Sri Lankan Airline, Disabled Passengers, Medical Certificates Etc

By Bandula Kothalawala -April 8, 2015 

Dr. Bandula Kothalawala

Once again Sri Lankan Airlines is in the news, not surprisingly, for all the wrong reasons. While the lurid details of the extent of the alleged abuses by the top management of the airline have been well publicized and may have even attracted some interest from TV drama producers in Sri Lanka, it seems that the travails of its passengers have received scant attention from any quarter. I should like to put on record my recent ordeal with the airline.

I am a disabled person on a wheelchair. On 25 March 2014, I made a booking on the Sri Lankan Airline’s website on UL 0504 to travel to Colombo to attend the funeral of my brother who, I had just learnt, died of terminal cancer. I contacted the Airline’s office in Colombo immediately afterwards to check whether the booking was OK and request wheelchair assistance. To my surprise, I was told that the Airline’s rules and procedures required passengers to be able to walk unaided up to their seats and that, if they could not, they should produce a medical certificate signed by a doctor. I pleaded with the Airline officials in subsequent phone conversations to help me out in the circumstances and also informed them that I had travelled on Sri Lankan Airlines flights on four occasions (eight trips in total) to and from Colombo since October 2011 and that the last trip was made in November 2013, without ever having to produce any medical certificate.

I also explained to them that I had my own wheelchair, that I could go right up to the aircraft door, if necessary, which I often do, and that I needed assistance only to go to the seat. The officials concerned were unwilling to listen to me and steadfastly refused to provide any assistance without a medical certificate, which contravenes the interpretative guidelines from the European Commission on the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air[1]. Please, see Q2 which clearly states that “the Regulation does not impose an obligation on disabled persons to provide evidence of their disability or reduced mobility (whether medical or other) in order to justify the assistance required. Thus carriers are not allowed to ask for such a proof as a precondition of selling a ticket or permitting carriage.” As far as I am aware, the Sri Lankan Airline website does not publish details of any restrictions on the carriage of disabled persons or persons with reduced mobility, as required by the EU regulation concerned which could have served as a warning against making the booking. After a lengthy conversation with the Airline officials, I had no alternative, but to request that the booking be cancelled. I had no other reason whatsoever to cancel the booking. Not only was the BA alternative more expensive at £609.27 compared to £580.75 already paid to Sri Lankan Airlines, but it was also more inconvenient, the return flight (BA 2042)landing at 23.25BST at Gatwick on 3 April 2014. Moreover, the booking with Sri Lankan Airlines was made at 16.41GMT on 25 March 2014 whereas the booking with British Airways was made at 18.38GMT on the same day after all attempts to secure assistance proved unsuccessful.

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Mao and Gandhi: Two Asians - Johan Galtung

Thursday, 09 April 2015

 Let us start by summarizing. We are looking at six major leaders of forces and movements shaping centuries–Churchill- Hitler-Stalin-Mao-Gandhi-Mandela–comparing, two at a time. We are looking for similarities and dissimilarities. Some of them are out in the open, in their spoken ideologies. But most of them–maybe the most interesting–are hidden to the untrained eye. There are the similarities when they are from the same civilization and the dissimilarities when different– however much they profess to be on the same or very different lines. The six were themselves hardly aware of this factor.

As Churchill, Hitler and Stalin share the Christian-secular civilization; we would expect anti-Semitism, racism, and little hesitation when killing–by war, starvation (the Lord also did it), by revolution, millions–even with enthusiasm. Deeper down there are deductive reasonings from axioms about race and class and a final state: the British Empire, the Aryan Reich, for one thousand years, and socialism on the way to the final stage, communism forever; run from London, Berlin, Moscow. So we got the triangular Second World War with Moscow entering two alliances of convenience.

Enters Mao. He shares the word “communist” with Stalin (they still use it, long after it disappeared in USSR-Russia). But the Chinese civilization leaves its indelible imprint on that concept, giving the word a very different meaning, commune-ism, common-ism, doing things together, cooperating.

Enters Gandhi. An Asian like Mao, but watch out: there is no Asian civilization. There are West, Central, South–Hindu; Gandhi is here!–Southeast, East–Mao is here!–Asia; all very different–and a sixth, North Asia, Russian Orthodox.

