By Gary Rotto

SAN DIEGO–The tensions around the Goldstone Report ( Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict) have died down for the moment.  But hard feelings still remain in the community regarding the report and the resulting resolution in Congress.  Congressman Filner clearly communicated his feelings and his thinking around the resolution.  He has “mishpachah” in Israel with whom he consulted.  His response to SDJW questions were fair and well thought out.   And may be factually based.  But politics is – especially geopolitical – are based on perception.

The Jewish community reaction to the Goldstone Report may not be so much about the actual information in the report, but the visceral feeling that the United Nations seems fixated on the Middle East, and in particular, the Arab-Israeli, or Palestinian-Israel conflict.

Back on October 2, 2006, as Kofi Annan’s term as the Secretary General of the United Nations was coming to a close, Human Rights Watch reflected on the tasks ahead for his successor.  While praising Annan’s dedication to human rights and the creation of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), Human Rights Watch openly criticized the HRC. “The Human Rights Council has so far stumbled because of its relative fixation on Israel, while failing to take concrete steps to address other serious human rights situations as well. It has yet to show that it is willing to take firm, collective action against intransigent governments engaged in systemic rights violations.”  The article on its website goes on to say that “The incoming secretary-general must work to ensure that the Human Rights Council is both more credible and more effective than its predecessor.”

One of the giants in the world of Human Rights monitoring, Felice Gaer, severely criticized the Goldstone Report.  Her career in the human rights community has included membership on the Council on Foreign Relations, serving as chair of the steering committee for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and as a member of the Carter Center’s International Human Rights Council since 1994.  As reported in the New Jersey Jewish News, Gaer called the report “a biased mandate by a biased group of people.”  The biased group of people is the HRC.

Jackson Diehl, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of the Washington Post noted after the HRC’s first year that “Genocide in Sudan, child slavery and religious persecution in China, mass repression in Zimbabwe and Burma, state-sponsored murder in Syria and Russia — and, for that matter, suicide bombings by Arab terrorist movements — will not receive systematic attention from the world body charged with monitoring human rights. That is reserved only for Israel, a democratic country that has been guilty of human rights violations but also has been under sustained assault from terrorists and governments openly committed to its extinction.”  In that first year, Israel and Israel alone was the only government criticized by name – and to the tune of 11 resolutions.

Freedom House, one of the preeminent “peace and democracy” institutions since 1941, in its 2009 Worst of the Worst report, which cites  the World’s Most Repressive Societies, lists Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

While Israel is imperfect, clearly, other nations and hot spots around the world deserve far greater attention from the HRC.  Only once a track record of tackling ongoing, regimented, government sponsored human rights violations in the areas around the world, will the Jewish community will feel that a Goldstone Report maybe even handed and fair and maybe justified.

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Rotto is a freelance writer based in San Diego

Today The World Court has crossed many lines against Humanity, being linked to the U.N, the World Health Organization, which loves to use it Origin of Species, an Set the Rich to be the Stronger to Rule Over the Weak & Poor, On Top Of That you have the IMF:International Monetary Fund, being a Burden Upon Many Nations, giving out Loans to fulfill its Lustful Desires of the Flesh.

These Organizations,Courts,Banks Should be Put on Trial for there Tresspasses on mankind, Setting Selfish Goals which will never happen in there lifetime or the Next, they say they love mankind yet set stumbling blocks for mankind to Tresspass against Each Other, and to Tresspass against the Lord God Of Israel.

RIO – No dia em que a política externa brasileira foi o centro das atenções internacionais devido ao encontro dos presidentes Lula e Ahmadinejad, o ex-secretário-geral da ONU Kofi Annan elogiou os recentes avanços brasileiros, mas alertou o país de que sua crescente influência internacional traz novas responsabilidades. Segundo ele, elas atingem áreas como diplomacia, economia e meio ambiente.

Annan, que foi secretário-geral da ONU por dez anos e prêmio Nobel da Paz pelos esforços do órgão pela paz em 2001, esteve na segunda-feira no Rio para dar uma palestra durante o Seminário Nestlé Brasil Global. Diplomático, evitou críticas à visita de Ahmadinejad, preferindo lembrar que já se encontrou com ele. E fez uma comparação com reuniões que teve com o ex-presidente dos EUA George W. Bush.

- Encontrei-me com os dois num período de considerável tensão, bem maior que agora – disse Annan. – Havia algumas semelhanças entre eles. Os dois pareciam muito confiantes na justiça de suas causas.

Países ricos devem cortar mais emissões que os demais

Ele mencionou a importância do Brasil na Conferência de Copenhague, mês que vem, frisando que é justo que os países ricos façam cortes de emissões mais amplos que aqueles que se industrializam agora. E defendeu a entrada do Brasil no Conselho de Segurança.

- A proteção do meio ambiente e o combate às mudanças climáticas não são as únicas áreas nas quais o Brasil pode e deve liderar. Também pode usar sua influência política e econômica para pressionar por reformas na arquitetura institucional internacional. Inclusive em grupos como o G20, o Banco Mundial, o FMI e o Conselho de Segurança da ONU. Não há motivos para que, hoje, a composição do Conselho de Segurança reflita o contexto geopolítico de 1945. Estamos em 2009.

O ex-secretário-geral, porém, alertou que o novo papel do Brasil faz com que tenha maiores responsabilidades – mais uma vez, sem mencionar a polêmica visita de Ahmadinejad.

- Há muitas outras áreas nas quais o Brasil pode dar contribuições. Desde paz e segurança e defesa dos direitos humanos até a promoção de agricultura sustentável e o combate ao crime internacional – disse ele. – O Brasil desfrutou de uma década notavelmente bem-sucedida. Com estes sucesso vieram grandes benefícios, mas também responsabilidades enormes.

O ex-secretário-geral da ONU elogiou o que chamou de “programas inovadores de transferência de renda”, e disse que o país deverá cumprir as Metas do Milênio de redução da pobreza até 2015, “enquanto a maioria dos países não conseguirá”.

Fonte

LONDON (Nov. 21) — Computer hackers have broken into a server at a well-respected climate change research center in Britain and posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online — stoking debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for man-made climate change.

The University of East Anglia, in eastern England, said in a statement Saturday that the hackers had entered the server and stolen data at its Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research center on climate change. The university said police are investigating the theft of the information, but could not confirm if all the materials posted online are genuine.

