alanjjohnstone
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And their racism often pops into view
Rugby to ditch God Save the Queen and adopt Jerusalem
Social production – the scientific key to our mystery. Not ‘mind’ nor ‘matter’, but US. And we can change both.
Not unless you set about engaging in organised political and economic action and for all your claimed insights, you have offered no strategy or offered any participation or involvement in that process of change, have you?
You have no aspiration for any audience other than a handful on this forum who have repeatedly rejected your philosophical overtures towards them.
I await a sign of your own “activity”, LBird
In this video Greta Thunberg seconds Tariq’s analysis about the powerlessness of CEOs at about 5 mins in
But totally fails when asked about capitalism being culpable at 6 mins. Why can’t she recognise the cause of why politicians and CEOs won’t act? Is she scared of being labelled political?
She doesn’t understand a change in society which she later discusses later at 9 mins.
At 13 mins she expresses her skepticism about C0P-26
Will Biden become a pro-labor president?
The Democratic Socialists of America are not convinced
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/01/the-pro-act-labors-catalyst-or-political-stunt/
New York Times tells lie with deliberate misquote
NYT writes, ‘China hopes to position itself as the main challenger to an international order, led by the United States, that is generally guided by principles of democracy, respect for human rights and adherence to rule of law. Such a system “does not represent the will of the international community,” China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, told Russia’s, Sergey V. Lavrov’
What he actually said was:
‘ Wang Yi said, the so-called “rules-based international order” by a few countries is not clear in its meaning, as it reflects the rules of a few countries and does not represent the will of the international community.’He didn’t mention democracy or human rights in the statement; as for the rule of law, he said, “We should uphold the universally recognized international law.”
MS, we may have our differences with the Castroite regime in Cuba, but it does possess a health system that can be admired.
In face of a embargo and sanctions it has succeeded in developing a medical service which they export around the world.
Here is a video on its vaccine programme
The media likes to portray China as the Myanmar general’s guardians as it follows an already widespread anti-China narrative but here is a story of Japan’s reluctance to condemn the coup.
https://www.dw.com/en/why-is-japan-not-taking-a-firm-stand-against-myanmar-junta/a-57075373
Tokyo remains committed to engagement with the generals for several reasons, say analysts. Japan hopes that its refusal to fall in line with the rest of the international community and impose sanctions, as well as the long-standing ties with previous military governments, might still give it some sway.
One of Japan’s motivations in Myanmar, which has evolved into an important location for Japanese manufacturers to build factories and take advantage of relatively low labor costs. That policy, in turn, has helped to create a new market for Japanese products.
For Tokyo, a second and arguably more important factor behind its decision to keep lines of communication with the military junta open is geopolitical.
“Japan’s muted response to the human rights abuses in Myanmar is primarily because it does not want the military junta there to get any closer to China,” Stephen Nagy, an associate professor of international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University, told DW.
Rates of stillbirth and maternal deaths rose by around a third during the COVID-19 pandemic, with pregnancy outcomes getting worse overall for both babies and mothers worldwide
https://news.trust.org/item/20210331212547-t759e/
Lockdowns, disruption to maternity services, and fear of attending healthcare facilities all added to pregnancy risks, leading to generally worse results for women and infants.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on healthcare systems,” said professor Asma Khalil, who co-led the research at St George’s University of London. “The disruption caused … has led to the avoidable deaths of both mothers and babies, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”
Climate activists in London splashed black dye on the facade of the Bank of England.
In Paris, activists draped a banner reading “magic money, toxic investments” on the Banque de France
“The action today is part of a wave of actions by XR’s Money Rebellion designed to expose the role of banks in the climate and ecological crisis,” the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion said.
You will also find this of interest
The Biden Bounce, the Pandemic Bounce, call it what you will but the bubble is still growing.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall
Further evidence that national interest comes before the interests of the planet
https://www.dw.com/en/can-the-eus-climate-change-plan-work-in-southeast-asia/a-57062423
In Southeast Asia coal usage has increased in the past decade. In 2019, the region consumed around 332 million tons of coal, nearly double the consumption from a decade earlier, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA)… coal-fired energy will overtake natural gas as the main power source in the ASEAN region by 2030. And by 2040 it could account for almost 50% of the region’s projected CO2 emissions.
Of that, Indonesia accounted for 42% and Vietnam nearly a third. In 2019, the region’s imports of thermal coal rose by 19% compared with the previous year, according to an IEA report.
Energy generated from coal doubled in the Philippines between 2011 and 2018, when it accounted for 53% of energy consumption, according to the country’s Department of Energy.
Coal is expected to account for more than 50% of Vietnam’s energy supply by 2030, the World Coal Association, an industry body, predicts.
Even Laos, which has built hundreds of hydropower dams over the past decade, saw coal-fired energy production rise from almost nothing to 10,000 GWh in 2017. In February, Laos’ deputy minister of energy and mines, Daovong Phoneke, announced that two new coal-fired energy plants
Indonesia last year initiated proceedings at the World Trade Organization against the EU’s phased ban on palm-oil imports. Brussels contends the ban is to protect the environment, but Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, says it is mere protectionism. Malaysia, the world’s second-largest palm oil producer, has vowed to stand with Jakarta in its battle against the EU.
Another reminder of reality
India’s energy minister declared long-term net zero targets, “pie in the sky.” He said poor nations want to continue using fossil fuels and the rich countries “can’t stop it”. Net zero refers to balancing out any greenhouse gas emissions produced by industry, transport or other sources by removing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere.
“2060 sounds good, but it is just that, it sounds good,” Raj Kumar Singh, India’s minister for power, told a meeting organised by the International Energy Agency (IEA). “I would call it, and I’m sorry to say this, but it is just a pie in the sky.”
“…you have 800 million people who don’t have access to electricity. You can’t say that they have to go to net zero, they have the right to develop, they want to build skyscrapers and have a higher standard of living, you can’t stop it,” he told the meeting.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/03/31/was-albert-einstein-anti-semite
Was Albert Einstein an anti-Semite? Was Hannah Arendt? These questions may sound ludicrous. Yet, according to the definition of anti-Semitism that more than 30 countries—including the United States through the Biden Administration—recently adopted, these two leading intellectuals could very well be labeled as such. This is due to an open letter they sent on December 4, 1948 to the New York Times, claiming that the right-wing Herut Party in the newly formed State of Israel was “closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.”