As to ideological differences: Mao used mass violence–power was also that which came out the barrel of a gun–Gandhi used mass nonviolence, satyagraha. But watch out again: Mao’s key source of power was normative, his promise of liberating China from the yoke of imperialism, and the common people from the yoke of feudalism. Gandhi promised exactly the same and also saw power as that which comes from the kshatriyah warrior and turned many of them into nonviolent warriors, building on their courage and readiness to sacrifice for the cause. And he added: better violence than cowardice. Mao did not have a military caste to draw upon in the Chinese structure; the military were roving gangs, headed by “warlords”. He made his own, later organized as the People’s Liberation Army.

One changed the military, the other created a military.

Why were the goals so similar? Not because of deep culture but because of not-so-deep structure. China and India had been impoverished and pillaged by the West during the 19th century; colonizing India, imperializing China, indoctrinating themselves and many locals that it was all to their own best interest. Profit-greedy colonialism/imperialism hitched on to the upper layers of feudalism and incipient capitalism. Mao and Gandhi shared with Sun Yatsen and Rabindranat Tagore the nationalism of this is our land, not yours; but their practice embraced their firm identity with those downtrodden by feudalism.

There was a strategic element: this was the overwhelming majority of the downtrodden, the exploited serfs tilling their masters’ land for a small portion of the harvest–and in India still do. And they had similar solutions: the communes for Mao, the sarvodaya villages for Gandhi. The former were more successful than the latter, Mao changed society, Gandhi not.

Why not? For that the two deep cultures may provide an explanation. For Daoism history is an endless succession of holons and dialectics, of never ending forces/counterforces. Nothing is final. Not so in Hinduism even if finality is eons away: Hinduism has a nirvana/liberation concept where everything goes to rest; material energy converted into entropy after N reincarnations. Daoism would accept this as a holon, but immediately search for forces and counterforces–maybe some of them want to go back to material life?

The Daoism in Maoism was the permanent revolution; the nirvana in Gandhism seems to have been his “oceanic circles of sarvodaya villages”, connecting the whole world. Maoism could more easily accommodate new, or old rejuvenated, forces; Gandhism was blind to that possibility, having found the ideal waiting to be born as the real. Very Western, in a sense.

We note that Gandhism went beyond India, Maoism stopped at the borders of China. Hinduism sees itself as universal whereas China sees itself as unique, reacting strongly when movements in India and Nepal refer to themselves as “Maoist”.

Deeper down we sense another difference: the tendency to deduce the ideal from axioms. The two epistemology axioms of Daoism are about process, not about substance: for Gandhi the horizontal caste system in villages, related horizontally, was substantial. For Gandhi not force-counterforce but the unity of humans was the mantra, from which follows horizontality and circles, encompassing all; “oceanic” meaning “universal”. Not so, the Daoists would say, nothing is forever. It was not.

Common structure generated similarities in the giants; deep culture the differences. What remains from both of them is the fight against oppression-exploitation, the search for horizontality, and from Gandhi nonviolent struggle, satyagraha.

Unworthy victims: Western wars have killed four million Muslims since 1990 

Landmark research proves that the US-led ‘war on terror’ has killed as many as 2 million people, but this is a fraction of Western responsibility for deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two decades 

Nafeez Ahmed-Wednesday 8 April 2015

Last month, the Washington DC-based Physicians for Social Responsibility (PRS) released a landmark study concluding that the death toll from 10 years of the “War on Terror” since the 9/11 attacks is at least 1.3 million, and could be as high as 2 million.

The 97-page report by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning doctors’ group is the first to tally up the total number of civilian casualties from US-led counter-terrorism interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Unworthy Victims Western Wars Have Killed Four Million Muslims Since 1990 by Thavam Ratna

Iran's leader says Saudi air strikes causing genocide

Smoke billows from military barracks in the Jabal al-Jumaima mountain following an air strike near Sanaa March 30, 2015.-REUTERS/MOHAMED AL-SAYAGHI

 BY MOHAMMED MUKHASHAF- Thu Apr 9, 2015

(Reuters) - Iran’s leader on Thursday condemned the military intervention by its main regional rival Saudi Arabia in Yemen as genocide, sharply escalating Tehran’s rhetoric against the two-week-old campaign of air strikes.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saudi Arabia would not emerge victorious from the war in Yemen, where Iran-allied Houthi fighters who control the capital Sanaa have been trying to seize the southern city of Aden from local militias.

