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Oxfam, the global charity that describes itself as "determined to change that world by mobilizing the power of people against poverty," has decided it prefers Palestinians to be poor, hungry and unemployed. This all involves a Hollywood actress, a Super Bowl ad, an at-home soda maker and some confused liberals who appear to prefer their poor people stay poor. Scarlett Johansson has been an Oxfam global ambassador, helping to raise money and the profile of the charity's work around the world, but after ScarJo, as her fans call her, opted to appear in a Super Bowl ad for SodaStream, things...

US actress Scarlett Johansson has quit as global ambassador for Oxfam after the aid group deemed the role "incompatible" with her promotion of an Israeli firm that has a factory in the occupied West Bank. Johansson, 29, appears in an advertisement for home drinks carbonation firm SodaStream, which is due to air during the US Super Bowl on Sunday. Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll It has already been seen more than 4.5 million times on the YouTube video-sharing website. The Hollywood star has worked for Oxfam since 2005 but...

Scarlett Johansson is ending her relationship with a humanitarian group after being criticized over her support for SodaStream, the Israeli company with a factory in the West Bank. A statement released by Johansson’s spokesman Wednesday said the 29-year-old actress has “a fundamental difference of opinion” with Oxfam International because the humanitarian group opposes all trade from Israeli settlements, saying they are illegal and deny Palestinian rights. […] SodaStream has come under fire from pro-Palestinian activists for maintaining a large factory in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, some 10 minutes from Jerusalem. The factory employs more than 500 Palestinians....

Actor Scarlett Johansson has been facing pressure from some pro-Palestinian activists after announcing earlier this month that she was becoming the first brand ambassador for the Israeli carbonated beverage kit maker SodaStream. She’s planning to star in a Super Bowl ad for the company which has characterized itself as an alternative to Coke and Pepsi.Scarlett Johansson filming a SodaStream commercial for the Super Bowl (Screenshot: YouTube) “The company’s commitment to a healthier body and a healthier planet is a perfect fit for me,” Johansson said in mid-January. “I love that the product can be tailored to any lifestyle and palate.”SodaStream...

The combined wealth of the world’s richest 85 people is now equivalent to that owned by half of the world’s population—or 3.5 billion of the poorest people—according to a new report from Oxfam. In a report titled “Working for the Few” released Monday, the global aid and development organization detailed the extent of global economic inequality created by the rapidly increasing wealth of the richest, warning of the major risks it poses to “human progress.” […] Oxfam said that based on its polls conducted across the world, it is believed that there are many laws and regulations designed to benefit...

Obama blamed for failure of international arms treatyBy Julian Pecquet - 07/27/12 08:26 PM ET The United Nations indefinitely suspended action on an international arms trade treaty Friday after the United States and several other countries asked for more time. The decision sparked angry reactions from human rights groups often allied with the Obama administration, who believed a treaty to regulate the export of deadly weapons to rogue regimes was within reach. The UN had spent the entire month of July hammering out a deal, and Friday was the deadline for an agreement on a treaty that has met with...

Mary Anastasia O'Grady writes in today's Wall Street Journal that George Soros's Open Society Institute has been funding terrorism. In a column entitled Friends of Terror in Peru, O'Grady notes that Thursday's vote by the European Parliament to take the Peruvian guerrilla group known as the Tupac Amaru (aka MRTA) off its terrorist list has Peru in an uproar. For good reason: The MRTA is notorious for kidnapping, torturing and murdering civilians to advance its political agenda. More recently, Peruvian officials have linked it to Hugo Chávez's "Bolivarian Movement," which seeks to destabilize democracies in Latin America, and to the...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, says there are unprecedented levels of malnutrition among children fleeing Somalia to escape the severe drought in East Africa. Oxfam, Save the Children and the Red Cross are all launching emergency appeals. Rains have failed for the past three seasons, and aid agencies say more than 12 million people across large parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are facing dire shortages of food, shelter and health services. The BBC's Ben Brown reports from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

The Brady Campaign trying to drag Starbucks Coffee into the anti-open carry debate is, like the core mission of the gungrabbers, senseless, punitive of the innocent and fundamentally unfair. The coffee giant just wants to sell its wares, and is reluctant to alienate a large market segment simply because anti-rights bluenoses get all hissy when they see anyone pushing beyond social norms they deem acceptable. Here's a company that's not innocent--in fact, they are willful leading collaborators in the global citizen disarmament movement: "American icon," Levi Strauss. Some of us have been waving that denim flag for years--here's an early...

I dont know if this has been posted..... As a Katrina survivor I will tell you that the Red Cross and The Salvation Army were heros... You can text the word Haiti to 90999 to donate $10.00 to the relief efforts. I intend to donate much more than this but I found this to be a very convenient way to do something.

