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swampboots, Suicides Among Japanese Children Reach Highest Level in 3 Decades
"Americans are spoiled , working 80 hours a week is a piece of cake,..."
We could also bring back the worst of sweatshops and working conditions of centuries past, i
guess. All safety regulations of today's building sites could go too. That's one road we could go.
Aside: I found too much conflict in choosing which board to post assorted articles on so seldom visit
FC any more, but happy to be here, and am glad you have visited and found something of interest.
A total of 250 children in elementary, middle and high schools committed suicide last year in Japan, the highest number since 1986.
Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Motoko Rich and Makiko Inoue
Nov. 6, 2018
TOKYO — Suicides by young people in Japan rose to their highest level in three decades in 2017, according to new figures released by the government.
Japan has a persistent problem .. https://data.oecd.org/healthstat/suicide-rates.htm .. with suicides, although the number has been declining over all. But child suicides have risen recently, with experts pointing to school pressures and bullying as likely triggers.
Last year 250 children in elementary, middle and high schools committed suicide, the highest number since 1986, according to data released last month by the Education Ministry.
According to the Education Ministry survey of schools, most of the students did not leave any explanation for why they decided to take their own lives. Of those who did, the most frequently cited reason was worries over what path to take after graduation. Other reasons included family problems and bullying.
A separate survey by Japan’s Cabinet Office in 2015 found that suicides among children tended to spike on Sept. 1, speculating that students felt school pressures more intensely after the summer break. According to the Welfare Ministry, suicide was the leading cause of death last year among 15- to 19-year-olds.
Although child suicide is not a problem unique to Japan .. https://www.oecd.org/els/family/CO_4_4_Teenage-Suicide.pdf , mental illness is still not an open topic of discussion, and it is difficult for children and teenagers who are depressed or anxious to seek help.
“In Japan, your biggest problem is that there is a greater stigma about mental health problems than in other countries,” said Vickie Skorji, director of the crisis hotline at TELL, a counseling and crisis intervention service in Tokyo. “You’re most likely to get bullied, and less likely to get support services and understanding from your parents.”
Some experts say that children do not receive as much support from family as they might have in the past. While several generations of a family used to live together, such arrangements are less common now.
“I think support networks for children have been weakening,” said Yoshitomo Takahashi, a professor and psychiatrist at Tsukuba University. “Now, we cannot expect the same thing from families that we used to expect. We can’t expect parents or grandparents to provide the support they used to. And in this situation, children remain alone.”
Experts say that schools are generally not well equipped to cope with mental illness among students and, in general, education about mental illness is lacking. “Teachers are busy, and they cannot respond to each individual student in many cases,” said Yuki Kubota, professor of clinical psychology at Kyushu Sangyo University.
Over the summer, a junior high school in Aomori, in northern Japan, admitted that bullying provoked the 2016 suicide of a 13-year-old girl .. http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201808030055.html , Rima Kasai. In a report about the suicide, the school said that it had relied on individual teachers to respond to the bullying but that the situation “reached its limit as no organized action was taken.”
Related Coverage
Jan. 5, 2018 Long Before Video, Japanese Fought Suicide in the ‘Sea of Trees’
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/world/asia/suicide-forest-japan-logan-paul.html
Nov. 5, 2018 The Nauru Experience: Zero-Tolerance Immigration and Suicidal Children
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/world/australia/nauru-island-asylum-refugees-children-suicide.html
DEC. 17, 2009 At Japanese Cliffs, a Campaign to Combat Suicide
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/world/asia/18japan.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/world/asia/japan-suicide-children.html
Bougainville: World's newest nation expected to form as islands vote in independence poll
"Guns and Viagra at the Wutung border
BY KELA KAPKORA SIL BOLKIN - 20 May 2012"
Region thought likely to break away from Papua New Guinea would be first new country since South Sudan
Nick Perry
3 days ago
Some voters are travelling to polling stations by boat ( AFP/Getty )
The Pacific islands of Bougainville are voting in a historic referendum to decide if it will become the world's newest nation by gaining independence from Papua New Guinea.
The vote will run over two weeks and is a key part of a 2001 peace agreement that ended a civil war in which at least 15,000 people died in the cluster of islands to the east of the Papua New Guinea mainland.
Experts believe the 250,000 people of Bougainville will vote overwhelming in favour of independence ahead of the other option, which is greater autonomy, but the vote will not be the final word.
The referendum is non-binding and a vote for independence would need to be negotiated by leaders from Bougainville and Papua New Guinea. The final say would go to legislators in the Papua New Guinea parliament.
[...]
The world's newest country is too poor to celebrate independence day
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/south-sudan-worlds-newest-country-poor-independence-day-celebrate-a7113126.html
The violence in Bougainville began in the late 1980s, triggered by conflict over an enormous open cast copper mine at Panguna.
The mine was a huge export earner for Papua New Guinea but many in Bougainville felt they got no benefit and resented the pollution and disruption to their traditional way of living.
The mine has remained shut since the conflict. Some believe it could provide a future revenue source for Bougainville should it become independent.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/bougainville-independence-referendum-papua-new-guinea-new-nation-a9214796.html
Bloodied and broken: Rising toll of Philippines' war with ISIS
"Philippine Leader, Focused on War on Drug Users, Ignored Rise of ISIS"
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As Assad initially did.
The History Of ISIS That Assad Hopes Everyone Has Forgotten
by Hayes Brown Sep 15, 2014 1:24pm
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116796120
.. with more .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=130272423
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VIDEO
By Euan McKirdy and Ivan Watson, CNN
Updated 0505 GMT (1305 HKT) June 26, 2017
Iligan, Philippines (CNN) -- During the rainy season on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao, storms are foreshadowed by flashes of lightning in the distance, visible above the treetops.
When the rain finally comes, it is a vicious, torrential downpour, which ends as abruptly as it begins.
While the rains come and go, the flow of wounded into a military hospital in the north of the island does not. Just as two ambulances pull into the hospital at Camp Evangelista in Cagayan de Oro, the skies once again open up, muddying the dirt courtyard. They discharge yet another 10 soldiers, wounded in what is becoming a bloody, protracted insurgency by ISIS-affiliated militants.
Lt. Col. Jonna Dalaguit, the facility's chief medical officer, looks exhausted from the constant stream of broken men who are ferried into her hospital, brought in displaying the wounds of war -- "bullet wounds, blast wounds, fractures," she tells CNN.
"We have (admitted around) 330 casualties since day two of this crisis." It's the worst count she's ever seen.
It's been like this for a month, since ISIS-aligned fighters stormed the northern Mindanao city of Marawi, capturing key government buildings and setting fire to churches and schools.
In the weeks that followed, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have slowly clawed back territory in the city, but a stubborn remnant of around 100 fighters clings to a handful of inner city neighborhoods, despite a sustained -- and some argue indiscriminate -- campaign of government airstrikes .. http://cnn.com/2017/05/30/asia/philippines-marawi-isis-hapilon/index.html .. reducing much of the city to rubble.
IMAGE - Philippines
Residents fleeing Marawi saw around 100 bodies, Philippines official says
High human cost
The siege, which appears to have taken authorities by surprise, has come at a high human cost -- ISIS has killed at least 66 Philippines soldiers and wounded hundreds more since the conflict began. It's the highest military death toll in recent Philippines history.
It's so overcrowded at Camp Evangelista that around 30 soldiers, who aren't in critical condition, lie in camp beds in an open-air hallway. From here they watch their comrades, bloodied and broken, rushed in from the battle.
VIDEO -- The human cost of ISIS in the Philippines 01:44
The troops occupying the beds here, and throughout the wards, bring back stories from the front.
One, who cannot be named for military reasons, painfully levers himself up, to prop himself against the side of his hospital bed. He lowers his sweatpants to show the stained bandages which cover much of the back of his thighs.
He was on the battlefield earlier this month, clearing buildings in the city with his team. His point man's weapon jammed, he said, and when he went to help him clear it, he was struck by an IED.
"I saw the ignition for a split second and turned," he said. "The (armored) vest protected me but not my legs."
He suffered extensive burns in the attack; his teammate was also wounded. Another bomb went off when the recovery team went in to extract them.
He was one of the relatively lucky ones. He says four members of his unit -- his friends -- have died in the past month, and he saw civilian bodies on the streets when the army first went in to take back the city.
Photos: 1 of 5 - More than 330 casualties have been admitted to the Camp Evangelista military hospital in Cagayan de Oro since Philippines forces started trying to push ISIS fighters from Marawi on May 23.
Battle-hardened
The militants this time are much more organized and "wiser" than in previous encounters, he says -- they've learned urban combat tactics honed in ISIS-held territory in the Middle East, he says.
"They're using tactics from Iraq and Syria now -- IEDs, RPGs."
The minarets of the city's mosques, not too long ago used by Imams to call the faithful to prayer, now serve as deadly ISIS sniper nests.
Another soldier, whose mother quietly cleans his wounds as he lies in his bed, tells CNN that, as well as importing ISIS' urban guerrilla tactics, they ape the AFP's methods, and are fearless in carrying out counterattacks.
"We have mortars, they have mortars already," he says. "And they are ready to die."
Filipinos are used to the torrential summer rains, but they do not hold out much hope that this vicious insurgency, which has erupted with a ferocity unseen here before, will end as quickly.
ISIS goes global: 143 attacks in 29 countries have killed 2,043
http://cnn.com/2015/12/17/world/mapping-isis-attacks-around-the-world/index.html
Early warnings
Like the low thunder that precedes Mindanao's downpours, there have been rumblings of Islamist uprisings on the island for some time. Armed extremist groups have been in Mindanao -- the only part of the Philippines archipelago with a sizable Muslim population -- since at least the 1970s.
Over time disagreements and regional factionalism took hold and individual groups have separately carried out bombings, kidnappings and other atrocities with little central organization.
It was only with the rise of Isnilon Hapilon, a commander in the Abu Sayyaf Group of Basilan, an island in the south, that some form of reconciliation came about.
