“Jasmine Revolution”
Symbol of peace: Flowers placed on the barrel of a tank
in very much calmer protests than in recent days in Tunisia

'The Protester' - Time Person of the Year 2011

'The Protester' - Time Person of the Year 2011
Mannoubia Bouazizi, the mother of Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi. "Mohammed suffered a lot. He worked hard. but when he set fire to himself, it wasn’t about his scales being confiscated. It was about his dignity." (Peter Hapak for TIME)

1 - TUNISIA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)


How eyepatches became a symbol of Egypt's revolution - Graffiti depicting a high ranking army officer with an eye patch Photograph: Nasser Nasser/ASSOCIATED PRESS

2 - EGYPT Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)


''17 February Revolution"

3 - LIBYA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)

5 - SYRIA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)

"25 January Youth Revolution"
Muslim and Christian shoulder-to-shoulder in Tahrir Square
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -
(Subjects: Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" (without a manager hierarchy) managed Businesses, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)
"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

"If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening."


“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."



African Union (AU)

African Union (AU)
African Heads of State pose for a group photo ahead of the start of the 28th African Union summit in Addis Ababa on January 30, 2017 (AFP Photo/ Zacharias ABUBEKER)

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela
Few words can describe Nelson Mandela, so we let him speak for himself. Happy birthday, Madiba.

Monday, June 8, 2015

UN accuses Eritrea of horrific abuses

Yahoo – AFP, 8 June 2015

An Eritrean refugee holds his child at Sudan's Shagarab refugee camp in 
Kassala on January 12, 2012 (AFP Photo/Ashraf Shazly)

Geneva (AFP) - Eritrea's government is responsible for systematic and widespread human rights abuses on an almost unprecedented scale, driving some 5,000 Eritreans to flee every month, a UN investigation said Monday.

Wrapping up a year-long probe, a UN commission of inquiry on the human rights situation in Eritrea described a nightmare-like society in the authoritarian Horn of Africa state.

The report detailed horrific torture, including electric shock, near drowning, sexual abuse and forcing people to stare at the burning sun for hours.

Its nearly 500-page report details how the country, under Isaias Afwerki's iron-fisted regime for the past 22 years, has created a repressive system in which people are routinely arrested at whim, detained, tortured, killed or go missing.

A system of indefinite conscription of all Eritreans also forces many to toil in slave-like conditions in the military and other state jobs, sometimes for decades.

"Systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed in Eritrea with impunity under the authority of the government," said Sheila Keetharuth, one of the three commission members.

The report found that some of the numerous abuses committed in Eritrea "may constitute crimes against humanity", she told journalists, pointing out that the violations were taking place on a "scope and scale seldom witnessed elsewhere".

The report provides a list of government and state entities responsible for the abuse, including the military, police, justice ministry and Isaias himself.

Mass exodus

The situation has sparked a massive exodus from Eritrea, which after Syria is the second largest source of migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to get to Europe.

State oppression has sparked a massive
 exodus from Eritrea, which after Syria is the
 second largest source of migrants risking their
 lives to cross the Mediterranean to get
to Europe (AFP Photo/Ashraf Shazly)
Eritrea, which broke away from Ethiopia in 1991 after a brutal 30-year independence struggle, is "ruled not by law but by fear," Keetharuth said.

That, she said, is the main reason why "hundreds of thousands are fleeing their country, risking capture and torture by Eritrean authorities and death at the hands of ruthless human traffickers."

The report said some 5,000 people were flooding out of the country each month, despite a "shoot-to-kill" policy along the borders, adding to the nearly 360,000 Eritrean refugees counted by the UN last year.

The investigators urged the international community to protect fleeing Eritreans, to make their migration routes safer and, above all, to not send them back.

They described an Orwellian mass-surveillance society, where neighbours and family members are drafted to inform on each other, and where people can be held for years in horrific conditions without ever knowing what crime they allegedly committed.

"When I am in Eritrea, I feel that I cannot even think because I am afraid that people can read my thoughts," one witness was quoted as saying.

The probe was ordered by the UN Human Rights Council last year, and the investigators will present their findings to the body on June 23.

They never gained access to Eritrea, but said they instead based their report on 550 interviews with Eritreans living abroad, and on 160 written submissions.

Sexual slavery

Convincing expat Eritreans to testify was meanwhile difficult, due to Eritrea's extensive network of spies even outside the country, and fear of reprisals against family members back home.

That fear is justified, the report said, stressing "there is no rule of law in Eritrea."

The torture was so widespread that the report concluded "it is a policy of the government to encourage its use," it concluded.

The investigators also found that Eritrea's economy is largely dependent on widespread forced labour, especially using people stuck in indefinite conscription.

Women recruits meanwhile are routinely subjected to "sexual slavery", the report found.

"I was ordered to bring girls to commanders’ rooms. They would give me their names and I would go and collect them," a personal assistant to an official at the Wi'a training camp told the investigators.

He said he would bring one or two girls a day, and that over a three year period, he had brought around 1,200 girls to the officers.

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