BORN FREE ORG. http://www.bornfree.org.uk/
THEIR WORK
From small beginnings, the Born Free Foundation has grown into a global force for wildlife. But a personal passion for wild animals and desire for positive change remain at our heart. Described by The Times as ‘Big enough to make a difference, but small enough to care,’ Born Free is not a big anonymous organisation, but a family of like-minded people who share the same goals. Our work to prevent individual animal suffering, protect threatened species and keep wildlife in the wild sets us apart from the rest. Learn more about Born Free history here.
This is why Born Free is supported by celebrities including Joanna Lumley, Martin Clunes, Bryan Adams, Rachel Hunter, Helen Worth, Jenny Seagrove, Sandi Toksvig and Martin Shaw. Together we reach out to the public, the media and our business friends, who actively support and fund our projects and campaigns, helping hundreds of thousands of animals worldwide.
RESCUE AND CARE
Born Free never forgets the individual. Every animal counts. Our emergency teams rescue vulnerable animals from appalling lives of misery in tiny cages and give them lifetime care at spacious sanctuaries. Born Free saves orphaned big cats, great apes and elephants and provides their food and care.
CONSERVATION AND EDUCATION
As human populations expand, wildlife comes under increasing threat. Born Free is determined to try to halt the race to extinction by protecting rare species in their natural habitat. Working with local communities, we find compassionate solutions so people and wildlife can live together. Educational activities inspire young and old alike to respect the wild.
OUR CAMPAIGN SPIRIT
Our high-profile campaigns take effective action and provide animals with a voice. We capture the public imagination, change attitudes, inform and persuade decision-makers, and get results. Whether its fighting the ivory trade and ‘sport’ hunting, opposing killing wild animals for ‘bushmeat’, or challenging the exploitation of wild animals in zoos and circuses, Born Free takes action on the front line for animals.
PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS
Our major international projects are devoted to animal welfare, conservation and education, and protect lions, elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, tigers, polar bears, wolves, dolphins, turtles, sharks and lots more. Through our Global Initiatives project we respond to emergency situations worldwide, participate in international coalitions such as the Species Survival Network, run the People & Wildlife project with Oxford University’s WildCru* department, and much much more.
CAMPAIGNS
* Zoo Check
* Big Cats
* Elephants
* Primates
* Marine
* Wolves
* Bears
* PAW Centres
* Further Activities
Who They Work With
* Corporate Partnerships
* Celebrity Supporters
* Affiliations
Who They work with
Born Free’s work to protect species under threat and prevent the suffering of individual animals relies on teamwork. With the incredible assistance of our supporters, business friends and celebrity patrons we take action for compassionate conservation and animal welfare. And by working together with other animal organisations in dynamic coalitions we ensure so much more is achieved for wildlife.
Individual supporters – Members of the public can become a vital part of our team and join us as a Member, Adopt their own animal, or make a regular donation.
Corporate Partnerships - At Born Free we are lucky enough to be supported by some great sponsors and companies, including several household names.
Celebrity supporters – our high-profile patrons help us reach out to the public, media and business friends, ensuring our projects and campaigns gain the support they need.
Coalitions & Animal Affiliations - Born Free is an active member of a wide range of national, European and international coalitions, pooling resources and expertise.
WHERE ARE THEY WORKING IN:
o UK
o America
o Europe
o Africa
o Asia
* Africa
* The Americas
* Asia
* Europe
Africa
* Cameroon
* Ethiopia
* DRCongo
* Kenya
* Malawi
* South Africa
* Tanzania
* Uganda
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe
Cameroon
Limbe Wildlife Centre
LAGA
Ethiopia
EWCP
DRCongo
Lwiro Primate Centre
Kahuzi Biega
Kenya
Amboseli
Mt Elgon
Mt Kenya
Born Free Kenya
Malawi
Lilongwe Wildlife Centre
South Africa
Shamwari Rescue Centres
Tanzania
West Kilimanjaro Fieldman Project
Sea Sense
Uganda
Ngamba Island
Zambia
Lunga Luswishi Wildlife Project
Zimbabwe
Painted Dog Conservation
The Americas
* Canada
* USA
Canada
Orcalab
Polar Bear Surrogacy
USA
Tennessee Sanctuary
Born Free USA
Asia
* India
* Vietnam
* China
* Sri Lanka
* Sumatra
India
Tiger Conservation
Bannerghatta Sanctuary
Dancing Bears
Vietnam
Bear Farming
China
Bear Farming
Sri Lanka
Elephant Transit Home
Sumatra
Human Orangutan Conflict Research
Europe
* UK
UK
UK Basking Shark Survey
UK Office
El presidente de EE UU afirma que la fuerza militar no es suficiente para ganar.