Iran has repeatedly urged a halt in the air strikes and called for dialogue in Yemen, but Khamenei’s comments are the most critical yet from Tehran about the offensive by Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies.

“The aggression by Saudi Arabia against Yemen and its innocent people was a mistake… It has set a bad precedent in the region,” Khamenei said in a televised speech.

“This is a crime and genocide that can be prosecuted in international courts… Riyadh will not emerge victorious in its aggression.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also criticised the coalition assembled by Riyadh, saying it was repeating errors committed in other parts of the Arab world where Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran back rival sides.

They were speaking a day after Iran said it was sending two warships to sea off Yemen and a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition repeated Riyadh’s accusations – denied by Iran – that it has trained and equipped the Shi'ite Houthi forces.

Iran summoned the Saudi charge d'affaires in Tehran in response to those “baseless accusations”, IRNA news agency said.

Relentless air strikes have not stopped the Houthis, backed by soldiers loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, from advancing into central Aden.

Saudi Arabia says the military campaign aims at curbing the Houthi advances and restoring President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled Aden two weeks ago, so U.N.-brokered political negotiations can resume.

The fighting has killed more than 600 people and displaced more than 100,000, according to the United Nations. Aid workers have warned of a looming humanitarian catastrophe.

HOUTHI ADVANCE

Houthi fighters and troops loyal to Saleh entered the provincial capital of the mainly Sunni Muslim Shabwa province in eastern Yemen on Thursday, residents said.

Local tribal chiefs and security officials facilitated the entry of the Houthi forces to Ataq, where they took control of local government buildings and security forces compounds, according to residents.

It was the first time the Houthis, from the Zaidi branch of Shi'ite Islam, and forces loyal to Saleh had entered the city, where the fiercely Sunni Muslim Awlaki tribe comes from.

The takeover brings them closer to Yemen’s most prized economic asset, the Belhaf gas facility and export terminal, on the Arabian Sea about 160 km (100 miles) to the southeast.

Earlier in the day, residents of al-Siddah district in central Yemen said they woke to find al Qaeda flags flying over local government offices.

They said a group of al Qaeda militants led by a local commander known as Ma'moun Hatem, took over the district at night. Residents said the Houthis, who had been in control of the town for more than two months, retreated without a fight.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the most active branches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden, has exploited the security vacuum to entrench itself further in the country’s remote eastern reaches.

Last week, AQAP captured the eastern port city of Mukalla. Residents said tribal fighters were deployed to push AQAP out, but that parts of the city were still under AQAP control.

The Houthis, who captured Sanaa in September, have said their advance beyond the Yemeni capital is aimed at fighting al Qaeda.

Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition struck military targets and weapons stores near the capital under Houthi control, as well as northern areas near the border with Saudi Arabia and in Yemen’s south, local officials said on Thursday.

They also dropped military supplies to tribal fighters allied to Hadi in the Radfan area, north of Aden, local officials said.

Aid agencies tried to fly emergency supplies into the country, already one of the poorest in the Arab world, but the logistics needed to fly planes into a war zone have delayed them.

Two boats docked in Aden on Wednesday, carrying 2.5 tonnes of medicines and teams of surgeons from the International Committee of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The Red Cross and United Nations children’s agency UNICEF were trying to fly aid shipments into Sanaa on Thursday.

UNICEF has warned that rates of acute malnutrition in children could soar in coming weeks and threaten the lives of more than a quarter of a million children in Yemen.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Cairo, Parisa Hafezi in Ankara and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Dominic Evans and Sami Aboudi; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

US, Russian war games rekindle Cold War tensions

A U.S. military fighter jet participates in a NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission practice mission in a training area near Tallinn, Estonia, on Wednesday, April 8, 2015. Russia is so close that the fighter pilots can see it on the horizon as they swoop down for training during a four-week exercise in the Baltic region.

MINDAUGAS KULBIS/AP

By Jari Tanner and David Keyton -The Associated Press-Published: April 9, 2015

The simulated bombs release smoke on impact, but the M-61 cannon fires live ammunition, rattling the aircraft with a deafening tremor and shattering targets on the ground.AMARI AIR BASE, Estonia — Russia is so close that the F-16 fighter pilots can see it on the horizon as they swoop down over a training range in Estonia in the biggest ever show of U.S. air power in the Baltic countries.

