Ovi magazine; Tuesday January 24th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday January 24th, 2023

---

U.N. Human Rights Rapporteurs Concerned by Rape, Forced Conversion and Marriage to Rapists in Pakistan by Rene Wadlow

The Human Rights Council, building on the earlier practice of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, has a number of Special Rapporteurs devoted to certain themes – usually specific violations of human rights – or to specific countries.  These Special Rapporteurs are independent experts selected by the Council.  They usually report their findings at each session of the Council.  When violations concern more than one issue, there can be joint Reports to the Council or joint Appeals to a government.  Such a collective Appeal to the government of Pakistan sent on 26 October 2022 was made public on 15 January 2023.

The joint Appeal by six Special Rapporteurs concerned the sequence of rape of young women, forced conversion to Islam, followed by marriage to the rapist.  The Appeal was led by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Special Rapporteur on Sexual Exploitation of Children, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, and the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.  The subject of the Appeal is not new, having been raised previously by non-governmental organizations, including by the Association of World Citizens.

However, the Appeal by the Special Rapporteurs clearly identifies a systemic problem on which the Pakistani government has failed to act.  The girls raped are usually minors under 18 years of age and belong to Hindu and Christian minorities of the country, often rural and poor. 

Continue reading HERE!

---

Echo #poem & painting by Nikos Laios

“I searched for you 
In the darkness, 
I felt your soul 
But you were 
Missing.”

Continue reading HERE

---

A Picture of Global Complicity: Aiding Myanmar’s Military Regime by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

International relations remains the sum game of vast hypocrisies, a patchwork of compromises and the compromised.  Every moral condemnation of a regime’s conduct is bound to be shown up as an exercise in double standards, often implicating the accusers.  In the case of the military regime in Myanmar, double standards are not only modish but expected.

A number of international declarations and measures have targeted Myanmar’s regime for its blood-soaked brutality, its genocidal practices against the Rohingya, and its general contempt for the human rights of its citizenry. In a statement last November, US Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken took note of the military’s “brutal campaign of violence against the people of Burma, carrying out lethal air strikes against the political opposition and the broader civilian population.” 

In response, the US Department of Treasury designated Sky Aviator Company Limited and its owner and director, Kyaw Min Oo “for operating in the defense sector of the Burmese economy.”  The company in question had “received multiple arm shipments from sanctioned entities”, while Kyaw had been responsible for facilitating “foreign military officers’ visits to Burma as well as the import of arms and other military equipment and provided assault helicopter upgrades.”

Continue reading HERE

---

Ma-Siri & Alexa #51 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

For more Ma-Siri & Alexa HERE!

For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

---

Ovi magazine
We cover every issue!

Ovi magazine; Monday July 25th, 2022

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Monday July 25th, 2022

---

International Accountability: Myanmar, the ICJ and the Genocide Question by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

The indomitable spirit of Raphael Lemkin, bibliophile, assiduous documenter of humanity’s dark deeds and inexecrable conduct, is bound to be an unsettled one.  This brilliant, committed and peculiarly dedicated creature took years to come up with what would, in time, become a word so horrifying as to transfix judges of international law.  The amalgam word of genocide stalks the conscience of state leaders, commanders and politicians, an insidious reminder of the inner prejudice that becomes a murderous plan, a design, a means of ridding one of enemies and counterparts.

Given the nature of international institutions, often weak and onerously bureaucratic, there are other aspects to the system of holding the genocidaire-types to account: inadvertent immunity for the perpetrators; the obstructions and impediments of governments; and the reluctance of even using the term to describe abuses.

Continue reading HERE!

---

My name #poem by Amir Khatib

“Finally they were able to replace my idle hand with a solid iron hand,
 I can now
 To catch and kill the devil,
 He does not expect me to do this, but a human,
 I can punch Mustafa Al-Kazemi and break his jaw,
 To stop lying and ranting about patriotism”

Continue reading HERE!

---

Sceptic feathers #41 #Cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

For more Sceptic feathers, HERE!

For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

---

Ovi magazine
We cover every issue!