Abu Sayyaf commander Isnllon Hapilon, seen here in a screen grab from a militant-released video, leading jihadis while holding an ISIS flag.
Hapilon, a wiry extremist in his early 50s, was named emir of Southeast Asia by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2016 and has since set about uniting the region's extremists.
In a matter of months, he has gathered as many as 14 groups under the black banner of ISIS, according to Rommel Banlaoi, a terrorism expert with the Philippines Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research monitoring group. The Marawi operation represents the first time these forces have banded together to fight under the ISIS flag.
"I don't think we've ever seen an alliance like this that has shown the military capacity to take over a city, or to mount an operation that has anything approaching the complexity of this one," Sidney Jones, the Indonesia-based director of the Institute for Policy and Analysis of Conflict told CNN.
She says the difference lies in the appeal of the ISIS ideology -- "the fact that these very disparate groups subscribe to and have been attracted by the idea of a single Islamic state for the entire world."
IMAGE: Mapping of ISIS groups -
Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines launch joint patrols to tackle ISIS threat
http://cnn.com/2017/06/19/asia/indonesia-malaysia-philippines-isis/index.html
Tight controls
Mindanao is under martial law and the closer to the epicenter of the violence, the stricter the controls are. At a checkpoint on a road into Iligan City, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Marawi, civilians on foot and on public transport line up to pass into the city cordon.
--
Read more: ISIS in the Philippines
* Displaced and desperate: 'I will never go back to Marawi'
http://cnn.com/2017/06/25/asia/isis-siege-marawi/index.html
* Duterte begs forgiveness, pledges to rebuild ISIS-infested city
http://cnn.com/2017/06/21/asia/philippines-isis-marawi-duterte/index.html
* ISIS in Southeast Asia: Philippines battles growing threat
http://cnn.com/2017/05/28/asia/isis-threat-southeast-asia/index.html
* Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines launch joint navy patrols
http://cnn.com/2017/06/19/asia/indonesia-malaysia-philippines-isis/index.html
* Philippines appears to reverse position on military cooperation
http://cnn.com/2017/06/11/asia/philippines-military-cooperation/index.html
* ISIS claim Manila casino attack despite police denial
http://cnn.com/2017/06/02/asia/manila-philippines-resort-world-isis/index.html
--
Many of the thousands who pass through each day are former residents of the stricken city, and the checkpoints are another daily reminder of their hometown's parlous situation.
At the barrier, passengers disembark from their jeepneys and line up in the June sun, slowly shifting forward towards makeshift awnings set up by the police and military. There, they are treated brusquely by troops on edge and fearful of bombings or other attacks.
After waiting their turn, they display their ID cards and move on. If they don't have documentation -- and many lost everything when fleeing the city -- they write their personal details in a log book. One commuter, Alfie Pitogo, tells CNN it is an annoyance but it's worth being inconvenienced if it keeps the city safe.
Troops and police officers are on the hunt for suspected militants and escaped convicts from the jailbreak that the terrorists conducted at the beginning of their bloody campaign. Posters featuring mugshots of suspected militants and escaped convicts hang under the awnings.
One pedestrian is pulled out of line and brought in front of a laptop, which takes his picture and uses facial recognition software to compare him to the dozens of images of wanted men. No match is made, so he is told he can continue on his way.
Photos: 1 of 6 -- Civilians entering the city of Iligan in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao have their documents checked by police and military personnel on June 21, 2017.
Duterte says he may expand martial law 'throughout the country' in fight against ISIS
http://cnn.com/2017/05/24/asia/philippines-mindanao-violence/index.html
Hundreds of thousands flee
The crisis in Marawi has forced almost 350,000 to flee city and surrounding areas, creating a humanitarian crisis the government is struggling to contain.
Many have sought shelter with relatives and friends outside the city, but thousands of others have crammed into makeshift camps for internally displaced people (IDP).
Local councilor Henry Cabilin tells CNN there are over a thousand IDPs in his "barangay" -- the Tagalog word for neighborhood -- alone. The number of men and women are about equal, but 80% are Muslim and 20% Christian.
Photos: 1 of 7 - The crisis in Marawi has sparked a humanitarian situation, which the local government is struggling to contain.
Ahead of a visit by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to one such camp .. http://cnn.com/2017/06/21/asia/philippines-isis-marawi-duterte/index.html , at the National School of Fisheries in Barangay Buruan in nearby Iligan, a young mother sat on a thin rug, clutching her newborn. He was born in Marawi on May 23, as the battle for the city raged outside.
"While I was giving birth I could hear the gunfire but we didn't run for safety," Tarhata Musarip tells CNN.
Tarhata Musarip's baby was born as the fight for Marawi raged outside. She called him Martial Law, in recognition of the events surrounding his birth.
-
"It was time for me to give birth. When my husband arrived at about 6 p.m., that's when I delivered the baby. At 7 p.m., we left our home and sought shelter at another house, a higher one because ours was just made of wood, like a small hut."
She named the infant Martial Law, a nod to Duterte's decision to put the island under military lockdown. "He was born when we evacuated and then President Duterte announced he was going to declare martial law," she says. "So I decided to name him Martial.
"With God's mercy, my baby is fine. He's been vaccinated and able to breastfeed. When we first arrived, my knees were shaky. I've been able to recover."
-
Nothing to celebrate
Rohayma Macarimbor said an ISIS fighter gave her water as she fled Marawi.
-
At another IDP center across town in Barangay Maria Christina, Rohayma Macarimbor tells CNN she fled Marawi on foot three days after fighting began. The 55-year-old Muslim woman was on her way of the city when she encountered a truck full of ISIS-aligned militants. Terrified they would kill her and her companions, she said she tried to avoid their gaze but one called out to her in Arabic.
Having previously worked in Saudi Arabia, she understood that he was trying to reassure her. He offered her water, which she thought would be poisoned but, raging with thirst, she eventually drank it.
Wiping tears from her eyes, Macarimbor said the timing of the attack on her city was especially galling, as it came at the start of Ramadan, what should be a peaceful time for Muslims everywhere.
Sunday saw the festival of Eid, which marks the end of the month of fasting, but those in the camps have nothing to celebrate.
"I (used to) look forward to Eid," she said.
"I cook many dishes, different and delicious ones, to celebrate the end of Ramadan, but this will not happen anymore."
-
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Journalists Kathy Quiano and Jinky Jorgio contributed to this report.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/25/asia/philippines-marawi-isis/index.html
By Jingos, The Australian Values ‘Problem’ Resides in Our Homes, Not Our Hearts
"Drivers with Aussie flags on their cars 'more racist' research shows"
(IMAGE: DonkeyHotey, Flickr)
By Ben Eltham on April 21, 2017 Australian Politics
Banging the nationalist drum didn’t work for Tony Abbott. It won’t work for Malcolm Turnbull either, writes Ben Eltham.
It was Samuel Johnson who first gave us the famous quote, “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”. Johnson is thought to have uttered the quote in April 1775. He was decrying the nationalist tone of British politics .. https://www.routledge.com/A-Political-Biography-of-Samuel-Johnson/Hudson/p/book/9781138661400 .. at the outset of the American rebellion.
Johnson’s pamphlet The Patriot .. https://books.google.com.au/books?vid=OCLC04895231&id=3VPJAUnKKhYC&pg=PA324&lpg=PA324&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false .. remains one of the most acute discussions of this perennial topic.
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“A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation.
This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errors and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble …”
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Johnson’s remarks have seldom seemed so relevant, as democratic governments across the Western world march in lock-step to the beat of a nationalist drum.
In Britain, in the United States, France, and in Australia, political leaders are disseminating discontent, propagating reports of secret influence, and instigating the populace with rage.
Donald Trump and Theresa May are leading both their countries in a remarkable turn to nativism, populism and patriotism. Their slogans of “America First” and “Brexit means Brexit” signal a dramatic retreat from internationalism, and indeed from liberal principles in general.
Australia is certainly not immune from the gales of populist unrest. If you’ve been following Australian politics this week, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Adrift in the polls and with his own position looking increasingly tenuous, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is trying his own brand of political populism.
With cries of “Australia first” and “Australian values”, Turnbull has flipped the switch to patriotism with two major announcements in immigration policy.
On Tuesday, Turnbull took to Facebook .. https://business.facebook.com/malcolmturnbull/videos/10155311599176579/ .. to announce the government was scrapping 457 visas, a prominent immigration program that brings skilled workers to Australia. The government is “putting Australian workers first .. http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2017-04-18/putting-australian-workers-first .”
Yesterday, Turnbull announced changes to the Australian citizenship test .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-20/migrants-to-face-tougher-tests-for-australian-citizenship/8456392 , claiming a new test would ensure new citizens pledged themselves to what he called “Australian values .. http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2017-04-20/strengthening-integrity-australian-citizenship .” Citizenship rules will be significantly tightened, the English test will be made harder, and prospective citizens will even be asked, in the chilling words of the government media release, “to show the steps they have taken to integrate into and contribute to the Australian community”.
The political symbolism was as obvious as it was heavy-handed. The Prime Minister was at pains to utter the flavoursome phrase of “Australian values .. http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2017-04-20/press-conference-minister-immigration-and-border-protection-hon-peter-dutton-mp ” as often as he could, almost as though he was savouring the taste. Here, at last, was a political wedge with which the government could go on the attack.
Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Not that Turnbull’s list of “Australian values” is all that remarkable. “The rule of law, democracy, freedom, mutual respect, equality for men and women”, as he said, are indeed noble values, though many would argue about whether the Australian government actually adheres to them.
No matter. The political theatre of patriotism is exactly what Turnbull needs to get the national conversation shifted from housing, which was badly hurting the Coalition.
The housing debate is ruthlessly exposing the Coalition’s weakness in economic policy. In a sluggish economy of stagnant wages and accelerating inequality, the government can offer nothing except cuts to company tax. Meanwhile a major social crisis has developed in the housing market, which the government has been loathe to recognise.
