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Bangladesh, India to exchange weather forecast
Bangladesh, India to exchange weather forecast
DHAKA, Nov 11, 2016 (BSS) - Bangladesh and India have agreed to exchange weather forecast messages to take precautionary measures against eminent natural calamities with Indian West Bengal having a key stake in the process, disaster management minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya said today. "Bangladesh and India will exchange weather related messages particularly the weather forecasts in during any impending natural calamities," Maya told a press conference at his office days after his return home after attending Asian Ministerial Conference at New Delhi held from November 2-5.
He said after the conference in the Indian capital he also held talks with West Bengal's Jabed Ahmed Khan on November 8 in this regard.
Maya said Dhaka and New Delhi also agreed to take coordinated approach to protect the world's largest mangrove forest of Sundarban, shared by both the countries, from any environmental disaster considering its role as a "defender" against cyclones and tidal surges.
The minister said being the upper riparian country India shared flood warning messages with Bangladesh which helped the downstream country to take precautionary measures during the recent floods as well.
"We had received the Indian forecast on flood at least fifteen days before that enabled us to take early precautionary measures effectively during the flood in 19 districts," Maya said. Maya said the two countries earlier took the decision for effective exchange of disaster messages when Bangladesh's home minister Asaduzzaman Khan held talks in Delhi with Indian home and disaster management minister Rajnath Singh on November 4.
Disaster and Relief Secretary Shah Kamal, Director General of the Department of Disaster Management Reaz Ahmed and senior ministry officials, among others, were present at the press briefing.
The Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held to make the disaster management system sustainable for the Asian countries in light of Sendai framework.
The conference adopted a political declaration and formulated a regional action plan on disaster management. The next conference will be held at Mongolia in 2018.
The Delhi conference drew 22 ministers from different countries as it was joined by some 5,000 representatives from different government and non-government organizations, international donor agencies.
Opposition to Oil Pipeline in U.S. Serves as Example for Indigenous Struggles in Latin America
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe is fighting the construction of an oil pipeline across their land in North Dakota. The movement has gained international solidarity and has many things in common with indigenous struggles against megaprojects in Latin America. Credit: Downwindersatrisk.org
- Canadian activist Clayton Thomas-Muller crossed the border between his country and the United States to join the Native American movement against the construction of an oil pipeline, which has become a model to follow in struggles by indigenous people against megaprojects, that share many common elements.
“It’s an amazing movement. Its number one factor is the spiritual founding of cosmology. There are indigenous people all around the world that share the cosmology of water. There is a feeling on sacred land. This is the biggest indigenous movement since pre-colonial times,” the delegate for the Indigenous Environmental Network told IPS.
Thomas-Muller, of the Cree people, stressed that the oil pipeline “is one of the major cases of environmental risk in the United States” fought by indigenous people.
“We see many parallels in the local indigenous struggles. When indigenous people arise and call upon the power of their cosmology and their world view and add them up to social movements, they light people up as we’ve never seen,” he told IPS by phone from the Sioux encampment that he joined on Nov. 6.
“This struggle is everywhere, the whole world is with Standing Rock,” he said.
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Standing Rock Sioux is the tribe that heads the opposition to the 1,890-km Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in the state of North Dakota, along the Canadian border.
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Standing Rock Sioux is the tribe that heads the opposition to the 1,890-km Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in the state of North Dakota, along the Canadian border.
The 3.7 billion dollar pipeline, which is being built by the US company Dakota Access, is to transport 470,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the Bakken shale formation.
The opposition to the pipeline by the Sioux, or Dakota, Indians has brought construction to a halt since September, in a battle that has gained thousands of supporters since April, including people from different Native American tribes, environmental activists and celebrity advocates, not only from the U.S. but from around the world.
Their opposition is based on the damages that they say the pipeline would cause to sacred sites, indigenous land and water bodies. They complain that the government did not negotiate with them access to a territory over which they have complete jurisdiction.
