Catégorie : World People

Berlin – One of Germany’s most important contemporary authors, Walter Kempowski, died early Friday at the age of 78, his publisher said. Kempowski, who established himself as a bestselling author and a chronicler of the German middle class, had been suffering from intestinal cancer. He is best known for his series of novels called German Chronicles and the monumental Echolot (Echo Sounder), a collection of documents reflecting the reality of life during World War II. German government spokesman Thomas Steg described Kempowski as « one of the most prominent authors in the German language ». Kempowski’s first success as an author was the autobiographical novel Tadelloser und Wolff, in which he describes his youth in Nazi Germany from the viewpoint of a well-off middle class family …

(full text).See his website, in english. Und auch seine deutschen Internet-Seiten.

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Walter Kempowski – Germany (1929 – 2007)

He said:  » … I’m a participant of the post-war era. I paid the price for the sins of others. My family did nothing awful. My father helped a few Jews escape to Sweden. But he was no hero. Nor was my mother » … (full interview text).

Find: his books on Literaturarchiv; on wikipedia (scroll down); on Google book-search; about him on Google scholar-search, and on Google blog-search; and his publications on his own english website, und auch sein Werkverzeichnis auf der deutschsprachigen Internetseite.

Walter Kempowski is one of north Germany’s greatest writers. Apart from his novels, one of the works which has brought him great renown, is a collection of documents reflecting the reality of life during the Second World War. The title he gives to these works is « Echolot » – echo sounder – as he probes into the past. In his house in the north German countryside, Kempowski is surrounded by thousands of letters and documents he has collected over the years. Among them are diaries, letters, photographs and postcards – most of which come from ordinary people. He bought some of them in second-hand bookshops and on market stalls, while many more are sent to him as unsolicited material. In some respects, he has become the keeper of the national memory. His main work charts five weeks in 1943, when the tide of war was turning against the Germans in Stalingrad. Each week is represented by dozens of quotes from people from all walks of life … (full text).

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Florence Aubenas (born February 6, 1961 in Brussels) is a Belgian journalist, who worked until 2006 for the French newspaper Liberation. She was taken hostage on January 5, 2005, in Iraq along with her translator Hussein Hanoun Al-Saadi. Ms Aubenas travelled to Baghdad last December, and went missing with her Iraqi interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi on 5 January 2005. Little is known about their captivity … On March 1, 2005, a video tape was found in Iraq, in which Aubenas asked for help. She spoke English and declared she was in bad health. In the end of the 26-second video, she mentioned the name of Didier Julia. The French authorities and Florence Aubenas’ family were given another video (on CD-ROM) a week earlier. Florence and Hussein were freed on June 11, 2005. (full text).

She says: « When you live through something so public, it becomes a communal story. People who recognize me, congratulate me, it’s a little funny. Was I really a hero? For me, a hero is someone who leads a fight, gloriously, with a firm stand. I didn’t fight for anything. I was captured, held and delivered. I was an object » … and: « I might savor my coffee more in the morning, but when it comes to the big issues, I don’t see life any differently ». (full text).

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Florence Aubenas – Belgium

She works for the french journal ‘Liberation‘.

In the course of a 19-year career with the daily Liberation, she has covered many conflicts – including those in Rwanda, Kosovo and Afghanistan. She is a great professional who is used to danger zones, Liberation newsroom chief Antonie de Gaudemar told AFP news agency. Another colleague described her as plucky but not reckless … (full text).

She says also: « I had no stratagems, no tricks. You are simply obliged to put up with it, you have no choice » … and: « Baghdad is at the heart of the major issues of our time. For a foreign correspondent it is a dream to be there » … (full text).

Aubenas, a veteran war correspondent for the daily newspaper « Libération », and Hanoun al-Saadi were abducted on 5 January by unidentified individuals. Dozens of European media organisations and journalists, including 150 news media executives and editors, rallied to support Aubenas and Hanoun al-Saadi and raise awareness of the kidnappings. Hanoun al-Saadi was reunited with his family in Baghdad shortly after his release, while Aubenas arrived home in France on 12 June. (full text).

