Liu Xiaobo - Nobel Peace Prize 2010

 

 

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European Leaders. Who is Who?

Angela Merkel, Sarkozy and José Manuel Barroso

Which one of these is Fake?

 

Europe's leaders recently  looked on in astonishment as the French President shouted at Jose Manuel Barroso, accusing him of insulting the honour of France by pressing ahead with an inquiry into its treatment of the Roma. According to witnesses, Mr Sarkozy flew into a rage during the lunchtime altercation after rejecting a "half-apology" from Mr Barroso over a senior commissioner's attack on the French measures as being reminiscent of ethnic transfers that took place in the Nazi era.

Mr Barroso was said to have become visibly angry at the way in which Mr Sarkozy referred to EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding throughout his diatribe as "that woman". Mr Barroso later accused Mr Sarkozy of using "useless rhetoric" to distract attention from his eviction policy. Mr Sarkozy repeatedly vowed to press on repatriating Roma and dismantling their camps around France.

The row was the culmination of days of increasingly bitter exchanges between Paris and Brussels, as France, a founder member of the EU and self-proclaimed champion of human rights, faces the prospect of legal action to force a change in its law to give better protection to ethnic minorities. 

Sarkozy said German Chancellor Angela Merkel had "expressed her total solidarity" and he had similar support from Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and the leaders of Bulgaria and Romania, who have received most returning Roma. However, a German source said later: "That is nonsense. Merkel thought what Reding said was excessive but she never went into the details of the expulsions."

The Times

France & Intolerance

1)  French Senate voted to ban Islamic full veil in public

France's Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public. The ban will come into force in six months' time if it is not overturned by constitutional judges. The ban has strong public support, but critics point out that only a tiny minority of French Muslims wear the full veil.

Spain and Belgium are debating similar legislation, and with such large-scale immigration in the past 20 or 30 years, identity has become a popular theme across Europe, according to correspondents. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 246 to 1 in favour of the bill. 

The bill makes it illegal to wear garments such as the niqab or burka, which incorporate a full-face veil, anywhere in public. It envisages fines of 150 euros (£119) for women who break the law and 30,000 euros and a one-year jail term for men who force their wives to wear the burka. The niqab and burka are widely seen in France as threats to women's rights and the secular nature of the state.  (BBC)

 2)  Deportations of Roma people 

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has urged the European Commission to take legal action against France over its deportations of Roma (Gypsies).

“The Roma have long been a pariah people. Poorly understood, highly suspect, and the subject of pervasive myths, the Roma of Europe have been persecuted and marginalised for centuries. The latest move on the part of the French authorities to forcibly displace and return over 700 Roma and destroy over 50 camps, is another example of the intolerance of European society, and the unwillingness of national authorities to look at social issues in an evidence-based way. Over the next few weeks and months, other countries in Europe may be tempted to follow the model that France has initiated. If they do, it will constitute one of the largest forced displacements Europe has seen since the Balkan War.” (ICMHD)

 

World Refugees Day 2010

This year's World Refugee Day on June 20 has as its theme, "Home," in recognition of the plight of more than 40 million uprooted people around the world. Around 10 million of them are refugees of special concern to UNHCR.

At UNHCR we help people find new homes and new futures through resettlement, through voluntary repatriation and through local integration. Most of the time, and where it's possible, refugees prefer to return to their home countries. Nonetheless, and with conflict continuing or escalating in many countries, finding new homes and allowing people to restart their lives is increasingly difficult.

This year, for World Refugee Day, we are planning events around the world to highlight the plight of refugees under our care and to advocate on their behalf for the help they need. We will be asking you to think about what it means to be one of those millions of individual human beings. And we will ask you to contribute in whatever way you can to helping them rebuild their lives.

Visit the UNHCR site

Nobel Prize Novelist José Saramago dies

Jose Saramago, who became the first Portuguese-language winner of the Nobel Literature prize although his popularity at home was dampened by his unflinching support for Communism, blunt manner and sometimes difficult prose style, died this Friday. 

Saramago, 87, died at his home in Lanzarote, one of Spain's Canary Islands, of multi-organ failure after a long illness, the Jose Saramago Foundation said."The writer died in the company of his family, saying goodbye in a serene and placid way," the foundation said.

Saramago was an outspoken man who antagonized many, and moved to the Canary Islands after a public spat in 1992 with the Portuguese government, which he accused of censorship. His 1998 Nobel accolade was nonetheless widely cheered in his homeland after decades of the award eluding writers of a language used by some 170 million people around the world. "People used to say about me, 'He's good but he's a Communist.' Now they say, 'He's a Communist but he's good,'" he said in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press.

Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit

Nokia launched a new charging accessories for its mobile phones - one that uses by pedal power. The Nokia Bicycle Charger kit, which is targeted at emerging markets, generates electricity via a dynamo connected to a bike wheel, which is fed into a charger that can connected to a phone via the standard 2mm charging port. The kit also includes a holder to secure the phone to the bike; it will be available in selected retailers before the end of the year.

Nokia is targeting this accessory at emerging markets, where electricity supplies may be unreliable. Clearly there's also an environmental benefit as pedal power is a renewable energy source. The charger is part of Nokia's general push for 'green' solutions. They have already made significant changes to their standard chargers over the last few years to minimise the idle power draw, giving improved energy star ratings. A recent Greenpeace report ranked Nokia in first place in its survey of green electronics.

