To mark Shakespeare’s birthday and the launch of the World Shakespeare Festival, a group of merry players calling themselves the “Reclaim Shakespeare Company” took unexpectedly to the stage in Stratford-upon-Avon tonight, just before a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) performance of The Tempest. The actors performed a short piece drawing on The Tempest and other Shakespearean works, to challenge the RSC over its decision to accept sponsorship from BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster and the oil company’s decision to start extracting highly polluting and destructive tar sands in Canada. Continue reading BP or Not BP? The Debut Performance Of the Revive Shakespeare Company
Daily Archives: May 17, 2012
Water Conflicts Move Up on U.S. Security Agenda
By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, May 9, 2012 (IPS) – On Wednesday, the United States intelligence community unveiled a first-ever assessment of global water-security issues. A decassified version of the document, which looks forward through 2040, suggests that “during the next 10 years, water problems will contribute to instability in states important to U.S. national security interests.” According to one of the assessment’s lead authors, Major General Richard Engel, water-stressed countries, being forced to focus on pressing internal issues, are increasingly unable to support U.S. policies and strategic interests. Continue reading Water Conflicts Move Up on U.S. Security Agenda
Combat brigade will be drafted to Pentagon’s Africa Command to send soldiers to countries around the continent.
15 dead and 50,000 rescued from floods
Seven school children are among 15 people who have drowned in the last two days as heavy rains continue to wreak havoc across the country. They were swept away by floods on their way to school, many of which have been ordered closed. Read (Boy saves villagers from killer floods) Continue reading 15 dead and 50,000 rescued from floods
The Human Cost of Ideology
For more than a year, House Republicans have energetically worked to demolish vital social programs that have made this country both stronger and fairer over the last half-century. At the same time, they have insisted on preserving bloated military spending and unjustifiably low tax rates for the rich. That effort reached a nadir on Thursday when the House voted to prevent $55 billion in automatic cuts imposed on the Pentagon as part of last year’s debt-ceiling deal, choosing instead to make all those cuts, and much more, from domestic programs. Continue reading The Human Cost of Ideology
CONGOLESE BISHOP SAYS ILLEGAL MINING CAUSES VIOLENCE, POVERTY, URGES REGULATION IN CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY
WASHINGTON—Congress should continue to support laws that promote transparency among companies that mine in the Congo and to “resist watering down SEC regulations to half measures that may save money, but cost lives.” said Bishop Nicolas Djomo Lola, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Congo, in May 10 testimony to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sponsored Bishop Djomo Lola’s participation in the hearing, “The Costs and Consequences of Dodd-Frank Section 1502: Impacts on America and the Congo.” Catholic Relief Services (CRS) coordinated the trip. Continue reading CONGOLESE BISHOP SAYS ILLEGAL MINING CAUSES VIOLENCE, POVERTY, URGES REGULATION IN CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY
CAFOD takes Thirst For Change message to Downing Street after sunrise walk
On Tuesday, a delegation of CAFOD supporters delivered over 60,000 Thirst for change actions to No 10 Downing Street, calling on David Cameron to turn the tide on water poverty. The Prime Minister has a crucial opportunity at the G8 summit, which begins on 18 May, to urge other world leaders to raise their ambition and make clean water and safe sanitation a top priority. Your actions give David Cameron a clear mandate to push for concrete commitments from the G8 leaders to end water poverty once and for all. Continue reading CAFOD takes Thirst For Change message to Downing Street after sunrise walk
