Tuesday, October 25, 2005

The Iraki Constitution Is Approved

With global numbers that don't lead to much doubt, Iraq has approved its draft constitution today according to their governing electoral body. The global count gave the "YES" a 78% of the total vote and the "NO" a 21%. With this and with the fact that three provinces did not reject it with a 2/3 mayority, the constitution will become official. You can read the full news article (in Spanish) here: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/312244.html

But before taking our usual optimistic look at things, lets dwelve deeper into the numbers and possible consequences.

The mayority of shiites and kurds voted for YES. Nevertheless, it appears that the mayority of sunnis voted NO. As a matter of fact, three sunni provinces (Salahedin, Al-Anbar and Ninive) rejected the proposed constitution. It was only the fact that Ninive rejected it only with a 55% of the vote that saved this constitution.

This means that once again, the sunni population feels that the government is not going to represent their interests well with this constitution. It also means that the fears of many analysts might take place since the constitution barely passed. What is even more worrisome is that 96% of the insurgent stronghold of Al-Anbar rejected the constitution. This mean that the non-Islamist insurgence could continue even with elections coming up possibly in December. And if this continues, then the occupation of the US will probably continue.

The road for Iraq continues to be muddy. At least though, they will hold elections and perhaps that government can finally resolve the grievances of the sunnis and maintain, if not a united, at least a peaceful Iraq.

Read what others have to say about this:
- In Chile, Bernando claims that Iraq is On the Road to Democracy
- Will the constitution really be accepted this this time?
- Carmelo Jordá feels optimistic that Iraq now has a constitution.
- Iñigo Saenz awaits sunni reaction now that Iraq has a constitution.
- Mission accomplished?
- Donald believes that progress is being made in Iraq.

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Monday, October 24, 2005

Happy 60th Birthday United Nations!

Today is the 60th anniversary of the birth of the United Nations (UN).

Kofi Annan took today to commemorate all of the people who have worked for the UN and their variety of important humanitarian and peace missions around the world, or who simply, have been one of those behind the scenes. He also took the time to look ahead and remind us that we still have a long way to go - an inference that the UN should exist for another 60 years in order to continue with progress in peace, human rights and general world well being.

And that is what makes this anniversary so important because for perhaps the first time in 60 years, we have to remind cynics (and the US government) that the UN is an important thing to have in the world as is the spirit of multi lateralism in resolving the world's poor.

So lets move ahead with the reforms and the objectives set out in the UN Summit of this year and adapt the UN for the next 60 years.

Though many people are a bit pessimistic on this (specially regarding the reform of the Security Council), I do believe that behind the scenes things are going well. I have the opportunity to be in contact with some of the people at the Secretariat and I have seen in the last year a change in the better in the attitude of the staff, the change in the value system for new UN recruits and also for managers. I know that they have made great strides and I do believe you have to start the change inside of you, with all of your people, before you get anything good out of it.

Look at Mexico, great change at the top but the change never seems to trickle down. I am confident that by starting with its human resources, the UN will trickle up the reform needed for another healthy 60 years. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNITED NATIONS!

Read the related news article (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/312071.html
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Sunday, October 23, 2005

US Pressures Mexico Not to Join The International Criminal Court

The US government is threatening to pull back 11.5 million US dollars in aid to Mexico (under the concept of fighting the drug trade) if Mexico continues with its intentions to join the International Criminal Court (). This is unless Mexico signs on to Article 98 in which Mexico would agree to not turn over any US military personnel, civilian or non-US citizen working for the US government over to the ICC.

If the US were to go through with its threat, it would make Mexico the 12th Latin American nation to receive sanctions for signing on to ICC without granting the US immunity. It might also make Mexico the 10th Latin American nation to see US military grants for training and equipment cut. All of this makes Latin America the region of the world worst hit by US sanctions over the ICC.

Luckily, the Mexican government so far seems to not bend to the whims of Washington and continues to show its present day commitment to human rights around the world - which includes US citizens. There is no reason why the US government should believe that its citizens (and those who work for them) are above international law and scrutiny. They are just as "human" as we in the rest of the world are and as such, as accountable for the promotion and adherance to international laws and human rights.

It's also worth mentioning that there is opposition within different sectors in the US to its position towards Mexico on this matter. What is sad, is that this opposition stems from the economical front - as people see the sanctions creating unfavourable economic conditions for US business in Mexico.

Alas, all of this shows the power of money and we'll see sometime before November 28 what happens.

