picked up by Mike Malloy
Benazir Bhutto clearly mentions "the man who murdered Osama Bin Laden."
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/29616
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Benazir Bhutto slip of the tongue
May 2007: World urban population surpasses rural
"...There’s no big countdown billboard or sign in Times Square to denote it, but Wednesday, May 23, 2007, represents a major demographic shift, according to scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia: For the first time in human history, the earth’s population will be more urban than rural..."
~ Link ~
"the only demonstration that has been going on for 20 years now"
30 Dec 2007
By Tamara Traubmann
Haaretz
" ... The place where the crowd of 250 women gathered was the same place where Women in Black always hold their Friday demonstrations: Paris Square in Jerusalem. As always, they were carrying signs against the occupation.
"The peace movements have succeeded. We have thousands of demonstration hours," Hanna Safran boasted. "We have all been very creative. We've marched naked, we went down to the Territories. Our message has been accepted, but it hasn't put an end to the occupation and the wrongdoings that go along with it. In fact, things only got worse."
The movement was born in late 1987, weeks after the outbreak of the first intifada, which turned the attention of most Israelis to the very fact that the Palestinians were living under occupation. The first demonstrators, Safran among them, gathered at Paris Square, not far from the prime minister's official residence. They stood in silence, carrying signs the shape of a stop sign, reading: "Stop the occupation."
Within several months, other women joined the protest, demonstrating at junctions outside towns and cities. The members of Women in Black represent the full spectrum of the Israeli Left, from Labor to the anti-Zionists.
Two of the most frequently asked questions Women in Black have had to answer over the years were why women, and why black. They say the absence of men in their ranks is meant to allow women to make their voice heard in a militaristic society.
[ ... ]
In Israel, Women in Black has failed to bring about the end of occupation. But the movement has become a role model for other countries, where certain sectors of the population have to endure humiliation, oppression and racism.
At present, Women in Black organizations exist in over 40 countries, the Israeli members say. In India they are protesting religious discrimination. In the former Yugoslavia, various splinter states saw the formation of Women in Black protesting the war. In Germany they address fascism, nuclear weapons, and the Israeli occupation, too. ..."
Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World 2007
Full Report: The 2007 International Privacy Ranking
Text below from: Executive Summary
17 Dec 2007
This annual report by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Privacy International reviews the state of privacy in more than 75 countries around the world. It outlines legal protections for privacy, and summarizes important issues and events relating to privacy and surveillance. Each country report covers the constitutional, legal and regulatory framework protecting privacy and the surveillance of communications by law enforcement, new landmark court cases, most noteworthy advocacy work of non-governmental organizations and human rights groups, various new developments, and major news stories related to privacy.
This year marked the proliferation of new technologies and surveillance applications in both the public and private sectors. However, increased use of technology was balanced by more regulatory activity and greater international norm-setting. Many countries have established data protection laws and oversight bodies. Courts, particularly the European Court of Human Rights, have issued several significant privacy rights decisions, and issued unprecedented penalties for privacy violations. As the use of surveillance technologies continues to expand, so too does the public debate and the development of new forms of oversight and accountability.
This summary sets out the broad themes uncovered in the 2006 edition of the Privacy and Human Rights report.
1. Expansion of Identification Technologies
Advanced identification schemes are being used for an unprecedented number of purposes, both in the public and private spheres. Real-time biometric identification using wireless handheld scanners is now being deployed. The amount of biometric and other information stored on identification cards is increasing to include iris scans, fingerprints, health information, and information of dependents. Several government identification card systems are now offering a “junior” version of the cards for children. Although many identification cards are currently voluntary, limited access to government services makes the cards de facto mandatory in many cases.
RFID-enabled license plates are now being used to track the movement of vehicles. Face recognition is being employed to monitor crowds at sporting events. New workplace surveillance systems include GPS tracking of company vehicles, voice verification technologies, and biometric building access. The private sector is also implementing biometric identification for entry into leisure facilities and clubs, while governments are expanding smart cards uses to library access, banking, and e-health. In the criminal justice sector, DNA databases continue to expand, providing both new forms of forensic analysis and new privacy challenges.
2. Divergent Approaches to Privacy
During the past year, the increased flow of personal information across national borders brought divergence in international approaches to data protection and privacy to the forefront of political debate, particularly between the United States and Europe. The transfer of passenger name record information from the European Union to the United States Department of Homeland Security highlighted critical aspects of data protection, including purpose specification, independent oversight, length of retention periods, and the effectiveness of redress procedures.
