The Israeli response to the brutal October 7, 2023 Hamas killings and hostage-taking has been widely criticized by the international community. The immense numbers of civilian deaths and injuries have prompted human rights experts to condemn Israel for its defense strategy that disproportionately harms civilians. The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials. Deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians…
Tag: International Responsibility
Chiquita guilty of funding terrorists in Colombia
A South Florida jury just found Chiquita Brands liable for killings by right-wing paramilitary death squads that the the company financed in their banana plantations. Chiquita, formerly the United Fruit Company (UFC), has a long history of deadly repression against workers. The New Orleans-based multinational has long monopolized land and markets and controlled governments throughout Latin America. UFC was implicated in massacres in Colombia, the overthrow of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbens of Guatemala, and propped up many so-called “banana…
Decolonizing must challenge globalized systems of wealth extraction and profiteering.
The authors of a February 2024 Bulletin of the World Health Organization article call for global health actors to challenge current forms of corporate and financialized colonialism that operate through globalized systems of wealth extraction and profiteering. They note that most of the current narrative on decolonization focuses on correcting power imbalances between health actors in high-income and low-income countries and on challenging ideas and values of some wealthy countries that shape the practice of global health. The authors of…
Defunding UNWRA in Gaza is ‘collective punishment’ – Lancet & Health Justice Organizations
Health and political leaders globally have condemned defunding of UNRWA, the principle lifeline for the people of Gaza. Sharmila Devi, in the current issue of Lancet, quotes UN leaders and aid agency leaders (including WHO) “no other entity has the capacity to deliver the scale and breadth of assistance that 2·2 million people in Gaza urgently need,” the cuts are “collective punishment,” and “if a teacher is found to be a murderer, we don’t get calls to defund the school…
Tim Schwab & “The Bill Gates Problem” Town Hall Seattle Podcast
Tim Schwab, author of the recently published “The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the myth of the good billionaire,” headlined a Seattle Town Hall event in December 2024 sponsored by the Community Alliance for Global Justice. In this podcast of the event, Tim explains how Bill Gates’ uses his foundation as a vehicle for unaccountable personal power and influence, using taxpayers dollars. He describes how dogmatic belief in the primacy of the private sector and their patent interests and the…
UN Tax Reform offers hope to Low Income Countries
In late November 2023, developing countries at the UN won a historic vote to set up a tax convention in spite of resistance from rich countries. This Guardian editorial (see below) explains how poor nations’ ability to feed, educate and provide healthcare to their people is hobbled by illicit and hidden movements of capital worth billions each year. The Tax Justice Network (also below) documents how countries around the world are losing US$480bn in tax a year to tax abuse, with…
Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion nationwide
¡Victoria! Wave High the Green Bandanas! Years of concerted action by reproductive rights activists in Mexico have just gained a huge win. “Today is the day of victory and justice for Mexican women!” declared Mexico’s National Institute for Women. “No woman or pregnant person, nor any health worker, will be able to be punished for abortion,” proclaimed the Information Group for Chosen Reproduction, GIRE, which filed the suit. The judgment means that the country’s federal public health service and any…
Substandard medicines blamed for 285,000 childhood malaria, pneumonia deaths
VIdya Krishnan, an Indian Journalist writes about a “dirty secret in global health:” that rich countries get quality medicines and that the poor countries often get poison. Her op-ed in the Sept 11 New York Times describes the regulatory inequities between rich and poor nations. and how these inequities fail to prevent manufacture and export of substandard medicines. Rich countries have well-funded regulators keeping an eye on the safety and quality of drugs; most low income countries don’t have the…
International Double Standards in Humanity: The War in Sudan
The accumulating tension over power between the two main military factions in Sudan, finally erupted as literal hell on earth in the early morning of April 15th, 2023, traumatizing the entire nation and sending thousands fleeing the capital city of Khartoum and the country1. Intense and violent clashes took place in cities across the country, with total disregard for civilians who were neither alerted nor provided with safe evacuation routes. The two generals who once jointly directed the government continue…
[BOOKS] on Phantom Aid
“Phantom Aid” refers to the phenomenon where foreign aid is promised but not effectively delivered, often due to corruption, mismanagement, or other systemic issues. Here are recommended books to explore the topic more: “The White Man’s Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States” by Winthrop D. Jordan (1974) This seminal work offers crucial historical context on how racial perceptions have influenced foreign aid efforts, providing a foundation for understanding the complexities of aid dynamics. “Dead Aid: Why…