Yolanda Monge - Washington - 24/03/2009
"Barack Obama ha asegurado que la nueva estrategia que diseña para Afganistán incluirá un escenario para el final de la guerra. El presidente de EE UU considera ese conflicto como una de las grandes prioridades de su política exterior y concibe la situación en aquel país "no sólo como un problema militar", sino también político y social. "Lo que no podemos pensar es que sólo un enfoque militar resolverá nuestros problemas en Afganistán", afirmó. La estrategia que decida sobre esa guerra marcará su presidencia, como la de Irak marcó los años en el poder de George Bush.
"Tenemos que tener una estrategia de salida", insistió el presidente, que advirtió que antes es necesario controlar la situación desde el punto de vista militar. "Tenemos que crear una sensación de que no vamos a la deriva", dijo el domingo por la noche en una entrevista en el programa de televisión 60 minutos. Para ello, aunque confesó que la decisión más dura de su joven presidencia fue la de enviar a 17.000 nuevos soldados a aquel conflicto, probablemente tendrá que anunciar nuevos refuerzos para sumarse a los 36.000 efectivos desplegados en la región.
Durante la entrevista de más de hora y media que el mandatario mantuvo con el periodista de CBS Steve Kroft, Obama dejó claro que la misión en Afganistán será muy diferente de la que diseñó su antecesor en el cargo. Estados Unidos ya no pretenderá exportar la democracia, el buen gobierno y los principios básicos de una sociedad civil a aquel país. El principal objetivo de la Casa Blanca respecto a Afganistán es que ese territorio no sirva como santuario para los terroristas que planeen atacar EE UU. Ésa es la prioridad número uno: "Asegurarnos de que Al Qaeda no puede atacar ni Estados Unidos ni nuestros intereses en el mundo o los de nuestros aliados".
Los comentarios de Obama fueron el preludio al nuevo plan para Afganistán, que se espera que el presidente anuncie esta misma semana. Según fuentes conocedoras de la nueva estrategia, el plan cubrirá los próximos tres o cinco años y pondrá el foco en contener la insurgencia para evitar que un golpe pueda derribar el frágil Gobierno central. Para ello, se hará necesario establecer nuevas guarniciones militares en bastiones actualmente bajo dominio talibán.
Afganistán es "un hueso duro de roer", reconoció el presidente. Plantea para los mandos militares sobre el terreno cuestiones mucho más difíciles de resolver que las que plantea Irak. "Es un terreno más fácil", dijo Obama respecto a Irak. "Allí la población está más formada, hay infraestructuras que reconstruir", prosiguió. "Tampoco existen los mismos problemas que tanto desestabilizan la frontera entre Afganistán y Pakistán".
Estados Unidos sigue siendo un país en guerra. Pero su nuevo presidente en raras ocasiones usa la frase "guerra contra el terrorismo" o se define como un presidente de guerra, como hiciera Bush. Cierto es que los tiempos son distintos. Bush forjó su identidad como comandante en jefe tras los atentados del 11-S. Obama ha asumido la presidencia en un momento en el que la economía mundial se desmorona. "Si cuando era candidato alguien me hubiera dicho que el menor de mis problemas -siendo muy importante- iba a ser la guerra de Irak...", ironizó el presidente.
Eso explica por qué, y a diferencia de Bush, su equipo de seguridad no es necesariamente el primero con el que Obama despacha cada mañana. Frecuentemente, la primera reunión que el presidente tiene es con su gabinete económico. Tampoco mantiene las videoconferencias semanales que Bush establecía con los mandos militares en Irak y los presidentes de Irak y Afganistán.
