15.7.08

Stop Blood Diamonds

Stop Blood Diamonds

I admit my own ignorance with regard to Diamonds, where they came from- how we got them.

I am deeply and perversely dissuaded by the way these gems came to be knows as "Diamonds are Forever" I believe that was early DeBeers.

It is beyond appalling what the largest continent on this planet was blessed with an abundance of potential for natural resources- making MZUNGO's rich, and select greedy African leaders giving in to corruption.

Rebel groups did their grisly part to maintain production, trade- and murdered, like any other wealth driven individual would do, if only out for personal gain at the bloody expense of others. I am paying more and more attention to the world around me.

I enjoy meeting people from EVERY culture- I feel take more action in this issue, and others like it. As a woman with Native American Blood mixed with My German/Austrian Roots- I have been profoundly affected by one particular continent and the abuse the inhabitants of the land have endured for years.
It must stop.

top Blood Diamonds - Diamond Education

Stop Blood Diamonds is here to promote the use of conflict free diamonds. Diamonds are a beautiful natural resource - together we can assure that no person is harmed in their manufacturing.

Help Support StopBloodDiamonds.org

by Making a Small Donation

(Like selling your OWN Diamonds and giving the money BACK to the people who have NOTHING)

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Help Us Make A Difference.

Jewelers & Diamond Merchants:
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''Stop Blood Diamonds''

is an organization pledged to stopping the exploitation of the diamond trade by human rights abusers.

Blood diamonds, often called conflict diamonds, are mined in war torn African countries by rebels to fund their conflict. The rebels grossly abuse human rights, often murdering and enslaving the local populations to mine the diamonds.

We can stop this by purchasing legitimate diamonds. Botswana used to be a poor farm country but today its government works hand in hand with the Diamond industry to give Botswana a living standard 7 times higher than its neighbors.
Make sure your jeweler stops the blood diamonds trade by supporting conflict free diamonds.

Blood Diamonds Learning Center

14.7.08

How F****** DARE THEY

Who drew this picture? Its rude, and in very poor judgement- so probably an american-
Well,

I never met a MUSLIM person I didn't like.

The Obama's are not Muslim, but I still want them in office!

Mag satire panned; Depicts Obamas as Muslim, terrorist-
The real terrorists are already in the white house


Enlarge	New Yorker via AFP/Getty Images

Democrats and Republicans are calling a New Yorker magazine cover tasteless and offensive for its satirical depiction of Barack Obama as a Muslim and his wife, Michelle, as a gun-toting terrorist.

From staff and wire reports

A satirical New Yorker magazine cover depicting Barack Obama as a Muslim and his wife as a gun-toting terrorist has drawn a unanimous reaction Monday from both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns that it is "tasteless and offensive."

The illustration, appearing on this week's issue, is titled "The Politics of Fear" and shows Obama in the Oval Office in sandals, robe and turban giving a "fist bump" to his wife, Michelle, who is outfitted in combat boots and an assault rifle. A painting of Osama bin Laden hangs above the fireplace in which an American flag is burning..

"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

Republican John McCain's campaign spokesman, Tucker Bonds, concurred that the cover was "tasteless and offensive."

In Arizona, McCain said the cover was "totally inappropriate and frankly I understand if Senator Obama and his supporters would find it offensive."

Yippie skippy, John

New Yorker editor David Remnick told The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar that the image was meant to "hold up a mirror to the prejudice and dark imaginings about Barack Obama's — both Obamas' — past, and their politics."

Remnick said the drawing, by Barry Blitt, "combines a number of images that have been propagated, not by everyone on the right but by some, about Obama's supposed 'lack of patriotism' or his being 'soft on terrorism' or the idiotic notion that somehow Michelle Obama is the second coming of the Weathermen or most violent Black Panthers."

Blitt, in an e-mail to The Huffington Post's Nico Pitney, wrote: "I think the idea that the Obamas are branded as unpatriotic (let alone as terrorists) in certain sectors is preposterous. It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is."

David Axelrod, Obama's chief political strategist, called the cartoon "poorly executed" but said the campaign was not going to dwell upon it.

"We've got a lot of problems in the world," he said on MSNBC'sMorning Joe.

