Some of Reuters best shots in 2007

Islamabad

Gaza

Beijing

Pakistan

Nahr el Bahred

After the rain

In Ngongongare, Tanzania, a Friday afternoon

Women in Black marks 20th years, but occupation continues

By Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz

The hundreds of women and the few men who on Friday celebrated the 20th anniversary of Women in Black didn’t seem to know whether the event they were attending was a somber one, or a party. After all, the cause the movement has championed for the past 20 years has not been achieved. The israeli occupation still exists.

“It’s the only demonstration that has been going on for 20 years now”, one of the participants said.

The place where the crowd of 250 women gathered was the same place where Women in Black always hold their Friday demonstrations: Paris Square in Jerusalem. As always, they were carrying signs against the occupation.

“The peace movements have succeeded. We have thousands of demonstration hours,” Hanna Safran boasted. “We have all been very creative. We’ve marched naked, we went down to the Territories. Our message has been accepted, but it hasn’t put an end to the occupation and the wrongdoings that go along with it. In fact, things only got worse.”

The movement was born in late 1987, weeks after the outbreak of the first Intifada, which turned the attention of most Israelis to the very fact that the Palestinians were living under occupation. The first demonstrators, Safran among them, gathered at Paris Square, not far from the prime minister’s official residence. They stood in silence, carrying signs the shape of a stop sign, reading: “Stop the Occupation.”

Within several months, other women joined the protest, demonstrating at junctions outside towns and cities. The members of Women in Black represent the full spectrum of the Israeli Left, from Labor to the anti-Zionists.

Two of the most frequently asked questions Women in Black have had to answer over the years were why women, and why black. They say the absence of men in their ranks is meant to allow women to make their voice heard in a militaristic society.

As for black, there are several versions as to why the color was chosen as a trademark.

"What can I tell you, it's just a visually strong color," said Debbie Lerman from Tel Aviv.

One characteristic of Women in Black's protest rallies was the torrent of swear words, curses and fulminations they usually elicited from passersby, who vent out their hostility toward the organization. But nowadays they are no longer targeted.

Women in Black members explain that the hostility subsided because 20 years ago, a congregation of women engaged in political protest was perceived as defiant ipso facto.

"That's why the first demonstrators were spat on, and subjected to sexist and bigoted remarks from passersby," one activist said.

In Israel, Women in Black has failed to bring about the end of occupation. But the movement has become a role model for other countries, where certain sectors of the population have to endure humiliation, oppression and racism.

At present, Women in Black organizations exist in over 40 countries, the Israeli members say. In India they are protesting religious discrimination. In the former Yugoslavia, various splinter states saw the formation of Women in Black protesting the war. In Germany they address fascism, nuclear weapons, and the Israeli occupation, too.

My life in Tanzania

It took me a long time... after a month here, in Ngongognare, I finally seat down, and write on my blog. Actually, I don't know where to start... so many news things in my life in the last month, but at the same time I feel like I have always been here. The first thing would probably be the giraffes! I think that I've never see such a beautiful thing in my life. I could say that giraffes are my only neighbors since we are only 100 metres from the Arusha National Park, and they often come around the house looking for some nice trees to eat. The second thing would be Mt. Meru and when the sky is clear from clouds, even Mt. Kilimanjaro. The third thing would probably be work... the medicinal plants, the healers, the local communities... I love it!

Will soon post more pics!

The Tragicomic Mulatto

By Emily Raboteau

The security personnel of El Al Airlines descended upon me at Newark International Airport like a flock of vultures. There were five of them, in uniform, blockading the check-in counter. they looked old enough to have finished their obligatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces but not old enough to have finished college, which put them beneath me in age. I was prepared for their initial questions, "What are you?", which I've been asked my entire life. Really, there is no satisfactory word for what I am. "Mulatto" is now considered taboo since at its root is the four-legged beast that results from the union of a horse and a donkey (though I am told mules are smarter than both of those breeds). "Mixed is a more proper adjective for a cocktail. "Interracial" is too vague, and "bi-racial" is similarly unspecific. Though it chafed me, I knew the canned answer that would satisfy: "I look the way I do because my mother is white and my father is black". This time the usual reply wasn't good enough. This time the interrogation was tribal.

"What do you mean black? Where are you from?"

"New Jersey."

"Why are you going to Israel?"

"To visit a friend."

"What is your friend?"

"She's a cancer."

"She has cancer?"

"No, no, I'm kidding. She's healthy."

"She's Jewish?"

"Yes."

