The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think

Exceptional article...I really hope we are in the last days of the War on Drugs.

Read full article here...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html

Nelson Mandela Dies

Excerpt:

"Conducting his own defence in the Rivonia Trial in 1964, he said: "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

"It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

He escaped the death penalty but was sentenced to life in prison, a huge blow to the ANC that had to regroup to continue the struggle. But unrest grew in townships and international pressure on the apartheid regime slowly tightened."

READ MORE HERE...
www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/05/nelson-mandela-dies-aged-95-south-africa

Best Countries to be Born in--- 2013

Here's a list of the most desirable countries to be born in...very interesting.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1309424--canada-ranks-in-top-10-of-best-places-to-be-born-in-2013

Landfill Harmonic

 

A beautiful story.  Enjoy.  

PS:  Watch full 10 minutes...it's well worth it.

http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=3704

Pfizer Outsources Human Medical Testing to India, Nigeria

In the last decade, there has been a surge in human medical testing done overseas in impoverished countries like Nigeria, India, Romania and Tunisia.  Is oversight even possible?

Excerpt from Vanity Fair article "Deadly Medicine"

"from the point of view of the drug companies, it’s easy to see why moving clinical trials overseas is so appealing. 

For one thing, it’s cheaper to run trials in places where the local population survives on only a few dollars a day. It’s also easier to recruit patients, who often believe they are being treated for a disease rather than, as may be the case, just getting a placebo as part of an experiment. 

And it’s easier to find what the industry calls “drug-naïve” patients: people who are not being treated for any disease and are not currently taking any drugs, and indeed may never have taken any—the sort of people who will almost certainly yield better test results. (For some subjects overseas, participation in a clinical trial may be their first significant exposure to a doctor.) 

Regulations in many foreign countries are also less stringent, if there are any regulations at all. The risk of litigation is negligible, in some places nonexistent. Ethical concerns are a figure of speech. Finally—a significant plus for the drug companies—the F.D.A. does so little monitoring that the companies can pretty much do and say what they want.

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/01/deadly-medicine-201101

Outsourced: Clinical Trials Overseas

20 min documentary on one of the largest "human testing grounds" India...
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2011/07/2011711112453541600.html

Pfizer Compensates Nigerian Medical Trial Victims...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14493277

Three Videos to Warm the Soul III

These are the kind of advertisements I want to see on TV...

The Future is Ours

http://vimeo.com/44658040

Ending Homelessness

http://vimeo.com/37617886

Skateboarding in Tokyo...Gravis Footwear

http://vimeo.com/32287345

Here is a link to the Three Videos to Warm the Soul II...
http://ajarnmike.blogspot.ca/2012/03/three-videos-to-warm-soul-ii.html

Behind the Curtains of Modern Communism

A look at life in 21st century communist countries.  Tomas van Houtryve won Picture of the Year for this photo essay....exceptional work...

See Slide show here...
http://www.poyi.org/69/45/index.php

Open Secret a photo journey by Tomas van Houtryve through modern Laos...
http://www.viistories.com/the-videos/open-secret.aspx

North Korea...

http://www.viistories.com/the-stories/north-korea-secrets-and-lies.aspx

More photos here...

http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/10/behind-the-curtains-of-modern-communism/

Good News from Ashgabat

A short, but well-written piece on a little-known area of the world...

Turkmenistan, a nation the size of California, and home to 5.5 million people who live atop some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves, recently held presidential elections. The outcome was never in doubt: President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was reelected with over 97 percent of the vote. A licensed dentist, Berdymukhamedov came to power suddenly in December 2006, through a series of extra-constitutional maneuvers after the death of former president Saparmurat Niyazov. Western diplomats in Ashgabat report that he is widely rumored to be Niyazov’s illegitimate son.

No meaningful political opposition exists in Turkmenistan—attitudes other than sycophancy toward the nation’s leader are unwelcome, and critics are quickly silenced. The country’s higher-education system has been carefully dismantled, and students who travel abroad to seek a college degree quickly find themselves labeled enemies of the state and placed on secret lists for apprehension at border posts.

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2012/02/hbc-90008461

The Interrupters

A very powerful documentary about three "violence interrupters" in Chicago who are trying to make a difference in their communities.  I thought one poignant part of the doc came about 56 minutes in when Eddie Bocanegra talks to a class of young children who live in a violent neighborhood...

