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Man sentenced after leaving water bottles for immigrants

Walt Staton was convicted in June of littering by leaving jugs of water in a wildlife refuge.
Walt Staton was convicted in June of littering by leaving jugs of water in a wildlife refuge.
By Taylor Gandossy
CNN

(CNN) — An Arizona man caught leaving water bottles in the desert for illegal immigrants has been sentenced to 300 hours of community service and a year of probation, an aid group said.
Walt Staton was convicted in June of littering by leaving jugs of water in a wildlife refuge.

Walt Staton was convicted in June of littering by leaving jugs of water in a wildlife refuge.

Walt Staton, a member of the group No More Deaths, left full water bottles in December in Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge for the illegal immigrants who routinely pass through the 18,000-acre refuge, according to court documents.

A judge sentenced him Tuesday to 300 hours of picking up trash on public property and a year of probation, No More Deaths said in a written statement. He is also banned from the refuge during that time, the group said.

full article here

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Yemen : a love story

A Yemeni Jewish girl married an Israeli citizen after her older sister converted to Islam and got married to a Muslim without the consent of her parents, sources close to the family said Thursday.

Saeed bin Saeed al-Naeti married off his 18-year old daughter Barakha to Mousa Shaghdari, a Yemeni Jew who left Yemen for Israel in 1994. The condition of the father was that Shaghdari should leave Yemen with his bride as soon as possible, the sources said.

The couple Mousa and Barakha are expected to leave Yemen for Israel next week, the sources said.

The older daughter of Saeed, Leyah, 20, was wed on the same day,

Thursday July 16th, to a Muslim man, Abdul Rahman al-Huthaifi in Kharef, Amran province.

On June 29th, 2009, Leyah was wed from Kharef to her Jewish groom Haron Salem, one of about 66 Jews who have been living in a Tourism City compound in the capital Sana’a since they were expelled from Sa’adah by al-Houthi rebels in 2005.

About five days after the wedding, the Jewish bride escaped from her husband’s house in the compound, called “Tourist City”, to a chief of the tribesmen of Arhab in the northern outskirts of the Sana’a.

She was in love with her Muslim neighbor, but her parents did not want him to marry their daughter, a relative said.

On Wednesday July 15, the Jewish bride announced her conversion to Islam in Arhab district in front of a number tribal Sheikhs who conducted the required procedures for the new marriage and cancellation of the first marriage.

The first marriage was nullified by a court verdict after she converted to Islam.

Abdullah Nasser who attended the wedding said, “It was distinguished in terms of the number of cars accompanying the bride and the number of bullets that were fired to air.”

The rabbi Yahya Mousa, who arranged the first marriage to one of his relatives, said the new marriage violated the rules of Judaism, of Islam, Christianity and all religions.

Commenting on her conversion to Islam, the rabbi said “Her Islam is not true Islam; this is the Islam of love. True Islam is the love of the religion.”

“We were wronged, we are underdogs. But we hope President Ali Abdullah Saleh will stand with us and do what is just,” He said in a telephone call with Yemen Observer.

The father of the bride, Saeed Bin Saeed al-Naeti, said,” We are tens of Jews among millions of Muslim tribesmen. If they want even to kill us they will do that easily. No state will protect us and no one will stand with us,”

He said he does not know if his daughter was in love with al-Huthaifi, whose house is only 2 km far. But he does not agree that Jews should marry Muslims or vice versa.

The rabbi Mousa said the Jews are preparing to stage a sit-in, in front of the Presidential Palace next Sunday to demand protection for Yemen’s Jews. Only about 320 Jews are left in Yemen and live predominately in the capital Sana’a and Amran province.

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About the health insurance industry and Sicko : BILL MOYERS JOURNAL

Meet Wendell Potter. Bill Moyers interviews former health insurance industry executive Wendell Potter, who left the field after almost 20 years to become a health reform advocate. Check out Potters personal story here and tune in to Bill Moyers Journal, Friday, July 10, 2009 at 9PM on PBS (check local listings http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/abo… ) for his experiences inside the health insurance industry, their work fighting a public option, and the insurance companies close ties to Washington. The entire interview will be available after broadcast at www.pbs.org/moyers .