"How do you know her?"

"We grew up together."

"Do you speak Hebrew?"

"Shalom," I began. "Barukh atah Adonai..." I couldn't remember the rest, so I finished with a word I remembered for its perfect onomatopoetic rendering of the sound of liquid being poured from the narrow neck of a vessel: "Bakbuk."

It means bottle. I must have sounded to them like a babbling idiot.

"That's all I know, " I said. I felt ashamed somehow, but also pissed off at them for making me feel that way.

"Where is your father from?"

"Mississippi."

"No;" By now they were exasperated. "Where are your people from?"

"The United States."

"Before that. Your ancestors. Where did they come from?"

"Ireland."

They looked doubtful. "What kind of name is this?" They pointed at my opened passport.

"A surname," I joked.

"How do you say it?"

"Don't ask me. It's French."

"You're French?"

"No, I told you. I'm American."

"This!" They stabbed at my middle name, which is Ishem. "What is the meaning of this name?"

"I don't know, " I answered, honestly. I was named after my father's great-aunt, Emily Ishem, who died of cancer long before I was born. I have no idea where the name came from. Possibly it's a slave name.

"It sounds Arabic."

"Thank you."

"Do you speak Arabic?"

"I know better than to try."

"What do you mean?"

"No, I don't speak Arabic."

"What are your origins?"

I felt caught in a loop of that Abbot and Costello routine, "Who's on first?" There was no place for me inside their rhetoric. I didn't have the right vocabulary. I didn't have the right pedigree. This is what my mixed race has made me: a perpetual unanswered question. This is what the Atlantic slave trade has made me: a mongrel and a threat.

"Ms. Raboteau. Do you want to get on that plane?"

I was beginning to wonder.

"Do you?"

"Yes."

"Answer the question then! What are your origins?"

What else was I supposed to say?

"A sperm and an egg," I snapped.

That's when they grabbed my luggage, whisked me to the basement, stripped off my clothes and probed every orifice of my body for explosives. When they didn't find any, they focused on my tattoo, a Japanese character which means different, precious, unique. I was completely naked, and the room was cold. My nipples were hard. I tried to cover myself with my hands. i remember feeling incredibly thirsty. One of them flicked my left shoulder with a latex glove. "What does it mean?" he asked. This was the first time I'd ever been racially profiled, not that the experience would have been any less humiliating had it been my five hundredth. "It means Fuck you," I wanted to sat, not because they'd stripped me of my dignity but because they'd shoved my face into my own rootlessness. I have never felt more black in my life then I did when I was mistaken for an Arab.

This is an extract from Emily Raboteau's essay "Searching for Zion", originally published in Transition 97 (www.transitionmagazine.com) 

Un fin de semana con Matis...

Este fin de semana Cathe, Boris y Matis vinieron a BXL a visitarme... Matis es el sobrino mas hermoso, coqueto y buenhumorado que tengo!!! La sorpresa fue la Adri que se vino con Hugo!!! Increible pasar tan buenos momentos con ustedes chicos... solo faltaba el Berna!

Es dificil tenerlas tan lejos, pero lo bueno es saber que por mas que estemos lejos, nada cambia (me pongo feeling). Cathe, te quiero mucho... gracias por decirme siempre las palabras justas y por siempre estar alli. :)

My new baby

Farewell dinner with my (ex)colleagues

Last Tuesday...

Flo with my present!

Slow motion feelings

Ver esta pelicula mil y una veces mas...

il mio ultimo giorno

Sono uscita alle 11 di sera... un po' triste... mi manchera' la mia scrivania, i miei compagni... (foto presa dalla Lagana')

The European Parliament: End blockade of Gaza!

By Luisa Morgantini

Press Release, posted by AIC and ISM

October 12th, 2007

http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/european-parliament-calls-for-lift-of-blockade-in-gaza-and-free-movement-in-palestinian-territories-20071011.html

Brussels 11th October 2007,

In a resolution voted today in the Parliament, MEPs, called on Israeli Government for the lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip and to fulfill its international obligations under the Geneva Conventions to guarantee the flow of humanitarian aid, humanitarian assistance and essential services, such as electricity and fuel. Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament, who was in the Parliamentary delegation in Gaza Strip, on her speech stressed the need to lift the embargo on people and goods and the end of the military occupation.

