Challenge China on Human Rights

Join activists supporting human rights for Burma, Sri Lanka, Tibet, any and all nations under the thumb of China as the opening of the Bejing Olympics seeks to whitewash the horrors of China's dominance.

8.8.08 - A Day for Burma, Not Beijing
We are a month away from one of the most important dates in Burma’s history. August 8th marks the 20th anniversary of Burma’s largest national democratic uprising, when millions bravely marched through the streets, and nearly toppled the military regime if they had not been brutally massacred. It is also on the day that China, the #1 supporter of Burma’s military junta, will open the Beijing Olympics.
Please help us as we prepare for a Global Day of Actions for Burma - to honor those who have struggled for freedom in Burma and to demand China end its support for Burma’s dictators.
Learn More
Read about China’s support for Burma’s generals.
Read about what happened in 1988 in Burma.
Watch a video with director/producer Judd Apatow talking about the importance of 8.8.88
Watch a Video on why you shouldn’t watch the Olympics
China is the main supporter of the Burmese regime, and we are asking people to pledge to boycott those who profit from the Olympic Games. The goal is to get 1 million people to sign up - creating a loud international cry against the Chinese government. 8.8.08 is the 20th anniversary of the huge massacre of democracy activists in Burma during the 88 uprising, and has always been a solemn day for Burma. This is also the day that the Beijing Olympics will begin.
Pledge to Not Watch Today!
To get 1 million people signed up we will need a lot of help.
Join the Street Team
To find out more - Go Here

Washington DC -Challenge China
July 24th Rally

Download Flyer Here
In conjunction with PEARL (People for Equality and Relief in Lanka http://www.pearlaction.org/rally.php), we will be holding a rally opposing China’s military funding of the governments of Burma and Sri Lanka, which commit grave human rights violations against ethnic minorities.
When: July 24, 2008 at 12pm
Where: Senate Russell Park
Contact: Thelma Young thelma@uscampaignforburma.org

August 8 Events
New York City
UN Rally, 12 - 7pm

Where: Burma Consulate General and Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, United Nations
Contact: 88 Generation Students in Exile (88 GSE), National League for
Democracy, Liberated Areas, USA Branch (NLD-LA), Women on the Move for Burma (WOMB), and International Campaign for Burma - New York (ICB-NY)

Czech Republic - Prague

Contact: Burma Center Prague

Once #1, Now #42!

A very significant report has been released and reviewed in a variety of places, but I haven't seen or heard reference to it in the mainstream American media (not counting an abstract in the oh, so popular (Ha!) The New Yorker. (You know, the magazine that featured a cover cartoon of Baraka Obama as a jihadist.) If you want to know where we stand, for real, not in wishful thinking, follow the links below:
About the Report
The Measure of America: American Human Development Report
2008-2009, produced by the American Human Development Project, is modeled on the United Nations Development Programme’s global Human Development Report, which has provided authoritative analysis and a ranked index for countries around the world for almost two decades. The Measure of America, published by Columbia University Press and The Social Science Research Council, is the first time the human development approach has been applied in the United States or any other industrialized nation. The report features forewords by Nobel laureate and Harvard Professor Amartya Sen and California venture capitalist William H. Draper III.
Using official government statistics and robust peer-reviewed analysis, the American Human Development Report presents human development rankings for U.S. states, congressional districts, and ethnic groups. It reveals where America is today and sets a benchmark for monitoring progress tomorrow. Unlike the many existing measurements used to assess health, education, or income alone, the American Human Development Index (HD Index) combines these factors into one easy-to-understand measurement. This more comprehensive measure allows for a better understanding of the opportunities open to different groups of Americans.

http://www.measureofamerica.org/2008-2009-report/about/
Take a test using the Well-O-Meter to see how you personally rank among your American peers: http://measureofamerica.org/rewrite.php?well-o-meter/

