Jatinder Sandhu - Democracy Now

Jatinder Sandhu

4-19-2014

Soc 122

Democracy Now

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/16/killing_natures_defenders_study_finds_global

This news piece goes into the world of nature activists. There has been a growing trend of these people being murdered for their causes. There is almost no repercussions to these murders which make it sound like they could be state sponsored. It's a concern noted by the UN as this is becoming a much greater deal. These environmentalists are usually just defending their rights or protecting nature and being needlessly assassinated. A lot of these killings are often happening where big businesses are concerned. The news piece talks about the Brazilian Jose Da Silva who was killed protecting the rainforest from loggers. There is a clear connection between businesses and the murders and often these murder investigations are stream lined. The UN went as far as to post-humous award Jose and his wife with an award as defenders of the forest. Oliver Courtney identifies a case of Joao Luiz Telles Penetra who was an activist for fishing rights. He brought forward some information before the Rio environmental summit. Shortly after the summit ended he was abducted and killed. These activists are literally putting down their lives for these things.

 

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/17/we_are_not_beginning_a_new

The situation in Ukraine has started to become more and grimmer over the last few weeks. This news piece discusses Ukraine's offensive against Eastern Ukrainian rebels. In the most recent events Ukrainian forces killed 12 pro-russians and captured 63. This pressure Ukraine has put on these rebels has caused an influx of arms from Russia into Ukraine. President Putin has used this offensive to paint the Ukrainian government as war mongering, using tanks against their own civilians. NATO has also begun to step up its campaign to support Ukraine. They have bolstered their forces in and around Ukraine. Everyone feared that Ukraine would break down into an Eastern and Western civil war. The worst seems to be coming true. Eastern Ukrainians however have noted that they are not interested in joining with Russia, they just don't believe the Ukrainian government is legitimate and have decided to rebel. Russia has been blamed as starting a civil war inside Ukraine. The first step in Russia's plans was to annex Crimea and then help the Eastern Ukrainians. We could see our own forces heading into Ukraine to help quell this uprising and blatant aggression by Russia.