Category Archives: Freedom

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official urged Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika on Friday to respect his citizens' right to freedom of expression, days after he accused Western donors of funding an opposition protest movement in his country.

Mutharika told state radio on Sunday that the opposition planned to stage demonstrations in March financed by foreign donors - some of whom have frozen aid because of concern about his increasingly tight grip on power in the impoverished southern African country.

A loose alliance of opposition groups have said they will hold nationwide protests if Mutharika fails, by the end of March, to come clean on the source of his personal wealth and mend relations with Britain, which has frozen its aid to Malawi.

Similar demands last July led to unprecedented nationwide demonstrations, which security forces suppressed in a crackdown in which 20 demonstrators were killed.

"Regardless of what the president said ... it is very important for leaders to welcome non-governmental organisations, to welcome civil society, to endorse free expression, the right of assembly, the right to organise," U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman told reporters in Nairobi.

Sherman, on an official tour of several sub-Saharan countries, visited Malawi earlier this week for talks with government and civil society leaders, but did not give details of her discussions there.

Foreign aid accounts for 40 percent of Malawi's state budget, but much of the aid has been suspended since a row with Britain and the violent suppression of protesters last July.

The aid freeze began last May when Britain, Malawi's biggest donor, suspended aid worth $550 million after a diplomatic spat caused by a leaked diplomatic cable that described Mutharika as "autocratic and intolerant of criticism".

Washington joined in after the July violence, suspending a $350 million project to upgrade the land-locked country's decrepit electricity grid.

"We have urged the government to work with the IMF and the World Bank to put an economic plan in place so that in fact they can meet their energy needs and have a strong economy into the future," Sherman said.

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US urges Malawi leader to allow freedom of expression

Credit: Paul Schenkel | The News Herald

Freedom catcher Cassidy Smith recently signed her national letter of intent to play softball at Spartanburg Methodist College next spring. Flanking Smith on the front row are her parents, Wesley Smith (left) and Jennifer Smith; standing (from left) are SMC coach Thad Fox, Richard Smith, Freedom coach Jeff Williams, Wesley Smith Jr., Gerroll Smith and principal Dr. Ken Prichard.

Freedom senior Cassidy Smith will continue her softball playing career at the next level after signing Tuesday to play for former Lady Patriot coach Thad Fox at Spartanburg Methodist College.

Smith is a catcher in her first year at Freedom after moving over from Patton. She sports a varsity career batting average of more than .300 and a fielding percentage of more than .970 behind the plate.

With the Panthers, Smith led the team in RBIs as a sophomore and was the co-leader in home runs as a junior. The two-time All-South Mountain 2A/3A Conference selection is also a member of the Patriots 500-pound weightlifting club.

We have a catcher were losing (in the offseason) to UNC-Wilmington who is the backbone of our defense, said Fox, who has guided the Pioneers within one victory of qualifying for the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series two years running.

I foresee Cassidy being that same type of player, diving all over on defense.

Fox said he first saw Smith play at a camp he ran several years back in Morganton.

She was a sixth or seventh grader, and you could see her ability then, he said. Fundamentally, she had the best swing of all the kids there.

Smith started playing travel ball in fourth grade and catches for the Foothills Phantoms in the high school offseason. Shes also been a member of three Morganton junior and senior league all-star squads who have qualified for the Southeast Regionals.

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Freedom's Smith signs with SMC for softball

Piedmont Hills went a step further Wednesday night than any previous boys basketball team in school history. The Pirates (28-3) beat Freedom 56-47 in the first round of the California Interscholastic Federation Northern regional Division I playoffs.

The victory was Piedmont Hills' first NorCal win in school history and set a school record for most wins in a season.

Piedmont Hills advances to play Sheldon in the quarterfinals Saturday.

The Pirates got rid of any bad taste that might have lingered from a 45-30 loss Saturday to Bellarmine in the Central Coast Section final.

"The Bellarmine game was much more physical," Piedmont Hills coach Pete Simos said. "Freedom plays more of an open-court game. That allowed us to get in more of a groove offensively."

Alex Aguilar led all scorers with 21 points.

"He's had some big games down the stretch," Simos said. "That's why he's our guy."

J.J. Espanola scored 14 points despite sitting out nearly the entire third quarter with four fouls.

