- Fifty police officers in riot gear crack down on peaceful protest by
migrants demanding respect for basic rights
- Officers declare orders to destroy all migrant shelters in the area
- Escalation in repressive tactics leave migrants with nowhere to go
The high-octane Copenhagen climate talks may have ended but
global negotiations are going to get into a greater frenzy in 2010. To be
on top of the game, the BASIC four countries — China, India, South Africa
and Brazil — are going to meet in January itself to sort out common
positions ahead of the frenzied formal talks that are bound to run through
the year.
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One of the greatest poems ever, written by W. H. Auden:
Refugee Blues by W. H. Auden
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/dec/env-copen.htm
CLIMATE SUMMIT
India’s missteps at Copenhagen
The contrast between the stand taken by India at Copenhagen and at the earlier UN Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 couldn’t have been starker, writes Darryl D’Monte.
A. Fotiadis
A year onwards people seem eager to attempt explanations of what happened last December in Athens. All sorts of conferences and political discussions have been organized offering interesting analysis about the legacy of those days. It is easy to say that what happened has been important, you can notice its marks on so many people around. Then again it’s not easy to argue that everyone looking back sees the same things and makes out same sense about what happened then.
Civil society representatives in the Global Forum for Migration and Development 2009 (GFMD) taking place in Athens this week (some weeks ago) have recommended to their governmental counterparts to increase efforts for reducing the cost of remittances and make transfer easier and safer.
As a follow-up on my post on The Wall Street Journal’s false claim that the recent curbs in freedom of expression and media in Turkey are the result of the increased power of Islamist forces within government. This is an article from Osservatorio sui Balcani explaining that the Turkish Armed Forces control websites, suppressing journalists critical of the Army. The website of the Turkish daily Radikal has recently written about a “black list” developed by the Armed Forces. The Turkish Army has created a “Group of Studies on the West” in the late 1990s which aims to counter the Islamic Prosperity Party of Necmettin Erbakan.
This is a link to the very good article (in Italian): http://www.osservatoriobalcani.org/article/articleview/12137/1/167/
One of the downsides of my job is that I have to keep tabs regularly on ‘respectable publications’ like the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch’s pamphlet hasn’t ceased to add insult to injury with its recent articles.
Claudia Ciobanu
Whether we are from Eastern Europe or just care for the region, I think it might be our role to see this group of countries in a different light. To leave aside the eternal victimization and point out some of its responsibilities towards the rest of the world. This might play a role not only in creating a more just world, but also in strengthening Eastern Europe itself.
