Social Cause 01 (Jul 08 - Jul 15)

[winston]

UAE ready to fly out Pakistani girl shot by Taliban

The United Arab Emirates is ready to evacuate a Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for further medical treatment, a top official said on Sunday.

"There is an Emirati plane ready to evacuate" 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that the plane would be ready to fly out of the UAE once "final preparations are complete."

Pakistan's ambassador to the UAE, Jamil Ahmed Khan, told a private Pakistani television network that the young child rights activist would be flown to the Gulf state for further treatment.

Malala was shot in the former Taliban stronghold of Swat last Tuesday in retaliation for her campaign for the right to education.

She was airlifted to Pakistan's top military hospital on Thursday for specialist treatment.

On Sunday, the military said the teenager was making "slow and steady progress" in her recovery.

The Pakistani Taliban said on Tuesday that it carried out the shooting. Spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP that the group had repeatedly warned her to stop speaking out against it.

The attempted murder has sickened Pakistan, where Malala came to prominence with a blog for the BBC highlighting atrocities by the Taliban when it controlled much of the Swat valley between 2007 and 2009.


Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

Peace winner in feral attack

Dissident mainland author Liao Yiwu tore into the leadership in Beijing, describing his homeland as an "inhuman empire with bloody hands", as he scooped a prestigious German book prize at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The author, also known as Lao Wei, said the Chinese state is a "massive scrap heap that must break apart" and accused the West of "colluding with the executioners under the cover of free trade."

Liao's speech came as he collected the German Book Trade Peace Prize, the country's second highest award, and the accompanying endowment of 25,000 euros (HK$251,000) at a ceremony attended by President Joachim Gauck.

Earlier, in an interview carried by the German newsweekly Spiegel, Liao attacked fellow mainland author Mo Yan, the winner of this year's Nobel Prize for literature, as a "state poet" who is close to the communist regime.

Liao spent four years in jail after writing the poem Massacre about the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

He moved to Germany after successfully defying a travel ban by walking to Vietnam.

Liao is also the author of The Corpse Walker, which records the lives of working-class Chinese including a grave robber and a delusional peasant who believes he is an emperor.

His works are banned in the mainland.

German Booksellers' and Publishers' Association president Gottfried Honnefelder praised the author for having "restored a voice to the people of his country suffering from repression and oppression."

Past prize winners include Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, Hungarian Peter Esterhazy and Czech writer and former president Vaclav Havel.

Last year's prize was won by acclaimed Algerian author Boualem Sansal.

Beijing criticized the nomination when it was declared in June, saying Liao has "continued to fabricate stories to receive sympathy and support."


Source: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

[winston]

Pakistan military: Teenager Malala Yousufzai, whom the Taliban shot, leaves Pakistan for the UK for medical treatment

Source: CNN International

[winston]

Order restored after protest sparked by driver's death

Calm has been restored in a city in southwest China's Sichuan Province after residents attacked police cars over the death of a truck driver, a local official said on Thursday.

No casualties occurred when police dealt with the incident, Zhang Wenjun, an official of the Luzhou city government, said at a news briefing, Xinhua news agency reports.

Gan Junyuan, a driver from a village in Luzhou City, Sichuan, felt ill and died on Wednesday evening after he argued and scuffled with traffic police. He had parked his white truck in a banned area along a road.

Gan "suddenly felt uncomfortable" during the scuffle. He shouted that there was medicine in the truck's cab. Police searched for it but failed to find the medicine.

People gathered nearby found the medicine and helped the driver take it. However, his condition worsened and police called an ambulance, Zhang said.

Doctors, who attended the scene, failed to save Gan's life. As a result,some people attacked police cars at the site. Five police cars were set ablaze and two others were burnt completely, said Zhang.

Residents left the scene and the situation calmed down at around 4 a.m. Thursday.
On Thursday morning, a Xinhua reporter at the scene said everything was back to normal although residents were still talking about it.

The local government said a team has been set up to conduct an investigation, promising to announce the results timely and handle the incident in accordance with the law.

Around 10,000 residents in Luzhou took to the street after a truck driver was reportedly beaten to death by traffic cops. Images and videos posted by netizen showed that police cars had been set on fire.


Source: The Standard HK

[winston]

Shot Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousufzai "communicating freely" in writing, says UK hospital chief.

Source: CNN International

[winston]

Samsung Accused of Severe Mistreatment of Chinese Workers

Indeed, the list of illegal and inhumane violations is long, including but not limited to well over 100 hours of forced overtime work per month, unpaid work, standing for 11 to 12 hours while working, underage workers, severe age and gender discrimination, abuse of student and labor dispatch workers, a lack of worker safety, and verbal and physical abuse.

Moreover, workers lack of any effective internal grievance channel by which to rectify these transgressions.

Source: China Labor Watch

http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/pro/proshow-177.html

[winston]

Dozens hurt in big Hainan township power plant pollution protest

Thousands of residents in the coastal town of Yinggehai, Hainan, demonstrated at the weekend against plans to build a large power plant nearby, with dozens injured and more than 100 detained.


Source: SCMP

[winston]

Ningbo activists seek big weekend protest over Sinopec plant expansion

Hundreds of people in the city of Ningbo demonstrated for a third consecutive day yesterday over plans to expand a controversial petrochemical plant.


Source: SCMP

[iam802]

http://buddhistbugs.blogspot.sg/2012/10 ... mercy.html

An Indonesian judge by the name of Marzuki was sitting in judgment of an old lady who pleaded guilty of stealing some tapioca from a plantation.

In her defense, she pleaded to the judge that she has done the deed because she was poor and her son was sick while her grandchild was hungry. The plantation manager insisted that she be punished as a deterrent to others.

The judge going through the documents then look up and said to the old lady, “I’m sorry but I cannot make any exception to the law and you must be punished.” The old lady was fined Rp. 1 million (USD 100) and if she could not pay the fine then she will be jailed for 2 and a half years as demanded by the law. She wept as she could not pay the fine.

The judge then took off his hat and put in Rp. 1 million into the hat and said “In the name of justice, I fined all who are in the court Rp. 50 thousand (USD 5.50) as dwellers of this city and letting a child to starve until her grandmother have to steal to feed her grandchild.

The registrar will now collect the fines from all the accused.”

The court managed to collect Rp 3.5 million (USD 200) whereby once the fine was paid off, the rest was given to the old lady … .including the fine collected from the plantation manager.

[kennynah]

wow... this is JUSTICE !!!

salute to this judge..

i'm going to share on FB and so others might know that in this world, humane judges exist...though, it might be easier to find kangeroos here in Singapore