Democracy

Contraception & Abortion: A Morning After for Chile, North Dakota

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Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet has issued an executive order legalizing free “morning after” contraception to teens without parental consent. The issue has split the ruling party in a socially conservative nation where divorce was only legalized in 2004. Supporters say the new rules will provide equal access to contraception for low-income Chilean women, according to the Santiago Times. In North Dakota, the legislature overwhelmingly passed a “trigger ban” on abortion that would take effect the instant Roe v. Wade were overturned. A second bill, which was defeated, would have banned abortion immediately and prosecuted women for seeking the procedure, the Bismarck Tribune reports.

Democracy

Hate Speech, Hindus and the Holocaust

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Germany hopes to use its E.U. presidency to push through a controversial law criminalizing Holocaust denial and incitement to hate crimes in all 27 European member states, many of which oppose the measure on free speech grounds. Hate-based crime is on the rise in Germany. Religious groups in five countries also oppose the law, saying its ban on swastika displays will affect 2.5 million European Hindus who still regard it as a sacred symbol. Sources:
“Germany pushes for E.U.-wide law on Holocaust denial”
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Germany), January 19, 2007
“Hindus oppose swastika ban in E.U.” Press Trust of India, January 18, 2007

Democracy

The Loyal Opposition in Iraq, Lebanon

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A new organization of 500 Sunni scholars and clerics have vowed to stand with Iraqi officials and Shiites to “close the gaps and divisions among the Sunni authorities,” according to United Press International. The move puts them in potential conflict with the Sunni Islamic Scholars Association, Iraq’s highest Sunni authority and a dedicated opponent of the government and the political process. In Lebanon, a tax to privatize key industries and secure new loans for debt relief drew opposition from a coalition of Hizbollah, Christian, Druze, Sunni and leftist partisans. They say the tax will harm already-impoverished Lebanese, and neglects development and agricultural needs. Sources:

“New religious Sunni group declared in Iraq”
United Press International, January 19, 2007
“Lebanon’s new battleground”
Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt), January 18-24, 2007
“Donors promise generosity in Paris despite turmoil in Beirut”
The Daily Star (Lebanon), January 25, 2006

Democracy

IRAQ: MOVING FORWARD

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A Peace Plan’s Ambition
A “blueprint” for stability in Iraq, proposed by former defense minister Ali Allawi, would replace American troops with an international security force, negotiate security treaties, and establish a “Middle Eastern Confederation of States” to bolster civil society and establish a collective supreme court. The Independent, which published Allawi’s original proposal, reports that the plan also calls for a decentralized Iraqi government divided into regions, and a World Bank-funded reconstruction council. Sources:
“The Iraqi proposals”
Independent (U.K), January 5, 2007
“From all corners, support grows for Iraq peace plan”
Independent (U.K), January 6, 2007

Democracy

Women: Rights & Welfare

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Progress in Yemen, Zimbabwe
A Western-educated Yemeni woman said she would break a law against women in politics by forming a party dedicated to gender equality. GulfNews.com reports that Sumaya Ali Raja, who was invited to deliver her message to a traditionally all-male council, got a mixed reception from conservatives, but was welcomed by the Socialist Party and others. Legislators in Zimbabwe finally passed a bill protecting women from domestic abuse … ten years after it was introduced. Activists say that one in four women there are victims of abuse, and linked domestic violence with high rates of murder and HIV infection.

Democracy

For Gypsies, Eugenics is a Modern Problem / Czech Practice Dates to Soviet Era

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By Mindy Kay Bricker
PRAGUE (Newsdesk.org) — Gypsy women who say they were sterilized against their will by Czech doctors were heartened last December when a government investigator released a study that largely vindicated their claims.
Six months later, however, advocates for Gypsies — known more formally as Roma — say the practice is continuing, and are dismayed by what they consider only token steps by Czech officials to stop it. “There’s been basically dead silence at the level of elites,” said Claude Cahn, program director of the European Roma Rights Center, an advocacy group based in Budapest. Officials at the Health Ministry acknowledge the problem, but have not taken responsibility. “[Sterilization] was by no means a national policy, but errors [were] committed by individual medical facilities,” said Jaroslav Strof, the Health Ministry’s director of healthcare and pharmacy, in an e-mailed statement. Yet the Czech government’s independent ombudsman, Otakar Motejl, released a detailed report last year charging that “potentially problematic” sterilizations of Roma women have been public knowledge for more than 15 years.

Culture

Who Are the Terrorists?

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By Martin Leatherman, Newsdesk.org staff
When considering ways to curb terrorism after last week’s London bombings, some analysts say that Western leaders aren’t looking closely enough at the terrorists’ historical context and long-term goals. Professor Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, argues that strategic rather than religious issues are behind al Qaeda’s terror campaigns — specifically, the removal of Western powers from the Arabian Peninsula. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Pape said that of the 71 individuals who killed themselves in suicide attacks for al Qaeda from 1995 to 2004, the vast majority came from Sunni Muslim countries where the U.S. has stationed combat forces since 1990. In contrast, he said, Sudan and Iran, both deeply fundamentalist Islamic nations, have yet to produce an al Qaeda suicide bomber. Regardless, followers of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden see the strategic issues as serving a distinctly religious goal — the creation of a larger state, or caliphate, governed by Islamic law.

Culture

Third World Debt

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By Martin Leatherman & Josh Wilson, Newsdesk.org
On July 2 the world’s eight richest nations are expected to cancel $40 billion in debt owed by 18 of the world’s poorest nations. But critics from all corners claim this is a partial solution at best. The G8, which meets next week in Glasgow, will provide 100 percent relief from International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African Development Bank loans through the IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Any money saved from debt relief is required to go to infrastructure, health care and education. Zambia, a nation of ten million people, almost one million of whom are said to have HIV, plans to use the extra funding to distribute free AIDS drugs, and to fight malaria.

Culture

Selling Weapons to the World

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Newsdesk.org staff report
A new report claims that America’s commitment to peace and security is belied by its status as one of the world’s leading arms dealers. “U.S. Weapons at War,” a study released this month by the New York City-based World Policy Institute, an affiliate of the New School University, finds that American weapons were sold to 18 nations currently involved in “active conflicts” — from U.S.-backed operations against Islamists in the Philippines and narco-militarists in Colombia, to regional power struggles in Angola, Nepal, Algeria, Indonesia, India and Pakistan. This comes in the same breath as a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which finds that in 2004 the nations of the world gave $1.035 trillion to the global arms industry — up 25 percent from 2003. The “primary driver” was the U.S., according to the BBC, which spent $235 billion on the war on terror from 2002-2004. The United States is also one of the leading sellers of weapons.

Culture

FOCUS: Peak Oil

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Martin Leatherman, Newsdesk.org
Are the days of cheap oil over? With prices soaring above $50 a barrel, the world is beginning to take the peak oil theory seriously. The Hubbert Peak Theory, developed in 1956 by geophysicist M. King Hubbert, is casually called the peak oil theory. It says oil and fossil-fuel production will soon reach a peak and then rapidly decline, driving prices up. In 1956 Hubbert predicted that production would peak in the United States in the late 1970s, which it did.