Let’s stand up for the Bahraini Shiites
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
TÜLİN DALOĞLU

[excerpt]
“When asked about the Bahraini government’s approach to the protesters, which moved from a “severe crackdown” to “vindictive,” İhsanoğlu blamed the U.S. invasion and American policies in Iraq for creating sectarian conflict. “Prior to that, Saddam Hussein treated everyone badly,” he said. “Yet Shiites and Kurds and all others worked in his government. They were all equally mistreated.” When I reminded him that the Iraqis came to Washington separated as Iraqi Kurds and Iraqi Shiites to lobby for a regime change, İhsanoğlu said, “Up until the (2003) intervention, Iraqis thought of themselves first as Iraqis and then as Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds or Turkmens. But it was never their primary identity. Their sectarian and ethnic differences came as their second and even third identity. Yet the ones who lobbied here used those differences, and when the U.S. put a new system in place they built it on those differences. What the French did in Lebanon 90 years ago, the U.S. did in Iraq eight years ago.
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By: Siun Sunday April 24, 2011 6:00 pm

One of the tradeoffs made by the US administrations to gain support for entering into Free Trade Agreements is that these agreements impose certain standards on the parties – to protect the environment, human rights and union rights.

So what will the Obama administration do when the terms of one of those agreements are blatantly violated?

The AFL-CIO filed a legal petition on Thursday with the United States Office of Trade and Legal Affairs :
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[This letter has been authenticated as being from Secretary General S. Ali Almahfoodh Amal Society – Bahrain – on 26, April 2011. This letter is posted here for all to see and so no one can deny it’s existence. ]

From Secretary General Sh. Ali Almahfoodh
Amal Society – Bahrain

To Secretary Hillary Clinton,
U.S. Department of State,

U.S. Embassy in Bahrain

Regarding the U.S. Department of State press release, announced by Mr Mark Toner on Apr 14, 2011. Regarding the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Bahrain filing a lawsuit to disband two leading, actively involved political societies, widely known on the local and regional level for their diplomatic and cultural political activism over the past ten years.

We value the position of the US when it urged the Kingdom of Bahrain to revise this decision, and protect civil society institutions in Bahraini society.

The statement of the spokesman was quick, critical in correcting the political path in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Although the government initiated the State of National Safety, it does not permit the government to abandon their commitment to Human Rights and freedoms, were they political, cultural or religious.

We notice that the government of Bahrain, through the Ministry of Interior and the State of National Safety targets one of these leading societies, the Islamic Action Society, through attacking their offices repeatedly and targeting their Secretary General, his deputy, board members and staff. Until the time this letter has been written, the headquarters and offices of the society were attacked twice, the computers were confiscated, in addition to 4 raids on the home of Secretary General and his deputy and the imprisonment of the board member Mr Fahmi Abdulsaheb two days ago. The Secretary General, his deputy and many members are still hiding because they are targeted by security forces, which denies their political rights.

All of these violations and persecutions took place after the statement of spokesperson Mr Mark Toner. Of course, the justifications of the Bahraini government and their security forces are unclear, especially after your efforts to prevent harassing political societies and your confirmations that these principles are a prerequisite for stability considering the popularity and activism of these societies, and that the government’s actions reflects negatively on the political process and worsens the situation in the country and stands in the way of achieving peaceful and practical solutions.

It should be noted that the Secretary General of the Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad) Ebrahim Sharif has been arrested for over a month, while Wa’ad is considered one of the pillars of the political process in Bahrain alongside its colleagues AlWefaq and Amal (Islamic Action Society) and other civil society institutions.

We believe that civil society institutions cannot be replaced, for they represent the people and they constitute a more democratic representation of society than the regime itself.

What’s taking place of violations, raids, persecutions and arrests in the ranks of the board members of the Islamic Action Society, restricting it and isolating its staff, does not differ from disbanding it in the manner the United States stood against in their direct statement and does not differ from deleting it and officially removing it from the scene, for the result is the same.

Based on this, we call on the authorities of the United States to pressure the government of Bahrain to respect civil society institutions and the freedom of their members and staff to peacefully express their opinions, especially that those
institutions express their opinions clearly, publicaly and officially through their known offices and headquarters. As well as the immediate release of all the staff of the Society and all the other opinion/ conscious prisoners in Bahraini prisons, and stopping their persecutions.

– Attached: Detailed report of the violations that occurred to board members of the Society and a list of the names of all the arrested from its members with their dates and details.

[Editor’s Note: the attachment was not avialbe at the time of publishing the letter here. It will be published as it is made available. ]

This letter has been authenticated as being from Secretary General S. Ali Almahfoodh Amal Society – Bahrain – on 26, April 2011. This letter is posted here for all to see and so no one can deny it’s existence.

From Secretary General Sh. Ali Almahfoodh
Amal Society – Bahrain

To Secretary William Hague,
Foreign & Commonwealth Office,
UK. Embassy in Bahrain

Regarding the U.S. Department of State press release, announced by Mr Mark Toner, the press release, announced by the UK Secretary of State Mr William Hague on Apr 14, 2011, as well as the European supportive stand to them.

Regarding the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Bahrain filing a lawsuit to disband two leading, actively involved political societies, widely known on the local and regional level for their diplomatic and cultural political activism over the past ten years.

We value the position of the US, and UK when they urged the Kingdom of Bahrain to revise this decision, and protect civil society institutions in Bahraini society.