Simply put, Malcolm Turnbull’s government has no answer to Australia’s housing affordability problem. It has ruled out all the best policy suggestions that could address it, like abolishing negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
Paralysed by the power of the property industry in the Liberal Party base, and with vast vested interests in the form of their own investment properties, the government and indeed the Coalition backbench will never accede to policies that might see house prices fall. Voters are coming to realise this.
So switching the media space to patriotism makes perfect sense. It gets the discussion away from affordability and onto ‘security’, that nebulous but powerful word so beloved of unpopular governments everywhere.
Turnbull and his advisors appear to have plumped for another round of security theatre as the best way to shore up the Prime Minister’s vulnerable leadership. In the foreground, an increasingly active Tony Abbott continues to undermine. And so we’re getting skilled migration crackdowns and citizenship culture war.
Turnbull was already on the attack yesterday morning, calling on Labor to support the government’s changes to the citizenship. The wedge is clumsy, but it may still prove effective, because Labor is terrified of appearing unpatriotic. This is how the nationalist ratchet works: winching Australia in sudden lurches to the right. No wonder Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson are claiming credit .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-19/turnbull-echoes-trump-with-australia-first-rhetoric-on-457-visa/8453794 .
Former Liberal extremist Cory Bernardi, speaking at the recent Senate Inquiry into the certification of foods.
The good times will keep rolling. Next week brings Anzac Day, which will give Turnbull another chance to strut the national stage. Anzac Day is becoming an increasingly militarised and jingoistic national celebration, in which imagery of sorrow and sacrifice has given way to displays of military power and affirmations of patriotic loyalty. That should provide a perfect backdrop to some more “Australia first” sloganeering.
But before we get too wrapped up in the flags and the cenotaphs, it’s worth asking whether any of this will actually benefit the government.
We’ve been here before: the latter stages of Tony Abbott’s doomed prime ministership were also increasingly strident and nationalistic. Abbott spent much of 2015 issuing terrifying warnings about Islamic State and terrorism. In May 2015, he announced new changes to citizenship in tones of near-hysteria. In June 2015, he warned that Islamic State was “coming for us all .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-27/abbott-condemns-spate-of-terror-attacks/6577786 .” At one stage he was to be found literally in the ASIO bunker .. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/asio-briefing-tony-abbott-with-yearold-maps-produced-by-the-washington-post-what-20150626-ghye23.html , poring over out-of-date situation maps cribbed from the Washington Post.
It didn’t work. Abbott remained deeply unpopular. Voters continued to focus on domestic issues. As the Australian flags multiplied .. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/tony-gets-number-of-star-points-wrong-in-front-of-10-flags/news-story/07da9ae2a64b9eb6fead66176c412038 .. at media conferences, so the Coalition’s poll figures sunk. Abbott was gone just three months later.
So it’s an open question whether Turnbull’s latest lurch to the right will achieve any real improvement in his declining political fortunes. The patriotism play also exacerbates one of Turnbull’s biggest problems: people think he’s betrayed his ideals to hold on to the highest office. Nothing in this week’s announcements would dissuade anyone from that view.
There will also be examination of the details of these two policy announcements, some of which loom as major political problems for the government down the track. On some readings of the new visas replacing the 457, some industries will no longer be able to hire overseas scientists, academics and programmers .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-19/scientists-fear-457-visa-changes-will-hurt-research-labs/8454330 .
[ INSERT: Trump’s Immigration Ban Is Already Harming American Science
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Preventing universities and tech companies from hiring top flight international talent will hurt Australian innovation .. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/457-cut-to-hurt-startups/news-story/241c7a57c3782164d3d3c347c4be5592 , precisely the thing Turnbull used to be so identified with. It will also annoy some of the Coalition’s key backers in the corporate sector.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. (IMAGE: Veni, Flickr).
Then there is the pressing question of what message this sends to the world about Australia’s openness and tolerance. It’s clear enough what that message is: Australia is shutting the door to the world’s talent. Never been a more exciting time to be an Australian? Not so much, it would appear, if you want to become a new one.
But much more than the policy implications, it’s what this latest tilt at ‘Australian values’ says about the man Malcolm Turnbull that matters. A politician who made his career out of presenting himself as moderate, meritocratic and cosmopolitan makes a poor demagogue. We just don’t buy it. Tony Abbott really believed the sky was falling; it’s hard to believe Turnbull is similarly afraid… unless what he’s really afraid of is losing his own job.
As Johnson wrote in The Patriot, it is possible to deceive the credulous, “by deceiving the credulous with fictitious mischiefs” and “by appealing to the judgment of ignorance”. But, as Johnson concluded, it is also possible for the nation to “unite in a general abhorrence” of politicians who “arrogate to themselves the name of patriots.”
Turnbull runs the very real risk that many in the electorate will not believe he is a genuine patriot: that he is mouthing these slogans out of desperation, not belief. That would smack of hypocrisy, a commodity with which this government is already well supplied.
https://newmatilda.com/2017/04/21/by-jingos-the-australian-values-problem-resides-in-our-homes-not-our-hearts/
I'm sick and tired of hearing about 'Australian values', 'British values' and 'American
values'. Whatever happened to good old human values, or if you have to .. Western values.
"Not that Turnbull’s list of “Australian values” is all that remarkable. “The rule of law, democracy, freedom, mutual respect, equality for men and
women”, as he said, are indeed noble values, though many would argue about whether the Australian government actually adheres to them."
Seriously.
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Deputy ATO commissioner Michael Cranston resigns following fraud charges
Updated about an hour ago
Deputy Australian Tax Office (ATO) commissioner Michael Cranston has resigned after being formally charged in connection with a $130 million fraud.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-13/ato-deputy-commissioner-michael-cranston-resigns/8614572
See also:
Australia slammed for locking up refugees on secret ASIO advice
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Philippine Leader, Focused on War on Drug Users, Ignored Rise of ISIS
.. 2014 .. "MNLF, MILF and Abu Sayyaf are islamic groups marauding in Mindanao." ..
By RICHARD C. PADDOCKJUNE 10, 2017
Security forces in Marawi, the Philippines, on Wednesday. Credit Jes Aznar/Getty Images
MANILA — It was classic bravado from the Philippines’ .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/philippines/index.html?inline=nyt-geo .. tough-guy president, Rodrigo Duterte.
The Maute Group, a militant Islamist band fighting government troops near the southern Philippines city of Marawi last year, had asked for a cease-fire.
The president rejected the overture.
“They said that they will go down upon Marawi to burn the place,” Mr. Duterte recounted in December. “And I said, ‘Go ahead, do it.’”
He got his wish.
Hundreds of militants belonging to the Maute Group and its allies fighting under the black flag of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaeda_in_mesopotamia/index.html?inline=nyt-org , seized Marawi three weeks ago, leading to a battle with the Philippine armed forces and the biggest test yet of Mr. Duterte’s leadership during his tumultuous first year in office.
A president who has focused on a deadly antidrug campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Filipinos seems to have been caught unprepared for a militant threat that has been festering in the south for years.
“The government has largely been in denial about the growth of ISIS and affiliated groups,” said Zachary M. Abuza .. http://nwc.ndu.edu/About/Leadership/Article-View/Article/626410/abuza-dr-zachary-m/ , a professor at the National War College in Washington who specializes in Southeast Asian security issues. “Duterte has been preoccupied with his campaign of gutting the rule of law by using police and other security forces for the extrajudicial killing of drug pushers.”
Government forces have been unable to dislodge the militants despite deploying ground troops and bombing the city of 200,000 people from the air. More than 200 people have been killed, including 24 civilians, 58 soldiers and police officers, and at least 138 militants, according to the Philippine military.
A Philippine Air Force plane during a bombing in Marawi on Friday. Credit Aaron Favila/Associated Press
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled, and much of the city center lies in ruins. The military says that it has cleared 90 percent of the city but that militants remain in three neighborhoods in the center. Analysts say the military has less experience fighting on an urban battlefield, where the militants are mixed in with hundreds of civilians.
Mr. Duterte has declared 60 days of martial law for the southern island of Mindanao, which includes Marawi and his hometown, Davao City. He has twice set deadlines for troops to retake Marawi, the country’s largest predominantly Muslim city, but each deadline has passed with the battle still raging.
On Friday, Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla predicted that the government would retake Marawi by Monday, Philippines Independence Day. On Saturday, 13 Philippine marines were killed in a clash with militants there.
The militants’ seizure of the city, a bold attempt to establish an Islamic State caliphate in Southeast Asia, marks a significant advance for the Middle East-based terrorist group as well as an apparent reordering of the militant threat in the southern Philippines.
For the first time, it puts the Philippines on the map with failed states such as Libya and Afghanistan as places where Islamic State allies have sought to seize territory for a caliphate, giving the group another regional flash point in its effort to spread its influence globally.
The Islamic State has urged fighters who cannot reach Syria to join the jihad in the Philippines instead, said Sidney Jones .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/opinion/isis-philippines-rodrigo-duterte.html?_r=0 , director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict. Fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia, Chechnya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia were among those killed in the battle for Marawi.
The Air Force dropped bomb in Marawi on Tuesday. Credit Noel Celis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mindanao has long been a hotbed of insurgencies, with numerous armed groups operating outside government control. Until the siege at Marawi, the best-known internationally was Abu Sayyaf, an ostensibly Islamist group that specialized in kidnapping for ransom, nearly single-handedly turning Southeast Asia into the world’s piracy capital .. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/world/asia/philippines-piracy-abu-sayyaf.html , edging out the Horn of Africa.
The Marawi siege also heralds the rise of Isnilon Hapilon, a longtime leader of Abu Sayyaf who had grown more ideologically minded over the years. Last year, Mr. Hapilon, 51, was named by the Islamic State as its emir in Southeast Asia. Previously based on the island of Basilan, he is on the F.B.I.’s list of most-wanted terrorists and the United States has offered a $5 million reward for his capture.