“I was recently in Gaza- Luisa Morgantini declared- and I saw how the Strip is suffocating in a serious humanitarian crisis due to the raids and the closure imposed by the Israeli Army: massive devastation of public facilities and private homes, the disruption of hospitals, clinics and schools, the denial of access to proper drinking water, food and electricity, and the destruction of agricultural land wanted by Israel create a true catastrophe for civilians. Furthermore, the blockade on the movement paralyzes the economy and contributes to an extremely high rate of unemployment, while the health system is under severe pressure, a significant proportion of the population is suffering from a lack of urgently needed treatment and medicines and many NGOs and humanitarian organisations are obstructed by the lack of freedom of movement and of resources.

European Union has to demand with force to the Israeli Government that human rights and International law must be fully respected in the whole area, ending the continued emergency of Gaza Strip but also the military occupation in West Bank, where the robbery of Palestinian lands continues without any condemnation and, in spite of the meeting between Olmert and Abbas, the Israelis change the situation on the ground which casts serious doubts if they want peace or just gaining time to grab more land: it is an example the recent decision by the IDF to expropriate 272 acres of land from four Arab villages in order to build, as declared by Israeli Authorities, a new Palestinian road that would connect East Jerusalem with Jericho. But this decision would free up the existing E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adunim, allowing the construction of a new Jewish settlement consisting of 3,500 apartments and an industrial park, blocked by an international protest since 2004, that showed the risk of the cutting of the West Bank in two, separating East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. This unilateral and illegal policy by Israeli Authorities must immediately end."

EU must to face up to its full responsibility on the respect of the legality, first through implementation of the existent EU-Israel Agreements on Movement and Access, but also imposing Israel to respect the International law concerning human rights, to end the military occupation in West Bank and the closure of the Gaza Strip and of the WB: even if there is an humanitarian tragedy, its solution is political.

This is the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace and to give more credibility to the International Peace Conference in November, reinforcing the negotiations based on the UN resolutions and on the right of Palestinians and Israelis to live in two States, in peace and security”.

LUISA MORGANTINI is Vice President of The European Parliament (GUE/NGL)

Empty city

Jakarta's Jalan Sudirman, which is usually so crowded, looks desolate today. Many Jakarta residents have returned to their hometowns for the Idul Fitri holiday.

Premio IGNOBEL

Ha sentito l'ultima? Il premio Nobel per la Pace è stato conferito ad Al Gore!!!!! Tutto ciò è inaudito! Evviva il catastrofismo e il trionfo della politica delle immagini! Ma come si fa ad attribuire un premio di quel valore ad un uomo che sostiene una tesi che nella comunità scientifica è sottoposta a continui studi empirici e a verifiche costanti. Nessuno mette in dubbio che la pressione antropica dell'uomo abbia degli effetti negativi sull'ambiente, ma premiare l'estremismo significa non voler comprendere il problema e non volere trovare le giuste soluzioni. Il comitato norvegese, preposto all'attribuzione del Nobel per la Pace, conferma per l'ennesima volta di non avere alcuna conoscenza del metodo scientifico galileiano che si compone, come lei ben sa, di due aspetti: sensata esperienza e necessaria dimostrazione. Con oggi, purtroppo, c'è il trionfo del dogmatismo scientifico che appare ancora più grave e pericoloso del dogmatismo religioso medievale! Si conferma nuovamente che i premi Nobel per la Pace e la Letteratura non vengono assegnati sulla base di reali meriti artistici, sociali o umanitari, ma rappresentano esclusivamente dei veri e propri strumenti politici atti a condizionare l'opinione pubblica internazionale. Perchè non assegnare il premio Nobel per la Pace ai veri sostenitori della democrazia incarcerati nei tanti paesi islamici, orientali (penso ai monaci del Myanmar) e africani che pur di portare avanti i loro ideali di libertà e democrazia mettono a repentaglio le poche libertà personali di cui godono a costo della vita?

Boycott the Jericho-Tel Aviv events on Oct 18th

On October 18th, One Million Voices, an organization led by Israelis and international figures with the support of some Palestinians, is organizing a public event in Jericho and Tel Aviv, simultaneously. The event will include performances by renowned artists Brian Adams and Ilham Madfa'i. As stated on the organization's English webpage, the objective of the event is to “mark the first time that massive numbers of Israelis and Palestinians gather simultaneously to unite against violent extremism.”

According to the widely accepted boycott criteria advocated by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), the event falls under the category of normalization projects and violates the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), endorsed by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, trade unions, political parties, and grassroots movements, for the following reasons: Participants are required to join the One Voice Movement and sign a mandate -- ostensibly based on a "two-state solution," but without any commitment to international parameters -- which assumes equal responsibility of "both sides" for the "conflict," and suspiciously fails to call for Israel's full compliance with its obligations under international law through ending its illegal military occupation, its denial of Palestinian refugee rights (particularly the right of return), and its system of racial discrimination against its own Palestinian citizens.