More than a decade of correspondence between leading British and U.S. scientists is included in about 1,000 e-mails and 3,000 documents posted on Web sites following the security breach last week.

Some climate change skeptics and bloggers claim the information shows scientists have overstated the case for global warming, and allege the documents contain proof that some researchers conspired to manipulate data.

The furor over the leaked data comes weeks before the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, when 192 nations will seek to reach a binding treaty to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases worldwide. Many officials — including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — regard the prospects of a pact being sealed at the meeting as bleak.

Within a decade, summers in the North Pole will be dramatically different: no ice and just an open sea. That is the prediction released Oct. 14 by explorers who have hiked through the area. Here, research vessels on an unrelated expedition break through ice near the North Pole in 2004.

A new report examines the human cost of climate change, which it said causes more than 300,000 deaths per year. The report, released in May, shows the impact of climate change on population displacement, malnutrition and diseases, such as malaria. “Climate change is not something waiting to happen,” said former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

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In one leaked e-mail, the research center’s director, Phil Jones, writes to colleagues about graphs showing climate statistics over the last millennium. He alludes to a technique used by a fellow scientist to “hide the decline” in recent global temperatures. Some evidence appears to show a halt in a rise of global temperatures from about 1960, but is contradicted by other evidence which appears to show a rise in temperatures is continuing.

Jones wrote that, in compiling new data, he had “just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e., from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline,” according to a leaked e-mail, which the author confirmed was genuine.

One of the colleague referred to by Jones — Michael Mann, a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University — did not immediately respond to requests for comment via telephone and e-mail.

The use of the word “trick” by Jones has been seized on by skeptics — who say his e-mail offers proof of collusion between scientists to distort evidence to support their assertion that human activity is influencing climate change.

“Words fail me,” Stephen McIntyre — a blogger whose climateaudit.org Web site challenges popular thinking on climate change — wrote on the site following the leak of the messages.

However, Jones denied manipulating evidence and insisted his comment had been taken out of context. “The word ‘trick’ was used here colloquially, as in a clever thing to do. It is ludicrous to suggest that it refers to anything untoward,” he said in a statement Saturday.

Jones did not indicate who “Keith” was in his e-mail.

Two other American scientists named in leaked e-mails — Gavin Schmidt of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and Kevin Trenberth, of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado — did not immediately return requests for comment.

The University of East Anglica said that information published on the Internet had been selected deliberately to undermine “the strong consensus that human activity is affecting the world’s climate in ways that are potentially dangerous.”

“The selective publication of some stolen e-mails and other papers taken out of context is mischievous and cannot be considered a genuine attempt to engage with this issue in a responsible way,” the university said in a statement.

Associated Press Writer Meera Selva in London contributed to this report.

When one thinks of World Powers, many think on a national, an so many on the International Level, many say the USA or Israel is a World Power, in fact, that is one of the biggest myths in this day and age.

Todays World Powers are:

The United Nations-which has changed it’s name over the years Starting Off as “The League Of Nations”
European Union- which is Pressing Forth its Reich to have complete Rulings Over the Whole of Europe
an Succeeding in Hitlers Plan an other before him in bringing in complete Unity the Whole of Europe.
NATO-Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization
Amnesty International- A So called Human Rights group that does more harm than Good
UniCef-Founded by the UN
GreenPeace-When it was 1st founded, it was mainly used in regards to enviromental issues only nothing
more, now being hijacked, by people who now wish to disarm the world.
CAIR-A muslim administration that seeks to silence those who speak ill of Islam to a world wide standard of
Islams version of Polictical Correctness.
OPEC-A group that has a Majority of Arab Muslim Countries Telling the World How much we have to pay for Fuel.

The List goes on with the World Powers & Their Organizations, They Love to Go Around an Tell the Nations what to do, Now its time for the Nations to Put these World Powers & Their Organizations Up for Inspections by the Public, no doubt once many hear of this article, they will play there holier than thou game to the public, an be the best hypocrites in the World.
Thing is, Every remembers the Wrongs these Organizations an Powers have Done.

Oi a todos….
Em Dezembro desse ano, mais especificamente entre dia 7 e 18, ocorrerá em Copenhague um evento que reunirá as nações unidas, intitulado COP 15 (website)para tentar achar algum meio de preservar o meio ambiente…. em vista que o protocolo de Kyoto nunca foi muito efetivo e tem prazo de validade ate 2012….
Se tudo for acertado, e não ouver divergências, após a conferência, serão criados novos termos e definidos novos parâmetros, inclusive novas estratégias para a confecção de um novo documento. Mas para isso além dos membros mais importantes das nações unidas unirem-se a causa, também devemos lembrar dos países emergentes, como Brasil, China e Índia.

Essa campanha, Time for Climate Justice que tem como fundador Kofi Annan, vem adquirindo diversos seguidores, incluindo artistas, pessoas do governo, pessoas da sociedade mundial… e todos podem se inscrever e enviar mensagens, entrando no site da campanha (website)…

Kofi Annan, nasceu em Kumasi, Gana e é um diplomata de seu país, ele atuou como sétimo secretário das Organização das Nações Unidas até janeiro de 2007, e teve como destaque ser laureado com o Nobel da Paz em 2001.

O grande simbolo dessa campanha é uma musica dos anos 90 intitulada “Beds are Burning” escrita pelo grupo de rock Midnight Oil que para essa causa teve sua letra alterada e conta com a participacao de diversos artistas famosos, como Jamie Cullum e The All American Rejects e traz uma mensagem que nos remete aos objetivos da campanha….

Deixo vocês com um videoclip da musica…. e uma mensagem…

“For those living on the brink of survival, climate change is a very real and dangerous hazard. For many, it is a final step of deprivation.” – Kofi Annan

There are lots of points to consider in the light of the breaking of the news embargo announcing the winner of the Prix Pictet 2009 (22 October). However, I felt it important to ask and allow both parties to respond to my questions. In an age when  many people consider themselves to be journalists, it’s important not to lose sight of some basic journalistic principles, including the need to ensure that information is fair, accurate and honestly conveyed.