Son tiempos distintos con distintos enfoques, aunque haya figuras del pasado que se nieguen a desaparecer. En respuesta a la acusación del ex vicepresidente Dick Cheney de que Obama ha hecho al país más vulnerable debido al anuncio del cierre de la prisión de Guantánamo y de la prohibición expresa de la tortura, el presidente fue contundente: "¿Cuántos terroristas fueron realmente llevados a la justicia gracias a la filosofía promovida por Dick Cheney?", se preguntó Obama. "Eso no le dio seguridad a Estados Unidos, lo que hizo fue promover el sentimiento antiestadounidense".
Por otra parte, Richard Holbrooke, representante especial de EE UU para Afganistán y Pakistán, defendió ayer ante la OTAN y la UE la necesidad de establecer una estrategia conjunta con ambos países para resolver la situación en uno, Afganistán, y evitar un deterioro de gravísimas consecuencias, en el otro, un Pakistán con armas nucleares y minado por el extremismo, informa Ricardo Martínez de Rituerto desde Bruselas. "Que hagan más por Pakistán", respondió el político estadounidense cuando se le preguntó qué había pedido a los europeos. "El país está en crisis, tiene a la UE como primer socio comercial, y la UE debe hacer mucho más". Holbrooke subrayó que "no puede haber éxito en Afganistán si no se cambia el modo en que se trata el oeste de Pakistán", zona controlada por extremistas islámicos y refugio de los talibanes.
A falta de concluir la revisión estratégica de EE UU sobre Afganistán, Holbrooke pidió a los europeos una mayor implicación en la formación de policía, en la lucha antidroga y en el desarrollo rural."
Source:
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Obama/propondra/estrategia/salida/guerra/afgana/elpepiint/20090324elpepiint_1/Tes
Foto: © El País S.L. | Prisacom S.A.
24/3/2009 Hora:Actualizada a las 7:20 h
La crisis económica y la devaluación de la libra esterlina han provocado que Montecarlo tome el relevo de Londres como la ciudad donde el metro cuadrado de vivienda es más caro (50.000 euros), por delante de Londres (28.000 euros).
Un informe realizado por la consultora Knight Frank en colaboración con el Citi Private Bank confirma la caída en el precio de la vivienda en la capital británica, la cual sigue superando claramente a ciudades como Nueva York (16.500 euros por metro cuadrado en Manhattan), Moscú (16.200 euros) o París (16.000 euros).
En la lista de las diez ciudades con mayor precio por metro cuadrado no hay ninguna española ni latinoamericana.
El caso de Londres es, en opinión de los autores de este informe, paradigmático, ya que se ha producido un "dramático" descenso de los precios, debido a los descuentos ofrecidos y la caída de la libra respecto al euro.
Esto ha convertido el mercado londinense en propicio para los compradores internacionales, ya que por la misma vivienda se puede pagar ahora en muchos casos la mitad que hace unos meses.
Según los autores de este informe, «el 2008 fue un año para olvidar» por el sector, ya que «los precios cayeron en casi la mitad» de las 55 ciudades del mundo con mayor actividad de venta y construcción de vivienda.
LAS 10 ZONAS MÁS CARAS DEL MUNDO
1. Mónaco 50.000 euros
2. Londres 28.000 euros
3. Manhattan 16.500 euros
4. Moscú 16.200 euros
5. París 16.000 euros
6. Tokio 15.850 euros
7. Hong Kong 15.750 euros
8. Roma 13.500 euros
9. Singapur 11.850 euros
10. Sydney 11.000 euros
Fuente:
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/dinero/2009/03/24/00031237875203701653174.htm
Dienstag, 24. März 2009, 07:36 Uhr
Berlin (Reuters) -
US-Präsident Barack Obama hat andere Länder vor dem Weltfinanzgipfel mit einem eindringlichen Appel zum vereinten Kampf gegen die Weltwirtschaftskrise aufgerufen.