Read the full article (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/131124.html
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Friday, October 21, 2005

Canada Arrests Rwandan Genocide Suspect

Two days ago Canada set an example for the rest of the world. And that example was that no war criminal (though of course, he will have a fair trial) can enter Canada and expect to lead a life where his responsibility in things like genocide goes ignored.

The Toronto Star's October 19th edition reports that a Rwandan man by the name of Desire Munyaneza was arrested by the RCMP for his involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that killed 800,000 people - in their mayority Tutsi. He was arrested under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act and becomes the first person to be arrested under this law. You can read the full article here.

He will be facing trial in Montreal on two counts of genocide, two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes in the attacks against Tutsis at the National University of Rwanda and southern Kigali (as of Oct. 21 he has already been arraigned on those 7 counts).

I will add my congratulations to Canada to those of the rest of Rwanda, the and the rest of the worldwide community. Canada has shown the highest level of commitment to human rights and to holding people accountable for their violations throughout time and this is just another great example of it. Other countries around the world should be more like Canada in this regard. There should be laws and policies set in place so that no genocide perpetrator, or any other serious human rights violator, can enjoy impunity.

This clearly is a bright start. Canada has shown us the way - a way in where international cooperation works for the good of human kin & where caring for human rights becomes every nation's responsibility.

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Monday, October 17, 2005

Slow Progress in the Schapelle Corby Case

Here at World News A La Mexicana we covered the case of Schapelle Corby, a young Australian woman who was arrested in Indonesia for supposed possession of marijuana. She was later convicted and sentenced to spend 20 years in an Indonesian jail. The case had received a lot of attention not only because of her perceived innocence but also because before the sentence was given, Schapelle could have been sentenced to death.

This past Friday (October 14) there was a decision from the Indonesian judicial system on an appeal that was put forward by Schapelle's legal team. The decision was that the sentence would be reduced by 5 years (instead of 10 as many hoped and expected). You can read the full article from the Australian media here: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=62700

Though there is a lot of frustration from Schapelle's family and her legal team over the length of the reduction, I tend to see this a bit optimistically. Though I am not a lawyer or an accolyte of the Indonesian judicial system, I do believe that this reduction sets an important precedent that the legal team can use on upon filing further appeals. I'm also glad to see that there is confidence in continuing the appeal process and the continued work that has been going on to assure Schapelle that people outside are still working for her well being. Besides, 5 years is still more than 0 years for the reduction and I believe can serve as a light of hope for Schapelle and her family.

If you wish to get involved and help, please visit the following sites and share them with your friends:
Official Schapelle Site: http://www.freeschapelle.net/
http://schapelle.foreignprisoners.com/
http://www.schapelle.info/

Read what other people have to say:
Schapelle Corby Is Innocent
Schapelle Corby Sentence Reduced: Not Enough
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Sunday, October 16, 2005

The Iraqi Constitutional Referendum

Yesterday was another historic day for Iraq and their search for a wider democracy. The referendum went about with relative calm (there were bombings and kidnappings) and out of the total voting population, there seems to be a 61-66% of participation. This is, in my opinion, an optimistic sign that shows that all the efforts to include the sunni population paid off in the end. The sunnis, specially in Baghdad, came out to vote after months and weeks were everyone expected them to boycott the vote and rob it of legitimacy.

Final results will come on October 24th but we should expect a clear tendency by Wednesday. This will be important since we'll learn if Iraq has accepted the constitution or not. Though the constitution was in a way "watered down" to not include the controversial topics that had it in stalemate, it is still seen as a solid base to work from and create a legal and trust frame that will be needed to tackle those problems later.

I hope that if the constitution is accepted, the problems will have to be resolved in a political manner and the resistance will slow down and decrease some. And with that, the removal of US troops.

Read the full article (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/internacional/37192.html


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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Welcome to News a La Mexicana

Hi

My name's Rodolfo and I am IT Professional from Mexico. I am currently living in Canada (until Oct. 30) but I am still 100% Mexican despite that my world travels have taken me to other countries such as the United States and Australia. These experiences and my love of learning have cultivated in me the desire to understand other people and other nations. That is why, I reckon, I am always trying to keep up to date with what is going on in the rest of the world.

And through that my BLOG was born at MSN Spaces: http://spaces.msn.com/members/rodomxoz/

And there I saw that not only my friends were reading and linking to it, but other people who seemed to like what I wrote. And from the desire to continue to share and learn from other people's perspective "World News A La Mexicana" was born.