The Copenhagen climate talks have been rocked by the leak of a draft final agreement which weakens the role of the United Nations in climate change negotiations and abandons the Kyoto Protocol. The "Danish text" draft agreement, published by the UK's Guardian newspaper, has been described as a dangerous document for developing countries. Over the past week, parts of Denmark's proposal have leaked into the public domain, but this is the first time it has been published in its entirety. According to the Guardian, the secret agreement has been worked on by a group of individuals known as the 'circle...

Londoners turn blue for climate protestUpdated: 07:30, Sunday December 6, 2009 Thousands of people have painted themselves blue and marched through central London to call for action on climate change. Two days before a crucial climate summit begins in Copenhagen, protesters decked themselves out in blue facepaint, eyeshadow, wigs and stockings and converged on Big Ben on a grey Saturday afternoon. Organisers said 40,000 people took part while the Metropolitan Police put numbers at 20,000. Demand action until blue in the face,' one placard read, while others said quit dirty coal'. The peaceful protest stopped traffic as it moved from...

Hundreds of millions of people will become victims of climate change-related disasters over the next six years, Oxfam said Tuesday, urging governments to change the way they respond to such events. The British-based aid and development charity estimated the number of people affected by climatic disasters would rise by 54 percent to 375 million people a year on average by 2015, based on data on similar disasters since 1980. In a new report, it warned that humanitarian aid spending and the way it was allocated was far from prepared to meet the challenge. "The response is often fickle -- too...

LONDON - International aid agency Oxfam urged the World Bank and rich nations to stop "wasting" donations and possibly risking lives by backing unproven private health care programs in poor countries. A new Oxfam report on health care reveals many private schemes perform poorly - in China, for example, one third of drugs dispensed by private vendors are counterfeit - but they continue to be backed by international donors. "Donors' romantic views of private sector health providers are completely divorced from the facts," said report author Anna Marriott ...snip.... "After years of donor under-investment in government health care, to claim...

Oxfam Officer: Israel Killed Some 35.000 Palestinian Chickens in Gaza By Davut SAHIN (JTW) Israeli Gaza attacks not only killed the people but also the animals of Gaza. Elena Qleibo, who works in the Gaza Strip as a Food Security and Livelihood Officer for Oxfam, reported yesterday that some 35,000 chickens were also killed during the bombardment and the price of eggs in Gaza went up. "Before the war, a kilo of eggs used to sell for 2.40 Euros (£2.20), now in some places people pay up to 5 euros (£4.60)" she added. Elena Qleibo further said "there were non-exploded...

Current payments an 'insult' to developing countries says OxfamRich countries have paid only $67m into a UN fund to help the world's poorest countries adapt to climate change which is less than what Americans spend on suntan lotion each month, according to a new report published today by international agency Oxfam. "This figure represents quite an insult, to be frank, given that the least developed countries will need at least $1-2 billion to meet just their most urgent adaptation needs," said report author Charlotte Sterrett. Oxfam calls on rich countries gathering in Bali for the 13th UN conference on climate...

LONDON (AFP) - More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming. "Oxfam... says that rising green house gas emissions are the major cause of weather-related disasters and must be tackled," the organisation said, adding that the world's poorest people were being hit the hardest. The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year, according to the report. "This year we have seen floods...

Rich must pay bulk of climate change bill: Oxfam By Jeremy Lovell 37 minutes ago Coping with the ravages of global warming will cost $50 billion a year, and the rich nations who caused most of the pollution must pay most of the bill, aid agency Oxfam said on Tuesday. The call, barely 10 days before a crucial Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany which has climate change at its core, is likely to make already tense negotiations even tougher. The United States, which Oxfam says must foot 44 percent of the annual $50 billion bill, is rejecting attempts...

Something extraordinary is happening in global development circles. For the first time since the 19th century, progressive activists are embracing trade as positive tool for change. The global NGO Oxfam is the latest progressive interest group to change its tune. It has launched a campaign to end agricultural subsidies in the developed world. This could represent a fundamental turning of the tide from a world based on nationalism and violence to a world based on commerce and peace. Oxfam has a new section on its website devoted to "the private sector's role in development," where they acknowledge that "Oxfam GB...

Loathing, lies and liberation theology By Paul Driessen April 10, 2006 LA OROYA, Peru – Pitched battles over ideology and public policy certainly are not confined to classrooms or legislative chambers. They are also fought in poor communities of Africa, Asia and Latin America, often pitting multinational corporations against multinational activist groups. The corporations seek to extract energy and minerals, provide much-needed jobs and capital, and serve investors and consumers – without harming human health or the environment. They often collide with well-connected global activists who loathe foreign investment, free enterprise, and especially extractive industries – and want to influence...