Ecuadorian Assembly Approves Constitutional Rights of Nature

On July 7, the 130-member Ecuador Constitutional Assembly, elected countrywide to rewrite the country’s Constitution, voted to approve articles that recognize rights for nature and ecosystems.

“If adopted in the final constitution by the people, Ecuador would become the first country in the world to codify a new system of environmental protection based on rights,” says Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Ecuadorian Assembly Approves Constitutional Rights for Nature : Climate and Capitalism

This is pretty interesting. It could become a movement. Check out 'Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund' and 'Center for Earth Jurisprudence' for more on this topic.

Accept U.S. war resisters says Bob Rae

Liberal foreign affairs critic, Bob Rae, goes to bat for accepting US war resisters in today's Toronto Star.

Why U.S. war resisters deserve refuge in Canada

Colombia: Celebrate the Release, Not the Regime - CommonDreams.org

A perceptive article by Amy Goldman of Democracy Today. Read this and ask yourself what the hell Canadian P.M. Harper is doing in sealing a free trade agreement with this regime. He's getting right out there in showing his stripes. This man's got to go, the sooner the better.


It is fantastic to see Ingrid Betancourt free. She was the Green Party candidate running for president of Colombia against Alvaro Uribe in 2002 when she was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) just days after appealing to the FARC to stop its campaign of kidnapping. She was held hostage for more than six years and was released last week along with 14 others. The flamboyant rescue operation by the Colombian army has been splashed across newspapers and TV screens globally, but the celebration of their release should not be confused with celebration of the Colombian government.

Colombia: Celebrate the Release, Not the Regime - CommonDreams.org

Its The Oil, Stupid!

Chomski weighs in. Nothing really original here but hey- it's Chomsky.  

By Noam Chomsky
Negotiations are under way for Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP - the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and other smaller oil companies- to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalisation during the years when the oil producers took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than 40 other companies, including companies in China, India and Russia

Its The Oil, Stupid!
Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:13:25 GMT

Historical Photographs of China

 

The Sidney D Gamble Photograph Collection at Duke University consists of about 5,000 newly digitised pictures, taken predominantly in China between 1917 and 1932. Browse by subject, category or location tags. Photos taken in 1908 are to be added in the future. [via]

Historical Photographs of China

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Floating in the Pacific ocean is a massive island of trash. Now, researchers have decided to map the size, content, and density of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The World's Largest Dump: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Ingrid Betancourt praises Chavez and distances herself from Uribe

Promoting social justice as opposed to Uribe's emphasis on security, as she puts it, Betancourt would seem to take the wind out of the sails of Uribe. It would also seem like a good beginning of a presidential race.

Ingrid Betancourt praises Chavez and distances herself from Uribe
axisoflogic

Reflections On The Origins And Meaning Of Americas Independence Day

 

By John Chuckman
Why no on should be surprised when America behaves as an international bully

Reflections On The Origins And Meaning Of Americas Independence Day

The Top 100 Private Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan

 

KBR, Inc., the global engineering and construction giant, won more than $16 billion in U.S. government contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006—far more than any other company, according to a new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. (By Bill Buzenberg)

Baghdad Bonanza: The Top 100 Private Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan

Non-Aligned Countries Endorse Venezuelan Proposal for Alternative World Media

At the 7th Conference of Information Ministers of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries held in Venezuela’s Margarita Island last week, more than 80 country delegations endorsed Venezuela’s proposal to create an alternative worldwide media network. By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

read more

Nobel Laureates Fear IPR Stifles Innovation

IP Watch reports on a recent speech from two Nobel Prize laureates on how intellectual property protection is closing down access to knowledge.

I Met the Walrus

Click on link at bottom of post.

I Met the Walrus In 1969, 14-year-old Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. This is the whimsically animated film that Jerry has produced about the interview.

I Met the Walrus

The Caves of Dunhuang

Keeping with things Chinese, a slide show from the NY Times.

Known as Mogaoku - ''peerless caves'' - and filled with paradisiacal frescos and hand-molded clay sculptures of savior-gods and saints, they are like nothing else in the Chinese Buddhist world. And Mogaoku is in trouble. After a dramatic increase in traffic, the caves are deteriorating because of high levels of carbon dioxide and humidity.

Buddha’s Caves: The Caves of Dunhuang.

CHINA'S MASSIVE WRENCH, Part 2 : A new world under one Heaven

Part 1- Change in the Face of Foreign Devils, also included here. A fascinating outline of Chinese history and culture and China's emerging position as global super-power.

It is a brave new world for China. And for the world, it is a brave new China. As China reaches across the globe for all kinds of resources and energy as well as new markets for its growing industries, it has had to Westernize many aspects of its culture, from language to dress to housing. In turn, the West will have to come to grips with this new China, which will shake its culture to its roots and its soul. - Francesco Sisci (Jul 3, '08) This is the conclusion of a two-part essay.

CHINA'S MASSIVE WRENCH, Part 2 : A new world under one Heaven

Who Funds the Progressive Media?

From Global Research, Michael Baker writes about the 'non-profit industrial complex', as it relates to alternate media. Who and who doesn't get the funding and so on. Baker is the editor of Global Media Journal from Australia. He has a previous article which goes well with this one in Global Research. Just click 'other articles' at the end of this one.

Critiques of liberal philanthropy are nothing new: indeed such criticisms have regularly surfaced ever since liberal foundations were created in the early twentieth century. In the past few years, however, the number of critical scholars and activists writing about practices of liberal foundations has grown rapidly, and there is now a blossoming literature showing the funding strategies of these highly influential philanthropists are antidemocratic and manipulative.

Who Funds the Progressive Media?