Blog Archives
Police Tear Gas School Kids In Kenya (Video)
Protesters in Nairobi Kenya, including many children, have been targeted with tear gas by authorities – leading to furious reaction on Twitter. The protesters had gathered to raise awareness about an alleged land grab that claimed a school playground.
Proof That News is Controlled by a Central Script Writer (Video)
If you still do not believe that your television is used to spread propaganda then this video will open your eyes.
Jordan to buy $15bn of Israeli gas
The Jordanian cabinet approved, last month, the recommendation of the Committee on Economic Development, calling for supplying Jordan with natural gas from the gas field discovered in the Palestinian water of the Gaza Marine
Source: middleeastmonitor.com
A memorandum of understanding is due to be signed between Israel and Jordan in the reservoir of Leviathan to export Israeli natural gas to Jordan during the next 15 years with a total value of $15 billion, an Israeli newspaper reported yesterday.
Israeli soldiers fire tear gas at 6-year-old children on their way to school (Video)
Source: electronicintifada.net
By: Rania Khalek
The new school year started four days ago in the occupied West Bank, and Israeli soldiers have fired tear gas and hurled stun grenades at Palestinian elementary school students on at least two occasions already.
Palestinians left facing the odds alone after ceasefire
Families return to Beit Lahia in northern Gaza to pick up the pieces but find their homes almost completely destroyed.
By: Mohammed Omer
Source: http://www.middleeasteye.net/
BEIT LAHIA, Gaza Strip – When Israel and Palestinian factions announced a 72-hour ceasefire, Umm Feras Abuelneen, 35, had few choices left open to her except to return to her apartment at al-Nada residential towers in Beit Lahia.
She expected little, but what met her eyes when she reached her home in the northern Gaza Strip was worse. The whole apartment was bombed and smashed. Dust and debris lay scattered everywhere, as if a hurricane had smashed straight into the center of it.
“They [Israel] bombed the hell out of our homes, with their Hellfire missiles, drones, tank-shells and gas which irritates the skin and eyes of my children,” says Abuelneen.
Gaza: Israel’s $4 billion gas grab
By: Nafeez Ahmed
Source: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2482929/gaza_israels_4_billion_gas_grab.html
Never mind the ‘war on terror’ rhetoric, writes Nafeez Ahmed. The purpose of Israel’s escalating assault on Gaza is to control the Territory’s 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas – and so keep Palestine poor and weak, gain massive export revenues, and avert its own domestic energy crisis.
If Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.
Israel’s defence minister is on record confirming that military plans to uproot Hamas’ are about securing control of Gaza’s gas reserves
The conquest of Gaza is accelerating. Israel has now launched its ground invasion, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 260, 80% of whom are civilians.
A further 1,500 have been wounded and 1,300 Palestinian homes destroyed. Israel’s goal, purportedly, is to “restore quiet” by ending Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.
Last Tuesday, Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staffMoshe Ya’alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas.
The operation “won’t end in just a few days”, he said, adding that “we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas.”
The price will be very heavy … yes, $4 billion!
The following morning, he went on: “We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command …
“The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy.”
But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya’alon’s concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast, valued at $4 billion.
Ya’alon dismissed the notion that “Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state” as “misguided”.
The problem, he said is that “Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian public. Rather, based on Israel’s past experience, the proceeds will likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel …
“A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority will, by definition, involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties or it will sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas installations, Israel – or all three …
“It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement.”
Resource competition is at the heart of the conflict
Operation Cast Lead did not succeed in uprooting Hamas, but the conflict did take the lives of 1,387 Palestinians (773 of whom were civilians) and 9 Israelis (3 of whom were civilians).
Since the discovery of oil and gas in the Occupied Territories, resource competition has increasingly been at the heart of the conflict, motivated largely by Israel’s increasing domestic energy woes.
Mark Turner, founder of the Research Journalism Initiative, reported that the siege of Gaza and ensuing military pressure was designed to “eliminate” Hamas as “a viable political entity in Gaza” to generate a “political climate” conducive to a gas deal.
This involved rehabilitating the defeated Fatah as the dominant political player in the West Bank, and “leveraging political tensions between the two parties, arming forces loyal to Abbas and the selective resumption of financial aid.”