The four-week drill is part of a string of non-stop exercises by U.S. land, sea and air forces in Europe — from Estonia in the north to Bulgaria in the south — scaled up since last year to reassure nervous NATO allies after Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. U.S. and Russian forces are now essentially back in a Cold War-style standoff, flexing their muscles along NATO's eastern flank.

The saber-rattling raises the specter that either side could misinterpret a move by the other, triggering a conflict between two powers with major nuclear arsenals despite a sharp reduction from the Cold War era.

"A dangerous game of military brinkmanship is now being played in Europe," said Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network, a London-based think-tank. "If one commander or one pilot makes a mistake or a bad decision in this situation, we may have casualties and a high-stakes cycle of escalation that is difficult to stop."

With memories of five decades of Soviet occupation still fresh, many in the Baltic countries find the presence of U.S. forces a comfort rather than a risk.

In recent months, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have seen hundreds of U.S. armored vehicles, tanks and helicopters arrive on their soil. With a combined population of just over 6 million, tiny armies and no combat aircraft or vehicles, the last time tanks rumbled through their streets was just over 20 years ago, when remnants of the Soviet army pulled out of the region.

The commander of Estonia's tiny air force, Col. Jaak Tarien, described the roar of American F-16s taking off from Amari — a former Soviet air base — as "the sound of freedom."

Normally based in Aviano, Italy, 14 fighter jets and about 300 personnel from the 510th Fighter Squadron are training together with the Estonians — but also the Swedish and Finnish air forces. Meanwhile, Spain's air force is in charge of NATO's rotating air patrols over the Baltic countries.

"A month-long air exercise with a full F-16 squadron and, at the same time, a Spanish detachment doing air policing; that is unprecedented in the Baltics," said Tarien, who studied at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

In Moscow the U.S. Air Force drills just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the Russian border are seen in a different light.

"It takes F-16 fighters just a few minutes to reach St. Petersburg," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said, referring to the major Russian port city on the Baltic Sea. He expressed concern that the ongoing exercise could herald plans to "permanently deploy strike aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons at the Russian border."

Moscow also says the U.S. decision to deploy armored vehicles in Eastern Europe violates an earlier agreement between Russia and NATO.

American officials say their troop deployments are on a rotational basis.

Russia has substantially increased its own military activity in the Baltic Sea region over the past year, prompting complaints of airspace violations in Estonia, Finland and Sweden, and staged large maneuvers near the borders of Estonia and Latvia.

"Russia is threatening nearly everybody; it is their way," said Mac Thornberry, the Republican chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, during a recent visit to Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

"They want to intimidate the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine and Romania, country after country. And the question is, do you let the bully get away with that or do you stand up and say 'no, you can threaten, but we will not allow you to run over us,'" Thornberry said.

The Pentagon has said that some 3,000 U.S. troops will be conducting training exercises in Eastern Europe this year. That's a small number compared to the hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops that have been withdrawn from Europe since the days when the Iron Curtain divided the continent. But the fact that they are carrying out exercises in what used to be Moscow's backyard makes it all the more sensitive; the Kremlin sees NATO's eastward expansion as a top security threat.

During a symbolic visit to Estonia in September, U.S. President Barack Obama said that the defense of the Baltic capitals of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius is just as important as defending Berlin, Paris and London — a statement warmly received in Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million and with a mere 5,500 soldiers on active duty.

Welcoming the U.S. fighter squadron to Estonia, U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey D. Levine said the air drill was needed "to deter any power that might question our commitment to Article 5" — NATO's key principle of collective defense of its members.

On Wednesday, The Associated Press observed bombing and strafing drills at the Tapa training ground both from the ground and from the back seat of one of the two F-16s taking part.

On board the fighter jet, the pull of the G-force was excruciating as the pilot swooped down onto his target before brutally ascending to circle the range.

After dropping six practice bombs each, the two jets returned to Amari air base, flying so low over the flat Estonian countryside that they frequently had to gain altitude to avoid radio towers.

On the ground, Lt. Col. Christopher Austin, commander of the 510th Squadron, dismissed the risk of his pilots making any rash moves that could provoke a reaction from the Russians.