The event is sponsored by Israeli institutions (mostly from the private sector) and endorsed by mainstream Israeli political figures from parties including the Likud and Shas. These Israeli "partners" are unquestionably complicit in maintaining Israel 's occupation and other forms of oppression.

We believe this event is being organized to promote a "peace" agreement that is devoid of the minimal requirements of justice, and that will leave the Palestinian people as disenfranchised as previous agreements have. The unfortunate and harmful support of Palestinian businessmen, religious and political figures, among others, for this event indicates either ignorance of the hidden agenda inherent in the whole initiative, deceptively camouflaged as a collective call for peace, or willingness to forfeit the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in return for advancing selfish interests.

We call on the Palestinian public and international supporters of a just peace in Palestine not to take part in this public relations charade that conceals a misleading political program that falls significantly short of international law tenets and the Palestinian national program. We call on Arab and Palestinian artists, in particular, not to participate in this or any similar event whose real objectives have nothing to do with genuine peace. We call on Palestinian board members of the One Million Voices to withdraw their support for this movement that only serves to blind the Palestinian public and sidetrack it from struggling, with the solidarity of its international supporters, for its UN-sanctioned rights, for justice, equality and freedom.

Tutti i diritti umani per tutti

Alla vigilia del 60° anniversario della Dichiarazione Universale dei Diritti Umani ho partecipato a Perugia il 5 e il 6 ottobre 2007 alla 7a Assemblea dell’Onu dei Popoli, un grande incontro della società civile mondiale impegnata contro la povertà e la guerra per la globalizzazione dei diritti umani, della giustizia, della democrazia e della solidarietà.

La 7a Assemblea dell’Onu dei Popoli è stata intitolata “Tutti i diritti umani per tutti”. Centinaia di persone provenienti da tutto il mondo (esponenti laici e religiosi di movimenti, sindacati, organizzazioni e network nazionali e internazionali, giornalisti, enti locali, forze politiche, università e centri di ricerca) si sono incontrati per mettere a punto e promuovere l’agenda politica dei diritti umani.

I diritti umani non sono “valori” altissimi da contemplare. Essi sono il nome dei bisogni umani vitali, materiali e spirituali e come tali costituiscono un insieme di “obiettivi” concreti che devono guidare la politica a tutti i livelli, dalla politica locale a quella internazionale, dalle nostre città fino all’Onu. I diritti umani costituiscono il nucleo centrale della legalità in un mondo alla ricerca affannosa di governabilità umanamente sostenibile. La legittimazione dell'agire delle classi governanti si gioca sul terreno della loro coerenza con il paradigma dei diritti umani. Essi sono pertanto la bussola legale, politica, morale per fronteggiare la grande crisi planetaria che colpisce centinaia di milioni di persone e minaccia la sopravvivenza dell’intera umanità.

I diritti umani sono i diritti civili, politici, economici, sociali, culturali, i diritti alla pace, all'ambiente, allo sviluppo umano, alle pari opportunità da realizzare nel rispetto del principio della loro interdipendenza e indivisibilità. Lo stato sociale è indissociabile dallo stato di diritto. La democrazia sociale ed economica è indissociabile dalla democrazia politica.

O fim do jejum

Motociclistas fazem fila para embarcar no porto do Gilimanuk, em Bali, na Indonésia. Milhões de indonésios muçulmanos deslocam-se para as suas casas para celebrar os festejos de Eid al-Fitr, que marcam o fim do jejum do Ramadão. Foto: Murdani Usman/Reuters

Jerusalem

The Guardian
9 October 2007

A senior Israeli cabinet minister said yesterday that Israel may be willing to divide Jerusalem with the Palestinians as part of a future peace agreement.

Haim Ramon said Jewish districts of Jerusalem should remain Israeli while Arab areas could be transferred to the Palestinian Authority. "Wouldn’t it be the right deal today for the Palestinians, the western world and the international community to recognise [Israel’s] annexation of .... [Jewish] neighbourhoods as part of Jerusalem, and for us to quit the Arab neighbourhoods?" he told Israel Radio.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are expected to meet at a peace conference next month in Annapolis, Maryland, but a peace deal is not believed to be close.

