Nelson Piquet Jr doubles donations to Brazil's floods victims

Brazilian stock car racing driver and F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr has offered to double the amount of all donations made via the Paypal account he set up (donate4rio@gmail.com). He's currently based in the US and has made this funding campaign known on Twitter. According to Brazilian online magazine G1 over 600 people have died so far. Many animals have lost their lives too.

The most affected cities by the floods and mudslides in the mountainous region of north Rio de Janeiro are: Nova Friburgo, Teresópolis, Petrópolis, Bom Jardim, São José do Vale do Rio Preto, Sumidouro and Areal. Together they amount to nearly 1,000,000 people.  

Julian Assange precursor explains who endangers US forces lives

Daniel Ellsberg

The man behind the leak of top secret Pentagon documents to the New York Times on the Vietnam War in 1971 talked to Larry King and Julian Assange about Wikileaks on CNN. 

When asked by Larry King if he agrees with the White House that Julian Assange puts the lives of US forces in danger Daniel Ellsberg explained that the people who put US forces in harm's way - a 100 thousand men and women in Afghanistan - are the last two administrations, but particularly this one, with the decision to escalate the war.

Mr Ellsberg went on to say that it takes a lot of chutzpah for people who make reckless, foolish and irresponsible decisions to escalate a war that he is sure they know internally is as hopeless as these new revelations proved it to be and yet they are preferring to send men and women into the harm's way to die and to kill civilians and others in a war that he thinks that they perceive as endless and hopeless rather than to face the accusations of generals that these politicians have lost a war that the generals claim very foolishly that is winnable. 

The former US military analyst finalised his answer by saying that he believes it is exactly the same as the boss he served in 1965 Lindon Johnson, he didn't want the general staff of the army and others to resign if he didn't give them enough of what they were asking for. And that president Obama has made the same terrible mistake. 

I totally agree with Mr Ellsberg. Julian Assange is simply taking actions to help stop innocent civilians from dying. If you like to watch the video with Daniel Ellsberg click here.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland marks Human Rights Day 2010

The Immigrant Council of Ireland have marked Human Rights Day 2010 by arguing that Ireland have failed to meet its international human rights obligations in relation to the treatment of migrants.

The ICI’s press release submitted to the Department of Foreign Affairs NGO Forum on Human Rights held today discussed Ireland’s examination by the UN Human Rights Council, providing an opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations.

ICI senior solicitor Hilkka Becker said that Ireland has an established reputation as a defender of human rights – in other countries – but there are a number of areas where their treatment of migrants here in this country falls short of their international obligations.

She pointed out that the  treatment of victims of sex trafficking, who are among the most vulnerable and exploited people in Ireland, falls well short of what is required of them under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. And while their treatment of victims of trafficking is far from international best practice, even this level of protection and assistance is denied to many exploited women because of overly bureaucratic processes that delay and prevent the formal identification of women as victims of this crime.  

Source: Ruth Evans - Media and Communications Manager Immigrant Council of Ireland

Irish young woman stranded in Vietnam needs our help

Karen Hamill

Karen was on her way back to Ireland from New Zealand and fell ill with Encephalitis, causing her brain damage in Vietnam on Nov 17th. Her insurance company turned her claim down as it did not meet their requirements.

Daily hospital bills amount to €2000 putting a great burden on Karen's family, who are presented with them every 3-4 days. Her aunt resorted to a fundraising campaign at Karen Hamill Appeal where donations can be made via Paypal. However, people in Ireland can do it directly at Permanent TSB. Please visit her site to get the bank details or/and read the full story. You can also watch The Morning Show tomorrow. Sybil and Martin will be talking to her aunt and brother at 11 am on TV3. Click here to watch it.

If you wish to contact the people responsible for her campaign or obtain updates on her recovery, please visit www.facebook.com/FundraiserForKaren.

17 y.o. reports conflicts in Rio via Twitter

Photo by Rene Santos

Rene Santos a resident in the very slum where Brazilian police are currently operating has been tweeting all he sees and hears. Santos started tweeting about the police operations last Saturday and has thousands of newly acquired followers due to the interest in his coverage.

The young man not only gathered just about 29,000 followers, but have caught the attention of the international media. The BBC published an article earlier today entitled Rio favela tweets create overnight celebrity. 

Tim Hirsch the author of the said article, however, seems to have failed to comprehend that behind Santos tweets is not the desire to be an international celebrity but rather he is driven by a passion for journalism and therefore a wish to tell the world what is happening. 

The conflicts started last week when the military police with the help of the navy decided to take control of the neighbouring slum Vila Cruzeiro and the drug dealers fled to Complexo do Alemão where Santos lives.

Sign the Born HIV Free petition and send me to Lesotho

By signing the Born HIV Free petition you´ll help end mother to children transmission of HIV by 2015 and if you do so before Sep 3 you´ll also help me win the competition for a place on the trip to Lesotho where a  campaigner will work on the cause and report back to you his or her experiences in South Africa. 

