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Több alkalommal is azzal fenyegette meg a feleségét egy 67 éves férfi, hogy megöli őt. Agresszívan viselkedett és sörösdobozokkal dobálta meg a nőt.

Eine Frau wurde tot in einer Wohnung in Effretikon aufgefunden. Es steht ein Tötungsdelikt im Vordergrund. Blick-Recherchen zeigen: Beim mutmasslichen Täter handelt es sich um einen beliebten Arzt aus der Region.

Derzeit besitzt Daniela Katzenberger noch Körbchengrösse E, doch das soll sich schon in wenigen Monaten ändern. Sie möchte ihre Brustimplantate entfernen lassen.

Bombafenyegetés miatt a rendőrség átvizsgálták a kassai Szent Erzsébet-dómot, nem találtak robbanóanyagot az épületben. Hasonló tartalmú fenyegető e-maileket kaptak az egyházak, mint korábban az iskolák.

Student protesters at Columbia University, New York. Credit: IPS

By Norman Solomon
SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Sep 6 2024 (IPS)

With nearly 18 million students on U.S. college campuses this fall, defenders of the war on Gaza don’t want to hear any backtalk. Silence is complicity, and that’s the way Israel’s allies like it.

For them, the new academic term restarts a threat to the status quo. But for supporters of human rights, it’s a renewed opportunity to turn higher education into something more than a comfort zone.

In the United States, the extent and arrogance of the emerging collegiate repression is, quite literally, breathtaking. Every day, people are dying due to their transgression of breathing while Palestinian.

The Gaza death toll adds up to more than one Kristallnacht per day — for upwards of 333 days and counting, with no end in sight. The shattering of a society’s entire infrastructure has been horrendous.

Months ago, citing data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, ABC News reported that “25,000 buildings have been destroyed, 32 hospitals forced out of service, and three churches, 341 mosques and 100 universities and schools destroyed.”

Not that this should disturb the tranquility of campuses in the country whose taxpayers and elected leaders make it all possible. Top college officials wax eloquent about the sanctity of higher learning and academic freedom while they suppress protests against policies that have destroyed scores of universities in Palestine.

A key rationale for quashing dissent is that anti-Israel protests make some Jewish students uncomfortable. But the purposes of college education shouldn’t include always making people feel comfortable. How comfortable should students be in a nation enabling mass murder in Gaza?

What would we say about claims that students in the North with southern accents should not have been made uncomfortable by on-campus civil rights protests and denunciations of Jim Crow in the 1950s and 1960s? Or white students from South Africa, studying in the United States, made uncomfortable by anti-apartheid protests in the 1980s?

A bedrock for the edifice of speech suppression and virtual thought-policing is the old standby of equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Likewise, the ideology of Zionism that tries to justify Israeli policies is supposed to get a pass no matter what — while opponents, including many Jews, are liable to be denounced as antisemites.

But polling shows that more younger Americans are supportive of Palestinians than they are of Israelis. The ongoing atrocities by the Israel “Defense” Forces in Gaza, killing a daily average of more than 100 people — mostly children and women — have galvanized many young people to take action in the United States.

“Protests rocked American campuses toward the end of the last academic year,” a front-page New York Times story reported in late August, adding: “Many administrators remain shaken by the closing weeks of the spring semester, when encampments, building occupations and clashes with the police helped lead to thousands of arrests across the country.” (Overall, the phrase “clashes with the police” served as a euphemism for police violently attacking nonviolent protesters.)

From the hazy ivory towers and corporate suites inhabited by so many college presidents and boards of trustees, Palestinian people are scarcely more than abstractions compared to far more real priorities. An understated sentence from the Times sheds a bit of light: “The strategies that are coming into public view suggest that some administrators at schools large and small have concluded that permissiveness is perilous, and that a harder line may be the best option — or perhaps just the one least likely to invite blowback from elected officials and donors who have demanded that universities take stronger action against protesters.”

Much more clarity is available from a new Mondoweiss article by activist Carrie Zaremba, a researcher with training in anthropology. “University administrators across the United States have declared an indefinite state of emergency on college campuses,” she wrote. “Schools are rolling out policies in preparation for quashing pro-Palestine student activism this fall semester, and reshaping regulations and even campuses in the process to suit this new normal.

“Many of these policies being instituted share a common formula: more militarization, more law enforcement, more criminalization, and more consolidation of institutional power. But where do these policies originate and why are they so similar across all campuses? The answer lies in the fact that they have been provided by the ‘risk and crisis management’ consulting industries, with the tacit support of trustees, Zionist advocacy groups, and federal agencies. Together, they deploy the language of safety to disguise a deeper logic of control and securitization.”

Countering such top-down moves will require intensive grassroots organizing. Sustained pushback against campus repression will be essential, to continually assert the right to speak out and protest as guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Insistence on acquiring knowledge while gaining power for progressive forces will be vital. That’s why the national Teach-In Network was launched this week by the RootsAction Education Fund (which I help lead), under the banner “Knowledge Is Power — and Our Grassroots Movements Need Both.”

