Europe

The European Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding, stated on Friday last that the situation of the Roma people living in Europe is a “scandalous matter” “We have the largest minority in Europe – 10 million people – living in absolute poverty, without access to housing and often without any access to healthcare“, she said.

Dear Mario, now we live in different spheres, but I feel that our spiritual and moral contact, our friendship and sympathy have not disappeared and cannot ever disappear. Only after the death of a man can we appreciate the real meaning of his life because in everyday life is almost impossible to appreciate the magnitude of the work of others.

In the UK, Scientists call on the Prime Minister to save funding for scientific research for the benefit of humanity and axe funding for nuclear destruction. Highlighting the lack of financial transparency in military research spending in moments of savage cuts to public services, SGR Executive Director points out, “The Cold War is over.”

The discovery of a new planet and the denied appointment by the UN of someone responsible for relations with ‘aliens’ leads us to reflect on the moment in which humanity finds itself as a whole. What will mankind do at this historical crossroads? Will we continue in our prehistory or will we launch ourselves like a shooting star towards other worlds?

The culture of minimising and hiding the true extent of nuclear danger raises its ugly head again. A fire at Aldermaston nuclear bomb making establishment on August 3rd was reported in the newspapers as a minor incident which, although neighbours were evacuated for some hours, did not really represent a nuclear risk. Well, not exactly…

Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos, Silo, died in Mendoza, Argentina on the 16th of September 2010 but none of the big European newspapers (nor the television channels) reported this fact. They therefore silenced the great initiatives and humanist proposals which came from the other side of the Atlantic and which are still there, constructing *“life to come”*.

The annual announcements of Nobel Prizes started in Sweden today with the first prize for Medicine being awarded to the British Scientist, Robert Edwards, for his pioneering work in in-vitro fertilisation. An estimated 4 million children have resulted from his work. A Vatican official denounced the award as, *“completely out of order”*.

One year after the World March started in Wellington, New Zealand, the book of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence – a compilation in 400 colour pages of almost everything that took place over three months, plus the preparations – is presented in Toledo, Spain. The following are the words of Tony Robinson, international Spokesperson for World without Wars and Violence.

Almost 25 years after Spielberg’s film *Back to the Future* predicted the use of rubbish as a fuel for cars several projects that transform household waste into fuel are on their way thanks to bacteria originally used for compost heaps, which have been now genetically engineered to produce Ethanol by braking down the cellulose in food and other organic substances.

Following the death of Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos (better known as Silo), the humanist organization Convergence of Cultures will pay tribute to its source of inspiration on October 2nd next, coinciding with the International Day of Non-Violence. They will participate along with other organizations inspired by his ideas, in ceremonies that will take place in different countries.