Mois : octobre 2006

Linked with human rights first, with Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions ZCTU, and with Appearance of ZCTU human rights defenders in Harare Court. And also with Akbar Ganji – Iran.

He is the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Humn Rights, and a radio commentator, and a laureat 2006 for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, which he received on october 11, 2006, in Geneva, by Louise Arbor, UN High Commissioner for Humans Rights, given by the Martin Ennals Foundation during a ceremony at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva (Switzerland), within framework of the International North South Media Festival. (See on zlhr.org.zw/).

Arnold Tsunga – Zimbabwe

In December 2005, Zimbabwean police raided the Voice of the People office and confiscated equipment and documents in an attempt to put the station out of business. Under Zimbabwe’s repressive Broadcasting Services Act, six trustees of the station have been charged with broadcasting without a license. If convicted, they could face two years in prison. Among the trustees arrested was Arnold Tsunga, who is also chairman of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, or ZimRights.

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Linked with Global Development Network GDN, and with Prodi’s message to the Lebanese people.
He says: ”the private sector in Lebanon was strong but warned that the country’s recovery depended on the government avoiding corruption in the distribution of aid money » (see the article by David Fickling, September 7, 2006 in the Guardian).

He says also: « In Lebanon, when you talk about unemployment, you are in fact talking about emigration. » (see alert.net).

And he says: “The impact of the blockade needs to be understood within the context of the overall impact of the war, Essentially, it constituted the continued loss of income. » (see IRINnews.org).

Samir Makdisi – Lebanon.

He works for the American University of Beirut AUB, Institute of Financial Economics.

He is professor of economics, chair of the economics department, and director of the Institute of Financial Economics at the American University of Beirut. He is also a former Deputy President of the University ( 1993-1998), and a former Minister of Economy and Trade, Republic of Lebanon (1992). He has been a guest lecturer at major universities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia; a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University; and a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center of Scholars, Washington D.C.

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She is one of the Laureates awarded in 2006 with the Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life, given annually by the Women’s World Summit Foundation WWSF

She says: ”Together we are strong. »

« Mama » Margaretha SAKO – Indonesia

Margaretha Sako (54), usually called Mama Margaretha, is the founder and driver of the Saku Maju Group in the Manumean Village (East Nusa Tenggara Province), which has played a key role in the development of her community and served as a model for other regions of her country.

After completing junior high school, she worked with her family, then later with her husband, using slash-and-burn cultivation. In this system trees are cut down, burned, then seeds are planted for two or three years before one moves on to another area where the process starts again. However, this approach is highly damageable to the land, and after observing other villages where agroforestry was used, she became determined to encourage her community to make changes. She followed courses given by a local NGO, and then decided to start a group in her village.

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Linked with ‘The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of‘.

He is the associate editor and research director of TomDispatch.com. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, The Village Voice, and Daily Ireland. (See on tomdispatch, see the list of his articles there).

He is also doctoral candidate at the ‘Center for the History & Ethics of Public Health’ in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He writes on the military-corporate complex. (See Alternet/Authors, see the list of his articles there).

Sorry, I can not get any photo of Nick (Nicholas) Turse – USA …

… but this photo about « war dead » placards (from a page of Washington Post.com, of August 31, 2004): On the second day of the Republican National Convention, Marlene Rocha reads a magazine as George Lee, Ovay Henkel and Max protest deaths in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Members of the small, autonomous protest group sat silently on a subway train going uptown as police followed them.

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He said: « Before Fez, I had never set foot in a city, never observed the swarming activity of the alleyways, never felt that powerful breath on my face, like the wind from the sea, heavy with cries and smells. Of course, I was born in Granada, the stately capital of the kingdom of Andalus, but it was already late in the century, and I knew it only in its death agonies, emptied of its citizens and its souls, humiliated, faded, and when I left our quarter of al-Baisin it was no longer anything for my family but a vast encampment, hostile and ruined ».

Amin Maalouf – Lebanon & France

He is Lebanese journalist and novelist, whose native language was Arabic but who writes in French. Most of Maalouf’s books have a historical setting, and like Umberto Eco, Orhan Pamuk, and Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Maalouf mixes fascinating historical facts with fantasy and philosophical ideas. In an interview Maalouf has said that his role as a writer is to create « positive myths ». Maalouf’s works, written with the skill of a master storyteller, offer a sensitive view of the values and attitudes of different cultures in the Middle East, Africa and Mediterranean world. (Read all on Pegasos).

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Linked with International Alert.

He was not only the first Secretary General of International Alert, he was the source of Alert’s early energy, inspiration and development. His untimely death in 1991 was a severe blow to the organisation – and a great loss to the field of human rights.He was a British human rights activist.

He says: ”Without peace, there is little hope for human rights ».

Martin Ennals – England (1927-1991)

As a pioneer of the human rights movement, Martin Ennals inspired many with his tireless devotion and life-long commitment to individual justice. Throughout his career, he was involved with a wide range of activities in his search for peaceful solutions to conflict and his defence and promotion of equal rights for all. He was instrumental in the founding or early development of many noteworthy organisations including Amnesty International, HURIDOCS, Article 19 and International Alert.

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She is one of the Laureates awarded in 2006 with the Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life.

She says: ”Educate a girl and you educate a nation ».

Margaret Ntuti AKWALU – Kenya

Chairlady of the Kieni Gia Nkoro Women’s Group in the rural district of Kianjai, Mama Ruth (65), as Margaret Ntuti Akwalu is fondly and popularly called, has made tremendous contributions towards community development in many areas. Her teaching in agriculture and development farming methods enabled her to sell the idea of cash crop growing to unwilling peasants in this rural community which resulted in a big increase of coffee plantation acreage. This became one of the greatest economic activities in the area that fed, educated and employed many people. She also uses her agricultural knowledge to improve her own farm that yields today the highest results. Margaret also preaches good hygiene practices and as a volunteer with the Kenya Family Planning Association, she strongly campaigns against retrogressive cultural practices like girl circumcision (FMG) and advocates for smaller families.

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