So far, the response from Jeanette Ward of Theresa Simon & Partners PR company, has circulated online only as reported by A Photo Editor. Both replies are posted below unedited:

Why was the news embargo in place? What was the purpose of the news embargo?
Jeanette Ward from Theresa Simon & Partners: “The news embargo of 21.00hrs (Paris, France) on 22 October 2009 was in place because the prize winner was to be announced at an awards event on the evening of 22 October. The nominees were not told in advance who had won. Naturally we did not want anyone at that event, which included the winner of the Prix Pictet 2009, Nadav Kander; the winner of the commission, Ed Kashi; and the majority of the ten other photographers nominated for the prize, to know who had won before it was officially announced by Kofi Annan. However, we did want to enable print media to report the winner the following day and for some broadcast media to put their pieces together with the winner in mind. For that to happen they needed to receive the information and images in good time for their deadlines earlier on 22 October, hence the early issue of the release with an embargo.

“It is disappointing that the embargo was broken, particularly for those directly involved in the event, many of whom would have had Blackberries with them, and for those friends, family and colleagues who might have been waiting to hear elsewhere in the world. However, a mistake was made: I thought that everyone on my media list was a journalist and would therefore understand the meaning of the embargo. In fact, A Photo Editor, told me on the telephone that he doesn’t describe himself as a journalist and he felt that he was spammed by our embargoed release. This was never our intention and he has subsequently been removed from our media lists both at his request and because we try to only send press releases to journalists.

“On hindsight the embargoed release only needed to go to a handful of selected daily print and broadcast media with online media receiving the release after the embargo had past. Obviously the use of embargoes does need to be reconsidered in this age of the internet and blogging and this incident has been a valuable lesson for me personally”.

Why did you decide to break the news embargo? Were you aware of the knock-on effect of taking advantage of knowledge before others?
A Photo Editor aka Rob Haggart: “I’m embarrassed it happened and it wasn’t intentional. I’ve pasted the top of the press release I received from the PR agency. (Press release: Embargo: 21.00 hrs, 22 October 2009). There’s no time zone on the embargo and I assumed that it had already occurred so I posted it. This is the first time anyone has ever sent me embargoed material and I told those idiots at the PR agency that they shouldn’t email blogs they have no relationship with. Spamming blogs with your press releases is horrible PR to begin with. Sending out the name of a contest winner before it’s been announced is stupid”.

This case study report of the International Peace Institute analyses peacemaking efforts during the postelection crisis in Kenya (2007-2008).  The Panel of Eminent African Personalities, chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and mandated by the African Union led the forty-one-day peace process, culminating in the Agreement on the Principles of Partnership of the Coalition Government. This paper gives a detailed account of the events which led up to this agreement.

Download: http://www.ipacademy.org/media/pdf/publications/kenyamediation_epub.pdf

Leonardo da Vinci once said:

“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence he is just using his memory”

I am also reminded of a graffiti message that was spray painted on Parliament after the election of Margaret Thatcher:

“No matter who you vote for the government still gets in.”

I am going to present some facts to you to hopefully give you some perspective and perhaps open your eyes to some very basic realities:

In 2008 the World Expenditures on Military were $1.47 Trillion USD

The Top 10 Military Expenditures as a percentage of GDP and then in USD:

• Saudi Arabia                                     10%                        ‘08 – $31B
• United States of America              3.9%                        ’10 – $663.7B
• Russian Federation                        3.9%                         ’10 – $36B
• France                                                2.6%                         ’10 – $47.4B
• India                                                   2.5%                         ’10 – $32B
• United Kingdom                             2.4%                          ’10 – $65.1B
• Italy                                                    1.8%                          ’08 – $40B
• Germany                                           1.5%                           ’08 – $45.9B
• Japan                                                0.8 %                         ’08 – $48.8B

Real Cost of the Iraq War to date:

• $695,000,000,000
• 4352 American Military Casualties
• Approximately 31,545 Wounded
• Approximately 1,339,771 Iraqi Civilians

Real Cost of Afghanistan War to date (only US spending):

• $230,000,000,000
• 1407 Coalition Causalities
• No reliable Civilian casualty number available

The United States spends almost 10% of its military budget on nuclear weapons – $52B –  According to the 1998 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Program is roughly equal to the amount required globally for UNIVERSAL access to:

• Basic Education
• Basic Healthcare
• Adequate Food
• Clean Water
• Sewers

Education spending worldwide approximately $2.46 Trillion USD

Education spending as a percentage of GDP:

• United States of America        7%
• Saudi Arabia                              6.8%
• France                                         6.1%
• United Kingdom                       5.3%
• Italy                                              4.9%
• Germany & Japan                    4.6%
• China                                           4%
• Russian Federation                 3.5%
• India                                            3.2%

Healthcare spending worldwide approximately $4.1  Trillion (WHO) of which the United States accounts for almost $1.6 Trillion

Healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP according to the World Health Organization in 2006:

• United States of America        15.3%
• France                                          11.1%
• Germany                                      10.4%
• Italy                                               9%
• United Kingdom                        8.4%
• Japan                                            7.9%
• Russian Federation                  5.3%
• India                                             4.9%
• China                                            4.5%
• Saudi Arabia                               3.4%

According to 90’s estimates from the World Bank it would cost anywhere from $40 Billion to $60 Billion USD to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Gordon Brown believed that it would cost approximately $52 Billion or what the United States is poised to pay in the next twelve months to build and maintain its nuclear stockpile. Oxfam pegs the number to achieve the MDG’s at approximately $150 Billion a year with current funding at approximately $104 Billion.

The financial crisis has taken quite a toll on the globalized economy, international development budgets and people. According to International Monetary Fund from a staff report from June 9th when I was at the United Nations discussing the crisis, more than $18,000,000,000,000 has been directed towards recapitalizing the banks with another $21,000,000,000,000 is fiscal stimulus spend. Or to put it another way more than 100% of American GDP in 2008. Or another way:

Enough to pay for all the Millennium Development Goals

over 260 times

The next post is going to look at global corporation spending and personal consumption. Once we have some perspective I plan to look in detail at the Millennium Development Goals and why I have chosen the path I have in life related to my personal mission and where I choose to spend my time and resources.

Kofi Annan once said:

“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”

Be Inspired Today!

