Nightslantern Suppressed News // October 18, 2017 -- #Israel / #Congo

19.10.17

from Gerald and Maas nightslantern.ca at http://www.nightslantern.ca/2017bulletin.htm#oct18

October 18, 2017

U.S.: October 12th the U.S. announced its withdrawal from UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). UNESCO attempts to coordinate these areas internationally while seeing to it that all the children and citizens have access to a good education which UNESCO considers a basic human right, and enjoy a diverse culture that respects various heritages, and benefit from scientific progress, and "enjoy full freedom of expression; the basis of democracy, development and human dignity." After the U.S. withdrew Israel withdrew as well. The U.S. stopped paying its yearly support dues for UNESCO in 2011, and owes an accumulated 500 million dollars of arrears. Both the U.S. and Israeli Ambassadors to the UN suggested that the reason for withdrawal rests with UNESCO's lack of support for Israel in heritage disputes between Israel and Palestine. No one suggests that both the U.S. and Israel may have breeched the genocide convention (the U.S. through genocide against the people of Iraq, Israel through genocide of Palestinians). UNESCO is a strong supporter of educational programs concerned with the Holocaust and Convention on Genocide, globally, identifying the concept of culture, progress, civilization, with a rejection of racism and the hatreds engendered by warfare. In this sense UNESCO is anti-fascist, a proponent of freedom of expression globally, and a force for peace. As noted in UNESCO's response to the withdrawals: "The American poet, diplomat and Librarian of Congress, Archibald MacLeish penned the lines that open UNESCO’s 1945 Constitution: 'Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.'" In 2017 MacLeish would have spelled out "men and women." Ignoring the peoples' losses and this additional challenge to world peace, The New York Post praises the withdrawal, sees UNESCO's "flagrant anti-Israel bias" as an attempt to "eradicate Israel from world culture," and supports taking further punitive action. Partial sources online: "Statement by Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the Withdrawal by the United States of America from UNESCO," Oct. 12, 2017, UNESCO; "U.S. and Israel to withdraw from UN's cultural, educational agency," Thomson Reuters, Oct 12, 2017, CBC News;"Introducing UNESCO," current, www.unesco.org; "Exiting UNESCO was the right thing to do," Post Editorial Board, October 12, 2017, The New York Post.; "U.S. Will Withdraw From Unesco, Citing Its 'Anti-Israel Bias'," Gardiner Harris and Steven Erlanger, Oct. 12, 2017, The New York Times.

Democratic Republic of Congo: the term of the Congo's President Kabila ended in December 2016. He refused to hold free elections and step down. The terms of the provincial government representatives and parliament's similarly expired. Violence broke out in parts of the Congo which remain held by insurgents. The violence was eased by negotiations in which Kabila agreed to hold elections and cede power before the end of 2017 (see previous). But he has refused again, in that the electoral commission (CENI) says it will be impossible to register the voters and hold elections before April 2019. Of an expected 123 million dollars from international donors the Commission has receive only 6%. Aside from insurgent groups a powerful youth movement is attempting to hold Kabila to his word. In September a two day general strike was followed by fears of increased violence. Since 2016, 5000 people have lost their lives and 1.4 million have been displaced by insurrection in the central Congo province of Kasai. Active militia are also noted in the eastern borderlands which is historically the region of mass deaths. See previous. The Red Cross notes seven million Congolese in an emergency requiring humanitarian assistance. On October 16th when the Democratic Republic of the Congo was elected to the UN's Human Rights Council, the British Ambassador to the UN found it disappointing, the U.S. Ambassador found it hurt the Council's credibility, and Human Rights Watch found it a "slap in the face" to the DRC government's victims. Both ambassadors of countries praised for the human rights of their white populations and middle classes, overlooked the roll NATO nations continue to play in the oppression of the Congo's people. See previous. The driving force of the DRC's unrest is the acquisition of natural resources by foreign corporations. U.S. and U.K. foreign policies serve these corporations rather than the Congolese people or our own peoples. Historically the only elected Congolese leaders were Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Patrice Lumumba. Background: "Vive Patrice Lumumba (Vicky Longomba) - African Jazz 1960". Partial sources online: "DR Congo protest to oust Kabila," Sept.8, 2017, Deutsche Welle; "No Congo election until mid-2019, vote commission says, angering opposition," Patient Ligodi and Aaron Ross, Oct. 11, 2017, Reuters; "Postponed Congo presidential vote further delayed until 2019," Oct. 11, 2017 Deutsche Welle; "DR Congo elected to U.N. rights council; Britain, U.S. unhappy," Reuters, Oct. 16, 2017, africa-news; "DR Congo Kasai violence displaces 850,000 children," July 28, 2017, BBC News.

by J.B.Gerald, Gerald and Maas nightslantern.ca

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