"Judgement day for Blair"

source: Aljazeera.net

Em Novembro do ano passado publicámos um post intitulado 'Iraq war inquiry opens in UK',hoje temos desenvolvimentos! e é notícia outra vez! Está neste precisamente a ser interrogado, interrogatório que, segundo consta, terá a duração de 6 longas horas. 
@ Blair facing questions about Iraq decisions at inquiry (BBC) e Blair faces UK Iraq war inquiry (Aljazeera).
Aguardamos updates!

President Obama's First State of the Union Address

Discutiu-se a popularidade de Barack Obama...para alguns as promessas que havia feito não estão a produzir resultados que não estão à vista...como, também, se refere no artigo da Aljazeera intitulado "Obama vows to focus on Jobs", onde se lê: 

«In his first state of the union address in Washington DC on Wednesday, the US president admitted that the promise of change that had been the message of his presidential campaign, had "not come fast enough" for many Americans who are frustrated and angry.» @ Aljazeera.net

O discurso que aquele artigo retrata está acessível no youtube @ YouTube

Sobre o discurso..

Há uma postura de liderança, há uma postura de vontade de vingar, há uma postura de ultrapassar os obstáculos e ajudar os mais carenciados. Há sobretudo uma postura de conhecimento sobre o que se passa nos Estados Unidos da América [focada, de facto, no problema do emprego]. Barack Obama demonstra uma atitude activa e não passiva, não se limitando a enunciar os problemas, mas apresentando também respectivas soluções, com propostas concretas, não parecendo preocupar-se com o efeito que agir um pouco como o Robin Hood poderá ter. 

Resta esperar para ver se as promessas serão cumpridas e se as propostas, uma vez aprovadas, serão implementadas. 

Let's hope so :)
p.s.
- "speech transcript" and "reporters' notes" @ BBC
- Key quotes @ Aljazeera.net

'burka ban'

O Sarkozy é o foco principal deste debate, a par de outros igualmente questionáveis e que talvez estejam interligados, como a questão da "identidade nacional". A probição do uso da veste que cobre a mulher por inteiro poderá trazer consequências que no seu extremo implicam a reclusão da mulher que, de outra forma, não pode sair de casa - segundo MRMV.

Eu questiono quais os motivos de Sarkozy. Será a defesa do valor da liberdade? De quem? Leio que um dos fundamentos será o da segurança, para que as pessoas não se escondam por detrás das suas vestes, mas tal teoria não me convence, especialmente, não como sendo a verdadeira razão de tão desejada proibição. 

Podemos ajuizar sobre a obrigatoriedade para aquelas mulheres de estarem 100% tapadas - mal se lhes vendo os olhos. Mas poderemos (e teremos o direito de) mudar a cultura ao ponto de deixar de ser obrigatório - entre os próprios - tal costume?

source: bbc

article @ BBC

UPDATE
BBC@ France MPs' report backs Muslim face veil ban

source: Aljazeera

@ Aljazeera French report calls for veil ban

The always 'actual' and essential debate over death penalty

It's all over the news: '"Chemical Ali" Executed in Iraq', after having been sentenced to death four times in a row for crimes against humanity perpetrated between 1988 and 1999.
I have read the articles available @ Aljazeera and also @ BBC, complete with some photographs and videos.  The crimes he was sentenced for are disgusting in infinite ways, so revolting indeed no punishment seems sufficient. And yet I cannot bring myself to accept the death penalty, not even in an extreme case like this when it seems obvious to me that such an individual does not deserve to live.
But the 'power of the law' -- the rule of law -- should never ever be allowed to serve as a means to an end that constitutes a perversion of its own design, its ultimate finality.  Legal murder is no better than murder, legally taking a life is debasing the very notion of justice and the rule of law. 

For the law cannot commit the very crime that it seeks to punish.

Bersluconi did it again!

Uma lei que, sem dúvida, para Berlusconi, vem mesmo a calhar. Compreendo a retroactividade da "lei penal mais favorável", concordo que um processo não se pode arrastar por séculos, que compete aos "serviços" acelerar as diligências e providenciar as informações necessárias para que os processos sigam o seu curso eficazmente sem perdurarem ad aeternum...Mas, no caso particular do Primeiro Ministro italiano, não se pode dizer que a justiça não seguiu o seu curso 'normal' por causa imputável ao Tribunal ou aos serviços que o suportam! Berlusconi, brilhantemente escapa, ou porque a lei não permite que while in office seja prosecuted, seja porque afinal já prescreveu tudo e mais alguma coisa! Os prazos "aprovados" deviam interromper ou suspender a prescrição, nomeadamente quando por causa imputável ao arguido. A procrastinação da Justiça é altamente prejudicial, mas quando o "poder" é a causa do seu atraso não devia ser menos condenável. Bem sei que o arguido tenta de tudo para ser absolvido ou não chegar sequer a ser julgado, mas a separação de poderes devia ser real e, no caso de Itália, não há, decididamente, essa separação.