Various factions have come together behind Mr. Hapilon, notably the Maute Group, led by the brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute. Educated in the Middle East, the Mautes are based in the Marawi area and recently accepted Mr. Hapilon’s leadership as emir.
The Mautes are believed responsible for bombing a market in Davao City in September that killed 15.
Mr. Duterte is the first president from Mindanao, and he ran last year as the candidate who could bring peace to the region. The bombing of his hometown may have inspired his angry challenge to the Mautes in December.
“It’s the usual Duterte brand of bravado,” said Roilo Golez, a former national security adviser to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who left office in 2010. “It’s a way of intimidating the opposition. It works most of the time.”
It hasn’t with the Islamists in Mindanao.
After a clash between his military and Abu Sayyaf in April, Mr. Duterte suggested that the way to stop the militants was to eat them. “Make me mad,” he taunted .. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/24/asia/rodrigo-duterte-eat-terrorist-liver/index.html . “Get me a terrorist. Give me salt and vinegar. I will eat his liver.”
A funeral on Friday for a Muslim boy who was hit by a stray bullet at a mosque. Credit Romeo Ranoco/Reuters
In May, the Philippine military got a tip that Mr. Hapilon had arrived in Marawi to join up with the Maute brothers. When soldiers raided the house where Mr. Hapilon was believed to be, hoping to capture him and claim the $5 million reward, they were surprised to find dozens of well armed militants arrayed against them.
A video .. https://apnews.com/8f6649e404964ab4a2d280537c86c83f .. later recovered by the military and published by The Associated Press shows the militant leaders plotting their takeover of Marawi days before the military learned of Mr. Hapilon’s presence there. Hundreds of fighters who had gathered in preparation for seizing the city quickly put their plan into effect, burning schools and churches, taking hostages and taking over central Marawi.
Mr. Duterte’s declaration of martial law helped lead to the capture of Cayamora Maute, the father of the Maute brothers, along with other family members on Tuesday at a military checkpoint in Davao City. Some fear that the temporary martial law order in Mindanao could be expanded nationwide, an idea Mr. Duterte has openly toyed with so that he could use the military in his antidrug campaign.
“There is a sense of dread and fear that this will build support for martial law,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political analyst and author of the forthcoming book “Duterte’s Rise.” “This could strengthen the feeling of isolation by the Muslim minority.”
Muslims make up only about 5 percent of the country’s population over all but a larger proportion, estimated at 20 to 40 percent, on Mindanao.
-
[ Insert: he Philippines proudly boasts to be the only Christian nation in Asia. More than 86 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, 6 percent belong to various nationalized Christian cults, and another 2 percent belong to well over 100 Protestant denominations. In addition to the Christian majority, there is a vigorous 4 percent Muslim minority, concentrated on the southern islands of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan. Scattered in isolated mountainous regions, the remaining 2 percent follow non-Western, indigenous beliefs and practices. The Chinese minority, although statistically insignificant, has been culturally influential in coloring Filipino Catholicism with many of the beliefs and practices of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. .. http://asiasociety.org/education/religion-philippines ]
-
Historic grievances among the Muslim Moro people there, widespread poverty and large lawless areas have helped create an opportunity for the Islamic State. A peace process pursued by Mr. Duterte’s predecessor, President Benigno S. Aquino III, faltered in 2015 and has remained deadlocked under Mr. Duterte.
An evacuation center in Mindanao on Thursday. Credit Noel Celis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“It was not the spread of ISIS in Iraq and Syria that fueled ISIS cells in the Philippines, but the collapse of the peace process,” said Mr. Abuza of the National War College.
The growing threat in the south will most likely compel Mr. Duterte to improve his relations with the United States, a process that had already begun with the election of President Trump.
Mr. Duterte has raged against the United States for daring to criticize his antidrug campaign and, when President Barack Obama was in office, called for a “separation” from Washington. But Mr. Trump has shown a willingness to overlook the killings, and has praised Mr. Duterte for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem,” according to a transcript .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/us/politics/trump-duterte-phone-transcript-philippine-drug-crackdown.html .. of a call between the two leaders.
-
[ Thailand's "Failed" Drug Policy Is Full Of Lessons For The Philippines
The looming shift away from some of the world's harshest drug laws comes just as the Philippines has begun to copy some of the worst methods Thailand is now preparing to abandon.
Megha Rajagopalan Posted on October 1, 2016, at 12:03 a.m.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/meghara/thailands-failed-drug-policy-is-full-of-lessons-for-the-phil?utm_term=.pr8QykXMA#.mv1dVBq7A ]
-
Leaders of the Philippines armed forces prevailed on Mr. Duterte not to reduce military cooperation, including a longstanding United States program to provide training, equipment and intelligence to fight terrorism. Since 2001, the United States has maintained a rotating force of 50 to 100 troops in the southern Philippines to combat Abu Sayyaf.
American Special Forces are assisting the Philippine military in Marawi, the United States Embassy said on Friday, although officials would not provide further details.
“Our military relationship with the Philippines remains robust and multifaceted,” said Emma Nagy, a spokeswoman for the embassy in Manila. “U.S. Special Forces have been providing support and assistance in the southern Philippines for many years, at the request of several different Filipino administrations.”
If the battle in Marawi ends on Monday, as the military hopes, the rebellion in the south is still far from over. The audacity of the rebel takeover, even if it ultimately fails, will probably draw recruits from across the region, including members of other Islamist groups still disaffected and dissatisfied with a moribund peace process.
“If Duterte doesn’t deal with that, then this whole problem is going to fester for a very long time,” Mr. Abuza said. The “ungoverned space” on Mindanao, he said, “is a regional security threat, not just a Philippine security threat.”
Sol Vanzi contributed reporting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/asia/duterte-philippines-isis-marawi.html
See also:
Philippines President Duterte Says His Soldiers Can Rape During Martial Law
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131732845
Protests in Jakarta after Christian governor convicted of blasphemy
"Jakarta violence: One dead after hardline Muslims protest, demand Christian governor Ahok be jailed"
Religious tolerance under scrutiny as court sentences Basuki Tjahaja Purnama – nicknamed Ahok – to two years in prison
People attend a rally in Jakarta to show support for Basuki Tjahaja Purnama,
known by his nickname Ahok. Photograph: Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images
Kate Lamb in Jakarta
Wednesday 10 May 2017 21.32 AEST
Last modified on Wednesday 10 May 2017 23.13 AEST
The jailing of Jakarta’s Christian governor on blasphemy charges has sparked outrage from his supporters in Indonesia .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/indonesia , rights organisations and the EU.
On Tuesday, a court in the capital of the world’s largest Muslim-majority country found Basuki Tjahaja Purnama – better known by his nickname Ahok – guilty of blasphemy, sentencing him to two years in prison .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/09/jakarta-governor-ahok-found-guilty-of-blasphemy-jailed-for-two-years .
“The EU has consistently stated that laws that criminalise blasphemy when applied in a discriminatory manner can have a serious inhibiting effect on freedom of expression and on freedom of religion or belief,” the EU delegation to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam said in a statement posted on its website.
The Jakarta-based rights group the Setara Institute described the verdict as a “trial by mob”, while the British ambassador to Indonesia, Moazzam Malik, who is Muslim, tweeted a message of support.
-
Moazzam Malik
@MoazzamTMalik
I know Ahok. Admire his wk for Jkt. Believe he isn't antiMuslim. Praying for BuVero&kids. Leaders must step up to protect tolerance&harmony.
…Sy knl @basuki_btp Mengagumi kerjanya u/ Jkt. Percaya dia tdk antiIslam. Doa sy u/ Bu Vero&kel. Para pemimpin hrs mnjaga toleransi&kerukunan
— Moazzam Malik (@MoazzamTMalik) May 9, 2017
Philippines senator who branded President Duterte 'serial killer' arrested
"Philippines to disband police anti-drugs units after killing of South Korean businessman"
Senator Leila de Lima taken into custody on charges of drug trafficking, outraging supporters and human rights activists
Senator Leila De Lima is escorted by police officers after her arrest. Photograph: Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images
This article is 2 months old
Agence France-Presse
Friday 24 February 2017 10.10 AEDT
Last modified on Friday 24 February 2017 17.15 AEDT
The highest-profile critic of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug war .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/04/philippines-secret-death-squads-police-officer-teams-behind-killings .. was arrested on Friday on charges she said were meant to silence her, but she vowed to keep fighting the “sociopathic serial killer”.
-
Philippines secret death squads: officer claims police teams behind wave of killings
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/04/philippines-secret-death-squads-police-officer-teams-behind-killings
-
Speaking to journalists minutes before armed police in flak jackets detained her, Senator Leila de Lima insisted she was innocent of the drug trafficking charges that could see her jailed for life.
“It is my honour to be imprisoned for the things I am fighting for. Please pray for me,” De Lima said outside her Senate office where she had sought temporary refuge overnight after an arrest warrant was issued on Thursday.
“They will not be able to silence me and stop me from fighting for the truth and justice and against the daily killings and repression by the Duterte regime.”
De Lima had appealed late on Thursday night for police not to arrest her overnight, and committed to surrendering on Friday. “If they respect the Senate as an institution, they should not force an arrest tonight,” she told reporters.
When Friday morning came reporters had gathered in their dozens and watched as De Lima was escorted from her office into a waiting police minibus.
De Lima recorded a video just before her arrest as she called for ordinary Filipinos to show courage and oppose Duterte’s drug war, which has seen more than 6,500 people killed since he took office eight months ago.
“There is no doubt that our president is a murderer and a sociopathic serial killer,” she said in the 10-minute video that was posted on her Facebook page .. https://www.facebook.com/leiladelimaofficial/ .
[YouTube of embed]
Two quit Australian climate authority blaming government 'extremists'
"[Australian] Climate backflip ignores expert advice"
John Quiggin and Danny Price resign over Coalition’s ‘rightwing anti-science activists’ and climate change political point-scoring
A marsh area in the Simpson Desert. Two climate change experts have quit the
government’s advisory panel over its refusal to tackle rising emissions.
