Afghanistan signs cluster bomb treaty

In response to an international campaign by human rights organizations, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan agreed to join more than 90 other nations last week in signing a treaty to ban cluster munitions.

The decision was a surprise given Karzai’s close relationship with the U.S. government, which opposes the treaty that bans the use, production, sale, and stockpiling of the bombs. Hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan and other conflict areas have been killed or seriously injured by the bombs, which scatter small explosives across a wide area and can explode years after they hit the ground. The New York Times and other outlets covered the story.

Starbucks saved his life

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Michael Gates Gill didn’t learn to savor life until he began serving coffee to others.

He shared his riches-to-rags story in the 2007 book, “How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.”

The author of the bestseller — soon to be a Tom Hanks movie — spoke Monday at The Economic Club of Grand Rapids to a crowd of about 600 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.

The club tapped the New Yorker for its December luncheon, which is traditionally reserved for an inspirational story. The event also included a standing ovation for executive director Lorna Schultz, celebrating her 20th anniversary with the organization.

Gill says he appreciates hard workers such as Schultz after landing an hourly job as a bartista at age 63.

By the time he wandered into the Starbucks that was hiring, his life had hit rock bottom after he was downsized from a six-figure job, divorced and diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Despite a Yale University degree and a 26-year career as an advertising executive, Gill had few practical skills. Everything had been given to him from his education to his career, he said. He even needed help filling out his Starbucks application.

At Starbucks, Gill said he was taken under the wing by his new boss Crystal and later Kester, his training coach.

He credits some of his biggest lessons to Crystal’s tutelage. Crystal grew up in the projects and worked hard for everything she earned.

“She treated me with loving kindness that I had never thought to offer anyone I worked with in my 26 years,” he said.

Crystal could overlook his less-than-stellar skill in making lattes, but she called him in her office when she saw him refusing to let a homeless use the restroom he had just cleaned.

“The last thing that gentleman needed was to be disrespected by you,” she told him. “This is the one place you shouldn’t decide who to respect or not.”

It took a while for his “old habits of arrogance” to die, but Gill says he is happy with transformation. He didn’t realize how much he changed until Kester complimented him on the quality of his work cleaning restrooms and closing the store, and Gill felt pride for the first time.

“I realized for many years I didn’t have a sense that I had value — that I contributed to something,” Gill said.

The book is based on the journal he kept at his daughter’s suggestion.

From Mlive.com - read full story

Related Story - Life Changes, with a latte to go (NY Times)

Photo drives refugee reunion

What started with a correspondents photograh turned into worldwide feedback of sympathy, and fueled a writer’s desire to reunite the family.

From Jerome Delay, Associated Press Writer.

Eleven-year-old Protegee carried her sobbing niece on her back as they searched for relatives in a sea of people in eastern Congo.

An Associated Press photograph of the girl — using her filthy T-shirt to wipe the tears from her face as 3-year-old Reponse clung to her neck and wailed — prompted hundreds of e-mails from people around the world hoping to help them.

I returned to Kiwanja on Sunday to try to reunite the girls with family and even succeeded in finding them. But it turned out that not all problems in Congo can be solved by an outsider’s sympathy.

When I first photographed Protegee on Nov. 6 in a crowd of thousands in the town of Kiwanja, she told me only her first name and that she was looking for her mother.

I learned later that she and Reponse had wandered alone for three days after being separated from Protegee’s mother on Nov. 3 as the family fled on foot from their village of Kiseguru, about 12 miles away.

Protegee had spent one night sleeping in a church, huddled with Reponse under a flimsy scarf. “I had no food or water,” she said, speaking in the Kiswahili language.

———————

After searching and finding that the mother had found the children but sent them to another village to be safe the writer helped unite them again with his car.

———————

Protegee, Reponse and Esperance are back in Kiwanja now. They have set up a cot in the corner of a room on the Catholic church grounds. Outside, the U.N. World Food Program is distributing food, but the situation in the town remains volatile.

Before I left, I gave Esperance the photograph of her daughter and granddaughter. She handed it to Protegee, who, with Reponse in her lap, gazed at the image. I left them there on their cot, clutching the photo, one of their few possessions.

Asked when they would return to their village, Esperance replied: “When the war is over.”

Read the full story: A photo of 2 little girls and a reunion in Congo

Scientists discover diesel fuel producing fungus

American scientists have discovered a fungus deep in the Patagonian rainforest that makes biodiesel as part of its natural lifecycle. The fungus is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel sources.

According to team member Prof. Gary Strobel of Montana State University, “The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel than anything we use at the moment.”

Calling the fungus’ output “myco-diesel,” Gary Strobel and his collaborators describe their initial observations in the November issue of Microbiology.