Der Wohlstand einer jeden Nation sei in Gefahr und in Entwicklungsländern stünden Menschenleben auf dem Spiel, warnte Obama in einem am Dienstag veröffentlichten Beitrag in der Zeitung "Die Welt". Mit Blick auf den Londoner Gipfel am 2. April schrieb Obama, die Führer der G20 müssten nun mit mutigen und umfassenden Schritten eine Erholung anstoßen und eine "neue Ära ökonomischen Engagements einleiten, damit sich eine Krise wie diese niemals wiederholen kann".
"Auf unserem Weg voran sollten wir eine gemeinsame Verpflichtung begrüßen, freien Handel und Investitionen zu fördern und zugleich dem Protektionismus zu widerstehen", schrieb Obama. Alle Finanzinstitutionen bräuchten eine strenge Aufsicht und vernünftige Regeln. Es dürfe keinen Weg zurück zur Lage vor der Krise geben.
"Wenn wir weiterhin zulassen, dass Finanzinstitutionen überall auf der Welt rücksichts- und verantwortungslos handeln, bleiben wir im Kreislauf von Blase und Platzen gefangen", warnte der Präsident. "Zusammen können wir ein gemeinsames Rahmenwerk schaffen, das auf Transparenz und Rechenschaft besteht und den Fokus auf die Wiederherstellung des Kreditflusses legt, den Lebensnerv einer wachsenden globalen Wirtschaft." Nur internationale Maßnahmen könnten das Eingehen unverantwortlicher Risiken verhindern.
Zunächst gehe es darum, das Kreditwesen wiederherzustellen, sagte Obama. Dazu gehöre die ehrliche Bewertung der Bankenbilanzen. "Alle Märkte sollten Stabilitätsstandards und Mechanismen zur Offenlegung haben." Strenge Rahmenbedingungen für den Kapitalbedarf sollten künftig vor Krisen schützen. "Wir müssen hart gegen Steueroasen und Geldwäsche durchgreifen." Rigorose Transparenz und Rechenschaftspflicht sollten Missbrauch verhindern. Auch mit "außer Kontrolle geratenen Abfindungen" müsse Schluss sein.
OBAMA FORDERT ANREIZE FÜR WIRTSCHAFTSWACHSTUM
Um die Konjunktur anzukurbeln, muss aus Sicht des US-Präsidenten rasch das Wirtschaftswachstum stimuliert werden. "Diese Anstrengungen sollten robust und nachhaltig sein, bis die Nachfrage wiederhergestellt ist." Obama trat auch dafür ein, dass die Staatengemeinschaft der G-20 zusammen mit multinationalen Institutionen Außenhandelsfinanzierungen bereitstellen.
Außerdem forderte Obama neue Mittel zur Stabilisierung von Schwellenländern. Die Notfall-Kapazitäten des Internationalen Währungsfonds (IWF) will er substanziell erhöhen. Amerika wolle Investitionen in die Ernährungssicherung unterstützen, "die den Ärmsten helfen können, die bevorstehenden schweren Zeiten zu überstehen".
"Ich weiß, dass Amerika seinen Anteil hat an dem Chaos, mit dem wir uns konfrontiert sehen", räumte Obama ein. Es gehe jetzt nicht darum, zwischen einem erbarmungslosen Kapitalismus und einer repressiven staatlich gelenkten Wirtschaft zu wählen. Das G-20-Treffen biete ein Forum für eine neuartige globale wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit. "Jetzt ist es Zeit, zusammenarbeiten, um das nachhaltige Wachstum wiederherzustellen, das nur aus offenen und stabilen Märkten kommen kann, die sich Innovationen zunutze machen, Unternehmergeist fördern und Chancen vergrößern."
© Thomson Reuters 2009 Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Quelle: http://de.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idDEBEE52N00320090324
http://www.wayn.com/waynvideos.html?wci=watch&video=27045042
This link is a video wich a boy from Gaza loaded into his home page at WAYN.com on 3th. march 2009.
Freedom and the fight for liberty was always able to bring people together who had very different values.
Hier ist das Video eines Junges aus Gaza. Er hat es auf seinem Homepage in WAYN am 3. März 2009 geladen. Die kollektive Freiheit und der Kampf dafür hat immer den Menschen veschiedenster Werten zusammen gebracht.