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Internationalization of the Amazon

(English translation by Google Translate )

During a debate at a university in the United States, the Education Minister Cristovam Buarque, was asked about what he thought about the internationalization of the Amazon.The young American student began his question by saying that he hoped a reply from a humanist, not a Brazilian.

– Here is the response of Mr. Cristovam Buarque.

– Indeed, as a Brazilian, I rise simply against the internationalization of the Amazon. Regardless of the lack of attention of our governments to this heritage, it is ours.

As a humanist, aware of the risk of environmental degradation plaguing the Amazon, I can imagine that the Amazon is internationalized, as the rest everything that was important to all humanity. If, on behalf of a humanistic ethic, we must internationalize the Amazon, then we should internationalize the oil reserves in the world.

Oil is also important for the welfare of humanity that the Amazon is for our future. And despite that, the masters of oil reserves feel the right to increase or decrease in oil, or not to increase its price.

In the same way, we should internationalize the financial capital of the rich countries. If Amazon is a reserve pour all men, it may not be scorched by the will of its owner, or a country. Burning the Amazon is as serious as unemployment caused by the arbitrary decisions of speculators in the global economy.

We can not let the financial reserves burn whole countries for the pleasure of speculation.

Before Amazon, I would like to attend the internationalization of all major museums in the world. The Louvre does not belong to France alone. Every museum in the world is the custodian of the finest works produced by the human genius.

“We can not let this cultural heritage, Along with the natural heritage of the Amazon, being manipulated and destroyed according to the fantasy of a single owner or of a single country.

Some time ago, a Japanese millionaire decided to bury him with a picture of a great teacher. Before this happens, we should internationalize the table.
While this meeting takes place, the UN organize the Millennium Forum, but some presidents of countries have found it difficult to attend, because of difficulties at the borders of the United States.

I therefore believe that it would be New York, the headquarters UN or international.

At least Manhattan should belong to all humanity. Like the rest Paris, Venice, Rome, London, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Recife, each city with its special beauty, and its history of the world should belong to the world.

If the United States want to internationalize the Amazon, because of the risk that runs the result of the leave in the hands of the Brazilians, then internationalize also the entire nuclear arsenal of the United States. If only by what they are able to use such weapons, which cause destruction miles Both largest deplorable that the Brazilian forest fires.

During their discussions, the current candidate for President of the United States have supported the idea of an international forest reserves the world in exchange for debt relief. Let us begin with this debt used to ensure that all the world’s children have the opportunity to eat and go to school.

internationalize children, treating them, no matter where they are born, as a heritage that deserves worldwide attention.

Even more so than the Amazon. When world leaders treat poor children of the world as a World Heritage Site, they do not leave work when they should go to school, they do not let die when they should live.

As a humanist agree to defend the idea of a Internationalization of the world. But as the world will treat me as a Brazilian, I will fight so that the Amazon stays ours. And only ours!

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About the Turkish musalsalat dubbed in Arabic

An interesting muqabala from Al Jazeera in Arabic.
Thank you O.W.

I am reposting this because the topic is close to the previous one and I have in the meantime received an interesting comment :

Saracen Says:
August 17, 2008 at 12:27 pm

They’re both so convincing I feel like a Buridan horse (ego too frail to put up with ass). But seriousness aside, this turkish drama business does smell of the figurative rodent. Each year, a screen drama of some kind seems to be causing a life drama for the arabs. And it’s incredibly hard to tell why. Consider this. A syrian series is currently on MBC. It’s aired only two hours before Nour. It features several stories, one of which involves an extra-marital pregnancy with the woman being muslim and the man christian. The bastard refuses to convert, hence leaving my creed-sister in the metaphorical sh*t. On the Arab-cultural-rage seismometer, that would give a higher reading than Nour et al. But still, it didn’t cause an uproar of any kind. The dramatic calibre of the aforementioned syrian series is also superior to the Yahya/Lamees dross, but it couldn’t attract even half the audience.

