Sorry for the delay. Let's get on with it...
#5 Icelandic designer takes top prize in UN anti-poverty ad contest
#4 From YouTube: Mass rape in Congo, 9/11 and poker recycling
The United Nations is dispatching a senior staff member to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as senior officials express outrage at the recent rape and assault of more than 150 civilians by rebels based in the remote and troubled east of the country. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström, condemned the attacks, saying they demonstrated the widespread level and systematic nature of sexual violence in the DRC. Mr. Ban and Ms. Wallström urged that the perpetrators be brought to justice and pledged to help authorities in the DRC to fight impunity against sexual and gender-based violence.
Michael Moore himself put a clip from his Fahrenheit 9/11 on YouTube. A good reminder of what really makes differences, who really runs the world. Don't get me wrong, the UN MDGs are nice. But...
And a silly one to finish with. I know you like it...
But while we're at it – as we were reminded in week 31, #2 – don't just trust anything you see at YouTube. Because as BBC reports: Tobacco firms' use of YouTube probed (no, didn't think you did anyway).
#3 Take a good look...
...in the near-future you too may be growing your own veggies in one of these boxes:
#2 Climate change: this and that
In the COP15 onslaught of climate change denialism among other things the British Sunday Telegraph accused the UN IPCC chief of making money off mitigation efforts. Baseless accusations that he has now been conclusively cleared of. See A Newspaper Apologizes to United Nations’ Climate Chief and Monbiot hits back at the Sunday Telegraph Pachauri Fabrication (as of writing Monbiot's own site appears to be down) for more.
Meanwhile in China authorities have cleared a major traffic jam – after 11 (eleven) days. Unbelievable waste of resources, time and unnecessary pollution. But it gets better: It seems one of the reasons for the jam is widespread truck transport of illegally mined Tibetan coal to Beijing. More at An 11-Day Traffic Jam? How Coal Powered the Great Snarl of 2010 and watch the photo gallery at The Christian Science Monitor.
#1 Greenpeace documents illegal fishing
The cod is threatened and an area has been set off for their free and undisturbed breeding. It is illegal to fish them there. This hasn't stopped Danish fishermen from doing so, selling the fish outside the official system straight off the side of their harbored boats.
Greenpeace finally got enough of it and took the drastic decision to hide GPS trackers on the fishing boats. The GPS data along with videos documented that the boats indeed have been fishing in the protected area. Evidence have been handed over to authorities.
Of course, you'd expect strong political reactions to such a disclosure. And indeed the Conservative government party were very quick to speak up... In defense of the fishermen whose privacy, they argue, have been invaded by Greenpeace. Me? Here is a toast to...
Read more: Greenpeace: Danish fish operations illegal, Greenpeace: Fishermen broke ban – and watch the videos here if you don't mind the language: Her afsløres Gilleleje-fiskerne and Greenpeace afslører danske fiskere i piratfiskeri.