An estimated 10.5 million children worldwide, most of them under age, are working as domestic workers in people’s homes, in hazardous and sometimes slavery-like conditions, says the ILO. Six and a half million of these child labourers are aged between five and 14 years-old. More than 71% are girls.
According to the latest figures in a new ILO report, ‘Ending Child Labour in domestic work’, they work in the homes of a third party or employer, carrying out tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, gardening, collecting water, looking after other children and caring for the elderly.
Vulnerable to physical, psychological and sexual violence and abusive working conditions, they are often isolated from their families, hidden from the public eye and become highly dependent on their employers. Many might end up being commercially sexually exploited.
“The situation of many child domestic workers not only constitutes a serious violation of child rights, but remains an obstacle to the achievement of many national and international development objectives,” said Constance Thomas, Director of the ILO’s international program on the elimination of child labour, IPEC.
The report, launched to mark World Day Against Child Labour, calls for concerted and joint action at national and international levels to eliminate child labour in domestic work.
STUDENTS from 10 schools attended a ceremony marking World Day Against Child Labour at the Suva Civic Centre yesterday.
The theme for 2013 is ‘No to Child Labour in Domestic Work’.
Chief guest and acting permanent secretary for Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Samuela Namosimalua highlighted the issue of child labour in Fiji.
“The consequences of child labour on the life opportunities of those affected are difficult to measure. No price can be placed on the cost of lost childhood, or the psychological and emotional damage suffered by children trapped in child labour, particularly hazardous child labour,” Mr Namosimalua said.
He said while the awareness on the issue of commercial child labour had “probably never been greater than it is today”, children missing school to attend to domestic work was a problem often overlooked.
“Many a time, we hear that some children have to stay home and away from school to look after their younger siblings.”
Mr Namosimalua urged members of the public to report any instances of child labour to the Labour Ministry.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela is in a “serious but stable” condition after being admitted to a Pretoria hospital on Saturday due to a recurrence of a lung infection, the country’s government has said.
Nelson Mandela was readmitted to hospital early on Saturday with a renewed lung infection and was in “serious but stable condition,” South Africa’s presidency said, marking the second hospital stay in as many months for the ailing anti-apartheid icon.
“During the past few days former president Nelson Mandela has had a recurrence of lung infection,” President Jacob Zuma’s office said in a statement.
“This morning at about 1:30 am (2330 GMT Friday) his condition deteriorated and he was transferred to a Pretoria hospital. He remains in a serious but stable condition,” it said.
It marks the second hospitalisation in as many months for the frail anti-apartheid hero, who will turn 95 in July. On April 6 he was released after being treated for pneumonia during a 10-day stay.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has stayed in hospital four times in just over half a year, mostly over problems with his chest.
In December 2012, he was hospitalised for 18 days for a lung infection and for gallstones surgery, his longest stay in hospital since he walked free from 27 years in jail in 1990.
In March he was admitted for a day for a scheduled check-up and during his 10-day stay weeks later, doctors drained a build-up of fluid, known as a pleural effusion or “water on the lungs”, that had developed in his chest.
Zuma’s office said on Saturday that “the former President is receiving expert medical care and doctors are doing everything possible to make him better and comfortable.”
“President Jacob Zuma, on behalf of government and the nation, wishes Madiba a speedy recovery and requests the media and the public to respect the privacy of Madiba and his family.”
Anti-government protests in Turkey are entering a second week
Police in the Turkish capital Ankara have used tear gas and water cannon on demonstrators as anti-government protests get into a second week.
About 5,000 people had gathered in Kizilay Square in the city centre. Protesters and police also clashed in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city.
Turkey has seen a week of civil unrest sparked by a police crackdown on a local protest over an Istanbul park.
Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out early elections.
“You don’t decide on early elections because people are marching on the streets,” he said.
Local and presidential elections would take place next year as scheduled, said an official from Mr Erdogan’s governing AKP (Justice and Development Party). A general election is due in 2015.
The AKP has been in power in Turkey since 2002. Protesters say the government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and imposing Islamist values on a secular state.
In Istanbul, supporters of three rival football clubs – Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas – set aside their differences to march together to Taksim Square, the epicentre of the protests.
“We’re here against fascism, all together, shoulder to shoulder. Actually we should be thanking Tayyip Erdogan for bringing us together. He united the entire country [against him],” an unnamed Fenerbahce supporter told the Associated Press.
By Selcan Hacaoglu & Taylan Bilgic – Jun 8, 2013 11:58 AM CT
Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
Demonstrators wave Turkish flags with portraits of Kemal Ataturk during a protest in Istanbul on June 6, 2013.
Huseyin Celik, deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party, denied opposition demands for early elections and said the country won’t bow to financial speculators seeking to profit from the unrest.
Celik, speaking after a more than four-hour meeting of the party’s executive committee in Istanbul today, said that while the government would listen to “legitimate demands” from the people, elections would only take place as planned in 2015.
“There is absolutely no reason that would require early elections,” Celik said, rebuffing earlier comments from opposition leader Devlet Bahceli. The government won’t “bow to demands from government opponents or the interest rate lobby.”
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who returned yesterday from North Africa amid protesters’ calls for his resignation, led the party meeting. The event was brought forward from June 19 after rallies against plans to build on parkland in central Istanbul turned into anti-government demonstrations.
After several speeches condemning protesters, Erdogan yesterday spent time defending his government’s democratic credentials and environmental record. He condemned the protesters’ methods, saying they were violent, while expressing readiness to listen to demands voiced democratically.