The statement of the Secretary of state of UK and the spokesman of US were quick, critical in correcting the political path in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Although the government initiated the State of National Safety, it does not permit the government to abandon their commitment to Human Rights and freedoms were they political, cultural or religious.

We notice that the government of Bahrain, through the Ministry of Interior and the State of National Safety targets one of these leading societies, the Islamic Action Society, through attacking their offices repeatedly and targeting their Secretary General, his deputy, board members and staff. Until the time this letter has been written, the headquarters and offices of the society were attacked twice, the computers were confiscated, in addition to 4 raids on the home of Secretary General and his deputy and the imprisonment of the board member Mr Fahmi Abdulsaheb two days ago. The Secretary General, his deputy and many members are still hiding because they are targeted by security forces, which denies their political rights.

All of these violations and persecutions took place after the statements of UK Secretary of State Mr William Hogue, and US spokesperson Mr Mark Toner.

Of course, the justifications of the Bahraini government and their security forces are unclear, especially after your efforts to prevent harassing political societies and your confirmations that these principles are a prerequisite for stability considering the popularity and activism of these societies, and that the government’s actions reflects negatively on the political process and worsens the situation in the country and stands in the way of achieving peaceful and practical solutions.

It should be noted that the Secretary General of the Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad) Ebrahim Sharif has been arrested for over a month, while Wa’ad is considered one of the pillars of the political process in Bahrain alongside its colleagues AlWefaq and Amal (Islamic Action Society) and other civil society institutions.

We believe that civil society institutions cannot be replaced, for they represent the people and they constitute a more democratic representation of society than the regime itself.

What’s taking place of violations, raids, persecutions and arrests in the ranks of the board members of the Islamic Action Society, restricting it and isolating its staff, does not differ from disbanding it in the manner the United States, and United Kingdom stood against in their direct statements and does not differ from deleting it and officially removing it from the scene, for the result is the same.

Based on this, we call on the authorities of the United States, and United Kingdom to pressure the government of Bahrain to respect civil society institutions and the freedom of their members and staff to peacefully express their opinions, especially that those institutions express their opinions clearly, publically and officially through their known offices and headquarters. As well as the immediate release of all the staff of the Society and all the other opinion/conscious prisoners in Bahraini prisons, and stopping their persecutions.

– Attached: Detailed report of the violations that occurred to board members of the Society and a list of the names of all the arrested from its members with their dates and details.

[Editor’s Note: the attachment was not avialbe at the time of publishing the letter here. It will be published as it is made available. ]

By Carolyn Kellogg Los Angeles Times

April 26, 2011
“I’ve always been kind of a shill,” says Ted Danson. “The guy out in front of the tent saying, ‘Thank you so much for watching “Cheers,” come on in and let me introduce you to the marine biologists who have something really important to tell you.'”

The former Sam Malone might seem an unlikely environmental activist, but Ted Danson has quietly been advocating on behalf of our oceans for 25 years. Now he has taken his commitment to a new place: bookshelves.

His recently released first book, “Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do To Save Them” (co-written with Michael D’Orso, Rodale, $32.50), is a reflection of his experiences and what he’s learned. It begins, as Danson did, with the perils of offshore drilling and moves on to pollution, ocean acidification and overfishing reaching crisis levels at both the top and the bottom of the food chain.

“It’s a huge environmental disaster in the making that doesn’t have to happen,” Danson said by phone from New York. “We can change this. That’s part of what the book talks about.” …more

SUM announces Arne Næss Chair in 2012-2013

Buell is professor of American Literature at Harvard University and a pioneer of Ecocriticism.
Published Apr 12, 2011

He is the author of influential books in ecocriticism like; ‘The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture’, Harvard University Press (1995). ‘Writing for an Endangered World: Literature, Culture, and Environment in the United States and Beyond’, Harvard University Press (2001), ‘Emerson’, Harvard University Press (2003), ‘The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination’ (2005).The American Transcendentalists (2006) Editor. …source

24 Jan 2011: Opinion
Living in the Anthropocene:
Toward a New Global Ethos
A decade ago, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Crutzen first suggested we were living in the “Anthropocene,” a new geological epoch in which humans had altered the planet. Now, in an article for Yale Environment 360, Crutzen and a coauthor explain why adopting this term could help transform the perception of our role as stewards of the Earth.
by paul j. crutzen and christian schwägerl

It’s a pity we’re still officially living in an age called the Holocene. The Anthropocene — human dominance of biological, chemical and geological processes on Earth — is already an undeniable reality. Evidence is mounting that the name change suggested by one of us more than ten years ago is overdue. It may still take some time for the scientific body in charge of naming big stretches of time in Earth’s history, the International Commission on Stratigraphy, to make up its mind about this name change. But that shouldn’t stop us from seeing and learning what it means to live in this new Anthropocene epoch, on a planet that is being anthroposized at high speed.

For millennia, humans have behaved as rebels against a superpower we call “Nature.” In the 20th century, however, new technologies, fossil fuels, and a fast-growing population resulted in a “Great Acceleration” of our own powers. Albeit clumsily, we are taking control of Nature’s realm, from climate to DNA. We humans are becoming the dominant force for change on Earth. A long-held religious and philosophical idea — humans as the masters of planet Earth — has turned into a stark reality. What we do now already affects the planet of the year 3000 or even 50,000.

Changing the climate for millennia to come is just one aspect. By cutting down rainforests, moving mountains to access coal deposits and acidifying coral reefs, we fundamentally change the biology and the geology of the planet. While driving uncountable numbers of species to extinction, we create new life forms through gene technology, and, soon, through synthetic biology. …more