be just

The Associated Press: Jerusalem approves contentious new building plan : "JERUSALEM — The Jerusalem municipality has approved 20 new apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem, the city said Wednesday, in a move that could stir a new diplomatic crisis with the United States. News of the approval came as Israel's prime minister was in Washington to try to calm a growing rift with the Obama administration over such construction plans. The U.S. views Israeli building in east Jerusalem, the part of the city claimed by Palestinians as their future capital, as disruptive to Mideast peacemaking efforts. Israel insists that Jerusalem cannot be divided and reserves the right to build anywhere. The new project is funded by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz. It calls for tearing down part of an old hotel, the Shepherd, and building 20 apartments and a three-level underground parking lot instead."

Back Then in Baghdad ... And Now? -- In These Times : "Back then. Way before rape and kidnapping and sniping were commonplace. Back in 1977 and the world was full of disco and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Amnesty International won the Nobel Peace Prize and Jimmy Carter pardoned draft evaders and Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem. It was different. “Alluh Akbar” resounded through the city. This magical, mystical, musical plea called the faithful to prayer. It reminded the unfaithful that there was an order, a schedule that must be obeyed."

My Name Is Ed. I’m a Racist : Information Clearing House - ICH : "In my first 14 years of school I had only two black classmates; despite over 18 years of schooling I never had a black teacher. I was 19 before I had a personal conversation with a black person. My early college days were spent in a lovely ivy enclave set off by walls and rent-a-cops from the black and brown ghetto at its gate. Demoralized by the irrelevance of my courses, I dropped out. Thanks not only to family connections, but also to the sixties building boom in my hometown, I could work construction. In Syracuse’s 15th Ward, “urban renewal” drove thousands of blacks out of what was becoming prime real estate. The forced relocation demolished a vibrant black ghetto. Despite that boom, few blacks could break into the construction trades; there wasn’t a single black in our union local. None of us challenged the arrangement. Forty-five years later not much has changed here: few black contractors can bid on even...

The Daily Star - Politics - Somali forces 'inefficient' and 'corrupt' - UN NAIROBI: Despite international assistance the Somali government’s military forces are ineffective and corrupt, and it remains dependent on foreign troops for survival, a UN group concluded in a report. “Despite infusions of foreign training and assistance, government security forces remain ineffective, disorganized and corrupt,” the UN’s Monitoring Group on Somalia said in a report to be presented to the Security Council this week. Somalia’s internationally backed Transitional Federal Government has been boxed into a tiny perimeter in the capital Mogadishu by an insurgency launched in May 2009 by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Al-Shabaab group and its more political Hizbul-Islam allies.

Women Miss Saddam by Dahr Jamail -- Antiwar.com : "BAGHDAD – Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year’s maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do. Now they have Article 2 of the Constitution: 'Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation.' Sub-head A says 'No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.' Under this Article the interpretation of women’s rights is left to religious leaders – and many of them are under Iranian influence."

Why Are We Afraid to Tax the Super-Rich? | Civil Liberties | AlterNet : "We are told that we’re already living well beyond our means we’ve got to cut back on government programs at all levels. Meanwhile, the super-rich are still having a ball."

Garowe Online - Home : "BOSASSO, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - The number of people seeking mental health treatment has increased in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland, despite the existence of only one small health unit, officials said. 'We have only two rooms; one for males and one for females, with five beds each,' Abdulkadir Khalif Ali, the nurse who manages the Bosasso general hospital's mental health wing. 'The demand is rising; there are days when I have 20 or 30 patients, some requiring hospitalization, but I have to release them because there is no space.'"