Climate Change Threatens Poor World's Agriculture

NEW DELHI, Aug. 7 — As exceptionally heavy rains continued to cut a wide swath of ruin across northern India, a top UN official warned Tuesday that the vagaries of climate change could destroy vast swaths of farmland in this country, ultimately affecting food production and adding to the woes of already desperate peasants who live off of the land.

A villager in Bogiajan, Assam State, which has been hit hard by flooding, wading past submerged houses to get drinking water. Even a small increase in temperatures, said Jacques Diouf, director general of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, could push down crop yields in southern regions of the world, even as agricultural productivity goes up in northern climes like Europe. A greater frequency of droughts and floods, the agency added, could be particularly bad for agriculture. “Rain-fed agriculture in marginal areas in semiarid and subhumid regions is mostly at risk,” Mr. Diouf said on a visit to the southern Indian city of Chennai. “India could lose 125 million tons of its rain-fed cereal production, equivalent to 18 percent of its total production.”

That is a signal of the steep human and economic impact of extreme weather in India, where a majority of peasants still rely on the rains to irrigate their fields and where a bad flood can be nearly as devastating as a bad drought. The latest floods have affected an estimated 20 million people in India alone, 8 million in neighboring Bangladesh and 300,000 in Nepal, according to the United Nations children’s agency. The World Meteorological Organization said in a statement on Tuesday that the region experienced double the normal number of monsoon depressions in the first half of the four-month rainy season that started in June, causing heavy rainfall and flooding across South Asia.

Nearly a third of India’s meteorological districts received higher-than-average rains, according to government figures. The latest tally released by the Home Ministry reads like an inventory of ruin: nearly 8,000 square miles of agricultural land inundated since the start of the monsoon two months ago, more than 130,000 houses destroyed, 1,428 people killed. Government relief teams have fanned out across northern Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh States, dropping relief packets by air. Even as the rains stopped over the last couple of days, stagnant water raised the risks of water-borne disease, from diarrhea to dengue fever, in areas that are already among the nation’s poorest and least healthy. There have been no reports of disease outbreaks yet. India stands to bear the brunt of some of the worst effects of climate change, in large measure because it is ill-prepared. When the rivers swell, fragile embankments burst. Mud and thatch houses easily crumble. When the water rises, as it does year after year to varying degrees, Indian peasants are ritually stranded. “These floods are a curse to us,” Ganesh Acharya, 40, said by telephone from a marooned part of Bihar State. “Our lives comes to a standstill.” In his village, he said, the rice crop had washed away, and people have had to paddle to a nearby village to buy basic goods, at far higher prices than normal. Shiv Shankar Acharya, 58, a local college lecturer, said he did not recall when so much water had accumulated, and had refused to subside for more than 10 days.
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Pontiff Wants Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, JULY 29, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI urged nuclear disarmament, suggesting that resources thus saved could be used to help the poor. The Pope said this today before praying the midday Angelus with crowds gathered at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Rome. His address recalled the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Recalling the second article of the agency's statutes, the Holy Father observed that among its objectives, this U.N. agency seeks "to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health, and prosperity throughout the world."

"The Holy See, fully approving of the IAEA's goal, has been a member from the organization's foundation and continues to support its activity," the Pontiff explained to the pilgrims, many of whom remained in the piazza in front of the palace because of the lack of space in the courtyard. Benedict XVI continued, "The epochal changes of the last 50 years are evidence of how, in the difficult crossroads at which humanity finds itself, the commitment to encourage the nonproliferation of nuclear arms, to promote a progressive and agreed-upon nuclear disarmament, and to favor the peaceful and safe use of nuclear technology for authentic development -- respectful of the environment and always attentive to the most disadvantaged populations -- is always relevant and urgent." The Bishop of Rome desired "the success of the efforts of those who work to pursue the three objectives with determination and the intention to make things such that the resources which would be saved could then be employed in projects of development capable of benefiting all their people, especially the poor."

Citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he re-emphasized how in the place of "the arms race there must be substituted a common effort to mobilize resources toward objectives of moral, cultural and economic development, redefining the priorities and hierarchies of values." The Pope asked that "scientific and technological knowledge be used with a sense of responsibility and for the common good, in complete respect for international law." He concluded his address praying "that men live in peace and all feel as brothers, sons of one Father: God."
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise. Mozlink

Questions Raised at Slain Fr Kaiser’s Public Inquest

NAIROBI, August 7, 2007 (CISA) -The 4-year inquest into the death of Mill Hill missionary Fr John Kaiser concluded last week that he did not commit suicide, but was in fact murdered. Here are 24 hard questions gleaned from the ruling:

1. In 1999 Fr Kaiser testified before a commission of inquiry, adversely mentioning then President Daniel Moi in connection with ethnic clashes in the Rift Valley. The reference to President Moi was deleted from the record. Who did that and why?
2. After Fr Kaiser’s death, why did respected Kenyan psychiatrist Dr Frank Njenga issue a report that the priest suffered from a clearly diagnosable mental illness, when he had never treated the priest? Njenga neither interviewed the priest’s personal doctors nor perused any medical records. Why?
3. Why did the American Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) invent the story that Fr Kaiser was once admitted to a mental hospital after shooting a neighbour?
4. Catechist Francis Kantai of Lolgorian, a close friend of Fr Kaiser’s, claimed he was approached to kill the priest by poisoning him. Who was behind this plot?
5. Why did the FBI, who presented the suicide theory, refuse to attend the inquest to defend their claim? Did they fear cross-examination?
6. Why was the report by top FBI experts on Fr Kaiser’s “suicide” not signed? Was it because no one was prepared to take responsibility for its conclusions?
7. After the FBI finished their investigations and filed a report, why did they still keep Fr Kaiser’s gun, which he allegedly had used to kill himself? They only produced it following a court order.
8. Police claimed Fr Kaiser used his own gun to kill himself, yet they did not do a ballistic analysis of the weapon. Isn’t it possible the fatal shot was fired from another gun?
9. There was no trace of gun powder on Fr Kaiser’s body, or any blood on his gun which lay beside him. Was the fatal shot really fired from that gun, at the scene where the body was found?
10. Fr Kaiser’s gun was about 3ft long. Could it be possible for a 68-year-old man suffering from arthritis to hold such a long gun to the back of his right ear and still manage to reach and pull the trigger?
11. There were bruises on Fr Kaiser’s knees. How and when did these occur, yet his body lay serenely on the ground?
12. Fr Kaiser’s body was found lying neatly on its left side with one hand neatly placed on the other. How could that be possible if he had shot himself? The heavy impact would have left the body sprawled.
13. A senior policeman who transferred Fr Kaiser’s body to the mortuary never handed it in with brain matter in a polythene bag? Yet there was brain matter purported to be Fr Kaiser’s? Where did the stuff come from and with what motive?
14. Fr Kaiser was a man of great courage, fearlessness and fortitude who had taken on the high and mighty in defense of justice. He had refused to leave the country for his safety. Why would he kill himself?
15. The day before he died, Fr Kaiser delivered a note to then papal envoy in Nairobi, Archbishop Giovani Tonnuci. What was in the note? Why did the Catholic Church decline to make the note public at the inquest?
16. Fr Kaiser’s vehicle was found lying in a culvert by the road, with a ring of green paint around the left front tyre. Did a mysterious green vehicle collide with the priest’s?
17. The driver’s right widow was found smashed. Some pieces of glass were on Fr Kaiser’s clothing, but not outside the broken window or near the car. Why?
18. Was then Minister for internal security, Julius Sunkuli, who had bad relations with Fr Kaiser a co-conspirator in the priest’s murder? The court exonerated Sunkuli for lack of evidence.
19. Why did Florence Mpayei who had made serious rape allegations against Sunkuli later withdraw the charge? She was one of the two alleged rape victims Fr Kaiser was assisting to find justice.
20. Why did catechist Francis Kantai, a close companion of Fr Kaiser’s, not attend his friend’s funeral? The court found his testimony “unreliable, evasive and contradictory.”
21. Why was Kantai never arrested and charged even after admitting that he lied to the court in his earlier evidence and engaged in acts of arson against victims of ethnic clashes whom Fr Kaiser was protecting?
22. Shortly before Fr Kaiser’s death, a rifle similar to his disappeared from Maasai Mara National Park and has not been traced to date. Could it be the gun used to shoot him?
23. Two rangers from the Mara, relatives of Sunkuli’s who had illegally detained an alleged rape victim, gave “clearly rehearsed” evidence at the inquest. They had beaten up a man badly on suspicion that he was close to Fr Kaiser. Who helped them rehearse their tale and why?
24. Why did Kenya Police fail to investigate Fr Kaiser’ death “with the seriousness and diligence that it deserved?” The court found that they did “no meaningful investigations.” Were they obeying some sinister instructions? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Disclaimer No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise. Mozlink

