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Is access to oil and water a human right?
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Who is charged with protecting that right? Local government's, international organizations, local militia?
Availability of safe water is already limited in many regions of the world and will only continue to dwindle as demand increases and overuse continues and poor reuse practices are not employed...what are some realistic development strategies to be executed at the various scales (local to international)?
thanks for the post.
Yes, water is important to Humans, but does this apply to the people of Gaza?
Gaza of today is very much like Dresden-1945. And as Dresden was annihilated by the RAF toward the end of the Second World War, the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza are being decapitated and thoroughly terrorized by the Israeli army, the Wehrmacht of our time.
Breaking News : Such and such a number of palestinian children and women are killed in Gaza. It has become the daily menu of the press as if the victims are just numbers or even insects and above all they blame the victims for not running away from their houses to seek a shelter in a UNRWA school and when they do so, Israel kills them and gives the usual lie that there were hamas activists in or next to the school despite that fact that the red cross said that there were no hamas activists in or even near the school. oh my God! what happned to the world? Just watch CNN to see how it is siding with the killers by not showing the horrifying pictures of the dead people in Gaza, but when an Israeli civilian is killed or even wounded, they go on reporting this incidents for many days as if the Israelis are supposed to live unlike the people in Gaza whose death means a new number on the news. Who banned the media from entering into Gaza? It was Israel. Why? To hide the truth. But the whole world is watching and yet, nobody blames Israel for the systematic killing. Where is your humanity dear Americans when you support the killer and sypathise with him and blame the victims for defending themselves and crying aloud," We had better die fighting the occupation than to die of starvation". It seems that you forgot that the whole thing started because Israel's blockade made the stuation in Gaza just like death and they had no way but to cry and tell Israel and the world to stop this inhuman blockade. Thousands of children died during the almost 4years of blockade and israel killed 6 hamas activists days before the end ot the truce, but the whole world accuses Hamas.
The virtual holocaust Israel is now waging against the Gaza Strip is taking its toll on innocent civilians. Today 8-1-2009 the total number is ( 650 killed and more than 4000 wounded and hundreds are still under the rubble of their demolished house.) The shocking scenes speak for themselves. The gruesomeness transcends reality; it exceeds by far the most eloquent of words.
Yes, Gaza now is very much like Dresden-1945. And as Dresden was annihilated by the RAF toward the end of the Second World War, the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza are being decapitated and thoroughly terrorized by the Israeli army, the Wehrmacht of our time.
But there is obviously a fundamental and conspicuous difference between Gaza and Dresden. Dresden was targeted by the allies as an act of sheer vengeance and revenge for what the Nazi war machine had done, including German attacks on London and other British cities.
But Gaza committed no crime against Israel. To be sure, the opposite is quite true. Have we forgotten that the bulk of the Gaza victims, who are being annihilated with the Zionist war machine, happen to be refugees and their children and grandchildren uprooted from their towns and villages across the borders inside Israel?
In 1948, Israel uprooted them in wave after wave of genocidal ethnic cleansing, and ever since has been trying to liquidate them by bombing their homes, killing their children, bulldozing their farms and lately by trying to starve them to death.
And now, the six-decade reign of terror and death is being culminated with an aerial holocaust, all for the purpose of displaying %u201CJewish power%u201D and %u201Cheroism.%u201D!!! Well, what heroism is there in having the state-of-the-art of the American machine of death rain missiles and bombs, including Bunker Busters, on unprotected apartment buildings, mosques, streets, pharmacies, college dormitories? This is not heroism; it is a sheer act of cowardice.
The Nazis ganged up on defenseless people more than six decades ago, but they at least didn%u2019t claim to be carrying out heroic acts as self-absorbed and gleeful Israeli leaders are doing now.
In truth, Gaza is being crucified because it refuses to succumb to the cruelty and supremacy of the %u201Choly tribe,%u201D because it refuses to die quietly and continues to cling to life and look forth for a better tomorrow, because Gaza is saying %u201Cgive me freedom or give me death.%u201D
The Nazis of our time want Gaza to die quietly, or at least as quietly as possible. Israeli behavior leaves no doubt as to the diabolical designs of the Judeo-Nazi entity.
But the Israeli military and political establishments don%u2019t want to appear before the world as they really are, as Nazis par excellence who think, behave and act like the Nazis. This is why they are trying to cover up their crimes with a frantic campaign of fabricated lies.
But Nazis are Nazis even if they have Jewish names and pretend to be the victims. In the final analysis it doesn%u2019t matter if Nazis call themselves %u201Cchosenites%u201D or %u201Cmaster race%u201D or %u201Cubermenschen,%u201D or even %u201Cvictims.%u201D
Sowing hatred
Israel is not only wreaking death, terror and havoc on defenseless Gazans. It is also sowing hatred, a lot of hatred, in the hearts and minds of millions of people who are watching Israel decapitate Gaza.
This is undoubtedly going to be one of the lasting aftereffects of this madness.
