The Bombings

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/world/middleeast/03mideast.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

     This article was about the week long offensive that Israel has been on.  Hamas targets in Gaza have been bombed.  While the bombings were taking place, Israel allowed hundreds of foreigners to leave.  Subsequently, many people fear that Israel is planning to launch a ground invasion.  "Israel has vowed to press its offensive until there is no more rocket fire out of Gaza." 

     People are worried that the conflict will continue to escalate.  Approximately four hundred and thirty Palestinians have been killed and another twenty two hundred have been injured since the bombings began last week.  The United Nations has estimated that twenty five percent of the people killed were civilians.  Many of the foreigners who are leaving are married to Palestinians.  Said one Ukranian woman who is married to a Palestinian, "I want to come back when the situation allows it."

The Conflict

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/29/world/palestinians-rally-in-gaza-to-mark-2-years-of-conflict.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

     There was a Palestinian rally in Gaza City recently to mark the two year anniversary of the latest ongoing conflict with Israel.  Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, addressed a crowd of thousands and demanded more territory.  The fight is over Jerusalem, Israel's capital.  Palestinian's want it to be the capital of Palestine.  "This revolution is remaining, and winning, with God's will," Arafat decreed. 

     The West Bank is largely under Israeli military control.  There has been a curfew since midsummer.  The demonstrations were angry but mostly peaceful.  Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire.  There is some confusion as to what started this conflict two years ago.  It may have started when a bomb killed an Israeli soldier or when four protestors were shot by Israeli police. 
 

Chilean Student Protests: Police Stripping Students Naked

The photo below was taken at a recent Chilean student protest where four officers were forcing student protesters to strip naked. They are now facing disciplinary action. Ten students, including two minors, were arrested and forced to take their clothes off. The students were arrested for occupying their school. This particular incident happened after other students threw chairs at police and forced them to flee a school in the capital. Although the officers are not being identified their punishments were, which range from a formal warning to several days of arrest.

Students throw stones at riot police during a protest for education reform in downtown Santiago, Chile, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz Caballero)

Link to photo: http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/247652/slide_247652_1450576_free.jpg?1346279585000

Link to article and other pictures: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/chile-protests_n_1840831.html#slide=1450576

Chilean Student Movement Awarded for Organizing Nation’s Largest Protests

For this post I watched an interview, via DemocracyNow.org, with two leaders of the Chilean student movement. Camila Vallejo the vice president of the University of Chile Student Federation and Noam Titelman the current president of the—of the Catholic University Student Federation. They are in the United States, in part, to receive the 2012 Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, which is given by the Institute for Policy Studies. It is named for the Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt, who were murdered in Washington by agents of the U.S.-backed Pinochet regime in September 1976. 

During the interview Titelman goes on to talk about the significance of the movement and what is taking place now in Chile. He begins by addressing the education system in Chile, “I think the first thing to understand is that we have a very special educational system, which was imposed during the 1980s during the Pinochet dictatorship, which has one basic principle, and it’s that the market always works.” Obviously this is not always the case. While Chile’s public education is dying, there is only 36 percent of students who are enrolled in public schools. The rest attend private school which validates just how privatized a state can become. This contributes to the problem of inequality.

The Chilean students’ movement led last year’s massive citizen democracy movement. It is considered the largest protests of this generation. This movement has caused hundreds of thousands to rally in the streets of Santiago and other major cities. They are demanding greater access to affordable university education as well as deeper structural changes in Chile. The country has the highest per capita income in the region but also one of the most unequal distributions of wealth.

Click here to be directed to the full interview and a transcript.

Environmental Awareness in Kosovo

 

My niece Ellen visited Kosovo in 2003 when she was a student at Colgate University.  She fell in love with the region.  She saw a need and took action for that need when she and several others founded the Environmentally Responsible Action Group.  Located in Peja, the goal of this organization is to promote and increase environmental awareness and responsibility amongst the people of the region.

 

They believe that solutions are more likely when it involves participation of the pople who live there.  As quoted on the ERA Home page, :"ERA provides youth and the local community opportunities to develop problem-solving, decision-making, and leadership skills, which enable them to participate in future community developments as engaged and active citizens, such as creating models and methods of environmental education, stewardship for natural resources and cultural heritage that can be applied throughout the region."

 

My sister took this picture when she visited Kosovo last summer.  You can certainly see how beautiful the area is.  I believe in the ERA Goup and what they desire to do.  I encourage you to visit their website at http://www.eradirect.org/index.html.  It hasn't been updated in a while, but there is certainly an abundance of information about what my niece and her friends are doing to educate the people of Kosovo about their environment.  One of their endeavors has been the Waterfall Trail project.  ERA considers this to be one of many steps in bringing back eco-family tourism to the area.  The following is another of my sister's pictures of my nephew/grand-nephew on this trail.

I can't wait for the spring of this year when I hope to be able to travel over there and see this for myself.



Solar Panels

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/03/india-green-energy-growth

As Americans we want to be the best, in every way shape and form. But we are still very dependent in foreign oil. We are a model for other nations, and as far as clean energy we  are far behind in what we should be.

The article above shows solar panels being installed in a village in India. We should be installing solar panels in every house, every school and hospitals here in the United States. But solar panels are not affordable for middle class citizens. Our government should invest in making solar panel installation affordable for all citizens, they should even go beyond making it affordable it should be require with a low fee. This would improve our dependency in foreign oil, but above all it would send a message to all other nations that the United States is very serious about investing in clean energy and it would probably stimulate other nations to make the change to clean energy as well.