China Violates Olympic Rights Promises

Amnesty International released scathing criticism of the Chinese government in a new report Tuesday, charging Beijing has failed to live up to its promises to act on civil liberties and freedom of the press ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. "Unless the Chinese authorities take urgent measures to stop human rights violations over the coming year, they risk tarnishing the image of China and the legacy of the Beijing Olympics," the group's secretary-general, Irene Khan, said.

BEIJING August 7th: The Olympic Games are a year away, but protests have already begun from groups who want the event to change China. Also clouding the picture Tuesday was a thick blanket of smog that has hovered over the city for weeks - not the blue skies hoped for by the organizers of the Beijing Games. Officials including International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge will mark the start of the one-year countdown with a lavish ceremony Wednesday in Tiananmen Square. But on Tuesday, Chinese authorities detained six activists descending part of the Great Wall with a 450-square-foot banner reading, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008." The London-based Free Tibet Campaign and Students for a Free Tibet said China is using the Olympics to strengthen its claims on Tibet. China says it has ruled the remote region for centuries but many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951, and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.

In an open letter to Rogge and Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, a group of 40 well-known dissidents said China's Olympic preparations had obscured widespread civil-rights abuses. "We find no consolation or comfort in the rise of grandiose sports facilities, or a temporarily beautified Beijing city, or the prospect of Chinese athletes winning medals," the letter said. Chinese officials promised foreign reporters free movement seven months ago. However, the temporary freedoms do not extend to local Chinese journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Beijing to free 29 imprisoned journalists and loosen the restrictions on local reporters. It also called on the IOC to pressure China to increase press freedoms. "There's a major responsibility for the IOC ... to speak out and to encourage the government of China to live up to its commitments," said Wall Street Journal editor-at-large and CPJ board chairman Paul Steiger.

The IOC said the games, which begin Aug. 8, 2008, could be a "catalyst for constructive dialogue."
"We believe that the Olympic Games will act as a vehicle for positive change in many ways, some of which may take time to realize," the IOC said. "From what we have learnt in meeting with human rights groups, they typically agree with our viewpoint that the Games being held in Beijing is a positive thing." Rogge has called the games "a force for good" but has cautioned they cannot change China's political and social institutions. Dismal air quality, meanwhile, could threaten the performance and health of thousands of elite athletes, and some are already saying they will stay away until the last minute because of pollution concerns.

