(BLOG) RED - Buy (RED). Save Lives.: Join us in Lighting Global Landmarks (RED) this World AIDS Day - December 1st

(BLOG) RED - Buy (RED). Save Lives.: Join us in Lighting Global Landmarks (RED) this World AIDS Day - December 1st

December 1st is World AIDS Day and we’re illuminating the world’s most iconic landmarks (RED) to raise awareness of the goal of an AIDS Free Generation due in 2015. Last year nearly half a million babies were born with HIV. But with access to medication a pregnant mother can stop the transmission of HIV to her child. With continued funding to organizations like the Global Fund, the number of babies born with HIV could be zero by 2015 – creating the first AIDS Free Generation in 30 years.

PocketInfo.net

Wikileaks sets off a worldwide diplomatic crisis

WikiLeaks is sure to dominate diplomatic minds over the next few weeks!Several newspapers around the world have decided to release some of the content from the 250,000 documents released by the Wikileaks site. ( The Guardian in the UK , Der Spiegel in Germany and the New York Times in the US) .

US diplomats are scrambling fervently to protect the US from the fallout but with technology the way it is today there will be hundreds of thousands of articles across the web well before this day is out.

This is one of the major problems of the Information Age! The speed at which information travels has fundamentally changed the world that we live in.

Twitter will no doubt be trending very heavily on some of the admissions. Some of the highlights will include these 'allegations' ... (use hash tag #cablegate to see all the comments on twitter)


Saudi Arabia - One of the most damaging allegations was that Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah repeatedly urged America to attack Iran.The Saudi leader was recorded as having “frequently exhorted the US to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons programme”. The leak said he told the Americans to “cut off the head of the snake” at a meeting in 2008. The leaks also disclose how leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt referred to Iran as “evil” and a power that “is going to take us to war”.


Pakistan - Grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, with officials warning that as the country faces economic collapse, government employees could smuggle out enough nuclear material for terrorists to build a bomb.

China - How the hacker attacks which forced Google to quit China in January were orchestrated by a senior member of the Politburo who typed his own name into the global version of the search engine and found articles criticising him personally.


Russia & Italy - The extraordinarily close relationship between Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, which is causing intense US suspicion. Cables detail allegations of "lavish gifts", lucrative energy contracts and the use by Berlusconi of a "shadowy" Russian-speaking Italian go-between.


Afghanistan - Suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government, with one cable alleging that vice president Zia Massoud was carrying $52m in cash when he was stopped during a visit to the United Arab Emirates. Massoud denies taking money out of Afghanistan.


Russia - Allegations that Russia and its intelligence agencies are using mafia bosses to carry out criminal operations, with one cable reporting that the relationship is so close that the country has become a "virtual mafia state".


United Kingdom - Devastating criticism of the UK's military operations in Afghanistan by US commanders, the Afghan president and local officials in Helmand. The dispatches reveal particular contempt for the failure to impose security around Sangin – the town which has claimed more British lives than any other in the country.


Saudi Arabia & Yemen - The cables names Saudi donors as the biggest financiers of terror groups, and provide an extraordinarily detailed account of an agreement between Washington and Yemen to cover up the use of US planes to bomb al-Qaida targets. One cable records that during a meeting in January with General David Petraeus, then US commander in the Middle East, Yemeni president Abdullah Saleh said: "We'll continue saying they are our bombs, not yours."

France & Iran - The leaked memos also disclose how American diplomats compared Iran’s President Ahmedinejad with Adolf Hitler and labelled France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy as the “emperor with no clothes”.


Germany & Russia - In various cables from the US embassies the German Chancellor Angela Merkel was depicted as “risk aversive”, while the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was an “alpha dog”.

Key figures:

• 15, 652 secret
• 101,748 confidential
• 133,887 unclassified
  
• Iraq most discussed country – 15,365 (Cables coming from Iraq – 6,677)
• Ankara, Turkey had most cables coming from it – 7,918
• From Secretary of State office - 8,017

According to the US State Departments labeling system, the most frequent subjects discussed are:

• External political relations – 145,451
• Internal government affairs – 122,896
• Human rights – 55,211
• Economic Conditions – 49,044
• Terrorists and terrorism – 28,801
• UN security council – 6,532

There is so much that goes on in the background that 'joe public' doesn't know about as countries position themselves with and against each other to secure natural resources , business deals etc. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has put in motion an unstoppable force. The WikiLeaks site was being heavily targetted by a cyber attack yesterday and the virtual flames will continue for many months.

(Thanks : http://www.pocketinfo.net/)

Plein 2: There better be some Harry Potter jokes

Plein 2: There better be some Harry Potter jokes:

There better be some Harry Potter jokes

The US embassy cables give enough material to write about for weeks. The best thing is, they’ve only published 220 cables out of 251,287 so far. Any news? That depends. If you thought international politics was a game countries played by the rules, you’ll be shocked – the US is playing dirty. If you believe there’s an Arab conspiracy to ‘Islamize’ the world, you’ll be surprised – to put it mildly: Islamic countries do not have a particular liking for each other.

Now even if you did not think you that you lived in an ideal world, you might still be amazed. Basically, you have to be quite the cynic to have seen everything coming. Nevertheless, it’s not that unreasonable for the US to spy on the Secretary General of the UN, when you compare it to fabricating evidence to start a war. Nor that the Saudis wrote the lyrics for that John McCain song, ‘bomb Iran’ – Sunnis, Shiites; with that war in Iraq, al-Qaeda, Iran etc. one ought to have some insight in Middle Eastern relations by now.