World News A La Mexicana hopes to give the Mexican community a voice in the Internet where they can share their outlook on life and international news. Though we might start as a small team, we hope to learn from any new members that wish to share their opinions and points of views, and of course, show the world as seen through our Mexican eyes.

World News A La Mexicana's mission is to show a Mexican perspective to what is going on today around the world. Please feel free to browse through the previous posts, comment and why not, inquire how to join.

I hope you enjoy seeing the world from the perspective of Mexican eyes.

We Remember Bali: October 12, 2002.

Today is the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Bali where 202 people died, among them 88 Australians. To commemorate the death of these events, Australia took time out of its schedule to unveil memorials and just to remember the loved ones who parted on that date. From Sydney, to Perth passing by Melbourne, the Aussies relived some of the sadness that covered their country on that day and also to show their persistence in their search for justice. You can read more about the events of remembrance here: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=66812 or see it in video here.

And even with the latest Bali attacks only a week old, Australians visited Bali to remember their death in a beautiful memorial made to all of those who died (not only Australians). And it was in all of these emotional moments, that the Australian people came together to remind terrorists that they would persist and continue to seek a world where terrorist acts would not go unpunished. In a way, it sums up the commitment that Australia continues to make to the "War Against Terror" as an ally of the US.

So today, let us take a moment of silence to remember all who died on that day. Let us join the Australians in focusing on creating a peaceful world where such atrocities do not happene again. And let us hope that they also remember that this peace is achieved through perserverance but not with war.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

The UN in Cartoons

This week I have discovered the twice in the world of animated cartoons.

The first time I came upon this discovery was one late night while I was watching japanese anime on TV. All of a sudden during a commerical break, some of the characters from Robotech which features a short discourse on how humans can live better in this world and ends with the UN logo and slogan. You can view it at Harmony Gold's website: http://www.theshadowchronicles.com/info.php?id=un

Today I learnt about a TV commercial by with the Smurfs as its protagonists. In the commercial (which will air first in Belgium), the poor Smurfs are bombed and their mushroom homes are destroyed as well as many of their lives. The objective of the commercial is to remind us of the horror of war and how it affects children so that we can work to avoid putting children in the danger of war. You can read a bit more about it here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/08/wsmurf08.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/08/ixhome.html

Eventhough the Smurf commercial might not be seen by children, we can tell that the UN is putting its focus on the new generations too. That's great! I believe that the younger we start teaching kids of the good intentions behind the UN, the more people we will have in the world who are committed to peace and human rights in the future.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Toronto: Home of Mysterious Illnesses

Who doesn't remember the SARS epedimic of a couple of years back that was found in Chinatown of Toronto. The city was put into quarantine by the World Health Organization (WHO) and became at that time the only city in the Americas to receive this label. The city lost large quantities of money at the drop of tourism and its Chinatown lost visits and money of those other Toronto residents who'd go in to shop and eat.

At the beginning of this month (Sunday, October 2) a new illness, similar to the flu, appeared again in Toronto setting off allarms. Toronto, as I said before, already knew the consequences that a new illness can cause not only on the people it infects, but in society as a whole.

On that date, the Toronto Star reported: Flu-like Illness Kills 4 At A Nursing Home. And that is when I begun to follow this event since it also appeared on Canadian television. This in spite of 4 deaths (mostly elderly people) and 73 infections (between staff and nursing home inhabitants) since September 25.

The illness started to be known as the Seven Oaks Flu from the name of the nursing home where it started and also because of the worrisome fact that no one knew exactly what the illness was. It was presumed viral (wit flu like symptoms like fever & cough) and tests showed that it was not SARS nor avian flu. It was then decided not to place the nursing home under full quarantine.

On Monday, October 3, the TV media started to give the "mysterious" illness more coverage. The Toronto Star reported four more cases of infection (77 in total now) within Seven Oaks. The identity of the illness continued to be a mystery and authorities explained that it was difficult to pin the identity down since it could be one out of a hundred possible respiratory illnesses. Seven Oaks was put further into quarantine but we were assured that the rest of the population in Toronto was not at risk.

In a state of tense calm, we arrived at Wednesday. On this day the news of the mysterious illness started to reach international ears. CNN started showing small reports about the illness during their news hours. Meanwhile in Canada, another four died at Seven Oaks (read article). With that, the death count mounted to 10 (still mostly elderly people) and the count of people infected reached 82. Nevertheless, the quarantine was lifted and there were reports that 40 of the 82 sick were spread out in different hospitals in Toronto under isolation. The illness ended the day still being "mysterious".