Ya’alon’s comments in 2007 illustrate that the Israeli cabinet is not just concerned about Hamas – but concerned that if Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.
It’s not called Leviathan for nothing
Meanwhile, Israel has made successive discoveries in recent years – such as the Leviathan field estimated to hold 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – which could transform the country from energy importer into aspiring energy exporter with ambitions to supply Europe, Jordan and Egypt.
The chief obstacle is that much of the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the Levant Basin Province lies in territorial waters where borders are hotly disputed between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Cyprus.
Amidst this regional jockeying for gas, Israel has its own little-understood energy challenges. First, it could take until 2020 for much of these domestic resources to be mobilised.
Worse, a 2012 letter by two Israeli government chief scientists – which the Israeli government chose not to disclose – warned the government that Israel still had insufficient gas resources to sustain exports despite all the stupendous discoveries. The letter, according to Ha’aretz, stated:
“We believe Israel should increase its use of natural gas by 2020 and should not export gas. The Natural Gas Authority’s estimates are lacking. There’s a gap of 100 to 150 billion cubic meters between the demand projections that were presented to the committee and the most recent projections. The gas reserves are likely to last even less than 40 years!”
Israel’s looming power crisis
As Dr Gary Luft – an advisor to US Energy Security Council – wrote in the Journal of Energy Security, “with the depletion of Israel’s domestic gas supplies accelerating, and without an imminent rise in Egyptian gas imports, Israel could face a power crisis in the next few years …
“If Israel is to continue to pursue its natural gas plans it must diversify its supply sources.”
Israel’s new discoveries do not, as yet, offer an immediate solution as electricity pricesreach record levels, heightening the imperative to diversify supply. This appears to be behind Prime Minister Netanyahu’s announcement in February 2011 that it was now time to seal the Gaza gas deal.
But even after a new round of negotiations was kick-started between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Israel in September 2012, Hamas was excluded from these talks, and thus rejected the legitimacy of any deal.
Earlier this year, Hamas condemned a PA deal to purchase $1.2 billion worth of gas from Israel Leviathan field over a 20 year period once the field starts producing.
Simultaneously, the PA has held several meetings with the British Gas Group to develop the Gaza gas field, albeit with a view to exclude Hamas – and thus Gazans – from access to the proceeds. That plan had been the brainchild of Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair.
But the PA was also courting Russia’s Gazprom to develop the Gaza marine gas field, and talks have been going on between Russia, Israel and Cyprus, though so far it is unclear what the outcome of these have been. Also missing was any clarification on how the PA would exert control over Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.
Is indigestion ruining your Ramadan?
By: Anisa Abeytia
Source: http://www.onislam.net/
Your digestive tract is a self contained unit that does not (when working optimally) allow the food you consume to be absorbed and distributed to the body without first sterilizing, identifying and processing it. Without proper digestion there cannot be health. Not only is the health of the gut important for commonly known reasons, but the digestive tract is also home to a large part of the immune system.
During Ramadan, digestive issues can be put at the forefront due to the types of foods we choose, how fast we eat them, and the lack of sufficient chewing.
There are many steps you can take to ensure that digestive distress does not ruin your Ramadan this year. They are simple and can make a large difference if done consistently:
- Drink water. Water is needed for digestion as well as to make HCl. – Chew your food well. This will enable the body to do less work. – Eat in a calm and relaxed manner. – Do not combine carbohydrates and proteins. People with digestive issues find this combination difficult to digest. The classic example is beans. – Start with a salad. Salad prepares the digestive tract to work. – Take a full spectrum enzyme supplement right before your meal (make sure it is vegetarian).
- Do not over stuff yourself. Eat in stages. – Avoid white rice and white bread. They are inflammatory foods and can cause lose bowel movements and other digestive issues. – Avoid overcooked food. – Avoid black tea, coffee and soda as these are diuretics. – Have a cup of chamomile or mint tea after your meal. This will help ease digestion.
Usually, the symptoms of digestive distress are there before Ramadan begins, but surface with a vengeance during this time. Common signs of digestive problems are:
- Gas – Bloating – Nausea – Constipation – Diarrhea/loose stool – Burping – Food allergies/sensitivities – Poor appetite – Fatigue after eating – Abdominal cramps
- Indigestion up to three hours after a meal – Mood swings – Poor memory – Joint pain
- Hives, skin rashes and eczema – Chronic nasal congestion – Headache – Heart burn
- Sour taste in the mouth
Many of these symptoms are associated with a lack of gastric juice, beneficial gut flora (bacteria), or digestive enzymes. These are symptoms of a larger problem occurring in the body and should not be medicated away. If they are only masked by taking pharmaceuticals, the problem will become worse.
