29th March news

[iAnwar Horizon]

Harriri Assassination
http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B9C15B77-AD96-4547-BE86-CA433CAEA383.htm

Dubai and Earth!
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/03/28/47565.html

Finally mobiles in Cuba!
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/03/28/47567.html

[Kamal_Farran]

ARAB LEAGUE:
Use Summit to Press Syria on Detained Activists
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/28/syria18374.htm

BRITAIN:
How to deal with hecklers
http://www.marxist.com/how-to-deal-with-hecklers.htm

IRAN:
Mahmoud Salehi on hunger strike
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=386
Private Homes Raided for ‘Immorality’
Authorities Escalate Arbitrary Arrests, Harassment
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/28/iran18385.htm

KOSOVO:
Criminal Justice System Fails Victims
Inadequate Witness Protection Key Challenge for Authorities
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/28/serbia18363.htm

UN:
Rights Council Chooses Consensus Over Victims
Council Fails to Act on Tibet and Remains Timid on Darfur
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/28/global18393.htm

USA:
Mightier than the sword – the impact of the ideas of Thomas Paine on the American Revolution
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/

EXPECTED TODAY:
Zimbabwean presidential election.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801250793.html
Earth Hour (8 - 9 PM local time) in 60 cities and surrounding regions around the world.

[Samerron]

Finally mobiles in Cuba! Wow!! How come there were no mobiles before...
Do you consider this a good step. I'm not sure about that! I think there is a major problem in the whole system and major changes should be done rather than allowing residential buying mobile phones. As I think many can't afford it!

[iAnwar Horizon]

True many can't afford it...it is one of the issues I have been stunned by, during reading the article. It is either the old system thought that technology is bad as a whole or there is some discrepancy in distributing wealth.
I know some European countries with a socialist-democratic systems having high wages and services. There should be something is the system.
see the full story at reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2815132920080328

[Kamal_Farran]

I noticed in the Arabiyya article about Cuba that there was a ban on buying televisions in Cuba among other things..
I would cut my head if I haven't seen a TV in each and every home I have gone to in Cuba, knowing that I live there in a little village and not in a city.
Even before I came to Lebanon (1992), I remember that TVs where everywhere. I also know that the TV in our home was bought by my father (a foreigner), and I dont remember there being any problem or bereucratic paperwork.
With respect to the mobile phones, it is true that only certain ppl could have them, and that is aslan bcoz very few could afford it. So only those with ties to somebody outside Cuba sending them money would be able to buy them and thus the inequality. Now, some could be afforded as prices decrease and as the government is thinking about increasing wages.
The same is the case with internet connection, they are given to those who most need it. Our neighbor in Cuba, her husband works in Venezuela, they gave her internet to contact him. And this is not politicized. My mother's church (opium of the people?) have internet connection. In fact, they were the first to have it in our village. Also, I know of plans to open internet connection in youth centers throughout the country.
The problem is not that there is some sort of dictatorial regime stiffling human rights, it is that they are trying (whether succeeding or not, or whether justly or not) to keep equality in the country.

[Samerron]

But Kamal, don't you think this is a very slow progress. I mean, just take a look at Lebanon and all its troubles but we have technologies and we make use of them. Not to mention that the prestigious society we have here has led "bayyee3 el khodra" to have a mobile phone!

Cuba should work more on it's self and its economic sanctions.

[Kamal_Farran]

You can't force a company to deal with Cuba, and lose all its business with the US. Cuba is doing the maximum to keep the economic life in the country. Nobody thought it would survive the fall of the USSR. Though it plunged into an economic crisis in the 90s, it survived it and got out of it by improving the tourism sector and taking other important measures.

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