Chathurika Commences Kite-Flying By Flying Kites

October 17, 2015 

Chathurika Sirisena who went in to hiding without even providing an explanation for her previous public stuntswhen using public servants and police officials to accompany her on her personal campaigns recommenced her operations by taking part at the Sri Lanka National Kite Festival held at Galle Face Green on the 11th of October 2015.

Subsequently on the following day President Maithripala Sirisena’s daughter Chathu was invited by Ranavali Balika Vidyalaya in Gampaha, as the chief guest where the girl’s school celebrated World Teachers and World Children’s day. Chathu was incidentally a past pupil of the school.

On both occasions Chathurika was once again provided with Presidential Security Division officers to attend these privately invited functions.

Besides many PSD officers accompanying her on both visits, the same lady PSD officer was seen wearing a green shirt and black trousers at the kite festival and white shirt and black trousers at the school event.

Coincidentally the term ‘Kite-Flying’ is a practice used by politicians to test the media response prior to embarking on a project.

Chathrurika the aspiring politician could not have chosen a better event to recommence her private campaign.

President Maithripala Sirisena’s daughter Chathu received muck flak earlier, when she visited villages in the Polonnaruwa District accompanied by government servants and police officers when she went on a private fact finding mission to listen to the grievances of the common man. She was televised during these visits, explaining to the people that she had not brought all these government servants on a false pretext but rather to share her dad’s dreams and future plans to the rural folk.

President Sirisena’s popularity took a nosedive as recent as last month, when he took his son Daham Sirisena to the United Nations General Assembly in the United States of America and was made to sit with all state dignitaries during sessions.

At this event it was reported that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga had the rare opportunity of shaking Daham Sirisena’s hand.

Strangely even the President’s Media Unit attempted to cover this up by photo shopping out the young Sirisena in their official press releases.

During the Presidential Election campaign earlier, President Sirisena publicly announced that one of the main reasons he was breaking away from the previous Rajapaksa regime was due to family nepotism.

However barely two weeks after being sworn in as President, he went on to appoint his brother Kumarasinghe Sirisena as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom.

“Many of those who voted President Sirisena into power, felt deceived by this no sooner he assumed office. Now his children Chathurika and Daham have begun exploiting their daddy’s presidential powers” said a political activist.                                                                   Read More

We take loans to dig wells; Army colonels have swimming pools at their homes – policemen

Oct 17, 2015

“We take loans from everywhere possible, build a house and think how to dig a well, but certain colonels of the Army have swimming pools in the third floors of their homes. We do not think even the Army commander can have such luxury with his salary. But, colonels claiming to be of the intelligence unit earned in that manner,” several police department officers carrying out investigations told ‘Lanka News Web.’

The reason for their having said so was after what was revealed during an inspection of the Athurugiriya home of Col. Shammi Kumara Ratnayake, who is being detained in connection with the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda. They stressed that the bribery commission should immediately start investigations as to how he had earned that much money.

A Tamil businessman loyal to the former Rajapaksa regime has revealed to the CID that this colonel had met him during the last presidential election and demanded Rs. 15 million to get Tamils to boycott the election.

Customs bribe:Three remanded, two more to be arrested soon 

October 16, 2015, 9:25 pm 

(L-R) Customs Superintendent Sudeera Parakrama Jinadasa, Assistant Superintendent Upali Gunaratne and Deputy Superintendent Jagath Gunathilaka being brought to court yesterday.(Pic by Kamal Bogoda)

by Madura Ranwala

The Colombo Chief Magistrate yesterday remanded till Oct. 30 the three Customs officers arrested for accepting a bribe of Rs. 125 mn from a supplier of spare parts to Sri Lanka Transport Board on Monday (Oct. 15).

The suspects remanded are  Customs Superintendent Sudeera Parakrama Jinadasa, Assistant Superintendent Upali Gunaratne and Deputy Superintendent Jagath Gunathilaka

Director General of CIABOC and President’s Counsel Dilrukshi Dias Wickremesinghe told media yesterday that they would continue operations to nab top people who were involved in bribery and corruption including politicians.

It was the biggest ever raid in the history of the Commission and it had been a difficult task until the last moment, she told The Island on Monday.

She said the operation had been planned for over three weeks and she was happy that it had yielded the desired results.

At the media briefing held at CIABOC on Baudhaloka Mawatha, she thanked the police officers, her staff and others who had cooperated to make it a success.