Thousands of protesters held peaceful vigils against the government in Ankara and Istanbul yesterday, while police fired tear-gas canisters to disperse a group of demonstrators who had set roadblocks on fire in the low-income Gazi neighborhood of Istanbul, according to a report in Zaman newspaper today.
Alcohol Sales
Protesters have said Erdogan has become too autocratic, citing police violence, increased religious lessons at schools and curbs on alcohol sales.
“We’re opposed to violence, terror, vandalism,” Erdogan said at a conference on Turkey’s European Union membership bid yesterday. “For those who come to me with democratic demands, I’ll sacrifice my life.”
The conference took place at a central Istanbul hotel, guarded by a police cordon, and within walking distance of Taksim Square. The rallies spread nationwide after police used tear gas and water cannons on May 31 against demonstrators who had gathered in Gezi Park near Taksim.
“The Prime minister’s time is up,” Bahceli said as he called for early elections today. “There is need for renewal of the nation’s will. We are leaving the decision on timing of the ballot box to the prime minister.”
With her red cotton dress, white shoulder bag and flowing black hair, she has become the colour-coded emblem of Turkey’s new people-power movement.
Caught on camera as she was sprayed head to toe in tear gas, Ceyda Sungur’s treatment at the hands of Istanbul’s riot police seemed the epitome of using a “sledgehammer to crack a nut” and encapsulated the government’s heavy-handed response to a civilised protest.
Pictures of the “Lady in the Red Dress” quickly spread around the world via the internet. Those who shared the pictures online joined protesters in demanding to know why a woman who looked attired for a summer picnic had been treated like a masked, brick-throwing
anarchist.
Last week, Ms Sungur said she was a reluctant heroine, describing herself as just part of a wider grass-roots movement, and pointing out in brief remarks to a Turkish newspaper that hundreds of others had been gassed in similar fashion.
Now, though, having declined requests for interviews from all over the world, Ms Sungur, an academic, has spoken briefly but vividly to The Sunday Telegraph about her involvement in what happened, and how she is now working in a makeshift clinic to help others hurt in demonstrations.
“For me this is about freedom of speech and the power of the people,” said Ms Sungur, who was left choking for breath after the gas attack.
“Now people have, for the first time, the self-confidence to reclaim their power. They have the self-confidence to change everything.”
The photos of Ms Sungur set off a major escalation of the protests, which have pitted Turkey’s secular middle class against what they see as an increasingly authoritarian Islamist government.
So far three people have been killed and nearly 1,000 admitted to hospital, as the demonstrations have spread across the country.
As well as being shared via Facebook, Twitter and other social media, Ms Sungur’s image has become a permanent part of the protest landscape, appearing as a cartoon on posters, stickers and banners.
Protesters in the city of Izmir have even turned the image into a fairground-style billboard, where demonstrators can poke their head through a hole where her face is and posing for pictures.
Keen to keep out of the limelight, Ms Sungur, meanwhile, is continuing to work behind the scenes, volunteering at an improvised field hospital in Taksim Square, the epicentre of the Istanbul protests.
“We have created field stations on Taksim Square where we look after people who have been injured,” she said, declining to specify further details for fear that the volunteer doctors might be arrested.
Ms Sungur works in the planning department of Istanbul’s Technical University, a faculty not normally seen as a hotbed of radical politics.
She had little inkling of the anti-government revolt she was about to unleash when she and a group of architect friends first joined a sit-in to stop bulldozers moving in on Gazi Park, a small patch of green in Taksim Square.
Those friends described to The Sunday Telegraph their shock at what happened next. “Ceyda texted me to get to the park,” said Meriç Demir, 28. “Ten to 15 minutes later when we arrived she was yelling from the effect of the tear gas.
Meric Demir. (RUTH SHERLOCK FOR THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)
“We were so surprised. Some of us began yelling, ‘we are academics, stop this!’ Some tried to help Ceyda. We were shocked because you don’t even spray insects in your home in such a direct way.”
On paper, the protest was little more than an impassioned planning dispute, with a group of environmentalists opposing a government-backed project for an ambitious redevelopment of the area.
A protester in Istanbul’s Taksim Square carries a Turkish flag embellished with the image of its first president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Photograph: Kostas Tsironis/AP
Among the tents, snoozing youth and pleasant shady trees of Istanbul’s Gezi Park there are portraits of one man in a European suit. Wherever you look Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – founder of the Turkish Republic – gazes sternly at you. Photos of the first president hang from branches, have been affixed to tea stalls, and even encircle a giant banner showing Turkey‘s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dressed as Hitler.
“We really love Ataturk. He changed our state. He made it into a modern republic,” explained Murat Bakirdoven, a 24-year-old biology student who has been camping in the park for a week. Someone had stuck another photo of Ataturk – this time in a lounge suit, sitting on a leather chair, cigarette in hand – on a nearby tree. Bakirdoven added: “Erdogan wants us to forget him. Instead we are trying to create an Ataturk renaissance.”
For the protesters who have taken part in Turkey’s anti-government demonstrations, Ataturk is a hero. Dead for 75 years, he has become the reborn symbol of this student-driven anti-Erdogan movement. (The other motif is a penguin – a reference to the state media, which failed to report on the uprising for several days; one channel, CNN Turk, instead screened a nature documentary on Antarctica).
