International

President Rafael Correa Delgado

Carondelet Palace

Quito, Ecuador

Ecuadorean media minister Alvarado published an open letter to Reporters Without Borders on 9 September in response to the one that its secretary-general, Jean-François Julliard, addressed to President Correa three days before. RWB is posting the minister’s reply on its website. It includes an invitation to international media freedom organizations to take part in a debate.

Article written by Nathan Schneider

It’s a foregone conclusion that revenge ties itself in a logical knot. It’s a cycle that churns until everyone bound up in it is dead. With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in mind, philosopher Simon Critchley rehearses this fact eloquently in his latest at his New York Times forum, The Stone.

Werner Herzog allows us to learn about one of the major archaeological discoveries in humankind. The Chauvet-Pont d’Arc grotto contained in its depths hundreds of prehistoric animals’ skeletons that permit to reveal the constitution of the European wildlife 35 thousand years ago. Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel-Deschamps and Christian Hikkaire found it in 1994.

As the ten year anniversary of 9/11 approaches, an intense media blitz is in motion. To be honest, I find most of the coverage offensive in that it imposes and manipulates assumed feelings about the event without the least reflection on the
real meaning and consequences of that day. I get the feeling that a particular response
is expected. But my response is different.

A humanist work camp is scheduled to start October 10, 2011, organised in Panauti, Nepal, as the initial efforts to establish Nepal’s Park of Study & Reflection. This is a small town 32km south east of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. Panauti is renowned for its rich history, cultural activities, artistic buildings and year-round festivals.

The body bag marked “Victim 0001” on Sept. 11, 2001, contained the corpse of Father Mychal Judge, a Catholic chaplain with the Fire Department of New York. When he heard about the disaster at the World Trade Center, he donned his Catholic collar and firefighter garb and raced downtown. He saw people jump to their deaths to avoid the inferno more than 1,000 feet above.

“As Bev and I sat down on the precipice in solemn meditation, I prayed that God would come into our hearts. I prayed for understanding and love. I prayed for Alicia’s soul and the souls of the others who had died with her earlier in the day. I prayed for our world.” These are words of John Titus, father and author of “Losing Alicia”, whose daughter was flight attendant on 9/11.

The world lives in the era of knowledge and information sharing. With satellite TV, mobile phones and the internet, the word “distance” has lost its meaning as there is hardly a place today that is too’ remote’ for information access. The uprisings in the Arab World are a striking example of the rapid dissemination of information.

Documents found by Human Rights Watch in Tripoli contain evidence of collaboration by the British Government with the US rendition for torture program, in this case sending terror suspects to Libya for interrogation. “For several years, senior MI5 and MI6 officers have sought to deny that their agencies have been guilty even of complicity in rendition.