Dear Kitty. Some blog

December 5, 2009

More war in Afghanistan [Peace and war, Human rights] — Administrator @ 11:25 am


This video says about itself:

President Obama has decided to send more than 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, at a cost of more than $100 billion/year. But America cannot afford a war that does not make us safer, and Congress has the power to stop the escalation. Vote NO on any spending bill that would send more troops to Afghanistan.”
Three days after Obama’s surge announcement, US Marines have begun an operation that will culminate in an assault on a large city, Marja, modelled on the US destruction of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004: here.

Did Bush’s speech writers write Obama’s Afghanistan speech? Here.

President Obama’s Secret: Only 100 Al Qaeda Now in Afghanistan: here.

Economic crisis [Economic, social, trade union, etc.] — Administrator @ 11:10 am


US Unemployment Highest in 20 Years

The US economy lost fewer jobs in November than in any other month since the recession began, according to the Labor Department. But overall economic conditions continue to worsen for the majority of the population, with wages falling and no return to normal job conditions in sight: here.

Last month Spain’s ex-Popular Party (PP) prime minister, José María Aznar, gave a lecture to the London School of Economics (LSE) outlining his proposed solutions for the economic crisis: here.

December 4, 2009

Painted ladies in space, video [Invertebrates, Astronomy, space] — Administrator @ 10:51 pm


This video says about itself:

Butterflies in Space, Painted lady, Flight, Wide Angle, 12-04-09, BioServe …

All four painted lady butterflies alive and well aboard the International Space Station. At least one of them is still testing out its space wings. Enjoy!

Art censored for anti-capitalism [Peace and war, Economic, social, trade union, etc., Human rights, Visual arts] — Administrator @ 7:30 pm


This video says about itself:

Named after a common brand of French stationary, Claire Fontaine is a ready-made artist, exemplifying an empty, standardized identity produced by contemporary capitalism. Her works include neon signs, sculptures, videos, light-boxes, and texts, and while her message is often militant and radical, she more closely resembles subjectivity-on-strike, compromising our ability to define it and institutionalize it.

The title of her exhibition in The Front Room is They Hate Us for Our Freedom and includes a new sculpture, a wall text made with the burnt remains of lit matches, and a poster of Jackson and Dave, Dick Cheney’s two dogs. They hate us for our freedom is a seminal sentence of George Bush’s speech after September 11 and states an ideological and economical distance with the eastern world supposed to justify the wars to come.

Claire Fontaine’s exhibition raises the question of the meaning of freedom in liberal societies, and discretely shows the violence and the lack of independence that comes from the simple fact of being governed.

Capitalism kills love, by Claire Fontaine

From The Art Newspaper, about the USA:

Anti-capitalist work of art proves “too political”

Work was ­removed from its site one day before Art Basel Miami Beach was due to open

By Anny Shaw | From Art Basel Miami Beach daily edition, 4 Dec 09

Capitalism Kills Love” is a pretty punchy statement, but Paris-based art duo Claire Fontaine (James Thornhill and Fulvia Carnevale) were nonetheless shocked to discover that their work had been ­removed from its site one day before Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) was due to open.

The sign, Capitalism Kills Love (Red, White, Blue), 2009, was intended to hang on the side of a building on the corner of 21st Street and Collins Avenue as part of ABMB’s Art Projects, but the slogan proved a bit too political for one of the two owners of the building. According to Paola Guadagnino, co-director of the Naples gallery T293 (D25) which represents the artist duo, the disgruntled owner objected as soon as the sign had gone up.

“He was pretty shocked,” says Fulvia Carnevale. “He thought the meaning was too political for him. This can happen with people who are outside of the art world.” With help from Art Projects curator Patrick Charpenel, the sign was reinstalled on the side of another building on Meridian Avenue in under 24 hours.

But even in its new location, it seems the artistic statement was greeted with comments and criticisms. According to the artists, a passing Miami Beach policeman asked the art installers working on site what the sign said. When they told him, “Capitalism Kills Love”, Carnevale says the officer said they should “Go back to Europe”.

In theory, the police should sustain the law, and freedom of speech and artistic expression; not an economic system, like capitalism. Remember, the United States constitution does not say there should be capitalism. However, in practice, police are sometimes different …

Harvest mice in the Netherlands [Mammals] — Administrator @ 6:33 pm


This video says about itself:

In the southeast part of Norway you can observe the Harvest mouse who is the smallest rodent in Europe.
According to Dutch conservation organization Natuurmonumenten, this year on 20 and 21 November, 103 harvest mice have been captured, and released, during a research project in the new Groene Jonker nature reserve. In these life traps, also 45 common voles and a few other rodents and shrews were caught.

The Groene Jonker has been a nature reserve only since 2007. It is encouraging that it already attracts rare species like the harvest mouse.

Taiwanese bird catchers turn bird watchers [Economic, social, trade union, etc., Birds] — Administrator @ 4:43 pm


Bird in the Rain (Taiwan)

By Benjamin Yeh, AFP:

In Taiwan, bird catchers turn bird watchers

TAIPEI — When Yeh You-chin was a boy half a century ago, he ate migratory birds with relish, but now he is at the forefront of efforts to preserve the feathered visitors to his south Taiwan home.

Mr. Yeh, the 59-year-old chief of Fangshan township, recently opened an exhibition hall devoted to the brown shrike, which passes through the area every year — and until recently did so at great risk to itself.

