Four soldiers and one civilian are facing charges for the murder of three union leaders. The international community, including the United States, are putting pressure on the South American country to respect human rights. The majority of the human rights infractions seem to come from the government’s militias committing attacks against civilians. The US has withheld $100 million in aid until progress is made on human rights, inclusing purging human rights violators from the armed forces. Source: New York Times July 15, 2005
Category: Freedom
Euro Patents No-Go
The BBC is reporting that the European Parliament has given a resounding NO to the proposed patent legislation. An amazing rejection vote of 648 – 14.
Here is a brief reason of what is wrong with software patent legislation. This is really good news for small software developers and the open source community.
Democratic Information
Direct civic participation in large democracies in the developed world is very hard. It is possible to find out how your elected representative voted, but it is hard to do. That is until now.
You can now find out how your elected official voted!
In the United States there is a great website that seems to have everything you need.
In Canada you can find out your MP voted.
In England your MPs work for you and you can also fax your MP.
It is great to see how elective representatives voted, transparency in governments are always a good thing.