Maldives calls attention to the threat climate change poses to island nation

By: The Associated Press 17 Oct 2009 08:26 AM ET

GIRIFUSHI, Maldives - Members of the Maldives' Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals Saturday at an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest-lying nation on earth.

President Mohammed Nasheed and 13 other government officials submerged and took their seats at a table on the sea floor — 20 feet below the surface of a lagoon off Girifushi, an island usually used for military training.

With a backdrop of coral, the meeting was a bid to draw attention to fears that rising sea levels caused by the melting of polar ice caps could swamp this Indian Ocean archipelago within a century. Its islands average 7 feet above sea level.

"What we are trying to make people realize is that the Maldives is a frontline state. This is not merely an issue for the Maldives but for the world," Nasheed said.

As bubbles floated up from their face masks, the president, vice president, Cabinet secretary and 11 ministers signed a document calling on all countries to cut their carbon dioxide emissions.

Urgency
The issue has taken on urgency ahead of a major U.N. climate change conference scheduled for December in Copenhagen. At that meeting countries will negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol with aims to cut the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that scientists blame for causing global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Wealthy nations want broad emissions cuts from all countries, while poorer ones say industrialized countries should carry most of the burden.

Dozens of Maldives soldiers guarded the event Saturday, but the only intruders were groupers and other fish.

Nasheed had already announced plans for a fund to buy a new homeland for his people if the 1,192 low-lying coral islands are submerged. He has promised to make the Maldives, with a population of 350,000, the world's first carbon-neutral nation within a decade.

"We have to get the message across by being more imaginative, more creative and so this is what we are doing," he said in an interview on a boat en route to the dive site.

Nasheed, who has emerged as a key, and colorful, voice on climate change, is a certified diver, but the others had to take diving lessons in recent weeks.

Three ministers missed the underwater meeting because two were not given medical permission and another was abroad.

A Liberal Leader of the Opposition?

Ipos-Mori conducted a poll asking people who they were most likely to vote for at the next general election. The triumph of the Conservatives (36%) was no surprise to me, but the progress of the Liberals had me choke on my morning coffee. Ipsos-Mori has them in 2nd place (25%) ahead of Labour (24%). This represents an 8 point gain for the yellow party, whilst Labours figure evidences a stagnation in support, showing no change at all.

What does this mean? Until now, Liberals would find themselves voting Labour so as not to waste their vote on also-rans. Nick Clegg, how ever much he wants it, will probably not be Prime Minster this time next year. But maybe they've set their sights to high. A Liberal leader of the opposition has not been touted as a possibility in the popular press so far. On this evidence, if Liberal supporters dare to dream, it should be.

The Tryfan challenge

For all nature loving adrenaline junkies and thrill seekers out there consider a trip to Snowdonia. Or more specifically, a trip up the explosion of rocks that are Tryfan and the adjacent Glyders. These mountains are often overlooked in favour of neighbouring Snowdon but are a very rewarding alternative to the famous peak, offering climbs up rock faces and scrambles up steep scree slopes amid some of the most challenging terrain in Britain. And if that’s not enough, tradition dictates that the hardiest of souls take a death-defying leap across two column-like rocks that adorn the tiny summit of Tryfan.

Bob and I spent last weekend in the Welsh mountains, fuelled by a desire to detox and have 48 hours in the countryside with only the most essential items. It takes about 4 1/2 hours from London and it’s not until you get onto the A5 past Shrewsbury that the route becomes interesting. From Llangollen it begins to wind through rolling forest, past low lying hills and picturesque Welsh villages to Betws-y-coed, famous for its old iron bridge and ‘ugly house’, and gateway to the mountains.

On the Sunday, under cloudless skies and tingling with a mix of adventure and fantasy of Tolkienian proportions, we parked up at the foot of Tryfan at the east end of lake Llyn Ogwen that lines the valley floor (according to legend the final resting place of King Arthur’s Excalibur) between the Glyders and the Carneddau range. There is no gentle introduction to Tryfan. From the lay-by it’s a thigh burning two hour climb to the peak. The start is steep but with a defined route; after a while this changes to a mix of scree, sheer rock and thicket tufts with no obvious path. There are many ways to the top and all of them will have nerve jangling moments involving thin ledges, scrambling and rock climbing.