Some 600 flags of indigenous peoples from around the world wave over the camp on the banks of the Missouri River where the movement has been resisting the crackdown that has intensified since October. Of the U.S. population of 325 million, about 2.63 million are indigenous people, belonging to 150 different tribes.
The movement has served as an example for similar battles in Latin America, according to indigenous leaders.
Map of the Sioux territory affected by the oil pipeline in the U.S. state of North Dakota. Credit: Northlandia.com
In the northern Mexican state of Sonora, the Yaqui people are also fighting a private pipeline threatening their lands.
“We were not asked or informed. We want to be consulted, we want our rights to be respected. We are defending our territory, our environment,” Yaqui activist Plutarco Flores told IPS.
In a consultation held in accordance with their uses and customs in May 2015, the Yaqui people – one of Mexico’s 54 native groups – voted against the gas pipeline that would run across their land. But the government failed to recognise their decision. In response, the Yaqui filed an appeal for legal protection in April, which halted construction.
Of the 850-km pipeline, 90 km run through Yaqui territory – and through people’s backyards. In October, a violent clash between opponents and supporters of the pipeline left one indigenous person dead and 14 injured.
For Flores, the indigenous struggle against megaprojects has become “a paradigm” and protests like the one at Standing Rock “inspire and reassure us because of our shared cultural patterns.”
Also in Mexico, in the northern state of Sinaloa, the Rarámuri native people have since January 2015 halted the construction of a gas pipeline across their lands and the bordering U.S. state of Texas, demanding free prior and informed consultation, as required by law.
Unlike the U.S., Latin American countries are signatories to International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, which protects their rights and makes this kind of consultation obligatory in the case of projects that affect their territories.
But in many cases, according to indigenous leaders consulted by IPS, this right has not been incorporated in national laws, or is simply not complied with, when projects involving oil, mining, hydroelectric or infrastructure activities affect their ancestral lands.
United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous People’s Rights, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, during her visit to Mexico City for an international conference on indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consultation on projects that affect their lands. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS
Both the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People’s Rights, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, requested in September that the U.S. government consult the communities affected by the oil pipeline.
“The fact that they’re not being consulted means a violation to their rights. The arrests that have taken place are too a violation of the right of free assembly,” Tauli-Corpuz told IPS Nov. 9, at the end of a visit to Mexico.
During her three days in the country, the special rapporteur participated in a conference on indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consultation, promoted by the the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Inter American Commission on Human Rights.
Tauli-Corpuz also met with representatives of 20 indigenous Mexican communities affected by gas pipelines, hydropower plants, highways and mines. The Mexican government announced that in 2017 it would officially invite the special rapporteur to assess the situation of indigenous people in Mexico.
The U.N. official said a recurring complaint she has heard on her trips to Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Panama and Peru is the lack of free, prior consultation that is obligatory under Convention 169.
In Costa Rica, the Maleku people, one of the Central American country’s eight indigenous groups, who total 104,000 people, are worried about the expansion of the San Rafael de Guatuso aqueduct, in the north of the country.
“A fake consultation was carried out. Also, the people do not want water meters, because they would have to pay more for water,” Tatiana Mojica, the Maleku people’s legal representative, who is thinking about filing an appeal for legal protection against the project, told IPS during the colloquium.
Since September, Sarayaku indigenous people from Ecuador, Emberá-Wounaan from Panamá, and Tacana from Bolivia have visited the Sioux camp to protest the oil pipeline.
Thomas-Muller said “We have the opportunity to stop it. I’m optimistic that we will be victorious here. These movements are the hammer that will fall over oil infrastructure owned by the banks and big corporations. We want political will to make an appearance,” he said.
A major Nov. 15 protest is being organised to demand that the government refuse a permit for the North Dakota pipeline.
“This struggle will go through all the steps that it has to. We will make sure that the Sonora pipeline is not built,” said Flores.
Meanwhile, Mojica said “we are uniting to fight against megaprojects that affect us. We are making ourselves heard.”
Tauli-Corpuz said “Opposition to pipelines is a common feature of indigenous people. It’s a magnet that attracts solidarity from all over the world.”