The elites that were appalled by the moral uprising on college campuses against Israel’s slaughter in Gaza are now doing all they can to prevent a resurgence of that uprising. But the mass murder continues, subsidized by the U.S. government. When students insist that true knowledge and ethical action need each other, they can help make history and not just study it.

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in paperback this month with a new afterword about the Gaza war.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Exercice d’équilibriste à la fois politique et géographique, Ursula von der Leyen devrait présenter la semaine prochaine son équipe de commissaires et leurs portefeuilles. Une bataille d’influence avec le Parlement européen, qui pourrait tenter de barrer la route à certains prétendants, est attendue.

Bei einem Verkehrsunfall mit drei Autos wurden am Donnerstagabend in Güttingen TG zwei Personen schwer verletzt. Eine Autofahrerin musste von der Rega ins Spital geflogen werden, schreibt die Kantonspolizei Thurgau.

Argentinien hat auf dem Weg zur WM 2026 einen ungefährdeten Sieg eingefahren.

In der chinesischen Megametropole erlebt man Skifahren jetzt auf einem neuen Level.

Les colonies israéliennes en Cisjordanie sont considérées comme illégales au regard du droit international. Malgré cela, Israël continue de les étendre en Cisjordanie. Qu'est-ce que les colonies et pourquoi Israël continue-t-il à les construire ?

Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, pleaded guilty to federal tax charges on Thursday, a surprise move that avoids a potentially embarrassing trial weeks before the US presidential election.

Der Direktor der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) hat nach der Vorstellung eines neuen Leitfadens für die Untersuchung neuartiger Krankheitserreger zur Zusammenarbeit mit China bei der Aufklärung des Ursprungs von COVID-19 aufgerufen.

In der Nacht auf Freitag drang ein mit einer Machete bewaffneter Mann in ein Polizeiposten in Linz am Rhein ein. Er drohte den Polizisten mit dem Tod.

A PS szerint hatástalan Matúš Šutaj Estok terve arra vonatkozóan, hogy kamerarendszereket telepítsenek az iskolákba. A PS képviselői úgy vélik, a kormány feleslegesen szórná a pénzt, és az iskolák megfigyelése nem segítene a biztonsági fenyegetések elhárításában.

Während Italien unter einer Schweinepest-Epidemie leidet und die Schinkenproduktion zunehmend unter Druck gerät, schlägt die Europäische Kommission Alarm: Ein Impfstoff gegen die Seuche ist in der EU bislang nicht in Sicht.

The cause of the fire at Hillside Endarasha Primary in Nyeri county is being investigated, police tell local media.

Der Herbst ist die perfekte Jahreszeit für Ausflüge in die Berge. Auf diesen sechs Events erwartet die Gäste ein unterhaltsames Programm – von Konzerten, über traditionelle Alpabzüge und Erntedankfeiern bis hin zu Märkten ist für jeden etwas dabei.

Paran Women Group's executive director, Naiyan Kiplagat, is working in the forest. The group are passionate guardians of the environment and promoters of gender equality. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
GREAT RIFT VALLEY, Kenya, Sep 6 2024 (IPS)

The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south. A breathtaking, diverse mix of natural beauty that includes dramatic escarpments, highland mountains, cliffs and gorges, lakes and savannas. It is also home to one of Africa’s greatest wildlife reserves—the Maasai Mara National Reserve.

It is the 400,000 hectares of the Mau Forest Complex that give life to this wondrous natural phenomenon. Located about 170 kilometres north-west of Nairobi, this is the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa. It is also the largest of the country’s five watersheds and a catchment area for 12 rivers that flow into five major lakes.

More than 10 million people depend on its rivers. Its magnificent portfolio of rare plants and animal species is unfortunately a magnet for illegal activities. Forest monitoring groups say a staggering 25 percent of the forest was lost between 1984 and 2020 and that overall, Mau Forest lost 19 percent of its tree cover—around 533 square kilometres—between 2001 and 2022.

“Paran Women Group is committed to restoring the Mau Forest. To stop the pace and severity of its destruction and degradation, we approached the government through the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and were allowed access to 200 acres of the Maasai Mau Forest block, which is one of the 22 blocks that make the entire Mau Forest Complex. There are 280 water catchments inside the complex,” Naiyan Kiplagat, the executive director of the Paran Women Group told IPS.

“In January this year, we began our restoration efforts and have already covered 100 acres. At the moment, we have prepared 70,000 seedlings and intend to collect another 30,000 from women groups to reach our target of 100,000 tree seedlings, which will be planted once the rainy season begins to cover the remaining 100 acres.”

In Maa, a language spoken by the Maasai community, Paran means ‘come together to assist each other’. Paran Women Group is an organization comprised of women from the Maasai and Ogiek communities who are indigenous, minority ethnic groups.