Differences between national data protection regimes was again fiercely debated in the context of transfers of financial information from the SWIFT banking consortium in Europe to US law enforcement agencies. Several countries’ data protection offices launched investigations into the transfer. Another transborder data transfer agreement has been negotiated, but questions about the adequacy of the privacy safeguards remain.
3. Data Retention
The transition from analog media to digital media has created new opportunities to record and store personal information in both the public and private sectors. Law enforcement agencies believe that retaining data on the users of the Internet and telecommunications services may help uncover patterns of criminal activity. Many of the obligations to store this data fall on Internet Service Providers and telephone companies. At the same time, Internet search companies and advertising firms are keeping personal information on users to create profiles and develop highly targeted advertising. Opposition to both forms of data retention appears to be growing. Organized protests in Europe against the implementation of the Directive on Data Retention continue. Meanwhile, consumer organizations in the United States, Europe, and Canada have initiated investigations of Google, the Internet search giant, concerning the retention and profiling of data on Internet users’ private activities.
4. Civil liberties groups and NGOs' successful opposition to privacy intrusions
Civil liberties groups and NGOs have continued to mount successful campaigns against privacy-invading schemes. Protests against the national identification system “Juki Net” continued in Japan. In Germany, thousands of protesters have voiced opposition to the EU Data Retention Directive. NGO groups successfully narrowed the scope of surveillance and identifications schemes by incorporating purpose limitations, data destruction requirements, limiting the use of personal identification numbers, and meaningful oversight and penalty provisions into draft legislation. In the United States, public protest appears to have derailed the plan for a national ID card.
NGOs brought public attention to many privacy risks inherent in emerging technologies and surveillance programs that has resulted in changes to government and corporate approaches to privacy protection. The Big Brother Awards continue to capture public attention. Since 1998, over forty ceremonies have been held in sixteen countries and have given out hundreds of awards to some of the most powerful government agencies, individuals and corporations in those countries. Privacy International also played a leading role in the effort to uncover the SWIFT record transfer program.
5. Actions of international governmental organizations
International governmental organizations have played an active role in privacy policy formation. Several countries have adopted or amended data protection legislation with an eye to entering the European Union or the European information technology market. The EU’s adequacy requirement has played an important role in the development of international standards.
International bodies such as APEC have also had significant impact on the development of data protection regimes, as is the case with recent proposed amendments to Australia’s privacy legislation. International initiatives to combat spam, such as the StopSpam Alliance, have resulted in several new national anti-spam laws.
The European Court of Human Rights has played an increasingly important role in the interpretation of privacy rights protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court established a right to privacy in several cases during the past year, in such matters as identity documents, communications surveillance, and workplace privacy.
6. New Data Protection Laws
Around the world, new laws have been enacted and many bills are pending to protect individuals' right to privacy and data protection. Notably, the Dubai International Financial Centre adopted its Data Protection Law 2007, which follows the EU data protection model. Dubai, Israel and Estonia all established new data protection offices, and an amendment to Armenia's Constitution further strengthened the right to privacy in that country. Many countries that are contemplating regulation in the field of privacy are located in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
7. Developments in Open Government
This year, most of the developments in open government concerned new laws or regulations. Switzerland, Bulgaria, India, Taiwan and Germany all adopted new federal open government laws. All but three European Union countries now have data protection laws. New Zealand adopted a new public records law, and Jordan and Russia have pending open government legislation that has passed at least the first reading required for adoption.
Hunger and homelessness surge in US cities
US mayors’ report: Hunger and homelessness intensify in US cities
By Debra Watson
29 Dec 2007
The number of people hungry and homeless in US cities rose dramatically again in 2007, according to the annual report on hunger and homelessness from the US Conference of Mayors. The 23-city Hunger and Homelessness Survey was released in late December.
Requests for emergency food increased in four of every five cities. Among 15 cities with quantifying data, the median increase in requests for food was 10 percent and in some cities it was much higher. Detroit and some other cities reported seeing more working poor among those seeking food.
In Detroit, emergency food requests shot up 35 percent over the 12-month period ending in October. Officials there noted that “due to a lack of resources, emergency food assistance facilities have had to reduce the number of days and/or hours of operation.”