The CIABOC Director General told The Island yesterday that her officers would arrest two more Customs officers soon.

"They will be arrested in connection with the same offence," she said.

Asked whether they were officials above the rank of the arrested trio, she withheld comment citing that the law did not allow her to reveal that.

She said that the duo had not accompanied the arrested trio on that day, though they were involved in the offence.

The enablers of Israeli terrorism

Palestinian youths confront Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on 6 October.

Muhannad SaleemActiveStills

Michael Lesher- 15 October 2015
“These attacks,” intoned a pro-Nazi Protestant minister as he bewailed the killing of Germans during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, “were unprovoked attempts to murder innocent civilians, or police or soldiers who were trying to maintain peace and order.”

The Enablers of Israeli Terrorism by Thavam Ratna

Settlers and Palestinians clash in Hebron

Palestinians say that they suffer daily attacks from settlers 
As part of the Oslo Accords in 1995, settlers and Palestinians in Hebron live side-by-side (AFP) 

Silvia Boarini-Saturday 17 October 2015 20:15 UTC

HEBRON - Tensions ran high in the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank on Saturday, as the killing of two youths brought the Palestinian casualty count to 40 since the beginning of an on going uprising against Israeli military occupation. Another youth was also killed in Jerusalem on Saturday.

A general strike was called in Hebron to protest the two deaths. Endless rows of closed shutters lined the usually bustling streets. Hebron is the most populous city in the West Bank and is seen as the historical commercial centre of the South.

Seventeen-year-old Bayan Ayman Abd al-Hadi al-Esseili was shot by Israeli border guards after allegedly stabbing a soldier near the settlement of Kyriat Arba. Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld tweeted “Female Arab terrorist stabbed border policewoman near Hebron, border police woman injured lightly. Female terrorist shot at the scene.” Maan News reported that the soldier’s hand was lightly injured.

In an earlier incident, an Israeli settler shot and killed 18-year-old Fadel al Qawasmeh on Shuhada Street in Hebron’s Old City. Local media outlets have reported that Israeli police are investigating this second incident.

Middle East Eye spoke to eyewitnesses to this second incident who saw al Qawasmeh walking down Shuhada Street early in the morning.

“My daughter saw him from the widow,” said Mufid Sharbati, whose house looks onto the street. “She saw a settler approaching him. The settler shouted curse words at him, then took out his pistol and shot him in the head.”

Upon hearing his daughter’s screams, Sharbati run up to the roof and his brother filmed the moments following the shooting. The video, widely shared by the group Youth Against Settlements, shows soldiers approaching Qawamseh following the shooting and possibly placing something by the body, which has led to speculations of a knife being planted at the scene.

Two hours after the killing, Israeli soldiers raided the Sharbati family home, where they confiscated phones, cameras and computers.

Maan News reported that Youth Against Settlement media coordinator Ahmad Amr was held by the Israeli army for five hours following the publication of the video and he too had his video recording equipment and laptop confiscated.

Abed Sharbati, nephew of the eyewitnesses, added that after the attack, settlers set up tables on the spot where Quwamseh was killed and distributed food and drinks, “as if in celebration” Sharbati told MEE. This was still going on at the time of writing.

A different scene unfolded on the other side of the checkpoint leading to Shuhada St from the East. Palestinian youth with Keffyieh tightly wrapped around their faces clashed with Israeli soldiers. A street lined with walls blackened by smoke and fire, resounded with the boom of sound bombs thrown against the stone-wielding youth.

A boy selling boiled corn to the shebab stood with his cart in the middle of the scene.

“I am not afraid, no,” he said declining to give his name. “The guys run from the tear gas and they come here, they eat the corn and they start again,” he said laughing, highlighting the fact that in Hebron, people are used to these kinds of confrontations and tensions.

Settlers and settlements

After a focus on Jerusalem, the status quo on Temple Mount and religion, today’s incidents in Hebron, shine a light on the issue of settlements, settlers and the ongoing military occupation at the core of Palestinian discontent.

As the only city in which settlers live side-by-side with Palestinians, Hebron has been the backdrop of fierce confrontations and offers some of the worst examples of settler violence. Settlers often throw stones at Palestinian children on their way to school and most Palestinian houses in the old city have metal mesh in front of their windows.

Under the Oslo Peace Accords in 1995, Hebron was to be divided between H1, under Palestinian control, and H2 under Israeli control. The H2 area is populated by between 500 and 1,000 settlers who live under the protection of the army.

