I was taken aback to find the Emergency Surgical Centre for War Victims an unexpected place to find some peace and healing in Kabul – a desolate urban landscape battling pollution, abandonment, and entrenched human suffering. Inside the walls of the hospital, some of the few in Afghanistan that are not laced with barbed wire or maintained by armed guards, budding trees and green grass offer a glimpse of what Afghan life must have been like before thirty years of war.  Unfortunately – and this is the way things seem to be in Afghanistan -  to enjoy this peace of mind and serene oasis you must be a victim of war.

Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier, following their June 2010 visit to Afghanistan and stay with Emergency, wrote an excellent piece on the Italian NGO’s work and the people they met.  In “Unarmed and Courageous,” Kelly and Brollier write:

Emergency is treating war victims as patients, and won’t allow police or military to enter the hospital, carrying weapons. Circumstances that occasion an injury or a wound never determine whether or not the patient will be admitted. While neutral as regards offering medical treatment, Emergency has been clearly partisan in it’s rejection of all wars. Their literature and outreach clarifies that the most important preventive measure to safeguard against war related wounds and injuries is the abolition of weapons.

This was my first exposure to Emergency and its inspiring work that seems deeply-rooted in the philosophy of nonviolence.  Consider Emergency’s mission statement:

EMERGENCY is an independent and neutral Italian organisation.

EMERGENCY provides free, high quality medical and surgical treatment to the civilian victims of war, landmines, and poverty.

EMERGENCY promotes a culture of peace, solidarity, and respect for human rights.

Emergency’s philosophy and, more importantly, consistent commitment to provide medical care to victims of war and poverty without distinction provide both an urgent, life-saving resource in the immediacy and a moral compass orientating us toward a future without war.  Emergency, at least in its 12 years in Afghanistan, has been able to treat Afghans from all sides of the multi-faceted conflict and its untold numbers of innocent bystanders – 90% of the victims of conflict are civilians – without being the target of any attack or kidnapping.  This speaks volumes of the power of nonviolence and the commitment to recognize the humanity of all people.  For Emergency, its best protection to continue their work for themselves and their patients is found in its universal commitment to care for the human person and community.

Gandhi’s contention that “all men (sic) are brothers” is the kind of framework that undergirds his nonviolence.  It is also the foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that Emergency quotes on the back of its activity report:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
The acknowledgment of this principle
“is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.”

If only all the organizations in Afghanistan – non-governmental and governmental – shared a similar philosophy and commitment for care and peace, the endeavors for a world without war would make much more progress.

Last week, in acknowledgment of World AIDS Day, the New York Times ran a piece about a new breed of AIDS activism:

Roughly a quarter-century after gay men rose up to demand better access to H.I.V. medicines, a new breed of AIDS advocate is growing up on college campuses. Unlike the first generation of patient-activists, this latest crop is composed of budding public health scholars. They are mostly heterosexual. Rare is the one who has lost friends or family members to the disease. Rather, studying under some of the world’s most prominent health intellectuals, they have witnessed the epidemic’s toll during summers or semesters abroad, in AIDS-ravaged nations like Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

College activism, and AIDS activism in particular, is nothing new. On Wednesday, World AIDS Day, students across the nation will participate in speeches, fund-raisers and the like. But a loose-knit band of about two dozen Ivy Leaguers, mostly from Harvard and Yale, is using more confrontational tactics, as well as some high-powered connections, to wangle encounters with top White House officials in a determined, and seemingly successful, effort to get under Mr. Obama’s skin.

Their protests — which have drawn a sharp rebuke from the president (not to mention some disapproving parents) — come as many in the AIDS advocacy community are wondering aloud whether Mr. Obama is as devoted to their cause as his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush.

The Times focused on the efforts of one Yale student, David Carel, who heckled President Obama at a Democratic campaign rally in October and recently sparred with bioethicist and health adviser to the president Ezekial Emanuel at a campus event. Like his obstinate brother Rahm, Emanuel heartily defended the half-efforts of the President.

“To be honest, and this is no put-down to the sincerity of the students, I didn’t hear a new argument that I haven’t heard for months,” Dr. Emanuel said in an interview after his breakfast with Mr. Carel. “I’ve not seen a blog post on the number of people we have circumcised, or the number of mothers we treat in maternal-child health. Those are real performance measures.”

Dr. Emanuel would not discuss any conversations with the president about the students, but Mr. Obama’s reaction when he was disrupted in October at the rally in Bridgeport made clear he was irked. “You’ve been appearing at every rally we’ve been doing,” the president complained, telling them it was not “a useful strategy.”

While it is certainly worth debating the effectiveness of a verbally abrasive approach, the students did manage to elicit a response—albeit negative—from the president, which is far more than most activists get. Perhaps, now that they have his ear, they can try out a more inviting tactic—one that does recognize the laudable efforts Obama has made toward fighting AIDS, but continues to underscore the urgency for bolder action. The heckling incident was afterall Carel’s first demonstration. And though he and his fellow protesters insist they thought long and hard about it, this is clearly a learning experience. With the level of commitment they’ve already exhibited at such a young age, it will be interesting to watch them fine-tune their approach in the years to come.

