CounterCurrents: Health Of World's Ocean 'Collapsing Before Our Eyes', Bangladesh: 2 Years After Rana Plaza, Workers Denied Rights, Yemen Crisis Is Human Calamity: Hope Sanity Will Prevail

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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org

Saving Palestine’s Children Under The Arms Trade Treaty
By Vacy Vlazna

http://www.countercurrents.org/vlazna240415.htm

Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) released this month a comprehensive and heartbreaking report, OPERATION PROTECTIVE EDGE: A WAR WAGED ON GAZA’S CHILDREN. detailing that places that should have provided children with shelter and safety were not immune from attacks by Israeli forces. Missiles fired from Israeli drones and warplanes, artillery shelling, and shrapnel scattered by explosions killed children in their homes, on the street as they fled from attacks with their families, and as they sought shelter from the bombardment in schools. (DCIP)


Europe’s Feeble Efforts To ‘Punish’ Israel
By Jonathan Cook

http://www.countercurrents.org/cook240415.htm

The question of punishing illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory was considered separately in Europe and Israel last week, with only superficial differences in the conclusions reached. Israel’s near half-century occupation is in no immediate danger, either at home or abroad. Some 16 European foreign ministers sent a letter to the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, calling for the EU to label clearly Israeli settlement products to alert shoppers to their true provenance


Eduardo Galeano Died: Revolution Goes On!
By Andre Vltchek

http://www.countercurrents.org/cook240415.htm

I shared with him my fear that without armed struggle against imperialism, no victory can, most likely, be achieved. He did not say yes or no. He thought for a while, then drilled me with his eyes: “You and I are educated and we know the world. We are in many ways what they call the leaders. And leaders must serve their people. No matter how tough our lives are, we are not victims. Those who are suffering are the robbed, poor, uneducated people. They have to decide whether and when to take up arms and go: they, not we. If and when they decide to fight, we have to obey and lead them. Whether they will fight or not is not up to us to decide.”


Gajendra Singh, Hung By "Democracy"
By Samar

http://www.countercurrents.org/samar240415.htm

The real message from Gajendra Singh’s death, however, is much more sinister. He has shown that the state that has stopped listening to democratic and peaceful voices of dissent has now stopped even bothering itself with their existence. The lives, and even deaths, of the peasantry do not mean a thing to it


Health Of World's Ocean 'Collapsing Before Our Eyes'
By Thalif Deen

http://www.countercurrents.org/deen240415.htm

Collapsing fisheries, mangrove deforestation as well as disappearing corals and seagrass are threatening the marine economic engine that secures lives and livelihoods around the world. The WWF report also warns that the ocean is changing more rapidly than at any other point in millions of years. At the same time, growth in human population and reliance on the sea makes restoring the ocean economy and its core assets a matter of global urgency. The study specifically singles out climate change as a leading cause of the ocean’s failing health


Saudi Warplanes Pound Yemen Despite Talk Of Ending Aggression
By Bill Van Auken

http://www.countercurrents.org/auken240415.htm

Saudi warplanes carried out at least 20 air strikes across Yemen Thursday, just two days after a spokesman for the Saudi Arabian military announced that so-called Operation Decisive Storm, which began March 26, had ended and a new phase, described as “Operation Renewal of Hope,” had begun


Obama Urges Saudi Dictator Abdulaziz To Keep Attacking Yemen
By Robert Barsocchini

http://www.countercurrents.org/barsocchini240415.htm

Obama expressed his desire for Saudi dictator Abdulaziz to continue his illegal assault on Yemen, “pushing for a continuation of the war” and announcing, mafia-like, that “the job is not done”. The dictator has complied, carrying out further attacks on the impoverished and starved country, with a Saudi Prince announcing that he will reward the terrorists physically carrying out the bombings with Bentleys, a brand of ultra-luxury automobile


Yemen Crisis Is Human Calamity: Hope Sanity Will Prevail
By Kashoo Tawseef

http://www.countercurrents.org/tawseef240415.htm

We need to stop being hypocrites and make efforts to wake up the dead souls, and help to shake the conscious souls to raise their true voice about the Yemen situation. How can a Muslim country kill fellow Muslims of other country no matter how much differences they have; how can they provide air space to attack other Muslim country; how can they provide troops to kill fellow Muslims, be that Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and now- Yemen. Last but not least, why to make an "Arab front" to kill fellow Muslims and where was this "Arab Front" when Gaza was being bombarded last year?


Are Leading Economists Corrupt, or Just Mind-Blowingly Ignorant?
By Eric Zuesse

http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse240415.htm

Conservative economists favor Republican candidates because it's the way for them to rise in power themselves, but what about ‘progressive' economists: are they psychopaths, too; or do they instead blindly favor ‘Democratic' candidates because of a sincerely oblivious belief that the mere ‘Democratic' Party-label indicates that the given politician is actually progressive?


Postcard From The End Of America: Silicon Valley
By Linh Dinh

http://www.countercurrents.org/dinh240415.htm

In a country where political speeches, elections and even terrorist attacks are but elaborate theatrical productions, California is the longest show running, designed to convince everyone everywhere, and even Californians themselves, that here is the epitome of the American Dream, and that it's surfing along just fine. Just outside the spotlight, however, are all sorts of frightful omens. The next act will be a scream


Indian Muslims : Why Are They Backward?
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan In Discussion With ''India Legal''

http://www.countercurrents.org/khan240415.htm

I have a two-point formula for Muslims. One is, that they must go in, and at the mass level, for education. By ‘education’ I mean secular education. This is really immensely important. Secondly, they must abandon community-based thinking. They must think in terms of the nation, in terms of the good of the nation as a whole, rather than of just themselves and their own narrow interests. So, the simple, two-point formula for the Indian Muslims is: secular education and national thinking. If they don’t follow this formula, they have no future at all


Your India…Our Kashmir
By Rayees Rasool

http://www.countercurrents.org/rasool240415.htm

There are countless movements going on in India. People are resisting for their identities and rights. I know how it feels when the state uses force against you. I am a witness to the pain of torture, fake encounter, and extra judicial killings. I dwell a place where world’s largest democracy has held 12 Million people as hostages on gun point. We witness these things every day. Torture, rapes, killings, disappearances, fake encounters and what not. But, despite being very active over human abuses in the farthest nooks, Indian civil society keeps their status quo over the human rights violations in Kashmir


Bangladesh: 2 Years After Rana Plaza, Workers Denied Rights
By Human Rights Watch

http://www.countercurrents.org/hrw240415.htm

Garment workers in Bangladesh face poor working conditions and anti-union tactics by employers including assaults on union organizers, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. In the two years since more than 1,100 workers died in the catastrophic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory on April 24, 2013, efforts are underway to make Bangladesh factories safer, but the government and Western retailers can and should do more to enforce international labor standards to protect workers’ rights, including their right to form unions and advocate for better conditions