There are many reasons for symptoms associated with digestive problems. Some of the most common are:
- Food allergies/sensitivities – Leaky gut – Poor quality of gut flora – Insufficient digestive enzymes – Low hydrochloric acid (stomach acid)
Food Allergies/Food Sensitivities
What are commonly called food allergies are really not “true” food allergies, but rather food sensitivities. The reason for this is that eating a food your allergic to causes a very specific and immediate response, it can also result in a medical emergency.
Food sensitivities are relatively rare. They are not usually life threatening and many people develop them over time. The most common food sensitivities are to soy, corn, dairy and wheat, although one can have sensitivity to any food. There are lab tests that can determine if you have specific food sensitivity and which foods are causing it.
However many people have an idea that they may be sensitive to a food already. If this is the case, simply remove that food/foods from your diet and see if your symptoms resolve (see list of symptoms above).
Leaky Gut
Intestinal permeability or leaky gut is a condition in which the lining of the intestines has become damaged allowing the contents passing through them to “leak” out into the blood stream. The most common cause of leaky gut is food sensitivities.
Over time foods that are irritating to the digestive tract cause “openings” to appear in the lining of the gut. As this occurs, large food molecules enter the blood stream and trigger an immune response (causing inflammation).
Every time the offending food such as wheat, milk or corn is ingested, the body becomes conditioned to recognize it as a harmful substance and flu like symptoms occur.
Leaky gut can cause many complications such as malabsorption of nutrients and food allergies. It can also trigger an immune response and cause auto immune disorders.
Removing food sensitivities can ease the symptoms, but it does not resolve the problem or stop the consequences. In order to improve your condition and start the healing process you will need to seek out a competent nutritionist.
Gut Flora
Our gut harbors many “non-native” organisms that can be beneficial, benign or harmful. The beneficial flora such as lactobacillus, which can be found in yogurt, help prevent opportunistic organisms, like yeast, from occupying the lining of the large intestine and causing an over growth, or pathogens from anchoring in the large intestine.
When this happens, these pathogens can compete with the host (you) for nutrients, causing a vitamin or mineral deficiency. The metabolic wastes of these pathogens can also overwhelm the body’s detoxification system and cause a toxic buildup in the body that can cause health issues.
There are many available probiotic supplements that will help restore the beneficial bacteria. You can also eat fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut and olives. However, you will first need to find a holistic practitioner to work with in order to remove the harmful bacteria.
Low Hydrochloric Acid
Low stomach acid allows pathogens to enter the digestive tract. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) sterilizes the contents of the stomach and eliminates any harmful substances prior to entering the rest of the digestive tract. Many people that are diagnosed with acid reflux are surprisingly actually acid deficient, and often fall prey to chronic infections, like Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that can cause peptic ulcers.
A quick home test to check if you have sufficient stomach acid is to drink a carbonated beverage and if within a minute you belch, you have enough stomach acid. You can also have a doctor check your levels of HCl.
Insufficient Digestive Enzymes
There are many types of enzymes in the body, but here we are concerned with the digestive enzymes that are made in the pancreas. These enzymes help us digest fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
Raw and fermented foods contain the greatest amount of enzymes. When food is overcooked, the enzymes are destroyed and the food becomes more challenging to digest. In order for digestion to take place much energy is needed, when we supply the body with enzymes, it frees up the body’s energy to carry out other functions.
During Ramadan we are given a wonderful opportunity to allow the body to heal and carry out functions that it was not able to carry out due to excessive eating and digestion. Adding in a digestive enzyme (if you need to) will add to the physical benefits of fasting.
RT News: No quick energy-fix if EU plugs Russian gas pipelines (Video)
America and the EU’s top diplomats met today to brainstorm over how to break Europe’s dependence on Russian energy. There were few concrete solutions, though the US again offered to ship US gas across the Atlantic. But as RT’s Peter Oliver reports, that’s easier said than done.
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