The summit is a small expanse of craggy rock that’s only big enough for a few groups of walkers at a time. Its main attractions are ‘Adam and Eve’, two boulders that stand three metres high and about a metre apart, visible from the valley floor where they look like human figures. It’s common to see brave souls jump from one to the other to gain the ‘freedom of Tryfan’, although I never mustered the courage to get that honour.

Tryfan sticks into the sky like a jagged dome. From the A5 past Llyn Ogwen it stood noble and sublime in the perfect weather we had that day, separated from the ‘bristling ridge’ at the start of the Glyders by the Bwlch Tryfan pass. But the mountain has been labelled one of the most challenging walks in mainland Britain and has claimed several lives over the last few years, most recently in April this year. Although this is a great and thrilling climb, walkers beware: treat Tryfan with caution and the utmost respect.

Join the campaign for a political debate

This week, as the party conference season gets under way, the choice that we, the electorate, face is becoming ever more apparent and even more immediate.

In just under eight months, the UK will get the chance to choose its next leader in a General Election. This time, there’s no opportunity for the Prime Minister to change his mind about calling a ballot or dilly-dally over the timescale because, the fact is, he is required to do so. So, this final conference season before the next election is crucial for all the parties in contention.

The party conference is a particularly good opportunity for the Liberal Democrats whose leader, Nick Clegg, is all but anonymous in the public consciousness. Since his election as party leader two years ago, Clegg has failed to register with the electorate in any significant way and his party has remained stagnant. The coverage of the LibDem conference will provide Clegg with a timely chance to raise his profile, if not his poll ratings, and give him a head start in what will undoubtedly be an upward struggle in the run-up to next May.

For the Conservatives, who will descend on Manchester the week after next, the issue is not to increase their visibility but to build upon it. Cameron is clearly regarded as the prime minister in waiting by the media. No one seriously doubts that the Conservatives will win the election come next spring. The Tory task is to further enhance and reinforce their standing with the electorate and showcase concrete policies that will enable voters to visualise them as a party of power rather than a party that’s been in opposition for the last 12 years.

As for Labour, well, there’s an air of predictability about the party’s Brighton conference because even the Labour faithful know that they have little chance, short of a miracle, of reversing the poll trends, though there’s doubt that their defeat will be as big as has been predicted. So, we’ll wait and see what Mandy and co. can pull out of the box in this pre-election platform.

Incidentally, Sky News is running a campaign to get the three main party leaders to take part in the first ever televised debate of prime ministerial contenders. This format, which is new in the UK campaigning arsenal, is the norm in American and German politics where the aspiring heads of government go head-to-head live on TV before huge viewing audiences. So far, Cameron and Clegg have said yes to Sky’s invitation and their eagerness to face-off with each other and, more importantly, Gordon Brown is hardly surprising. Both have everything to gain from the encounter. The debate will undoubtedly attract record numbers of viewers, if nothing else because of natural curiosity because it’s a first, and both leaders will get the chance to reach voters their party machines couldn’t possibly reach by themselves. And Cameron would have to perform disastrously to lose the sizeable poll lead and translate this to electoral defeat.


In contrast, Brown’s reluctance to agree to take part in the debate is understandable and even laudable. He has more to lose than his opponents, although some would argue not much more considering how low his poll ratings are. Perhaps things can only get better for Brown since they can’t get any worse? Nevertheless, Brown is not a natural performer and politics is as much about presentation as it is about policy.

So, what will this election be fought on? Hopefully, the issues since the personalities are virtually non-existent: public spending cuts, the economy, the environment, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan… the list goes on.

A televised debate is unlike the traditional Party Political Broadcast in that the aspiring PMs won’t be talking at the electorate but talking to them, guided by the debate chair whose task it will be, not only to ask the questions but to demand the answers that the public want to hear. It provides a unique opportunity to hear and see just what the candidates can do for you as an individual and the country at large.

You can sign Sky News’s online petition for a television debate by going to www.sky.com/leadersdebate.

