Raj Patel on America’s Growing Hunger Crisis and the UN Summit to Fight Hunger in Rome
More than 49 million Americans—or one in seven—struggled to find enough to eat last year, according to a report from the US Department of Agriculture released Monday. That’s the highest total since the federal government began keeping track of food insecurity. Meanwhile, leaders from most of the world are gathered in Rome to tackle hunger on a global scale at the UN World Food Summit, but leaders of the world’s richest countries were largely absent from the summit.
Israeli settlement plan denounced
The US and UN have criticised Israel's approval of 900 extra housing units at a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.
Gaza thirsts as sewage crisis mounts
In September the UN Environment Programme warned that damage to the underground aquifer - due to the Israeli and Egyptian blockade, conflict, and years of overuse and underinvestment - could take centuries to reverse if it is not halted now.
Lagoons designed to allow treated clean water to infiltrate through Gaza's sandy soil back down into the aquifer are instead funnelling sewage straight back into the groundwater
In addition, with several years of drought and the digging of hundreds of illegal, unregulated wells, the UN Environmental Programme says at least three times more water is extracted than is replenished each year.
As the level is dropping in the aquifer, sea water is invading.
With nitrates from the sewage and salt from the sea, only 5-10% of the water in Gaza's wells - and therefore its taps - now meets World Health Organization guidelines, even after it has been chlorinated.
Poverty has risen in Gaza as the blockade has ended much economic activity. An estimated 70% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day.
Mrs Makdad and her husband Khader say they make so little from their two street stalls that they have to rely on charity and loans from friends.
They spend 20NIS (about $5) a week buying water for cooking and drinking from private tankers, which bring water from small-scale desalination plants.
"I'd rather buy vegetables or fruit, or put the money towards my children's education, but there's no other way," says Ms Makdad.
Another concern is the blood disorder dubbed "blue baby syndrome", which is associated with nitrate pollution.
It results in low oxygen levels in an infant's blood, which can cause breathing trouble, diarrhoea and vomiting, and in extreme cases, loss of consciousness, convulsions and death.
The World Health Organization has not discovered any recent, full-blown cases in Gaza.
But in a 2002 study, nearly half the children surveyed had higher than safe levels of methemoglobin, the substance that indicates the condition. Nitrate pollution has increased since then.
U.S. labor group unveils plan to tackle joblessness
The head of the largest U.S. labor federation urged PresidentBarack Obama on Tuesday to use the $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund to help cash-starved small businesses as a way to stem rising joblessness.
In a preview of labor's contribution to Obama's December jobs summit, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program could be lent directly to small- and medium-sized businesses at commercial rates.
He said TARP money could also help small community banks that were ignored during the financial rescue effort by having them manage the loans.
The proposal, unusual for a labor organization, is part of a five-point AFL-CIO plan to address rising unemployment that hit 10.2 percent in October, its highest rate in 26-1/2 years.
The AFL-CIO jobs plan also calls for extended unemployment benefits, food assistance and healthcare for the unemployed, more money for infrastructure projects and state and local governments, and job creation aimed at distressed communities.
MyPorts Gives You Detailed Information on Open Ports
Windows only: We've talked about ways to portscan your computer before, but if you're looking for a simpler solution to secure your connection, free utility MyPorts shows you what open ports are being actively used and which may be unnecessary.
Generally, open ports can be pretty easily associated with a specific program or running process that is connecting to the internet, such as your browser, IM client, or mail client. When these programs close, so do the ports. However, if some ports are open and have no purpose at that moment, they can be a security risk. MyPorts helps you check whether there are any unnecessarily open ports that could be used by malicious users.
Is the Afghan Government Serious about Fighting Corruption? Are We?
Afghans see us [the International Security Assistance Force] as being the enforcement mechanism for the mafia."
Do They Subscribe to GQ at the Pentagon?
The generals don’t understand “their boys” because they’ve never been in a war. They’ve commanded battalions and brigades, but they’ve never done patrols in 95-degree heat, or climbed a mountainside with a rucksack and a Prick-25, or had to confront their own mortality at nineteen or so. If they had, they’d have a better perspective on their regulations, and a better understanding of the troops they order around.
War Vets Deported
more than 30,000 foreign born detainees face deportation at some 350 facilities nationwide. Nearly half are legal residents who committed crimes that range from homicide to misdemeanor drug possession, and were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after serving their prison terms.
Reportedly, about 10% of those foreign born detainees, or 3,000, have served in the U.S. military. A large percentage have legal resident status. Some suffer from PTSD, but all who get in trouble with the law will be rounded up by ICE detained, and then deported.
More troubling is the incidence of those who come here as small children with their parents who are encouraged by recruiters to join the Army, lured by the illusion that their military service will serve as their application for citizenship. Imagine their horror when they find a deportation letter in their mailbox upon their return.
Given the need for warm bodies in combat zones, the military reportedly "falsely promises automatic U.S. citizenship," Associated Content , in return for service which consists of deployment to Iraq and/or Afghanistan. All too often, however, the service member is double crossed and, upon his return to the states, is scooped up, and carted back to the country of his birth.
Others, like Iraq vet Marine Corporal Phillipe Louis Jean, have also been threatened with deportation after they complete their tour of duty. The Marine was court-martialed for an infraction, adultery, not regarded as serious enough to disqualify him for military service, but one egregious enough to prevent him from ever obtaining American citizenship. What is more egregious here the obscene, and wanton exploitation of men in uniform, or their alleged infractions?
There are many who argue that it makes sense to deport anyone who commits a crime, regardless of their immigration status, but doing so renders the argument that prison is intended for rehabilitation obsolete.
Reportedly, about 10% of those foreign born detainees, or 3,000, have served in the U.S. military. A large percentage have legal resident status. Some suffer from PTSD, but all who get in trouble with the law will be rounded up by ICE detained, and then deported.
More troubling is the incidence of those who come here as small children with their parents who are encouraged by recruiters to join the Army, lured by the illusion that their military service will serve as their application for citizenship. Imagine their horror when they find a deportation letter in their mailbox upon their return.
Given the need for warm bodies in combat zones, the military reportedly "falsely promises automatic U.S. citizenship," Associated Content , in return for service which consists of deployment to Iraq and/or Afghanistan. All too often, however, the service member is double crossed and, upon his return to the states, is scooped up, and carted back to the country of his birth.
Others, like Iraq vet Marine Corporal Phillipe Louis Jean, have also been threatened with deportation after they complete their tour of duty. The Marine was court-martialed for an infraction, adultery, not regarded as serious enough to disqualify him for military service, but one egregious enough to prevent him from ever obtaining American citizenship. What is more egregious here the obscene, and wanton exploitation of men in uniform, or their alleged infractions?
There are many who argue that it makes sense to deport anyone who commits a crime, regardless of their immigration status, but doing so renders the argument that prison is intended for rehabilitation obsolete.
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