Protests in Syria

With Libya at the focus of the news we almost overview what happens in the rest of that region. Beside Yemen, which at least get a bit of attention there are also protests going on in Syria and the ruling Baath Party responds to these with extreme violence.

The main protests are going on in the city of Daraa. The government sealed the city of so no one is allowed to enter but people are allowed to leave, cellphones and landlines where also for a short time disabled in whole Daraa.

Airstrikes in Libya

Libya is at the moment nr 1 in the news, so after finally last week the No-Fly-Zone was approved at the UN security council, the Allied Nations started Airstrikes in Libya. According to what they are saying just Gaddafis Air defense weapons were destroyed.
After the No-Fly-Zone was announced Gaddafis troups announced an immediate ceasefire but everyone was very doubtful about that and the doubts turned out right.

No Fly Zone over Libya

Yesterday evening the UN Security council decided with a 10-0 Vote that a No Fly Zone will be implemented over whole Libya.
In the beginning that idea was heavily criticised when UK Prime Minister Cameron mentioned it first but finally he got his way.
Five Countries including Russia, China and Germany abstained from the Vote.

So now what does this No Fly Zone mean?

Living with HIV / Aids in Mississippi

Mississippi invests little in HIV programs. The state's policies also promote stigma and criminalize the transmission of the disease. Sandra Stringfellow tells her story.

Thousands of Mississippians are at risk for HIV, and many who are infected are denied lifesaving measures and treatment because of counterproductive state laws and policies, Human Rights Watch said in a report . Mississippi has resisted effective approaches to HIV prevention and treatment and instead supported policies that promote stigma and discrimination, fueling one of the nation's highest AIDS rates, Human Rights Watch said.

The Dale Farm Travellers

All who are not from the UK maybe don't know what travelers are, well they are Irish Gypsies who live across Ireland and the UK. 

Near London in Basildon is the largest UK traveller community. The Traveller community bought the former scrap yard  in the 1970s and Basildon council granted planning permission to 40 Families. 

Until 1994 the government was oblieged to provide sites for travellers but that act has been removed and now there is not even near enough space for travellers to stay permanently so a lot of them moved in to Dales Farm.

Still across the UK planning permission for travellers is rejected in 90% of the cases comparing to 20% of all other planning permissions 

Now Basildon council has permission to remove the travellers from their own land and is planning to send the Bailiffs with Bulldozers to do so.

The reputation of travellers is extremely bad among other residents but we should see that most of this is a case of prejudice. In the end travellers are normal people, of course not all of them are angels but in every community you will find good and bad. Alltogether we should let them live their lives on their own land where they are not harming anyone and just staying for themself. 

Most of them are just normal families with children, who wants to go to school and have good access to medical care and just a settled life. It is shocking that still the life expectance of travellers is much lower then of  "normal" UK residence due to a lack of medical care 

People always tend to look bad at minorities doesn't matter where they are from and who they are, Usually that is just because they are different and do things which looks strange. That doesn't mean they are not good people and it doesn't mean that they don't have rights. 

So lets all overcome our prejudice for minoritys and try to accept them as they are and even to understand them

The desasters of Japan

This topic is not really about Human rights but still I feel the urge to write down what I think about it as it really don't leave my mind.

Japan is known as a country who is known to experience many earthquakes, so it wasn't really a surprise that the quake came, actually it was long expected and the quake itself caused surprisingly less damage even though it was the 5th strongest earthquake since records and the strongest in Japan in 150 years.
The building regulations in Japan are so strong that most buildings did not have much problems with the quake, comparing to New Zealands quake recently which was far away from beeing as strong as the Japanese one but destroyed much more buildings.
Actually it was the Tsunami who caused the severe damage and the dead of thousands of peoples. In only one small coastal town 10000 people are missing, so you might be can immagine that there are much more deads as that was not the only city affected. there are many more along the coast.
But even Japans Tsunami warn system is extremely advanced and they gave a Tsunami warning just 3 minutes after the quake which is really fast but as the Tsunami striked just 15 minutes after the quake it was simply not enough time for most people to get away, its simply not possible.

So now I'm asking myself since days: How can a country as advanced as Japan, with such a strong economy and who got all precautions taken for natural desasters build so many nuclear power plants???
After Three Mile Island and Chernobyl we all should have learned our lesson and know that Nuclear Reactors are extremely danger and that not only local where they are build but worldwide.

When Chernobyl happened I lived in Germany and for years (even until today) radioactivity levels are higher then they should be even though not on a dangerous level anymore

Now as I said Japan is well known for earthquakes and also tsunamis as they are caused by the quakes so how can they build such a Nuclear Power Plant in that region?
How come that there is such an arrogance  that they really believe that never anything is going to happen, that their buildings and security systems are so safe that they can resist everything?

Nature proved us again that it has the upperhand against us humans and that we should not get to self confident in what we can and can't do on this planet.

Lets all hope that they can resolve this situation without causing to much harm even if it doesn't look good at the moment as already radioactivity leaked out and some people are found to have higher radioactivity levels.

To be honest I'm not even sure if the situation is not already worst as they are telling us as history teached us that the authorities tend to downplay what really happend.

So just lets hope the best and we should feel with all the Japanese people

The victims of Gaza