The Good WAR? Afghanistan in the media by Atiya Munir

14th July 2009

The Good WAR? Afghanistan in the media

With an increase in the number of British troop casualties in Afghanistan hitting the news and our Ministers and military still insisting that this is a ‘good’ war that can be won, I seized the opportunity to attend a meeting organised by Media Workers Against the War1 and Stop the War Coalition2 to get an alternative perspective on what really is going on inside Afghanistan. As I walked down Euston Road towards Quakers Friends House, the venue of the meeting, I wondered how many and what kind of people would be turning up for an event like this. I expected a small gathering of anti-war activists and young students but was surprised to enter a large hall packed full with an enthusiastic audience of over a hundred people of all ages and very ethnically diverse.

It was emphasised that all speakers would be giving their personal perspectives on what’s happening in Afghanistan and, therefore, would not be representing the views of their organisations. Lindsey German, founder of the Stop the War Coalition, opened the plenary with a reminder that, though it may have been the worst week in terms of casualties for British troops, worse days has been experienced by Afghani civilians, which largely go unreported in the Western media or the scale of casualties is denied. The session then kicked off with Guy Smallman, a photojournalist recently returned from Afghanistan with a slideshow showing the casualties in the Afghan village of Granai in which a US air strike in May had killed 140 civilians, the highest number of civilian casualties since the conflict began. Guy showed us photos of small children that had sustained serious burns from the air strikes with some having lost their entire families, a ruined mud mosque, destroyed mud-houses and stacks of unrecognised body pieces waiting to be buried. A particularly haunting photo was of some young boys and girls who stood aloof with blank faces. Contrary to the United States’s claim that the heavy air strikes were carried out in response to their surveillance showing the presence of the Taliban, the villagers denied this saying that they hated the Taliban and had not allowed them to enter the village. When American un-manned drones started their air-strikes the villagers ran to take shelter in the mosque, which was then probably read by the US Army's drone operator sitting behind a laptop looking through its cameras as a group of Taliban. Tragically, 93 members of this group were children and not a single Taliban!

Stephen Grey, an investigative journalist embedded with British troops in Helmand, narrated his personal account of what it was like on the ground and his experiences of reporting through the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Stephen gave a vivid description of the fierce nature of fighting in Helmand province during which he saw Afghani cars packed with women and children escaping the combat zone in the midst of intense firing. On one occasion, a car door exploded open and the bodies of two dead children fell out. Due to the MOD restrictions imposed on the reporters, and the journalists having to clear their reports with the military first, many incidents of soldier deaths and civilian casualties go unreported in our media. Journalists who are critical of the army’s strategy or of the conditions under which the soldiers are fighting are denied entry into the army as embeds. However, based on his time spent with the soldiers, Guy was clear that a large number of soldiers are aware of these government tactics and are becoming disillusioned about the real purpose of the war in Afghanistan. A fuller account of Guy’s frontline experiences in Afghanistan along with his extensive interviews with the soldiers can be read in his recently published book “Operation Snakebite: The Explosive True Story of an Afghan Desert Siege”.

The final talk was given by the Guardian columnist Seumas Milne, who analysed the ever shifting objectives presented by the government, from capturing Osama Bin Laden, getting rid of Al-Qaida, installing democracy and freeing the women, none of which have been achieved so far. If anything, the situation appears to be worse in Afghanistan with one of the most corrupt Western-backed governments installed, a soaring production of opium and a rise in honour-killings and crimes against women. Gordon Brown's assertion that the war in Afghanistan is helping to prevent terrorism on the streets of Britain does not bear scrutiny either - the bombing of Afghan villages and the slaughter of civilians is only fuelling a rise of recruits for the Taliban and a hatred for the West. The best strategy would be an immediate withdrawal of British troops and to let the Afghani people run their own country as they have been doing for centuries past. The only military option should be to set up a small regional coalition force made up of Pakistan, Iran, China and Russia to help in the reconstruction of the country.

A lively question and answer session followed with a reminder that as the government is lacking any clear strategies on the war in Afghanistan it was up to the British public to get a clear message across that it was time to withdraw troops. One way of doing this would be by becoming active campaigners and by taking part in the protests that the Stop the War Coalition will be organising in the coming months before the next election.