Australian IOC member John Coates said after meeting Tuesday with other Olympic delegations and Beijing organizers that he'd be telling his athletes to stay away from Beijing until four or five days before their events. He called Beijing's choking pollution "a prevailing worry for most of us."
"They (Chinese organizers) are very, very conscious of it," Coates said. "They know it's a concern to the IOC. All we can do is trust that they will do everything possible."No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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Sri Lanka Accused of Abuses

COLOMBO, Aug 6: (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government is responsible for unlawful killings and disappearances, Human Rights Watch said on Monday -- the anniversary of the discovery of the massacre of 17 aid workers blamed on security forces. Issuing a report entitled 'Return to war: Human rights under siege', the U.S.-based group said President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government is resorting to abuses to fight a new chapter in a two-decade civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels. "The Sri Lankan government has apparently given its security forces a green light to use 'dirty war' tactics," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "Abuses by the LTTE (Tigers) are no excuse for the government's campaign of killings, disappearances and forced returns of the displaced," he added. "The government has repeatedly promised to end and investigate abuses, but has shown a lack of political will to take effective steps."

About 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, fighting for a separate state for minority ethnic Tamils, and security forces since 1983. Rights groups say hundreds of people, many of them minority Tamils, have been reported abducted or disappeared this year and 1,000 more in 2006. Rebels, paramilitaries, elements of the security forces, and underworld gangs have all been blamed. The Sri Lankan government says numbers of disappearances are overblown and many cases are fakes to discredit the administration. The publication of the Human Rights report coincides with the commemoration of the murder of 17 local staff members of Paris-based aid group Action Contre la Faim, who were shot dead in their compound in the northeastern town of Muttur last August after they were trapped by fighting between troops and rebels. Nordic truce monitors blamed the killings on the security forces and international observers say an inquiry into the massacre, the worst attack on aid workers since the 2003 bomb attack on the United Nations office in Baghdad, fails to meet international standards.

Action Contre La Faim are not pointing fingers, and are waiting for answers in a case that remains unsolved a year on. "We want to know who has done this," said Loan Tran-Thanh, head of the group's Sri Lanka mission. "It's very slow, but that's normal." "We cannot make any judgements ... because we are not the experts. We don't have enough data for us even to give an opinion," she added. "There have been so many contradictions." The island's human rights minister demanded that journalists be barred from the commemoration ceremony.

The Tigers are also blamed for serial abuses, including killing civilians and troops with roadside bombs and forcibly recruiting people, including children, to fight in the war. Human Rights Watch is lobbying for a United Nations human rights mission to be sent to Sri Lanka in the name of transparency and to discourage further abuses, but the government has refused. It says western governments are bullying it on human rights and are hypocritical, citing abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I understand that they are going to commemorate ... these 17 people, but they have forgotten 35 people from the Muslim community butchered in the same place by the LTTE," said government defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. "How do these human rights work with 17 and not work for 35?" he added. "As far as the government is concerned, it is doing everything possible in relation to human rights."
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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2007 Report - Human Development and Climate Change

Human development is about putting people at the centre of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing choice and enjoying the freedom to lead the lives they value. Created in 1990, the Human Development Report has explored themes including gender equity, democracy, human rights, globalization, cultural liberty and water scarcity. Climate change is the greatest challenge facing humanity at the start of the 21st Century. Failure to meet that challenge raises the spectre of unprecedented reversals in human development. The world’s poorest countries and poorest people will bear the brunt.

The past years have witnessed the emergence of a growing consensus on climate change. Governments across the world have seen the warning signs. The science linking global warming to human activity is unequivocal. The economic case for action is compelling: the costs of inaction will heavily outweigh the costs of action. Yet the politics lags behind the science and the economics. Collectively, the world’s governments are failing to act with the urgency demanded by the scale of the threat.

The window of opportunity for avoiding dangerous climate change is closing fast. This year’s Human Development Report explains why we have less than a decade to change course and start living within our global carbon budget. It explains how climate change will create long-run low human development traps, pushing vulnerable people into a downward spiral of deprivation. Because climate change is a global problem with global causes and effects, it demands a global response with countries acting on the basis of their historic responsibility and capabilities. The Human Development Report 2007 will be launched in November.
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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China says 'Living Bhuddas' Must Apply for Reincarnation

August 3, 2007: The Chinese government has told Tibet's "living Bhuddas" that they must have permission to be reincarnated. The new regulations, which come into force on September 1, are to "regulate the management of the reincarnation of living Buddhas", the State Administration for Religious Affairs said in a statement on its website (www.sara.gov.cn). "Temples which apply for reincarnations of living Buddhas must be legally registered venues for Tibetan Buddhism activities and capable of fostering and offering proper means of support to the living Buddha," it said.