James O'Neal led Freedom (22-8) with 17 points, 12 in the second half. Jelani Hardaway added 10 points.

Freedom closed the first quarter on a 14-1 run to turn a 9-2 deficit into a 15-10 lead. But Piedmont Hills scored the first 11 points of the second quarter, and Freedom never regained the lead. The combination of Piedmont Hills switching defenses from man to zone and a tightly-called game by the officials seemed to take Freedom

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Piedmont Hills defeats Freedom for first NorCal victory

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines' world ranking in the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom issued recently by the Heritage Foundation (HF) rose to 107th, eight notches higher from last year's ranking of 115th.

At the same time, the Philippines garnered an Economic Freedom Score (EFC) of 57.1 this year, an improvement from the country's previous EFC of 56.2.

"This is a clear validation of the policy reforms that the President has put in place to move the country forward and uplift the lives of our people," Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said in a statement.

of Economic Freedom highlights 10 economic freedoms, namely, property rights, freedom from corruption, fiscal freedom, government spending, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom.

The Heritage Foundation is a "think thank" whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, and a strong national defense.

"We hope that this development will encourage more economic activities in the country, including foreign investments that would translate to more jobs for our people," Del Rosario stated.

The Heritage Foundation reported that the Philippine economy "has been on a steady path of economic expansion."

The Philippines' 2012 score is 0.9 points higher than in 2011, which constitutes a significant improvement in business freedom. The Philippines ranked 19th out of 41 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, surpassing other emerging economies such as Indonesia, India, China, and Vietnam.

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Philippines Economic Freedom Ranking Up

The Young Americas FoundationFreedom Conference, usually held in Washington, D.C. or Santa Barbara, CA, is taking the fight to Raleigh, N.C. and Milwaukee, WI this year.

According to its website, the Foundation is committed to ensuring that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.

Todrum up the conference, the foundation hasreleased a web ad targeting the Obama administrations failed efforts.

In 2008, Barack Obama made a promise, the ad begins. The president said he would fundamentally transform the United States of America, but his failed stimulus, corporate bailouts, and the government take over of health care left the country with huge debt and a 9% national unemployment rate.

The adpromises that at The Freedom Conference students can join in the fight for freedom. It concludes, You can make a difference.

YAF Program Officer Ronald Meyer, Jr. told the Daily Caller of the importance of the conferences to highlight thefailures of the Obama administrations policies.

Meyer said, In 2012, the Obama administration will take their policy gimmicks like Summer Jobs+ and their student loan program to dozens of colleges across the country, and the Conservative Movement must respond and win this battle.

Freedom is the alternative [of] the misery caused by big government, he continued, Young Americas Foundation will expose the disappointing corruption of the Obama administration and offer positive solutions to this style of job-killing governance.

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Young America’s Foundation releases web ad to promote NC, WI Freedom Conference [VIDEO]

Chennai, March 7 (IANS) Even as their number is rising, the financial freedom of urban, working women in India is low and needs significant improvement, says a survey conducted across 11 cities.

"The Life Freedom Index score for urban women at 58.3 on a scale of 100 indicates that their financial freedom is low and needs significant improvement," Sanjay Tripathy, executive vice president (Marketing and Direct Channels) at HDFC Life Insurance Company, said while sharing the findings of the survey with the media here Wednesday.

According to Tripathy, the Indian urban woman needs improvement in areas like financial planning, sufficiency and adequacy.

For the majority of the urban women, children's education is at the top on their priority list when they chalk out their financial plan followed by health expenses, family holidays and house rent/EMIs.

The survey says the women's financial plans are not reviewed at regular intervals and realigned with life's significant events.

Only 19 percent of those surveyed said they reviewed their financial plan frequently while 65 percent did that once in a while.

Forty-two percent of the urban women chalked out their financial planning with the help of friends and relatives, while 26 percent consulted professional financial advisors.

Tripathy said HDFC Life would come out with products based on the survey findings in a couple of months.

The survey was conducted by HDFC Life along with market research firm ValueNotes.

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'Urban Indian women have low financial freedom'

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Cape Air could drop some flights on March 26

Freedom Air will resume daily flights to Rota and will go back to using a 30-seater aircraft next week, while Star Marianas Air Inc. plans to fly to Rota as early as end-March, airline officials and senators separately said yesterday.