Forest rangers working for the Kenya Forest Service are responsible for protecting Kenya’s forests. Paran Women Group are in a partnership with KFS to restore Maasai Mau Forest block. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

 

There are 280 water catchments inside the expansive Mau Forest Complex. These feed 12 rivers, which in turn feed five major lakes. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

The organization comprises 64 women groups and 3,718 members. United against dual marginalization and patriarchy, the group started small, in 2005 and continues to grow and expand their base and conservation activities.

Carrying the wisdom of their ancestors, they rely on indigenous knowledge and innovation in their conservation, afforestation, reforestation and all other land restoration efforts while promoting gender equality. Paran Women Resource centre is located in Eor Ewuaso, a remote rural village in the Ololunga location of Narok South sub-county, Narok County, in the Rift Valley.

The women hold a title deed to the expansive piece of land. A notable achievement in a minority community where women have little autonomy and land is owned and controlled by men. They have another seven satellite resource centres within the expansive counties geared towards giving women access to productive resources.

These centres are a hub of knowledge and activities to promote conservation and livelihood activities such as sustainable agriculture, beekeeping, beadwork and briquettes for energy-saving cooking to release pressure from the embattled Mau Forest. More than 617 households are already using efficient, energy-saving stoves.

“We are conservationists with a passion for gender equality. Gender-based violence is prevalent in indigenous communities, such as the outlawed Female Genital Mutilation and forced marriages. The most recent incidence was of a nine-year-old girl. We are marginalized as a community in general and worse, our culture has few rights for women and girls. We help children stay in school by paying school fees from our income-generating activities,” she says.

Patrick Lemanyan, a resident of Ololunga, says Paran women “rear and sell chicken and foods such as pumpkin, vegetables and sorghum. They also sell beadwork. Maasai beadwork is unique, beautiful and very marketable. In Nairobi, there is even the popular Maasai market for such beadwork and other Maasai items, such as sandals. The women here face no resistance from the community. We have suffered for many years from failed rainfall and we know that saving the forest is also about saving us as a community.”

Paran Women Resource Centre is located in Eor Ewuaso, a remote rural village in the Ololunga location of Narok South sub-county, Narok County, in Rift Valley. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

 

Some of the jewelry that the women at the Paran Women Group make. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Naiyan says indigenous communities depend on natural resources such as forests, rivers and their biodiversity for their survival. The ongoing climate and biodiversity crises affect them the most as a community. Women have no assets and are therefore worse off.

“The Maasai’s are pastoralists. During prolonged dry seasons, a man will take all the livestock with him and move from place to place for even three years, leaving behind his wives and children. The family is left behind with nothing because women own nothing,” she says.

Naiyan, an Ogiek married to a Maasai, says the Ogiek have not faired any better. As hunters and gathers in an ecosystem that has been destroyed by human activity and climate change, they too are in a life-and-death situation and, are learning to pursue livelihood options outside of their indigenous lifestyle by keeping poultry for sale and farming. Men do not keep or concern themselves with poultry as it is considered beneath them. They keep large livestock such as cows and goats.

 

Originally pastoralists and hunters and gatherers, the Maasai and Ogiek have turned to sustainable agriculture as a climate adaptation mechanism. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

 

These are manyattas, Maasai traditional homes. Women from the Maasai and Ogiek communities have joined forces to save their native lands. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

 

“The role of indigenous groups and more so women, in environmental protection cannot be overemphasized. More so as women are able to combine conservation efforts with income-generating activities. They educate and support each other, and their children grow to school, breaking the debilitating cycle of poverty associated with minority groups due to historical injustices and inequalities,” says Vesca Ikenya, an educator in Gender and Natural Resources.

Stressing that “indigenous people and local communities bring on board indigenous knowledge and leadership that only they possess as custodians of their own lands and waters and have had intimate interactions with their ecosystems since time immemorial. Each generation preserves and passes on this knowledge to the next. When indigenous and local communities take lead in conservation efforts, they never get it wrong. They understand which species grew where and when.”

The Paran Women Group tree nursery is home to 27 indigenous species, including croton macrostacyus, syzygium cuminii, prunus African and Olea Africans. Of the 150,000 tree seedlings already planted this year, 112,500 have survived and are thriving.

According to 2021 International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs and International Labour Organization joint report, indigenous peoples were responsible for protecting an estimated 22 percent of the planet’s surface and 80 percent of biodiversity.

The Paran Women Group has not gone unnoticed and has won a series of international awards. In 2018, they received an award on rural survival from the World Women Foundation Summit; in 2020, they received the International Leadership Award from the International Indigenous Women’s Forum; last year, during the COP28 in the UAE, they received the Gender Justice Climate Solutions and are preparing to receive yet another international award in October 2024.

This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

Between 2001 and 2022, the Mau Forest's deforestation resulted in the loss of about 533 square kilometers of tree cover. Now, a group of women, under the aegis of the Paran Women Group, are preparing to plant 100,000 saplings this rainy season in an effort to restore the forest.