Shuhada Street runs through H2 and is now a ghost street. During the Second Intifada, the Israeli army welded shut the doors of Palestinian houses facing the street so as to protect settlers’ homes and centres nearby with more ease.

Today, the street stands as a symbol of the division in the city. To many, the killing of Fadel Qawamseh on this stretch of tarmac speaks to the injustice of the situation.

“It is as if a European country placed a group of neo-nazis to live in a Jewish neighbourhood,” Hisham Sharbati, an activist with the Hebron Defence Committee, told MEE, “it would be an outright provocation”.

In Hebron, settler attacks happen daily, according to Abed Sharbati. “If you talk about verbal abuse, harassment, being spat at, stone throwing or physical violence, yes, these attacks happen basically on a daily basis,” he told MEE.

“We are afraid, of course, often we can’t leave the house because of the settlers. Take now, they are outside and there are many of them, so to keep safe, we stay in,” he added.

Institutionalised violence

Shawan Jabareen of the Ramallah-based human rights NGO Al Haq, told MEE that “settlers terrorise Palestinians”, and their attacks “aim to expel Palestinians from whole areas by making their life impossible so that land becomes available for more settlement use”.

Jabareen believes it is important to stress that settler violence is institutionalised. “Settlers feel they can get away with impunity and this encourages them to continue attacks,” he added.

Although Israeli police has vowed to investigate Saturday’s killing, Sharabati expects little will come from the investigation. As a recent report published by Yesh Din on the subject highlighted, cases of settler violence against Palestinians are usually closed for lack of evidence and only very rarely lead to convictions.

No protection

“We can’t protect our kids, the settlers have an army, the police, and state institutions behind them, but we are left to our own devices,” he said. The killings of Palestinians and Israelis and the often-graphic videos posted on social media, mean that even the family home can offer little protection to children.

“These days, we only talk about the killings, the arrests, the violence. My kids are more informed than me. My 14-year-old is constantly asking me, how many martyrs today? And when the news comes on and they show the latest killing, the kids tell me, oh we saw that video already.”

It is in this helpless context that the PLO has repeatedly demanded UN protection for its people but, as Al Jazeera reported, a Security Council meeting proposed by Jordan to discuss escalating violence in Israel and the occupied territories, concluded on Friday with Israel’s refusal to approve a UN presence, which, it fears, “would affect the status quo”.

One man’s escape from the Islamic State-ruled city of Mosul

An Islamic State militant distributes gifts to students at a school in Mosul, Iraq, in January. (Militant Web site via AP)

By Loveday Morris-October 17

BAGHDAD — For civilians leaving the Islamic State-ruled city of Mosul, doing so can be deadly.

Residents say the northern Iraqi city has effectively become a prison since the militants seized it in June 2014. The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, once a drive of about six hours down the highway, may as well be a foreign country.

One man’s story of escape sheds light on just how hard it has become to get out. In the end, the man — a former taxi driver in his late 20s — relied on smugglers to cross through Syria to Turkey to fly back to Baghdad, a 1,500-mile journey to get to a place just 250 miles away.

Such smuggling routes have become the only way out for those trapped in Mosul, the capital of Islamic State’s territory in Iraq. As a growing number of Iraqis and hundreds of thousands of Syrians flee to Europe, the Islamic State is attempting to prevent an exodus from its territory by tightening controls and releasing videos disparaging those who leave. Economic crisis in its cities after the government cut off salary payments has also spurred desperate civilians to try and get out.

[Mosul commander was on vacation despite warnings of attack, report says]

 

Keeping civilians in its territory, however, is imperative for the group, which draws considerable revenue from taxing them. As well as generating income, the civilians could be used as human shields in the case of any assault, while their departure tears at the group’s narrative that its self-proclaimed caliphate is a haven for the world’s Muslims.

Residents used to be granted permission to leave for medical or business reasons, but that is now rare, they say. Some, mostly elderly residents were allow to leave on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last month, on the condition they left the deeds to their properties as a guarantee, but attempting to leave without permission can result in execution, residents said.

But many have risked it anyway.

Life in Mosul had become intolerable, the taxi driver said. Public punishments take place regularly. People suspected of being gay are thrown off buildings. The hands of accused thieves are cut off and adulterers stoned. Smokers are lashed.

“I was fed up,” he explained, speaking on the condition that his name not be used because his family remains in Mosul, and he fears they could be punished if the Islamic State finds out he has left. “You feel nervous all the time, there are so many rules.”