The New Currency
SDM

Chongqing XI, 2007, Chongqing, China

The Prix Pictet is an annual search for photographs that communicate powerful messages of global environmental significance under a broad theme. This year that theme was “Earth”. Nadav Kander was nominated for his series of photos, Yangtze, The Long River Series, 2006-07, documenting the rapidly changing landscape and communities of China’s Yangtze River, from its mouth to source, and this past week he was awarded the prize at FIAC in Paris, which I just happened to be leaving from that day. Sadly I missed the announcement and events that evening, but was nonetheless thrilled at the news.

Chongqing IV (Sunday Picnic), 2006, Chongqing, China

Kofi Annan, the Prix Pictet’s Honorary President while also esteemed Nobel Laureate and former Secretary General of the United Nations, awarded Kander the prize saying that, “The photographs were a compelling call for action to tackle climate change, the most serious humanitarian and environmental challenge facing the world today. Only weeks separate us from the decisive negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen. We are confronted with the vital need to prepare the political momentum necessary for a fair and effective post-Kyoto agreement. The images in front of us remind us of the fragility of our planet and the damage we have already done. When we see these photographs we cannot close our eyes and remain indifferent. Through our actions and voices, we must keep building the pressure to secure urgent action at Copenhagen and beyond.”

Shanghai I, 2006, Shanghai, China

Kander is a British based photographer, one I’ve never had the chance to work with, but have wanted to a number of times. I remember doing an interview with a big time ad agency on the west coast, and Nadav Kander was the first photographer out of my mouth when I was asked which dream photographers I’d like to worth with but haven’t had the privilege of. Kander photographed the Yangtze River from mouth to source, or over 4000 miles of watery arteries running across China. According to his artist statement, he didn’t set out with any pre-conceived notions of the river or its inhabitants– which make up more than all of the people in the entire US– but instead let the landscape do the work for him, and guide the kind of pictures he took as a physical response to the environment. What struck me the most about these images is that despite the presence of people or industry, both creators of commotion and therefore sound, the pictures felt eerily quiet. The color palette of tans and browns that make up the river and smog feel as if sound would simply not exist in that landscape. This is reinforced in the way Kander effectively portrays the sheer size of the river– which directly relates to China’s ever increasing population growth and development—using people against the backdrop of overpasses, industry, and of course water. This makes the Chinese individual seem incredibly small as opposed to the gargantuan amount and speed of development currently taking place.

Bathers, Yibin, Sichuan, 2007, Sichuan, China

While these are just four examples from this body of work, I urge  you not only to explore Kander’s work further by visiting this link to his personal website, but by also reading his moving and straight to the point artist statement which can be found here.

Inspirado por el deseo del rey Alfonso XIII de construir un hotel de lujo que estuviera a la altura del Ritz de París, el Hotel Ritz de Madrid, inaugurado en 1910, comparte con sus homónimos de París y Londres la reputación de ser uno de los hoteles más majestuosos de Europa. El hotel se diseñó y construyó bajo la supervisión personal del legendario hotelero Cesar Ritz, de quien adoptó el nombre.El Ritz ha desempeñado un papel esencial en la vida de Madrid durante el último siglo. Aún hoy, el hotel persiste como un punto de atracción clave para muchos visitantes de esta capital europea.

A principios del siglo pasado, el rey Alfonso XIII volvía de sus viajes por Europa con el recuerdo de los palacios que había visitado impreso en la memoria. Madrid era una ciudad de intensa vitalidad, con edificios soberbios y hermosos jardines. Sin embargo, de un modo u otro le faltaba algo. El Rey fue el primero en ser consciente de cuánto ganaría la ciudad si contara con un gran hotel de lujo de la misma categoría del Ritz de París o Londres.

Se puso manos a la obra y no perdió tiempo en poner estas ideas en práctica. Madrid debía ofrecer a sus visitantes algo realmente extraordinario: un hotel que pudiera satisfacer el gusto más refinado de un nuevo tipo de viajero, que sólo por aquel entonces empezaba a conocerse como “turista”.

El sueño del monarca comenzó a hacerse realidad. La edificación del Ritz -grandioso, luminoso y confortable- había comenzado con el respaldo de la Compañía de Desarrollo Ritz. Charles Mewes, de París, y Luis de Landecho, de Madrid, fueron los arquitectos responsables. En poco tiempo, las paredes del futuro hotel sobrepasaban ya las magnolias, los cedros y las acacias del Prado.

Lo último en comodidad y lujo en aquella época era contar con cuatro o cinco cuartos de baño en cada planta del hotel. Con instalaciones como éstas, el Ritz se convirtió de inmediato en uno de los hoteles más lujosos del mundo. Había un teléfono por piso junto al ascensor, el cual también estaba considerado como un ejemplo sublime del lujo moderno.

Actualmente, el Hotel Ritz mantiene estas tradiciones, aunque los baños y teléfonos son estándar en todas las habitaciones, las cuales cuentan además con conexiones Wireless de alta velocidad a Internet.

A su vez el  Restaurante Goya es cita obligada para los paladares más exigentes, el té de media tarde en el Lobby Bar, un almuerzo o cena en La Terraza disfrutando de los increíbles jardines unido a un discreto pero atento servicio, hacen de los Restaurantes y Bar del Ritz los lugares más exclusivos de Madrid. 

Para terminar, destacar la fabulosa ubicación del Hotel,  un auténtico lujo por si misma. El Hotel Ritz está situado entre el Parque del Retiro, el Teatro de la Zarzuela y los tres museos más importantes de Madrid: el Prado, el Thyssen Bornemisza y el Centro de Arte Moderno Reina Sofía.

El hotel se encuentra situado en pleno centro financiero de la capital, a escasos metros de la Bolsa de Madrid, y a 5 minutos a pie del casco histórico.

Sin lugar a duda, el deseo del rey Alfonso XIII de crear un hotel majestuoso se vió cumplido.

Durante casi cien años, el Hotel Ritz Madrid ha dado la bienvenida a las personalidades más representativas de todos los ámbitos: cultura, arte, política, ciencia, moda… El Libro de Oro del Hotel se ha convertido en testigo y testimonio importante de ello.