"We stay far enough away so that we don't have to worry about any (border) zones or anything like that," he said. "We don't even think about it."

___

AP reporters John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, contributed to this report.
 

Playing the Putin Card

What’s behind the Greek prime minister’s dalliance with Moscow?

BY DIMITAR BECHEV-APRIL 8, 2015

Greeks have bequeathed much to the vocabulary of politics, from “democracy” to “drama” to “hubris.” Also “Trojan horse.”

The image of the Trojans succumbing to cunning and deceit haunts diplomats and pundits today as they follow the Greek government’s overtures to Russia. Many fear that the coalition in Athens is edging dangerously close to the Kremlin in pursuit of narrowly defined self-interest. While Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras argues that Western sanctions on Russia are “a road to nowhere,” his flirtation with Moscow raises the specter of the European Union’s common front being sabotaged from within.

Playing the Putin Card.odt by Thavam Ratna

Three killed as gunman opens fire in Italian court

Suspect in shooting at Milan’s Palace of Justice arrested after fleeing scene on motorbike

Women rush out of the court building in Milan. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP

Damien Gayle and agencies in Milan-Thursday 9 April 2015

A defendant in a bankruptcy trial opened fire in a Milan court on Thursday morning, killing a lawyer, a co-defendant and a judge.

The suspected gunman, named in Italian media as Claudio Giardiello, was arrested after fleeing the Palace of Justice on a motorbike on Thursday morning.

Police scoured the building for the suspect as officials and staff barricaded themselves inside their offices. He escaped but was arrested in Vimercate, 16 miles from Milan.

Italy’s interior minister, Angelino Alfano, confirmed the arrest of the “presumed assassin” in a tweet, and said the suspect was being held in police custody.

One of the dead was named as Fernando Ciampi, a judge who worked in the civil section of the bankruptcy court. Lorenzo Alberto Claris Appiani, a lawyer, and Giardiello’s co-defendant, Giorgio Erba, were also killed, Italian media reported.

Itay’s ANSA news agency reported that a fourth person had died but there were no signs they had been hit by a bullet, and may have had a heart attack during the incident. Another co-defendant and relative of Giardiello, Davide Limongelli, was reportedly injured.

Italian media said the gunman had opened fire on the third floor of the Palace of Justice, where he was on trial over the collapse of a business of which he was the majority shareholder.

A fight reportedly began in the courtroom during the cross-examination, at which point Giardiello is alleged to have pulled out a gun, killing Appiani and seriously wounding Erba.

He is said to have then fled the room and made his way to Ciampi’s office and fired again, killing the judge instantly. The newspaper La Repubblica said the gunman had remained hidden in the courthouse for more than an hour as armed police sealed off all exits and combed the building. He managed to leave the building and escape by motorcycle.

A lawyer, Marcello Ilia, told Agence France-Presse outside the court: “All of a sudden we heard at least three or four shots. We tried to find out what was going on. There were suddenly lots of police officers who told us not to leave the room, they shut us in.

“After a few minutes we came out. They told us someone in a suit and tie was armed and at large in the court.”

It was unclear how the gunman gained entrance, as visitors to the building have to pass through metal detectors. One theory is that he was waved through into the building with his lawyer, as officials do not have to comply with the stringent measures.

Gherardo Colombo, a judge, told journalists outside the court that he was “dazed and shocked” by the shootout. “I knew Judge Ciampi personally, it’s absurd that one can die like that, while you’re doing your job,” he said, suggesting “an anti-judiciary climate” may be to blame.

The Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, criticised the security breach that had apparently enabled the suspect to enter the court with a gun.

“The security systems of our country depend on women and men who are capable of heroism, but oversight cannot be allowed to have holes and breaches such as those which there were at the court in Milan. It must be established who messed up, how and why. Something did not work,” ANSA quoted him as saying.

Regional authorities were shocked that anyone had managed to get into the court building with a gun. “It’s disturbing that just anyone can get into the Palace of Justice armed,” said the head of the Lombardy region, Roberto Maroni.

“The fact that we’re not talking about an organisation which surveyed the place first makes it even more perturbing,” he said.

The Palace of Justice is in the historic centre of Milan, only a few streets away from the city’s cathedral and shopping district.

