Just as the Somalia stories have disappeared from my Globe.
"Despite charges of fraud, UN says it won’t cut aid to famine-stricken Somalia" August 17, 2011|Associated Press
GENEVA - The UN World Food Program insisted yesterday that it won’t reduce emergency aid shipments to Somalia despite allegations of fraud, saying that though such complaints are frequent, it doesn’t believe there have been big losses....
Tens of thousands of people each week are fleeing famine in Somalia to neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya.
An investigation on the ground by the Associated Press found that sacks of grain, peanut butter snacks, and other food staples meant for starving Somalis are being stolen and sold in Somali markets, raising concerns that the unscrupulous are stealing from international famine-relief efforts. One official in Mogadishu estimated that up to half of the recent food shipments may have been stolen.
World Food officials disputed that figure yesterday. Lauren Landis, the new director of the organization’s Geneva office, said it seems “implausible’’ that a large amount of food is being diverted because it would pose a huge logistical challenge.
“Large losses of food is abnormal, because we know how to do this,’’ Landis said.
She said theft worries are common with World Food operations in Somalia and elsewhere.
However, agency officials rely on third-party monitors on the ground to make sure that aid agencies and the Somali government fight corruption and don’t allow diverted aid to help fuel Somalia’s 20-year civil war. AP journalists went into the markets to see for themselves.
In Mogadishu markets, piles of food are for sale with stamps on them from the World Food Program, the US government USAID agency, and the Japanese and Kuwaiti governments.
Reporters found eight sites where thousands of sacks of food aid were being sold in bulk. Other food aid was also for sale in numerous smaller stores.
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And that's been it since, readers.
Related:
Somali Death March
Somali Starvation Was a Sales Pitch
Good thing the UN got in there to solve the problem. The ceasing of media coverage must mean flow of fleeing has stopped, right?
Now what has been on the Globe's Indian plate:
"India anticorruption bill is soft, activists say" August 05, 2011|New York Times
NEW DELHI - India has been beset by a series of embarrassing corruption scandals, including the inept and graft-addled preparations for the Commonwealth Games last year and revelations last week that billions of dollars of iron ore was being smuggled....
“This is the second war of independence,’’ Anna Hazare, an activist whose hunger strike this summer resuscitated India’s anticorruption fight, said as his supporters burned copies of the government’s version of the bill. “This is the only opportunity to remove the corruption from this country. We should not miss this opportunity. I appeal to the youth of the nation to come forward to oppose this bill.’’
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They have:
"India activist fighting corruption begins hunger strike; Gandhi disciple, many supporters detained in Delhi" August 17, 2011|By Rama Lakshmi and Simon Denyer, Washington Post
NEW DELHI - Indian police jailed the country’s leading anticorruption campaigner and detained thousands of his supporters yesterday, hours before the veteran activist was due to begin a hunger strike to demand tougher laws against graft.
As public anger rose, the government later made a dramatic U-turn and decided to release Anna Hazare last evening. But Hazare, 74, refused to leave Delhi’s high-security Tihar Jail unless he was given written permission to resume his fast in a park in central Delhi. Supporters said he was continuing his hunger strike in jail.
Hazare, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, is the face of a nationwide social movement against rampant corruption that has gathered pace this year after a string of high-profile scandals. He has become a major thorn in the side of the Congress party-led government, in a confrontation that has become increasingly bitter in recent weeks....
While I appreciate the mention of the man his message is continually lost in the war press.
The arrests of Hazare and hundreds of his fellow activists has shifted the focus of the debate from corruption to the right to protest in the world’s largest democracy
By late afternoon, senior government officials were admitting privately that events had been mishandled.
Political analyst Kuldip Nayar said the way the government had flip-flopped showed tat officials were panicking. “They could not handle the public anger,’’ he said. “Today’s events will only embolden the movement because people will now say, ‘Look, the government is a paper tiger.’ ’’
Yeah, it does seem that anger and violence are the only times they take notice and listen. I'm not advocating it, I like the nonviolent, noncooperation route but that doesn't seem to bring notice from the elites on high.
The government said it had been forced to detain Hazare and his supporters to maintain law and order in the capital.
Yeah, POOW GUMMINT!
But opposition leaders and activists said the mass detentions were reminiscent of the days of British rule over India and the imposition of emergency rule under Indira Gandhi in 1975.
Ooooh, that's a harsh one indeed! Even my state-sponsored indoctrina, 'er, inculca, 'er, ejerka, education, I mean education, told me how badly the British treated the Indians. Brits also seem to have brought it back home given what has been happening over the last week or so there.
“The second freedom struggle has started,’’ Hazare said in a video statement recorded before his arrest and issued on YouTube. “The protests should not stop. The time has come for no jail in the country to have a free space.’’