 

[In the Islamic State ‘caliphate,’ daily life is laden with fear and brutality]

Since the government stopped paying state employees in Mosul this year, one of the few sources of income for civilians has dried up. Teachers and doctors who remain are forced to keep working but are no longer paid. Jobs are hard to come by, and the price of basic goods has climbed. Meanwhile, the Islamic State’s rule has become gradually more oppressive.

 

“It’s a big prison now,” said Suha Oda, a Mosul activist. She described the cutting of salaries as a “death blow” to the civilians left in the city, who have long given up hope of an offensive to free Mosul in the near future.

“They feel like the government has abandoned them,” she said.

She said recently a friend and her husband and child were caught trying to leave. “They were sold out by the driver that they’d paid to get them out,” she said.

The family was detained and is now back in their home in Mosul but fear they will be further punished. A couple who tried to leave a month earlier were not so lucky and were executed, she said.

The taxi driver said he had wanted to leave earlier but had stayed to look after a sick relative. He then heard that a friend of a friend had a relative in the Islamic State who was taking money on the side to get people out. He paid just under $1,000, putting himself in the hands of a chain of smugglers with little idea of where he would be taken.

“It wasn’t easy, because if they found out I was planning to leave, I would be killed,” he said. “If I sought out the wrong man or someone informed on me, I’d be taken immediately to be executed. It’s forbidden to leave Islamic State territory for infidel territory.”

As a member of the Islamic State, his smuggler could easily navigate checkpoints. There were initially three people who were trying to leave in the group. But when they reached a safe house outside of Mosul, two other families joined and the number grew to around 11.

After five nights there, they were smuggled to Syria, through Raqqa, the Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold.

“We didn’t know where we were. It was my first time outside of Iraq,” he said.

But traversing Syria is one of the only ways out. Earlier in the summer, one of his relatives had left by road to Baghdad through Iraq’s western province of Anbar, but that route involves crossing active front lines, and residents say they also fear running into Shiite militias on the way.

“It’s dangerous, you’re on open land, there’s bombing, many people get killed that way,” he said.

[Women in the Islamic State: ‘Till martyrdom do us part’]

After leaving Raqqa, he was passed onto a new set of smugglers to get him over the Syrian border into Turkey, by which time the group he was with had swelled to 50 — mostly Syrians desperate to leave. The first time they attempted to cross, they were stopped by Turkish authorities and turned back.

The second time, following in the footsteps of their smuggler through a minefield, they managed to make it over. It had taken him eight days to get to Turkey. He then traveled to Ankara to turn himself in at the Iraqi Consulate, but it took him more than a month to get the papers to fly. They gave him a “very hard time,” he said.

Iraqi Sunnis from Mosul complain of widespread discrimination by state authorities, which view them with suspicion.

When he finally arrived in Baghdad late last month, he was immediately arrested. He was detained for eight days and charged with illegally leaving the country before being bailed out.

“To get to my homeland after all that and be arrested,” he said. “It’s like they don’t see us as Iraqi.”

Read more:

New U.N. report says world’s refugee crisis is worse than anyone expected

The unbelievable damage Islamic State has done to ancient sites in Iraq and Syria

 

Loveday Morris is The Post's Baghdad bureau chief. She joined The Post in 2013 as a Beirut-based correspondent. She has previously covered the Middle East for The National, based in Abu Dhabi, and for the Independent, based in London and Beirut.

Turkey would shoot down planes violating its air space - PM

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu talks during an interview with Reuters in Istanbul, Turkey, October 14, 2015.

 Sat Oct 17, 2015

Turkey would not hesitate to shoot down planes violating its air space, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday, a day after the NATO member shot down an unidentified drone near its border with Syria.

Syrian, Russian and U.S. coalition aircraft are flying combat missions near Turkey's borders as part of the Syrian civil war. The drone incident highlights the danger that Turkey, with the second largest army in NATO, could be drawn into a military confrontation.

Turkey had already complained of Russian warplanes violating its air apace along the border with Syria earlier this month.

"We downed a drone yesterday. If it was a plane we'd do the same. Our rules of engagement are known. Whoever violates our borders, we will give them the necessary answer," Davutoglu told a rally of his ruling AK Party in the central city of Kayseri.

Turkey is still investigating where the drone came from.

A U.S. official said on Friday Washington believed it was of Russian origin, but the Russian defence ministry said all of its planes in Syria had safely returned to base and that all its drones were operating "as planned".