Facts - Every year, over 400,000 children are infected by HIV passed on by their mothers. With the right treatment, this is entirely preventable. Born HIV Free campaign aims to ensure governments have popular support to fund these treatments. This funding can END mother to child transmission of HIV by 2015. Competition Rules

Bono donates hat to charity auction in Brazil

Bono outside Granja do Torto where he had barbecue with Brazil's President in 2006.

Bono has donated one of his hats to be auctioned by a Sao Paulo based charity who teach Paraisopolis slum children how to read. 

Celebrities hair dresser Wanderley Nunes runs the project and met Bono during his visit to Brasilia in 2006. 

According to Kiss FM Bono wrote Love and Pizza on the hat. When corruption is investigated and no one is found responsible, which is very often the case in Brazil, it is said "It ended in pizza". 

Tough it cannot be said that Bono had this in mind when he signed the hat as he paid Brasilia a visit after an invitation by President Lula, who was accused of being aware if not directly involved in the bribery scheme called mensalão the year before his visit.

The auction will take place in August and it is believed the minimum bid will be €8,000.

Best Selling Contemporary Irish Writers

This post is for Karen Senoo and everyone who is interested in reading books by acclaimed Irish writers other than Marian Keyes, Maeve Binchy and Cecilia Aherns. 

If you click on the writers' names you will see their books. The names below are in no particular order.

Female:   Roisin Meaney,  Ciara Geraghty,   Lorna Byrne,  Valerie O´Brien.

Male:   Aidan Storey ,  John Quinn,  Brian Friel,  Richard Moore,  Colum McCann.

These writers are the best selling Irish writers nowadays according to Eason which is the equivalent of FNAC for books in Ireland. This country has a constellation of authors and this list doesn´t do them justice. There are  hundreds of books by Irish authors being sold in Ireland today. When I have a chance I'll update this post. 

- Update - 16 Nov 2010: Click and insert this post's password to continue reading.



 

Liam Brady: Holland didn’t win with good soccer

That was one of the things he said after Brazil v Holland on RTE Sports today. I say Holland won due to better mentality.

Dunga has a strong character and that is one of the reasons why he became Brazil’s coach. His players, however, didn’t manage to replicate it on the field today.

Brady also said Robinho lost it after Julio Cesar missed the ball that led to the first goal. I believe Robinho started to lose it right in the beginning of the game when the Dutch gave it a cynical tone.

I say cynical as to reproduce Brady’s second most telling word to describe the match. To me it sounds as a lighter way of saying violent. The first most telling word he used was terrible. He said Brazil v Holland was a terrible game.

Again Brady said that if the referee had started giving yellow cards from the beginning things may have been different. He said that fault Van Bommel committed against Lucio was worthy of a red card. "How he managed to stay in the pitch, I don’t know", he said. I believe the referee let Brazil down and the cynicism from both teams to go on.

Finally, Brady said unlike Holland, Brazil lacked self-discipline. I agree and believe Kaka didn’t show his best soccer either. On top of that Robinho’s inability to stay cool destabilised the team. Sneijder was the star of the match. He appeared more determined to do a good job and displayed more flare than our players.


Below 2 Brazil supporters n’ 1 Holland supporter:World Cup 2010




Photo of the Dutch: Getty Images 

Born HIV Free

Since antiretroviral treatment became widely available in developed countries, AIDS has been turned from a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease.

In developing countries, access to antiretroviral treatment has improved rapidly in the past few years: 4 million people in the developing world are now on antiretroviral treatment (with 2.5 million of those funded by the Global Fund), but this represents only 42% of the people who need it (9.5 million in developing countries). Because many parts of the world still do not have adequate access, it is critical that the Global Fund and partners’ efforts are supported to continue and to expand.

What is the extent of the challenge? Why is mother to child transmission such an issue?

An estimated 33 million people around the world are living with HIV. In 2008, 2 million people died from AIDS-related causes, and 2.7 million people became newly infected with HIV. Of those new infections, over 400,000 were babies born to HIV-positive women, bringing the number of children living with HIV to over 2 million. 

By preventing these new infections, we could substantially reduce the number of people living with HIV, and the number of people who could potentially transmit HIV in the future. For the first time in the history of the global AIDS epidemic, we have the technology and the means to stop one of the ways in which HIV is transmitted. 

Though there is no cure for HIV and AIDS, it is relatively easy to prevent the transmission of the virus from a mother to her baby. You can help by simply signing your name.

Please sign here:
http://www.bornhivfree.org/f/#/en/act

Image:

Facts:
http://www.theglobalfund.org/documents/bornhivfree/godeeper_en.pdf

Watch Paul McCartney´s full concert:
http://www.youtube.com/bornhivfree?feature=ticker