links for 2009-12-29

• What’s the UN role in the Gaza Freedom March? « Antony Loewenstein
  – "As protesters massed in front of the UN in Cairo, Egyptian authorities blocked the press from covering the protest or speaking to the protesters.

  At noon in New York, Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, “does the UN have any comment on Egyptian authorities barred the press from filming or speaking with people in front of the UN facilities in Cairo engaged in a protest regarding the Gaza Freedom March?”

  Four hours later, having heard nothing back, Inner City Press went to the Spokesperson’s Office [..]. The deputy spokesperson asked, which UN building, and indicated that there would be no UN response.

  The December 28 request for comment, for the record, was not about the Gaza Freedom March in general — the UN has already no commented on that — but about a host government interfering with freedom of the press to cover a protest in front of the UN. The silence, then, is all the more striking. Watch this site."

  (tags: gaza GFM media UN policy)
• Al-Jazeera Takes a Dive on Gaza Freedom March – husseini's posterous
  (tags: gaza egypt humanrights activism media politics)
• Robert Reich: 2009: The Year Wall Street Bounced Back and Main Street Got Shafted
  -"In September 2008, as the worst of the financial crisis engulfed Wall Street, George W. Bush issued a warning: "This sucker could go down." Around the same time, as Congress hashed out a bailout bill, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, the leading Republican negotiator of the bill, warned that "if we do not do this, the trauma, the chaos and the disruption to everyday Americans' lives will be overwhelming, and that's a price we can't afford to risk paying."

  In less than a year, Wall Street was back. The five largest remaining banks are today larger, their executives and traders richer, their strategies of placing large bets with other people's money no less bold than before the meltdown. The possibility of new regulations emanating from Congress has barely inhibited the Street's exuberance.

  But if Wall Street is back on top, the everyday lives of large numbers of Americans continue to be subject to overwhelming trauma, chaos and disruption."

  (tags: united-states financial-crisis economic-crisis economy SME policy)
• Robert Naiman: Egypt Blocks Americans From Gaza March, Stops Aid Convoy
  (tags: egypt gaza politics activism humanrights zionist GFM)
• Roger Waters of Pink Floyd: Message of Goodwill to Gaza Freedom March | Sabbah Report
  roger waters supports the GFM and march.
  (tags: activism gaza GFM)
• Stuck Gaza Aid Convoy Changes Course – IslamOnline.net – News
  It really is unfucking believable how shameless the regime is.
  (tags: gaza egypt politics activism humanrights GFM)