Trump – The Symptom
A large protest in Manhattan against the presidency of Donald Trump on November 9, 2016, the day after election day. The crowd spanned a few blocks, centered on Trump Tower. Credit: Rhododendrites . Wikimedia
- The electoral victory of U.S. Republican Donald Trump — many have said — is an alarming signal that heralds new, difficult times. Maybe. Anyway, this victory could –and should-be seen as a symptom not as a disease.
Such disease consists of a widespread malaise, the feeling of frustration and even oppression that the majority of citizens shelter in their hearts and minds worldwide. Let alone the syndrome of unrestricted fear of everything, which has been imposed on everyone.
Fear of the so-called economic crisis that the private banking and financial sectors have created in 2007.
Fear of lay people to lose their jobs and thus accepting unacceptable working conditions.
Fear of losing their houses, new cars, lastest model smartphones, which they still owe to the banks.
Fear of migrants taking their jobs and leaving them in misery.
Fear of Muslim refugees coming to destroy their Western Christian “civilisation”.
Fear of cold wars promoted by the weapons business.
Fear, fear, fear.
This atmosphere of dominating fear has lead to the rise of two opposite “political” trends— a “populist left,” like the case of Syriza in Greece and Unidos-Podemos in Spain.
And a “populist right,” such as the National Front in France, the Freedom Party in Austria, the Golden Dawn in Greece, and similar movements in Germany, The Netherlands, Hungry and even the Scandinavian countries. Now, again, also in the United States.
None of these is rigorously political or ideological and none is either purely “left” or purely “right.” These are reactions, movements and voices that sit in a glowingly empty political space.
Anyway, it is not only about just fear—it is also about a growing wave of violent extremism. Just consider the case of the unstoppable “religious” terrorism.
Meanwhile, the private financial and banking systems, which have created the on-going artificial crisis, have benefited of huge bailouts — over 5 trillion dollars paid by those very same lay citizens– to protect their pundits from the consequences of the debacle they have created.
Also meanwhile, lay citizens are forced to spend 1.7 trillion dollars a year on weapons, with more, much more to come as the wave of fake tensions rise between the West, mainly the U.S., and Russia, China, etc.
Meantime, some questions remain:
— Will president Trump fulfil or meet Trump-candidate electoral promises?
These include the deportation of 11 million undocumented people; the construction of a big wall along the US border with Mexico; the prohibition of Muslims entering the United States; all with the consequent rise or wave of xenophobia and hatred?
They also include the demolition of outgoing president Barack Obama health care system; keeping Guantanamo open and a very long list of etceteras.
— Will the new administration impose higher customs tariffs on imported foreign products; force the European –and other “allies” to pay more, much more, to their sort of “ponce” to continue protecting them?
–Will the new While House occupier dismantle the United Nations Organisations and along with it the multilateral aid system? Will he “cancel” (his words) the Paris climate agreement? And cut the US contribution to the UN? How long –or short — will it take the United Kingdom and Europe to follow?
— Will Trump presidency reduce taxes on big corporations, from the current average 35 per cent to just 15 per cent? If so, who will cover this 20 per cent gap?
— Will the new administration impose a tougher protectionist policy that would end up creating higher inflation and a bigger public deficit, this leading to a new, great recession worldwide?
— Will Trump presidency declare open commercial and political war on giant China, this transforming the on-going small, partial wars into a big nuclear one?
— Will he go further smashing human rights and dismantling the painfully achieved progress in the field of gender equality and social equality?
Common-sense would advise that candidate Trump, on taking office, will very carefully listen to the “pundits”, those really in charge—the big business, be it weapons, oil, commodities, etc.
Here's what girls and young women think
"To all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams," Democrat Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech after Republican Donald Trump was declared the president-elect.
This week, a number of girls have pulled out their pencils and keyboards to write letters and blog posts — not just to Clinton but also to Trump, whose sometimes harsh remarks about women throughout the campaign did not go unnoticed. Here are some excerpts, first from letters to Clinton and the rest addressed to Trump. The Associated Press obtained permission from parents and the young authors to share these words, along with drawings and photographs.