• About 1,000 opposition supporters rallied in Moscow on Sunday with the government’s approval. All previous attempts to gather in Triumfalnaya Square on the 31st of any given month to support Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees the right of free assembly, were banned this year.

• About 30 people gathered outside an Exxon station in Missoula on Saturday to protest the planned shipment of outsize oil field equipment through Montana.

• About 4,000 indigenous people ended their blockade of the Marañon river of the Peruvian Amazon on Saturday after meeting with representatives of the regional government and the company responsible for an oil spill in June.

• More than 10,000 people marched in Navan, Ireland over the weekend to protest the government’s removal of emergency and acute surgery services from a local hospital.

• Protests against Vodafone took place across Britain on Saturday amid claims the firm had been let off an unpaid tax bill of £6bn. Eight people were arrested and bailed after a sit-down protest outside a Vodafone shop in Brighton.

• The first multinational protest by clerical sex abuse victims in the Vatican ended with a symbolic candlelit march on Sunday night.

• A group of Brazilian reporters wore red clown noses to greet World Cup winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari in a protest against the coach’s recent rant against the media.

• Holding out signs that read “All Kids Matter” and “RESIGN,” some 35 demonstrators were on hand at Midland High School in Arkansas yesterday morning for a protest of Midland School Board member Clint McCance’s tirade about gay people on a Facebook page. McCance announced his resignation Thursday night on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”

• Women all over Iceland left work at 2:45 on Monday in a co-ordinated action to highlight continuing inequality in society. As well as equal pay and promotion opportunities in the workplace and respect in the home, this year’s special theme was domestic violence.

• In Michigan, about 75 students walked out of Woodhaven High School Thursday morning in protest of a recent privatization of maintenance and transportation services.

• Residents of the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem carried out a sit-in protest Thursday over a strike that has reduced healthcare services across the Palestinian territories and abroad.

• Kashmiri leaders and activists organized a sit-in before the UN office in Islamabad on Wednesday to mark the day of invasion and occupation by Indian troops as a black day in the history of Kashmir.

• Rail traffic in Greece came to a standstill on Monday at the start of a three-day strike by state railway employees in protest against plans to privatize the loss-making national rail system (OSE).

• The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), on Monday began a one-week nationwide warning strike to protest the non-implementation of the 57.3 per cent salary increase for their colleagues in universities in the south eastern part of the country.

• Truck loaders at Grocery Haulers, Inc., represented by Teamsters Local Union 863, staged a one-day unfair labor practice strike on Wednesday to protest the company’s refusal to negotiate a contract.

• Palestinians in the city of Umm El-Fahm inside Israel on Thursday launched a general strike to protest the exacerbated violence directed at protesters by the Israeli police.

• In Pakistan, residents of the Mir Ali sub division of North Waziristan went on strike on Monday to protest daily kidnappings and killings by militants.

• A cement truck plastered with antibank slogans blocked the entrance to the Irish Parliament on Wednesday as tensions mounted over the country’s debt crisis and enormous bank bailouts. The side of the truck was painted with the words “Toxic Bank” next to the corporate logo of the government-owned Irish Anglo Bank. A billboard on the back said “all politicians should be sacked.” The brakes and electric cables had been cut, making it difficult to remove.

• A group of people slept in sleeping bags outside the parliamentary building in Reykjavík last night to protest the government’s lack of action against a wave of forced property sales.

• Greenpeace activists unfurled a banner calling on the EPA to “protect people not polluters” at the site of Coal Ash hearings at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday.

• Police in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart used tear gas and water cannons yesterday to break up demonstrators trying to stop crews from cutting down trees in a city park to make way for a train station. At least 116 people were injured, including three teenagers and a 12-year-old.

• About 50 AIDS activists carried signs made with empty pill bottles in front of the White House on Wednesday to protest the failure of President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress to allocate emergency funds for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program known as ADAP.

• A Southern-Illinois group calling themselves “The Black Cross Alliance” are placing black crosses throughout the area to protest the mining and burning of coal for energy.

About a dozen teen protesters briefly shut down an Abercrombie & Fitch store in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon as part of a day of national protest against the company’s continued practice of perfuming the air of their stores with unregulated toxics. Spearheaded by the advocacy group Teens Turning Green, the protesters entered the store marching around chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, these toxic fumes have got to go.”

According to the Bay Citizen, the perfume in question, Fierce, “contains 11 chemicals not listed on the label because they are considered trade secrets, including eight that can trigger allergic reactions, such as headaches, wheezing and asthma.” It also contains diethyl phthalate, a synthetic solvent that has been linked to “DNA damage in human sperm, changes to male fetuses’ genitals in utero and alternations in baby boys’ sex hormones when exposed via their mothers’ breast milk.”

After police arrived and shut down the store, ejecting protesters and customers alike, the teens regathered outfront with their signs. As the Bay Citizen reported:

The girls chanted: “Why is it toxic?” To which the boys would heartily respond: “Because it kills my sperm!”

