Don’t mess with the kids!

Groups of parents opted to blockade 20 pre-schools today in Copenhagen, as the Council’s Children and Youth Committee began considering possible cuts to pre-schools. One group of parents and children (shown above) held out plastic cups, begging for money to help Copenhagen’s pre-schools.

Nina Reffstrup of the Copenhagen Parent Association says:

Parents are doing this to send a clear signal to the politicians that they should not touch the compensation arrangement. The child and youth budget has been hit hard enough by savings of 200 million kroner. The (extra) 50 million must simply not be found in the child/youth budget.

No word on where the parents would prefer the cuts to come from or what the Council will choose to do in the end.

Mickey is headed to Shanghai

The Chinese government has approved (finally) plans to build a Disneyland theme park in Shanghai.

Disney has been trying for the past 10 years to edge its way into mainland China and the government’s approval opens the doors for the project to move forward.

Working with the local government in Shanghai Disney hopes to open the park by 2014.

Embassy of Tribal Nations opens in Washington

Today marks a first for Native American nations. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is opening an Embassy of Tribal Nations in Washington, DC. The event coincides with President Obama’s 1st Annual Tribal Nations Conference, set to begin on Thursday.

NCAI President Jefferson Keel marked the occasion, saying:

For the first time since settlement, tribal nations will have a permanent home in Washington, D.C. where they can more effectively assert their sovereign status and facilitate a much stronger nation-to-nation relationship with the federal government.

The official opening of the embassy will take place later today. Tribal leaders, Members of Congress and administration officials are likely to attend.

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Details on the official opening:

WHO: Tribal Leaders, International Dignitaries, Supporters of Indian Country

WHAT: Embassy of Tribal Nations Gala Open House

WHEN: Tuesday, November 3, 2009–2:00-8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Embassy of Tribal Nations — 1516 P Street, NW — Washington, D.C. 20005

World Wide Web goes global

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is set to expand the web beyond its Latin alphabetic restrictions. ICANN is in the process of meeting and hashing out a structure that will allow for a multilingual address system to support the use of non-Latin scripts, including Arabic, Chinese, etc.

The primary drive behind the push is simply to make the net more international, recognizing that the the majority of the people on Earth do not use languages that are based on the Latin alphabet. This change will open the world of online communication to new groups of people, especially those in developing regions who are not familiar with Latin script and languages.

Where is the press most free?

Reporters Without Borders has released its 2009 Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Topping the list this year, in a five-way tie for first, are Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. Ireland aside, it’s a Scandinavian sweep! Closing out the top ten are — Estonia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, and Lituania.

The US holds a three way tie with the UK and Luxembourg for 20th. However, that is actually positive news, as the US was placed 40th last year. While the report’s authors are happy to see US improvements, they do cite a few reasons to be concerned:

Despite a slight improvement, the attitude of the United States towards the media in Iraq and Afghanistan is worrying. Several journalists were injured or arrested by the US military. One, Ibrahim Jassam, is still being held in Iraq.

The report also highlights some rather dim global trends. Though the index’s leaders are all European states, the overall trend in Europe is a negative one.

France (43rd), Slovakia (44th) and Italy (49th) continue their descent, falling eight, 37 and five places respectively. In so doing, they have given way to young democracies in Africa (Mali, South Africa and Ghana) and the western hemisphere (Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago).

Journalists are still physically threatened in Italy and Spain (44th), but also in the Balkans, especially Croatia (78th), where the owner and marketing director of the weekly Nacional were killed by a bomb on 23 October 2008.

But the main threat, a more serious one in the long term, comes from new legislation. Many laws adopted since September 2008 have compromised the work of journalists. One adopted by Slovakia (44th) has introduced the dangerous concept of an automatic right of response and has given the culture minister considerable influence over publications.

Additionally, Israel sank 47 spots and Iran is nearing the bottom of the list, practically sharing space with Turkmenistan and North Korea. Closing the list is the African state of Eritrea, “where the media are so suppressed they are non-existent”.

Russian democracy fading away

A poll by Levada-Centre reveals that only 57% of those questioned believe democracy is ‘needed’ in Russia (lowest number in years). 26% believe democratic governance is “not suitable for Russia” and 95% feel they have “little or no influence” on what goes on in their country.

A majority of respondents also indicated a desire for the President to have more direct power over the courts and legislature, 43% agreed that Russia “sometimes needed an iron fist leader” and nearly 25% said “the Soviet Union had a better political system than that of the current Russian model.