The regulations are to "guarantee citizens freedom of religion and respect Tibetans' tradition of living Buddha succession", it added. In March, Tibet's Communist Party chief said the party was the remote, mountainous region's real "living Buddha" because, he said, it had brought an improvement in living conditions. Tibetans still chafe under Beijing's yoke, though. Radio Free Asia said scores of Tibetans had been arrested in the Sichuan town of Litang after demonstrating for greater religious freedom and the Dalai Lama's return.

The official Xinhua news agency said only one person had been detained, a villager called Runggye Adak, "for inciting separation of nationalities". "More than 200 villagers, who were unaware of the facts, gathered outside a detention centre on Wednesday evening and called for the release of Runggye Adak," the report said, citing unnamed sources. "All the villagers had left by Thursday after local government officials and police explained that Runggye Adak had breached the law," it said, adding that nobody had been injured. In 2002, a Tibetan lama was sentenced to death for a series of explosions in Litang and Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital.
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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A 200,000 Zim Dollar Bill

HARARE, Zimbabwe August 1st: The central bank unveiled a new 200,000 Zimbabwe dollar note yesterday, double the face value of what had been the highest denomination bill in a country where bundles of notes are needed for the simplest transactions. The Reserve Bank said in a statement that circulation of the new bill was for "convenience" in business and individual transactions. The bill is worth $13 at the official exchange rate or $1 at the dominant illegal black market rate. With five bills a Zimbabwean millionaire can buy a handful of scarce food items.

Runaway inflation has led to bundles of bills being needed for routine purchases. Few businesses or even government departments, including the tax office, accept checks. They demand cash or same-day bank-to-bank transfers, for fear the value of the currency will plummet even further before checks can clear. Zimbabwe is in its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, blamed largely on disruptions in the agriculture-based economy in the former regional breadbasket after the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000. Last August, the central bank slashed three zeros from the currency and issued new notes, saying the old cash had become unmanageable and computerized accounting and regular electronic calculators were unable to cope with the number of digits in routine transactions. Since then, official inflation has trebled to 4,500 percent, the highest in the world. Independent finance houses estimate real inflation closer to 9,000 percent.

A government edict to slash all prices last month in a bid to curb inflation has left shelves across the country bare of cornmeal, meat, eggs, milk, and other staples. Acute gasoline shortages have crippled transport and commuter services. The price of gas has been slashed to half the cost of importing it.
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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What if we were a Village of 100 people?

If the Earth was represented as a small village of 100 people, it would be something thus:

Sex
50 men
50 women

Population by continents
61 Asians
12 Europeans
14 Americans
13 Africans
1 Australian

Religion
33 are Christian
18 are Muslim
14 are Hindus
16 are not religious
6 are Buddhist
13 people practice other religions

Economy
41 live without basic cleaning
47 live in an urban area
6 people have 59% of the total fortune
18 live without a potable water source
18 people fight to survive with less than $1 or per day
53 people fight to survive with less than $2 or per day

Feeding
13 are hungry

Education
14 cannot read
7 have secondary education
12 have a computer
3 have connection to Internet

Health
1 adult between 15 and 49 years has AIDS
9 are incapacitated people

More data
The village uses more than $1,12 trillions in military expenses
The village uses only $100 billions in aids to the development
If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your locker, ceiling on your head, and have a bed for sleeping, you are richer than 75% of the whole population of the world
If you have a banking account you are one of the 30 richer people in the world

This it is an interesting summary of a presentation at TheMiniatureEarth

The message that it give us is that we must value what we have; the person who is reading this message is because she is one of the 3 people in this village that has connection to Internet and would bet that also they have a house and in his great majority they have an account in a bank. We must value what we have!
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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