Police torture boy in Guyana

[the_future_modernes]

Police torture boy in Guyana

The Kaieteur News, one of Guyana's daily newspapers, is notorious for publishing explicit front-page photographs of crime scenes and murder victims, an editorial policy that has roused controversy in the past. But the gruesome photo and accompanying report that led the paper's edition of Saturday 31 October, 2009, triggered widespread outrage not at the Kaieteur News editors but at the Guyana Police Force:

In what may be one of the worst cases of police brutality, ranks from the Leonora Police Station have been accused of setting a 14-year-old boy’s genitals alight while questioning him about the murder of former Region Three Vice Chairman, Ramnauth Bisram.

Kaieteur News confirmed the report yesterday after obtaining graphic photographs of the severely burnt lad.
The teen has been in custody since Tuesday and his parents, Doodnauth Jaikarran and Shirley Thomas, allege that ranks had them going from one police station to the next without disclosing his whereabouts….

It is unclear whether the teen is still being considered a suspect or whether he has received any medical treatment for what appeared to be severe burns to his genitals, midriff and upper thighs.

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Celebrating La Toussaint

[the_future_modernes]

French Caribbean: 'La Toussaint'

In the French-speaking Caribbean, celebrating “La Toussaint”, All Saints' and All Souls' Days, are as much an opportunity for family reunions as the Christmas season is. Here is a review of what the blogosphere says about it this year [all links are in French]: In Guadeloupe, blogger Mycho has decided to resume her blogging activity for the occasion. Her short post highlights two important aspects of this celebration of the lost ones, which are the tradition and the family dimension:

Comme d'habitude, les Guadeloupéens vont illuminer les tombes. C'est toujours une occasion de se souvenir de ceux qui ne sont plus là, mais aussi de revoir ceux qui sont bien présents, mais que l'on n'a pas l'occasion de croiser bien souvent. Un moment de tristesse et de joie mêlées.

As usual, Guadeloupeans will be lighting up candles on the graves. It is always the opportunity to remember the dead ones but also to meet the living ones, that we don't see that often. It's a moment of mixed pain and joy.

Toussaint 2009 in Le Moule, by Fabienne Flessel

Traditionally, the “Toussaint” season is an opportunity to do some grave maintenance as families clean, repaint and flower their graves. Domactu explains that when a grave presents none of these enhancements, it is a synonym of family disfunction and the issue sounds important enough for the local authorities to devote some money to fill in for missing families: MORE

Honduras update

[the_future_modernes]

CIP Americas says Agreement to End Honduran Coup Marks Victory and Challenge

Last night, Oct. 29, Honduras' de facto regime finally agreed to allow Congress to vote to "restore full executive power prior to June 28." Conceding to international and national pressure, the Honduran coup appears to be facing its final days.
If the agreement brokered this week holds, the Honduran resistance movement will have turned the ugly precedent of a modern-day military coup d'etat into an example of the strength of nonviolent grassroots resistance.

The Victory

The points of the agreement are the same ones that the de facto regime has rejected since talks began in San Jose, Costa Rica. By last week, there was supposedly agreement on all points except the reinstatement of Zelaya.
Although the decision to restore Zelaya to power must receive a non-binding opinion from the Supreme Court and then be approved in Congress, it appears to be a done deal. Zelaya's team reportedly had the support of members from the UD Party, 20 members of the Liberal Party, and more recently the support of the National Party to revoke the decree that was issued to justify his removal from office. That decree was originally accompanied by a forged letter of resignation that was immediately denounced.
President Zelaya expressed "satisfaction" at the agreement. Zelaya's negotiating team had agreed long before on the terms of the revised San Jose Accords, and negotiations were hung up on the coup's refusal to allow reinstatement of the president. The leader of the de facto regime, Roberto Micheletti, issued a statement Thursday night saying, "I am pleased to announce that a few minutes ago I authorized my negotiating team to sign an agreement that marks the beginning of the end of the political situation in the country."
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Taking charge of its destiny...

[the_future_modernes]

Brazil Emerges as a Military Power

The recently signed agreements between Brazil and France are about much more than the purchase of armaments. They indicate the creation of a military industrial complex, a goal which forms part of the National Defense Strategy of Brazil. This new industrial superpower, owner of the seventh largest oil reserves of the world and the world's largest area of natural biodiversity in the Amazon, is now seeking to protect its riches and assert itself as a new military power.

Sometimes it seems the modus operandi of the large modern warfare businesses closely resembles the intrigues of a television soap opera. It took President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's announcement that he was leaning toward purchasing 35 fifth generation fighter planes from the French company Dassault, for the Swedish Saab and the American Boeing to fall over themselves to profess their unrequited love for all things Brazilian.
The companies are responding to the announcement that Brazil is renovating its aging fleet and also planning to create the largest military industrial complex in the southern hemisphere. On Sept. 7, Brazil's Independence Day, Lula and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed off on the purchase of five submarines, four of them conventional and one nuclear, and 50 military transport helicopters, all for a total of USD$12 billion. At the same time, Lula announced Brazil's intention to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets, which would increase the financial transaction to USD$20 billion.

The fighter jet story goes back to 1998. The Brazilian Air Force has 110 jets which were built in the 1970s and 80s and which are now too old and outdated for a country whose needs include patrolling 8 million square kilometers of territory, 17 million kilometers of national borders, and vast offshore oil platforms. The newest aircraft are 12 Mirage 2000s, which were bought second-hand and are well past their retirement date. By contrast, Chile has 28 F-16s, and Venezuela has 24 Sukhoi 30s, both the most advanced models available.

In the running for the contract are the French Rafale, the Swedish Gripen, and Boeing's F-18 Super Hornet. There is not much of a difference between them on a technical basis, but their prices do vary dramatically: each Gripen costs USD$50 million, and the Rafales are priced at USD$80 million. The advantage that the F-18 has is that it is the most tried and tested fighter plane on offer. The French, however, have from the start guaranteed to give the Brazilians the source codes—the digital heart—of the aircraft, something Boeing is unable to do without the authorization of the U.S. Congress.
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South Africans Fought in Gaza?

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Efforts to prosecute those who may have committed war crimes in Israel's war on Gaza have spread beyond the Middle East.

A lawyer in South Africa has identified 75 South African nationals who he says were fighting with the Israeli army in the war earlier this year.

Feroze Boda, based in Johannesburg and working on behalf of two local pro-Palestinian organisations, says the soldiers should face court action for their involvement.

Imran Garda reports from Johannesburg.

New laguages for the internets

[the_future_modernes]

Web language to go international - 30 Oct 09

The regulatory body overseeing the internet has said it is ready to begin approving web site names written in non-Latin characters.

The move is being billed as the biggest change in the 40 year history of the internet.

Until now URLs have only been available in latin script. But the changes should pave the way for users to enter addresses in scripts such as Chinese, Arabic and Cyrillic.

Al Jazeera's Anand Naidoo reports.

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