Given the trend, is Russian democracy soon the be a thing of the past? What happens when ‘the people’ no longer want democracy?

Are you a fan of Auschwitz?

Auschwitz has joined Facebook with its own fan page. Now you can become a Facebook ‘fan’ of the notorious Nazi death camp in Poland.

Wait, let me back up just a bit. The Auschwitz Memorial/Museum has joined Facebook. The organization is trying to reach out to “the younger generation” in order to better educate them about the Holocaust and hopes utilizing a social media platform will help their efforts.

While I hope they are able to educate more people, I would still feel a bit odd becoming a ‘fan’ of Auschwitz.

Broadband now a legal right in Finland

With 96% of its populous already digitally connected, Finland looks to become the first nation with 100% connectivity by mandating a legal right to broadband internet access.

A new law in the Scandinavian state will require all telecommunications companies to provide high speed internet connections capable of running at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second to each and every Finish resident (around 5.3 million people). The goal is to bridge the ‘digital divide‘ between those with and those who have never had internet access, which primarily consists of residents in the more rural regions of the country.

Finland has, in the past, spoke of providing universal broadband access. This is the biggest step they have taken towards actually reaching their goal.

Why do we bother to observe Columbus Day?

Tomorrow is Columbus Day, a federal and state holiday in many states, but why? Why do we mark the day an Italian sailing under the Spanish flag mistakenly sailed into the Caribbean and ignited an era of conflict, violence, and forced catholic conversion across what is known today as Latin America?

Sure, at one point in time it could have been argued that we were honoring the first European to have sailed to the ‘New World’, but we know now that he wasn’t. Evidence today shows that Scandinavians made the voyage to North America hundreds of years prior to Columbus. Honoring Columbus as the first was just a notion of mistaken history. In remembering him today, with his own holiday, what are we honoring? Why do we mark his landing knowing what we know?

Perhaps there isn’t an answer; perhaps it is just to hard to change a federal holiday, bureaucracy and all. But If I had a say, I’d end the holiday, replace it with something else. With what, I am not sure, but I am positive there is something more deserving of our annual devotion and observance.

Obama Awarded Nobel Prematurely

Other nominees were more deserving then Obama. What did Obama do for peace prior to Feb. 1st, 2009 during the period under review?

Recently he has drone bombed Pakistan, pushed for 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Prior to that, during the review period, he was campaigning for president.

There is no merit to Obama winning this year, there were no real grounds for the nomination. The nominations were closed on Feb. 1st 2009. He had only been in office 2 weeks at that point. He had yet to accomplish anything worthy and still has yet to do so. Campaign promises do not qualify one to be a Nobel Laureate, no matter how driven the person is. Yes, his goals have peace in mind, but campaign promises that have yet to bear fruit on the President’s policy agenda do not merit the world’s most renowned prize for peace. Even the Associated Press was unsure on what grounds he was nominated.

Thus far, in his presidency, he has bombed Pakistan and increased troop numbers in Afghanistan (and is pushing for increased troop numbers). He has yet to accomplish his Middle East peace goals or really make much of a headway. In fact he has backpedaled on many of these goals. Does this mean he will not accomplish them? No. There is time, and if/when that time comes he deserves proper recognition. In the future, if he is successful in his push for Nuclear Non-Proliferation, he will certainly deserve recognition for that as well, but not now, not yet.

The human rights fighters throughout Africa, China, the Middle East and South America on the list, the woman’s rights activists across the depressed world, and jailed democracy fighters in Vietnam, among others, are certainly more deserving for this year’s award.

Cross posted from my tumblr

India, Canada step up trade talks

It is expected, within the month, that India and Canada will come to an agreement on a number of economic, investment, and energy pacts. The two are in the end stages of completing a number of agreements that will likely lead to an eventual free-trade agreement.

Currently on the table are; deals on investment, energy exchanges, India-Canada CEO roundtables, and an agreement that would allow Canada’s nuclear industry to sell direct to India. The two also indicated an interest in expanding their relationship in agriculture, environment, automotive industry, natural resources, science and technology, and culture.

Norway, still the ‘best place to live’

The most recent UN human development index is out, and again, Norway tops the list. Using data collected from 2007 (the most recent data set available), the index examines life expectancy, literacy rates, school enrollment and national economies.

Following Norway to round out the top three are Australia and Iceland. The United States placed 13th, behind:

4. Canada
5. Ireland
6. Netherlands
7. Sweden
8. France
9. Switzerland
10. Japan
11. Luxembourg
12. Finland