Doha - daily

3 reasons why India is a game changer in international affairs

1. Pharmaceutical companies & stupid patents over meds 
A few months ago the Indian Supreme Court refused to allow one of the world leading pharmaceutical companies to patent a new version of a cancer drug. Novartis lost a 6 year legal battle since the court decided that a few minor changes and improvements to the drug did not amount to innovation deserving a patent. Had the court asserted  that the drug is a new one, the manufacturer's (Novartis) control would extend over the new version of the drug. This judgment allows poor people to access medicines in cheaper and almost affordable to them prices. It also paves the way for similar rulings in the future in other countries as well. 

[Ironically enough this drug was manufactured in the first place in the US mostly due to public funding and now it is under Novartis intellectual property (see techdirt's brief but concise account and the NYTimes).]

2. Publishers & copyright
India will raise in December the issue of the copyright of textbooks in the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). India will ask for the modification of the strict copyright criteria when it comes to the educational use of academic textbooks and the students' right to photocopy them.  

3. Cyberspace & illegal interception of communications 
India with Brazil and South Africa - the so-called IBSA Grouping - openly pointed out that the unauthorised practice of illegal interception of communications and data is a serious violation of national sovereignty and individual rights. Even though I am not 100% on the same side with these countries regarding their motives or even the precise way that they frame their disagreements, I have to give them that they stand up.  

Go India! In the Queen's name.

Banksy in NY

Breakfast of the champions is strong coffee & new Banksy.

less details

Sometimes less details is better. 

I like this software program cos it reminds me of the moments I find sea shells on the beach. I pick up the old, broken and imperfect ones. Their imperfection reveals to you their fundamental structure and hence their beauty. 

A story of the seed and controlling & monopolising knowledge

This is an excellent 30' min documentary on the story of a seed. It is not only about biodiversity and traditional farming. It is about owning, controlling and monopolising knowledge. To my mind, companies creating genetically modified seeds and raising intellectual property rights to the expense of all farmers is incomprehensible and absurd. Fool stop.  

It is really worth watching it.  

pictures of justice

Ministry of Justice, The Hague 

Ministry of Justice, The Hague

Ministry of Justice, The Hague

The Hague

Atlas

Torture room, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

One of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia

   

Victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia

Bangkok