Na notícia que transcrevo o foco é Berlusconi, ainda que se faça uma leve referência à estatística...Porque é que a importância de uma lei recairia sobre apenas uma pessoa se não servisse para favorecê-la?

«Italy's parliament gave its first nod on Wednesday to a draft law drastically cutting the duration of trials, a measure critics say is tailor-made to stop pending court cases against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The Senate, where Berlusconi has an ample majority, approved the so-called "short trial" draft bill -- one of the most radical reforms of Italy's snail-paced justice system since the end of World War Two -- by 163 to 130 votes.
It will now go before the lower house, where it is all but certain to get the green light.
The draft law sets a total limit of between 6-1/2 and 10 years on the three stages of court cases -- initial trial, first appeal and final appeal -- depending on how serious the crime is. An extension is possible for mafia and terrorism cases, but beyond that the defendant would be automatically acquitted.
Because of its retroactive effect, the measure would effectively terminate two corruption and tax fraud trials against Berlusconi, who denies all charges and says he has been hounded by magistrates since entering politics in 1994.
"The time limits introduced by this law are still too long," said Berlusconi, adding that going to trial in Italy was like entering Dante's Inferno (Hell).
He said his lawyers had advised him against attending any of his own trials because it would be like facing "execution squads."
The opposition said the draft bill was the umpteenth "ad personam" law, using the Latin term meaning "for one person," to save Berlusconi from prosecution. It says the way to speed up trials is to give the judiciary more resources.
"Your priority has been, government after government, to serve a private interest; to do this you have not been afraid of shattering our legal system; and you have never shown any shame," Anna Finocchiaro, head of the PD center-left senators, told the upper house of parliament.
Some opposition senators waved banners reading "Berlusconi, face your trials."
SNAIL-PACE JUSTICE
Magistrates say the law could end up to 100,000 trials, including some big fraudulent bankruptcy cases in which tens of thousands of small investors are suing to get their money back.
Berlusconi's allies say only 1 percent of Italy's trials, which can last over two decades, would be affected. They point to the recent example of Calogero Mannino, a centrist politician and three-times minister who was definitively cleared of mafia charges last week after a 16-year battle through the courts.
"We need this law to rescue our justice system," said Maurizio Gasparri, head of Berlusconi's PDL party in the Senate.
The justice minister complains that civil courts take on average 960 days to reach a sentence, 1,500 more for an appeal and have a backlog of 5.4 million cases. Criminal courts average 420 days for a sentence and have 3.6 million cases pending.
Berlusconi lost his immunity from prosecution in October when Italy's top court ruled legislation passed by his government to shield him from trials while in office violated the constitutional principle that all are equal before the law.
That ruling allowed two court cases against him to resume.
Since then, the 73 year-old conservative leader has pledged to overhaul the judiciary. He says that over the past 15 years he has been saddled with 109 trials and 200 million euros of legal fees, and was never convicted.
Besides cutting the duration of trials, his government is also mulling a law giving Berlusconi a "legitimate impediment" from attending court cases because of his official commitments, and a constitutional reform to restore his immunity.»
@ Reuters
Italy's parliament gave its first nod on Wednesday to a draft law drastically cutting the duration of trials, a measure critics say is tailor-made to stop pending court cases against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

1 ano depois...

A par do que se passa no Haiti e no Afeganistão, o assunto do 'dia' é o aniversário da presidência de Barack Obama.

Dos que são pró-Obama, surgem, dos diversos cantos do mundo, várias opiniões, mas os comentários resumem-se fundamentalmente a duas posições: 1 - Obama prometeu prometeu, mas pouco ou nada fez daquilo que prometera fazer; 2 - Temos de ter paciência, uma vez que os objectivos a que se propôs não são atingidos em um ano, há um projecto que vai sendo concretizado passo a passo. 

Os que são anti-Obama 'sustentam' na desilusão e no desempenho aquém das expectativas o fracasso da Obama administration, chegando mesmo a ser denominado de "Bush II".

É verdade que, por esta altura, os apoiantes de Obama - onde me incluo - esperavam mais. 

Ainda que haja alguns fracassos queria apontar duas coisas: 

(1)"Roma e Pavia não se fizeram num dia" e (2) nem tudo depende de Barack Obama. 