The anticorruption movement aims to energize the country’s democracy against graft and has drawn considerable support from India’s often apathetic middle class.
Why can't America see the way like the rest of the world? Isn't it odd that Arabs and Muslims have also adopted the tactic? Even those in Europe are mostly peaceful save for government provocateurs? And even if not, who can blame them?
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Yeah, some smart guy said that once, but they didn't want to listen to him either. So much so they literally took his head off (sob).
Activists are planning another protest in Delhi today to invite arrest....
Remember the '60s when you did that, Americans? What is it now, the drugs in the water, the mind-numbing technology, or the student loan debt that keeps you in your seat?
Activist and lawyer Prashant Bhushan said: “This government does not look like a democratic government; it is looking a lot like the government of the British Raj.’’
Again, that's harsh.
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Related:
"In India, 800 million people — three-fourths of the population — live in poverty.... Hunger is widespread in India. It is said that at least 50 million Indians are on the brink of starvation and over 200 million Indians are underfed"
And here the AmeriKan media is focusing on one guy who is not eating?
"Indian PM slams anti-corruption activist as protests over arrest spread" by Simon Denyer and Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post, August 17, 2011
NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped up a war of words with a jailed anti-corruption activist Wednesday, calling the activist’s hunger strike ill-conceived and undemocratic as protests about his arrest swelled across the country for a second day.
Didn't he learn from the backfire on the arrest? You learned nothing from the British or history, huh? WTF?
Thousands of protesters gathered outside Tihar Jail in New Delhi, where 74-year-old Gandhian activist Anna Hazare continued his “fast unto death.”
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By arresting Hazare and detaining thousands of his supporters Tuesday, hours before he was to begin his fast, the government appears to have played into Hazare’s hands and further galvanized the popular movement against corruption.
Can you eat spin, readers? Yeah, the poow Indian government is being manipulated by the.... sigh, I'm so sick of eating shit media, readers.
Protests have gathered pace across the country.
Ooops.
There were also one-day strikes in some cities by protesters ranging from auto-rickshaw drivers to lawyers, and thousands of people gathered late Wednesday around India Gate, the capital’s landmark monument and central square....
When the lawyers and the guys hauling them are together, well....
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Related: Antigraft crusader in India strikes deal (By Ravi Nessman, Associated Press)
I'm sick of the censorship shell game between web and print, how 'bout you?
"Indian anti-graft crusader agrees to 15-day fast" August 18, 2011|Ravi Nessman, Associated Press
A renowned Indian anti-corruption crusader plans to embark on a 15-day public hunger strike that will pit him and his thousands of supporters against the scandal-plagued government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his aides said Thursday.
First it's a war of words, and now they are in the pit. You gotta love the AmeriKan War Media and their colorful use of language!
Anna Hazare, who has been fasting since Tuesday, reached an agreement with police to hold the demonstration starting Friday to push for tough new anti-corruption legislation, after a two-day standoff at a New Delhi jail.
Hazare’s ordeal has hit a chord with Indians fed up with rampant corruption. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through cities across the country to show their support for his demand to strengthen a government reform bill....
Yeah, it's a WORLDWIDE EPIDEMIC right now!
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"Hunger striker leads protest in India" August 20, 2011|Associated Press
NEW DELHI - An activist who has adopted Mohandas Gandhi’s hunger-strike methods and galvanized Indians’ anger about government scandals led thousands of supporters yesterday in a protest he branded a “new freedom struggle.’’
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“The youth of this country has awoken, so a great future for this country is not far off,’’ he said. “The traitors who have robbed this country will no longer be tolerated.’’
The 73-year-old activist, who has been fasting since Tuesday, invoked Gandhi’s legacy and sought to cloak his demands for a tough anticorruption law in the halo of the revered liberation leader.
Yeah, good thing governments and newspapers never manipulate things or events under the cover of lies and deceit.
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What, no Indian meal today?
Also see:
"Mercy pleas of 3 rejected in Gandhi death" August 12, 2011|Associated Press
NEW DELHI - India’s president has rejected the mercy petitions of three men sentenced to death for the 1991 assassination of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, the presidential office said yesterday.
Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber belonging to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers while campaigning for his Congress party in southern India. The rebel group killed Gandhi in revenge for his decision to send Indian peacekeepers to intervene in the conflict....
Look who showed them how to do it.
The Gandhi family, no relation to independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, have been India’s main political dynasty since Jawaharlal Nehru became the first prime minister.
Just living of the name, huh?
His daughter Indira Gandhi, India’s longest serving prime minister and Rajiv’s mother, was assassinated in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards....
Oh, an Indian inside job!
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No mercy from the AmeriKan media, readers.