The gruesome and phantasmagoric images which hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims and others around the world are watching on their TV screens around the clock are a sure prescription for decades of hatred and sullen enmity toward Jews throughout the Muslim world.
Arab and Muslim children won%u2019t have to read about Israeli Nazism in their textbooks. They are watching it live on their TV screens.
Let it be clear to all and sundry. Israel is telling an entire generation of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims that they either surrender to the Jewish Third Reich or become %u201Cterrorists.%u201D
They will become %u201Cterrorists%u201D and be it as it may.
Surely, the pornographic slaughter will eventually boomerang on Israel and regretfully on Jews. Unfortunately, many innocent Jews will pay the price just as mostly innocent Palestinians are paying the price, with their lives and the lives of their children and beloved ones, for the brutal ugliness of the Zionist mindset. In the final analysis, anti-Semitism is manufactured in Israel, not in Damascus or Cairo or even Gaza.
Hamas
Israel says its aim is to destroy Hamas. Well, there is no doubt that Israel possesses the military ability to destroy the Hamas government. Israel, after all, is a military superpower which also happens to be more or less in control of the politics and policies of the United States and to a lesser extent the governments of Europe.
However, destroying Hamas%u2019s government is one thing, and destroying Hamas the movement, is quite another.
Hamas has hundreds of thousands of supporters in occupied Palestine as well as tens of millions of sympathizers across the Arab and Muslim world. These will not disappear even if the Gaza government does.
The ongoing huge demonstrations in solidarity with Hamas, now flooding the Arab world, shows that Hamas is more, much more, than a local nationalist-Islamic movement that can be eradicated by Israeli firepower.
Yes, Hamas has obviously been hit hard. But the movement is by no means about to die or even get weaker. In fact, there are many indications that Hamas will get stronger, at least in terms of popularity and stature.
The American puppet regimes in the Arab world may not like Hamas. Some of them may even be gloating over the Gaza calamity.
However, Hamas is definitely winning the hearts and minds of the Arab masses from Casablanca to Bahrain. This may not yield tangible benefits immediately, but the long-term gains are absolutely certain, and this is exactly what Hamas is seeking.
Well, let us suppose for the sake of argument that Israel succeeds in %u201Cterminating%u201D the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip as Israeli leaders have been saying. Would this end the Islamic resistance to the Israeli occupation? Would this allow Israel to liquidate the Palestinian cause by imposing a %u201Cpeace settlement%u201D on the weak Palestinian Authority?
Nay, this won%u2019t happen at all, because Hamas, whether we like or not, represents and encapsulates the spiritual essence of the Palestinian people and their yearning for freedom and justice.
More to the point, the contemplated elimination of the Hamas government by Israel would eventually be proven to be one of the stupidest Israeli misdeeds ever.
First of all, it would free the resistance group from the burden of government and allow it anew to carry out more ferocious attacks against Israel without having to worry about the bombing by Israel of buildings and security headquarters and hospitals.
In fact, Hamas had never wanted to be in government let alone form one. Hamas all along had wanted to be in a position to influence any Palestinian government, but not to be in the driver%u2019s seat itself.
However, the outcome of the 2006 elections imposed the burden of government on Hamas especially after Fatah refused to join Hamas in forming a government of national unity.
So, in a certain sense, the disappearance of the Hamas government in Gaza would be a bless in disguise for Hamas.
Remember these words very well. Because the conflict with Israel is not going to end in ten years or twenty or even fifty years
Each person on the planet has the human right to clean, plentiful water. No doubt about it.
Unfortunately we are seeing the struggles in the United States between areas with and with out water.
Another more tragic example is Africa. The Civil Wars in Africa are struggles over resources including water. (The other goal being the profit aspect for those entities supplying weapons).
The most practical approach to Africa would be to support the continent in gathering, storing and cleaning water coupled with rebuilding the soil so that food farming can succeed.
Some practical methods: water gathering with barrels and cisterns near community homes, efficient irrigation methods, efficient household plumbing and recycling of water based on use (for example dish or bath water used to clean floors) fair distribution of water, delivery of clean water to communities until they have developed their own reliable supply, clean up of polluted water, sewage treatment plants, clean up of seas, developing efficient fish farms, thoughtful reintroduction of fish & fishing into cleaned seas, take away all the guns and forbid by law the selling of armaments, people within international entities that sell arms must be brought to trial and punished, reconciliation councils formation in communities for dialogue
those are some of my ideas. I will add some about soil soon.
The people of Palestine must not be forced to leave their own homes nor barred from their own orchards, from water, gardens, etc. The occupation of Palestine by Britain and then Zionist Israeli's must be faced with responsiblity by the perpetrators.
Occupation of a nation-state is illegal and immoral. The citizens of the nation-state pay a price generationally, the U.S. is a good example.
Israel is not going to be an exception to what history has taught us to be the rule. Occupying a piece of land and forcing the people off is not a workable action. Just as killing people because you want what they have is not a moral action.