Month: March 2010

By ALI SHEIKHOLESLAMI

The United Nations General Assembly recognized March 21 as the International Day of Nowruz, a festival of Persian origin that marks the beginning of a new year for more than 300 million people.

Nowruz, meaning new day in the Farsi language, has been celebrated on the vernal equinox for more than 3,000 years in regions including the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucuses, Central Asia and the Middle East, the UN said yesterday in a statement on its Web site.

A proposal for UN recognition of the date was presented to the General Assembly on Dec. 2 by Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization added Nowruz to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, noting the festival’s “affirmation of life in harmony with nature, the awareness of the inseparable link between constructive labor and natural cycles of renewal and the solicitous and respectful attitude towards natural sources of life,” according to the Web site.

BusinessWeek

(Submitted by reader)

The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

The United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March of each year as the World Day for Water by adopting a resolution. This world day for water was to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development contained in chapter 18 (Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21.

States were invited to devote the Day to implement the UN recommendations and set up concrete activities as deemed appropriate in the national context.

Key Facts about Water in Africa

Access to water supply and sanitation in Africa was estimated in 2006 to be 64% and 38% respectively which compares unfavorably with corresponding world averages of 87% and 62%.

Only 20% of the irrigation potential and about 6% of the hydropower potential has been developed. Water storage capacity is less than 50 m3/person compared to about 3,500 m3/person in Europe, and 6,000 m3/person in the USA.

Less than 5% of agricultural land is irrigated.

Africa has very little water storage capacity: only 200 cubic meters per capita compared with over 1,000 in most developing countries.

60 of Africa’s major rivers cross national borders; making international cooperation on water essential.

Existing spending on water supply and sanitation is not enough to meet the Millennium Development Goals: the funding gap is over USD 9 billion per year.

Role of the AfDB

The African Development Bank recognizes that one of the critical factors for promoting sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa is the provision of access to affordable infrastructure services to all. This is it has identified infrastructure as a key focus area in the Bank. Infrastructure for water security ranks high among its priorities, and a Department of Water and Sanitation was created to concentrate actions in the sector.

All Africa for more

by B. R. GOWANI

Although we do advertise our products as hot
In the killing business we sure are not

We’re aware that 440,000 die in the US
5 million worldwide, but do not sue us

Between the smokers and us, no problem come
But prevent their death will yield a business glum

Most governments understand our work
And we don’t mind an occasional smirk

Advertising is the weapon, clean and pure
With that 15% of the global market we lure

Uruguay wants 80% space on cigarette packs
Devoted to health hazards and other facts

Only 20% space left to entice old and young?
That’s like hurling on our face bland-dung

We feel our intellectual side suppressed
And our growth halted from reaching crest

Attacking our intellectual property rights
Is bound to result in very many fights

Now we’re taking Uruguay government to court
So that their restrictive plan we can thwart

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

(Hari Sharma was a good friend and we are saddened by the news of his passing away. Our heartfelt condolences to his family members and to all his comrades. Ed.)

A Memorial Service for Hari will be held at Riverside Funeral Home and Crematorium, 7410- Hopcott Road, Delta, B.C. (Ph. 604-940-1313), at 3:00 pm on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

It is with deepest sorrow that we announce the death of our friend and comrade, Hari Prakash Sharma, on March 16 following a prolonged battle with cancer. Hari took his last breath in his home of 42 years at Burnaby (a suburb of Vancouver), British Columbia, surrounded by his comrades Harinder Mahil, Raj Chouhan, and Chin Banerjee. All of them had come together in 1976 to form the Vancouver Chapter of the Indian People’s Association in North America (IPANA), which had been founded by Hari and many others at a meeting in Montreal in 1975.
Continue reading “Professor/Activist Hari Sharma (1934-2010)”

by FENG CHONGYI

The publication of Charter 08 in China at the end of 2008 was a major event generating headlines all over the world. It was widely recognized as the Chinese human rights manifesto and a landmark document in China’s quest for democracy. However, if Charter 08 was a clarion call for the new march to democracy in China, its political impact has been disappointing. Its primary drafter Liu Xiaobo, after being kept in police custody over one year, was sentenced on Christmas Day of 2009 to 11 years in prison for the “the crime of inciting subversion of state power”, nor has the Chinese communist party-state taken a single step toward democratisation or improving human rights during the year.1 This article offers a preliminary assessment of Charter 08, with special attention to its connection with liberal forces in China.

The Origins of Charter 08 and the Crystallisation of Liberal and Democratic Ideas in China

Charter 08 was not a bolt from the blue but the result of careful deliberation and theoretical debate, especially the discourse on liberalism since the late 1990s. In its timing, Charter 08 anticipated that major political change would take place in China in 2009 in light of a number of important anniversaries. These included the 20th anniversary of the June 4th crackdown, the 50th anniversary of the exile of the Dalai Lama, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the 90th anniversary of the May 4th Movement. Actually Chinese liberal intellectuals had earlier begun to advocate and discuss a road map and timetable for the march to constitutional democracy.2 Charter 08 was discussed from the second half of 2008. Its three primary initiators and drafters were leading dissidents Liu Xiaobo, Zhang Zuhua and Jiang Qisheng.

Japan Focus for more

Dear All,

Please send your name, organisation , location if you want to endorse the statement by 12 noon tomorrow.

It will be released to the media on March 20 at Jantar Mantar (New Delhi, India) between 3 and 4pm. Join the sit-in in support of 33% reservation for women’s seats in parliament and to condemn the obnoxious statements by certain clerics regarding women’s role.

Shabnam Hashmi

NOT IN OUR NAME!

Muslim citizens as well as secular activists are holding a dharna in Delhi on

Saturday 20th March

3 to 4 pm at Jantar Mantar (New Delhi, India)

In support of Womens’ Reservation Bill

And to condemn the reprehensible statements on women by some clerics

Please Join Us to Express your support & solidarity

RSVP:

Zakia Soman 98995 10665

Shabnam Hashmi 9811807558

Naish Hasan 9839562674

Sarwar Raza, Sabiha 9868464107

Act Now for Harmony and Democracy

by DAVID GONZALEZ

Shahidul Alam

The fields, sidewalks and entryways are lighted harshly and drenched in color, giving even the most ordinary locales an ominous air. There are no people, which drives home the point that Shahidul Alam hopes to make: these were perhaps the last scenes glimpsed by the victims of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion before they died.

Hundreds of extrajudicial killings have been linked to the R.A.B., an anticrime group formed six years ago this month. Little has been done to stop the executions. They have been dubbed “crossfire” killings — after the manner in which the police say the victims died: during an exchange of gunfire.

“Crossfire” is also the name of Mr. Alam’s ambitious new installation at the Drik Gallery in Dhaka, which he hopes will jolt the benumbed psyche of his countrymen.

“The information about the killings is known,” said Mr. Alam, a photojournalist and human rights advocate. “The public has it. The police have it. The government has it. And it has not made a difference. So, we have to find something to provoke people into action.”

The Rapid Action Battalion death squads have, in some sense, filled a vacuum.

“R.A.B. is seen as the force that can take out a lot of violent criminals,” said Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “In a place that has become lawless and corrupt, people want something — anything — to happen.”

New York Times for more

(Submitted by reader)