Photograph: De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images
Helen Davidson
@heldavidson
Thursday 23 March 2017 17.30 AEDT
Last modified on Friday 24 March 2017 08.02 AEDT
Two members of the Climate Change Authority have resigned, with one accusing the government of being beholden to rightwing, anti-science “extremists” in its own party and in the media.
John Quiggin told Guardian Australia he informed the federal minister for environment and energy, Josh Frydenberg, of his resignation on Thursday. It follows the resignation of fellow climate change authority member, Danny Price, who quit on Tuesday.
“The government’s refusal to accept the advice of its own authority, despite wide support for that advice from business, environmental groups and the community as a whole, reflects the comprehensive failure of its policies on energy and the environment,” Quiggin said.
-
Climate Change Authority splits over ETS report commissioned by Coalition
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/30/climate-change-authority-splits-over-ets-report-commissioned-by-coalition
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“These failures can be traced, in large measure, to the fact that the government is beholden to rightwing anti-science activists in its own ranks and in the media. Rather than resist these extremists, the Turnbull government has chosen to treat the vital issues of climate change and energy security as an opportunity for political point-scoring and culture war rhetoric.”
Quiggin said his immediate reason for resigning was the government’s failure to respond to the authority’s third report of the special review into potential climate policies, which the government had requested and which it was legally required to respond to.
“The government has already indicated that it will reject the key recommendations of the review, particularly the introduction of an emissions intensity scheme for the electricity industry.”
Quiggin said he didn’t believe there was anything to be gained “by giving objective advice based on science and economic analysis to a government dominated by elements hostile to both science and economics”.
Price told Guardian Australia he had resigned because he “didn’t think it was appropriate for a member of a government agency to be openly critical of government policy”.
“I think the authority does really good work, but I didn’t think I could stay if I was going to continue to criticise the government’s policy making and I didn’t see any chance that it would get any better,” he said.
“I really hate the complete ad hocery of it all … the idea that anything at all can be thrown out by a government in a political panic.”
Quiggin was appointed to the authority in 2012, and Price in 2015. Both were appointed for five-year terms.
The Climate Change Authority’s special review was undertaken last year, and recommended the government institute two emissions trading schemes and strengthen regulations if it was to meet Australia’s 2030 emission reduction targets.
The report was criticised by the Climate Institute, the Greens, and other climate groups and experts criticised elements of the report, and in August Guardian Australia revealed a split in the ranks of the authority .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/30/climate-change-authority-splits-over-ets-report-commissioned-by-coalition , with three members writing a dissenting report.
However many groups – including the Business Council of Australia, Energy Networks Australia .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/06/australias-energy-transmission-industry-calls-for-carbon-trading , retailer Energy Australia, electricity provider AGL .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/07/emissions-trading-backflip-a-recipe-for-price-rises-say-business-groups , the Climate Change Authority, the National Farmers Federation .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/07/national-farmers-federation-joins-calls-for-market-mechanism-to-lower-carbon-emissions .. and the CSIRO – have also called for the introduction of an emissions intensity trading scheme .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/16/australias-peak-business-lobby-calls-for-emissions-intensity-scheme .
Frydenberg canvassed a trading scheme in December, but the the idea was dumped after three days .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/07/australia-malcolm-turnbull-rules-out-carbon-tax-or-emissions-trading .. following objections from senior ministers.
--
Pressure mounts on Finkel energy review to consider price on carbon
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/17/pressure-mounts-on-finkel-energy-review-to-consider-price-on-carbon
--
The government’s openness to a scheme has also been cited as a reason for Cory Bernardi’s resignation .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-06/cory-bernardi-to-split-with-liberal-party/8243414 .. from the party in February.
The Climate Change Authority was set up in 2011 as an independent statutory agency, and the Coalition has maintained that it should be abolished after failing to get its legislation to do just that through the Senate.
Frydenberg told Guardian Australia: “the government thanks both Danny Price and John Quiggin for their service and the government will continue to engage constructively with the authority”.
The Greens climate and energy spokesman, Adam Bandt, said the government’s “dangerous pandering to climate change deniers” had left it friendless.
“When added to previous resignations, this exodus is the equivalent of half the reserve bank board resigning over the government’s economic policies.”
* This story was amended on 24 March 2017 to make clear Josh Frydenberg’s reference to an emissions intensity scheme was not in response to the preliminary report of the Finkel review.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/23/two-quit-australia-climate-change-authority-john-quiggin-danny-price
See also:
Rubbish dump landslide kills at least 46 in Ethiopia
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=129448576
Trump and Pruitt Will Make America Gasp Again
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=127151564
.. also here .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=127151576
ANU: Wind, solar and hydro grid cheapest option for Australia
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=129022729
such a world wide tragedy .. we've all been watching it happen and now ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=129562137
[Update] Park Geun-hye ousted
"2 Former Aides of Park Arrested as S. Korea Scandal Widens"
Friend’s meddling in state affairs key reason behind historic ruling
Published : 2017-03-10 11:22
Updated : 2017-03-10 16:49
South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Friday ruled unanimously to remove President Park Geun-hye from office, the capstone of a sweeping corruption scandal that has engulfed the country for months.
“Hereby, in a unanimous decision, the court issues the verdict: the court rules to expel President Park Geun-hye,” acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi said in a nationally televised ruling on the country’s second presidential impeachment trial.
With the decision, which is final and unchallengeable, Park has become the nation’s first democratically elected leader to be ousted by impeachment. The nation now must hold a presidential election within 60 days, making it likely to fall on May 9.
Impeached President Park Geun-hye (Yonhap)
In its verdict, the top court said Park had abused her presidential authority to help her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil, who holds no government post, pursue personal gains. Choi’s meddling in state affairs was extensive throughout Park’s entire time in office, and Park even attempted to conceal her wrongdoings when the scandal laid them bare, the court added.
“Her violations of the law betrayed the public trust and they are too serious to be tolerated for the sake of protecting the Constitution,” Lee said, adding Park damaged the rule of law and representative democracy.
Park offered no message of concession. Her Liberty Korea Party, however, accepted the court decision and apologized to the public for its failure to assist the president as the ruling party.
One of Park’s lawyers for the impeachment trial called the ruling “biased.”
“Our suspicions about the court’s secret communications with the parliament turned out to be correct,” Seo Seok-gu, one of Park’s lawyers, told reporters. “I don’t think the trial was purely based on law and conscience.”
Violence erupted near the court, as staunch Park supporters protested the ruling. Two died of injuries sustained. The causes are as yet unknown.
The parliament, which served as the prosecution in the impeachment trial, hailed the decision, adding the nation should now stand united.
“I believe that the ruling confirmed the rule of law and people’s sovereignty, which embodies that every person, even the president, is equal before the law. The owner of the country is the people, and all power comes from the people,” said Kwon Seong-dong, the chairman of the parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee.
“Those who held candles or national flags, they are all our people who we should respect and love. There is no victor or loser in this case,” he added.
Park was impeached on a total of 13 charges, which the court had bundled into five categories -- bribery, abuse of authority, Choi’s manipulation of power behind the scenes, failure to protect people’s lives and violation of press freedom.
The court acknowledged Park’s active involvement in leaking government secrets to Choi and assisting friend Choi’s profit-making activities through the public foundations.
But it did not acknowledge Park’s other charges -- her abuse of authority in sacking officials not in Choi’s favor, her negligence of duty to protect people’s lives during the Sewol ferry disaster and her crackdown on press freedom.
In the hearing that lasted about 20 minutes, acting Chief Justice Lee explained the reasons behind their decision and read out a verdict to confirm Park’s impeachment before some 100 spectators and reporters.
President Park, who did not turn up at any hearings for her impeachment trial, also did not attended the verdict hearing. She reportedly watched the ruling via TV at her residence in the presidential office.
The verdict, effective immediately, permanently throws Park out of office. She had been stripped of executive powers while the court reviews the legitimacy of the impeachment, with Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn serving as the acting president.
The ruling, however, is unlikely to put an end to a monthslong crisis for the country deeply divided on generational and ideological lines in the face of the conservative leader’s impeachment.
While opponents of Park gear up to hold a rally to celebrate the result on Saturday, Park’s die-hard supporters are set to pour onto the streets to condemn the Constitutional Court.
Tensions ran high from Thursday evening near the court, as staunch protestors for and against President Park staged rallies in front of the building in last-bid attempts to make their voices heard.
After the verdict was made, thousands of Park’s supporters angrily reacted, shouting, shedding tears and even hitting police officers. Police said two people died while protesting.
Police raised the level of alert to its highest Friday, dispatching all forces available to mobilize on the nation’s capital. Scores of police buses and some 21,600 officers formed lines to cordon off the court and government offices from mass protests and possible eruptions of violence.
By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)
* [Newsmaker] Park Geun-hye: A life stranger than fiction
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170310000500
* [Park ousted] Presidential election likely on May 9
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170310000283
* [Park ousted] Impeached Park now faces prosecution
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170310000223
* [Park ousted] Park to move out of Blue House, with benefits stripped
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170310000167
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170310000352
Philippines to disband police anti-drugs units after killing of South Korean businessman
Updated about 2 hours ago
The Philippines police will disband anti-drugs units following the killing of a South Korean businessman by rogue
officers, but President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to forge ahead with his war on drugs until the last day of his term.
Key points:
* Police will dissolve all anti-drugs units following the killing of a South Korean businessman
* A $133,000 dead-or-alive bounty will be placed on those accused of killing Jee Ick-joo
* Mr Duterte says international criticism will not stop his drugs crackdown
Mr Duterte said he was embarrassed that anti-drugs officers had abused their power to engage in kidnapping,
leading to the death by strangulation of Jee Ick-joo, on the grounds of the national police headquarters ..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-26/philippine-presidents-drug-crackdown-faces-court-challenge/8215754 .