Lee Kuan Yew death hoaxes and the brilliance of one student’s satire

Doctored image showing Lee Kuan Yew’s tombstone during a birthday celebration. Pic: TRS.

By Carlton Tan Apr 09, 2015 5:35AM UTC

Z is the male student, below 16, who successfully fooled many Singaporeans and two news agencies, CNN and CCTV, into believing that Lee Kuan Yew had died when he hadn’t (yet). For his alleged crime, the police cited a law meant for hackers. If Z had been convicted, it was then suggested by the government-linked media he could face up to 10 years of imprisonment. This was an absurd penalty for something as innocuous as telling people a public figure had died; and perhaps it was meant to send Singaporeans the message that the state means business, especially when it comes to the one who put the “p” in patriarchy.

As it turns out, Z didn’t hack into anything. All he did was photoshop an old announcement and share the image on Facebook. Thus the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) couldn’t prosecute him for hacking and they let Z off with a stern warning.

Why did Z create a death hoax then? The AGC tells us that he wanted to show his friends how easy it was to create one. It was his way of satirizing those who had been spreading rumours about Lee’s death and I think it worked, although perhaps a little too well.

C is for Context

Ever since Lee was hospitalised for severe pneumonia, rumours about his death had been swirling on social media — on Facebook, on Twitter and on the Hardwarezone forums. There was even an amateurishly photoshopped image which sets a tombstone with his picture on it in the middle of a birthday celebration (see image above).

But the funny thing is, despite the lack of verification from the mainstream media and from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), many people believed these rumours and were outraged when they realized they’ve been had. In fact, so many people were fooled that the PMO had to issue a statement clarifying that Lee was still alive.

Reprehensible as spreading rumours is, people should really have known better. The doctored images were obviously faked; there had been no official confirmation; and anyone familiar with social media should have known better than to trust everything they read on it.

Lee Kuan Yew death hoax by Z. Pic: TOC.

A brilliant satire?

Then on March 18, frustrated with the rumours, Z had a brilliant idea — if you really want to perpetuate a hoax, at least do it right. So he showed his friends how by doctoring a screengrab from the PMO’s website, making a statement of Mrs Lee’s death look like a statement of Mr Lee’s death. All he did was change the name and the date, and he had a far better hoax than the ones that came before.

After he released it, he informed his friends that it wasn’t real. Clearly, he didn’t intend to deceive the public. What was his point then? I think Z meant to ridicule both those responsible for spreading the rumours and those gullible enough to believe them.

The doctored image was a form of satire. It was as if to say to those responsible for spreading false rumours: If you really want to deceive people, at least do it right; if you’re going to be an unethical person, at least don’t be an unprofessional one as well.

And to the gullible ones: Here’s what a real hoax looks like — a screengrab of an official statement. At least this one is believable. The others are absolute crap and you have only yourself to blame for believing rumours that don’t even appear credible.

I find this quite brilliant actually. Z succeeded where no number of PMO statements would have. He showed people just how important it is to rely on official sources for information and silenced the wannabe hoaxers. Because of Z’s photoshopped image, CNN and CCTV were fooled and humiliated, and many of us eventually got the message: It’s easy to make fake news look real. To get to the truth, go to official sources for information.

The Government isn’t amused though

This is how satire works. It provokes us into challenging assumptions that we have, up to now, been blind to. It ridicules our beliefs to suggest how they may be flawed. Offensiveness is thus an integral part of satire — it is what makes it so powerful. Of course, not all satire is appropriate, and satire isn’t always useful. Much depends on what the society is like and how willing it is to accept satire as a necessary component of the free flow of idea. As for Singaporeans, I think we have a higher threshold of tolerance than the Government gives us credit for.

Regardless, the AGC’s decision to drop the case shouldn’t be taken as an indication of the Government’s willingness to treat satire as a separate class of speech deserving of greater protection than other types of speech. There is no hint of it in the AGC’s press release. In fact, the AGC gave Z a stern warning.

Presumably then, the AGC chose not to prosecute, not because the Government had suddenly changed its mind on the necessity of satire, but because it had no case against Z. There was no proof of malicious intent, no proof that he was responsible for spreading the doctored image outside of his social circle, and strong evidence to show that he had tried his best to clarify that the photo was a fake. Therefore, it is likely that if the AGC had tried the case, it would have lost — even though the judiciary leans heavily against freedom of speech and highly values competing interests such as public order.

