Month: May 2016

Erdem Gulwere and Can Dundar

This week journalists Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of “Cumhuriyet”, and Erdem Gilwere, Ankara bureau chief, were jailed for more than five years for merely reporting in May 2015 on evidence that the Erdogan government had, via the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), been secretly ferrying arms from Turkey across the Syrian border. On the day Dundar arrived at court an attempt was made on the life (see video below). The journalists – who are appealing their convictions – were initially accused by Erdogan of being ‘terrorists’ under Turkey’s catch-all definition. The EU requires Erdogan to tighten that definition if the final go-head for Turks to get visa-free roaming across Europe is granted. But this week – the same week when Erdogan gave his prime minister the boot – the ever unpredictable Erdogan pointedly refused to comply to this condition and threatened to scupper the EU-Turkey deal on…

From daily The Independent in Britain:

France bans foie gras for three months over bird flu scare

The country is responsible for 75 per cent of the global production

Caroline Mortimer

Producers of foie gras have said they will lose millions of euros as France introduces a three-month ban on production.

The measure, which has been prompted by a bird flu scare, means breeders in 18 départments in south west France will not be allowed to have any ducks or geese in their slaughterhouses until August.

Foie gras – or fattened duck or goose liver – is considered a delicacy by some but is denounced as cruel by animal rights campaigners due the practice of force-feeding.

Breeder Florence Lasserre told the France Info news channel that her gavage room – meaning the room where the birds are force fed – was currently empty.

She said:  “Usually it’s full here, and it…

From Earth We Are One

Child marriage ban, finally in Zambia, to hit the overwhelming use of women or girls as tools of income right in the kisser.

“People [in rural areas] perceive a girl child as a source of wealth, and would rather give the girl into marriage to raise funds for educating the boy child.” 

Nearly one-third of girls under 18 used to get married, 4 percent of that are married under 15. Let’s give some life to these numbers. If there are 7,323,771 females in Zambia around the year 2014. 1/3 around of them get married at 18 which is 2,441,257. That is so many children getting married before they even have a shot of what life could be. Now out of 2,441,257, 4% are married under 15 years of age. 97,650.28 females have been married in 2014 under the age of 15 in Zambia.