International Comparisons

• A poor child born in Germany, France, Canada, or one of the Nordic countries has a better chance to join the middle class in adulthood than an American child born into similar circumstances.
• The U.S. ranks second among 177 countries in per-capita income but 12th on human development, according to the global Human Development Index, published annually by the United Nations Development Programme. Each of the 11 countries ahead of the U.S. has a lower per-capita income than the U.S., but all perform better on the health and knowledge dimensions.
• The U.S. infant mortality rate is on par with that of Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, and Poland.
• If the U.S. infant mortality rate were equal to that of first-ranked Sweden, twenty-one thousand more American babies would have lived to celebrate their first birthdays in 2005.
• In 98 countries, new mothers have 14 or more weeks of paid maternity leave. The U.S. has no federally mandated paid maternity leave.
• The United States ranks second in the world in per-capita income (behind Luxembourg), but thirty-fourth in survival of infants to age one.
• The U.S. ranks forty-second in global life expectancy and first among the world’s twenty-five richest countries in the percentage of children living in poverty.
• In the 2006 OECD international assessment of fifteen-year-olds, in math, the U.S. came in twenty-fourth, and in science, the U.S. came in seventeenth.
• The U.S. incarceration rate is five-to-nine times greater than that of our peer nations.

The Guardian covered the report here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/17/internationalaidanddevelopment.usa
Statistics and graphs were generated by a company called Humantific. Here’s something from their homepage:
At Humantific we apply hybrid methods from the emerging/converging fields of design thinking, innovation acceleration and transformation science. Working with this hybrid toolbox we help our clients construct new value by creating pathways through fuzzy strategic complexity of all kinds, by communicating complex ideas, and by building more human-centered organizations that maximize collective brainpower and are adaptable to continuous change.
Regardless of whether we are working on an InsightsLab, StrategyLab, UnderstandingLab, or LearningLab project, it is SenseMaking that is the connecting thread through all of our ChangeMaking work.
See more here: http://www.humantific.com/

International Hunger Strike to Stop US Space Shield

SIXTH DAY OF HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST THE SPACE SHIELD - 06.06.08
Giorgio Schultze, European spokesperson of New Humanism, has not eaten for 150 hours to denounce one of the greatest violences of the present moment.
«The secret agreements between some European governments and the U.S. to control the space are creating a new arms race and the threat of a return to the cold war.» Giorgio Schultze declares: «The construction of the U.S. Space Shield does not involve only Poland and Czech Republic, where the missiles and radar bases will be installed. Also Italy is directly involved, because the government signed an agreement with the U.S. without discussing it in the Parliament and without informing the population. [my bold] There will be huge investments assigned to the industry of death and paid with the taxpayers’ money. Finmeccanica spent 5,2 billion dollars to buy DRS, U.S. leader company in the field of military electronics and this seems a consequence of these agreements. United Nations agencies have collected at world-wide level 5,8 billion dollars to fight the world hunger, a little less than the cash money paid to buy DRS.» Despite the mass-media total silence about the campaign, a dissent wider than the European borders is spreading in the population. Dozens of activists are joining the nonviolent protest form of hunger strike from Prague to New York, from Italy to Australia, from Spain to Maine. At the same time the on-line petition on the website www.nonviolence.cz is collecting thousands of signatures every day from all over the world.
Giorgio Schultze’s video declaration
Every day on www.nonviolenza.net
From 4 p.m to 8 p.m.
Giorgio Schultze will be connected to a webcam. It will be possible to talk to him and visit him in the headquarter of the Association “World without Wars” in via Mazzali 5, Milan.
Please visit Giorgio's web page:
http://www.giorgioschultze.eu/index.php?lang=eng&secc=news&acc=id&idnoti=62&fontsize=1
Many personalities of the world of politics (the members of the EP Luisa Morgantini, Bart Staes, Giulietto Chiesa, Giusto Catania, Vittorio Agnoletto and Roberto Musacchio), literature (the Nobel Award Dario Fo), science (Noam Chomsky), religion (the French bishop Jacques Gaillot) and information (the U.S. journalist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize Chris Hedges) sent messages of solidarity and support. On June 12^th and 13^th, during the Agorà meeting about Climate that will take place in Bruxelles, Giorgio Schultze will meet several member of the European Parliament and will ask a meeting with the President and Vice-President and a plenary session to listen to the representatives of the wide protest movement against the shield. The objective is to stop this dangerous project, that threatens peace and coexistence among our peoples.
http://www.nenasili.cz/en
Please sign the petition:
http://petice.nenasili.cz/?lang=en