The Turkish military said it shot down the unmanned aircraft after it continued on its course despite three warnings, in line with its rules of engagement. Broadcaster NTV said it had come 3 km (2 miles) into Turkish air space.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday it had established direct contact with the Turkish military to avoid incidents with flights near the border, Interfax news agency reported.

(Reporting by Asli Kandemir; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

The Drone Papers: The Assassination Complex

Washington’s failure to react to the Russian strongman has Mideast powers doubting U.S. relevance like never before.

by Jeremy Scahill

From his first days as commander in chief, the drone has been President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice, used by the military and the CIA to hunt down and kill the people his administration has deemed — through secretive processes, without indictment or trial — worthy of execution. There has been intense focus on the technology of remote killing, but that often serves as a surrogate for what should be a broader examination of the state’s power over life and death.

( October 16, 2015, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) DRONES ARE A TOOL, not a policy. The policy is assassination. While every president since Gerald Ford has upheld an executive order banning assassinations by U.S. personnel, Congress has avoided legislating the issue or even defining the word “assassination.” This has allowed proponents of the drone wars to rebrand assassinations with more palatable characterizations, such as the term du jour, “targeted killings.”

When the Obama administration has discussed drone strikes publicly, it has offered assurances that such operations are a more precise alternative to boots on the ground and are authorized only when an “imminent” threat is present and there is “near certainty” that the intended target will be eliminated. Those terms, however, appear to have been bluntly redefined to bear almost no resemblance to their commonly understood meanings.

The first drone strike outside of a declared war zone was conducted more than 12 years ago, yet it was not until May 2013 that the White House released a set of standards and procedures for conducting such strikes. Those guidelines offered little specificity, asserting that the U.S. would only conduct a lethal strike outside of an “area of active hostilities” if a target represents a “continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons,” without providing any sense of the internal process used to determine whether a suspect should be killed without being indicted or tried. The implicit message on drone strikes from the Obama administration has been one of trust, but don’t verify.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE DRONE PAPERS

With Putin in Syria, Allies Question Obama’s Resolve

Washington’s failure to react to the Russian strongman has Mideast powers doubting U.S. relevance like never before.

BY DAN DE LUCE-OCTOBER 16, 2015

When Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman visited Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea estate in Sochi this month to talk about Syria, the moment illustrated how much the Middle East’s power dynamics have changed in just a few weeks — and how the Russian president is looking to take the mantle of regional kingmaker away from U.S. President Barack Obama.

With Putin in Syria, Allies Question Obama’s Resolve by Thavam Ratna

Canada election: will anti-Harper sentiment be enough to bring progressives to power?

Polling suggests Stephen Harper could lose to Justin Trudeau, but as Canadians prepare to vote on 19 October, recent election upsets in the UK and Israel have taught observers to take polls with a grain of salt

The candidates: from left, Justin Trudeau, the Liberal Party of Canada; Thomas ‘Tom’ Mulcair, the New Democratic Party; and Conservative leader Stephen Harper during a debate in September. Photograph: Bloomberg/via Getty Images

Nicky Woolf in Ajax andJessica Murphy in Ottawa-Saturday 17 October 2015

Highway 401 runs east, from the Toronto area toward the outer suburb of Ajax. Along the roadside the trees have turned with the season, to red, orange and gold.

Greater Toronto covers across an area almost the size of Delaware. It contains almost a sixth of Canada’s population, and a fifth of its immigrants. Its sprawling suburbs were the site of some of the Conservative party’s biggest victories – and the Liberals’ biggest defeats – in Canada’s last general election, when current prime minister Stephen Harper won outright majority for the Conservatives.

Canada Election Will Anti-Harper Sentiment Be Enough to Bring Progressives to Power by Thavam Ratna

Climate Disaster Hammers Ethiopia



Despite claiming double-digit economic growth largely based on its agriculture industry, the Ethiopian regime is now calling for international assistance to help feed 8.2 million of its citizens. 


Climate Disaster Hammers Ethiopia 

By Thomas Mountain-Oct 16, 2015

This year the rains failed in southern Ethiopia and some 25% of a country of 90 million people are facing acute food shortages in the coming months. This climate disaster, brought on mainly by western
industries damage to the environment, has left the Ethiopian government quietly begging the international community for a preliminary food aid package worth $500 million, desperately need to start feeding over 7 million people.

