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

Ecuador grants asylum to WikiLeaks' Assange

Do we live in democracies or police states?  In my view, it is certainly the latter and here's more evidence of it...

Ecuador has granted asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange because it believes he will be politically persecuted if extradited, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño announced Thursday.

The UK, meanwhile, has said it is disappointed by the decision and will not grant safe passage out of the country to Assange, who has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in London for nearly two months...

Read more here...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/16/world/americas/ecuador-assange/?hpt=hp_t2

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/

CIA-Sinaloa Cartel Connection Deepens

Bomb explosion in Nueva Leon

High Ranking Cartel Member Says Operation Fast And Furious Was Meant To Supply Guns To The Sinaloa Cartel

"Excerpt"

Zambada-Niebla was arrested by Mexican authorities in March 2009 and extradited to Chicago to face drug trafficking charges.

From the court document:

[T]he United States government at its highest levels entered into agreements with cartel leaders to act as informants against rival cartels and received benefits in return, including, but not limited to, access to thousands of weapons which helped them continue their business of smuggling drugs into Chicago and throughout the United States, and to continue wreaking havoc on the citizens and law enforcement in Mexico.  

Zambada-Niebla believes that he, like the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel, was "immune from arrest or prosecution" because he also actively provided information to U.S. federal agents.

READ MORE HERE... http://www.businessinsider.com/fast-and-furious-guns-sinaloa-cartel-2012-8
ALSO WORTH CHECKING OUT...  
The global drug war and the Nixon connection

As one indication of how badly the war on drugs has failed, the report cited UN data showing a 34.5 per cent increase in opiate use from 1998 to 2008, along with a 27 per cent increase in cocaine and an 8.5 per cent increase in cannabis.
READ MORE HERE...
 http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/06/201164135055160347.html

Ton's more great articles on the drug war here...
http://ajarnmike.blogspot.ca/search/label/Mexico

Raising Successful Children

Excerpt:

So if children are able to live with mistakes and even failing, why does it drive us crazy? So many parents have said to me, “I can’t stand to see my child unhappy.” If you can’t stand to see your child unhappy, you are in the wrong business. The small challenges that start in infancy (the first whimper that doesn’t bring you running) present the opportunity for “successful failures,” that is, failures your child can live with and grow from. To rush in too quickly, to shield them, to deprive them of those challenges is to deprive them of the tools they will need to handle the inevitable, difficult, challenging and sometimes devastating demands of life.

Read more here...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/raising-successful-children.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=FB-nytimes

U.S. Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Hub for Cartels

 

Excerpt:

The initiatives come amid a surge in successful interdictions in Honduras since May — but also as American officials have been forced to defend their new tactics after a commando-style team of D.E.A. agents participated in at least three lethal interdiction operations alongside a squad of Honduran police officers. In one of those operations, in May, the Honduran police killed four people near the village of Ahuas, and in two others in the past month American agents have shot and killed smuggling suspects. 

To date, officials say, the D.E.A. commando team has not been deployed to work with the newly created elite police squads in Africa, where the effort to counter the drug traffickers is said to be about three years behind the one in Central America. 

Read Full Article here...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/world/africa/us-expands-drug-fight-in-africa.html

China's Leftover Women

A Chinese-American author is trying to encourage Chinese women that it's okay to pursue a career while postponing marriage. That can be a risky strategy in China - where single women 25 and over can find themselves branded as "leftover women".

Watch CBS Video Report Here...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57462607/plight-of-young-leftover-women-in-china/

The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia

Eye opening documentary on the situation in Liberia...pretty cool.

http://www.blacklistedradio.com/?p=1318