26개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
About two weeks ago antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on the wall of the Jewish cemetery in the (west) German city Aachen. A wellknown militant neo-nazi, "only" one week later he was arrested, sprayed swastikas and the slogans: “Free Palestine”...
...and "Turn on the gas tap for the Jews!"(*)
* As you possibly know, between 1942 and 1945 millions of Jewish civilians were murdered in the gas chambers, located in a number of German concentration camps!
For more info please check out:
http://antisemitism.org.il/eng/events
1. Impressions from MTU's latest "Candle-light Culture Festival" against the ongoing crackdown campaign on migrant workers in the name of the next G-20 Summit, staged last Friday(8.13) in front of Myeong-dong Cathedral in downtown Seoul:
For more please check out:
http://migrant.nodong.net/?document_srl=34936#0
2. Today's report in Korea Times:
Migrant workers suffer abuses
Six years have passed since the government opened the labor market wider to foreigners by adopting the Employment Permit System (EPS) with more than 164,000 foreigners working in Korea under the program.
But there are still few signs of progress when it comes to their welfare in the workplaces, a survey showed, Tuesday, with migrant workers’ human rights remaining largely ignored.
According to a survey of the Asan Migrant Workers’ Center to mark the 6th anniversary, nearly 40 percent of migrant workers in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, have suffered physical and verbal abuse at work.
More than 70 percent of them found their actual working conditions inferior to the contract terms they had signed. One fourth said they had not received medical checkups on an annual basis, which is illegal.
More than 30 percent said their passports, bank account details and other private goods were being kept by Korean employers, a measure to keep them from running away.
Thirty-three percent of the surveyed said they sleep in steel containers or conference rooms despite paying to move in to a company-associated residential facility...
Last October, Amnesty International urged Seoul to set tighter measures to guarantee better working conditions for migrants.
The human rights watchdog reported that many migrant workers in Korea are abused, trafficked for sexual exploitation or denied wages despite the introduction of rules for their protection.
Amnesty added these workers often have to operate heavy machinery or work with dangerous chemicals with little or no training or protective equipment, and suffer a disproportionate number of industrial accidents...
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/08/113_71580.html
Somehow related article:
☞ Korea to open middle schools to illegal immigrants (K. Herald, 8.17)
Lee Myung-bak(MB) in his yesterday's speech(*) marking the 65th anniversary of Korea's liberation(**) from the Japanese colonial rule proposed a "three-staged method of reunification with North Korea".
The three-stage plan would start with a "peace community" that assures security on the peninsula including a denuclearized North, followed by the creation of an "economic community" developing the North's economy through exchanges, and eventually "a community of the Korean Nation that will ensure dignity, freedom and basic rights of all individuals".
Although MB's "reunification proposal" is nothing more than balderdash regarding the current N-S "relationship"(or rather open hostility!!) the MB administration is planning the first "confidence-building measures"(***): A presidential committee on military reforms plans to propose to President Lee Myung-bak that the military adopt an operational plan that allows its forces to preemptively strike North Korean bases if they see any sign of impending aggression, according to yesterday's Korea Herald.
* "Marching together toward a Greater Republic of Korea!"
** "August 15 when President Kim Il Sung liberated Korea by leading the arduous anti-Japanese war to a victory", according to N.K.'s Rodong Shinmun(8.15)
*** Posting NK-friendly material ruled illegal (K. Times, 8.16)
Related articles:
☞ MB’s unification plan will only heighten tensions (Hankyoreh, 8.16)
☞ Lee orders thorough military drills to counter N. Korea threats (Yonhap, 8.16)
☞ Panel to urge ‘active deterrence’ on N.K. (K. Herald, 8.15)
Tokyo, Yasukuni Shrine, two days ago: Representatives of European and Japanese ultra-nationalist/racist/fascist organisations honored the war criminals of the Imperial Japanese Army. The European delegation, which included ultra-right/fascist politicians from France, GB, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and Belgium, has been invited to Japan by Issuikai, an extreme right-wing association that denies Japanese war crimes and wants to build a global alliance of nationalist groups to fight American "hegemony".
Yesterday's Xinhua (P.R. China) reported the following:
European right-wing politicians visit Yasukuni Shrine
European right-wing politicians including French Jean-Marie Le Pen on Saturday paid a visit to Japan's Yasukuni Shrine that has drawn outrage for honoring war criminals.
The visit came one day ahead of the 65th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
Le Pen, leader of the far-right French National Front, told reporters after the visit that the move was to pay respect to those who died in war for their country.
The Japanese shrine, which is located in Tokyo, honors 2.5 million war dead including 14 top war criminals. China, Korea and other Asian countries regard that it glorifies Japan's past militarism.
In the past, Asian countries had been outraged by visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese politicians.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said earlier that he will not visit the Yasukuni Shrine during his tenure. All of the ministers of Kan's Cabinet also said they will not visit the shrine Sunday.
Tens of thousands of soldiers as well as civilians of European countries were captured by the Japanese Imperial Army as they waged war of aggression against former colonies of Europe in Asia at the beginning of World War II. Thousands of them were believed to have been executed, tortured and starved to death in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/14/c_13445030.htm
Related articles:
☞ Far right pays tribute to Japan's 'war heroes' (Independent, 8.14)
☞ European Right-Wing Leaders Visit Japan War Shrine (WSJ, 8.14)
Our much-loved(^^) Chosun Ilbo published today the following (batshit crazy!!) horror story:
N.Korea 'Plotting Biochemical Attack'
North Korea is trying to launch a biochemical attack against the South prior to the G20 Summit in Seoul in November, a conservative activist claimed Thursday citing a North Korean source.