Não se pode fazer de um homem o protagonista do Mundo, é absurdo e falso - o mesmo valendo para o país que representa. Esta afirmação é tão válida para fazer notar que o resto dos países que apoiam as suas decisões não se deverem ficar pelas palavras, devem sim agir em conformidade com as mesmas, como para realçar que os fanatismos e adulações são prejudiciais sobre incontáveis pontos de vista.

Se eu votasse nos Estados Unidos da América teria votado em Barack Obama há um ano atrás e voltaria a votar nele hoje - o que não implica que não haja críticas e 'desilusões'.

watch:
@ BBC: Civil rights campaigner on Obama's first year
@ Aljazeera: Fault Lines. Obama: Year One

One moment of pure joy, after 7 long lasting days of hell

A baby was born :)
watch: Born amid the ruins: Going into labour on Haiti street 
@ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8469290.stm

Haiti

Não há dúvida alguma que o tema está em voga e que é fundamental socorrer as cerca de 3 milhões de pessoas que ficaram completamente nuas. 

Ouvi questionar - o que me fez pensar - o papel das ONGs...como tudo funciona. AV salientou o problema da 'geografia', do conhecimento do espaço...nunca tinha pensado nisto...Numa catástrofe desta monta é essencial conhecer todos os cantos e quem os não conhece acaba, inevitavelmente, por andar um pouco 'à deriva'. Outro ponto levantado foi o "destino" do dinheiro. Recai, como salientou também Madalena Vasconcelos, uma 'má fama' sobre as ONGs por serem conhecidos alguns 'maus fins/destinos' dados aos fundos que são atribuídos. A expressão "paga o justo pelo pecador" pode ser muito válida, mas as pessoas do Haiti não podem sofrer mais ainda. Já chega de sofrimento e de perda. É mesmo preciso ajudar. Mas é também preciso que as ONGs e demais pessoas (singulares e colectivas) envolvidas em todo este processo estejam conscientes - e não digo que não estão - de que é preciso investir o que têm para investir até ao último 'cêntimo' e que se é para aquele fim que é atribuído então é para aquele fim que tem de ser utilizado e não para qualquer outro. 

Impressiona-me indescritivelmente ver (e ler) a miséria, o estado de degradação, a absoluta falta de tudo. E não consigo deixar de questionar, também, o porquê de estas desgraças acontecerem, as mais das vezes, sobre quem menos as pode suportar - ainda que seja menos relevante, uma vez que a Natureza é "a" Natureza...como disse MRMV nem a Catedral (Séc. XVIII) sobreviveu, pelo que não pode ter-se apenas devido à qualidade das construções (actuais).

A tinta que corre sobre o tema é imensurável, só espero (e desejo) que as palavras sejam, de facto, a tradução de actos concretos e que agora nos concentremos em dar aos sobreviventes condições verdadeiramente dignas. 

Some 'words' and some images ...of this terrible catastrophe...

source: BBC

source: Aljazeera

source: Aljazeera

source: AFP

source: CNN

Source: NYTimes

Source: NYTimes

Ban calls for international support in wake of devastating Haiti quake

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33470&Cr=haiti&Cr1=

UN rushing aid to Haiti following deadly tremors

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33471&Cr=haiti&Cr1=

UN Security Council, General Assembly pledge support for Haiti quake victims

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33480&Cr=haiti&Cr1=

Haiti appeals for aid; official fears 100,000 dead after earthquake

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/13/haiti.earthquake/index.html

Race to help Haiti quake victims

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/01/2010113232636559196.html

Haiti earthquake survivors await global aid effort

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8458439.stm
Amid Untold Dead, Haiti’s Devastation Hobbles Efforts to Reach Survivors
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/world/americas/15haiti.html?hp

The power of hatred...

Al Jazeera English - PEOPLE AND POWER - White Power USA

A video that talks about the 'white power'...

'White pride'?! The 'survival of the white race'?

Hear people saying this it's like going back in time...remembering the struggle of Martin Luther King and others...

I know that there are racists and xenophobics...people who support a "white supremacy"...but it worries me that there are so many and so strong movements that are constantly increasing instead of ceasing to exist... Don't people think? Where is the reason in these sayings?! People are murdered based on race! There can be no reason here!

p.s. For me this is not about Obama this is about all of us.