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Linked with UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and with Articles for Indigenous Peoples on our blogs.

Túpac Amaru II (b. March 19, 1742 in Tinta, Cusco, Peru – executed in Cusco May 18, 1781) — born José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera — was the leader of an indigenous uprising in 1780 against the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Although unsuccessful, he later became a mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence and indigenous rights movement and an inspiration to a myriad of causes in Peru. He should not be confused with Tupac Katari who led a similar uprising in the region now called Bolivia at the same time … (full text).

Read: NGOs, Intellectual Property Rights and Multilateral Institutions; and THE XVIII CENTURY; and The Túpac Amaru Rebellion in Peru, 1780-81.

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José Gabriel Condorcanqui alias Túpac Amaru II – Peru (1742 – 1781)

The today’s representant and general co-ordinator of the Indian Movement Tupaj Amaru is Lazaro Pary Anagua, Bolivia, accredited observer at UNGE, CH-1217 Meyrin 1, Switzerland, Tel: +41 22 7347612, Fax: +41 22 7347617, email.

José Gabriel Condorcanqui’s Bio:

• in spanish: on pbs.org; on wikipedia; on encarta; on biografias y vidas; on arte Historia; on monografias.com.
• in english: on Encyclopedia Britannica online; on geocities.org.
• in french: on americas-fr.com.

No other rebellion in the American colonies was quite so menacing for Spanish interests in America as this one. Despite the fact that in a certain sense it had been announced beforehand, it took the colonial authorities by surprise, and this oversight helped the movement to acquire sizable dimensions. (full text).

Submitted statements:

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Linked with Airline Ambassadors, with Wings of Love, and with Nishikant Waghmare – India.

She says: « In 1993, I delivered my first bag of aid to a refugee camp in Croatia. From this singular act spawned Airline Ambassadors International (AAI). Over the last decade, our members have been at the forefront of a growing movement called « voluntourism. » Voluntourism offers a way for caring individuals to become positively involved in the global community by traveling To make a difference. Our members have traveled the globe, helping to lift children and communities out of poverty and, in the process, create lasting bonds of friendship and kindness throughout the world ». (full text).

Watch the video: NBC News with Brian Williams, Nancy Rivard, 2.55 min, added May 01, 2007.

Nancy Rivard lost her 54-year-old father suddenly to bladder cancer on Christmas Eve 1983. « I wondered what life was about that it could be taken from us like that, » she recalls. « I began to evaluate where I was going. » Nancy purposely got herself demoted from the management track at American Airlines and went to work as a flight attendant. With low-cost travel passes and a flexible schedule, she toured around the world, searching for a calling – for healing. « I kept asking, how can I make a difference? » she says. That pursuit of service eventually led her to becoming World Woman of Peace in 1999. (full text).

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Nancy Rivard – USA

She works for Airline Ambassadors.

Nancy Rivard has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Southern Methodist University and 25 years experience with American Airlines in management, sales, instruction and as a flight attendant. When her father died suddenly, she found herself deeply reevaluating her life priorities. She left a management job to return to flight attendant status to have time off to travel and pursue post-graduate research.

Extensive travel on a personal quest for meaning engendered in her a deep desire to serve humanity and a new vision for the travel industry. She lived with the Hopi Indians, adopted a girl in Sri Lanka, spent a month in the high Andes, and searched for spiritual teachers in Thailand, Africa, India, the Philippines and the former USSR.

She founded Airline Ambassadors International in 1996 for airline personnel, like herself, who were able to travel frequently, in hopes of inspiring the public to also match their unique interests and skills to actual world need. The non profit organization is a voice in the travel industry for environmental and social responsibility. It has been recognized in the US Congress and is an NGO affiliated with the United Nations … (full text).

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Linked with Axis of Logic.

Siv O’Neall was born and raised in Sweden where she graduated from Lund University. She has lived in Paris, France and New Rochelle, N.Y and traveled extensively throughout Europe. Siv retired after many years of teaching French in Westchester, N.Y. and English in the Grandes Ecoles (Institutes of Technology) in France. In addition to her own writing, Siv has also provided Axis of Logic with translation services. She has been living in France, first Paris, then Lyon for 30 years. In addition to her political activism and writing, her life is filled with family, music, animals, reading, traveling and « anything that pleases the eye or the palate ». (full text).