Next week3 I plan to attend a public meeting at which Malalai Joya, an Afghan female Member of Parliament, will give an eye witness account of life in Afghanistan under war and occupation. I’ll keep you posted.



1 www.mwaw.net
2 www.stopwar.org.uk
3 Stop the War Public Meeting: Thursday 23 July 7pm Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1

New powers to prosecute war criminals living in UK

Four Rwandans suspected of genocide may face UK trials after loophole is closed
By Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter
Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Vincent Bajinya, who is also known as Doctor Vincent Brown, Celestin Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo were arrested in Britain 28 December 2006 after being accused of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Suspected mass murderers and war crimes suspects living in Britain, including four men accused of taking part in the Rwandan genocide, will face prosecution for the first time after the Government announced the closure of a loophole which had made the United Kingdom a haven from justice.

The Justice Secretary Jack Straw unveiled the biggest change in British laws covering crimes against humanity in 20 years, following an outcry over a High Court decision in April not to send four Rwandans resident in the UK back to their home country to face prosecution.

Under the proposals, the law which bars charges relating to any war crime, act of genocide or crime against humanity committed before 2001 will be changed to allow prosecutions for atrocities committed since 1 January 1991, including the Balkan wars and the 1994 conflict in Rwanda, in which 800,000 people were systematically exterminated.

Mr Straw said the change, which will be put before Parliament in the autumn, could lead to "tens" of alleged war criminals and "genocidaires" who have gained British passports or are resident in the UK facing trial in this country.

More
Rwandan genocide on Lucid Magazine

A Day of Contrasts

Life is full of contrasts but when extreme disparities are presented with a human face, life can prove too much to bear. This is even truer when confronted with both ends of the emotional spectrum in the space of one day, from optimism to despair in just a few short hours.

The afternoon began and ended on a high. Joy that my country Ghana was being celebrated for its smooth transfer of power from one democratically-elected leader to another for the third time in twelve years. At a forum organised by the Commonwealth Business Club, business leaders from the UK met with a high-profile delegation from Ghana, made up of the president and 3 of his ministers, to discuss the opportunities for investment in this fertile West African nation.

I was deeply emboldened by the fact that the president of 4 months, John Atta-Mills, chose not to belittle the strides made by the previous government, now in opposition Eschewing politics and pot shots, he said, “We cannot reinvent the wheel and we will build on the achievements of the previous government”.

Such talk was music to my ears as it confirms the maturity which Ghana has reached in its political and democratic development. I left the reception with hope and happiness about the future of Ghana.

A few hours later, however, on a beautiful evening in the picturesque surroundings of London’s South Bank, the culmination of a week of events to highlight the continuing unacceptable situation in the Congo took place. A panel of speakers including journalist Tim Butcher, Congolese activist Marie-Clare Faray, MP Eric Joyce, chair of the APPG, and photojournalist Susan Schulmann each presented their view on the crisis based on personal experience.

It took every ounce of fortitude not to dissolve in to a torrent of tears as Marie Clare-Faray gave an impassioned response to a question on what can be done to bring stability to her country. In her answer she inadvertently revealed that she, like thousands of other women in the Congo, had been a victim of rape, which is systematically used as a tool of war, as well as other forms of sexual exploitation. She then asked brokenly through her tears, “Do we have to die so you can use a mobile phone?” The room fell silent.

I realised in the stunned silence that followed Marie-Clare’s words that, for a moment, I completely forgot myself. For that moment all my trivial and not-so-trivial worries - of which there are many - paled in to insignificance when confronted with this woman’s story. It may only have been fleeting but in that instant I was totally consumed by an overwhelming compassion for someone other than myself, someone who has lived through, and daily relives, unimaginable heartache of which there is no end in sight. We could all do with losing ourselves sometimes…

Today’s events brought home to me more than ever that, although there is one continent, there are two different Africas, just as those who carved up the continent had intended it to be. That isn’t to lay the blame entirely at the developed world’s door. As panel chair Oona King said, the actions of individuals are just as much to blame as the action (and inaction) of corporations and governments. And as individuals we can all play a part in helping to bring an end to the suffering of millions who, though they may not be known to us personally, are related to us as fellow human beings in this world of contrasts.