International

Following a long absence from Venezuela for surgery in Cuba to remove a reported pelvic abcess, Chavez flies back to Havana for more treat. Chavez, who was accompanied by his daughter Rosa, will stay here for an undisclosed period of time.

Brushing off protests from China, Barack Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama to the White House, urging respect for human rights and cultural traditions in Tibet. China immediately lodged a protest and accused Obama of undermining relations between the world’s two largest economies by meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader, who has spent more than a half-century in exile.

The Water Sanitation and Hygiene Group (EWASH) issued a report saying that even though Israel announced last year that it will ease the blockade; Gaza Strip residents still don’t have clean water running from their taps as up to 95% of water for domestic supply in the Gaza Strip is still below the minimum WHO standard for drinking water and unfit for consumption.

Despite attempts by Chinese authorities to suppress any form of social change, young Chinese people both in and out of the country are constantly finding new ways to be heard. In 2010 alone there were 320,000 incidents of civil unrest. A move is underway to unite the diverse protests and rebrand them the “Jasmine Revolution”, following in the footsteps of Tunisia.

‘No nuclear-armed country currently appears to be preparing for a future without these terrifying devices. In fact, all are squandering billions of dollars on modernization of their nuclear forces, making a mockery of UN disarmament pledges. If we allow this madness to continue, the eventual use of these instruments of terror seems all but inevitable.’

The UN Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development recognizes that the challenges inherent to the global water crisis can’t be met by governments alone. All key sectors of society have to be engaged and mobilized to collectively address the problem. Dr. Reza Ardakanian says the media can play an important role in mobilizing different players to respond to the water crisis.

Echoing the recent protests in Egypt and Spain, it is the turn of Israeli youth to take to the streets and start camping to draw attention to the excessive cost of rents in Tel Aviv and other major population centres of the territory. An emergency session of the Israeli Cabinet is convened to try to deal with the situation.

The Israeli government is under heat now also from citizens who are normally indifferent to its immoral conduct. After a successful boycott of cottage cheese that forced the producer to put down the prices, hundreds of Israelis are now taking to the streets in protest of lack of affordable housing, building a tent town on Tel Aviv’s fashionable Rothschild Boulevard.

Politicians, pushed by the “ward lords”–the military, spend over 90 billion dollars a year, from taxpayer’s pockets, on nuclear weapons. This figure amounts to the UN budget for 45 years, and to 3/4 of the total annual sum spent on development aid. The U.S. alone spends over 50 billion dollars annually–enough to meet the Millennium Development Goals on poverty alleviation.

When you don’t acknowledge China’s stupendous achievements, what you find is a country that has little to show and still far to go. When you don’t see the political foundations of economic policies that freed the vast majority of dirt poor and backward Chinese from awesome feudal inequalities, it is taken to be the success of capitalist impulses alone.