Tag: Ban Ki-Moon

I hope you can wade through to the end.  This is important.  And I think it is even more important to share the first three stories in order to highlight the last one.  So I’ll start in India, then proceed to Indonesia, followed by Cote d’Ivoire.

But those place names could just have easily have been Washington, DC, Indianapolis, or Charleston.  This is one area where America is much less than spectacular.

The places could be anywhere where some people are considered less than human.  For us transgender people that doesn’t exclude much of this planet.

The stories will set the background for the story from New York about UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and others speaking about Human Rights Day.

I caution the reader that there is violence in the first stories.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates delivered a very optimistic report about Afghanistan to Congress last Wednesday, June 16.

“I think we are regaining the initiative; I think we are making headway.”

But on Saturday a different assessment was published by the United Nations.

Violence in Afghanistan has continued to increase in recent months, as has the use of improvised explosive devices and suicide attacks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report.

And “anti-government” violence isn’t just more intense, it’s also better organized.

There are also an average of two more complex suicide attacks per month — bigger operations involving more assailants — double the average for 2009, the report said.

“The shift to more complex suicide attacks demonstrates a growing capability of the local terrorist networks linked to al Qaeda,” it said.

Meanwhile “collateral damage” continues to make blood enemies for the United States and its puppet-government in Kabul.

Ten civilians, including at least five women and children, were killed in NATO airstrikes in Khost Province, the provincial police chief said Saturday.

But there’s always good news for somebody in the Global War on Terror!

The United States Embassy here said Saturday that the company once known as Blackwater Worldwide has been awarded a contract worth more than $120 million to protect new United States consulates in the Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, The Associated Press reported.

There is another voice calling out the US establishment media on their less than truthful portrayal of a threat from Iran. While at it, Kaveh L Afrasiabi, writing for Asia Times Online cites UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon for having repeatedly condemned Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric against Israel, while remaining “ominously, and inexcusably, silent” about on Israeli threats of military attacks on Iran.

Unfortunately, compounding the UN’s shortcoming above-cited is a related failure of mainstream media in the US and Europe to criticize Ban’s flawed approach to the Iran crisis, or to address the systematic disinformation and planned paranoia about Iran’s nuclear program put forth by Israel and its allies.

Of particularly important significance in this affair is the fact that the head of the IAEA, (International Atomic Energy Agency) Mohammed ElBaradei, has stated that if a military attack is launched against Iran that he would resign immediately and that such an attack would inflict serious civilian casualties and “trigger the volatile region into a fireball.”

“I’m quite confident we will be able to overcome this tragedy. I’ve tried to bring a message of hope to your people,” Ban said earlier as he made an offering at the country’s holiest Buddhist shrine, the Shwedagon Pagoda.

“At the same time, I hope your people and government can coordinate the flow of aid, so the aid work can be done in a more systematic and organised way,” said Ban.

“The United Nations and the whole international community stand ready to help you overcome this tragedy.”

link: http://afp.google.com/article/…

Meanwhile pressure is building on the military regime to do far more to help the victims of the cyclone, and not all of the pressure is coming from outside the country: