? US&allies trying to destroy Syria&create a failed state.Whose interests do they repr?--- Media tends to depersonalize Syrians, unless they're opponents of "brutal Assad regime". Hope my images correct this. Know faces of Syrian people being targeted by militia,Al-Qaeda,Brit & Qatari forces http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/43055-road-to-damascus-and-on-to-armageddon-know-faces-of-syrian-people-being-targeted-by-imperialists-“Western politicians and media are not yet fighting World War III, but they are... more
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worrg
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A new United Nations report shows that almost 2,000 communities across Africa abandoned female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) last year, prompting calls for a renewed global push to end this harmful practice once and for all.A new United Nations report shows that almost 2,000 communities across Africa... more
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UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations Security Council effort to end the violence in Syria collapsed in acrimony with a double veto by Russia and China on Saturday, hours after the Syrian military attacked the city of Homs in what opposition leaders described as the deadliest government assault in the nearly 11-month uprising.
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2012/02/russia-and-china-veto-syria-resolution/UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations Security Council effort to end the violence in... more
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The United Nations says that the earth is in great danger and that the way you and I are living is the problem. In a shocking new report entitled, "Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing" the UN declares that the entire way that we currently approach economics needs to be changed. Instead of focusing on things like "economic growth", the UN is encouraging nations all over the world to start basing measurements of economic success on the goal of achieving "sustainable development". But there is a huge problem with that. The UN says that what we are doing right now is "unsustainable" by definition, and the major industrialized nations of the western world are the biggest culprits. According to the UN, since we are the ones that create the most carbon emissions and the most pollution, we are the ones that should make the biggest sacrifices. In addition, since we have the most money, we should also be willing to finance the transition of the developing world to a "sustainable development" economy as well. As you will see detailed in the rest of this article, the United Nations basically wants to crash the world economy in order to save the environment. Considering the fact that the U.S. and Europe are in the midst of a horrible economic crisis and are already drowning in debt, this is something that we simply cannot afford.The United Nations says that the earth is in great danger and that the way you and I... more
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CNN...
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THE CNN FREEDOM PROJECT ENDING MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
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January 19th, 2012
12:03 PM ET
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Child slavery and chocolate: All too easy to find
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In "Chocolate's Child Slaves," CNN's David McKenzie travels into the heart of the Ivory Coast to investigate children working in the cocoa fields.
(More information and air times on CNN International.)
By David McKenzie and Brent Swails, CNN
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CLICK ON CNN LINK (at top) TO VIEW THREE VIDEOS
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Daloa, Ivory Coast (CNN) - Chocolate’s billion-dollar industry starts with workers like Abdul. He squats with a gang of a dozen harvesters on an Ivory Coast farm.
Abdul holds the yellow cocoa pod lengthwise and gives it two quick cracks, snapping it open to reveal milky white cocoa beans. He dumps the beans on a growing pile.
Abdul is 10 years old, a three-year veteran of the job.
He has never tasted chocolate.
During the course of an investigation for CNN’s Freedom Project initiative - an investigation that went deep into the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast - a team of CNN journalists found that child labor, trafficking and slavery are rife in an industry that produces some of the world’s best-known brands.
It was not supposed to be this way.
After a series of news reports surfaced in 2001 about gross violations in the cocoa industry, lawmakers in the United States put immense pressure on the industry to change.
“We felt like the public ought to know about it, and we ought to take some action to try to stop it,” said Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who, together with Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, spearheaded the response. “How many people in America know that all this chocolate they are eating - candies and all of those wonderful chocolates - is being produced by terrible child labor?”
But after intense lobbying by the cocoa industry, lawmakers weren’t able to push through a law. What they got was a voluntary protocol, signed by the heads of the chocolate industry, to stop the worst forms of child labor “as a matter of urgency.” One of the key goals was to certify the cocoa trade as child-labor free.
“It was meant to achieve the end of child slave labor in cocoa fields,” Engel said.
It didn’t.
UNICEF estimates that nearly a half-million children work on farms across Ivory Coast, which produces nearly 40% of the world’s supply of cocoa. The agency says hundreds of thousands of children, many of them trafficked across borders, are engaged in the worst forms of child labor.
A recent study by Tulane University says the industry’s efforts to stop child labor are “uneven” and “incomplete” and that 97% of Ivory Coast’s farmers had not been reached. But the industry’s main representative in the country disagrees with the assessment.
“I think the situation has improved exponentially,” said Rabola Kagohi, country director for the International Cocoa Initiative, the chocolate industry’s answer to fighting child labor and trafficking. “Today, the message is physically getting through.”
Kagohi works out of a basement office with one other permanent employee.
“There are some results,” he said. “I wish that you had spoken to some planters.”
None of the farmers CNN spoke to in the heart of the cocoa production region said they had ever been reached by the International Cocoa Initiative, the government or chocolate companies about child trafficking.
Children such as Abdul don’t know anything about protocols or certification. All they know is work.
When Abdul’s mother died, a stranger brought him across the border to the farm. Abdul says all he’s given is a little food, the torn clothes on his back, and an occasional tip from the farmer. Abdul is a modern child slave.
And he is not the only youngster working in his group.
Yacou insisted he is 16, but his face looks far younger.
“My mother brought me from Burkina Faso when my father died,” he said.
Scars crisscross Yacou’s legs from a machete. He can’t clear grass in the cocoa fields without cutting himself. During harvest season, he works day after day hacking the cocoa pods.
The emotional scars run much deeper.
“I wish I could go to school. I want to read and write,” he said. But Yacou hasn’t spent a single day in school, and he has no idea how to leave the farm.
“It makes me angry,” Engel said. As far as he’s concerned, the chocolate companies haven't done enough.
“They are working with us, and we are glad that they are working with us. But they could do better.”