Grace Songer, 13, Cold Spring, Kentucky:
"Dear Secretary Clinton . Thank you for allowing me to say I remember when, for the first time, a woman was nominated as a major party candidate for president. . Thank you for planting seeds in a garden that will flourish from this day on, maintained by all of the independent women in our country and the world. One day our time will come, and I hope you look back on this and feel happy that you started, not a revolution, but a revelation, that we will carry on centuries after 2016."
Kaia James, 10, Orlando, Florida:
"I won't let this election bring me down. ... So please, don't worry — I will finish what you started.
"There are so many girls like me ready to speak out and fight. You have fought for us and now it is our turn to fight for you.
"It's not over yet. We're only getting started."
Jules Spector, 16, New York City:
"We all woke up this morning with the sun — or the clouds, if you were on the East Coast — and the Earth was still turning on its axis. Thus, I have the opportunity to say that the revolution starts today. ... Thank you, Hillary, for uniting so many women and men across the country. Thank you for inspiring me to become a leader."
Amaya Johnson, 12, Lansing, Michigan:
"You inspired me to look past the sexism in this world and stand tall and proud as a female who is equal. ... While we might not have won, remember to keep your chin up."
Hannah Alper, 13, Toronto, Canada:
"I watched (Secretary Clinton) make her concession speech. It was hard to watch and it was clear that it was hard for her to make. But there she was — strong, inspiring and full of poise — just as she had been throughout the campaign. ... Yesterday, today and tomorrow, I'm With Her."
Kayla Blas, age 16, Pendleton, New York:
"President Elect Trump, Congratulations . I truly believe you are the right person for the job!
"Today Republicans are given an extreme stereotype. If you're a Republican, you're a bigot, you are against gay rights, you're a racist, you don't believe in a woman's right to choose and you're extremely religious and want to impose it on everyone else. Well, I'm a young Republican and I do not exactly share those qualities. ...
"As a high school junior and a student council member for the past three years, I am excited about your presidency. My father is a retired City of Buffalo Firefighter and my mother is a small business owner in healthcare. I have seen the struggles they've had to overcome with the poor state of our economy, and with your election I look with excitement towards the future. I feel the tides now are turning and JFK's famous quote 'What can you do for your country' is hopefully going to be echoed in households. I feel you will put people back to work and that is always a good thing. ...
"I feel that your victory will return our country back to the basic principles it was founded on which is all men and women are created free and equal and possess the same inherent, natural rights. We will once again become a land of opportunity. Your acceptance speech the other night was the start of the unity we need. I am feeling positive with your leadership. America will soon be viewed by other countries again as 'Supreme.'"
Juna Skrami, 21, Loyola University student, Chicago:
"Dear Mr. Trump, You have instilled a fear in me that you will never be able to understand. I am an immigrant and I am a woman — two of the many groups of people you have attacked and degraded. ... Chicago fell silent the . morning (after the election). . The city seemed to be in mourning. It is still gloomy and there is still a lot of fear within most of us, but I have hope. I have hope that we can all come together in this time of need. I have hope that we can be joined by our similarities, and that we can look past our differences. And lastly, I even have hope for you. I hope that you can begin to see the pain and the fear that you are responsible for, and I hope you can grow from it. You have four years. Please fix what you started."
Sakeena Ahmed, 9, Oak Brook, Illinois:
"Dear Mr. Donald Trump, Hi!! I am a 4th grade Muslim girl. ... You said you want to make America great again. Can you show me?! Don't we all have the same plan? We all just want to live in peace and not war! ... You are saying we are mean and cruel, but we are not! We are nice and giving! You are saying we are terrorists. We definitely don't do anything that you say. ... My only wish for you (is) to be good. And I hope this letter does make you."
Sophie Hoerst, 7, Mount Holly, North Carolina:
"Please don't build a wall separating Mexico and America. Please be the most kind person you can be. ... Please be a good president and make the choices you think are best for all Americans."
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