International

Heart-rending images of Fukushima disaster and a tidal wave of popular uprisings in the Arab world threatened to blur the compelling need for a nuke liberated Middle East as part of a world free of nuclear weapons. A transcontinental 10-nation initiative seeks to jolt the international community out of a mind numbing stupor.

A proposed international conference regarding a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, tentatively scheduled for year 2012, may be in jeopardy amid the growing political turmoil sweeping across the Arab world – and Israel’s fears of negative fallout on its own security.

By Thalif Deen
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS |

Images of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, following an unprecedented nine magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami, inevitably evoke memories of my two encounters with Hiroshima.
A gentle monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is festooned with thousands of paper cranes that symbolise humankind’s fervent desire that Hiroshima and Nagasaki may never happen again.

Abolition 2000 message on the nuclear crisis in Japan and around the world. “In solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of victims and survivors of the nuclear energy and weapons industries we call for an end to nuclear energy and weapons – the human and environmental impact of both being uncontrollable in time and space.”

Malaria still kills thousands of people a day. That’s distressing when you consider it is a disease that can not only be combated, but even eradicated. On the occasion of World Malaria Day for year 2011: the irritation, the expectation and the hopes of three prominent Dutch malaria fighters.

By Thijs Westerbeek van Eerten

During this week the United Nations General Assembly discussed international standards that grant nature equal rights to humans. Similar protocols have been adopted by over a dozen U.S. municipalities, as well as Bolivia and Ecuador. Renowned environmentalists Maude Barlow and Vandana Shiva join us for this interview.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster – and 6 weeks after the devastating disaster in Japan – 9 Nobel Peace Laureates call upon world leaders to invest in safer forms of renewable energy by sending an open letter to 31 heads of state whose countries are currently heavily invested in nuclear power production, or are considering investing in nuclear power.

With one week to go before the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, World without Wars has published it’s official position for the first time in this field. They are calling for an end to nuclear energy and for criminal charges against TEPCO executives and members of the Japanese Government responsible for the criminal negligence.

A document published in March by UNESCO reports that more than twenty-eight million children in those countries affected by conflicts do not receive education. If rich countries transferred monies from their military spending for just six days over to education, in 2015, the objective of Education for Everyone could be achieved.

Our Humanist Association of Hong Kong Letter to the Editor appeared today in the South China Morning Post newspaper, April 18, 2011. Also appearing on Humanize Asia and Lantau Forum, eliciting comments from others. I replied to one critic that I quote the worst case scenario where nuclear fallout would poison the entire planet.