Rare large sand dotterel in the Netherlands

A rare large sand dotterel is in Noord Holland province in the Netherlands now.

Photos are, eg, here.

New Zealand dotterel: here.

Australian soldiers wound Afghan children

This video, Afghan Children, is about child labour in Afghanistan.

From Prensa Latina news agency:

Australian Troops Shoot at Afghan Children

Canberra, Aug 2 Australian soldiers opened fire at civilians, including children, travelling by car near Tarin Kowt village, in south Afghanistan, sources from the Ministry of Defense in this capital informed on Thursday.

According to the spokesman of that ministry, Andrew Nikolic, the Australian patrol opened fire when the civilian car did not respond the stop order.

The incident left two children wounded, who according to the official version, were taken to hospitals for medical assistance.

Nearly 950 Australian soldiers are stationed in that Central Asian Islamic nation, and the figure is expected to increase to over 1000 by 2008, according to military sources.

Audubon’s Birds of America in Teyler’s Museum in Haarlem

This video is called Audubon Art Drawn from Nature.

There will be an exhibition about John James Audubon‘s famous book Birds of America in Teyler’s Museum in Haarlem in the Netherlands.

It will in start in November 2007.

Butterflies and oystercatchers

This is a video about brimstone butterflies.

Today, in the nature reserve.

A speckled wood butterfly.

A dragonfly.

In the meadow to the east, oystercatchers.

Later, in a garden, a brimstone butterfly.

Rupert Murdoch takes over Wall Street Journal

This video from the USA is called A Bill Moyers essay on Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal.

By Jerry White:

The takeover of Dow Jones & Company by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation was finalized late Tuesday evening. The $5 billion deal will add the Wall Street Journal and other assets to Murdoch’s worldwide media empire and lead to a further concentration of the media in the hands of a few super-rich individuals and vast conglomerates.

News Corporation, which is valued at $28 billion, already controls over 100 newspapers worldwide, including the Times of London, the Australian, the New York Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. It also owns the Fox television network in the US and Sky News in the UK and dozens of other media companies, ranging from film and home entertainment to satellite broadcasting, magazine and book publishing and the Internet, where it recently bought the social networking web site MySpace.

Several other media giants also made bids for Dow Jones, including General Electric Co. (owner of NBC and Universal Pictures), which attempted to form a group with Microsoft, IAC/InterActiveCorp’s Barry Diller and Pearson PLC, owner of the Financial Times.

Murdoch, who is ranked 32nd in Forbes magazine’s list of the richest 400 Americans, with a net worth of $7.7 billion, made the highest bid at $60 a share—or 67 percent higher than Dow Jones’s share price of $36 when the offer became public.

MySpace: here.

Mark Fiore animation on US weapons sales to the Middle East

This video from the USA is called US Saudi Arms Deal.

“The United States is currently moving forward on a 20 billion Arms deal that will cement the tyrannical Saudi Regime as a permanent Monarchy.”

There is a new Mark Fiore animation on the Internet.

It is here.

It is called Travels with Smarty.

It is about Condoleezza Rice [see also here] and Robert Gates of the US Bush administration going to the Middle East for gigantic arms deals.

See also here.

Belgian-Saudi arms deal: here.

Polish migratory workers refuse to be scabs in England

This video from Britain is the Royal mail strike song. A reworked version of Another brick in the wall, by Pink Floyd, dedicated to the trade union CWU.

From British weekly Socialist Worker:

Class unity wins over agency workers in Watford

Picketing post workers in Watford scored a major goal against their management and in favour of working class unity on Wednesday last week when they convinced a coach load of Polish agency workers not to break their strike.

“We knew that our managers were going to try and bring in agency workers to try and break the strike,” Alan Walsh, the branch secretary of Watford CWU, told Socialist Worker.

“When a coach of about 30 agency workers turned up just before 10pm, a few of us went over to talk to them about our strike in the hope that we could turn some of them back. But as we approached we realised that the agency workers were all Polish, and that only a few spoke English.

“We found a couple who could act as translators for the whole group, and explained our case to them.

“I said, we know you are workers – just like us – and that you badly need the money, and that’s why you are here. Our fight is not with you, it is with Royal Mail management.

“I explained the issues to them. I told them that I had worked at the mail centre for 25 years – they gasped when they heard how long I’d been in the job – and I told them what the union meant. I told them that if it were broken, we would all have to work like slaves.

“Then they had a meeting among themselves to discuss what I’d said. I can’t speak any Polish, but I know that there was an argument going on.

“At 10pm a manager came out of the mail centre and told the coach driver to get the agency workers back on the bus. But he refused, saying that by law he had to have a tea break (other pickets went to make him a cuppa).

“The agency workers were still debating when three other managers came out and tried to herd them into the office. They tried to stop us from talking to them, but we told them to stuff it. We’ve got a right to talk to other workers and explain the issues.

“Then the workers decided. Over 20 of them got back on the bus and said that they would not cross our line, while about six of them went in.

“Myself and another picket got on the coach to thank them, and the driver. And as they drove away, all the pickets gave them a cheer and clapped them off.

“The most important lesson out of this is that agency workers are workers. And that if you approach people as workers, and explain the issues to them, they can be won to our side.”

Strike update here.

Update 2 August 2007: here.

Foreign migratory workers exploited by gangmasters in Britain: here.