Read on .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-30/philippines-to-disband-police-anti-drugs-units/8222016
==
SWS: 78% of Filipinos fear becoming victims of EJK
By CNN Philippines Staff
Updated 16:16 PM PHT Mon, December 19, 2016
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Seventy-eight percent of Filipinos fear they or someone they know will get killed in extrajudicial killings, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey reported.
In a survey released on Monday, SWS divided respondents into those who are "very worried" (45 percent) and those who are "somewhat worried" (38 percent) they will fall victim to the spate of killings happening amid the administration's war against drugs.
The remaining 10 percent were "not too worried" about the extra judicial killings, while 12 percent were "not worried at all."
Drug suspects should be kept alive
Most Filipinos also agreed that it was important to keep drug suspects alive.
According to the survey, 94 percent of Filipinos agreed it was "very" or "somewhat important" that drug suspects weren't killed indiscriminately during operations.
Only 1 percent said that keeping suspects alive was "not important at all."
Filipinos still highly satisfied with drug war
Despite this, the survey showed that an overwhelming number of Filipinos remain highly satisfied with the administration's campaign against drugs.
In the same survey, Filipinos reported they were 85 percent satisfied with the ongoing operations to curb drugs-- a percentage point up from survey results in September.
Filipinos also agreed that since President Rodrigo Duterte took office, the incidence of drug problems in their areas has decreased.
The fourth quarter report surveyed 1,500 participants nationwide through face-to-face interviews. It has sampling error margins of ±3 points.
The survey results come amid worries over the high body count seemingly resulting from Duterte's war on drugs.
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2016/12/19/sws-78-percent-fear-EJK.html
The Gambia awaits new era of democracy under Adama Barrow
"Political parties in Nigeria"
.. congratulation to Africa .. ! .. forced a bit, yet still a huge win for democracy .. nice to see an authoritarian loss ..
New president remains in Senegal after ex-leader Yahya Jammeh leaves, pending assurances about security situation
Soldiers from the Gambia greet Ecowas troops in Farafenni.
Photograph: Seyllou/AFP/Getty Images
Reuters in Banjul
Sunday 22 January 2017 15.27 EST
First published on Sunday 22 January 2017 07.20 EST
West African troops entered the Gambia’s capital, Banjul, on Sunday, to cheers from the city’s residents, a Reuters witness said, as part of efforts to allow the new president, Adama Barrow, to take office after the country’s former ruler fled overnight.
Yahya Jammeh, who led the Gambia for 22 years but refused to accept defeat in a December election, flew out of Banjul late on Saturday en route to Equatorial Guinea as the regional force was poised to remove him. A convoy of around 15 vehicles, including armoured personnel carriers mounted with heavy machine guns and pick-up trucks full of soldiers, rolled down one Banjul street in the late afternoon, according to a Reuters journalist who saw them.
--
The Guardian view on The Gambia: celebrate the other inauguration
Editorial: The country has seen its first
democratic transition thanks to sustained external pressure. That is an encouraging sign for the region as a whole
Read more .. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/22/the-guardian-view-on-the-gambia-celebrate-the-other-inauguration
-
City residents lined the road, applauding and shouting “thank you” as the soldiers smiled and waved back. Troops were later seen entering the presidential compound, State House.
The regional operation began late on Thursday after Barrow was sworn in as president at the Gambia’s embassy in neighbouring Senegal, but it was halted hours later to give Jammeh one last chance to leave peacefully. His departure followed two days of negotiations led by Guinea’s president, Alpha Condé, and Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania, prompting speculation over what, if any, terms were agreed to convince him to step down.
Speaking on a Senegalese radio station, RFM, Barrow denied that Jammeh had been offered immunity from prosecution in exchange for leaving the country. “He wanted to stay in the Gambia. We said we couldn’t guarantee his security and said that he should leave,” Barrow said.
Earlier in the day, the African Union and United Nations .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/unitednations .. published a document on behalf of these two organisations and the regional organisation, the Economic Community of West African States. In it, they pledged, among other things, to protect Jammeh’s rights “as a citizen, a party leader and a former head of state” to prevent the seizure of property belonging to him and his allies, and to ensure he can eventually return to the Gambia.
Barrow, speaking on RFM, said the document did not constitute a binding agreement and said that upon initial inspection it appeared Jammeh had looted state resources. “According to information we received, there is no money in the coffers. It’s what we have been told, but the day we actually take office we will clarify all of it.”
Jammeh’s loss in the 1 December poll and his initial acceptance of the result were celebrated across the tiny nation by Gambians who had grown weary of his increasingly authoritarian rule. But he reversed his position a week later, creating a standoff with regional neighbours who demanded he step down.
West African troops from Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and Mali were deploying throughout the Gambia on Sunday. Barrow did not say when he would return to the Gambia but said it would be soon. At a press conference in Banjul, his spokesman, Halifa Sallah, said a military aide would be sent on Monday to determine if security conditions permit the president’s return.
Two Senegalese military officers said the multi-national force had met no resistance from the Gambian army as they advanced on Sunday. Rights groups accuse Jammeh of jailing, torturing and killing his political opponents while acquiring a vast fortune – including luxury cars and an estate in the United States – as most of his people remained impoverished.
The repression has forced thousands of Gambians to seek asylum abroad over the years. An additional 45,000 people fled to Senegal amid growing fears of unrest in the wake of last month’s election, according to the UN. Hundreds of Gambians carrying sacks, suitcases and cooking pots began returning by ferry from Senegal’s Casamance region on Sunday.
Hawa Jagne, 22, a cloth trader, hugged her sister Fama as she stepped off the boat. “I’m so relieved to see her,” Jagne said. “Everyone is free. You can do whatever you want, because this is a democratic country. You can express yourself. No one can kill you.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/22/the-gambia-adama-barrow-yahya-jammeh-senegal
Guard killed as armed men linked to Muslim rebels free more than 150 from Philippine prison
"It’s All Fun and Games, Until Someone Unleashes Death Squads"
Neil Jerome Morales and Manuel Mogato
January 4 2017
Manila: About 100 armed men with links to Muslim rebels stormed a prison in the southern Philippines on
Wednesday, killing a guard and freeing more than 150 prisoners, some of them Islamic militants, officials said.
The Southeast Asian, majority Roman Catholic nation has for decades been plagued by insurgency by Muslim rebels in its southern islands.
Filipino inmates remain in their cell at the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan city.
Photo: AP
The gunmen opened fire at guards at the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan, prison warden Peter Bongat said on radio. Of the jail's 1511 inmates, 158 managed to escape, he said.
Eight prisoners had since been caught, two had surrendered, while six were killed, according to the office of the president.
Police patrol outside the walls of the North Cotabato District Jail after a jailbreak. Photo: AP
Shirlyn Macasarte, acting governor of North Cotabato, said her office had been tipped off about the plan by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to free its members as early as the second quarter of last year.
"They were involved in murders and at the same time I think they have experience in bomb making so we watched them closely," Macasarte told news channel ANC.
The leader of the attackers, known by the alias Commander Derbie, had links with the BIFF, a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Macasarte said.
Some members of the MILF and BIFF were said to be behind the killing of 44 police commandos in a secret mission two years ago to capture a Malaysian bomb maker with a $5 million bounty from the US State Department on his head.
In 2014, the government signed a peace deal with the MILF, the biggest Muslim rebel group, but clashes still occur with smaller groups.
Reuters
http://www.smh.com.au/world/guard-killed-as-armed-men-linked-to-muslim-rebels-free-more-than-150-from-philippine-prison-20170104-gtm1z5.html
Why sad songs say so much (to some people, but not others)
September 16, 2016 6.01am AEST
Author Tuomas Eerola
Professor of Music Cognition, Durham University
Disclosure statement
Tuomas Eerola receives funding from Academy of Finland (grant # 270220 for Sweet
Sorrow - understanding the mechanisms involved in deriving pleasure from sad music).
Partners
Durham University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.
View all partners .. https://theconversation.com/au/partners
Republish this article
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under Creative Commons licence.
Melancholic or moved? avemario/Shutterstock
Tear-jerkers such as Adele’s Someone Like You .. https://youtu.be/hLQl3WQQoQ0 .. insert embed here ..
Grandmother Project in Senegal, a short presentation
".. World leaders, aid groups gather for humanitarian summit in Turkey
The blind truth of Australia's foreign aid cuts [...]
.. cuts that will soon drive Australia's foreign aid to its lowest ever level. "
Trump and Pruitt Will Make America Gasp Again
"[Australian] Climate backflip ignores expert advice"
Paul Krugman DEC. 9, 2016
Students protesting air pollution in California, in 1970. Credit Walter Zeboski/Associated Press
[ would Trump supporter Tomi Lahren label all those students misfit's too?
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=127150751 ]
Many people voted for Donald Trump because they believed his promises that he would restore what they imagine were the good old days — the days when America had lots of traditional jobs mining coal and producing manufactured goods. They’re going to be deeply disappointed: The shift away from blue-collar work .. https://www.gc.cuny.edu/CUNY_GC/media/LISCenter/pkrugman/Trade-and-Manufacturing-Employment.pdf .. is mainly about technological change, not globalization, and no amount of tweets and tax breaks will bring those jobs back.
But in other ways Mr. Trump can indeed restore the world of the 1970s. He can, for example, bring us back to the days when, all too often, the air wasn’t safe to breathe. And he’s made a good start by selecting Scott Pruitt .. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/us/politics/scott-pruitt-epa-trump.html , a harsh foe of pollution regulation, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Make America gasp again!
Much of the commentary on the Pruitt appointment has focused on his denial of climate science and on the high likelihood that the incoming administration will undo the substantial progress President Obama was beginning to make against climate change. And that is, in the long run, the big story.
After all, climate change is an existential threat in a way local pollution isn’t, and the installation of the Trump team in power may mean that we have lost our last, best chance for a cooperative international effort to contain that threat.