What I personally find most amusing, are the comments about the ‘world leaders’. Some media find them offensive, but that depends just on how you look at them. They’re very close to the truth, or otherwise very close to our prejudices. All the same, let’s go over the most important ones and analyze them one by one.

At the end of 2008 someone remarked that Medvedev was “playing Robin to Putin’s Batman.” Say what you like, but that’s quite flattering. The first months of his presidency Medvedev was playing Peanut to Putin’s Jeff Dunham[1], so he’s moving up in the world quickly. Medvedev appears to be growing stronger the last years, so who knows: in two years Putin might playing B.A. Baracus next to Medvedev’s Hannibal.

An important advisor to the sultan of Oman said Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, is "just strange". I don’t know if anyone ever noticed, but we’re talking about a guy who takes a tent with him wherever he goes. Strange is an understatement.

The South African International Relations Minister branded Robert Mugabe “the crazy old man”. For someone who knows nothing about topography the “the” might be debatable (after all, there are many crazy old men in the world). However, Mugabe lives next door to the South Africans. This guy’s the boss of a country (Zimbabwe) that was once known as the granary of Africa. But, he threw out the farmers, gave their lands to people who knew nothing about farming, and was then surprised his people were starving. Not to mention that he’s literally done everything to remain in power, even though he’s well over eighty.

Apparently, Hamid Karzai, is "an extremely weak man who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to report even the most bizarre stories or plots against him". Now we all knew Karzai was corrupt. We knew he does not have control over his country (and probably never will). Now we also know he would fit perfectly in a US Bible Belt town, where people believe Obama is (secretly) a Muslim, who wants to make America a socialist country and started Medicare to kill old people.

Now, Berlusconi is feckless, vain and parties too much. Anything new? Sarko’s style is authoritarian and thinned-skinned. Did you ever think differently? Ms. Merkel is ‘risk averse and rarely creative’. That’s not a crime: die Mannschaft won three World Championships that way.

It’s all not so bad. It’s worse not to be mentioned at all. Still, much is yet to come and that means fair chances for everyone. Now we’re going to see just how important our former Prime Minister, Mr. Balkenende of The Netherlands,[2] really was. After all we’ve done for the US and NATO, there better be some Harry Potter jokes as well.

TEN Important things about MARRAIGE

1. The woman always makes the rules
2. These rules are subject to change without notice
3. No man can possibly know all the rules
4. The woman is never wrong
5. If it appears the woman is wrong, it is because of a flagrant misunderstanding caused by something the man did or said.
6. The man must apologise immediately for causing the misunderstanding
7. The woman can change her mind at any time
8. The man must never change his mind without the proper consent of the woman
9. The man must read the mind of the woman at all times
10. At all times, what is important is what the woman meant, not what she said.

Boggledygook

Boggledygook: "The prime minister does not sit in a helpless office. He has the right to demand any file from any ministry. A note from him can stop any process till fuller examination. A phone call by a bureaucrat from his office will pour sand into any government wheel. Any decision that involves more than Rs 500 crore has to go through the Cabinet. Dr Singh knew every detail about the one thief who could have put 40 from Ali Baba to shame. What did he do about it? A whole lot of nothing.

It is fashionable to label every Opposition protest in Parliament unruly. When was the last time that a ruly Opposition has achieved anything? In fact, the Opposition has been terribly ruly about the spectrum scam for too long. This story began in UPA-I and is destined to continue into many more serials in UPA-II. The CAG exposé of Raja was known to government before the Opposition disrupted Parliament. Why did the prime minister ignore publicly evident condemnation until ruly turned unruly?

Dr Manmohan Singh’s government is scheduled to last for three-and-a-half years more, and possibly it will. It has however lost something vital. Mathematicians have not created enough digits to measure the loss of credibility."

Rotary Global History Fellowship (RGHF)

Rotary Global History Fellowship (RGHF)

"We must find a handful of Rotarians who will dedicate their lives to history, so that thousands more might dedicate their lives to Rotary."

— RGHF annual meeting, Montreal, Canada 2010

Rotary Global History

RGHF Mission: As an effort to serve others, RGHF offers history training for Rotary leaders. The fellowship accumulates and preserves the complete history, values, and philosophy of the Rotary movement, as well as encourages others to do the same at every level of the Rotary movement, and publishes those histories, values, and philosophies on the internet, as well as other forms of media as expedient.

The fellowship is an approved Rotary fellowship by the Board of Directors of Rotary International. To date, over 4,000 pages and in excess of 25,000 items of the Global History of Rotary have been compiled.

"I believe that knowledge of history is vital in developing the type of tolerance advocated by our founder, Paul Harris, and it is through such tolerance that Rotary effectively promotes international understanding, goodwill, and peace."

July 2010
President 10/11 Ray Klinginsmith, USA (in a July 2010 letter to RGHF.
President Ray is a member of RGHF)

Facebook | In Company of Parents of Major Sandeep Unikrishnan

Facebook | In Company of Parents of Major Sandeep Unikrishnan

Rotary/RGHF: Our Foundation Newsletter

Rotary/RGHF: Our Foundation Newsletter