The symbolism goes to the heart of what this unprecedented uprising is about: Turkey’s modern identity. At issue is whether Turkey should be the progressive, secular European nation-state that Ataturk originally envisaged and shaped from the ruins of the Ottoman empire, or a more explicitly religious country, a sort of Muslim version of Christian democracy. The protesters want the former; Erdogan, and his ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development party (AKP), it appears, the latter.
What has infuriated protesters is what they perceive as Erdogan’s clunking attempts to impose his Islamic values on everyone else. Last month Turkey’s government passed a new law banning the sale of alcohol between 10pm and 6am, and banishing it from the vicinity of schools and mosques. Two years ago it forbade access from Turkey to pornographic websites and temporarily shut down YouTube. Erdogan has spoken out against gay rights. “All this built up a wall of pressure,” Bakirdoven said. Many also sense a creeping campaign to undermine Ataturk himself. Traditionally girls and boys would celebrate Ataturk day, 19 May, by dancing and singing in stadiums around the country. In 2012 Erdogan ditched the ceremony, saying no one wanted to see girls prance around in skimpy skirts. Then last week Erdogan defended his anti-alcohol legislation by obliquely calling Ataturk and his closest ally, Ismet Inonu, a couple of “drunkards”.
All of this has galvanised educated, middle-class Turks to defend their personal freedoms. It began as a small environmental protest against plans to redevelop Gezi Park, and Istanbul’s adjoining Taksim Square. But over the past two weeks it has morphed into a countrywide revolt. Three people have been killed, 4,000 injured and 900 arrested. The demonstrations have spread to more than 70 Turkish cities, including the capital, Ankara, and the restive western city of Izmir.
Genetically engineered wheat discovered on an Oregon farm should be a wake-up call for Ottawa because similar contamination could have crippling market effects in Canada, says a consumer group.
Genetically engineered (often referred to as GE or GM) wheat, which is not legal anywhere in the world, was found by an Oregon farmer in his crops in April. Scientists tested the sample and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed last week that the wheat was a GM experimental strain developed and field-tested by seed giant Monsanto Co. more than a decade ago.
How the GM wheat ended up on the farm is under investigation by U.S. officials.
Lucy Sharratt, spokesperson for the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN), says Canadians should be concerned, since GM wheat has also been field-tested in Canada.
“It’s alarming, because this has the potential for a huge market impact on farmers, and we actually right now have no idea where this contamination came from,” she says.
“It’s alarming because we predicted that something like this would happen, and yet genetically modified crops continue to be field-tested and approved.”
Consumer Confidence on Shaky Ground
The USDA and Monsanto say the GM wheat does not pose a food safety concern. The market reacted nervously, however, and some importers were quick to shy away from U.S. wheat. Japan rejected nearly 25,000 tons of U.S. white wheat and countries in Asia and Europe have demanded further testing before allowing imports—making it clear that many consumers oppose GM foods.
“We are taking this situation very seriously and have launched a formal investigation,” Michael Firko, with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services, said in a statement.
“Our first priority is to as quickly as possible determine the circumstances and extent of the situation and how it happened. … USDA will put all necessary resources towards this investigation.”
According to the USDA, 2005 was the last year GM wheat was tested in fields in the U.S. The last year Monsanto field-tested GM wheat in Canada was 2004.
If the contamination is found to originate from field-testing, the same dangers are present in Canada, where regulations are similar to the U.S., says Sharratt. Since wheat is one of Canada’s top exports—worth nearly $6 billion—a blow to the market would be deeply felt.
Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Twitter is a menace to society (Photo: svenwerk)
A violent crackdown on a peaceful demonstration on Friday (31 May) against plans to demolish a park and to erect a shopping centre in Taksim Square in central Istanbul quickly prompted a larger protest.
Pent-up public frustration against heavy-handed government rule and perceived lack of accountability poured out into the streets in Turkey’s largest city to be met head on by battalions of police.
The protest spread to 67 other cities and 81 provinces over the weekend, says the government.
An estimated 1,000 people have been injured in Istanbul and another 700 in Ankara, reports the Associated Press.
The streets around Taksim were on Monday littered with spent canisters of tear gas.
One 23-year-old student from Istanbul Technical University lost an eye after being shot at close range by police.
For her part, the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she “regrets disproportionate use of force by members of the Turkish police” in a statement on Sunday (2 June).
She called for calm and restraint on all sides.
Police eventually backed off on Sunday, as thousands remained in Taksim square.
The mood later turned festive, with people chanting victory slogans and calling Erdogan a “dictator.”
But clashes were still reported late on Sunday evening in Istanbul’s seaside neighbourhood of Besiktas.
Protests the same day also turned violent in Ankara.
The long-serving Prime Minister has won three mandates but is seen as becoming increasingly autocratic and Islamist by his critics.
Editor’s Note: Coming soon to a neighborhood near you. These protests reportedly erupted a few days ago when activists staged a sit-in at a local park. Now there are thousands of Greeks in the streets, hundreds arrested, and scores brutally beaten. So much so, that there are literally pools of blood flowing through the streets. It only takes a seemingly innocuous catalyst for all hell to break loose. These people aren’t being motivated because a park is being razed for commercial purposes. The resentment and anger goes much, much deeper than that.
Turkey is entering its third day of violent protests as police have withdrawn from Taksim Square and allowed the mass protests to continue.
Over 900 people have been arrested across Turkey for what the authorities called a security measure.
The first photo below was taken from a CNN IReport that CNN themselves have not vetted.