Bienvenu/Welcome aux pages web de/to the web pages of Siv & John O’Neall.

She writes: « The world has been taken hostage in the most gigantic, megalomaniac and malevolent plot that has ever been conceived by man. Words like democracy and freedom no longer have any meaning. We are all pawns in a huge game of ‘get-the-booty’ and ‘rule-the-world’. Individuals have strictly no value. People only exist so as to be used as slaves until they die from exhaustion or survive in utmost misery and total insecurity, until their children can take over in the same kind of miserable treadmill … (Read full long text: The Cracks in the Façade are Widening, The corporation is king, Published on Axis of Logic, by Siv O’Neall, Sep 13, 2007).

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Update: Thanks for this photo received from Siv O’Neall on July 26, 2011.

She works for Axis of Logic, today publishing as Intrepid Report.

She writes also: n the sixties and seventies, a group of right-wingers in the United States formed a society of vindictive and power hungry men who thought they could reinvent reality. Initially they received little notice and operated inside the American Enterprise Institute; that think tank became the womb for these megalomaniacs and their monstrous ambition of remaking the world. Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz were among them and the movement was to turn into a preposterous beast. The group called themselves Neoconservatives although they were hardly conservatives in the traditional sense and were very much out there on a new and tenuous limb … (Owning the World, The Great Illusion, April 16, 2007).

Read: The New World Order, or Stop Globalization, I want to get off, (A Crisis Papers Guest Essay, March 23, 2004); and: The Corporate Empire Rules the Planet, A View from Europe, July 19, 2005.

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He says: “Of course we are watching closely the issue on arrests of journalist. Moreover, we are generally evaluating human rights situation and for this reason we attach due importance to other fields. In December last year government approved action plan on human rights. The issue we take interest in most of all is to clarify to what extent exact and in details this plan is being realized now”. (full text, Sept 18, 2007).

Watch Thomas Hammarberg’s video, Sept 07, 2007: Not Returning IDPs to Their Homeland Violates Human Rights: Council of Europe’s Commissioner on Human Rights.

Download « Human Rights for Human Dignity: a primer on economic, social and cultural rights« .

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Thomas Hammarberg – Sweden

The Economist magazine asked a very important question on 22 March 2007: « Are not access to jobs, housing, health care and food basic rights too? » According to The Economist, such rights are not human rights: « …few rights are truly universal, and letting them multiply weakens them. »

Amnesty International disagrees. The right to adequate food, the highest attainable standard of health and education are as much human rights as are freedom of expression or the right to a fair trial. Nearly sixty years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted recognising the principle that human rights are universal and indivisible — that all human rights should be enjoyed by all people. This is at the heart of AI’s mission … (full text).

Thomas Hammarberg was elected Commissioner for Human Rights on 5 October 2005 by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.

He took up his position on 1 April 2006, succeeding the first Commissioner, Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles. He was nominated for the post of Commissioner for Human Rights by the Swedish government.

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Ibrahim Warde is adjunct professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (Medford, Massachusetts).

He writes: … The two activities became interchangeable. A new acronym, AML-CFT (“anti-money laundering – combating the financing of terrorism”), was instantly and uncritically adopted, joining two fundamentally different issues. Money laundering is based on crime-for-money; it involves large sums and transforms illegally obtained cash into seemingly legitimate funds. Terrorist financing, by contrast, is a political phenomenon, involving relatively small amounts, and, at least since 9/11, the financing happens outside international banking channels … (full long text).

In the powerful new work, « The Price of Fear », author Ibrahim Warde exposes the claims that the US is combating the extensive financial networks of the terrorists. His well-supported argument maintains, in fact, that there are no extensive financial networks of which to speak. Terrorism, he finds, is not supported by millions and millions of dollars, and as such is not susceptible to financial peril. As more and more of the rhetoric of the Administration comes to ring hollow, this book demonstrates yet another instance of the present government failing to understand its enemy. (Venture).

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Sorry, I can not find any photo of Ibrahim Warde, USA.