Esta es una pequeña muestra de algunos de los clientes ilustres del pasado y del presente que han firmado en nuestro Libro de Oro: Rey Alfonso XIII y la Reina Victoria Eugenia ,El Emperador Haile Selassie de Etiopía ,El Rey Jaled de Arabia Saudí , La Reina Sonia de Noruega , El Príncipe de Gales y la Princesa Diana , El Príncipe Raniero y la Princesa Gracia de Mónaco , El Príncipe Naruhito de Japón , El Rey Mohammed VI , El Maharaja de Kapurthala , El Príncipe Ernst August de Hannover , Margaret Thatcher , Fidel Castro , Mijail Gorbachov , Eva Peron , President Jaques Chirac , Kofi Annan , Vladimir Putin , Matta Hari , Romano Prodi , Yaser Arafat , Helmut Kohl , Tony Blair , President Bill Clinton , Nelson Mandela, Herbert von Karajan, Sir George Solti , Cher, Placido Domingo, Marc Anthony , Ana Belen , Madonna , Julio Iglesias , Frank Sinatra, Sting , Arthur Rubinstein , Jennifer Lopez , Elton John , Tina Turner , Brian Ferry , Lorin Maazel , Paul McCartney, Salvador Dali , Alberto Maravia , Fernando Botero, Catherine Deneuve , Sofia Loren , Michael Caine , Pierce Brosnan , Mel Gibson , George Clooney , Milos Forman , Salma Hayek , Nicole Kidman , Ridley Scott , Brad Pitt , Jerry Lewis , Tom Cruise , Monica Bellucci , Dennis Quaid , Sylvester Stallone , Jeremy Irons , Penelope Cruz , Morgan Freeman , Will Smith , Emma Thompson , Harrison Ford , Mel Brooks, Laurence Olivier ,Lesley Howard , Richard Burton , Ava Gardner , Woody Allen , Richard Gere , Roger Moore , Melanie Griffith , Zsa Zsa Gabor ,  Antonio Banderas , Julia Roberts , Henry Fonda , Ben Stiller , Jennifer Connelly , James Stewart , Holly Hunter , Dustin Hoffman , Michelle Pfeiffer , Jodie Foster , Burt Lancaster ,Anthony Hopkins , Marcello Mastroianni , Orson Welles, Alexander Fleming , Christina Onassis , Ivan Trump, David Delfin , Dolce & Gabana , Salvatore Ferraga , Manolo Blanhik , John Galiano.

Más información: http://www.ritz.es/web/orit_es/hotel_ritz_madrid.jsp

Remember Mo Ibrahim’s prize for “good governance” awarded annually to an African leader? The winner gets $5 million over 10 years and $200,000 annually for life thereafter. Previous winners have included such prudent politicians as Mozambique’s Joaquim Chissano and Botswana’s Festus Mogae.

Apparently Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s disastrous second democratic president (1999-2008), was among the candidates for this year’s prize.

This year, however, there won’t any winner because Mo Ibrahim can’t find a suitable candidate. Nobody deserves it.

Read more.

You know, I have philosophical arguments that support the security of human rights, bar none, regardless of nation-state. My thesis was in part a development of the hybrid relationship of the duties and rights of individuals across national borders. But there are times that primary sources supercede my academic arguments, and I suspect this is one of those times.

In today’s Washington Post, Wazhma Frogh offers a first-hand perspective of the future Afghan women face should political reconciliation with the Taliban and/or the abandonment of Afghanistan to its own devices be sought. (I grant that, after the word from the White House this week, no one is seriously talking about withdrawal, but I think this editorial was probably conceived during such talk.) Even if the human rights of Afghan people, Afghan women, is on the bottom of your contemplative ranking of the US involvement in Afghanistan, hearing the account come from someone who was and will be affected is worth your time.

Handing over Afghanistan to those who intend to keep the country centuries behind most of the world — to men who do not view women as human beings — would not only call into doubt the global commitment to human rights, it would also raise questions about the commitment of Western democracies to such rights and to democratic values. Bearing in mind how fragile the Afghan government is at this moment, it will not take long for the country’s women to come under attack again. The consequences will be even more bitter this time because no matter how limited our success, we have at least managed to act in the forefront of public life in Afghanistan. We have had a taste of what it’s like to have rights.

and also:

We see some of NATO’s allies rapidly losing interest in Afghanistan, even though they admit that if the country is left to the insurgents, the consequence will be many more incidents like the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They are being persuaded by a propaganda war on the part of insurgents who seem to have convinced much of the world that they are winning the war. But in fact the enemy will win only if the international community allows itself to be influenced by this propaganda campaign.

The question to keep in mind for all parties involved is, what motivated them to come to Afghanistan in the first place? The answer: global security and the protection of human rights in Afghanistan. Are these two purposes no longer valid?

I think it is very easy to write off this effect of decreased American involvement in Afghanistan. But we should not discount it. Again, even if this is the least of reasons to stay, do we not risk undermining our own most precious views of individual freedoms by allowing such human rights violations to freely occur? Hundreds of schools–for both male and female children–have been created in Afghanistan in the eight years ISAF has established its presence. It is a near certainty that they would disappear under political reconciliation with the Taliban, most especially the ones which educate female children.

As a country who only acknowledged women as citizen voters in 1920, I sincerely believe that we cannot abandon an effort that grants women in Afghanistan that same right when that right, and further ones, are threatened by the continued existence of the Afghan Taliban.

If you want to dismiss this argument as that of a bleeding heart, fine. I acknowledge that I find this of greater import than the political-martial ramifications of ISAF’s force increase. But allow me to provide some other pieces of relevant information. In the awarding of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, Kofi Annan spoke:

Today, in Afghanistan, a girl will be born. Her mother will hold her and feed her, comfort her and care for her – just as any mother would anywhere in the world. In these most basic acts of human nature, humanity knows no divisions. But to be born a girl in today’s Afghanistan is to begin life centuries away from the prosperity that one small part of humanity has achieved. It is to live under conditions that many of us in this hall would consider inhuman.

I speak of a girl in Afghanistan, but I might equally well have mentioned a baby boy or girl in Sierra Leone. No one today is unaware of this divide between the world’s rich and poor. No one today can claim ignorance of the cost that this divide imposes on the poor and dispossessed who are no less deserving of human dignity, fundamental freedoms, security, food and education than any of us. The cost, however, is not borne by them alone. Ultimately, it is borne by all of us – North and South, rich and poor, men and women of all races and religions.

Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated. Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another.