Blood in streets near Taksim Turkey
A shocking video report from RT shows violent clashes between police and protesters:
An RT article covered various aspects of the protests including how they started and what they stand for:
Police in Istanbul have withdrawn from Taksim Square, allowing the mass protest to continue unabated, Turkish media report. Istanbul and Ankara are entering the third day of violent protests, with tear gas and water cannon deployed and over 900 arrested.
Minor scuffles broke out after protesters lobbed fireworks at officers as they were drawing back, the state-run Anadolu Agency reports. Police removed barricades around the square, located in the heart of the city, which had previously been erected to prevent the anti-government protests, Private Dogan news agency said.
Despite the authorities decision to allow tens of thousands to flood onto the square, the main subway gateway to Taksim, the central station in the city’s metro network, has reportedly been shut down in an effort to keep more people from reaching the ongoing protests.
In the capital, Ankara, security forces battled with demonstrators who had amassed at a park near Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office. Rallies have also been staged in the cities of Bodrum, Konya and Izmir.
Protestors take care of an injured demonstrator during a demonstration in support of protests in Istanbul and against the Turkish Prime Minister and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in Ankara, on June 1, 2013 (AFP Photo / Adem Altan)
Confronted with the growing street opposition, Erdogan remained defiant, demanding that protesters “stop their demonstrations immediately.”
“Police were there yesterday, they’ll be on duty today and also tomorrow because Taksim Square cannot be an area where extremists are running wild,” the PM warned.
In two days about 939 people have been detained across the Turkey as part of “necessary security measures,” Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Güler said.
Police use a water cannon to disperse protestors near the Taksim Gezi park in Istanbul after clashes with riot police, on June 1, 2013, during a demonstration against the demolition of the park (AFP Photo / Gurcan Ozturk)
Many have wondered how the protests originally erupted and the answer to that question is that it apparently started after dozens of activists decided to attempt a sit in at a park that was set to be destroyed for commercial use.
After the police became overzealous and clearly attacked peaceful protesters, many other people within Turkish society joined their ranks.
On Monday, several dozen activists tried to stage a sit-in in Gezi Park, the last area of green space left on Taksim Square, after several trees were torn up to make way for a commercial redevelopment.
Erdogan dismissed the small protest on Wednesday, saying authorities would go ahead with the plan, which entails the construction of a replica Ottoman-era barracks that could house a shopping mall or apartments.
Following three days of police pressure, which saw officers douse peaceful protesters with pepper spray and tear gas, the sit-in attracted support from broad sections of Turkish society.
Protestors run away from tear gas at the Taksim Gezi park in Istanbul after clashes with riot police, on June 1, 2013, during a demonstration against the demolition of the park (AFP Photo / Gurcan Ozturk)
The heavy-handed tactics deployed by police have been viewed by demonstrators as a sign of the government’s increasingly authoritarian bent, with the park demonstration turning into a broader, nationwide protest against Erdogan’s government.
Similar demonstrations have flared up around the country despite a court decision to temporarily halt demolition of the park.
Turkish police and protesters battle for Taksim square
Turkish police fired tear gas at demonstrators before retreating from Taksim Square in Istanbu.
8:28PM BST 01 Jun 2013
Some protesters hurled objects at officers and police vehicles, prompting police to fire several rounds of tear gas.
In Ankara, a police vehicle hit two demonstrators who were crouched in the middle of the street, barricading themselves behind rubbish bins.
One of the men who was hit was seen being rescued by other demonstrators and loaded into an ambulance while flashing a “V” for victory sign.
The other man was thrown in the air but appeared to not have been seriously injured.
A demonstration that started in Istanbul on Friday as a peaceful sit-in to save an inner-city green space has turned into nationwide anti-government protests in Turkey, revealing the depth of public anger against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Anjem Choudary is supposed to be some kind of extremist Muslim. But what kind, exactly?
Apparently, he’s the kind of Muslim extremist who loves Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mike Harari, and Dov Zakheim – since Choudary “has repeatedly praised the 9/11 terrorists.”
Ever since Jon Ronson’s favorite risible Muslim extremist, Omar Bakri Muhammad, disappeared into the prisons of Beirut, the British tabloid press has had to resort to using Mr. Choudary as its favorite whipping boy. Whatever the situation, Choudary may be relied on to say something stupid – something counterproductive to the causes of anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism, and the defense of Islam against aggression and calumny.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Kevin Barrett with the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance from Wisconsin. The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Dr. Barrett let’s look at this alliance between al-Nusra and Israel. A representative of the group has recently said that Israel is not the enemy, but the Syrian government. What exactly does that mean for an entity claiming to be Islamic?
Barrett: Well this whole al-Qaeda entity is a very, very loose entity. The word al-Qaeda actually means the database and originally referred to a CIA database of Arab Mujahedeen fighters, who were recruited by the CIA and their puppets in Saudi Arabia to go defend the US Empire in Afghanistan.
“Al-Qaeda” including this Nusra Front in Syria has never attacked the Israelis. This is nothing new when they say the Israelis aren’t their enemy. And I agree with Mr. Choudary, he is absolutely correct, they have never attacked Israel and in fact the strange thing about so called al-Qaeda is that in all of the years of its supposed existence, never once has it ever attacked Israel.
Now, there are Israeli soft-targets galore all over the world just waiting for them, but no, who do they attack? They attack Muslims.
Ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of all the victims and targets of these so called al-Qaeda groups have always been and still are their fellow Muslims. Once in a while they pretend to attack the United States, although we now know that the major so called al-Qaeda attacks in the United States, such as 9/11 and these Boston bombings are false flag events.