Everyone who contributed to this outcome — very much, if I may say, including the journalists who elevated the fundamentally trivial issue of Hillary Clinton’s emails into the dominant theme of campaign reporting — bears part of the responsibility for what may end up being a civilization-ending event. No, that’s not hyperbole.
But climate change is a slow-building, largely invisible threat, hard to explain or demonstrate to the general public — which is one reason lavishly funded climate deniers have been so successful at obfuscating the issue. So it’s worth pointing out that most environmental regulation involves much more obvious, immediate, sometimes deadly threats. And much of that regulation may well be headed for oblivion.
Think about what America was like in 1970, the year the E.P.A. was founded. It was still an industrial nation, with roughly a quarter of the work force employed in manufacturing, often at relatively high wages, in large part because of a still-strong union movement. (Funny how Trumpist pledges to bring back the good old days never mention that part.)
It was also, however, a very polluted country. Choking smog was quite common in major cities; in the Los Angeles area, extreme pollution alerts .. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-obama-smog-20150803-htmlstory.html , sometimes accompanied by warnings that even healthy adults should stay indoors and move as little as possible, were fairly common.
It’s far better now — not perfect, but much better. These days, to experience the kind of pollution crisis that used to be all too frequent in Los Angeles or Houston, you have to go to places like Beijing or New Delhi. And the improvement in air quality has had clear, measurable benefits. For example, we’re seeing significant improvements in lung function among children in the Los Angeles area, clearly tied to reduced pollution.
Factory smokestacks in Jacksonville, Fla.,
in 1970. Credit Associated Press
The key point is that better air didn’t happen by accident: It was a direct result of regulation — regulation that was bitterly opposed at every step by special interests that attacked the scientific evidence of harm from pollution, meanwhile insisting that limiting their emissions would kill jobs.
These special interests were, as you might guess, wrong about everything. The health benefits of cleaner air are overwhelmingly clear. Meanwhile, experience shows that a growing economy is perfectly consistent with an improving environment. In fact, reducing pollution brings large economic benefits once you take into account health care costs and the effects of lower pollution on productivity.
Meanwhile, claims of huge business costs from environmental programs have been wrong time and time again. This may be no surprise when interest groups are trying to maintain their right to pollute. It turns out, however, that even the E.P.A. itself has a history of overestimating the costs .. http://www.wri.org/blog/2010/11/epa-regulations-cost-predictions-are-overstated .. of its regulations.
So the looming degradation of environmental protection will be a bad thing on every level: bad for the economy as well as bad for our health. But don’t expect rational arguments to that effect to sway the people who will soon be running the government. After all, what’s bad for America can still be good for the likes of the Koch brothers. Besides, my correspondents keep telling me that arguing policy on the basis of facts and figures is arrogant and elitist, so there.
The good news, sort of, is that some of the nasty environmental consequences of Trumpism will probably be visible — literally — quite soon. And when bad air days make a comeback, we’ll know exactly whom to blame.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/opinion/trump-and-pruitt-will-make-america-gasp-again.html
See also:
Build He Won’t .. bit of ..
To understand what’s going on, it may be helpful to start with what we should be doing. The federal government can indeed borrow very cheaply; meanwhile, we really need to spend money on everything from sewage treatment to transit. The indicated course of action, then, is simple: borrow at those low, low rates, and use the funds raised to fix what needs fixing.
But that’s not what the Trump team is proposing. Instead, it’s calling for huge tax credits: billions of dollars in checks written to private companies that invest in approved projects, which they would end up owning. For example, imagine a private consortium building a toll road for $1 billion. Under the Trump plan, the consortium might borrow $800 billion while putting up $200 million in equity — but it would get a tax credit of 82 percent of that sum, so that its actual outlays would only be $36 million. And any future revenue from tolls would go to the people who put up that $36 million.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126707803 .. in reply to that one
Paul Krugman Warns of Unprecedented Trump Corruption to Come
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126721944
How Rupert Murdoch & Fox Created the Fake News Industry
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=127023929
[Australian] Climate backflip ignores expert advice
"A Carbon Tax’s Ignoble End
Why Tony Abbott Axed Australia’s Carbon Tax"
Dec 7 2016 at 11:00 PM Updated Dec 7 2016 at 11:25 PM
VIDEO - Carbon review divides government 1:17
by Phillip Coorey
The Turnbull government's decision to rule out a carbon scheme for the electricity sector rejects advice from its handpicked expert who will recommend an emissions intensity scheme as the most effective way to transition to a secure and lower-cost energy supply.
Chief Scientist Alan Finkel, who in October was put in charge of the review into Australia's National Energy Market, is scheduled to recommend such a scheme for the electricity sector in a preliminary report to the Prime Minister and premiers at Friday's Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra.
Sources familiar with the recommendation say Dr Finkel's committee, like other energy market experts, believes the scheme would reduce power prices and was the best way for Australia to move away from coal towards gas and renewable energy, while maintaining energy security and meeting the 2030 emissions reductions targets.
But 36 hours after Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg suggested such a scheme at least be looked at as part of the government's 2017 review of climate policy, a fierce backlash from government backbenchers led by Senator Cory Bernardi,
--
[ insert: There are dark days ahead and the fight has just begun [...]
Trump's campaign slogan promised to 'Make America Great Again', and the sentiment has been dutifully adopted by our own Australian Trump-sucks, including renowned racists Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson .. http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/cory-bernardi-says-donald-trumps-victory-is-a-validation-of-all-i-have-been-warning-about-20161109-gslxbd.html . Because, of course, what he has always meant is, 'Make America White Again' and by proxy return it to the white imperialist rule that has given those of us with white skin legislated dominion over all others and gifted the greatest amount of that power to white men. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126475636
--
and by minister Christopher Pyne, against anything resembling a price on carbon forced him to backflip and rule it out .. http://www.afr.com/business/energy/crazy-carbon-backflip-means-even-higher-prices-experts-warn-20161206-gt5j49 .
Chief Scientist Alan Finkel is in charge of the review into Australia's National
Energy Market. Rohan Thomson
He was also hung out to dry by Mr Turnbull who on Wednesday morning was emphatic there would be no such scheme or any other type of carbon price and said it was for Mr Frydenberg to explain his comments.
Emboldened by his victory, Senator Bernardi then called for Australia to abandon altogether its Paris agreement pledge, made when Tony Abbott was prime minister, to reduce emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.
An emissions intensity scheme.. http://www.afr.com/news/politics/consider-an-ets-industry-tells-turnbull-government-20161205-gt44sf.html .. is not a carbon price or carbon tax in that it does not raise revenue by charging for emissions. Instead it would penalise generators who pollute above a baseline limit. Cleaner emitters who stayed below the baseline would not pay anything and would receive free credits which they could to trade to bigger polluters.
Safeguards mechanism
The policy is similar to the Coalition's current direct action policy that has a "safeguards mechanism" designed to penalise emitters for exceeding limits. Polluters are currently paid from the budget to reduce emissions but this is considered unsustainable beyond 2020.
It is understood the federal government already has a copy of the report from Australia's National Energy Market Commission which says such a scheme would reduce prices, but cabinet resolved against the scheme several weeks ago.
As energy experts warned the government was now limited to options that would make power more expensive and less reliable, industry was also alarmed by the lack of preparedness to at least discuss the option.
EnergyAustralia managing director Catherine Tanna said a market-based mechanism was needed .. http://www.afr.com/business/energy/electricity/energyaustralias-cath-tanna-urges-canberra-to-put-a-price-on-carbon-20161207-gt5nsg.html , nothing should be ruled out and "it is far too early to be jumping to solutions".
A spokeswoman for AGL said the energy sector needed "clear policy settings that are agreed by COAG and consistently implemented across states".
"An emissions intensity scheme is one cost-effective way to manage the energy transition but it cannot be achieved by this alone."
Tony Wood, energy expert from the Grattan Institute, said the backdown limited the government's ability to meet its 2030 targets.
"It's a somewhat ironic outcome because it could be we end up with a fourth-best policy and we end up with exactly the opposite of what those who are opposing the scheme would like to achieve – more uncertainty, and even higher prices, and that would seem to be a really crazy outcome," he said.
'More expensive'
The government's decision to rule out a carbon scheme for the electricity sector
rejects advice from its handpicked expert. David Rowe
"Either the government puts a lot more money into the [direct action] emissions reduction fund … or they take the safeguard mechanism and rapidly reduce the baselines without having some sort of trading scheme which is a much more expensive and clunky way of doing it.
"Or they actually expand the Renewable Energy Target which gets them into the same sorts of problems they've criticised state governments for.
Danny Price of Frontier economics and who has long advocated a baseline scheme, said the scheme would actually reduce power prices while maintaining energy security.
"This shows a lack of spine. The policy vacuum that it leaves will be filled by policies that will do exactly what they are trying to avoid," he told Fairfax Media.
"The government is allegedly interested in lower prices and energy security. By doing this, it means they are the party of increasing electricity prices and reduced energy security."
On Monday, Mr Frydenberg released terms of reference for a review of climate policy for the decade beyond 2020.
It opened the door to the purchase of cheap international permits to help meet Australia's 2030 emissions reduction target but made no provision for an emissions trading scheme or a carbon tax.
Credit scheme
But Mr Frydenberg did leave open the prospect of an emissions intensity scheme for the electricity industry which produces one-third of the nation's carbon emissions.
"We know that there's been a large number of bodies that have recommended an emissions intensity scheme, which is effectively a baseline and credit scheme. We'll look at that," he said in an interview.
Following the backlash and a cabinet meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Frydenberg ruled out any prospect of such a scheme.
"The government will not introduce an emissions intensity scheme, which is a form of trading scheme that operates within the electricity generation sector," he said in a statement.
On Wednesday morning, Mr Turnbull said the terms of reference never opened the door to "a scheme of that kind" and it was up to Mr Frydenberg to explain his comments.
"We are committed to doing everything we can to put downward pressure, maintain downward pressure on electricity prices," he said.
"If you want to ask questions about what another minister said, you should address them to him."