A&F has remained rather stand-offish about the whole incident, posting a defense of Fierce on its Facebook page without really acknowledging the protest.

The reaction on Facebook to the statement was split between those continuing to decry the scent and those defending it. “What happened to the customer’s always right?” posted one Kathleen Suits. “You’re just going to ignore this protest about the air pollution in your store? Then we’ll ignore your store and its affiliates!” Happy profits!!”

While unclear where the campaign will go from here, it’s encouraging that teens have been able to take things this far–defying the apathetic youth stereotype.

• Hundreds of climate activists cut through a perimeter fence and occupied land at the Royal Bank of Scotland’s headquarters on Wednesday to protest its multi-billion pound loans to the oil and mining industries. They expect at least 500 activists to gather for a day of direct action against RBS on Monday.

• Some 600 demonstrators blocked the main highway linking the Afghani capital of Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday to protest the mounting civilian death toll in US-led raids in the war-torn country.

• Nearly two dozen people, some in wheelchairs, blocked a major intersection in front of the California Capitol in Sacramento for several hours on Wednesday afternoon to protest proposed budget cuts to in-home health care services. They were subsequently arrested.

• About a dozen demonstrators who gathered in front of the San Diego county clerk’s office yesterday to demand the issuance of marriage licenses for same-sex couples were arrested after refusing orders to disperse.

• More than 100 Bronxites rallied at the midtown offices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac yesterday to demand that the lending giants cut down on predatory landlords who neglect their properties and ignore renters’ rights.

• About 200 people blocked a major highway outside of Cairo on Wednesday to protest daily power outages that have hit many parts of the country.

• This past Friday, in Bryant Park  in New York, Medicare celebrated it’s 45th birthday with a flash mob of over one hundred singing and dancing protesters that warned President Obama’s newly created Deficit Commission to keep their hands off Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

• South African government ministers met with public sector workers’ unions to try to end an open-ended wage strike by 210,000 teachers, nurses and other state employees that began last Thursday and prevent it from spreading.

• Greek truck drivers’ associations say they will continue a protest that has halted fuel supplies across the country and is hurting tourism, despite an emergency order by the government to force them back to work.

• Hundreds of hotel and restaurant employees and supporters were arrested around the US Thursday in coordinated civil disobedience against the Hyatt Corporation. Fifteen cities saw protests.

• A group of families of political prisoners gathered in front of the office of the General Prosecutor to protest the lack of information about the situation of their loved ones, especially those political prisoners who went on hunger strike in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison last week. Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that anti-riot units and Special Forces barged into the facility  after learning of prisoners’ mass hunger strike.

• More than 200 Afghans participated in a rally in the capital Kabul on Sunday to protest the alleged NATO killing of 52 civilians on July 23, in the Sangin district of Helmand province.

• Some 800 dockers and activists staged a rally in Indonesia on Saturday to demand that a major port operator honor a negotiated agreement.

I’m all for protesting budget cuts that will negatively affect hospitals and health care, but doctors in Italy went too far on Monday. According to the AP:

An Italian doctors’ union says more than 40,000 operations have been delayed by a one-day strike against the government’s austerity plans.Medical workers are protesting outside parliament in Rome to protest expected shortages of medical workers in the system because of government plans to not renew many temporary contracts.

While they say they only refused non-emergency surgeries, I don’t see how doctors or nurses refusing to care for their patients to register their dissent about low wages – or anything else for that matter – can be justified.

There are very few sectors that I would say should never go on strike, but medical professionals would be one. Too many lives are in their hands. And it is not the officials or executives responsible for their predicament who are most affected by such actions, but the patients themselves.

• More than a thousand nurses wearing red scrubs gathered outside California Republican gubernatorial nominee and nurses union foe Meg Whitman last Thursday to protest her vow to cut the state’s nurse-to-patient ratios and fire health workers.

• More than 100 indigenous activists and supporters marched past the Ministry of Forests offices and the Ministry of Environment office in Smithers, British Columbia on Friday to protest plans for a pipeline that will carry tar sands crude to ports off the west coast of Canada.

• Members of the Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN gathered on the Independence Square in Kiev where they stripped down and bathed in a public fountain to protest hot water cut offs in the capital and rising tariffs for housing and utilities services.

• A fenced-in lot at 7th and R Streets in DC has become home to a tent city as local residents protest the building of high-income apartments, where the city had once promised to build affordable housing.

• A team of seven Washington women and men reached the summit of Mount Rainier on Friday to demand that Governor Chris Gregoire close the largest source of pollution in the state—a coal-fired plan in Centralia—by 2015.

• An estimated 2,000 farmers gathered in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taiwan on Saturday to protest the government expropriation of their land. They turned part of the wide road into a field by rolling out patches covered with plants while also paying their respects to farming deities.

• Former employees of the closed Amonsito factory in Egypt ended their sit-in, following last Wednesday’s tentative agreement for overdue early retirement payment.

• 300 people gathered at Queen’s Park in Toronto ono Saturday to call for a G20 police inquiry and the right to blow bubbles. The latter was in response to an officer caught on tape threatening to arrest a G20 protester for blowing bubbles.