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Let Us Make The World A Better Place To Live
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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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IRAQ
----
"The time has come for a call to action to people of conscience.
We are past the point where silence is passive consent -- when
a crime reaches these proportions, silence is complicity."
Noam Chomsky, et al
Over the last ten years, US-manipulated and UN-imposed
economic sanctions -- and massive bombings by the US and the UK
-- have claimed the lives of 1.5 million people in Iraq. Most
of the victims are children under the age of five. The infra-
structure damage resulting from bombings and economic sanctions
has left this once prosperous nation crippled and dying. The
combined effect of these actions has been devastating: hyper-
inflation, massive disease proliferation in both people and
animals, mass migration, chronic malnutrition, extreme poverty,
increased crime, collapse of medical services, collapse of
agriculture, collapse of water and sewage processing, increased
reliance on the state. The list is endless.
In early 1999, a special United Nations Security Council
panel reported that in Iraq "the gravity of the humanitarian
situation is indisputable and cannot be overstated." Iraq, the
panel reports, has "experienced a shift from relative affluence
to massive poverty." Prior to sanctions, Iraq's health care
system was regarded as among the best in the Middle East.
Today, however, children die from epidemics of once preventable
diseases. The special Security Council panel reported that
Iraq's "infant mortality rates are among the highest in the
world." The US Government actively supports sanctions to
prevent the production of "weapons of mass destruction," while
itself remaining the world's largest producer, distributor, and
user of weapons of mass destruction.
Condemned by Pope John Paul II, this undeclared war by
insidious means is not only immoral but also illegal by
standards of international and US law. The embargo directly
violates the Geneva Convention, the UN Charter, the Constitution
of the World Health Organization, the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of
States. Furthermore, according to US law, the blockade of the
Iraqi people is also an act of international terrorism.
All compassionate and rational people should oppose the
inhuman policies of the US and the UK against Iraq. Let us send
a loud and clear message to them to end the decade-long siege.
http://junior.apk.net/~halder/poll.html
A. Time (US Policy on Iraq)
B. Petition to the UN Security Council
Addressing the Humanitarian Situation in Iraq
C. Iraq (letter to the US Government to end the war)
D. Petition to Stop the Sanctions and Bombing Against Iraq
E. Iraq (add your signature to end the sanctions)
F. A Campaign to End the Economic Sanctions
Against the People of Iraq
G. End the Iraqi Sanctions (to the UN/US/UK Administrations)
H. Stop the US Government's Holocaust Against the Iraqi People
I. Petition to the British Parliament (at the Mariam Appeal)
J. National Petition Against Sanctions on Iraq
(to the UK Government)
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AFGHANISTAN
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"Resistance to tyranny is man's highest ideal." Emma Goldman
The Government of Afghanistan is waging a war upon women.
The Taliban militia group took over the country in 1996, and now
they control most of Afghanistan. The Government has imposed a
brutal system of gender apartheid upon Afghan women and girls,
systematically stripping them of their civil and human rights.
They have banned women and girls from working, going to school,
or leaving their homes without a close male relative
accompanying them. In public, women must be covered from head
to toe in a "burqa," with only a mesh opening to see and breathe
through. Women have even been shot for leaving their homes to
seek medical care. Many Afghan women are the sole support of
their families, and with the ban on women working, their
families have become destitute.
The Taliban should not be recognized as the legitimate
government of Afghanistan. Countries that are supporting the
Taliban (such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) should be pressured
to stop such support. Please sign the petitions urging the
United Nations and the United States to restore women's human
rights in Afghanistan.
http://junior.apk.net/~halder/poll.html
A. The Equality Project (dedicated to promoting equality)
=> Petition for Afghan Women's Human Rights
B. Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan
(at the Feminist Majority Foundation)
=> Global Campaign
=> URGENT Appeal to Mrs Mary Robinson
C. Stop the Taliban War Against Women
D. Taliban Women's Rights
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NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
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"The nuclear bomb is the most anti-democratic, anti-national,
anti-human, outright evil thing that man has ever made. If you
are religious, then remember that this bomb is Man's challenge
to god. It's worded quite simply: We have the power to destroy
everything that You have created." Arundhati Roy
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the United
States and the former Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms
race that, at its height, saw the deployment of some 80,000
nuclear weapons, many of which were thousands of times more
powerful than those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At
the present time, ten years after the end of the Cold War, eight
countries have a total of some 36,000 nuclear weapons, more than
95% of which are in the arsenals of the United States and
Russia.
Nuclear weapons have drained resources, including scientific
ones, from productive uses. A recent study by the Brookings
Institution found that, since the beginning of the Nuclear Age,
the US alone has spent more than $5.5 trillion on nuclear
weapons programs. The US continues to spend some $25-$35
billion annually on maintaining, testing, and developing its
nuclear arsenal. All of these misspent resources represent lost
opportunities for improving the health, education, and welfare
of the people.
Furthermore, due to the conditions of social disintegration
in the former Soviet Union, there is increased concern that
nuclear weapons or weapons-grade nuclear material may fall into
the possession of additional countries, criminals, or
terrorists. The breakup of the former Soviet Union has also
weakened Russia's early warning system, since many parts of this
system were located outside of Russia. Hence, given the limited
time available to make decisions about whether or not a state is
under attack, the result could be a miscalculation or an
accidental launch of nuclear weapons.