“I remember how the air was filled with the strong smell of roasted shrikes,” he said. “Some villagers made more money catching birds than people in the cities.”

Times have changed, and conservation efforts have now moved to the forefront of most people’s minds in this rural part of Taiwan. The exhibition hall is testimony to this development.

“People visiting the exhibition center can learn about brown shrikes, their relationship with human beings and their plight once they are caught in traps,” Mr. Yeh said.

For centuries, people in subtropical southern Taiwan would look forward to autumn and winter, when migratory birds would fly in from northern Asia.

They called them “divine blessings” because of the delicious flavor they added to the simple rustic fare they normally put on their dinner tables.

But over the past generation the situation has changed, and the birds are now referred to as “friends from far away.”

The dozens of species of migratory birds are now seen as more useful alive than dead, because they can help boost tourism revenues.

Persistent conservation efforts have paid off, as a less-dangerous environment has attracted more birds each year, in turn also luring more tourists to regions such as Hengchun near the southern tip of the island.

“The Hengchun area has become one of the world’s top 20 spots for appreciating birds of prey,” said Tsai Yi-zung, a bird expert at Kenting National Park in south Taiwan.

Among these is the grey-faced buzzard, better known here as “National Day bird” because its arrival roughly coincides with the island’s National Day celebrations on Oct. 10.

This year, the number of grey-faced buzzards in September and October hit a 20-year high of 49,000, according to a survey done by the national park.

“People’s thinking has changed completely over the past 25 years,” said Mr. Tsai.

“I can’t guarantee no one here ever eats a bird, but it’s definitely a very, very small number.”

Berlusconi linked to Mafia bombings [Economic, social, trade union, etc., Human rights, Media, Crime] — Administrator @ 4:14 pm


This is a video about the Mafia.

From Reuters:

Mob Witness Links Berlusconi to Mafia Bombings

Published: December 4, 2009

Filed at 7:45 a.m. ET

TURIN, Italy - A jailed Mafia hitman linked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to the Cosa Nostra on Friday, telling a court that a godfather convicted for a 1993 bombing campaign had boasted of his links to the media mogul.

Stripped of immunity from prosecution, the prime minister faced legal difficulties on two fronts on Friday, with an ally appealing against conviction on Mafia charges and an unrelated corruption case where he is accused of bribing a British lawyer.

Mafia “pentito,” or mobster-turned-witness, Gaspare Spatuzza told a court in Turin that a Mafia clan leader later jailed for the attacks had named Berlusconi, who had not entered politics at the time, in connection with the bombings.

He recounted a meeting with clan boss Giuseppe Graviano — later given multiple life sentences along with his brother for the bombings in Rome, Milan and Florence — in a cafe on Rome’s Via Veneto early 1994, after the deadly bombing campaign.

“Graviano told me we had obtained everything, thanks to the seriousness of the people who’d helped with our affair … he mentioned two names, he called Berlusconi ‘the man from Channel 5′,” said Spatuzza, referring to a Mediaset television channel.

He quoted Graviano saying: “We have everything thanks to the seriousness of these people, specifically Berlusconi.” …

Spatuzza was speaking in open court for the first time as part of an appeal by pro-Berlusconi senator Marcello Dell’Utri against his conviction for association with the Mafia. He spoke behind a screen in a maximum-security room packed with reporters. …

Berlusconi has threatened to sue newspapers that reported he was being investigated and that the mob had a stake in his business. …

CORRUPTION CASE

A Milan court trying Berlusconi in an unrelated case for bribing British lawyer David Mills with $600,000 in 1997 to withhold evidence about his business conceded that his official duties were a legitimate reason to postpone the trial.

Berlusconi’s lawyers argued he had to meet his cabinet and then open a new highway in southern Italy instead of attending Friday’s first hearing in the case, where Mills has already been sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison, pending an appeal.

Berlusconi later changed his plans and did not attend the highway opening but remained in Rome.

Berlusconi’s trial for corruption in the Mills case had been suspended thanks to an immunity law he passed. But this was then ruled unconstitutional, letting two pending trials resume.

In another trial, for tax fraud and false accounting in the acquisition of media rights by Mediaset, prosecutors say the company paid an inflated price to offshore firms controlled by Berlusconi.

Japanese Social Democrats say US base out of Okinawa [Peace and war] — Administrator @ 2:22 pm


This is a Japanese video about protests in Okinawa against the US military base.

From Kyodo news agency in Japan:

Fukushima hints at quitting coalition if Futemma remains in Okinawa

TOKYO, Dec. 3

Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima hinted Thursday that her party may leave the ruling coalition if the government decides to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futemma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture.

Immigrants’ rights violated in the USA [Economic, social, trade union, etc., Human rights, Crime] — Administrator @ 10:45 am

This video from the USA is called Chicago’s Immigrant Rights/Workers Rights March.

Human Rights Watch released a report Wednesday detailing how US authorities are indiscriminately transferring thousands of detained immigrants away from their attorneys and family members in order to prevent them from fighting deportation: here.

December 3, 2009

Shell pollution in Nigeria [Economic, social, trade union, etc., Human rights, Environment] — Administrator @ 9:45 pm


This video is called The Case Against Shell: ‘The Hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa Showed the True Cost of Oil’.

Nigerian villagers have pleaded with a court at The Hague to hear their case against Royal Dutch Shell for allegedly polluting their land: here.

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