Dennis Cruz, Freedom Air-CNMI station manager, confirmed yesterday that Freedom Air will resume daily flights to Rota as early as next week and will resume the use of 30-seater aircraft that will accommodate more passengers to and from Rota.

Yes I can confirm we will be back to normal daily flights, and we will start using again the 30-seater aircraft, Cruz told Saipan Tribune.

Since November, Freedom Air has been using a seven-seater aircraft to give way to regular maintenance of the 30-seater aircraft. Since then, it has also stopped flying to Rota on Mondays and Fridays.

Sen. Juan M. Ayuyu (Ind-Rota) and Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) separately said they welcome Freedom Air's decision to resume normal operations.

Ayuyu and Manglona also said the owner of Rota Resort, Hee Cho, has been working with Star Marianas Air Inc. so that the airline will be able to provide flights to and from Rota as early as the last week of March.

Ayuyu said Star Marianas Air is looking at using two nine-seater aircraft for the Rota flights.

An official from Star Marianas on Tinian said yesterday they need to get clearance from the management before speaking directly to the media.

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'Star Marianas plans to fly to Rota; Freedom Air to resume daily flights'

Hypocrites always love the fig leaf, and the Republican radicals crusading against womens reproductive rights have been shrewd enough to cloak their real goal with pious claims that theyre just defending Americas freedom of religion.

But since the issues currently making headlines include the power to deny insurance coverage for birth control to non-Catholics, the rights of the religious are hardly the most worrisome issue we face, no matter how strident the disingenuous claims of the GOPs anti-woman warriors.

To a growing segment of the American electorate, a much greater concern than the freedom of religion is the freedom from religion.

Every election year generates a new round of sanctimonious baloney from conservative Christians who purport to speak for every American in defining what the United States is all about. Whether explicit or implicit, the presumption underlying their pronouncements is the idea that America is a Judeo-Christian country whose actions and policies should be guided by the religious doctrines deriving from that tradition.

Lost in all the overheated rhetoric is a crucial principle: the freedom from a dominant or state-sanctioned religion and its dictates is far more fundamental to American history and everything this country is actually supposed to stand for than any individual church or faith has ever been.

Unfortunately, such historical facts seem lost on Rick Santorum, whose religious beliefs have defined his policy positions in the secular world.

"Contraception is a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to the way things are supposed to be," Santorum opined, as ungrammatical as he is serenely untroubled by any doubt about the way things are supposed to be.

Santorums vision is drastically circumscribed by his radical Catholicism, and like most ideologues, he wants to impose those strictures on the rest of us no matter how our belief systems might differ from his. As far as hes concerned, the way things are supposed to be is the product of a fixed religious doctrine that represents the final word of God. Santorums idea of an omnipotent supernatural creator is the only one that counts, and everyone else is supposed to venerate the same deity and the same dogma.

Among other problems, Santorums views betray a shocking ignorance about the history of Christianity. Since he thinks education is for snobs, he probably wont make the effort to inform himself more fully about the faith he professes to uphold, but anyone who actually wanted to learn something would do well to read Elaine Pagelss new book, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy and Politics in the Book of Revelations, which details the suppression of some early Christian books of revelation and the elevation of others by bishops intent on establishing orthodoxy and eradicating dissenting views in the fourth century.

Pagels and other scholars have chronicled the inconsistent history of Christian beliefs and the stunning variability of canonical texts as well as official practices, but the resulting body of knowledge seems lost on the GOP leaders now bloviating about Christian tradition. Unfortunately, a working understanding of American history also seems to have eluded them.

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What About Freedom From Religion?

Baroness Deech calls for 'freedom of speech' to no longer be abused as a defence for hate and racism in universities.

In late 2010 at the LSE, Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in chief of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, referred to the Jewish Lobby a number of times, and accused the Jewish students in the audience of bombing Gaza. They walked out in protest. Last month former US marine Ken OKeefe, speaking at Middlesex University, said that Israel should be destroyed, before comparing Jews to the Nazis.

This is unfettered hate speech on our UK campuses. Then there are the individual incidents, such as the Nazi-themed antics on an LSE ski trip which included a Jewish student. Forty-two per cent of Jewish students have witnessed an anti-Semitic incident on their campus in the last year. It does not seem as if universities are tackling these incidents as they would if other minorities were targeted in the same way.