Somesing iz vierd..

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Noor… What’s your secret?

Salonaz Sami ponders

The palatial mansion of Mohamed Aboud Afandi overlooking the Bosphoros is the setting of the Sha Ughlo family in the series; Noor and Mohannad

We’d been chatting on the phone a little while, and things were going smoothly. But once she’d realised it was 9:50pm, I could hear how my mother was growing fidgety. And I knew the reason why: 10 minutes later her favourite soap opera, Noor, was due to begin. Annoying though this was, given that I was watching my own mother choose Noor over talking to me, I could barely complain given that it had been me who had introduced her to the Turkish TV serial. But in her addiction, my mother is by no means alone. Gèmès or Noor as we know it in the Arab world has become a social and behavioural phenomenon, worthy of study.

Granted, men presume we watch it for the sake of the blue- eyed-blond and Best Model of the World 2002, who plays the lead male in the series. But the truth is far from that, explained Farida Ahmed, a housewife who is also hooked to Noor. “Mohannad, the main character, has indeed glued women to their TV sets, but it is not only because he is cute,” she told Al-Ahram Weekly. “It’s mostly because he offers things many of us lack nowadays in our lives — including romance, compassion, loyalty, and a partner who is supportive to his independent wife. He has become the role model against which many women have started to compare and judge their significant others,” she added.

READ ON

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Greece : Bulgarians freed from slave labor on farm

A Greek and a Bulgarian have been charged with forcing a group of Bulgarian migrants to work 15 hours a day on a tobacco farm in northern Greece for just over one euro a day each.

Police found the seven migrants – six adults and a girl – near the farm earlier this week in a wretched state. They had been living in a stable, from which they say they were evicted for complaining about their pay – a total of 10 euros a day for all seven – and living conditions.

Police were tipped off by a Bulgarian woman who said her brother had asked her to deposit 600 euros in a bank account in order to secure his “release.” The employers said the 600-euro fee was to cover the cost of each migrant’s travel to Greece. But the migrants, who are now in a hostel, say they covered their own costs and had been told they would be paid 50 euros a day for the work.
Source

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I was a slave in Puglia

The correspondent of L'espresso

The correspondent of L’espresso
picking tomatoes in the field

by Fabrizio Gatti

Exploited. Underpaid. Lodged in filthy shacks. Beaten to death if they complain. Diary of a week in hell amidst the foreign laborers in the province of Foggia

The boss wears a white shirt, black trousers and dusty shoes. He’s from Puglia, but he hardly speaks Italian. To make himself understood he seeks the assistance of his bodyguard, a Maghrebin who is in charge of keeping everything under control in the fields. “Find out what this guy wants. If he’s looking for work, tell him we don’t need anyone, today.” The boss speaks in dialect and drives away in his SUV.

The Maghrebin speaks perfect Italian. He doesn’t wear any stripes on his sweaty shirt but it’s quite obvious that he’s the caporale, the “gang master.” “Are you from Romania?” A grimace is all it takes to convince him. “I can hire you. Tomorrow,” he promises. “Do you have a girl friend?” “A girlfriend?” “You have to bring me a woman. For the boss. If you bring him one, he’ll put you to work right away. Any girl will do.” He points to a twenty year-old woman and her companion, working on the conveyor belt of a huge tractor that is being used to gather tomatoes. “Those two are Romanians, just like you. She slept with the boss.” “But I’m alone.” “No work for you then.”

 READ ON HERE

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Is tourism ruining Venice?

Rachel Spence

A local group is protesting against tourism plans in Venice, where the number of Venetians is declining rapidly as residents struggle to afford to stay in the city.

Venice Protest, is tourism ruining Venice
Venice is not a hotel, say local residents

It is mid-morning in Venice and the Piazza San Marco is the usual mixture of strolling tourists and scurrying locals. Then the bells of the basilica strike noon, and some people freeze on the spot; a man grasping the handbag of a passerby; a circle of dancers; a woman reading her newspaper. For two minutes, they remain motionless while tourists take photographs and stare as if the locals were statues in a museum.

READ ON

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