Watch Full Documentary Here...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/interrupters/ 

Or Watch a Trailer Here...
http://interrupters.kartemquin.com/

Seeds of Dystopia

Global Risks Report 2012 Finds Income Inequality To Be A Threat To Economies Worldwide 

Growing income disparity threatens political backlash
* WEF sees risk of globalisation unravelling
* Report says fiscal crises at centre of economic woes 

LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - A backlash against rising inequality -- evident from the Occupy movement to the Arab Spring -- risks derailing the advance of globalisation and represents a key threat to economies worldwide, according to the World Economic Forum.
Severe income disparity and precarious government finances rank as the biggest economic threats facing the world, according to the group's 2012 Global Risks report released on Wednesday...

Rising youth unemployment, a crisis of retirement among pensioners dependent on debt-burdened states and a widening wealth gap have sown the "seeds of dystopia", according to the report, based on a survey of 469 experts and industry leaders.
For the first time in generations, people no longer believe their children will grow up to have a better standard of living.  

"It needs immediate political attention, otherwise the political rhetoric that responds to this social unease will involve nationalism, protectionism and rolling back the globalisation process," said WEF managing director Lee Howell.

Read more here...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/11/global-risks-report-2012_n_1198537.html?ir=Canada%20Business&ref=canada-business

 

And here is an example of that income inequality...

300 Chinese Foxconn Workers 'Threaten Mass Suicide' At XBox Plant.

According to the reports the employees had asked bosses for a raise but in response were told to either quit with compensation or keep their jobs at their usual salary.
Most workers apparently decided to leave, but the company did not hand over the money as promised.
According to the China Jasmine Revolution website, the workers were only dissuaded a day later when the mayor of Wuhan talked them out of committing suicide.
Foxconn factories in China have been the scene of several suicides by workers in the past, including 14 in 2010 alone at its Shenzhen plant, after complaints of low pay and poor conditions.

Read More here...
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/10/300-chinese-foxconn-workers-threaten-mass-suicide_n_1196345.html

Lastly, this is an excellent documentary about the influence of Wal Mart and how it destroyed America's economy...very well done PBS.

Is Wal Mart Good For America?

Watch full documentary here...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/view/

At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.

 

This is our world...

Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. 

At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.

More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening. 

According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world.

Approximately half the world’s population now live in cities and towns. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.

Read more here...

http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Fighting Back, One Brothel at a Time

A fascinating look inside the war on human trafficking...

Excerpt:

This town of Anlong Veng is in northern Cambodia near the Thai border, with a large military presence; it feels like something out of the Wild West. Somaly, whose efforts are financed mostly through American supporters of her Somaly Mam Foundation, had sneaked into this brothel and surreptitiously photographed very young girls. With the photographs, she convinced Cambodia’s anti-trafficking police to mount the raid.
It didn’t help my nerves that Somaly, whom I’ve known for years, is fearless. Brothel-owners have fought back ferociously against Somaly: They’ve sent death threats, held a gun to her head and shot up her car.

“We all know that our lives are in danger,” she says, a little too cavalierly. “I’ve never been so happy in my life. They can kill me now.”

When Somaly refused to back off, she said the traffickers kidnapped her 14-year-old daughter and gang-raped the girl with a video camera rolling. The daughter was recovered in a brothel, and Somaly blames herself. It’s a credit to the courage of mother and daughter that they remain steadfast, upbeat and close, and determined to make a difference. These days, Somaly is very careful with that daughter and her other children.


The three unmarked police cars ahead of us pulled up in front of the brothel...

Read full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/kristof-fighting-back-one-brothel-raid-at-a-time.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Somalia's Famine Death Toll Projected To Reach 750,000

 

(CNN) -- A record 4 million people in Somalia need humanitarian aid and 750,000 people are in danger of "imminent starvation," the United Nations said on Monday.
Famine in the African nation has spread to the Bay region, which is now the sixth area in Somalia suffering from an acute shortage of food, according to the the U.N.'s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.
Officials are calling for a surge in response efforts as the crisis is predicted to get worse.
"With the current food security outcomes famine conditions are expected to spread to agro pastoral populations in Gedo, Hiran, Middle Shabelle and Juba regions and riverine populations of Juba and Gedo in the coming 4 months," Grainne Moloney, FSNAU's chief technical advisor, said in a statement announcing the latest survey results.

Of the 4 million people in need of emergency aid, 3 million are in the south. That figure is up from 2.4 million eight months ago.
Tens of thousands of people have already died, more than half of whom are children, according to the FSNAU, which is managed by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The famine is being stoked by Somalia's worst drought in 60 years. Somalia has not had a stable government since 1991, and fighting between the rebels and government troops has escalated the humanitarian crisis in the famine-ravaged country.