The fungus proved to have another advantage, it grows on a tree’s cellulose. “When crops are used to make biofuel they have to be processed before they can be turned into useful compounds by microbes,” said Strobel. “G. roseum can make myco-diesel directly from cellulose, the main compound found in plants and paper. This means if the fungus was used to make fuel, a step in the production process could be skipped.”

Cellulose is an indigestible part of a plant that binds the plant and allows it to stand. When treated with specific enzymes the cellulose turns into sugar; microbes are then used to ferment this sugar creating an ethanol that can be used as fuel.

“We were very excited to discover that the fungus can digest cellulose. Although the fungus makes less myco-diesel when it feeds on cellulose compared to sugars, new developments in fermentation technology and genetic manipulation could help improve the yield,” said Strobel. “In fact, the genes of the fungus are just as useful as the fungus itself in the development of new biofuels.  We were totally surprised to learn that it was making a plethora of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. The results were totally unexpected and very exciting and almost every hair on my arms stood on end!”

Patagonia is a geographic region containing the southernmost portion of South America. Located in Argentina and Chile, it comprises the Andes mountains to the west and south, and plateau and low plains to the east.

The biodiesel generating fungus grows in the Ulmo tree, a species of tree in the Cunoniaceae family. It is found in Chile and Argentina. It is threatened by logging and habitat loss. The natural habitat is along the Andes Range from 38 to 43° lat.S, and up to 700 meters (2300 ft) above sea level.

Mongabay, Gas2.0, Image from Patagonia Photo Library

eBay bans ivory sales

In response to growing pressure from international law enforcement agencies and conservation groups, eBay, the online auction giant, announced it would ban all commerce in ivory, including most heirlooms, to avoid providing a market that would encourage the slaughter of endangered elephants.

The global ban on ivory sales will be enforced starting January 1, 2009.  Exceptions to the ban include products made before 1900 that contain small amounts of ivory.

The announcement came ahead of  a report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare that over a six-week period tracked more than 7,000 posts offering body parts of protected wildlife, including pelts, teeth, bones, horns, and feathers. The report, titled “Killing with Keystrokes” [PDF], found that the United States was responsible for more than 70 percent of the trade, an amount nearly 10 times more than the two countries with the next highest volume, Great Britain and China. Nearly three-fourths of the posts were for ivory products.

By far, the single largest seller was eBay, with 73 percent of the total posts tracked on US websites.

The online auctioneer tried a limited ban on ivory last year, blocking all cross-border sales. According to eBay’s official blog, that ban attempted “to balance the protection of endangered and protected species while also providing a way for sellers to offer legitimate ivory products legally allowed for sale within domestic markets.”

But the illicit ivory sales continued. “…given the complexities of the global ivory trade, and the distinct and unique characteristics of the eBay Marketplace,” says eBay’s blog , “the sale of any ivory on our site continued to be a concern within the company and among stakeholders.”

In speaking with the International Herald Tribune, eBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said, “It’s just so complicated.  As we’ve said over the years, we are not experts” in the items bought and sold through the site.

“We don’t have possession of the items,” she said. “We never allow anything illegal to be sold. Where there are complex laws, we work with a number of stakeholders to make sure we are in compliance. That’s especially true with ivory.”

Last year, the company instituted a ban on international sales of elephant ivory products, but Jeffrey Flocken of the animal welfare fund said it “has not worked at all.”

A Winner in the Fight for International Justice

The MacArthur Foundation will honor Justice Richard J. Goldstone, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, with the MacArthur Award for International Justice. The Award provides Goldstone with $100,000 for his own work and invites him to suggest an additional $500,000 in support for non-profit organizations working on international justice issues. The Award will be conferred upon Justice Goldstone in The Hague on May 21, 2009.

“Justice Goldstone has played an instrumental role in building the emerging international system of justice,” said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton in remarks at a conference on international justice at American University. “He gave the tribunals moral authority and legal credibility. It is, in large part, a testament to the quality of his work that the international community accepted the Rome Statute and established the International Criminal Court with confidence. His unquestioned competence and integrity won the faith of the world.”

As Chief Prosecutor of the Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Goldstone helped shepherd these courts, the first of their kind since Nazi war criminals were tried at Nuremberg following World War II. He stressed the importance of reaching top political and military perpetrators and, in 1995, filed charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic for their roles in the “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnian Muslims.

Goldstone also chaired the Commission of Inquiry Regarding Public Violence and Intimidation in the aftermath of apartheid in his native South Africa. His service on the Commission proved invaluable to the democratic transition in that country, where he also served as an inaugural member of the Constitutional Court.

“It is an honor to receive the MacArthur Award for International Justice, as the Foundation has been a leader in supporting efforts to advance human rights and international justice,” said Justice Goldstone. “Since the early 1990s, we have witnessed the emergence of a system of international justice that is growing stronger with each new case tried in a regional court or UN tribunal and with each investigation opened by the International Criminal Court. It has given me tremendous pride and satisfaction to have played a role in ensuring that the perpetrators of mass atrocities have more reason today than ever to fear being brought to justice.”