Choi Sung-yong of the group Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea said the North is preparing to send 20 different deadly biochemical weapons attached to balloons and parachutes across the border. He said the campaign is led by Gen. Kim Kyok-sik, who commands the North's frontline fourth corps, at the orders of leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent Kim Jong-un.
Choi said the story came from "an active soldier in the North Korean Army." Kim Kyok-sik was chief of the General Staff of the People's Army before being demoted to his current post and is thought to have masterminded the torpedo attack on the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan.
Choi also claimed a number of North Korean mines found south of the border after recent floods were deliberately floated down the Imjin River by Kim Kyok-sik's men at Kim Jong-un's orders.
"The source said the frontline fourth corps is collecting mines from all over North Korea, not only in Hwanghae Province where the fourth corps is located but from as far afield as North Hamgyong Province. It floated the mines down intentionally but blamed it on floods," Choi claimed.
Asked about the claim, a National Intelligence Service spokesman was noncommittal, saying, "It's possible to imagine a number of scenarios, but we can't draw any conclusions at the moment." The Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to comment.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/08/13/2010081300932.html
Anyway, enjoy your weekend!!
Impressions from MTU's second last "Candle-light Culture Festival" against the ongoing crackdown campaign against migrant workers in the name of the next G-20 Summit, staged July 30 in front of Myeong-dong Cathedral in downtown Seoul:
Nice Idea But - Unfortunately - Moribund!
The "Int'l Cooperation of Environmental Youth" released y'day the following stuff:
Jonathan Lee, a 13 year old youth environmental activist from the United States, is entering the reclusive North on a humanitarian environmental mission – to suggest peace. A bold move, particularly with the strains between the DPRK, it's southern neighbor (South Korea) and the United States. In spite of the danger and warnings, Jonathan is determined to at least try. After all, he has no political agenda. No nefarious motive. He just wants there to be peace for the sake of the children, the innocents in this 60 year conflict.
How does he propose for a peaceful coexistence? Through the creation of a peace forest in the most dangerous part of Korea – the DMZ. What is the DMZ? It is short for “Demilitarized Zone” and is the place where North meets South and South meets North with barbed wires and military personnel. A peace forest in this area would be a stark contract to the surrounding area. But, Jonathan has in mind a “Children's Peace Forest,” one in which chestnut trees would be planted - trees that would not only help the environment, but would also provide food for the North Koreans.
While Jonathan knows many think this is a crazy idea, he feels it's worth a try. After all, he has nothing to lose. Not really. He will be in the North with approval, so there should be no problems with his entry (along with his parents). If his suggestion is met with disapproval, then nothing is lost. But, with the remote chance that the illusive leader of the North should decide to go along with it, then everything can be gained.
The proposed motto of the Children's Peace Forest is as bold as the idea of entering the north to speak to the government – Above politics; Above conflicts; Above borders; Above ideology; It's all about giving hope to people and children around the world.
For more info, incl. J. Lee's (naïve)statement on video, check out:
☞ Hopes to Suggest a Peace Forest in the DMZ
Related article:
☞ Teenager seeks to meet NK leader for 'Peace forest' (K. Times, 8.10)
Thousands of seasonal migrant workers from Asia, most of them from China, Vietnam and Thailand, come to Sweden - the "homeland" of the "social market"/(capitalist) "welfare state"(^^) - each summer to pick wild berries in the north under mainly difficult working conditions.
And since last Friday(8.06) some of them are protesting against what they (and many others) characterize as a kind of slave labour.
"Last Friday night, around 170 Chinese berry pickers sat down on the road to protest," Kerstin Asplund, who is in charge of social services in the northern municipality of Storuman, told the media and added "It's criminal how they're treated, they're treated just like slaves".
The protesters carried out their sit-in after marching 15 kilometres, carrying signs reading "SOS" and "Help," near the wooded area where they had been forced to pick berries, not far from the Arctic Circle.
The demonstrators are part of a group of hundreds of Asian berry-pickers who arrived in Sweden's isolated northern region in recent days.
Last Friday's Stockholm News published the following short report:
Chinese berry-pickers in protest march
Berry-pickers who recently arrived to north-Sweden, have started a 30 km protest march towards the city Storuman. The berry pickers who come from China, have for some reason not gotten any payments yet from their China-based staffing company.
Around 200 Chinese berry pickers went along in the protest march starting in the village Långsjöby (in Lapland) towards the small city of Storuman. Some of them held up home made placards with the words 'SOS' and 'HELP'.
Volonteers handed out food
Ture Rönnholm, saw the protest marsh passing by just outside his home.
- From what I have heard, they have been cheated in some way. I don't if it is the enlister in China or by the travel agent, says Ture Rönnholm to news tabloid Extressen.
Ture Rönnholm did also volontarily, together with his daughters, hand out food to the protesting berry-pickers. This until today when the local authorities got involved.
After 15 km of protest marching the local municipality arranged a bus transport for them to a village called Stensele. The municipality have arranged so that they can live temporarily in a school where they will have access to showers, toilets and kitchen facilities.
http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=5762
Related article:
☞ Hungry migrant workers shoot birds for food (The Local, 8.02)
Last week it has been reported in the S. Korean media that the cops "arrested pro-Pyongyang activists on charges of starting a campaign to remove a statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur from a park in Incheon under orders from North Korea"(*).
And the conservative (i.e. reactionary!!) JoongAng Ilbo(editorial, 8.06) got a f*cking great idea how to teach them (and possibly all the other anti-LMB activists??) a lesson: "It would be better if people like them could be deported to the North Korea they like so much, rather than sending them to prison at the cost of taxpayers’ money."
* For more please "enjoy":
☞ Rallies over MacArthur statue were North plot (JoongAng Ilbo, 8.06)
Related stuff:
☞ Demonstration against MacArthur’s statue at Inchon (KIO, 2005.7.17)
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