Mr Ramon, the vice-prime minister, said decisions over the sovereignty of holy sites of Jerusalem such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Haram al-Sharif and the Western Wall would be more complicated. "We need to say there will be a special regime in the ’holy basin’, which we will talk about in the future," he said.

Many Israelis insist that Jerusalem should never be shared, even though almost half its population is Palestinian. It is often referred to as the "indivisible" capital of the Jewish people. Israel took control of West Jerusalem in 1948 and conquered East Jerusalem in 1967. Since then Israel has built huge housing estates on the occupied territory, mixing Jewish and Arab areas. Palestinians insist that all of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, should form part of a Palestinian state and that all Jewish settlements are illegal under international law. The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak proposed dividing Jerusalem in 2000 but failed to reach an agreement with Yasser Arafat.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, told the Knesset yesterday that he intended to spend the next year working on a peace deal with the Palestinians.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk

Caetano Veloso em Bruxelas

Concierto maravilloso el miercoles pasado en l'Ancienne Belgique... CAETANO ERES LO MAXIMO!!!!

LUCA PRODAN - Entrevista 1

Una entrevista muy interesante de Luca Prodan, cantante de Sumo. Estan en 4 partes, esta es la primera.

Missing Indonesia

dewa - separuh nafasku

The funeral

A kid is attending, from her window, the funeral of 10 Palestinians that were shot yesterday during an Israeli military attack in the North of the Gaza Strip. Foto: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

La marcia dei monaci contro la giunta militare in Birmania

YANGON (Myanmar) - Sono in migliaia, non hanno intenzione di fare marcia indietro, anzi, è una sollevazione popolare che conquista maggior favore col passare delle ore. Nuova giornata - la settima - di protesta in Myanmar, ex Birmania, contro la giunta militare al potere da 45 anni. Ieri, il colpo di scena con l'apparizione di Aung Suu Kyi, la leader dell'opposizione birmana e Nobel per la pace, ai domiciliari da dodici anni, che ha salutato i manifestanti dalla sua casa-prigione. Oggi, almeno 20 mila persone sono tornate in piazza a Yangon (ex Rangoon), una manifestazione guidata ancora una volta dai monaci buddhisti, motore della sollevazione. Nel Paese asiatico non si tengono più elezioni dal 1990, quando la Lnd - il partito della Suu Kyi - vinse in maniera schiacciante, e i vertici militari ripresero il potere con la forza annullando i risultati della consultazione.

Circa 5000 manifestanti si sono radunati nella Pagoda d'Oro di Shwedagon, il principale tempio del Paese, per pregare ed esprimere pacificamente il loro dissenso nei confronti del regime. Nel giro di un'ora, però, la folla è quadruplicata di numero, e la metà erano, appunto, monaci. Per la prima volta, poi, alle proteste si sono unite anche un centinaio di monache. Insieme ai religiosi, hanno preso la testa di un enorme corteo che si è riversato nelle vie del centro della vecchia capitale birmana, fino a raggiungere e circondare un altro importante luogo sacro, la Pagoda di Sule.

Altro avvenimento finora inedito dall'inizio delle marce contro il governo: i monaci hanno esplicitamente invitato gli abitanti a dare loro man forte. "Stiamo marciando per il popolo - cantavano in coro i religiosi, uomini e donne - vogliamo che il popolo venga con noi". Una protesta innescata dall'improvviso rincaro dei prezzi dei carburanti, che hanno colpito indiscriminatamente la popolazione di uno degli Stati più poveri al mondo, tanto che molti non hanno più nemmeno la possibilità di prendere un autobus, il mezzo di trasporto più diffuso in città.

L'atmosfera, comunque, è calma, e le forze dell'ordine non accennano a intervenire. Un segno, questo, della cautela con cui il regime sta cercando di gestire una situazione sempre più difficile, con un approccio quindi ben diverso dalla sanguinosa repressione che stroncò la rivolta del 1998. Sempre ogggi, nel frattempo, altri 500 monaci hanno inscenato un raduno di protesta a Mandalay, la seconda città del Myanmar, manifestando nel centrale quartiere di Payagyi.

(23 settembre 2007) da www.repubblica.it

What will it be like??

I think I would buy Brussels...

On E-Bay.be this week "For Sale: Belgium, a Kingdom in three parts (Bruxelles, Wallonie et Flandres). Free premium: the king and his court (costs not included)." Even Moldova would have made more monay than that!

Paestum

Paestum, due settimane fa....

Vacanze in Italia

Fuenti, Cetara 29 agosto - 8 sett