"Though these figures paint a bleak picture as the worst agricultural crisis for Somalia in recent times ... there is a window of opportunity for the humanitarian community to stop and reverse this dramatic trend by supporting farmers and herders in addition to other emergency interventions," said Luca Alinovi, FAO's officer in charge for Somalia.

 

(Click on map to enlarge)

READ MORE HERE...
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/09/05/somalia.famine.report/

Previous Major African Hunger Crises

• Niger: 2010 - Food shortages affect more than 7 million people after crops fail; 2005 - thousands die following drought and locust invasion
• Ethiopia, 2000: Three consecutive years of drought leave millions at risk, with famine declared in Gode, the Somali region
• Somalia, 1991-1992: Drought and war contribute to famine across the country; the US Refugee Policy Group estimates at least 200,000 famine-related deaths in 1992
• Ethiopia, 1984-1985: Up to one million people die in famine caused by conflict, drought and economic mismanagement
• Biafra, 1967-1970: One million die in civil war and famine during conflict over Nigeria's breakaway Biafran republic

Source: BBC

How you can help:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/10/how-to-help-somalia_n_894117.html

Other donation sites:
http://www.redcross.org/en/givehere/

Women Paid 10 Cents to Sew $80 NFL Peyton Manning Jerseys

This article is harsh, but it's almost comical at how greedy those corporations are. 

NFL jerseys have been sewn under illegal sweatshop conditions at the Chi Fung factory in El Salvador for at least the last four years, according to a new report by the National Labor Committee.  Often forced to work 12-hour shifts, workers were at the factory 61 to 65 hours a week, including 12 to 15 hours of obligatory overtime, which was unpaid.  The workers were paid a below-subsistence wage of just 72 cents an hour, which meets less than a quarter of a family's basic subsistence needs for food, housing, healthcare and clothing.
Read more here...
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-labor-committee-women-paid-10-cents-to-sew-80-peyton-manning-jerseys-for-nfl-and-reebok-83531737.html

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Excerpt:

In North Korea at the time, girls weren’t supposed to ride bicycles. There was a social stigma—people thought it unsightly and sexually suggestive—and periodically the Workers’ Party would issue formal edicts, making it technically illegal. Mi-ran ignored the rules. From the time she was eleven years old she would set out on the family’s only bicycle, a used Japanese model, on the road to Ch’ongjin. She needed to get away from her little village, to go anywhere at all. It was an arduous ride for a child, about three hours, uphill mostly, on an unpaved road. Men cursed her for her audacity—“You’ll tear your cunt!”—and teenage boys would try to knock her off the bicycle. Mi-ran screamed back, matching obscenity with obscenity, and she kept pedaling.

Read more here:

http://www.theparisreview.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5950

The 19th annual World Report

The 19th annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2008 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question.

http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2009

PORTRAITS OF INSTABILITY---Haunting images from the world's most fragile states

Absolutely stunning look at the world you don't see on CNN...the real front lines of struggle...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/portraits_of_instability

Fatal neglect: The magnitude of crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is staggering. Some 45,000 people die every month, the International Rescue Committee estimates, putting the total dead since 1998 at 5.4 million -- more than in any conflict since World War II. All but 0.4 percent of the deaths come from preventable diseases and malnutrition -- a phenomenon that has arisen due to horrid conditions in displacement camps that lack infrastructure, basic supplies, and proper medical care. The displaced children seen here, in a camp in eastern Congo, are among the 1 million displaced from North Kivu province alone.

World hunger 'hits one billion'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8109698.stm
One billion people throughout the world suffer from hunger, a figure which has increased by 100 million because of the global financial crisis, says the UN.

Stats: Every year 30 million people die of hunger.
Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger...75% are children.

20,000 Migrants a Year Kidnapped in Mexico En Route to U.S.

Central American migrants being held in captivity react as Mexican Army soldiers, unseen, enter to liberate them in Reynosa, Mexico, late Tuesday, March 17, 2009. More than 50 migrants were being kept in captivity by a kidnapping gang in order to extort their families in exchange for their freedom. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
Read full article here...

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=337418&CategoryId=10718

A World Enslaved

t r u t h o u t | A World Enslave

"There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history. I saw it firsthand. In a Bucharest brothel, for instance, I was offered a mentally handicapped, suicidal girl in exchange for a used car. But for every one woman or child enslaved in commercial sex, there are at least 15 men, women, and children enslaved in other fields, such as domestic work or agricultural labor..."

Foreign Policy Magazine