Este es el vídeo que un chico de Gaza a colgado en su página web de WAYN el 3 de Marzo 2009.
La lucha por la Libertad siempre ha sido capaz de unir a personas de muy distintos valores y origen.
Foto:
Eugène Delacroix - " La liberté guidant le peuple", 1830 ( Louvre, Paris)
It is the cover of an Album from COLDPLAY too.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has called the killing of 15 people by a teenager an incomprehensible crime that has left her nation in mourning.
Her comments came in the wake of a shooting rampage by a teenage former student on Wednesday in southwest Germany.
Tim Kretschmer opened fire at the Albertville high school in the small market town of Winnenden, killing nine students and three teachers before commandeering a car and fleeing the scene.
The 17-year-old attacker later took his own life after a shootout with police in the town of Wendlingen, near Stuttgart.
Flags across Germany flew at half mast on Thursday, and hundreds of candles were left outside the school where the massacre took place. People packed churches for special services on Wednesday night, while dozens attended a vigil outside the school.
Mark Seddon, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Winnenden, said "why?" is the question on everyone's lips in the small town of 27,000 people.
"Counsellors from all over the country are flying in to spend time with children and parents, to try and understand what on earth happened," he said. "What made a young student go on a rampage killing fellow pupils, killing teachers -and what will people learn to try and ensure this doesn't happen again?"
NO APPARENT MOTIVE
A video taken on a mobile phone showed Kretschmer at a car dealership where he killed three people, then himself.
There was no immediate indication of motive, but the victims were mostly female: eight of nine students killed were girls, and all three teachers were women.
Three men were killed later as the suspect fled.
The massacre occurred just hours after a man went on the rampage in the southern US state of Alabama, killing 10 people before also turning the gun on himself.
Speaking for a nation stunned by the crime, Chancellor Merkel said: "It is unimaginable that in just seconds, pupils and teachers were killed, it is an appalling crime. This is a day of mourning for the whole of Germany."
Wolfgang Schauble, the German interior minister, ordered flags across the country to be flown at half mast on Thursday as a mark of respect for the dead.
DRESSED IN BLACK
Dressed in black combats, Kretschmer had entered the school at about 9:30am local time [08:30 GMT] and opened fire, killing nine students aged between 14 and 15, and three teachers.
A passer-by died after Kretschmer seized the car, and two passers-by died in the final shootout between him and the police.
Erwin Hetger, a regional police chief, said: "He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath. I've never seen anything like this in my life."
Konrad Gelden, the local police chief, said the teenager was "constantly reloading his weapon".
Mark Seddon said there were "many grieving parents. It's a very, very sad scene.
"He [Kretschmer] was a loner. ... He had an interest in the occult and his father was a member of a gun club. They had 16 guns in the house.
"He left no message and so far there appears to be no motive".
"People are full of praise for the swift reaction of the police ... the death toll could have been higher. The police found other munitions in the grounds so this was clearly planned."
QUIET STUDENT
Petra Wischgoll, a journalist in Cologne, told Al Jazeera that police believe the suspect had finished school last year.
"He was always a very quiet student, who never did anything, and wasn't really big in the picture," she said.
"He was very quiet and nobody ever thought of him much. So everybody is very surprised that it was him doing the shooting."
Lothar Becker, a journalist with ZDF, a German broadcaster, told Al Jazeera the suspect was "a normal young guy, from a family with no financial problems, in an area with no criminal problems".
He said it was "probably the worst school massacre we ever had in Germany".
The attack is indeed Germany's worst school shooting since 2002, when 16 people were killed at a high school in Erfurt in eastern Germany by a 19-year-old former student, who then turned the gun on himself.
In November 2006, a former student at a vocational school in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany went a shooting spree, injuring 37 people before killing himself.
UPDATED ON:
Thursday, March 12, 2009
13:41 Mecca time, 10:41 GMT
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/03/200931234059174469.html
FOTO from www.swr.de : http://www.swr.de/blog/swr1_bw_blogs/?p=739
By Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
For me, capitalism has never been an abstract concept. It is a real, concrete part of everyday life. When I was a boy, my family left the rural misery of Brazil’s north-east and set off for São Paulo. My mother, an extraordinary woman of great courage, uprooted herself and her children and moved to the industrial centre of Brazil in search of a better life. My childhood was no different from that of many boys from poor families: informal jobs; very little formal education. My only diploma was as a machine lathe operator, from a course at the National Service for Industry.