Israel attacks Gaza Aid Fleet

The Beauty of Annecy

Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It lies on northern tip of Lake Annecy (Lac d'Annecy), 35 kilometres south of Geneva. A beautiful and quite romantic place, isn’t it?

Same-Sex Marriage just approved in Portugal

Portugal became yesterday the sixth country in Europe to legalise same-sex marriage, after the Conservative President Anibal Cavaco Silva ratify the proposal, despite fierce resistance from religious and conservative groups, in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

This doesn’t act to divide gay marriage and heterosexual marriage as it does in the United Kingdom, but would instead remove any reference to marriage being between a man and a woman from current legislation.

Pope Benedict XVI in Portugal

Pope Benedict XVI began a four-day trip to Portugal today with an open-air mass before an expected 160,000 pilgrims amid lingering questions over the Vatican's handling of paedophile priests. Benedict is likely to focus his message on the Church's call to preserve Europe's Christian roots and Portugal's traditional family values during the visit, the centrepiece of which is to be a huge open-air mass in the shrine of Fatima on Thursday. The pontiff will be welcomed to overwhelmingly Catholic Portugal by President Anibal Cavaco Silva days before he is due to sign into law a bill passed by parliament which would make Portugal the sixth country to allow same-sex marriage.

The pope is also likely to address the social problems facing one of Europe's hardest hit economies.The German pope on Sunday urged the faithful to "accompany him in this pilgrimage" and to pray "for the Church and especially for priests". But he steered clear of any specific reference to the wave of scandals which have tainted the Church over allegations that the Vatican has for years covered up the sexual abuse of children by priests in various countries, including several in Europe and the United States. The pope is thought by some Vatican observers to be most likely to address the issue of paedophilia in a speech to seminarians and priests in Fatima on Thursday.

The "heart" of his visit will be his stop in Fatima, the site where three shepherd children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary in 1917. The pope's visit to the sanctuary town comes exactly 10 years after his predecessor John Paul II beatified two of the children at the site, bringing them one step from sainthood. The organisers say the open-air mass in Fatima on May 13 -- the anniversary of the first reported apparition -- is expected to draw between 300,000 to 500,000 pilgrims. He will celebrate the final mass of his visit on Friday in Portugal's second largest city Oporto.

Source: AFP Portugal

Saint George

Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier and priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Eastern Orthodox Churche, Oriental Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. He is immortalized in the tale of Saint George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

St George's Day is celebrated by the several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint. St George's Day is also England's National Day. Many countries which observe St George's Day celebrate it on 23 April, the traditionally accepted date of Saint George's death in 303 AD, and the Eastern Orthodox old calendarists, who use the Julian calendar, celebrate on May 6.

The Feast of Saint George is a palestinian holiday commemorating Saint George (known as al-Khadr in Palestinian culture), supposed to be originated during the Byzantine rule of Palestine. The feast occurs annually on 5 May, and although it is originally a local Christian holiday, both Palestinian Christian and Muslims participate. Previously, the feast attracted Arabs from throughout Palestine to visit the Monastery of Saint George and trade loaves of bread, make sacrifices they vow to fulfill and gather for picnics under the olive trees surrounding the monastery.

The same tradition continues today, with many Christian pilgrims coming to give sacrifices and baptize their children, due to the abundance stories about the healing properties of the St. George. Noteworthy, the Feast of St. George is one of the rare Christian rituals where an animal is sacrificed within the monastery. The most common animal slaughtered is the sheep. On the morning of 6 May, Greek Orthodox Christians from Beit Jala, Bethlehem and Beit Sahour would march in a procession to the monastery.

Traditionally, Muslims guard the entrance of the church and welcome pilgrims. As the Christians, the Muslims too sacrifice sheep during the feast and offerings are stored in a sheep pen in the garden of the monastery. In Islam, two sacrifices are offered: The first is the dhabihah, which requires that one-third of the immolated lamb be set aside for consumption by its owner, while the remaining two-thirds are for Allah and given as charity. The second offering is that of a live animal, bequeathed as a gift to St. George.

Muslim signs dot the courtyard of the monastery and traces of the sacrifices are evident in the form of the lamb hides left on the balustrades to dry.

Expo 2010 Shanghai

Expo 2010 Shanghai is being held on both banks of the Huangpu River in the city of Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, from May 1 to October 31, 2010. It is a World Expo in the tradition of international fairs and expositions. The theme of the exposition is "Better City – Better Life" and signifies Shanghai's new status in the 21^st century as the "next great world city". It is the most expensive Expo in the history of the world's fairs. The Shanghai World Expo is also the largest World's Fair site ever at 5.28 square km.

More than 190 countries and more than 50 international organizations have registered to participate in the Shanghai World Expo, the largest ever. China expects to receive almost 100 foreign leaders and millions of people from across the world to come and visit the World Expo. More than 70–100 million visitors are expected to visit the expo, the largest in history.

Visit the Official Website of Expo Shanghai 2010.

Shanghai, beautiful Shanghai !!

One of the most beautiful places I've ever visited!!!