That, not unlike our martial involvement in Afghanistan, was made eight years ago, and we wrestle with the question even now. From Half the Sky, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, allow me to make the comparison of the potential strength of Afghan women to that nascent strength of African women:

One implication is that donor countries should nudge poor countries to adjust their laws to give more economic power to women. For example, it should be routine for a widow to inherit her husband’s property, rather than for it to go to his brothers. It should be easy for women to hold property and bank accounts, and countries should make it much easier for microfinance institutions to start banks. Women now own just 1 percent of the world’s titled land, according to the UN. That has to change.

To its credit, the U.S. government has pushed for these kinds of legal changes. One of the best American foreign aid programs is the Millennium Challenge effort, and it has nudged recipients to amend legal codes to protect women. For example, Lesotho wanted Millennium Challenge money but did not allow women to buy land or borrow money without a husband’s permission. So the United States pushed Lesotho to change the law, and in its eagerness to get the funding it did so.

It may be politically incorrect to note these kinds of gender differences, but they are obvious to aid workers and national leaders alike. Botswana has been one of the fastest-growing countries in the world for decades, and its former president, Festus Mogae, was widely regarded as one of Africa’s most able leaders. He laughed when we suggested delicately that women in Africa typically work harder and handled money more wisely than men, and he responded:

You couldn’t be more right. Women do work better. Banks were the first to see that and hired more women, and now everybody does. In homes, too, women manage affairs better than men. In the Botswanan civil service, women are taking over. Half of the government sector is now women. The governor of the central bank, the attorney general, the chief of protocol, the director of public prosecution—they are all women. … Women perform better in Africa, much better. We see that in Botswana. And their profiles are different. Deferred consumption is higher among girls, and they buy durables and have higher savings rates. Men are more consumption oriented.

And in the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, the organization made the fostering of women a primary concern:

At each stage of a girl’s life there is something we can do to safeguard her future. Each individual investment – to build her self esteem, protect her property rights, feed her properly, make sure she goes to school, provide appropriate skills training – will transform her life, lift her family out of poverty and give her the money and status to contribute to her community and the global economy as a whole.

The 500 million adolescent girls and young women in developing countries are potentially a major force in driving economic progress but, the world over, a continued lack of investment in girls results in increased poverty. If we turn our backs on this generation at this time, if we fail to invest in these communities and the individuals in them, we do irreparable damage to a whole generation of girls, and to their children. This must change: Poverty may have a woman’s face, but sustainable economic prosperity has the face of a girl.

Finally, in terms of straight facts, the United Nations Foundation offers “Why Invest in Adolescent Girls:”

Every year of schooling increases a girl’s individual earning power by 10 to 20 percent, while the return on secondary education is even higher, in the 15 to 25 percent range.

Girls’ education is proven to increase not only wage earners but also productivity for employers, yielding benefits for the community and society.

Women who have control of their own income tend to have fewer children, and fertility rates have shown to be inversely related to national income growth. Girls and young women delaying marriage and having fewer children means a bigger change of increasing per capita income, higher savings, and more rapid growth.

When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families.

The impact of investing in girls is intergenerational. A mother with a few years of formal education is considerably more likely to send her children to school, breaking the intergenerational chain of poverty. In many countries each additional year of formal education completed by a mother translates into her children remaining in school for up to an additional one-half year.

Put simply, investing the education and livelihood of the women of Afghanistan is an investment in the economic stability and security of Afghanistan. We abandon them at our own peril.

An institution under Ghana’s Ministry of Communications. “The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE), Ghana’s first Advanced Information Technology Institute works to stimulate the growth of the ICT Sector in ECOWAS. Established in 2003, through a partnership between the Government of Ghana and the Government of India,…” Based in Accra, Ghana.

http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org/

I came across this today, not only is it a song i have loved ( <3 Midnight Oil) but this version is amazing, it inspired me.
I sent the link in a text message to many of my friends, and I hope anyone who reads this will share it on facebook, and talk about it with all the people they know. Copenhagen is going to be the ‘make or break’ moment for climate change action, and if we all add our voices we will be heard.

So visit http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org/ download the song, watch it on youtube, upload your ‘tck’ or your photos to the website and make a difference.

xoxo

Waco Siege “Enforcer” To Lead Global Police Force
Man who both approved and covered-up government slaughter of 76 people, including 20 children, will lead move to establish international model of law enforcement

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
October 12, 2009

Ronald K. Noble

UN and Interpol officials will meet today to discuss the formation of a “global police force” that would enjoy access to a worldwide database of DNA, biometric and fingerprint records. The effort will be spearheaded by a man known as “The Enforcer” who helped federal authorities both conduct and cover up the murderous Waco siege which killed 76 people in 1993.

“Interpol and the United Nations are poised to become partners in fighting crime by jointly grooming a global police force that would be deployed as peacekeepers among rogue nations riven by war and organized crime, officials from both organizations say,” reports the New York Times.

The emergence of a global police force is of course something that people like Alex Jones have been warning about for well over a decade. The global police force, just like the world army, is a key centerpiece of the march towards a dictatorial global government.

Those who were once called paranoid conspiracy theorists for claiming that the plan all along has been to centralize law enforcement into a global body run by the world government under the auspices of the UN and Interpol have been proven right once again.

For a taste of what Americans who aren’t so favorable to taking orders from foreigners on home soil can expect, consider the fact that the secretary general of Interpol, and one of the men at the forefront of setting up the global police force, is none other than Ronald K. Noble.

Noble, who is known as “The Enforcer,” has been instrumental in working with Chinese authorities to provide policing in the Communist country for major national events. However, his most notorious role was in ordering and then, in his position as Undersecretary for Enforcement of the United States Department of the Treasury, whitewashing the actions of the BATF following the federal government’s murderous siege on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco which killed 76 people including more than 20 children and two pregnant women in April 1993.

As Carol Moore writes, “Noble had approved the decision to go ahead with the raid,” and therefore, “had little interest in issuing a report that either would challenge significantly the BATF’s investigation or modus operandi or would admit these led to crimes against the Davidians.”

Noble ignored in his report more than a dozen eyewitness reports, along with photographic and video evidence, of a BATF helicopter firebombing the Waco church during the siege. He also ignored David Koresh’s July 1992 invitation to the BATF to inspect the Waco compound, which if it had gone ahead could have prevented the siege and the murder of 76 innocent people altogether.

February 28, 1993, Waco Siege.

