9 December - Late Links

Too young to work

 

aje.me

As many Bangladeshi children work in risky and dangerous jobs, we look at government plans to eradicate child labour.

 

Malaysia's Peaceful Assembly Act

Malaysians rally against a bill that could hurt freedom of expression and the right to protest.

In this episode of The Stream, we discussed the pros and cons of the Peaceful Assembly Act with Pek Koon Heng, director of the ASEAN Studies Center; Lim Chee Wee, president of the Malaysian Bar Council; and Malaysian MP P. Kamalanathan. 

Critics say a number of the bill's provisions would restrict basic rights to protest rather than protect the people. Protesters started a campaign to "Kill The Bill".

The Guerrilla Son

A son unpicks the story of his father's life as a Kurdish fighter as he confronts him about being sent away as a child.   Latin America's message to the Arab world Latin Americans should share their experiences with democratisation with other countries in the global South.  Egyptians may not know that it took Brazilians no less than 21 years to get rid of a military dictatorship.Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose - except a lot of time. In Brazil, real democracy was advancing just as it was smashed by the 1964 military coup - actively supervised by Washington. The coma lasted for a long two decades. So the road was long until one of the most unequal countries in the world - ruled for centuries by an arrogant, rapacious elite who only had eyes for the wealthy North - finally enshrined social inclusion as essential to national politics. The progress in Brazil was parallel to many other parts of South America. While Europe - dictated by the God of the Market - is engineering the further impoverishment of its own people, Latin America accelerates its push for increased social inclusion. And while virtually every latitude from Northern Africa to the Middle East dreams of democracy, Latin America may actually open to scrutiny the hard-earned fruits of its democratic achievements. Open Letter to the EU Heads of State and Government As you get set to once again side-step the democratic institutions you were elected to represent, as you once again in your collective pig-headed sheer and unadulterated arrogance ready yourselves to sell the 500 million citizens of Europe down the river, taking decisions over our heads, imposing currencies on us that we never asked for, destroying our industries and fishing sectors and agriculture, reducing jobs down the line for our children and grandchildren, adopting pan-European strategies in which Brussels can “punish” a country for not obeying the rules, you will not even spare a thought for us will you? In fact all that has been going around your vapid and empty heads is stupid Euro soundbites, like “The Progress of the (Portuguese) people in the European Economic Space”, as you practised laboratory policies and thrust them upon five thousand years of collective history in which each and every idiotic experiment to create a Federal State out of a (wonderful) hotchpotch of nationalities and cultures and identities, where in places the language and traditions change every fifty or so miles, failed. More often than not, disastrously. The last five thousand years of history have taught us to stand side by side as friends, working together as brothers and sisters but fundamentally respecting these differences, something which you people, in your collective stupidity, have wholly and totally failed to do.    Amphibians on the brink What you should know about a frog-killing fungus Frogs are in trouble — a lethal fungal disease called chytridiomycosis is threatening little backyard frogs and their counterparts across the globe. Frogs play an important role in every ecosystem by eating insects and serving as prey for fish, birds, snakes and mammals. Frogs also help scientists study ecosystems, because they are an indicator species. In other words, healthy frogs usually mean a healthy ecosystem. But many frog species are not healthy. In the last 30 years, chytrid has caused the extinction or catastrophic population decline of over 200 species of frogs  Op-ed: A Changed U.S. State Department  | Commentary NC: latest PPP poll shows voters do not know how extreme the marriage discrimination is The vote on the amendment is May 8, 2012, so there is not a lot of time to educate voters around the state about just how extreme this ballot initiative is. Drones: A deeply unsettling future The rapid expansion of a drone arms race has emerged both domestically and abroad, leaving everyone vulnerable. The US, of course, leads the world in drone use for both surveillance and combat missions. Attacks are carried out in Pakistan every four days on average. Many times, the US isn't even sure exactly who they are killing. Despite the fact that the location of vast majority of drone bases are classified, journalist Nick Turse pieced together a startling picture of the massive US fleet. He determined that the US has at least 60 drone bases operated by either the US military or the CIA around the world, and "most of these facilities have remained unnoted, uncounted, and remarkably anonymous - until now".  Is the War on Terror a Hoax In the past decade, Washington has killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans millions of Muslims in six countries, all in the name of the “war on terror.” Washington’s attacks on the countries constitute naked aggression and impact primarily civilian populations and infrastructure and, thereby, constitute war crimes under law. Nazis were executed precisely for what Washington is doing today.