So, what we are really seeing here is the so-called al-Qaeda, which is now so obviously allied to the State of Israel in Syria, has always been allied to the State of Israel and to the extreme radical pro-empire forces in the US.
That is what 9/11 was, it was a publicity stunt to cause the US to kill millions of Muslims and to strengthen its empire on behalf of Israel.
So, things are becoming very clear now and it’s interesting that people like Mr. Choudary, who are just such obvious dupes and patsies of this psychological operation by the Zionists and the imperialists, are now cheering for the Israelis and saying ‘Oh, yes. We al-Qaeda people have never thought the Israelis were the enemy’. Well, of course not, because they are working for Israel and they always have been
A clean environment is important to us all. We have an obligation to maintain our resources and sustain our environment for future generations. Sustaining our environment has led us down the road to environmentalism. Then a strange thing happened. Environmentalism came to a fork in the road. While the rhetoric took one route, the agenda took another. Explore this topic and discover how Agenda 21 will affect you.
This classic video produced by George W. Hunt exposes how the progenitors of the hijacked environmental movement, people like Maurice Strong, the Rothschild family and David Rockefeller, always intended the scam to achieve global population reduction along with a global carbon tax based on a cap and trade system controlled by them.
Pelosi introduces a bill to follow the 1992 RIO Earth Summit and conform to Agenda 21 and local agenda 21 sustainable community practices and follow international law.
Taken from C-SPAN archives, filmed on Oct. 2, 1992
Private property rights in California are being subjected to Agenda 21, a United Nation’s declaration on the collective society’s right to control private property.
Environmentalists and TreeHuggers rejoiced today with the joint announcement from Barack Obama of the USA, Stephen Harper of Canada and Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico announce the agreement to fully implement Agenda 21 throughout the three countries. The multi-trillion Amero project will ensure a greener, healthier, fairer and more equally distributed future for the 99%.
Glenn Beck/Screen capture
Readers may remember that Agenda 21 started in Rio in 1992 and has been spreading ’round the globe ever since, as Treehugger types push the idea of living a low impact life with a small carbon footprint, eliminating greenhouse gas emissions and saving the planet for all species. As one agender put it,
The objective of sustainable development is to integrate economic, social and environmental policies in order to achieve reduced consumption, social equity, and the preservation and restoration of biodiversity.
protecting biodiversity means giving the land back to the animals./Screen capture
In order to preserve that biodiversity and habitat, President Obama has announced the implementation of the wildlife reserve and corridor system across the USA, that will return most of the nation to its natural habitat.
Library of Congress/Public Domain
The Hoover Dam and others on major rivers will be deconstructed so that they can be returned to their natural state. This will cause some problems for cities like Phoenix and others in California that depend on the river’s water; the people will have to be relocated as there won’t be any water for drinking or lawns.
Fortunately, there are thousands of empty houses in Detroit and Buffalo and other northern cities that will be made available for occupation by the transplanted Phoenicians, who will be welcomed back, and given jobs on urban farms.
Since production of fertilizer requires fossil fuels and these contribute to climate change, all farming will be organic and done mainly by hand. This will provide a huge number of jobs for millenials now looking for work; a hundred and fifty years ago 80% of the population of North America worked in agriculture; now it is 3%. This is a great opportunity to put people back to work in productive jobs with lots of fresh air, exercise and sunshine.
Apartments produced in the LifeEdited Industries factories will accommodate families of all sizes and incomes; to keep consumption of materials and energy down, space will be rationed to 200 square feet per person, with a maximum unit size of 600 square feet. This will help control population growth, a major source of environmental problems. After all, Agenda 21 style living has been described as:
a future in which people would be forced to live with five others in 20-by-20 living spaces with push-button furniture in high-rises across major cities. The complexes would serve three vegetarian meals a day, feature mosques and have a 24-7 on-call doctor to discuss taking one’s own life.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan addressing higher education sustainability leaders at the September 20-21Sustainability Education Summit: “Citizenship and Pathways for a Green Economy.” He says his department is late to sustainability and education, but it’s getting underway.
William F. Jasper, investigative reporter for The New American magazine, uncovers the real objective behind the Earth Charter. Many U.S. city and educational officials have already been persuaded to endorse this pro-UN manifesto. Learn why this campaign, masquerading as a plan to protect the environment, is potentially lethal to family, faith, and freedom. A must-see video presentation!
Step by step, piece by piece, the Wildlands Project is coming to fruition. The Project, foundational to the U.N.Biodiversity Treaty which was never ratified by the U.S. Senate, calls for approximately 50 percent of the United States to be set aside as “wildlands”, where no human can enter. Much has been accomplished over the past 10 years toward that goal, and the pace is stepping up, with the help of the federal agencies first under Clinton/Gore and now under Obama/Biden.
What, you may ask, is the Wildlands Project? It is a grandiose plan to transform at least half of the continental United States into an area free of modern industry and human habitation.
The father of this radical vision for a new green America is none other than Dave Foreman , principal founder of the eco-terrorist group EarthFirst!, and until 1997, a director of the Sierra Club . Carl Pope took the reign in 2002.
A vast network of powerful and influential environmental groups are taking great strides toward reaching the Wildlands’ goals. They are working toward the resurrection of a pre-industrial North America — the continent once known to Native Americans as “Turtle Island.” Foreman, in his own words, summarizes the Wildlands Project as a “bold attempt to grope our way back to 1492.” What kind of progressive notion is that, you might ask.