I began to experience the reality of factory life, which awoke in me my vocation as a union leader. I became a member of the Metalworkers’ Union of São Bernardo, in the outskirts of São Paulo. I became the union’s president and, as such, led the strikes of 1978-1980 that changed the face of the Brazilian labour movement and played a big role in returning democracy to the country, then under military dictatorship.
The impact of the union movement on Brazilian society led us to create the Workers’ party, which brought together urban and rural workers, intellectuals and militants from civil society. Brazilian capitalism, at that time, was not only a matter of low salaries, insalubrious working conditions and repression of the union movement. It was also expressed in economic policy and in the whole set of the government’s public policies, as well as in the restrictions it placed on civil liberties. Together with millions of other workers, I discovered it was not enough merely to demand better salaries and working conditions. It was fundamental that we should fight for citizenship and for a profound reorganisation of economic and social life.
I fought and lost four elections before being elected president of the republic in 2002. In opposition, I came to know my country intimately. In discussions with intellectuals I thrashed out the alternatives for our society, living out on the periphery of the world a drama of stagnation and profound social inequality. But my greatest understanding of Brazil came from direct contact with its people through the “caravans of citizenship” that took me across tens of thousands of kilometres.
When I arrived in the presidency, I found myself faced not only by serious structural problems but, above all, by an inheritance of ingrained inequalities. Most of our governors, even those that enacted reforms in the past, had governed for the few. They concerned themselves with a Brazil in which only a third of the population mattered.
The situation I inherited was one not only of material difficulties but also of deep-rooted prejudices that threatened to paralyse our government and lead us into stagnation. We could not grow, it was said, without threatening economic stability – much less grow and distribute wealth. We would have to choose between the internal market and the external. Either we accepted the unforgiving imperatives of the globalised economy or we would be condemned to fatal isolation.
Over the past six years, we have destroyed those myths. We have grown and enjoyed economic stability. Our growth has been accompanied by the inclusion of tens of millions of Brazilian people in the consumer market. We have distributed wealth to more than 40m who lived below the poverty line. We have ensured that the national minimum wage has risen always above the rate of inflation. We have democratised access to credit. We have created more than 10m jobs. We have pushed forward with land reform. The expansion of our domestic market has not happened at the expense of exports – they have tripled in six years. We have attracted enormous volumes of foreign investment with no loss of sovereignty.
All this has enabled us to accumulate $207bn (€164bn, £150bn) in foreign reserves and thereby protect ourselves from the worst effects of a financial crisis that, born at the centre of capitalism, threatens the entire structure of the global economy.
Nobody dares to predict today what will be the future of capitalism.
As the governor of a great economy described as “emerging”, what I can say is what sort of society I hope will emerge from this crisis. It will reward production and not speculation. The function of the financial sector will be to stimulate productive activity – and it will be the object of rigorous controls, both national and international, by means of serious and representative organisations. International trade will be free of the protectionism that shows dangerous signs of intensifying. The reformed multilateral organisations will operate programmes to support poor and emerging economies with the aim of reducing the imbalances that scar the world today. There will be a new and democratic system of global governance. New energy policies, reform of systems of production and of patterns of consumption will ensure the survival of a planet threatened today by global warming.
But, above all, I hope for a world free of the economic dogmas that invaded the thinking of many and were presented as absolute truths. Anti-cyclical policies must not be adopted only when a crisis is under way. Applied in advance – as they have been in Brazil – they can be the guarantors of a more just and democratic society.
As I said at the outset, I do not give much importance to abstract concepts.
I am not worried about the name to be given to the economic and social order that will come after the crisis, so long as its central concern is with human beings.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The writer is president of Brazil.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4623a78e-0ce2-11de-a555-0000779fd2ac.html
Published: March 9 2009 19:52 | Last updated: March 9 2009 19:52
SOURCES:
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
FOTO: Tanadori Yokoo
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