Moreover, the PMO’s inability to state clearly whether it had been hacked or not, immediately after the spread of Z’s hoax, was also highly embarrassing. It suggested that the Government lacked a reliable intrusion detection system (a cybersecurity tool) and therefore couldn’t say with confidence whether or not its website had been hacked.

In other words, I doubt the Government was amused, but that just adds to the brilliance of Z’s satirical death hoax.

UN: A World Forum of Bystanders

Syrian Family after the regime air bombed their home/

The Middle East Tribune

APRIL 7, 2015

Fourteen month after the end of the First World War, the League of Nations (LN) was founded on January 1920 to maintain world order, guarantee peace and security, adjudicate international disputes, resolve conflicts, promote global health, and so forth. Nevertheless, history shows that failure of League of Nations to fulfill its mission was one of the crucial factors that fueled World War II. This actuality, however, was somewhat dissented on the basis that the first international organization had neither the authority nor the means to command and enforce, which made it a flimsy association of state representatives.

UN a World Forum of Bystanders by Thavam Ratna

Slavery and the roots of racism

In the first article in a series on slavery and the Civil War, Lance Selfa looks at the origins of forced labor in the Americas and the ideology of racism it gave rise to.

April 9, 2015

A slave with scars from whipping

APRIL 9 marks the 150th anniversary of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender to the Union Army's Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, ending the American Civil War.

Earlier that day, Lee had tried to fight his way out of a cordon of Union forces, in which the Northern forces--including several regiments of the all-Black U.S. Colored Troops--outnumbered his army six to one. Seeing the futility of carrying on the war, Lee decided to sue for peace.

Slavery and the Roots of Racism by Thavam Ratna

Are Your Diabetes Drugs Killing You? Use This 2 Juice to Reverse it Naturally

Are Your Diabetes Drugs Killing You? Use This 2 Juice to Reverse it Naturally

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Admin

9.3% Americans, or 29.1 million people, have diabetes, and this number grows as we speak. This is a delight for Big Pharma, which, just in 2011 – 2012, netted $14.2 billion in revenue from this disease.

While millions of people across the world rely on drugs to control their diabetes, it turns out that these drugs may actually be doing more harm than good, particularly in people older than 50.

Many doctors and patients prefer to use diabetes drugs because, in reality, it’s much easier than to change their diet. People don’t want to give up sugar and crackers even though they damage their health. And it’s not because they don’t have any willpower, but because those foods are as addictive as cocaine and heroin.

New evidence suggests that it is more important than ever to break the junk food addiction and stop relying on Big Pharma’s products.

According to a study conducted by the University College London, The University of Michigan, and Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Hospital, for many people the benefits of taking diabetes medications are so small that they are outweighed by the minor harms and risks associated with treatment. The benefits of treatment decline with age and by age 75 the harms of most treatments are likely to outweigh any potential benefits.

Here are recipes for two juices that will help reverse Type 2 diabetes in one week.

1. Spinach and Celery Juice

Ingredients:
3 handfuls of spinach
1 green apple
1 cucumber (optional)
2 celery stalks with leaves
1 carrot
Directions:
Wash the ingredients, and peel the carrot and the green apple (remove the apple seeds). Juice all of the ingredients.

Spinach contains calcium, beta carotene, vitamins A and C, which are very beneficial for the health. Celery is rich in potassium and magnesium which prevent and treat high blood pressure. Celery contains sodium and minerals which regulate blood pressure. Green apples contain mallic acid which brings down the sugar level.

2. Grape and Orange juice

Ingredients:

1/2 cup fresh black grapes juice
3/4 cup finely chopped apples
1 cup finely chopped orange
4 tsp sugar substitute
2 tsp lemon juice
2 bottles soda

Directions:Combine the grape juice, oranges, apples, the sugar substitute and the lemon juice in a mixer and blend till smooth. Then divide the mixture equally into 4 individual glasses. Pour ½ bottle of soda in each glass. Drink immediately.

Grapes are rich in antioxidants, cancer-fighting flavonoids and vitamin C. The apples and oranges, besides being very healthy, make this drink very tasty.

Sourced: livingtraditionally