The deep ecology movement operates behind a sham of new age language and pseudoscience. Idealistic neo-pagans were courted and seduced by a pseudo spiritual rhetoric that masquerades the hidden agenda for power, money and control. They fell in love with the idea of this socially engineered, new earth religion “Gia”. This relationship came with weighty strings attached and they, lost in their beautiful delusions, danced at the puppet masters’ command.
Even so, these people consider themselves to be enlightened and always right, while they consider those with differing views to be ignorant and unenlightened. These eco-centrics have created their own vocabulary and terminology and this green “newspeak” has grown deep and extensive roots within our popular and political culture.
Wildlife Corridor Conservation Act Introduced
Politicians and other agents of Agenda 21 are inundating us with overlapping schemes that quietly and deliberately drown our property rights and freedom. For surefire evidence, take a look at U.S. Congress – H.R. 5101 Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act of 2010. This bill includes transboundary tax-payer funded projects for wild animal bridges and tunnels, increasing roadless areas and other means to capture more natural resources and private property for government and its partners.
H.R. 5101 states that “The Secretary, in cooperation with the States and Indian tribes, shall develop a Habitat and Corridors Information System, that shall include maps and descriptions of projected shifts in habitats and corridors of fish and wildlife species in response to climate change; and to assess the impacts of existing development on habitats and corridors.” The System is charged with identifying, prioritizing and describing “key parcels of non-Federal land (i.e. state lands and private property) located within the boundaries of units of the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, National Forest System, or National Grassland System that are critical to maintenance of wildlife habitat and migration corridors.” This is way over and above what the federal government has already swallowed up under other guises.
Congress and other elites are desperately clinging to the fraud of man-made global warming in an attempt to illegitimately wrest control of private property. Many people still nominally own and pay taxes on their private property but if their property is even slightly proximate to the imagined wildlife corridors, then animals rule as “new habitat” is created for them in response to “climate change” and other “threats” (meaning people). It doesn’t matter that grandma’s house has been there for 100 years and she and the animals get along fine. Not anymore, with this bill government will determine what if any use might be made of land that falls in or near corridors invented ostensibly to protect animals (in truth this is done to take private property and to control the human population).
The difference between this bill and previous wildland’s programs is that this one doesn’t just have teeth, it has fangs. Not only does it have “strong language calling on agencies to actually take steps to protect corridors” but it also calls for a funding mechanism (more taxes) to support “such protective action.” In short, we will be footing the bill for the global elite to further control our property and diminish our freedom under the guise of habitat protection. And “the Secretary of the Interior may transfer funds to the Foundation under this subsection in advance, without regard to when expenses are incurred.” How many of us can get paid whenever we want, even if we haven’t yet done the work?
Here are a few examples of Wildlife Corridor Program across the United States. Once again they are bad programs hiding behind pretty pictures and phony words. Rim of the Valley Los Angeles Basin, California, Buffalo Commons Plains States, USA and Yellowstone to Yukon or “Y to Y” plus there are many more.
Norman MacLeod of Washington explains that HR 5101 incorporates the legislative provisions of Section 481 of HR 2454 (the House version of the climate bill) and Section 6009 of the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill draft. These sections authorize a wildlife corridors information system. HR 5101 builds on this with implementation programs, mostly to be housed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Funding mechanisms and public-private structures are included. The bill has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee.
This bill is intended to lead to the formal creation of several continental-scale wildlife corridor systems that include core habitat, connectivity, and buffer systems that will impact livelihoods, homes, ranches, farms, access to resources, outdoor recreation and more.
Buzzwords for a New Millennium
Biological diversity is a broad term which crops up in many environmental documents. It is used to define any kind of life form and its interrelation(s) to all the other life forms within any particular ecosystem a/k/a biome.
Bioregions, also known as biosphere reserves, are geo-political regions formed from land areas constituting similar ecosystems. The United Nations prefers the term “eco-regions,” and the Department of the Interior refers to them as Ecosystem Management Areas.
Under such a plan, areas that are now defined by state boundaries in the U.S., would be reorganized to follow similar landscape features. For example, the mountainous regions of Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky and West Virginia would constitute the Southern Appalachian Bioregion.
According to the enviro¬gurus, all human activity is damaging to a biosphere. Following that reasoning, they believe that people must be heavily regulated or removed in order to protect the balance of biodiversity within eco-regions.
First, a core area is established where no human activity is allowed. Core areas are the central component of the Wildlands Reserve program. Core areas are large and are taken mostly from National Forest and Park lands and adjacent private lands. Around the core is a buffer zone, consisting primarily of private land. Buffer zones may contain some housing development and human activity. According to the “grand plan,” however, no new development must be permitted. A transition area will surround the buffer zone. Human activity, such as tourism, or even some human settlement will be allowed. The transition area boundaries can be flexible. A corridor is an area of land that connects core areas with other core areas. Corridors generally follow rivers, streams and wildlife migration routes. Corridors consist of both public and private lands.
According to the Wildlands Project, no commercial development, housing or communities would be allowed within such a corridor. Imagine a national park that was 2,500 miles long, two counties wide and which passed through ten states from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. This is the Mississippi River Corridor, as designated by Congress. Numerous and costly studies will be made in this region in order to develop a unified federal program to control this ten-state area. Are you beginning to see how this plan will work?
There are sixty-eight other designated Heritage Areas and Corridors across our country in nearly every state of the Union. (this was true in 1999 – there may be more at this time)
THE ROAD RIP: Road Removal and Implementation Project
A common characteristic of core wilderness areas and interconnecting corridors is the absence of roads. Road RIP is an NGO dedicated to removing existing roads and preventing the construction of new roads. Since this paper was first written, many “road removal” projects have been implemented.
