Human Rights

Merkel and Bush

My favorite headline of the G8 so far, "Bush, Merkel vow to fight poverty, disagree on climate". This follows what was apparently a very nice lunch meeting between the two of them. From the article:

"But Bush made no reference to Merkel's demands that G8 leaders commit to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to 2 degrees Celsius.

Merkel, for her part, recognized that while the US and Germany agreed on combating poverty in Africa, there were other "areas here and there" which needed further discussion."

In perhaps not unrelated news, today German police boarded the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise - even though it was well outside the summit security zone. The police boarded without a search warrant and confined the 24 crew before seizing Greenpeace equipment including engines from inflatables, making the boats unusable, and the hull of a Greenpeace hot air balloon.

I wonder if, at any point during the lunch, Merkel and George "there ought to be limits to free speech" Bush touched on how far a government should go to ensure that leaders of the world's wealthiest nations can meet without the inconvenience of protest.

Greenpeace statement in response Merkel/Bush comments today.

From the BBC: Who are the G8 protesters?

Posted by Andrew at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy MLK Day!

In the US this is Martian Luther King day. Aside from George Washington, King is the only American who has their own federal holiday. Though it's one of the less often mentioned ones, my favorite King quote is:

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

In the end of course, the law didn't protect King, but I think he new that and persevered anyway. The Seattle Times also has a good guest column on King's life and work - with more words of wisdom from the man:

It was this co-existence of love and justice that led King to write his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in 1963. To moderate white clergymen who pleaded for patience and a reduction in tension, King wrote: "[N]onviolent direct action seeks to create ... a crisis and foster such tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue."

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Posted by Andrew at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's not happening here, but it's happening now

On the back of Brian's blogging about the "mugshot" Greenpeace ad campaign, here's an amazing Amnest International poster campaign from Switzerland. Each of the posters read "It's not happening here, but it's happening now" - but I'll shut up now, and let the pictures speak for themselves.

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Posted by Dave at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)