XYLOTO

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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:49:08 -0500

vicemag: Is Burma’s Government Involved in Ethnic...

Fri, 03 May 2013 14:50:09 -0500

Is Burma’s Government Involved in Ethnic Cleansing?

The last couple of weeks have been filled with mixed news for the Burmese government. On the bright side, the European Union decided to permanently lift sanctions against the country and deeper trade ties with the United States were announced—both moves likely to result in more foreign investment and lucrative business deals. Shortly after, President Thein Sein received a peace prize from a prominent NGO for his role in promoting internal reforms.

However, on the negative side, state agencies were accused of complicity in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Two things that don’t really sound that worthy of a peace prize and raise serious questions about the ethics of the West’s increasingly cozy relationship with Burma.

These allegations are outlined in a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in connection with two outbreaks of violence last year. In these attacks, the ethnic Rohingya Muslim community and other Burmese Muslims were attacked by government forces and mobs of local Buddhists. The violence, which took place in Burma’s western Rakhine state last June and October, left scores dead and more than100,000 displaced, most of whom have been crammed into IDP (internally displaced person) camps.

After recently returning from the site of last year’s violence myself, the new report makes for essential reading. It documents many allegations that fit exactly with the testimony of witnesses I’d met around Sittwe, the capital of the afflicted region. It also cites evidence of open support from local political parties and religious groups for targeted attacks on the Rohingya minority—some calling directly for ethnic cleansing.

The report also mentions another incident, one in which 18 half-naked dead bodies were dumped by security forces in a Rohingya displacement camp. Subsequently, the police ordered local residents to bury the dead in a mass grave.

Locals who saw the body pile before it was buried took photographs, which I managed to obtain. The images, most of which are too graphic to display without some kind of censorship, show corpses with a series of horrific wounds to their heads and bodies; in one case a man’s face is sliced almost into three parts. Another photo shows a dead child with a bloodied head lying next to a body bag crowded with maggots. Others have their hands attached to objects that they’d presumably been tied to while being executed.

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Fri, 03 May 2013 14:35:48 -0500

Since the beginning of the settlement enterprise, Israel has...

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:28:54 -0500

Since the beginning of the settlement enterprise, Israel has not constructed advanced regional wastewater treatment plants in the West Bank settlements as it has done inside Israel. Only 81 of the 121 settlements are connected to wastewater treatment facilities, and even these are outdated, frequently malfunction and shut down, and are not able to treat the necessary amount of sewage. Of the 17.5 million cubic meters of wastewater created annually by the settlements, 5.5 mcm flow as raw sewage into West Bank streams and riverbeds. The Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection has failed to take serious enforcement actions against settlements.

[…]

The first victims of the neglect of wastewater treatment are Palestinians, primarily residents of small towns and villages, who depend on water from natural sources - springs and wells - whose pollution causes disease and harms crops. Because settlements are generally at higher altitudes, their untreated wastewater flows down to nearby Palestinian communities.

B’Tselem

Photograph: A Palestinian farmer checks his destroyed crop as raw sewage from the illegal Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh flows through his olive grove, close to the Palestinian village of Deir al-Hatab in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 26, 2010. The Israeli army regular denies residents access to the grove for ‘security reasons’, despite the land and all surrounding areas belonging to Palestinians. The residents discovered thousands of destroyed olive trees on this rare occasion that they were allowed to enter their own farmland. (Getty Images)

Wahhhh?

ShortFormBlog: Dozens still awaiting transfer as Guantanamo Bay hunger strike continues

Thu, 02 May 2013 17:42:28 -0500

ShortFormBlog: Dozens still awaiting transfer as Guantanamo Bay hunger strike continues:

shortformblog:

56 Yemeni nationals are still incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay after being cleared for transfer back home, thanks to a suspension of transfer to Yemen following the failed 2009 Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

86 detainees currently await transfer out of Guantanamo Bay…

This is so fucked. Forced feeding?! To continue what? Adding to GDP?

The 3 W’s - Words, Wine, and Women

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:06:02 -0500

The 3 W’s - Words, Wine, and Women

aquaticwonder: Earth day woah.

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:26:37 -0500

aquaticwonder:

Earth day

woah.

thedsgnblog: Bob Studio | http://bobstudio.gr “The 1st...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:04:41 -0500

thedsgnblog:

Bob Studio | http://bobstudio.gr

“The 1st football tournament for this season took place in Bob Studio in October. The enthused participants of the “Super Beer Tournament” had the chance to enjoy great homemade beer and 5 hours of pure sportsmanship. A special packaging was prepared for the event: 100 screen-printed glass jars and additional material, like t-shirts and posters, that the participants took home with them. The Super Beer was brewed and bottled in Zafir Beer home brewery.”

Bob is an independent design studio based in Athens and London that works across a wide range of design applications, such as graphic design, typography and illustration. From book, poster, packaging, product and web, to corporate identity and visual communication design. Bob studio collaborates with other designers, architects, illustrators, photographers, printers, musicians and artists.

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