The original Road RIP radicals prepared handbooks for local activists that describe step-by-step procedures for challenging road construction and “Six Steps to Close a Road.” Sample letters, a comprehensive flow chart of the procedure and sample forms are provided to the organization’s chapters. The author of the work, Keith Hammer, is credited with forcing the Forest Service to remove or commit to remove more than 1,000 miles of roads in the Flathead National Forest.
The group is not content to close only roads in the national forests. Their ambitions run much higher. According to their literature:
“The best road density goal for maintaining and restoring ecological and evolutionary processes is ZERO—NO ROADS AT ALL. And what we call a road includes everything from interstate highways to two-track logging roads, off-road vehicle trails, and snowmobile routes. They are all swaths of ecological destruction.” And back to 1492 we go.
PRIVATE PROPERTY
In order for the Wildlands Project to be successful, thousands upon thousands of acres of private property need to be incorporated into biosphere reserves. Landowners were once free to use their land as they saw fit, as long as their actions did not harm other people. That changed with a 1972 decision by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. In Just v. Marinette County, the Court ruled that:
“An owner of land has no absolute and unlimited right to change the essential natural character of his land so as to use it for a purpose for which it was unsuited in its natural state. ”
Simply put, the Wisconsin ruling set a legal precedence that a property owner could not “harm” the land itself. Fortunately, following cases favored landowners although the legal definition of “harm” was expanded and modified.
The Wildlands Project and other environmental organizations now campaign to “educate” the courts and public what they consider to be inappropriate land uses that “harms” others. The arguments which the eco-activists have dreamed up are convoluted and complex. They claim that when wetlands are filled, others are harmed by excessive run off and by the loss of the run off to the aquifer. When private property is clear cut others are harmed by the loss of biodiversity and so on, ad nauseum. They know the legal game and play it well. If they don’t want you to have it (property), they will find a way to take (legally steal) it from you.
The Sweet Home decision is an excellent example of how the Supreme Court is expanding the definition of harm. It was based on the notion that landowners can harm the land itself, which in turn, would affect and harm people.
“Others” that are affected are often unidentified souls that may be indirectly impacted by the loss of some imagined benefit. This case has left the door wide open for government restrictions upon private property owners. A favorite scheme used to implement the Wildlands Project, is for the federal government to offer a variety of flexible conservation easements to property owners. The owner retains title to the property and continues to pay taxes on it even though specific uses of the property are relinquished to the easement holder. Further, they often receive a pittance for the rights they gave up and future generations are robbed of the property uses which were forfeited.
The Nature Conservancy and other land trusts have led the way in exploiting this technique of separating resource utilization from the bundle of rights which traditionally have been considered private property rights and other non-profits have learned those techniques.
From the Global to the National to the Local
It is no coincidence that an article about the Wildlands Project first appeared in the 1992 special issue of Wild Earth, * an EarthFirst! publication. After all, the United Nation’s Convention on Biological Diversity also took place that very same year, and come to think about it, so did the release of Al Gore’s book, Earth in the Balance.
Not surprisingly, one of Al Gore’s first acts as Vice President was to establish an Ecosystem Management Policy. This directive was implemented via various resource management agencies within our federal government. (It should be noted that the Sierra Club published a map of the new America, broken down into 18 bioregions. )
Codex Alimentarius Lecture by Ian R. Crane – 1 thru 9
Uploaded on Jun 20, 2008
1 of 9
Taken from ConCen:
Never heard of Codex Alimentarius? That’s exactly what they want!
The UN plan to eradicate organic farming & to destroy the Natural Health Industry.
With biting political analysis, Ian R. Crane probes the track record of those who openly crave the introduction of a One World hierarchical Government. He exposes the agenda of those who have presided over events leading directly to the launching of the illegal wars in Afghanistan & Iraq and who continually demonstrate their desire to perpetuate a state of permanent global conflict; whilst systematically eroding personal freedom, through the process of gradualism.
Amid accusations the Monsanto corporation enjoys protection from the authorities, a recent report showed the US government has been aggressively lobbying for GM foods all across the world. RT America correspondent Megan Lopez reports.
Worldwide march against Monsanto takes place today
Credits:
photo collage by March Against Monsanto
Today hundreds of thousands of people all around the world are marching to protest the proliferation of genetically modified (GM) food crops. The focus of their ire is the mega-corporation, Monsanto, which controls large portions of the agricultural seed and chemical markets.
The first protests from Japan were streaming live by Revolution News as the day began. Marches and demonstrations are expected to sweep the globe as the day progresses.
The GM crops produced by Monsanto include alfalfa, canola, corn, cotton, soybean and sugarbeet. These crops have been bio-engineered to withstand repeated applications of Roundup, a weed-killer also manufactured by Monsanto.
Between the increased use of herbicides, the inadvertent spread of modified genes, and the potential health risks of consuming GM foods, these crops are believed to pose a grave risk to the environment. A study by the National Institute of Health concluded that “the commercial GMOs in question contain pesticide residues, some of which have been demonstrated as human cellular endocrine disruptors at levels around 1000 times below their presence in some GM feed.
From Alaska to Florida: Americans take to streets against Monsanto and GMOs
RT
Published time: May 25, 2013 19:56
Edited time: May 25, 2013 22:36
Protesters across the US are joining the worldwide rally against biotech giant Monsanto and genetically engineered crops. The mass protest comes shortly after the Senate turned down a bill that would allow states to require the labeling of GM foods.