Ovi magazine; Saturday January 15th, 2022

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Saturday January 15th, 2022 – National Bagel Day

---

Closing schools and bulldozing Rohingya shops are cruel and bad policies by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Bangladesh hosts over 1.1 million Rohingyas who fled neighboring Myanmar during a genocidal campaign by the security forces in 2017. Most of them live in and around Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region – which have grown to become the largest and most densely populated camps in the world. Conditions in the camps are challenging and local infrastructure and services have been stretched to their limits. The United Nations has described the Rohingya as “the most persecuted minority in the world.”

The Government of Bangladesh has been praised by the international community for taking in the refugees. On December 19, 2021, Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, at the end of his first official visit to the Bangladesh said, “Bangladesh saved untold numbers of lives when it opened its arms and hearts to Rohingya people who survived these most unspeakable of horrors inflicted on them by the Myanmar military.”

“All who value human rights owe Bangladesh a debt of gratitude”, he added. He acknowledged that the responsibility to resolve the emergency rests upon Myanmar.

Continue reading HERE!

---

Rains #poem by Jan Sand

“There are rains that drag fog skirts
Across the country-side in stealthy hiss,
That, gently, in determination
Dampens down the grass with sodden kiss
Of sky to earth as caring as a mother
Calms her resting child.”

Continue reading HERE!

---

Stringfellow Barr; Joining the Human Race by Rene Wadlow

Stringfellow Barr, whose birth anniversary we mark on 15 January, was a historian, largely of the classic Greek and Roman Empire period and an active world citizen.  He served as president of the Foundation for World Government from its start in 1948 to its closing in 1958.  He was president of St. John’s College in Annopolis, Maryland (also home of the U.S. navel academy which turns out sailors). The aim of St. John’s under Stringfellow Barr was to turn out well-read liberals who would have studied a common set of “Great Book” starting with the Greeks such as Plato.  The Great Books approach to learning developed community reading circles across the USA, very popular in the 1950s.

Stringfellow Barr had the good luck or a sense of the right timing to publish a short 36-page booklet Let’s Join the Human Race in 1950. (1)  In his 30 January 1949  Inaugural Address on becoming President of the U.S.A. Harry Truman set out four policy ideas which he numbered as Point One to Point Four.  Point Four  was really an afterthought as some mention of foreign policy was needed for balance.  Point Four was “a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.”

Continue reading HERE!

---

Screws & Chips #022 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

For more Screws & Chips, HERE!

For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

---

Ovi magazine
We cover every issue

Burma blocks emergency telecoms

Two teams of foreign aid workers dedicated to delivering emergency telecoms in disaster areas have been forced to leave cyclone-hit Burma.

The members of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) left the country after attempts to reach affected areas were blocked. The charity, which described the situation as "unprecedented", said it had no other choice but to leave. TSF finally reached Burma on 1 June after waiting nearly a month to be granted visas to enter the country.

The worst cyclone that has hit Burma is the dictatorship and the dead are countless!

Ovi today

Green World, Many Dreams by Vieno Vehko
In September 1979, Zhang Changlin accidentally forgot to shut off a flow valve before leaving work; consequently, 150 tons of wastewater, 30 percent of which was liquid sodium cyanide, poured into the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal overnight.

The next crime of the Myanmar junta by Thanos Kalamidas
If anything could get worse in Burma, it just did; in the middle of a cyclone, literally and metaphorically, they announced that they are going to extend the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest!

Figures: Dance Festival in Helsinki by The Ovi Team
Helsinki's STOA hosts 'Figures', an international dance festival featuring hip-hop, jazz, funkstyles, musical ballet, Bboying and more.

"Marine Mentality" by Jan Sand
"Happiness is sharing a bowl of cherries and a book of poetry with a shade tree. He doesn't eat much and doesn't read much, but listens well and is a most gracious host." - Astrid Alaud

Burma’ junta policy costs lives

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has accused Burma of causing the loss of tens of thousands of lives by hindering international cyclone relief efforts.

Mr. Gates said the United States had had ships and aircraft ready to help after Cyclone Nargis hit a month ago. Unlike Indonesia and Bangladesh after major natural disasters, Burma had denied entry to the country, he said.

