Armed resistance and the dilemma’s concerning Syria

Posted on | februari 11, 2012 | No Comments

Checkpoint manned by the Free Syrian Army in the Baba Amro district of Homs, picture taken in December 2011, (Der Spiegel)

On Joshua Landis’ blog Syria Comment somebody who used the alias ‘Ehsani’ writes from within Syria about the frightening direction the Syrian opposition has taken by more and more resorting to armed resistance. It is not Ehsani’s first contribution, but this one is by far the most sobering:

Since Hama, Syrian opposition members have begun increasingly to call to demand weapons and a military response to overpower the regime. For the next 6 months, Syrian streets and neighborhoods became armed enough that the mighty Syrian army had to think twice before entering the developing mini enclaves ruled by the opposition within its cities. Not surprisingly, taking up arms suddenly became the accepted modus operandi of the opposition and the uprising. Those cautioning against such strategies were referred to as ignorant or regime supporters.
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Category: Middle East, revolt
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Air pollution in Bangladesh capital kills thousands

Posted on | februari 11, 2012 | No Comments

Nauseating air pollution in the Bangladesh capital annually kills thousands of urban poor and millions more suffer from respiratory diseases, a burden on inadequate health budget.

Authorities in Bangladesh assume if air pollution in its overcrowded capital could be reduced by only 20 to 80 percent, an estimated 1,200 to 3,500 lives annually could be saved. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) claims that another 80 to 230 million cases of respiratory diseases could be averted each year.
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Category: environment, health, South Asia
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Suriname and ALBA

Posted on | februari 10, 2012 | 2 Comments

Last week the Surinamese president, Desi Bouterse announced plans to join Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas (ALBA), the Free-Trade Alternative founded by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. ALBA proposes according to the website Focus on the Global South, to engage in international co-operation according to a new vision of social welfare and equity. The Global South writing from the perspective of alternative forms of regionalism, argues that ALBA is an alternative to the American initiative of a regional free trade organization  FTAA, thereby omitting MERCOSUR and the ANDEAN PACT. Indeed its getting very crowded in the region, all these efforts to establish South-South co-operation, impeding, overriding and undermining the actual integration of South America.
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Category: business & trade, Latin America
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Ghetto Israel

Posted on | februari 10, 2012 | No Comments

Fence along the Israeli-Egyptian border. The project is partly finished, at the end of 2012 the work should be done. Cost: $ 360 million.

Under the title ‘Israel overcome by paranoia’ the military correspondent of the Israeli newspaper Ynet (Yedioth Ahronot), Alex Fishman, writes about the strange way Israel is fencing itself in:

In the year 2000 we built a smart, electronic fence on our northern border. It made sense; after all, Hezbollah is a dangerous and unpredictable foe. In the past decade we started to erect the West Bank barrier: A cement wall along with an electronic fence equipped with sensors and cameras. We’re still building it today. This made sense; we must curb the suicide bombers and illegal aliens. In 2005 we also built a sophisticated fence around the Gaza Strip. It monitors the area, fires on its own, and can even sing our national anthem if you want. It made sense; Hamas is also a dangerous foe. After that we also had to curb terrorism and infiltrators from the Sinai. There is no argument that we need a fence. We also need one on the Golan Heights, after Palestinian refugees crossed the border and rushed into Majdal Shams. So we came up with a proud Zionist response – a sophisticated 15-kilomter fence. In a few years, once the fence on the Jordanian border is built, we shall complete our disengagement from the Middle East. Who would believe that once upon a time we spoke about integrating into the region? By now we are a tiny state with a large fence. How did it happen to us?

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Category: Middle East, war & conflicts
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Indian border guard chief remark outrage Bangladesh

Posted on | februari 10, 2012 | No Comments

Bangladesh government, as well as the rights groups are outraged after the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) chief said that it is not possible to stop border firing completely.

The BSF director general U.K. Bansal told the BBC on Tuesday that it is not possible to stop border firing completely and his Bangladesh counterpart Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) chief Maj.Gen. Anwar Hossain disagrees and said on Thursday that killing at the border under any circumstances is not acceptable.
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Category: South Asia, war & conflicts
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