Organized crime has gone global. That is an accepted fact but it makes life for national anti-mafia services miserable. Going global has done for organized crime what it has done for transnational corporations: it has made these groups more powerful, more flexible; it has given them a greater reach into markets they did not yet have access to; it has allowed them to make connections with other “like-minded” groups whereas before, such contacts would have been limited by geographical distances and barriers.
Moreover, the liberalization of trade and capital as well as the removal of effective border controls within specific regional blocs, such as the European Union, has made circulation of illicit goods and services even easier and more lucrative. Criminality thrives in unregulated environments and failed / failing states. What’s not to love about globalization?
None of this has gone unnoticed, of course, and we are starting to see now real signs of concerns regarding the expanding activities of organized criminal networks, as illustrated by a flurry of articles all over the press across continents. (more…)
It’s Pride so Happy Pride, the highest of the high-homo holidays as I call them, given its close approximation to summer solstice, I have often viewed it as the Gay New Year kicking off a series of events that last through the end of the calendar year. The San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is currently on-going. And over the next few months, there are a plethora of events celebrating aspects of gay life and culture.
For a full schedule of San Francisco Gay Pride Events, please visit SF Pride. For more on the San Francisco Frameline Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, please visit Frameline 2008
Louise Arbour, outgoing UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, give an interview to Le Monde as she takes stock of the current state of human rights around the world.
Every time human rights are mentioned in conversation or even academic meetings, the objection always comes up that human rights are a Western creation that the United States and European countries are ramming down people’s throats all over the world. It is nonsense, of course (to everyone who knows the history of the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), and it is reverse patronizing (as if only Western people could have come up with the idea of human rights).
But now, emerging countries, groups and powers such as China, Russia or the Muslim world claim a right to a different version of human rights (unsurprisingly, one that is much more restrictive, in terms of, well… rights). So how do we preserve the universality of these rights?
According to Louise Arbour, there are different lines of fracture in this debate. Developing countries, including China, tend to favor social and economic rights more than civil and political rights whereas the United States has done the opposite. This is a line of fracture inherited from the Cold War.
But the main line of fracture now has to do with the rise of religious groups, especially fundamentalist groups who declare these rights secular and therefore inapplicable to them. These groups claim that they should be adjusted.
Cynthia Ruccia of Women For Fair Politics was on The Larry King Show on CNN last night with Ellen Moran of Emily’s List. Women For Fair Politics is a grassroots organization based in Ohio that coalesced in response to the sexist treatment of Senator Clinton during her run for the White House. Emily’s List is an organization dedicated to building a progressive America by electing pro-choice Democratic women to office. After supporting Senator Clinton, Emily’s List will now support Senator Obama. Cynthia and I take a different view.
Here is the Friday, June 27th, 2008 edition of interesting reads and events from around the world.
UN 2008 Report on the Narcotics Trade
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published its annual report on the world’s narcotic trade. Most alarmingly, Afghan opium poppy cultivation grew 17% last year, continuing a six-year expansion of the country’s drug trade and increasing its share of global opium production to more than 92%, according to the report. Afghanistan also increased its marijuana production. Still, it is the opium poppy that is most worrisome as the Taliban use the profits from that trade to finance its insurgency. In Colombia, coca cultivation rose by 27% in 2007, though coca leaf and cocaine production were concentrated in just 10 of the country’s 195 municipalities again in areas tied to the FARC insurgency. More from Reuters.
“Flabbergasted” NASA Scientists
“Flabbergasted” NASA scientists said on Thursday that Martian soil appeared to contain the requirements to support life, although more work would be needed to prove it. The full report in Reuters.
Gazprom Pushing Natural Gas for Cars in Europe Deutsche Welle reports that the Russian energy giant Gazprom wants to set up a network of service stations across Europe for cars fuelled by natural gas. Gazprom controls a quarter of the world’s gas reserves.
North Korea Destroys Its Cooling Tower at Its Main Atomic Reactor
North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program Friday, blasting apart the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs. More on this story from the Associated Press:
Thai PM Sunaravej Survives No Confidence Vote
Thailand’s prime minister and seven of his Cabinet ministers held off a parliamentary challenge Friday as street protesters demanded the coalition government’s resignation. The BBC has the full report.
