[Pink News] U.N. Council Passes Gay Rights Resolution

Image by Ashitakka via FlickrWell this is great news!

While it's not exactly a solution to our problems in itself, to have a policy body like the United Nations to pass a resolution about the importance of LGBT rights is a key step in our path to true equality.

Quoting from the CNN news report:

'It talks about the violence and discrimination that people of LGBT persuasion experience around the world,' she said, 'and that those issues ... need to be taken seriously. It calls for reporting on what's going on, where people are being discriminated against, the violence that is taking place, and it really puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda going forward.'

I especially like the focus on addressing LGBT discrimination and related violence. While many argue that existing laws generally cover these concerns, I still feel that specific legislation that acknowledges the challenges of the community remain a key focus point that needs to be continually addressed.

The resolution also will commission the first-ever U.N. report on the challenges that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people face around the globe. Nossel said the Obama administration hopes it will 'open a broader international discussion on how to best promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons.'

This is also very important - you have to admit that there are far too many formal studies done on LGBT-related concerns and to have the UN work on such a report should prove to be important to future LGBT rights efforts. Plus it'll be a pretty interesting read to boot!

While I know we all laugh at the UN's lack of relevance at times when it comes to international affairs, every now and then they do manage to do the right thing. Now it's up to the individual member nations to follow suit - but that's a whole different ball game.

[Web] Charitable Vocabulary Building

I got this little gem from WebWare - FreeRice is part-vocabulary game, part-charity program. The premise of the site is amazingly simple - a word will be flashed and you choose the correct synonym from a list of four words. Get it right and they donate 10 grains of rice to the world's hungry. Get it wrong consistently and they lower the difficulty of the words being shown to you.

There are 50 levels of difficulty when it comes to the words and they determine whether you go up or down if you get strings of 3 correct answers. It's a pretty fun game and the puzzles are more than challenging. Best of all, just by playing the game you're helping feed the hungry given the program is supported by the advertisers whose banners appear at the bottom of the page. I've noticed some pretty well-known brands so the site seems pretty much legitimate.

So try it out, feed the hungry and challenge your friends!

[World Affairs] The US Veto at the UN

One of the things that always bothers me about how the United Nations is set up is of course the U.N. Security Council. Of course, I'm not questioning why we have a council but this is primarily referring to the five countries who have permanent seats on the council and therefore veto powers. No matter what everyone else votes, as long as one of the five don't like the resolution, they have the power to stop it. It may be primarily a check and balance system of sorts, but in these times it just doesn't make sense.

Recently it has been reported that the US, through its representative John Bolton have once again exercised their veto rights on a recent resolution condemning Israel for the recent attacks against Palestinian forces that demands for a complete pull-out of all Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

The US explain their vote against the resolution it because the resolution was "biased against Israel and politically motivated." Given that there were ten votes in favor with four abstains, I don't believe the resolution was that unreasonable. A US veto of course is not a surprise - they've been very strong supporters of Israel all throughout recent history given their desire to maintain a strong presence in the Middle East through a nation more stable than Iraq is these days. This is the second veto this year alone related to Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip against Palestine.

In the future, this may change with John Bolton's recess appointment becoming due at the opening of the new Democratic congress this year. They've already announced plans not to have him continue as representative next year, a change which begs the question of who will be nominated to replace him then?

The new Democratic House and Senate promise to make the next few years very, very interesting.

[World Affairs] Nuclear World?

The UN's nuclear watchdog group, the IAEA has reported that it appears that nearly 30 countries may soon develop nuclear capability.

You know the routine - 5 countries started out as officially having nuclear weapons capability and all signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. These nations were the US, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom. Despite that, we've seen more and more nations conduct nuclear research and even testing - a clear sign that the non-proliferation treaty alone is insufficient to stop other countries from getting their hands on this kind of technology.

How do I feel about all this?

Well, here at the Guide, I can't say this is totally unexpected. If there's a will, there's a way, they say. If you really want to stop this kind of thing, we all should have dismantled and turned our backs on all derivations of this technology. Other than that, one can't deny that it does have useful applications and dangerous consequences at the same time. The challenge is always in distinguishing one from the other since nuclear energy development can quickly turn into weapons research before you know it.

Does this make the world potentially less safe? Of course it will. Any Cold War style foray into new weapons being stockpiled, nuclear or otherwise, always escalates the global climate, so to speak. I doubt the IAEA can really put a stop to things - somehow their track record and that of the UN don't really say much in their favor. All we can do for now is cross our fingers and keep watch to see how these developments pan out.