Tax avoidance, secret mining deals and financial transfers are depriving Africa of the benefits of its resources boom. Ex-UN chief Kofi Annan said, “Africa loses twice as much money through these loopholes as it gets from donors... It is like taking food off the tables of the poor."
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Beat Making Lab is a new PBS Digital Studios series featuring young musicians from around the world. In Ep. 1 Professor Pierce Freelon and Apple Juice Kid collaborate with youth in the Democratic Republic of Congo at Yole!Africa.
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Public Servants BEARING WITNESS serves as a supplement to mainstream news’ output. P.S. BEARING WITNESS was created to help maintain an informed public by covering the major international stories mainstream media has missed or oversimplified.
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It is difficult to discern which is the most despicable, the corrupt Bush regime, the presstitutes that enabled it, or the corrupt Obama regime that refuses to prosecute the Bush regime for its unambiguous war crimes, crimes against the US Constitution, crimes against US statutory law, and crimes against humanity.
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Public Servants BEARING WITNESS serves as a supplement to mainstream news’ output. P.S. BEARING WITNESS was created to help maintain an informed public by covering the major international stories mainstream media has missed or oversimplified.
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What’s mainstream news not telling you? Quite a lot, actually. But that’s a problem Sarah Jones (@SarahJReports) endeavors to remedy as editor of the new monthly online publication “Public Servants BEARING WITNESS”. P.S. BEARING WITNESS is also a home for journalists to print the stories their editors won’t publish. Some of the contributors are part of mainstream media, other are freelancing in countries mainstream news thinks you don't care about.
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It is likely that most US citizens who consider themselves informed about global events are aware of the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia and East Timor, yet it’s likely that few people in the US are aware of the ongoing genocide in West Papua, New Guinea.
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The mobile (cell) phone is a remarkable piece of engineering. But look inside. There's blood in this machine. There's blood in this device because your mobile contains tiny electronic circuits, and they couldn't work without mineral called COLTAN. It's mined in the eastern Congo.
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Identity Transduction Arts, Series 1.9: Windmill Rainbow Car Light - by Humphrey King
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Two hundred and thirty-one people and organisations were nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, widely heralded as one of the most prestigious honours in global politics. Yet the five-person committee responsible for selecting this year’s laureate did not regard any of these as worthy candidates. Rather they selected a regional body better known for its economic crisis than its contribution to world peace: the European Union. There is a genuine danger that if such inane choices of laureate continue, the Nobel Peace Prize will be increasingly devalued.
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For the past two years, photographer Lisa Kristine has traveled the world, documenting the unbearably harsh realities of modern-day slavery. She shares hauntingly beautiful images -- miners in the Congo, brick layers in Nepal -- illuminating the plight of the 27 million souls enslaved worldwide.
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La Badil (No Other Choice), was filmed undercover in the Moroccan controlled territories of Western Sahara, on the eve of the second anniversary of the 2010 uprisings at Gdeim Izik. It sheds new light on the decades long conflict and the indigenous Sahrawi peoples struggle for self-determination.
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Investment can be a hugely positive force for stability and development, but Burma’s government is nowhere near conclusively proving its intention nor its capacity to establish a transparent rights-based framework. Neither has Shell proved its corporate responsibility or the prioritisation of people over short-term financial gain. Until these things happen it must stay away.
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It has been a bad week for two of Africa’s most notorious militias – and a good one for justice. On Saturday, US-backed Ugandan troops detained senior Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Caesar Achellam in the Central African Republic, where the organisation has been carrying out a string of attacks on civilians. Meanwhile, Nigerian security forces were celebrating the capture of Boko Haram’s head of operations in the city of Kano, Suleiman Mohammed.
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The conviction of Charles Taylor last week prompted mixed scenes of celebration and outrage across Liberia – the country he ruled with an iron first, and Sierra Leone – the country he brutalised by facilitating the murderous Revolutionary United Front (RUF) insurgency from 1991 to 2002. It also marks an historic moment for international justice. For this is the first time that any individual has been convicted by an international tribunal for crimes committed as a serving head of state.
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Why are some conflicts labeled as "genocide" while others are not? Why do we hear more about six million Jews exterminated half a century ago than we do about 10 million Congolese people exterminated since 1996? Are black and brown people more prone to genocide than white people? How is grass-roots activism for Africa co-opted by intelligence operatives? What is Hollywood's role in perpetuating or mythologizing genocide? The roles of the Pentagon, AID and Charity organizations, covert forces and mass media can all be shown to be part of a systematic and systemic occupation, plunder and depopulation of Africa on a scale that dwarfs the former Slave Trade. Hotel Rwanda? Save Darfur? Invisible Children? The Devil Came on Horseback? Never Again? Shake Hands With the Devil? Who are the leading terrorists in the world?
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Rio Tinto is bad news for many communities around the world. Its operations have failed to provide adequate protection of public health, the environment, workers and human rights. It is a scandal that it should be providing the metal for the London Olympic medals.
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In another example of the power of popular resistance, Papua New Guineans this week appear to have successfully stopped the government from delaying elections and implementing a controversial Judicial Conduct Law that would allow the legislature to remove judges.
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Democratic change has been demanded across the Middle East. But was what seems like a spontaneous revolution actually a strategically planned event, fabricated by 'revolution consultants' long in advance?
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THE WEST LOOKS UPON INDIA AS A BOOMING MARKET WHERE IT CAN SELL ITS ARMAMENTS AND TECHNOLOGY. India, the largest importer of arms in the world, is planning to enhance its stockpile by buying $100 billion worth of new weapons over the next 10 years. Western nations aren’t concerned or don’t talk about human rights violations committed by security forces in Kashmir specifically because they don’t want to lose a lucrative market.
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