An estimated 2.4m people remain homeless and hungry following the cyclone, which struck on 2 May. "Many other countries besides the United States also have felt hindered in their efforts," said Mr. Gates, speaking at a security conference in Singapore. "Despite these obstructions, we continue to get help into Burma, and remain poised to provide more," he added.

Burma and Myanmar’s dictators have proved in practice that democracy ….saves lives!!!

Burma closures camp

A senior UN official has said that any coercion of Burmese cyclone victims to return home is completely unacceptable.

Terje Skavdal's remarks follow reports that Burma's military government had begun to evict homeless families from some government-run emergency camps. It has given them bamboo poles and tarpaulins and told them to go and rebuild their lives, say reports.

An estimated 2.4m people remain homeless and hungry following Cyclone Nargis, which struck on 2 May. Mr. Skavdal, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said he could not confirm the camp closures but pointed out that the agency did not endorse premature return to areas with no services.

"People need to be assisted in the settlements and satisfactory conditions need to be created before they can return to their place of origins," said Mr. Skavdal. "Any forced or coerced movement of people is completely unacceptable."

After the cyclone the Myanmar gangsters on uniform kill the survivors themselves!

Burma neighbors in talks

The Association of South East Asian Nations is holding urgent talks to discuss ways of helping Burma's cyclone victims.

Foreign ministers meeting in Singapore hope Burma's military rulers - who have so far blocked most large-scale foreign aid offers - will accept Asean help. But correspondents say the grouping cannot force a solution on a member, as decisions are only made by consensus.

Burma says some 78,000 people have died since the cyclone hit on 2 May. But aid agencies say many more may die without urgent help - according to Save the Children, some 30,000 acutely malnourished children less than five years of age in Burma are threatened by death from starvation.

Let’s see, a bit more push and the dictators might go to a cyclone …hell for good and leave Burma free!

France angered by Burmese delays

France's ambassador to the UN has accused Burma's government of being on the verge of committing a crime against humanity by not accepting foreign aid.

Jean-Maurice Ripert made the comment during a General Assembly session, after Burma's UN ambassador accused France of sending a warship to region. France says the ship is carrying 1,500 tons of food and medicine for survivors of Cyclone Nargis. State TV has put the official death toll of the 2 May storm at 78,000.

For how long? How long these people are going to rule this poor country? How long the international community will let these criminals rule the lives of the Burma people?

Children facing death

Thousands of children in cyclone-hit Burma will starve to death within weeks unless food reaches them soon, UK charity Save the Children has warned.

The charity said 30,000 under-fives in the Irrawaddy Delta were malnourished before Cyclone Nargis hit on 2 May. It says energy-rich food now needs to reach them "before it is too late".

The warning comes as a UN envoy is due in Burma to join international efforts to try to persuade the ruling junta to grant more access to relief workers. Humanitarian envoy John Holmes will carry a letter from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Burma's leader, Than Shwe, who has refused to answer Mr. Ban's calls.

Perhaps it is time for Mr. Ban to stop …calling and act, even though that will come as a surprise to what he has done till now!!!

Burma death toll 78,000

The official death toll for Burma's cyclone disaster has jumped to almost 78,000 people, with nearly 56,000 missing, according to state TV.

Previously, Burma was giving a toll of 43,000 dead and 28,000 missing while the Red Cross and United Nations had estimated a death toll above 100,000. Aid agencies are frustrated at the slow progress of aid to areas worst hit. Cyclone Nargis battered southern regions of Burma, including the Irrawaddy Delta, on 2-3 May.

The dictators of Burma must go soon, the longer they stay the higher the dearth roll will be!

McCain adviser leaves over Myanmar

Doug Goodyear, McCain’s Convention chief executive officer, and Doug Davenport, one of his regional campaign managers, both resigned after a report that GOP firm DCI — where Goodyear had served as CEO and Davenport had headed the lobbying effort — had represented Myanmar’s ruling military junta.

“Today I offered my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign,” Goodyear wrote in a statement released by the McCain campaign Sunday. “I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign.”

At least we know where we are standing, George W. Bush had a soft point for Pakistan’s Musharraf, McCain has it for Myanmar’s dictators