How credible is Human Rights Watch on Cuba? http://links.org.au/node/1506 

Human Rights Watch, however, is not funded by the US government. Yet it gets most of its funds from a variety of US foundations, in turn funded by many of the biggest US corporations. These wealthy, private foundations often tie their contributions to particular projects. So for example HRW's Middle East reports often rely on and acknowledge grants from pro-Israel foundations. Other groups ask for a focus on women’s rights or HIV/AIDS issues. More than 90% of HRW’s US$100 million budget in 2009 was "restricted" in this way. In other words, HRW offers a privatised, wealthy, US-based selection of rights issues. 

The coordination of all these interests is best illustrated through HRW’s new chairperson, James F. Hoge Jr. A publisher and journalist, Hoge was editor of Foreign Affairs from 1992 to 2009, and a prominent member of that magazine’s sponsor, the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR, regarded as the most influential of US foreign policy think tank, includes much of the US corporate elite (including banks and media) as well as past and present leaders of the two major parties. Past US secretaries of state, such as Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice, and the current US secretary of deence Robert Gates are CFR members. It is really a "Who’s Who" of the US elite.

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Women living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside weigh in on the Olympics http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2917

The Downtown Eastside Power of Women Group is based at the Downtown Eastside (DTES) Women’s Centre. We are women from all walks of life who are working poor, homeless or on social assistance; and we are all living in extreme poverty.Indigenous members among us are affected by the legacy of residential schools and a history of colonization and racism.The government is spending billions on a circus, while putting people aside. They say they are fixing the city but how is the city being fixed if so many people are actually worse off?

Across the city we are seeing cuts to education, decreased funding to the arts, more people unemployed. Is this the kind of society we want? The cost of renting in Vancouver is now outrageous. It is hard enough to live on a fixed income—whether pension, or social assistance or disability. Just in the DTES, 1,000 to 1,200 units of low-income housing have been lost since the Olympic bid due to closures and conversions to tourist rentals.When one hears "Olympics," one thinks of good health, strength and endurance.

There seems to be few, if any, Indigenous athletes in Canada. The powers that be have been trying to break the spirits of Indigenous people with poverty so that we will sign away our lands and rights by their treaty process. Over 150 years our once abundant forestry and fishery have been taken and so we have gone from being free self-sustaining individuals living off clean, rich land to being beggars in our own country. Chemicals from monocultural farming, manufacturing, mining and the tar sands continue to pollute our once pristine air, land and water. None of the stolen lands or assets have benefited the people to whom it once belonged.

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A brilliant showcase of solidarity http://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/826/42486

In October, when Ampilatwatja walk-off spokesperson Richard Downs toured the eastern states with Yuendumu elder Uncle Harry Nelson, they explained how their protest camp would demonstrate that Aboriginal people running their own affairs could build the type of sustainable community that the Northern Territory intervention, like past assimilationist and paternalistic policies, had failed to deliver.

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Vancouver: No Dirty OILympics http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/02/vancouver-no-dirty-oilympics.html

The entire Olympic Resistance march stopped in front of Alberta House today to say STOP THE TAR SANDS and STOP GREENWASHING THE OLYMPIC GAMES. Delegates from the Indigenous Environmental Network, tar sands impacted communities and Albertan residents, were joined by a diverse crowd of thousands of people, to condemn the environmental and social justice crimes of the Alberta tar sands and to confront Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, who was set to speak.

We want to ensure that the public knows the true tarmageddon story. A story filled with toxic lakes, growing cancer rates, broken treaties,pipelines and human rights abuses,” said Warner Naziel from the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.

“The world is watching to see if we'll clean up our act. It's well past time this government stops selling out to big oil and corporate interests and begins creating the renewable energy economy of the future,” said Clayton Thomas Muller, Tar Sands Campaigner with the Indigenous Environmental Network . “These tar sands corporations and all the dirty oil money in the world can't buy a tar sands greenwash.While their profits rise, people die — this is the nature of this tarsands industry. It's time to shut them down.”

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Evo Morales Extols People´s Role in Change Process http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/february/14/latam-10021403.htm

During an event in Colcapirhua Morales pointed out that with the conscience support it has been possible to change the situation of backwardness inherited from 20 years of neo liberal governments.The democratic and cultural Revolution is basically based on support of conscience of Bolivians, without exclusions, he stated.He also pointed out that the people are the great beneficiaries of social policies undertaken for four years now.

Morales repeated that resources in the hands of leaders of the country, in the regions and municipalities respond to the people and represent the need to increase investments for improvement of the communities.He warned of the threats to progressive governments by the Empire, in allusion to the United States that in several forms intends to destabilize the nation.

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Haiti’s misery: good news for big business  http://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/826/42481

Nicholas Kristof wrote in a January 20 New York Times article: “That idea (sweatshops!),may sound horrific to Americans. But it’s a strategy that has worked for other countries, such as Bangladesh, and Haitians in the slums would tell you that their most fervent wish is for jobs. A few dozen major shirt factories could be transformational for Haiti.”

Haiti was already subject to unpopular neoliberal policies, but with local infrastructure and economy all but completely wiped out, these will be deepened thanks to the reliance on foreign aid and funding from First World nations. The Nation’s Richard Kim reported that conditions attached to an IMF loan to Haiti included “raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases … and keeping minimum wage low”. Disaster capitalism, and the US doctrine for post-quake Haiti, is in full swing.

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Harper's attack on democracy and the Arab and Muslim community http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/71529

"After 35 years of Canadian government support, this Christian human rights organization is suddenly labeled “anti-Semitic” and stripped of its ability to fund its international commitments. This was a politically motivated attack because of Kairos support for Palestinians and other marginalized groups."