“During the hearing, Friend-of-Bill Webster Hubbell denied repeatedly that he and Clinton had discussed the Waco situation informally, and improperly. However, an Associated Press article claimed Hubbell had revealed he was giving Clinton updates on Waco. And House staffers discovered a memorandum in which then-Treasury official Ron Noble asserted Hubbell would take the matter up with Clinton if the Treasury Department’s review did not downplay BATF errors. Clearly, Noble condones covering up government crimes against citizens,” writes Moore.

The fact that this move is all being spearheaded by a man known as “The Enforcer” who was instrumental in ordering the killing of 76 innocent people at Waco, including 20 children, and then covering it up, should send shock waves through the liberty movement and lead to intense scrutiny on Noble’s position at Interpol and his agenda to head up a global police force.

Support Your Global Police?

Lew Rockwell.com
October 14, 2009

A more plausible explanation is that the people who had arranged that holocaust were trying to keep independent witnesses away from the scene of their crime. Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) footage of the event provides damning evidence that FBI commandos (and, reportedly, at least a few Delta Force operators) directed automatic weapons fire into the burning sanctuary, cutting off escape routes and cutting down anyone who attempted to flee.

A wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Davidian survivors and the estates of the victims listed Noble among the “U.S. Treasury officials” who “planned, organized, and or led” the original February 28 assault against Mt. Carmel, despite knowledge that the warrants were obtained “without probable cause and with defects that rendered them illegal.”

Those same officials, continued the complaint, permitted the assault to proceed “even though they knew that the Davidians were expecting an assault by law enforcement and, thus, were in a state of mortal terror,” and “were so reckless in their preparation for and planning of this assault, that they did not even have a written plan in place prior to conducting the attack.”

Noble was thus deeply involved in the decisions that led to the avoidable deaths of six members of the Branch Davidian sect, and four ATF stormtroopers, on February 28. His involvement in the planning and execution of the siege and the final April 19 assault isn’t as significant. But he played the definitive role in covering up those crimes by serving as the “lead investigator” in the Clinton administration’s internal “inquiry” into the federal atrocities at Waco.

So patently fraudulent was Noble’s “investigation” that a second bogus inquiry was necessary: In 2000, Attorney General Reno chose former Missouri Senator John Danforth to preside over an “independent” investigation that was mounted in what proved to be a successful effort to derail the wrongful death lawsuit cited above.

By that time, however, Noble – who had been given the Alexander Hamilton Award by the Treasury Department, as if anything named after that individual could be construed as an honor – had been given another coveted post with Reno’s help: He was nominated to serve as secretary-general of Interpol, a position he occupies to the present day.

On October 12, Noble’s agency announced that it would be collaborating with the United Nations by providing technical support – including access to voluminous, detailed databases – to UN “peacekeeping” personnel, including those that belong to the world body’s police force, UNPOL.

Noble himself said that his organization is pursuing a “visionary model,” an “alliance of all nations” under a “global police doctrine.” This would, in effect, create the first genuinely planetary police force in human history.

In an address before justice and law enforcement officials from more than 60 nations who had assembled in Singapore, Noble elaborated on that “visionary model”: “In the framework of our partnership with the UN, INTERPOL will provide deployed police peacekeepers with access to the world’s only secure global police communications system; global police databases including names of criminals, fingerprints, DNA profiles, stolen passports, and stolen vehicles; and specialized investigative support in key crime areas, including fugitives, drugs, terrorism, trafficking in human beings, and corruption.”

Apart from some very serious issues of jurisdiction and sovereignty, the most troubling aspect of INTERPOL’s “visionary model” is its potential to help create a UN-directed global panopticon – a “Your Papers, Please” system of world-wide scope.

It would certainly be of great use to the UN’s International Criminal Court, a pseudo-judicial body that claims global jurisdiction.

Significantly, one of the “core” offenses recognized in the ICC Statute is genocide, as that offense is defined in the UN’s Genocide Convention. Article II of that instrument describes the offense of genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical [sic], racial or religious group”:

“(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part….”

Some very serious and sober people contend that this definition is over-broad. No serious person of a constitutionalist bent considers the UN or its treaties a legitimate source of law.

However, it would be expected that Noble, as someone working to provide that body with a rudimentary global constabulary, would be among those who accept the legitimacy of its treaties. But to do so would put Noble in a completely untenable position: He is directly implicated in an assault that resulted in the near-destruction of an entire religious community, which – by the UN’s definition – qualifies as a form of attempted genocide.

At the very least, he is an accessory after the fact to genocide (once again, as defined by the UN). Given the UN’s history, however, that line on Nobel’s résumé might actually be counted on the asset side of the ledger.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who headed the organization’s “peacekeeping” division before being appointed to the top post, was censured in the so-called Carlsson Report on the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which claimed as many as a million lives.

Annan had received detailed advance intelligence about the impending massacres of the Tutsis from both the on-scene UN commander, Canadian Colonel Romeo Dallaire,* and various informants within the Hutu-led government. He nonetheless continued with the program to disarm the Rwandan civilians and ordered Dallaire to burn his own sources by sharing his intelligence with the same regime that was planning the slaughter.

After the report came out in 1999, a group of Rwandan survivors, working with Australian attorney (and former UN investigator) Michael Hourigan, attempted to file a lawsuit against Annan and others implicated in the Rwandan genocide. But, drat the luck, wouldn’t you just know that UN officials are clothed in official immunity for such trivial offenses as aiding and abetting genocide, as long as this is done in an “official capacity.”

So rather than being sued or prosecuted, Annan had to settle for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. That was the most offensive selection ever made by the Nobel Committee. Well, at least until this year.

Thanks to the near-ubiquity of inconspicuous digital cameras and the technological blessing of internet file-sharing sites, Americans are just now coming to realize how commonplace criminal abuse by the police has become – and how difficult it is to hold an abusive police officer accountable for crimes against innocent people. But this is the square root of the problem we would confront in the event that the UN actually created the global police force the foundation of which is being laid by Noble and his comrades.

It’s entirely typical of the UN that its secretary general was implicated in what has been described as “the first undisputable genocide since the UN Charter was signed,” and that a key architect of its “crime-fighting” agenda was involved in planning and covering up a quasi-genocidal massacre here in the United States. This is a useful illustration of the fact that even though abolishing the UN wouldn’t solve all or even most of our problems, it’s a badly overdue step in the direction of restoring moral sanity.