Wait a minute. Didn’t the World Bank just anoint Ethiopia with the title of the worlds fastest growing economy and not just for 2015, but for 2016 and 2017 as well? Get this now, Ethiopia is the worlds
fastest growing economy yet it needs half a billion dollar$ in emergency food aid to keep millions of its people from starving?

When you fight your way through all the smokescreens thrown up in self defense by the international financial banksters you finally find that Ethiopia is expecting a total net export income of $3 billion this year, depending much on the price of coffee, for the sacred brew and cut flowers make up most of Ethiopian export income.

$3 billion dollars a year is all that Ethiopia actually creates, and this to run a country of 90 million?

The bottom line is Ethiopia’s “wealth” is almost entirely in the form of foreign aid/investments, something that can disappear even faster than it arrived.

On top of all this Ethiopia has the largest best equipped army in Africa including advanced missile systems which it used to attack the Eritrean town of Dekamhare early this year.

Ethiopia has hundreds of thousands of troops on the Eritrean border including occupying Eritrean territory. Ethiopia also has tens of thousands of troops on the border with Somalia or in Somalia itself.

Ethiopia is fighting an insurgency in the south east, the Ogaden. Ethiopia carrys out counterinsurgency activities in the west in Gambella, home to some 1 billion barrels of oil reserves. And of course, Ethiopia is fighting a large well armed guerilla army in the regimes ethic homeland of Tigray based on the Eritrean border, an army now directed by the leadership council of the newly united major Ethiopian opposition groups such as Ginbot, the real winners of the 2005 “election”.

All of this funded by a total of some $3 billion actually generated by the country? In reality it takes another $13 billion a year to fund the Ethiopian “miracle”, with the tab having been picked up until recently mainly by the western banksters and governments.

With the appearance of China in a major way Ethiopia has been a subject for concern by the western warlords, with Barack Obama spending several hours reassuring Ethiopian P.M. Desalegne during a first ever visit to the country by a sitting US President during Obama's recent trip to Africa.

Ethiopia is the only country in the world to be allowed to expel both the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) from an entire region/nation, the Ogaden. And this during the worst climate disaster droughts in history. Even North Korea allows the Red Cross.

When you get past all the smoke and mirrors Ethiopia is the policeman on the beat in East Africa for the USA, part of Pax Americana’s policy of using local gendarmes to do its dirty work.

And now China is jumping into the mix with a major economic infusion, building a $3 billion railroad from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa to its only port, Djibouti amongst many billion$ of capital projects in the country.

The capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, is the most visible sign of this investment, taking on a boom town look, with Africa's only urban electric train and double decker freeways running through the city. Its only when you leave Addis Ababa and the freeway turns into a dirt road does the real Ethiopia come into play.

In the real Ethiopia journalists are not allowed outside the capital Addis Ababa. If they try to sneak into the rest of the country they are shot and wounded, thrown into a dungeon and then convicted on terrorism charges. I met one of the Swedish reporters I am referring to who have written a book about their ordeal and are on a speaking tour which includes the USA.

A good representation of what life is like for most Ethiopians can be found in the film “Lamb” making the rounds of the international film festivals. Living in a one room hut, no electricity, carrying drinking water on donkeys for long distances, few schools, fewer medical clinics and now at the mercy of climate disaster and famine.

Yet this is the fastest growing economy in the world for years to come according to the financial terrorists at the World Bank.

The bizarre side of all this is that as scenes of millions of starving Ethiopians once again blight the tv screens of the world, the banksters through the western media will keep telling us how fast the Ethiopian economy is growing, one of Africa's success stories.

The problem is climate disaster doesn't care about all the propaganda, it just goes about its deadly task of reaping what you sow, as in the western industrialists destruction of the environment and African people starving to death as a result.
___________
Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached via twitter _at_thomascmountain, on facebook at thomascmountain or thomascmountain at g mail dot com 

Ibuprofen (Advil) Kills Thousands Each Year. Here is what you SHOULD be using instead

Super Tasty Recipes

September 3, 2015

“Long-term high-dose use of painkillers such as ibuprofen or diclofenac is ‘equally hazardous’ in terms of heart attack risk as use of the drug Vioxx, which was withdrawn due to its potential dangers, researchers said.”

The 2004 Vioxx recall, as you may remember, was spurred by the nearly 30,000 excess cases of heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths caused by the drug between 1999-2003. Despite the fact that scientific research had accumulated as early as 2000 linking Vioxx to increased heart attacks and strokes, the drug’s manufacturer Merck, and the FDA, remained silent as the death toll steadily increased.