He writes also: … In the past decade, Islamic finance has grown at rates exceeding 20% a year. It is now a $200 billion industry, with operations in over 70 countries. This book explains the paradox of a system rooted in the medieval era thriving in the global economy. It traces the evolution of Islamic finance, explores its significance from a historical and comparative perspective, and considers the strategic, marketing, managerial, political, economic, regulatory and cultural challenges faced by Islamic institutions. Based on rigorous academic research as well as considerable empirical work, this authoritative book is set to become an invaluable reference work for all those with an interest in Islamic and Middle Eastern economics, business and finance … (full text).

Read: Security for a New Century, A Study Group Report, March 2005.
Private enterprise is much taken with education, especially universities. In the United States the race to get hold of academic disciplines that bring in the money has already increased conflicts of interest between research and business. Under cover of a ‘marketplace of ideas’, the logic of the market could turn academics into entrepreneurs and endanger the unity of our universities … (full text, 03/06/2004).

His publications:
on Le Monde diplomatique; on Harvard book store; on pickabook; on amazon.

Ibrahim Warde exposes the Bush administration’s much ballyhooed, but often duplicitous ‘war on terrorist finances’ which has nabbed few bad guys, ruined many innocents, frozen little hot money and vastly complicated worldwide banking for the greater glory of a burgeoning American bureaucracy. (uc.press.edu).

Read: Die Wirtschaft der amerikanischen Vettern, die Freiheiten im neuen Irak-Business sind bedroht; and Paradoxes de la finance islamique, sept. 2001; and George W Bush: Flight from Reality; and Ce que cache l’affaire Clearstream; and End of the new workplace: smiling serfs of the new economy, March 2002.

Warde exposes the Bush administration’s much ballyhooed, but often duplicitous “war on terrorist finances” which has nabbed few bad guys, ruined many innocents, frozen little hot money and vastly complicated worldwide banking for the greater glory of a burgeoning American bureaucracy. (ibtauris.com, scroll down).

links:

riches beyond belief;

Bustani seminars focus on Mideast, 2007-09-13;

International Wildlife Adventures Trip Leaders;

Foreign Languages & Literatures Events Archive, web.mit.edu, 2002;

The middle east panorama blogspot;

Combating Terrorist Financing, A Key Aspect of the War on Terrorism.

1857 to 2007 – Imperialism, Race, Resistance – an international conference on the 150th anniversary of the 1857 uprisings, 6 October 2007. Speakers include eminent historian Sumit Sarkar, writer Tariq Ali and human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar. REGISTER NOW FOR THE CONFERENCE AS PLACES ARE LIMITED.

Linked with The Forced Migration Review FMR, with BASJAK’s report on Jammu and Kashmir, with JAMMU AND KASHMIR: A SMOULDERING CONFLICT … , and with Professor Pandita’s Blog about Kashmir and IDPs.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « Being a feminist involved with human rights concerns, Nandita faced problems on the ideological front. It was important to create a synergy between the then parallel movements ». In her three decades as a feminist and human rights lawyer, Nandita Haksar (born 1955) has contributed immensely to the development of a rights-based perspective on complex political issues. Her work in exposing human rights violations by Indian security forces in the northeast, and her efforts to bring to the fore the underground Naga movement were pioneering. Nandita has managed to win for political dissidents not judicial pity but a change in the courts’ view of human rights. She was also instrumental in bridging the gap between the feminist and the human rights movements in India. (1000PeaceWomen).

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Nandita Haksar – India

She works for the Supreme court of India.

She says also: « Mohammad Afzal has been sentenced to death by hanging for the offence of conspiring to attack the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. The news that the date for his hanging has been fixed for October 20, 2006, has been greeted by most of the media with approval, if not celebration. But before we endorse the decision to hang Afzal we need to inform ourselves of the hard facts of the case without emotion. It is important to remember that we are not discussing whether Afzal was or was not a part of the conspiracy to attack the Parliament. He has already been found guilty of the crime and convicted. The question is on the sentence. There are three principal reasons why hanging Mohammad Afzal would violate basic principles of natural justice and equity … (full text).

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