Whilst in each of these cases, the universities are now reviewing procedures and looking to guard against future incidents, it is fair to say that their initial responses fell short of what outspoken and avowedly anti-racist institutions would aspire to. For each incident, it has taken the intervention of Jewish or other minority students explaining the problem and driving the reaction.

The Education (No 2) Act 1986 says that higher education Institutions must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to ensure that freedom of speech within the law is secured for its members, students and employees and for visiting speakers. Freedom of speech seems to have become the catch-all response for universities faced with examples of hate speech such as those I have cited. What they have not grasped is that it is freedom of speech within the law that is to be protected, and hate or racist speech is outside the law. Many university administrators seem to be ignorant of the law or have not updated their Codes on visiting speakers for decades.

They need to consider the relevant legislation: the Equality Act, the Protection from Harassment Act, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act are among the many recent laws that limit freedom of speech and exclude the stirring-up of race hatred and violent hate speech. Universities have a special duty to promote race harmony between various groups on campus, which they are tending to ignore. Meetings and known hate speakers can be risk-assessed, banned or stopped in their course if the law is being broken and there is disruption on campus.

Historically, the students unions were considered to be outside the equality laws, although they present themselves as defenders of human rights in general. The anomaly by which they were not included in the definition of public institutions has been addressed through their potential loss of exempt charity status and the need for universities to monitor how they conduct themselves and spend their money. The national student union, the NUS has now produced clear guidance on how to handle hate speech on campus, responsibilities under the law and details of best practice. The Commons home affairs select committee recently proposed that government set up a central contact point to assist in the assessment of hate speakers.

My question aims to elicit confirmation of legal responsibilities and to set the record straight so that freedom of speech, a central tenet of our society, is respected and not abused as a stock defence against action on racism.

Baroness Deech raised to life peerage in 2005, and has been the Gresham Professor of Law since 2008.

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End freedom of 'hate speech'

The Dutch Freedom Party has called for a return to the Guilder, becoming the first political movement in the eurozone with a large popular base to opt for withdrawal from the single currency.

"The euro is not in the interests of the Dutch people," said Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing populist party with a sixth of the seats in the Dutch parliament. "We want to be the master of our own house and our own country, so we say yes to the guilder. Bring it on."

Mr Wilders made his decision after receiving a report by London-based Lombard Street Research concluding that the Netherlands is badly handicapped by euro membership, and that it could cost EMUs creditor core more than 2.4 trillion to hold monetary union together over the next four years. "If the politicians in The Hague disagree with our report, let them show the guts to hold a referendum. Let the Dutch people decide," he said.

Mr Wilders is not part of the coalition. However, the minority government of Mark Rutte relies on the Freedom Party to pass legislation. The two men were in talks on Monday on 16bn of fresh austerity cuts needed stop the budget deficit jumping to 4.5pc of GDP.

The study said the eurozone cannot survive in its current form. The longer Europes politicians dither, the more costly it will become. "The euro can only survive if it becomes a fiscal transfer union with national sovereign debt subsumed in eurozone bonds," said co-author Charles Dumas.

Greece will opt for a "negotiated exit" later this year, once the pain becomes excruciating. This will be after the French elections in May, but before the German electoral season begins in 2013.

Portugal will follow in "short order" as markets focus on its struggling banks and nasty logic of recession for debt dynamics. "At that point, if not before, attention will turn to Spain and Italy, both likely by then to be much weakened by savage austerity programmes now being implemented," said Mr Dumas.

That is the moment when the creditor core will face the decision they have "ducked" for the past two years: either accept an EMU reflation strategy, along with debt pooling, fiscal union, and transfers; or accept a break-up.

Under an "optimistic scenario" it would cost 1.3 trillion to shore up Med-Europe (Chicago Options: ^REURUSD - news) , rising to more than 2.4 trillion if Italy and Spain need some form of bond relief. "The staggering trillion bill to preserve the euro only takes us to 2015. In reality, most of the debts will never be repaid and subsidies will need to continue, year in and year out," said Mr Dumas.

The report said exit by Italy would be relatively easy. The country would recover once it regained currency freedom, though foreign bondholders would take an exchange rate hit. Spains exit would be harder to manage since it has a primary budget deficit of 7pc of GDP, and its companies have large euro debts abroad.

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Dutch Freedom Party pushes euro exit as €2.4 trillion rescue bill looms