| IRAQ: State food aid package slashed | |
| IRAQ: Health system needs years of work | |
| PAKISTAN: Fresh displacements strain meagre aid resources | |
| IRAQ: IDPs returning to Diyala Province in increasing numbers | |
| Palestinians say “You Are Welcome” – Life Behind the Wall of Colonial Occupation | Rob Mulford of Alaska reflects upon lessons learned in the Occupied Palestinian Territories |
| Nine arrested at Senator Klobuchar’s office protesting Afghan war funding |
recent additions at a glance
IRAQ: State food aid package slashed
BAGHDAD, 1 April 2010 (IRIN) - The Iraqi government has decided to cut by half the number of items in state food aid parcels - something that could affect roughly half the population, according to the Trade Ministry.
In future, parcels would contain only flour, rice, sugar, cooking oil and milk.
“The food rationing system has become a burden on the budget,” Deputy Trade Minister Waleed al-Hilo told IRIN. About US$3 million has been allocated to the Trade Ministry for state food aid - half the sum requested, he said.
IRAQ: Health system needs years of work
BAGHDAD, 4 April 2010 (IRIN) - Much more time and effort is needed to improve Iraq’s health system and institutions, which have been battered by decades of conflict, underinvestment and neglect, the country’s top health official said on 3 April.
“Our health facilities have not seen any development for 35 years. The last health facility built in the provinces was during the 1970s, and in Baghdad was in 1984-85,” Iraqi Health Minister Salih al-Hasnawi told IRIN, adding that these facilities had not seen any development since then.
PAKISTAN: Fresh displacements strain meagre aid resources
MANSEHRA, 13 April 2010 (IRIN) - Fresh civilian displacements in northwestern Pakistan due to fighting between the Taliban and government troops is likely to place further strains both on those already displaced and on available aid resources, according to aid workers.
There are reports of residents fleeing Kala Dhaka in Mansehra District, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), for Mansehra town, and fighting has also reportedly intensified in Orakzai Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), also in northwestern Pakistan.
IRAQ: IDPs returning to Diyala Province in increasing numbers
BAGHDAD, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - The security situation in Iraq’s northeastern province of Diyala is slowly improving and thousands of displaced families have returned to their homes, according to officials.
“Despite the fact that the security situation in some parts of the province is not good, some areas where the security situation has improved are witnessing good return levels,” said Thari Mohammed, a senior official in the Ministry of Displacement and Migration in Diyala.
Palestinians say “You Are Welcome” – Life Behind the Wall of Colonial Occupation
April 16, 2010
By Rob Mulford
mulford.rob@gmail.com
Some walls are made of stone
Some of words and whispers
Some walls are never known
Some are buried deep inside us(Taken from the last four lines of the first verse of “Breaking Down the Walls” on the album Come Into the Light by Susan Grace; Black Dog Productions 2009)
Walls often appear as opinion. Like air they are ubiquitous, their source rarely questioned. Some are cultural, mythological, carried generation to next like genetic inheritance. Some are the product of conditioning by church, state, or advertising. Consider the self-erected wall materialized in a waving flag, a prophylactic, allowing a parent to blindly see his child off to war or the specimen of American free will “obeying his thirst” drinking a can of carbonated sugar water. Perhaps nowhere is this metaphor more demonstrative than when conversation turns to the “Israeli / Palestinian Conflict”. Having seen its many manifestations erected as barriers to peace and justice I was not surprised by opinions volunteered me a year ago after announcing my plan to travel to Occupied Palestine.
Nine arrested at Senator Klobuchar’s office protesting Afghan war funding
April 13, 2010
Minneapolis, MN - Nine people were arrested here, April 13, at the office of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar after refusing to leave her office. Protesters talked with Klobuchar by telephone. When she refused to make a commitment to voting against funding for the war in Afghanistan, the peace activists decided to remain in her office until they were arrested. Earlier, about 100 people rallied in front of the office.
Peaceable Assembly Campaign - 9 Arrested in Minnesota at Senator Klobuchar's Office
April 15, 2010
Nine social justice advocates were arrested this Tuesday (April 13) at the office of US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D - MN). Over 100 individuals gathered outside the Senator’s Minneapolis office seeking a commitment from her to oppose any further funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They achieved a conference call with the Senator, but opted to remain in nonviolent civil resistance after the Senator failed to publicly commit to oppose any further funding for the wars.