"Did we like it? No. Is it the focus of our attention? No."

Contributing: The Associated Press

A**hole of the Century

Dick Cheney Thinks Threats to Public Health Are None of Our Business // Current

Dick **** thinks Threats to Public Health Are None of Our Business

WTF?

As if the Bush Administration was not already the worst Presidency in the history of the United States of America.

As if Dick Cheney didn’t already have a reputation for being a maniacal puppeteer.

Now, new statements by Jason Barnett, the former associate deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency have revealed that Vice President Cheney’s office sought to delete testimony by the CDC in congressional hearings last fall. Cheney’s people specifically asked for the removal of data in congressional testimony which proves the negative health consequences for human beings as a result of climate change. At stake is pan-industry regulation by the EPA under the federal Clean Air Act.

And we know what that means, don’t we? *gasp* Big businesses would have to make costly changes to ensure they aren’t spewing pollutants into the air and making innocent people sick! Good thing they have the Vice President looking out for their interests. If only we, the people, had the same benefit.

Obviously the Bush administration is claiming that the revisions (a full 6 out of 14 pages deleted) were “routine”. I don’t know if that is supposed to reassure voters, or warn us that the administration routinely tries to pull the wool over our eyes.

The World Health Organization states on their website:

If our understanding of broad relationships between climate and disease is realistic, then climate change may already be affecting human health.

They list several health issues tied to global warming, including:

* increased allergen levels
* increased transmission of infectious diseases
* effects on food production
* drought and famine
* population displacement due to natural disasters, crop failure, water shortages
* destruction of health infrastructure
* conflict over natural resources
* direct impacts of heat and cold (morbidity)

So many people are “waiting out” the Bush administration, which thankfully, is quickly running out of time. But I have a feeling that we’ll be feeling the effects of the dishonesty, greed, and extortion of this administration for years to come. Especially, it seems, when it comes to our environment.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

UN Report: The Future Could be Swell... But We're Blowing It

By Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.14.08

Business & Politics

african schoolchildren
Image from hdptcar

Time for another round of good news, bad news. First, the good: According to a weighty new UN report (it's 6,300 pages long and includes submissions from 2,500 experts) uncovered by The Independent, the world stands poised to enter a new era of peace, prosperity and empowerment. Increased democratization, economic and technological advances and medical breakthroughs have the potential to bring millions out of poverty and make the world "work far better than it does today".

Now for the bad: Despite these promising developments, we are still more likely than not to screw it all up through sheer violence, inequality and environmental degradation. Worse, governments are not even properly equipped to take advantage of these advances or to prevent many of the looming crises.

amazon river
Image from markg6

Just another doom and gloom report?
As Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen put it, the "2008 State of the Future" report can hardly be accused of being your typical fear mongering tract. It starts off listing a number of humanity's most momentous accomplishments, portraying a bright future in which "the internet, international trade, language translation and jet planes are giving birth to an interdependent humanity that can create and implement global strategies to improve [its] prospects".

Some encouraging findings
Improvements in recent decades have helped slash poverty levels worldwide (except, unfortunately, in Africa) -- enough that poverty will have been cut by more than half by 2015. Life expectancy and literacy rates continue to rise while the number of conflicts and infant mortalities continue to drop. The internet is effusively praised as having already become the single "most powerful force for globalization, democratization, economic growth and education in history".

Current and future challenges to a new world order
While sounding an optimistic tone, the report doesn't mince its words in describing many of the problems currently plaguing the system:

"half the world is vulnerable to social instability and violence due to rising food and energy prices, failing states, falling water tables, climate change, decreasing water-food-energy supply per person, desertification and increasing migrations due to political, environmental and economic conditions . . . With nearly three billion people making $2 or less per day, long-term global social conflict seems inevitable without more serious food policies, useful scientific breakthroughs and dietary changes".

Ending on an optimistic note?
It concludes by castigating world governments as being "inefficient, slow and ill-informed" and reiterates a common refrain for more international cooperation and, most important, a "global strategy". Without this, it says, neither climate change nor international organized crime, among others, will ever be resolved.

For a more complete list of the report's recommendations and findings, see the full Independent story.