Participants at national conference October 9-10 in Nagpur, India - click on photo to see banners- The photo above comes from Global Network board member J. Narayana Rao in Nagpur, India who recently hosted my speaking tour to his country. In spite of the fact that the Indian government would not allow us to hold our 18th annual space organizing conference there, this national confab was a great success. Students and activists came from around the country to attend the event. See Rao's report and Nagpur Declaration here
- The Obama administration has continued the long U.S. tradition of blocking any hope of creating new international law to protect space from the ravages of war. At the United Nations today the U.S. voted to abstain (and thus block) any real hopes to negotiate and pass the "Transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space activities". The vote was 167 in favor with the U.S. abstaining. (Without the U.S. genuinely involved nothing can happen.) Today's vote came just two days after the Obama administration had the U.S. torpedo the U.N.'s annual Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) treaty resolution supported by Russia and China. That vote: 170 in favour, 2 abstained (U.S. and Israel). Just who is pushing an arms race in space?
- I woke up at 5:00 am this morning with a check list of things on my mind for next week's peace walk. Early on I had a call from a reporter at a major Maine newspaper who is doing an advance story on the peace walk. She couldn't believe it when I told her that our country is spending $8 billion a month on the Afghanistan war. She asked me three times if I was sure. She had asked me why we were walking and I told her that one key reason was because the public knew nothing about how much these wars are costing us. Her response spoke to the truth of my point.
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