Dick Cheney would be right at home at the web site of DRS Technologies, Inc. Be afraid!
http://www.drs.com/

Citizen Attempts to Arrest John Bolton

George Monbiot has indeed set a precedent which hopefully will gain momentum:
Monbiot fails to 'arrest' Bolton
Campaigner George Monbiot said he would continue his attempt to serve arrest paper on politicians involved in the decision to go to war in Iraq.
He was unable to make a citizen's arrest of former American Ambassador to the UN John Bolton at the Hay Festival.
Mr Monbiot was dragged away by security officers as he tried to approach Mr Bolton, who was at the festival to talk on international relations.
[...] Mr Monbiot, who now lives in Machynlleth in Powys, is a leading environmental and anti-war campaigner and journalist.
He said: "I'm aware that I've made what I believe is the first attempt ever to arrest one of the perpetrators of the Iraq War, and I believe that is a precedent and I would like to see that precedent followed up."
[...] In an earlier question and answer session at the event, Mr Monbiot asked Mr Bolton what distinguished him from a Nazi war criminal.
Mr Bolton replied that in exchange for a ceasefire on the Gulf War, Iraq had been required to do a variety of things including a declaration of weapons of mass destruction and the elimination of those weapons.
"By consistently refusing to abide by Resolution 687, Iraq demonstrated it was time and time again not in compliance with the ceasefire resolution," said Mr Bolton.
[BBC doesn’t bother to question Mr. Bolton’s repetition of Bush’s assertion that Iraq was not “in compliance” with Res. 687 because that would bring into question all the lies BBC and CBS and the rest perpetrated to justify sending citizens to kill other citizens. Bolton also rather conspicuously ignores the fact that Res. 687 did not advocate a military invasion of Iraq due to alleged non-compliance. And the “reporters” report on…]
[...] "That's one legal justification, the second is the right of self defence. There are others too."
He added: "You're wrong as a matter of law and you're wrong as a matter of fact." [...]
My stomach is turning but you can read on…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7424785.stm

Act for Burma

May 17, 2008 – UN PROTEST

2.5 MILLION LIVES IN BURMA
IN THE BALANCE
UN ACT NOW!

WHEN: Saturday, May 17, 12pm
WHERE: Ralph Bunche Park, United Nations, 43rd St and 1st Ave
WHO: NY Burma activists -- NY Burma Roundtable, US Campaign for Burma, Burma 88 Coalition, 8-8-08 for Burma

As a compassionate New York resident, please wear white on Saturday and join us to hold a vigil with 15 Burmese Buddhist monks who will fast and demonstrate in front of the United Nations.
CONTACT: Farheen Malik, newyork@uscampaignforburma.org // Cristina Moon, 347-756-4088, info@8808forburma.org
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More information on the Global Day of Action available on our site and at www.burma-network.org

Senator Obama Asks for Tibet Investigation

Obama Writes to Bush Expressing Concern on Tibet, Says US Should Ask UN to Send Investigation Team
April 1st, 2008
US presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama has written a letter to President George Bush saying the situation in Tibet is very disturbing and calling on the United States and other governments to ask the UN to send an investigation team to Tibet.
In the letter, dated March 28, 2008, Obama called on Bush to employ every diplomatic tool to persuade Chinese President Hu Jintao to make significant progress in resolving the Tibet issue. In addition to the UN investigation team, Obama said, "China should be encouraged to allow the International Committee for the Red Cross to visit prisons in Tibet to ensure that detainees are not held under inhumane conditions, tortured, or mistreated."
http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1265