Moreover, the failure of the nuclear weapon states to
eliminate their nuclear arsenal will likely result in the
proliferation of nuclear weapons to other nations. If the
nuclear weapon states continue to maintain the position that
nuclear weapons preserve national security, it is only
reasonable that other nations with less powerful military forces
will also decide that a nuclear arsenal is necessary to maintain
national security, as well.
Distinguished leaders throughout the world -- generals,
admirals, scientists, Nobel Laureates, and heads of state and
government -- warned of the dangers inherent in relying upon
nuclear weapons for defense. The leaders of nuclear weapon
states have not heeded these warnings. If nuclear weapons are
relied upon for defense, sooner or later they will be used, by
accident or by design. The fact that we have had these weapons
in our midst for some fifty years provides no assurance that
they will not be used in the future.
There is a way out of this dilemma. Man invented nuclear
weapons. While it is not possible to "dis-invent" them, or as
some say "to put the genie back in the bottle," it is possible
to abolish them under strict and effective international
control. Nuclear weapons threaten the future of humanity.
Hence, it is a highly sensible goal for humanity to seek to
abolish these weapons.
Take a stand for a better world! Promote global efforts for
peace and non-violence! Provide energy and momentum to a
worldwide effort to rid the planet of weapons of mass
destruction! Support re-allocation of resources to ensure a
sustainable global future! Sign the petitions to abolish
nuclear weapons!
http://junior.apk.net/~halder/poll.html
A. Abolition 2000 (petition to abolish nuclear weapons)
B. No Star Wars/No BMD
C. Make Nuclear Weapons a Thing of the Past
D. De-alert Nuclear Weapons (Back from the Brink Campaign)
E. Abolish Nuclear Weapons Petition
(by Proposition One Committee)
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LAND MINES
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"The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the
leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it
to them." Dwight Eisenhower
The international community has recognized global land mine
proliferation as a pressing humanitarian crisis. In some 68
nations, fields, deserts, forests, roads, and waterways are
littered with an estimated 110 million mines. Anti-personnel
mines claim a victim every twenty minutes, more than 26,000 each
year. Almost all of those killed and maimed are civilians,
often women and children, and nearly always after the cessation
of the active hostilities. Mines have an average life span of
fifty to one hundred years. Because of their low metallic
content, many are nearly undetectable.
It goes without saying that anti-personnel mines are
indiscriminate, hidden killers and constitute one of the
greatest public safety hazards. For millions of people, anti-
personnel mines are the biggest threat in their daily lives
because every step they take could literally be their last.
Mines also frustrate post-war reconstruction in a score of
countries. Resources, which should be used to rebuild schools
and hospitals, are instead diverted to land mine clearance.
Some of the most popular varieties of anti-personnel mines cost
as little as $3. However, according to the UN, it costs
anywhere from $300 to $1,000 to clear a land mine -- a crushing
financial burden for the world's poorest nations. Please take
constructive actions by signing the petitions to ban land mines
from our planet.
http://junior.apk.net/~halder/poll.html
A. Red Cross (petition to ban land mines worldwide)
B. International Campaign to Ban Landmines
=> Campaign Information
=> Action YOU Can Take
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THIRD-WORLD DEBT
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"People with advantages are loath to believe that they just
happen to be people with advantages." C Wright Mills
The fifty-two poorest countries in the world are in urgent
need of debt cancellation. In aggregate, these 52 countries
combined pay the same amount in debt service as they spend on
health care and education combined. These countries, of which
37 are in Africa, owe a total of $376 billion. Almost half of
this debt is owed directly to individual governments -- mainly
Japan, the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy: the
"G7." Most of the rest is 'multilateral' debt owed to the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are
effectively run by the G7 governments. Only about ten per cent
of the debt is owed to private banks.
For every dollar that developed countries send in grants to
developing countries, thirteen dollars comes back in debt
repayments. The rich North is taking wealth from the poorest
countries of Africa and Latin America. The only way the debtor
countries can service the debt is to take on new loans to help
pay off the old ones. Even then, they normally cannot afford to
make repayments in full, so they go into arrears, causing their
debt to grow larger. No matter who is to blame for the huge
build-up of debt, the only people who suffer as a result are the
poorest people in the world.
Debt kills. Debt repayments divert money away from basic
life-saving health care in the world's poorest countries. The
UN estimates that if debt repayment was diverted back into
health care and education, each year the lives of seven million
children could be saved.
The best way to help the poor countries is to stop taking
their money. What is needed is a decision by the leaders of the
G7 -- and the commitment of the World Bank and the IMF -- to
implement a cancellation of debt.
History shows that the right kind of debt cancellation is
good for everyone. Germany received massive debt relief after
the Second World War. The Allied Powers realized it made sense:
rebuilding a stable Germany meant peace and prosperity in
Europe. The amount of debt cancellation that was agreed as
affordable for Germany is an amount that countries in Africa --
like Mozambique, Angola and Rwanda -- can only dream of
receiving. Jubilee 2000 has estimated that it would actually
cost $71 billion to cancel all the debts owed by 52 of the
poorest countries, which have a face value of $376 billion. The
real cost of debt cancellation is about one-third of one percent
of the annual income of the richest (OECD) countries. Over 20
years, this would cost each person in the OECD countries less
than $4 a year.
Jubilee 2000 has undertaken a global campaign to cancel the
unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries. Please sign
the petition and give hope to the impoverished people of the
world.
http://junior.apk.net/~halder/poll.html
A. Jubilee 2000 Petition
(a debt-free start for a billion people)
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P.S. Please take a few minutes to write an op/ed piece to a
local newspaper.
http://www.nowarcollective.com/
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