One of the major players in the Ivory Coast cocoa trade is, not surprisingly, the Ivorian government. Although the country has cornered a vast chunk of a lucrative market, it is considered one of the world’s poorest by any measure.
But the government leadership blames politics and war for the problems in the cocoa industry.
“Thirty years of political instability caused a lot of damage to our economy generally, and to the agricultural sector particularly, and more specifically to the cocoa industry,” said Ivory Coast’s minister of agriculture, Sangafowa Coulibaly. “Unfortunately, these years have been lost.”
After an attempted coup in 2002, the country was split in half and kept from all-out civil war by the United Nations. There was protracted violence after the last disputed presidential elections, when then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede.
With the new government of Alassane Ouattara in charge, the government says it can now put much-needed reforms in place.
“Things can only get better,” Coulibaly said. “The main reason is that today, the political crisis is behind us, the armed conflict is behind us.”
But many observers believe that a new government won’t make it a priority to stop slavery in the cocoa fields.
And with peace, traffickers are free to do their work again. U.N. officials told CNN that the Ivory Coast conflict actually helped slow down trafficking because people were too afraid to move across borders.
Contrary to the promises of action, CNN’s investigation could only find promises. And those promises are empty to children like Abdul and Yacou.
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Post by: CNN's Brent Swails, CNN's David McKenzie
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THE CNN FREEDOM PROJECT ENDING MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
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January 19th,... more
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United Nations Security Council decisions are portrayed as “the will of the international community,” and Security Council action in support of a national agenda confers moral authority upon that agenda. For this reason it is crucial to understand the tactics by which UN Security Council independence is frequently usurped, and the methods of coercion, intimidation and bribery used to extort approval from reluctant members of the Security Council, or from those members adamantly opposed to a particular course of action.United Nations Security Council decisions are portrayed as “the will of the... more
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http://youtu.be/C2uAmQfyxtI
Reading the headlines today, particularly about Iran's firing a cruise missile and threatening the U.S., I thought about how conflict arises and what happens after that.
Every work day I am expected to behave as an adult. If someone offends me or hurts my feelings, I am not free to react without reflection. It is my responsibility as an adult to consider the other person's motivations, along with the context of our interaction, and then act with maturity to ensure that we might continue to work together without conflict.
If conflict seems to be inevitable, it is my responsibility to talk with the other person to find the source of our differences and then make sincere efforts to reconcile those differences. If conflict continues, I must report the situation to my supervisor, who is charged with settling such matters so that our organization might go forward without disruption.
On the world's political stage, however, a different standard seems to apply. When one nation is offended or feels its interests have been violated by another, that nation often threatens war. This is why the United Nations was organized in the 1940s- to serve as a supervisor in matters where nations may be in conflict. Many people felt that the U.N. was a way to bring adult behavior into the geopolitical arena, and for a while there was hope that war could be abolished.
Since the 1940s, millions have died in conflicts that the U.N. was unable or unwilling to resolve, and many believe that the U.N. is a toothless organization which is a waste of time and money.
It is clear, then, that if we wish to stop war, we must individually resolve to turn away from the ideas and behaviors that lead to war: greed, fear, fanaticism, intolerance, and nationalism. If we do not resolve to so so, we will end our lives in a world where threats, fear, and destruction rule. Our world will slowly but inevitably be consumed in the fires we have ignited, and the opportunity for a life which includes learning, propsperity, and love will vanish. Inside the fireball of war, our souls and bodies will transform into heat and light which consumes our world and then vanishes into the silence which stretches into infinity around our planet. How will that serve anyone's interests?
Photo Attribution (All photos obtained via Creative Commons with attribution license):
Cruise Missile:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattie_shoes/4471192090/
U.N. Headquarters:
http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-3782297615
Gun Training:
http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-5497066531
Nuclear Fireball:
http://www.arteyfotografia.com.ar/2287/fotos/20810/
Earth:
http://www.soil-net.com/album/Places_Objects/slides/Globe%20Planet%20Earth%20NASA.htmlhttp://youtu.be/C2uAmQfyxtI
Reading the headlines today, particularly about... more
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Water scarcity can lead to both drought and desertification as well as instigate conflict in communities and between countries.
A top U.N. advisor said on Friday that every minute, 23 hectares of land are degraded by drought and desertification. He said it’s damaging the economic, social and environmental pillars needed for sustainable development.Water scarcity can lead to both drought and desertification as well as instigate... more
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GENEVA -- The U.N.'s top human rights official urged countries Thursday to abolish legal discrimination against gays, including the death penalty for consensual sex, days after the U.S. government said it would use foreign aid and diplomacy to promote gay equal rights.
The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said governments should also outlaw all forms of abuse based on sexual orientation and set the same age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual activity.
The report criticizes the continued existence of death penalty punishment for same-sex relations in at least five countries - Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen - as well as legislation explicitly criminalizing gays in 76 countries.
Last week, President Barack Obama directed government agencies to make sure U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote gay rights and fight discrimination. At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech to diplomats in Geneva, compared the struggle for gay equality to difficult passages toward women's rights and racial equality.
http://tinyurl.com/83wy27rGENEVA -- The U.N.'s top human rights official urged countries Thursday to... more
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LOrion
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6 months ago
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A number of protests are being held today at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban to protest the failure of world leaders to agree to immediately agree to a deal of binding emissions cuts. Anjali Appadurai, a student at the College of the Atlantic in Maine, addressed the conference on behalf of youth delegates. Just after her speech, she led a mic check from the stage — a move inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests. "It always seems impossible until it’s done," Appadurai said. "So, distinguished delegates and governments around the world, governments of the developed world: Deep [emissions] cuts now. Get it done.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/9/get_it_done_urging_climate_justiceA number of protests are being held today at the United Nations Climate Change... more
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