"Migrants leave Italian town amid violence"

Continua.... (CNN) -- The message blaring out of the speakers on the van was stark: "Any black person who is hiding in Rosarno should get out. If we catch you, we will kill you." Abdul Rashid Muhammad Mahmoud Iddris got out. He's one of hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of African migrants taken by bus out of the Italian town over the weekend after violent demonstrations shook southern Italy. The unrest was among the worst of its kind in recent Italian history, said a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration. "We have not witnessed such protests in a long time," said Flavio Di Giacomo. "There were several thousand, but I don't know exactly how many people were involved." Interior Minister Roberto Maroni got involved Friday, declaring an "immigration emergency" and forming a task force under the authority of regional police to guarantee public order. It was the shooting of an African migrant that sparked two days of protests, Iddris told CNN by telephone from Italy. He said the shooting was unprovoked. Police said they were investigating the circumstances of the shooting. Iddris lived with other migrants in an abandoned factory outside Rosarno, he said. On Thursday, a BMW pulled up outside the factory, a man got out, shot one of the Africans living there, 26-year-old Ayiva Saibou, and drove off. A passing policeman told Iddris and his friends it was not his job to help the wounded man, so they called the Red Cross to take the man to a hospital for treatment, Iddris said. Press reports said Saibou -- who is a native of Togo with regular working papers -- was shot with a compressed air gun. A few hours after the shooting, a group of about 300 immigrants poured into to the street where the incident took place earlier. "They put on an angry demonstration, hampering the free circulation in the streets, damaging garbage bins, hitting with sticks and rocks numerous passing cars," according to a police report. Iddris and his friends then decided to march to Rosarno's town hall to protest. "About 2,000 people came -- all of us," he said. "It started about 6 or 7 in the evening, a few hours after he was shot." But police forced the demonstrators to turn back, threatening them with tear gas, Iddris said. Six or seven people were arrested, he said. Police attempted talking with the immigrants, but negotiations did not produce positive results, according to a police statement. The next morning, Friday, the immigrants tried again, playing drums as they tried to march from the factory to Rosarno's town hall, he said. That's when they heard the warning. "People took a van, an information van with speakers, saying any black person who is hiding in Rosarno should get out, if they catch anyone they will kill him," Iddris said. Iddris -- who is originally from Sudan and has been in Italy for about 18 months, first as an asylum seeker and then without legal documentation, and who picks oranges in season -- said police arrested another 10 to 20 people at Friday's demonstration. Italian press reports said the demonstrators had burned cars. Later on Friday, Iddris said, police arranged for buses to move the Africans away from Rosarno to another village. But the new location was no safer, he said. Police had to keep locals and migrants physically separated Saturday. "They said they would take us to another place. They said it's dangerous now for blacks to stay there," he said. Hundreds of people were driven north to Bari on Italy's east coast and Naples on its west coast, Iddris said. He was on one of six buses, each with 45 to 50 people, taken to Bari. "Right now we don't know what is next," he said Monday. Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against the violence in his weekly address on Sunday. "An immigrant is a human being, different by background, culture and tradition, but a person to be respected," he said. "Violence must never be a way to resolve difficulties," he said, urging people "to look at the face of the other and discover that he, too, has a soul, a story and a life. He is a person and God loves him just as He loves me." Di Giacomo, the International Organization for Migration spokesman, said Italy has many migrants, often from Africa, living in conditions bordering on slavery. The migrants who demonstrated last week "were exploited. They were just paid 20 euros (about $29) per day and they lived in slums, the same as slavery conditions. A few months ago in (the southern Italian region of) Campagna we discovered a similar situation. It's unfortunately a reality in many places, especially in southern Italy." Italy is one of the top European destinations for migrants, the migration organization's figures show. More than 3.6 million legal migrants live in the country -- 6.2 percent of the total population -- and Italy has the European Union's highest annual growth rate of migrants, along with Spain. It's hard to know exactly how many illegal immigrants there are in the country, Di Giacomo said. "It is not controlled in any way. They change the area where they work because of the season of the year -- oranges in the winter, tomatoes in the summer," he said. "With economic migrants, many of them arrive with tourist visas and overstay seeking work. They can arrive in so many ways," including paying traffickers thousands of dollars to smuggle them into the country. Not all the workers involved in the demonstrations were undocumented, he said -- but the line between legal and illegal can be porous. "Some have lost their jobs, and in Italy if you lose your job you have six months to find work or you become illegal," he said. Italian media have speculated that the Mafia was behind the shooting that triggered the violence. But Di Giacomo said it was not important whether they were or not. "We don't know if the Mafia is involved, but the point is not really the Mafia," he said. "The point is that the conditions for these migrants are so inhuman that they can lead to some violent reactions." http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/01/11/italy.migrant.violence/index.html