The Reuters report focused on new research published in Lancet indicating the risk of heart attack increases as much as a third and the risk of heart failure doubles among heavier users of NSAID drugs.

INFLAMED: Our Default Bodily State

Why are so many folks taking NSAID drugs like ibuprofen anyway?

Pain and unhealthy levels of inflammation are fast becoming default bodily states in the industrialized world. While in most cases we can adjust the underlying pro-inflammatory conditions by altering our diet, and reducing stress and environmental chemical exposures, these approaches take time, discipline and energy, and sometimes we just want the pain to stop now.

In those often compulsive moments we find ourselves popping an over-the-counter pill to kill the pain.

The problem with this approach is that, if we do it often enough, we may kill ourselves along with the pain…

Serious Adverse Health Effects

Ibuprofen really is a perfect example of this. As mentioned above, this petrochemical-derivative has been linked to significantly increased risk of heart attack and increased cardiac and all-cause mortality (when combined with aspirin), with over two dozen serious adverse health effects, including:

1. Anemia[1]
2. DNA Damage[2]
3. Hearing Loss[3]
4. Hypertension[4]
5. Influenza Mortality[5]
6. Miscarriage[6]

Ibuprofen is, in fact, not unique in elevating cardiovascular disease risk and/or mortality. The entire category of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) appears to have this under-recognized dark side; cardiovascular disease and cardiac mortality score highest on the list of over 100 unintended adverse health effects associated with their use. See also our analysis of the rarely acknowledged dark side to aspirin: The Evidence Against Aspirin And For Natural Alternatives.

So, what does one do? Pain is pain. Whether it happens to you, or you witness it in another (which can be worse), finding relief is a top priority.

Research on Natural Alternatives To Ibuprofen

Here is some evidence-based research on alternatives to ibuprofen, sourced from the National Library of Medicine:

1. Ginger – A 2009 study found that ginger capsules (250 mg, four times daily) were as effective as the drugs mefenamic acid and ibuprofen for relieving pain in women associated with their menstrual cycle (primary dysmenorrhea). [7]
2. Topical Arnica – A 2007 human study found that topical treatment with arnica was as effective as ibuprofen for hand osteoarthritis, but with lower incidence of side effects.[8]
3. Combination: Astaxanthin, Ginkgo biloba and Vitamin C – A 2011 animal study found this combination to be equal to or better than ibuprofen for reducing asthma-associated respiratory inflammation.[9]
4. Chinese Skullcap (baicalin) – A 2003 animal study found that a compound in Chinese skullcap known as baicalin was equipotent to ibuprofen in reducing pain.[10]
5. Omega-3 fatty acids: A 2006 human study found that omega-3 fatty acids (between 1200-2400 mg daily) were as effective as ibuprofen in reducing arthritis pain, but with the added benefit of having less side effects.[11]
6. Panax Ginseng – A 2008 animal study found that panax ginseng had analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity similar to ibuprofen, indicating its possible anti-rheumatoid arthritis properties.[12]
7. St. John’s Wort – A 2004 animal study found that St. John’s wort was twice as effective as ibuprofen as a pain-killer.[13]
8. Anthrocyanins from Sweet Cherries & Raspberries – A 2001 study cell study found that anthrocyanins extracted from raspberries and sweet cherries were as effective as ibuprofen and naproxen at suppressing the inflammation-associated enzyme known as cyclooxygenase-1 and 2.[14]
9. Holy Basil – A 2000 study found that holy basil contains compounds with anti-inflammatory activity comparable to ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin.[15]
10. Olive Oil (oleocanthal) – a compound found within olive oil known as oleocanthal has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties similar to ibuprofen.[16]

There are, of course, hundreds of additional substances which have been studied for their pain-killing and/or anti-inflammatory effects, and there are also aromatherapeutic approaches that do not require the ingestion of anything at all, but there is also a danger here. When we think of taking an alternative pain-killer to ibuprofen, we are still thinking within the palliative, allopathic medical model: suppress the symptom, and go on about our business. It would behoove us to look deeper into what is causing our pain. And when possible, remove the cause(s). And that often requires a dramatic dietary shift away from pro-inflammatory foods, many of which most Westerners still consider absolutely delightful, e.g. wheat, dairy, nightshade vegetables and even wheat-free grains, etc.