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was the first recipient of the Award in 2008 in recognition of his contribution to building the International Criminal Court and encouraging the development of the concept of the Responsibility to Protect.

Beijing cuts 800,000 cars from road per day

A new traffic law will cut the number of cars on Beijing roads by 800,000 per day, reports Chinese state media. 

The restriction, which goes into effect today, affects 70 percent of vehicles, including government, private and corporate cars. Cars will be restricted one day per week based on their license plate number.

“Cars whose number plates end with 1 or 6 will be taken off roads on Monday, while those ending with 2 or 7 will be banned on Tuesday, 3 or 8 on Wednesday, 4 or 9 on Thursday and 5 or 0 on Friday,” reported Xinhua.

The ban — which is enforced with a 100-yuan ($14.70) fine — does not apply on weekends.  The law follows a similar trial two-month ban that was implemented to reduce pullution during the recent Olympics and Paralympics. According to officials, the measure took 2 million cars of the roads, increased traffic speed by 20 percent, and “helped reduce” vehicle emissions by almost 120,000 metric tons.

First captive Black Rhinos released into wild in 25 years

Fifteen critically-endangered black rhinos have been released at an undisclosed location in Kenya with hopes that this pioneer group will breed naturally, repopulating an area they once roamed abundantly. The release is the first time in 25 years that captive rhinos have been returned to the wild.

Overseen by the Kenyan Wildlife Service and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), it is hoped that the release will be the first of many. According to an article from ZSL the fifteen rhinos were sedated and had GPS transmitters installed in their horns before being moved to their new home. The fifteen individuals were selected from a single herd, so the animals would already be familiar with one another. If the release proves successful, ZSL hopes to take what is has learned in Kenya to Uganda and Tanzania for similar projects there.

Kenya once had as many as 20,000 black rhinos. In two decades that number dropped to 350, largely due to poaching for their horns for markets in Asia and the Middle East, which use the horns for medicinal purposes. Currently Kenya’s black rhino population has been growing slowly but steadily: about 500 black rhinos live in wildlife sanctuaries.

See full article at Mongabay.com

AmeriCares Opens Second Field Hospital in China

Continuing its efforts to provide critically needed medical relief for earthquake survivors, AmeriCares has opened a second field hospital in the Sichuan Province. The second field hospital is located in Wenchuan County, which was the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 69,000 people and left approximately 5 million homeless. The new hospital is located on the site of the former Xuankou Township Hospital, which received severe structural damage during the quake. Currently, medical personnel at the hospital are seeing anywhere between 60-70 outpatients a day.

“While international attention turns to the Olympic Games in Beijing, AmeriCares staff and partners on the ground remain fully committed to supporting the recovery efforts and ongoing health care needs in the most affected regions throughout Sichuan province,” said Curt Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares.

The new hospital will provide both inpatient and outpatient services and include operating and emergency rooms as well as maternity and immunization facilities. The Xuankou field hospital follows the construction of a similar field hospital in Qingchuan, an area where 250,000 residents lost their only medical clinic after the initial earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. The field hospital in Qingchuan is fully operational, and medical personnel there are treating about 130 outpatients daily. AmeriCares also recently purchased an ambulance for the Qingchuan facility to aid in the ongoing treatment of families in the devastated area.

AmeriCares was one of the first private relief organizations to deliver aid to Chengdu, the capital of the hard-hit Sichuan Province, delivering an initial supply of medicines on May 22 and providing a shipment of their critically needed medical supplies, including anesthetics and nutritionals for diabetics to the Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital in Chengdu.

To learn more about AmeriCares and to find out how to support the relief effort in China, visit americares.org.

Source: CSR Wire

Job program to employ 50,000 Aboriginies in Australia

Australia’s prime minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to raise funds for an ambitious plan to get 50,000 Aborigines into employment.

The project is the brainchild of Australia’s richest man Andrew Forrest and aims to generate 50,000 full-time permanent jobs for the Aboriginal community.

The training required to help people into work would be provided by the government, funding is set to come from major businesses, the prime minister said.

Speaking to abc.net, Mr Forrest commented: “You have a group of Aboriginal people who are currently out of work. They want one thing like you and I do and that is to get into well-paid meaningful jobs.”

He also added that though the target is ambitiously high, if achieved the programme would alter the direction of Australian employment and “social history”.

Recent figures from the Queensland treasury indicate that the unemployment rate among Aboriginals has fallen from 20.1 per cent in 2001 to 13.2 per cent this year.

Related Articles:

Andrew Forrest announces plan - theage.com

Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson backs plan - Livenews.com.au

Andrew Forrest personal piece -  The International Herald Tribune

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