People hold signs during a demonstration against agribusiness giant Monsanto and genetically modified organisms (GMO) in front of the White House in Washington on May 25, 2013. (AFP Photo / Nicholas Kamm)
Participants in the March Against Monsanto were also demanding the right to know what they’re paying for and what their children eat. The protesters called for labeling of GM foods, which they say could pose a danger to human health, and demand further scientific research of such products.
The March Against Monsanto, New York, May 25, 2013. (Photo by Anastasia Churkina, RT)
RT covers the protest which is getting a mainstream media blackout, with RT’s Anastasia Churkina – who as at the heart of the protest march in New York City – one of dozens of American cities that are staging protests against Monsanto.
“According to our estimates there are over 2,000 here,” she said. “All these people have gathered here today to speak out against this giant biotech corporation that for years has been accused of manipulating and corrupting farmers throughout the world and monopolizing the agriculture industry.”
In Washington DC, a crowd of marchers gathered in front of the White House waving banners and posters.
A crowd of marchers gathered in front of the White House. (Image from twitter user@@gmo917)
Meanwhile, the US-based seed giant maintains that its seeds improve agriculture since it helps farmers to produce more from their land while saving resources such as water and energy. At the same time, Monsanto said on Saturday, they respect people’s rights to express their opinion on the matter, AP reported.
Initially a small movement, the March Against Monsanto campaign turned into a global event with an hundreds of thousands of participants in over 40 countries thanks to the efforts of activists and social networking services.
(Reuters) – A British soldier was hacked to death by two men shouting Islamic slogans in a south London street, in what Prime Minister David Cameron said appeared to be a terrorist attack.
A dramatic clip filmed by an onlooker just minutes after the killing showed a man with hands covered in blood, brandishing a bloodied meat cleaver and a knife.
“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day,” the black man in his 20s or 30s, wearing a wool jacket and jeans and speaking with a local accent, shouted in the footage obtained by Britain’s ITV news channel.
“This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
The attack was the first apparent Islamist killing in London since suicide bombers struck transport in July 2005. The capital was shocked by the bizarre scene of a killer covered in gore, declaring his motive to onlookers.
Police shot the two suspects while trying to arrest them, and the wounded men were taken into custody. No information was immediately released about the identity of the suspects, but two sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters authorities were investigating a possible link to Nigeria.
“I apologize that women had to witness that, but in our lands our women have to see the same thing. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you,” the videotaped man said before crossing the street and speaking casually to the other attacker.
Cameron chairs an emergency national security meeting on Thursday after cutting short a visit to France to return to London.
“The police are urgently seeking the full facts about this case but there are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident,” Cameron said before cutting short talks with French President Francois Hollande to return home.
“We have had these sorts of attacks before in our country and we never buckle in the face of them,” he said.
The attack happened on the edge of London’s sprawling Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a south London working class district which has long-standing historic links to the military.
In signs of a backlash after the attack, more than 100 angry supporters of the English Defence League, a far-right street protest group, took to the streets, some wearing balaclavas and carrying England’s red and white flag. They were contained by riot police.
Separately, two men were arrested in connection with separate attacks on mosques outside London. No one was hurt.
HELP FOR HEROES
The authorities did not immediately confirm the identity of the slain man, but a source told Reuters the man may have been a member of the military. The British government normally withholds the identities of slain servicemembers until their families are informed.
I have received extensive testimonies underscoring that the situation in China has gotten worse. The crack- down is pervasive and severe.
US Congressman Chris Smith, co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
NEW YORK—Members of the Chinese Communist Party are leaving the party by the tens of thousands, like the grains of sand slipping through the CCP’s hourglass.
An event to support the 138 million Chinese who have quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations was held in front of the United Nations building in New York City on May 17. Hundreds of people, most of them Chinese, filled Dag Hammarskjold Plaza quietly holding banners, while speakers took turns at the podium, engaging the audience on what the Quitting the CCP movement really means for China today.
The “Tui Dang,” or “Quit the Party” movement is an embodiment of nonviolence and an awakening of conscience that is changing China. Introduced in November 2004 after an editorial series published by the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times revealed an uncensored history of the CCP, people began quitting by the tens of thousands, recording their decisions on a website maintained by supporters of the movement.
“In this way, the communist organization is quietly collapsing,” said Yi Rong, chair of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP.
Speakers ranged from the heads of several human rights organizations to people who have first-hand experience with the CCP’s system of forced labor camps and prisons, where Falun Gong practitioners are frequently tortured.
Many attendees were practitioners of the Chinese self-cultivation practice Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong), which has been brutally persecuted by the CCP since 1999, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center, the official press office for Falun Gong. The CCP’s crimes—including over a 100 forms of torture—against the group were talked about by the speakers.
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Protestors take care of an injured demonstrator during a demonstration in support of protests in Istanbul and against the Turkish Prime Minister and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in Ankara, on June 1, 2013 (AFP Photo / Adem Altan)
Police use a water cannon to disperse protestors near the Taksim Gezi park in Istanbul after clashes with riot police, on June 1, 2013, during a demonstration against the demolition of the park (AFP Photo / Gurcan Ozturk)
Protestors run away from tear gas at the Taksim Gezi park in Istanbul after clashes with riot police, on June 1, 2013, during a demonstration against the demolition of the park (AFP Photo / Gurcan Ozturk)