I would like to point out that up to this point the Canadian media (both TV and press) continued to portray the situation with relative calm. Perhaps they were all scared to create a SARS like scare for Toronto again. Perhaps because the illness had proven not to leave the nursing home in Scarborough. No matter what the reason, as a resident of Toronto I began to worry that no one knew what the illness was still. The media claimed that these outbreaks happened often. But still, these outbreaks where reported to infect 10 to 15 people at the most and had a low mortality rate. That was something not evident in this mysterious illness. The only positive thing was that indeed, the illness had not left the nursing home.

On October 6, the Toronto Star reported another 6 deaths! The death count mounted now to 16. Everything was still proclaimed as "under control" and the optimists claimed the good news that no new cases of infection had been reported. Nevertheless, the international media attention did not go on this optimistic road. Besides CNN, reports started arriving in Australia (news article by the ABC) and then picked up by the Associated Press who then went on to distribute the news around the US and the world.

Finally, and perhaps thanks to this last bit of international pressure, the medical community in Canada identified the mysterious disease. On October 7 on the Toronto Star's first page it was reported that: Health Officials Confident That The Deaths Were Caused By 'Legionnaires'. Finally, after 17 deaths, the identity of the mysterious illness ws revealed.

WebMD describes this illness as "an respiratory illness similiar to pneumonia caused by bacterias" and though its main affected area is the respiratory system; it can also create other sorts of complications. The mystery of how the infection came to be was also solved. You catch the infection only through breathing it through the environment and not by contact with other people infected.

And that's how the story of this mysterious illness apparently ends in this lovely city which seems to be a magnet for the most unwanted types of mysteries.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

We Shall Never Forget October 2nd

Today, we remember another anniversary of the massacare at Tlatelolco that sad October 2, 1968.

More than thirty years later and even with efforts from the Fox government to bring justice, this dark part of our history continues to "shine" for its lack of justice. The people who were truly responsible for the events of this date have not been punished and we are still lead to accept the official version of what happened on that day: that the students went to Tlatelolco armed and that "instigators" within the crowd that fired and sparked the massacre.

Nowadays, Echeverría has accepted that the students were not the first to fire and could have perhaps (most surely) not armed. This still doesn't do anything to quiet down all of the other theories that exist. Nor does it explain what role he played back then as secretary of state. So many years and so many theories that perhaps with time it is becoming increasingly difficult to really know what happened that day, how many people died or were "dissapeared" and more importantly why.

October 2 will always be a sad day as we remember all those young students who died that day and how our nation has failed to see its reflection as a corrupt and unjust nation at times. This kind of corruption and lack of justice is still with us to this day. That is why we should not only call for a guarantee that such a repressive massacre does not happen again but also call for a stronger conscience in our country of how to demand transparency and accountability from our public servants.

To the youth of 2005, we still remember how what became so evident 37 years ago, is still with us today.

You can also read the opinion of my friend Hugo following this link:
http://spaces.msn.com/members/lafit/Blog/cns!1plNfzDweWKGBoOWcL5UEe9w!1364.entry

Saturday, October 01, 2005

New Terrorist Attacks in Bali

I woke up today to those horrible news. The TV and the news media in the Internet started to inform about bombings that had ocurred in a tourist area of Bali, Indonesia. The attacks were explosions possibly carried out by bombs and related to terrorist organizations in the island nation. A lot of people also tend to relate these attacks to the upcoming anniversary of the October 12 terrorist attacks that killed so many people in the Bali nightclubs and that are considered to be Al Qaeda's revenge on Australia.

Details of the attack was that two restaurants in the tourist area of Bail and you can read about them (in Spanish) here: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/308042.html.

A day after the attacks, things are still a bit unclear except for the fact that the death count continues to grow. When the first reports came out, there were only two deaths and countless wounded. In the article above, the count grew to a more specific 25 deaths and hundreds wounded. Meanwhile, over in Australia (http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=65478 or on video) they were reporting 32 deaths. Surely and unfortunately this death count will grow and once again, the Indonesian and Australian people would be the ones suffering the most.

Until now, no organization or group has claimed responsibility for these attacks though all suspicion continues to fall on them (specially on the group that perpetrated the October 12 terrorist attacks). This is just another sad reminder that Al Qaeda continues to live and have strength. It proves that, even if their leaders are captured or killed, the US and its allies are still losing the "War on Terrorism". We can only hope the string of attacks doesn't continue in other places of the world.