An urgent call for action from LabourStart:

Ms. Meryem Özsögüt, trade union leader and management board member of PSI’s affiliate SES in Turkey (the trade union of public employees in health and social services) was arrested on the morning of 8 January following her participation in a press conference on 14 December 2007 to denounce the killing by the police of activist Kevser Mizrak.

You can help! Sign the petition. Join the campaign.

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Search web2.0 in London on google maps. What do you get?

I kid you not.
But you can hack your own.

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Mine is.

Zimbabwean trade unionists Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe are being tried on Monday 23 June for ’spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the state’ (ie talking openly about the state-sponsored violence). To let them appear in public around the world, 2,000 trade unionists combined their photos online to make this giant mosaic portrait.

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In one of my fiery rants some time ago, I referred to Victor Lebow as the evil designer of the absurd linear model which dominates western economies. I linked to Steve’s article, from which the following image is borrowed:

But alas, I did not read his argument with care. I had made my aquaitance with Mr Lebow at Annie Leonard’s excelent the story of stuff. I had used Steve’s article to confirm the quote, without reading his analysis, and the colourful albeit longish) story of how he hunted down the original. Scroll down to the bottom of his post and you can read it yourself. If you do, you will also agree with Steve that Lebow was describing a flawed system, not prescribing a stratagy. There’s lots of powerful stuff there, like:

the measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our patterns of consumption. The very meaning and significance of our lives is today expressed in consupmtion terms.

This is Lebow, in 1955. What would he be saying today?

My appologies, and thanks Steve. I stand corrected.

Derek Blackadder has been kicked out of FaceBook again. This time for good - his account has been deleted. I’m not going to pose a protest ban on FaceBook, because I already did that. And came back, and got bored of the whole thing.

But this incident leads John Wood to a very pointly analysis of why FaceBook is good, why its bad, and what the ideal social network for social action would look like.

Now here’s what I think. With current platforms such as google app engine, open social, ning and the lot, it should be possible to hack something useful in a few weekends in the garage. Who’s game?

The following text came from a reliable channel, and is allegedly attributed to Dr. Alon Liel, one of the key Israeli negotiators with Syria, as the basis for the emerging peace agreement. I found it hard to believe: an experienced diplomat like Dr Liel would not compromise the achievement of a century by leaking it to the Internet. The draft is dated sept. 2007. And above all, I find it incomprehensible that any of the Israeli or Syrian leaders would display enough creativity or imagination to be able to read such a proposal and fidn the dotted line. Still, a quick google run shows that it is not a complete urban myth.

Saleem H. Ali and Michael Cohen proposed a solution along these lines in Nov. 2007 and Akiva Eldar reported on a similar line of thought not long ago. So take it as you like.

The Peace Park on the Golan

Draft – Sep.2007

The park on the Golan will be designed as a nature reserve, under Syrian sovereignty, stretching on about one third of the Golan Height territories, on the western zone close to the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).

Israeli citizens will be allowed entry to the park, no visa required, from morning to evening, for tourist, ecological or humanitarian purposes, as agreed to by both sides.

Israeli citizens currently living on the territory to be defined in the future as the park land and who own economical, tourist, or agricultural businesses will be able to continue operating their businesses and even hold on to their business ownership on the condition that it is approved by both governments and if the nature of their business is not contradictory to the spirit of the park.

The supervision and safeguarding of the park will be carried out by Syrian nature reserve officials who will be partially armed with personal weapons only. Entry for tourist purposes will entail payment of fees. Authorized workers, whether Israelis or Syrians, will hold a permanent entry permit. Other routine operational regulations will be set by the park management in accordance with the Syrian Parks Authority.

Both governments, with the cooperation of the international community, will make special efforts to turn that park into a tourist attraction which will appeal to the citizens of all countries and will draw tourists from all over the world.

Initial planning of the park will be carried out by a leading international team. The planning will take into account long term ecological and environmental considerations as well as certain historical, political and humanitarian sensitivities on both sides. The international team will make recommendation to both parties on the exact location of the park. The two governments will be asked to approve the park area before detailed planning starts.

The spirit of the park should be the spirit of reconciliation between the two peoples. It will reflect the wish of both countries to co-exist in peace and to maintain maximal economical and tourist cooperation for their own sake. Top businessmen and economists from all over the world will act as an advisory team to the Syrian authorities in order to ensure that the park will eventually yield profits and will not need long- term governmental subsidization.

Both parties aspire to reach a situation in which appropriate existing infrastructures in the park will continue to function after the sovereignty is restored to Syria.

The water flow in the park will be controlled in a way that will guarantee that Israel will keep on receiving the same quantities of water from the Golan sources or through the Golan as at the time the agreement is signed by both parties.

The evacuation of the Israeli population living on the territory of the park will be carried out within 5 to15 years from the date the agreement is signed by both parties. Aside from park personnel, Syrians will not be allowed to establish permanent residence on park territory.

The park territory entirely will be a buffer zone free of weaponry and visitors will not be allowed to bring in weapons. Citizens holding guns will be required to deposit it at certain entry posts.

Every transgression of park regulations will be dealt by the park authorities. When juridical process is required it will be handled by Syrian authorities if it concerns Syrian citizens and foreign tourists. The agreement on the juridical aspect will be discussed in details by both parties at the time of signing the accord.

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This just in from John Wood and Derek Blackadder:

Subject: Your mugshot could make a difference!

Hi everyone!

Derek and I would like you to send us a photo of yourself.

We want it as the two leaders of the Zimbabwean unions, Wellington Chibebe and Lovemore Matombo were arrested for talking about the political situation in Zimbabwe on May Day and are going to be tried for ’spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the state’ this coming Monday.

The idea is of course to shut them up over the course of the re-run elections. They are out on bail, but are prevented from appearing in public or making public statements, in contravention of their human rights, and they’re being very brave in going voluntarily into court next week even though they are no strangers to being really badly beaten up in police custody.

There are demos being called now in a number of countries (inc the UK) on Monday, and to help get some more attention to their case, we are trying to make a giant photo mosaic portrait of them, made up of supporters’ photos from all around the world. So we have only 2 days to get as many mugshot photographs as possible.

Your photo would end up 1 inch square on a big mosaic at the London demo, and we’ll be using the image for as much media and publicity as we can get with it. The idea is that if they are being prohibited from appearing in public, international solidarity from thousands of people around the world can make them “appear” around the world on Monday.

If you’d like to support a fairer environment for the coming elections in Zimbabwe, please help out by sending a mugshot photo of yourself to zim@tuc.org.uk or MMS it to 07546 229055, and circulating this to friends or colleagues who you think might be willing to help out too.

Best wishes and many thanks for helping!  
John

Read more on the TUC site

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Bold move by worldchanging. The bottom line is: we’ve had enough of your nonsense, thank you very much. You can regurgitate your hallucinary circular arguments on your own blog. This is our place, and grievous denial of reality is not acceptable behaviour here.

Amen to that. Will they block evolution deniers next?

If you still find it amusing to argue with climate change deniers, here the complete guide. (ht BB, also via worldchanging).

From Geekculture |
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