This is one of the prize-winning photos by Bahraini photographer Ammar Abdul-Rasool. It depicts a peaceful Bahraini pro-democracy demonstrator presenting flowers to police, hoping to defuse a tense situation.

From the Bahrain Center for Human Rights:

29 July, 2014

Bahraini Authorities Resume the Targeting of Photographers with the Arrest of Ammar Abdul-Rasool

As part of a wider repressive campaign against freedom of opinion and expression in Bahrain, the number of detained Bahraini photographers rises to six.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its concern for the Bahrain authorities’ continuing disregard of calls by international human rights organisations to end the security clampdown on Bahrainis demanding freedom and democracy. The BCHR is particularly concerned about the targeting of journalists, photographers and human rights activists whose peaceful activities have managed to break through the government’s news blackout and widely disseminate the far-reaching violations of the Bahrain government.

At…

There is hail but the sun shines,
There is thunder but peace reigns,
Clouds bank up but the horizon’s clear,
Danger looms but I do not fear ……..
There is happiness within.
Green follows the ravage of fire,
Flood brings food in its mire,
While dark clouds and wind bring rain
To quench the thirst and grow the grain ……
We’ve but to look within.
**********
Ian Gardner
♥

Sometimes it takes a while to catch up on the comments shared on my posts. I at time feel like I wait too long yet in a way it is a very beautiful thing when I wait for a day when it is quiet so I can truly enjoy and appreciate all the wonderful sentiment and kindness shared. It is uplifting and inspirational as well as sometimes brings great change to my perspective to see such wonderful people and have the…

A friend who understands your tears

The latest figures released by Croatia’s justice minister Orsat Miljenic say that right now in Croatia there are some 317,000 citizens who have had their bank accounts blocked, preventing them from meeting their financial obligations as well as their everyday needs. Their private/household debt totals some 28 billion Kuna. To put a perspective on that sum it translates into almost 25% of the income/revenue feature of the state budget for 2014/2015! On average, ten families are deprived of their assets — most often their housing — each day as a result of enforcement proceedings.

Croatia has a quite effective legal framework for the enforcement of debt payments, but in six years of deep economic crisis no way has yet been found or asserted to incorporate a social component into the debt collection system. The institutions of personal bankruptcy and debt rescheduling for the over-indebted still do not exist, however public…