Thirteen of 19 survey cities reported they could not meet the demand for emergency food. Los Angeles was one of the major cities reporting difficulties in serving the growing need.
An official in LA said: “Emergency food assistance facilities have to turn away people. According to the LA Regional Foodbank, over 30 percent of their food pantries have had to turn clients away and pantries that don’t turn clients away are providing less food.
“In 2002, a food pantry would provide an average of eight to ten different USDA commodities per distribution. This holiday season, food pantries are providing three USDA commodities. Food pantries are tasked to serve more clients with the same amount of resources they had six years ago. Twenty-one percent of overall demand for emergency food assistance goes unmet.”
Across all cities, an average of 15 percent of families with children looking for emergency food must be turned away. Nine in 10 of the cities sampled for details on the urban hunger crisis say they expect increases in food requests next year.
City officials said specific factors exacerbating hunger over the past year were the foreclosure crisis, the high prices of food and gasoline, and the lack of affordable housing. Decreased social benefits such as public assistance and the eroding value of food stamps were also listed as particularly acute problems. Lack of donated food and commodities and insufficient funding were listed as the most important reason for turning away the hungry.
Economic issues such as unemployment and poverty along with high housing and medical costs were most cited by responding cities as the major causes of chronic hunger. Substance abuse and mental illness were the least cited.
In 20 of the cities included in the survey, 193,183 people had stays in emergency shelters and/or transitional housing in the past year. The average duration was six months for families and five months for individuals, down from eight months last year.
The mayors’ survey statistics capture unduplicated stays in city temporary housing facilities, meaning if shelter was provided, a stay lasting weeks or months would be counted as just one unduplicated stay.
The survey found that nearly one in four unduplicated shelter stays were by members of family groups. The ratio of family members to singles was found to be roughly equal in homeless counts compiled elsewhere that document sheltered homeless on any given individual night.
In general, cities reported actual increases in households with children in their transitional or emergency housing over the past year. Nine in 10 cities said that more permanent housing was needed to mediate the problem of homelessness.
Thousands of beds to house the homeless were added in the surveyed cities, yet half the cities reported they turn people away some or all of the time. In Phoenix, 7,000 to 10,000 are homeless on any given night and 3,000 cannot be sheltered due to lack of beds.
Individual city profiles come from the broad range of US cities that participate in the report. They have widely different average per capita incomes and are located in various parts of the country. For example, Santa Monica, California, a city of 83,000 with a per capita income of $58,000, reports 728 singles and 142 households with children were sheltered homeless in 2007. In contrast, Philadelphia, with a population of 1.4 million and a poverty rate of 23 percent, reports 8,103 individuals and 5,300 households with children in this category.
These profiles show only those individuals that find shelter. Miami, a city of 360,000, reported only 735 families and 365 individuals were in sheltered housing for some duration during the past year. Des Moines, a city half the size of Miami but in a much colder climate, reported 3,632 families and 2,436 individuals were sheltered homeless in 2007.
Twenty-three cities whose mayors are members of the US Conference of Mayors Task force on Hunger and Homelessness contributed in some form to the report for the year ending October 30.
The City Profiles section of the survey includes various reports of band-aid programs undertaken by city administrations that admittedly fall far short of need. More importantly, taken together, these local reports detailing city-by-city conditions are more valuable in providing some insight into the problems of hunger and homelessness that is largely absent from political discourse in the US. The statistics on hunger and homelessness are far more current when compared to official government reports that rely on much older data.
A section in the report entitled “Limitations of this Study” points to efforts under way this year or planned for the future to gather more precise data. This is apparently in response to right-wing critics who have impugned the value of the report in previous years, claiming it was not a representative sample and overstated the extent of poverty. This response by the study’s authors ignores the real reason for these critics’ discomfort—the desire to limit any light being shed on the twin scourges of hunger and homelessness characteristic of the social landscape of US cities.
The study was first conceived by Democratic mayors as urban populations were hit by federal budget cuts under the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s. The year-to-year comparison chart at the end of the report has been a veritable misery index, right through the Clinton and the Bush years, showing double-digit increases almost every year in requests for emergency food and shelter. Yet for reasons not stated, the appendix with the 16-year historical chart comparing year-to-year survey results is omitted this year.
Another glaring omission shows one way the report underestimates of the seriousness of the social crisis in America. New Orleans is not included in the survey, and data from that city has been left out of the report since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
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