*Despite the fact that Col. Dallaire tried to prevent the genocide, he blamed himself for the tragedy, which included the death of many men under his command. He returned to Canada where he descended into alcoholism and suicidal depression, even as Annan was elevated to the post of secretary general. I interviewed Dallaire by telephone several years ago and discovered, to my amazement, that he still believes in the misguided principle of “collective security,” even if he is understandably jaded about the UN as the vessel of that vision.

U.N. GENOCIDE

Cette phrase prononcée par Cicéron, un jour où il devait être particulièrement en bout de piste, et qui se traduit grossièrement par “Y’a plus de saisons, ma bonne dame”, exprime à la perfection ce que j’ai ressenti toute la journée d’hier.

Ça a commencé dès le réveil. Les yeux encore embués, j’ai appris en buvant mon café au lait que quelqu’un à Hollywood avait eu la bonne idée de donner une nouvelle suite à Predator, histoire de relancer la franchise, parce qu’on manque vraiment de franchises usées en ce moment. Predator, pour ceux qui ne s’en souviennent pas, c’est cette délicieuse créature handicapée par de vastes problèmes d’orthodontie, qui décimait joyeusement un commando militaire en pleine  jungle dans un film d’action culte de 1987 réalisé par John McTiernan. A cette époque, les adversaires du Predator se nommaient Arnold Schwarzenegger et Carl Weathers, alias Apollo Creed, et autant dire qu’il y avait du rumble in the jungle. Ensuite, dans une suite nullarde de 1990, Predator a débarqué a L.A., où il trouvait sur son chemin Danny Glover, ce qui le faisait déjà beaucoup moins.

Mais en 2010, on peut déjà prédire que Predator va avoir du pain sur la planche, parce qu’on lui a trouvé deux adversaires de taille: Adrien Brody et Topher Grace. Combat de TITANS en perpective. Pendant qu’Adrien montrera a Predator sa collection de chemises pour l’amadouer, Topher lui jettera son cartable au visage. Pauvre Predator, il doit déjà surflipper dans son vaisseau spatial. J’espère que le sous-titre sera à la hauteur, du genre: Predator 3: Partie de Scrabble Ultime ou Predator 3: Predator se met au crochet. Quant à moi, j’attends avec impatience Predator 4: Predator contre Sandrine Kiberlain, et Predator 5: Predator vs. Suzanne Flon. Va y avoir du sang.

Ensuite, comme tous les mercredis, j’ai survolé la revue de presse d’Allociné sur les sorties ciné de la semaine, et, à propos du très alléchant Mademoiselle Chambon, que j’ai déjà évoqué ici, quelle ne fut pas ma surprise en découvrant ces lignes (dans Metro, certes, mais quand même):

Stéphane Brizé filme le ballet des sentiments avec une infinie douceur, s’appuyant sur un duo d’acteurs éminemment charismatiques, presque trop pour leurs personnages très ordinaires.

Sandrine Kiberlain, TROP charismatique pour jouer une femme ordinaire? Je ne comprends pas bien, quelle est l’étape suivante dans l’absence de charisme, un arbre?  Parce que la dernière fois que j’ai vérifié, une femme charismatique, c’était ça, ou ça, ou encore ça. C’était à peu près tout ce qu’on veut, mais ça n’était pas Sandrine Kiberlain, qui est, quoi qu’on pense de ses talents d’actrice, à peu près aussi fascinante qu’un porte-parapluie. (Je vous entend déjà, mais c’est HYPER fascinant, un porte-parapluie, moi je suis porteparapluiophile depuis l’âge de 4 ans…) J’ai alors réalisé avec horreur que si Marlene Dietrich débarquait sur un plateau aujourd’hui, on la trouverait probablement trop charismatique, et on s’empresserait de la remplacer par Alice Taglioni.

J’ai alors jeté un oeil dans ma boîte mail, où quelques courriers m’attendaient. A l’intérieur de l’un d’eux, un lien YouTube, et ces quelques mots: Ci-joint le nouveau clip de Kofi Annan, ça va te plaire. Après avoir imaginé un court instant ce bon vieux Kofi en train de shaker son booty dans une piscine avec David Guetta, j’ai cliqué et je suis tombé là-dessus.

Je sais pas vous, mais moi je préférais quand ça s’appelait We Are The World, et qu’il y avait Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Ray Charles et Bob Dylan, bref des gens suffisamment connus pour qu’on n’ait pas besoin de balancer leurs noms à l’écran quand ils apparaissent. Là, visiblement, le réchauffement climatique, ça n’a pas intéressé grand-monde. Entre les chômeurs (Yannick Noah, Manu Katché, Eric Serra, et même Vincent Perez, dont on se demande vraiment qui a eu l’idée de l’appeler), les has-been qui ont du mal à joindre les deux bouts (Youssou N’Dour, l’improbable Milla Jovovich, qui serait beaucoup plus à sa place dans Predator), les morts-vivants ressuscités pour l’occasion (Scorpions, Simon Le Bon de Duran Duran qui ressemble maintenant complètement à sa grande-tante Mildred), les français indéboulonnables qui ne refusent jamais une apparition, fut-elle complètement inappropriée et grotesque (Oscar Winner Marion Cotillard et Mélanie Laurent, qui font super bien l’air sérieux-concerné, et cette non-entité de Canet), et les inconnus (tout le reste), tout ça sent le raclage de fond de poubelle à plein nez.

Ce qui sauve cette entreprise du naufrage complet, c’est la présence de deux vraies stars de la chanson: Fergie, qui ne s’est pas déplacée pour chanter ni pour apparaître dans le clip, mais a pris le temps d’envoyer une photo dédicacée qu’on peut voir dans la vidéo, ce qui est quand même vachement sympa; et Lily Allen, qui n’apparaît nulle part mais qui, selon le site officiel, est associée au projet, ce qui est déjà très généreux de sa part.

Finalement, le pic de cette distribution de bras cassés, c’est Amadou et Mariam. Je me demande qui du réchauffement climatique ou de Kofi Annan doit être le plus vexé.

Bon ben je vais allumer mon radiateur moi. C’est bien beau le réchauffement climatique, mais pour l’heure, ça caille.