Vandana Shiva:
"And what I love about the rights of Mother Earth is we’re overcoming the separation between humans and nature that was built into the Cartesian thinking that nature is out there and we are out here, but also the kind of divisive separatedness that Cormac pointed out yesterday at the United Nations conference on Harmony with Nature. He said, "I began my life fighting apartheid, and apartheid means separateness—separateness on the basis of color." I think separateness is the disease of the past. It’s the dinosaur in the intellectual frame. Separateness was a very artificial imposition. Most civilizations of the world, for most of human history, have seen the world in terms of relatedness and connection. And if there’s one thing the rights of Mother Earth is waking us to, is we are all connected."

Maude Barlow:
"You know, it’s this human-centric notion that we’re all that matters, that other species of the planet doesn’t matter. The biggest threat to water in our world is that humans, modern humans, quote, "civilized" humans, see water as a huge resource for our pleasure, profit and convenience, and we do what we want with it. We dump whatever we want in it. We grow whatever we want, wherever we want. We move it wherever we want. And we are running out.

We’re talking about survival here. We’re talking about human and other species’ survival on this planet, if we don’t change the way we see the world, the way we see nature, the way we see water. It is not a big resource for us. It is the essential—these are the essential elements of a living ecosystem that gives us all life, and this is about survival.


http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/22/eart...

Thousands of demonstrators have staged a rally in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region to protest against President Massoud Barazani and the two ruling parties. Some 5,000 protesters converged in a square in the center of Sulaymanieh, located 260 kilometers (161 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday and demanded political reforms and an investigation into the fatal shootings of two protesters last week, Associated Press reported.

The rally is the latest sign of growing frustration with corruption and the overwhelming dominance of the two ruling parties. Residents in the self-ruled Kurdish region seek more political and economic freedom.
Four protesters have been killed and more than 100 wounded since February 17 when clashes erupted between Kurdish security forces and demonstrators in Sulaymanieh.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166617.html

The UK trade unions have put their weights behind the campaign for rights in the Arab countries by relaying messages of solidarity to their counterparts in Bahrain.

Trade Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Brenden Barber sent a message to general secretary of General Federation of Bahrain Salman Jafar al-Mahfoodh on Sunday, voicing support for the federation's push for democracy.

A group of Middle East experts has convened in a meeting in London to pledge their support for the popular uprisings in the region, which have so far succeeded in ousting two Western-backed dictators in Egypt and Tunisia.



http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166292.html


------Solidarity forever everywhere!

Pro-democracy protests in Bahrain and Libya have forced Britain and France to stop providing the two Arab countries with some security equipment.


Alistair Burt, Britain's minister for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Friday that his country had decided to cancel 44 export contracts with Bahrain and eight others with Libya as dozens of people have lost their lives during clashes with security forces in the two Arab states, AFP reported.

Burt says the government will not resume exports of riot control equipment, including tear gas and rubber bullets, to the countries "where we judge there is a clear risk that the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts, or which might be used to facilitate internal repression."

The British government has been accused of providing "tools of repression" for Arab regimes while they are cracking down on pro-democracy demonstrations.

Burt, however, pointed out that the government had "no evidence of British equipment being used in the unrest in Bahrain."

France also said that it had decided to halt exports of security equipment to Bahrain and Libya.

"Authorizations for the export of security equipment bound for Bahrain and Libya were suspended yesterday," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

The British Foreign Office and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade revealed that Britain has supplied the Bahraini government with several crowd control products such as "CS hand grenades, demolition charges, smoke canisters and thunder flashes."

The revelation confirms that Britain sold "tear gas, irritant ammunition, crowd control ammunition, small arms ammunition and ammunition for wall-and-door-breaching projectile launchers" to Libya, along with combat helicopters and military utility helicopters" to Algeria.

The development came as waves of pro-democracy protests are spreading across the Middle East after the collapses of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

Rights groups say the death toll from Thursday's clashes between protesters and security forces in Libya reached 84 amid other reports that suggested dozens more were killed on Friday.

Rights groups say there is a rising death toll from clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in Libya.

The regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi blocked websites and cut off electricity in some areas in an attempt to control anti-government protests.

In Bahrain, the military, armed with machine guns, opened fire on pro-democracy protesters trying to march into the center of the capital Manama on Friday, injuring at least 66.

Four pro-democracy protesters were killed and 231 others injured when riot police raided the protest camp in the early hours of Thursday, while most of the demonstrators were sleeping, in an attempt to clear capital's main square of demonstrators.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165941.html

Friday and Saturday morning Djibouti became the latest Arab country in which popular anti-regime protests have flared.

Thousands marched in Djibouti city, and the police had to use teargas and rubber bullets to disperse them.

The small country is located strategically at the Bab el-Mandeb strait on the southern tip of the Red Sea and hosts a number of foreign military bases.

Across the Bab el-Mandeb is revolting Yemen, where new deaths have been reported after protests intensified again Friday.

At the same time, as many as 84 are reported dead in Libyia in Northern Africa, where security forces are allegedly using unwarranted force. Internet in the country has been cut and the work of foreign media is impeded. The situation in Benghazi is reported to be "getting out of control," while protesters are said to have taken hold of third-largest city Al Bayda.

Violent protests are going on in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, while comparatively more peaceful marches in Jordan have nevertheless resulted in the deaths of at least two persons.