He said federal Labor's plan for a 50 per cent renewable energy target would make power both more expensive and less reliable.
http://www.afr.com/news/climate-backflip-ignores-expert-advice-20161207-gt5o7g
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Government killed emissions scheme despite knowing it could shave $15 billion off electricity bills
Adam Morton December 8 2016 - 10:06PM
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-killed-emissions-scheme-despite-knowing-it-could-shave-15-billion-off-electricity-bills-20161208-gt6v48.html
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Australia won't meet Paris climate change targets, urgent policy needed on emission reduction: Finkel report
AM Julia Holman Updated Fri at 5:52am
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-09/australias-energy-policy-cant-meet-current-targets/8105386
---
Climate scientists slam CCA climate report as ‘dangerous’
By David Twomey - September 5, 2016
http://econews.com.au/51713/climate-scientists-slam-cca-climate-report-as-dangerous/
See also:
Global warming milestone about to be passed and there's no going back
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=122549932 .. also
here .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=122549862
Obama formally joins US into climate pact
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=124951151
Paul Krugman on the Campaign Issue the Media Can No Longer Ignore
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126167095
Will Trump win push Malaysia into China’s embrace?
By Sheridan Mahavera
9 Nov 2016
A trader in Kuala Lumpur in front of an electronic board showing stock movements during the US presidential vote. Photo AFP
Malaysia’s stronger ties with China, forged over the past few weeks, will be key as the nation prepares to deal with a United States under President Donald Trump, a man who has disparaged both China and Muslims, analysts say.
How will Najib’s golfing buddy Trump treat 1MDB probe?
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2044533/how-will-najibs-golfing-buddy-trump-treat-1mdb-probe
Muslims, who make up about 60 per cent of Malaysia’s population, are especially worried as the reality TV star has been criticised for tapping into undercurrents of Islamophobia in his campaign for the White House.
Closer relations between this moderate Muslim Southeast Asian nation and its East Asian superpower neighbour will be an important buffer to any uncertainty coming from a Trump administration, analysts said.
Donald Trump supporters watch the election results come in at the Holiday Inn in Breinigsville,
Pennsylvania. Photo: AFP
Malaysia recently signed RM143 billion (HK$264 billion) worth of deals in infrastructure, e-business development and defence equipment with China, as Prime Minister Najib Razak seeks more foreign investment to shore up flagging revenue from oil and gas.
President Trump gives Koreans jitters on THAAD and economy
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2044404/president-trump-gives-koreans-jitters-thaad-and-economy
Foreign policy observers also see China exerting greater influence in the Asean region – which has been embroiled in a territorial dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea – if a Trump-led US abandons President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” policy.
They see it as highly unlikely that President Trump will maintain the ties between Malaysia and the US which saw Obama visiting Malaysia twice in eight years and even playing golf with Najib.
But some analysts, such as Dr Chandra Muzaffar, caution against putting too much stock on the hostility towards China that Trump spewed throughout his campaign.
“[Trump] has blamed China for taking away jobs from working class Americans. That is what he says to get votes,” said Chandra, of the foreign policy think tank International Movement for a Just World.
“But he is also a businessman and many in the US business establishment view China as a pot of gold. So it’s not entirely clear how he will deal with China.”
People, including US citizens, gather at a bar in Mexico City as the US presidential election
results arrive. Photo: AFP
In his campaign, Trump blamed China for creating the “climate change hoax” in order to sink the US manufacturing industry ..
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/ .
He has also blamed China for manipulating its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage ..
http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-charges-china-with-yuan-manipulationagain-1474943701 .
If Trump acted on his China rhetoric, said Malaysian Member of Parliament Charles Santiago, it would see the US withdrawing from its close engagement with the Asian Pacific region over the past eight years under Obama.
‘It’s frightening’: Japanese digest Donald Trump’s victory in US election
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2044391/its-frightening-japanese-react-donald-trump-victory-us-election
President Trump would also probably abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a contentious trade pact crafted by Obama that covers 12 countries in the region including Malaysia.
“Under Obama, individual US leaders had close ties and friends in Asia. I don’t think this will continue with Trump.
“Our closer ties with China as a result of 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) and less emphasis in the region will see China exerting more influence in the region and Malaysia,” said Santiago, of the Democratic Action Party (DAP).
President elect Donald Trump holds a mask of himself which he picked up from a supporter
in Florida. Photo: AFP
Najib – who congratulated Trump – said the real estate mogul had won the presidency by appealing to Americans “who want to see their government more focused on their interests and welfare, and less embroiled in foreign interventions that proved to be against US interests”.
Malaysian Muslims hope Trump will dial back his anti-Muslim rhetoric and take a more pragmatic approach in foreign policy especially towards the Middle East and Muslim countries.
‘Everyone is shell shocked’: Singaporeans on Trump’s win
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2044395/everyone-shell-shocked-singaporeans-react-trumps-win
“We are not too surprised with the US election result because Islamophobia and the fear of foreigners has been on the rise in the US and also Europe, as seen in Brexit,” said Mohamad Raimi Ab Rahim of the influential Muslim Youth Movement.
Related articles
“Although we respect the result of the US election, we hope that Trump will stop exploiting Islamophobia because if he [continues to exploit it], it increases the fear and hatred towards Muslims all over the world as the US plays a very big role on the world stage.”
http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2044449/will-trump-win-push-malaysia-chinas-embrace
See also:
The U.S. and China’s Nine-Dash Line: Ending the Ambiguity
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=123674450
South China Sea: Hague judges may have been influenced by money, Chinese official says
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126514628
Donald Trump's lying far more sinister than distortion of facts
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126357878
2 Former Aides of Park Arrested as S. Korea Scandal Widens
"High-level inter-Korean talks fail to reach agreement"
By tong-hyung kim, associated press
SEOUL, South Korea — Nov 5, 2016, 11:30 PM ET
The Associated Press
South Korean high school students hold up their cards during a rally calling for South Korean President Park Geun-hye to step down in downtown Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016. Tens of thousands of South Koreans are expected to march in Seoul to demand President Park's resignation on Saturday, a day after she took blame for a "heartbreaking" scandal and rising suspicion that she allowed a mysterious confidante to manipulate power from the shadows. The letters read "Park Geun-hye should step down." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korean prosecutors on Sunday formally arrested two former presidential aides as they bring their investigation over a bizarre political scandal .. http://abcnews.go.com/topics/entertainment/tv/scandal-shonda-rhimes.htm .. that has engulfed the nation a step closer to President Park Geun-hye .. http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/world/park-geun-hye.htm .
Park has issued consecutive apologies following suspicion that she allowed her longtime friend and daughter of a late cult leader to manipulate power from the shadows. But the apologies did little to assuage simmering public anger, which culminated in the largest anti-government rally in the capital in nearly a year on Saturday when tens of thousands of people demanded that Park step down.
The Seoul Central District Court granted prosecutors' request for the arrest of Ahn Jong-beom, Park's former senior secretary for policy coordination who is suspected of pressuring companies into making large donations to nonprofit organizations controlled by Park's friend, court spokesman Shin Jae-hwan said.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for Jung Ho-sung, another former presidential aide accused of passing on classified presidential documents to Choi Soon-sil, whose close relationship with Park triggered the scandal.
Prosecutors on Sunday also summoned for questioning Woo Byung-woo, former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs who has been blamed for failing to prevent Choi from influencing state affairs and is embroiled in separate corruption allegations surrounding his family.
Park has admitted that she sent drafts of her speeches to Choi for editing. However, she avoided more damning allegations raised by the media that Choi perhaps meddled in important government decisions on policy and personnel. Choi was arrested earlier in the week on charges of abuse of authority and attempted fraud.
Tens of thousands of people rallied in Seoul on Saturday calling for the resignation of Park. But opposition parties, demanding that Park to step away from domestic affairs and transfer the duties to a prime minister picked by the parliament, have yet to make a serious push for Park's resignation or impeachment over concerns of negatively impacting next year's presidential race.
Holding banners, candles and colorful signs that read "Park Geun-hye out" and "Treason by a secret government," a sea of demonstrators filled a large square in front of an old palace gate and nearby streets, singing and thunderously applauding speeches calling for the ouster of the increasingly unpopular conservative president.
They shifted into a slow march in streets around City Hall, shouting "Arrest Park Geun-hye," "'Step down, criminal" and "We can't take this any longer," before moving back to the square and cheering on more speeches that continued into the night.
"Park should squarely face the prosecution's investigation and step down herself. If she doesn't, politicians should move to impeach her," said Kim Seo-yeon, one of the many college students who participated in the protest. "She absolutely lost all authority as president over the past few weeks."
Choi Kyung-ha, a mother of three, said her children asked her who Choi was "and whether she's the real president, and I couldn't provide an answer."
Police estimated the crowd at 45,000, although protest organizers said about 200,000 people turned out.
Park has tried to stabilize the situation by firing eight aides and nominating three new top Cabinet officials, including the prime minister, but opposition parties have described her personnel reshuffles as a diversionary tactic.
One national poll released Friday had Park's approval rating at 5 percent, the lowest for any president in South Korea .. http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/south-korea.htm .. since the country achieved democracy in the late 1980s following decades of military dictatorship.
Opposition parties, sensing weakness, immediately threatened to push for her ouster if she doesn't distance herself from domestic affairs and transfer the duties to a prime minister chosen by parliament. The parties have also called for a separate investigation into the scandal led by a special prosecutor.
Park has 15 months left in her term. If she resigns, an election must be held within 60 days.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/tens-thousands-demand-park-quit-amid-scandal-43321282
5% .. ouch .. relatively our leaders are flying high, eh .. :) .. South Korean protesters call for president's resignation
Jakarta violence: One dead after hardline Muslims protest, demand Christian governor Ahok be jailed
"ISIS in the World’s Largest Muslim Country"
Jewel Topsfield
November 5 2016 - 2:25AM
Jakarta: The streets of Jakarta erupted into violence on Friday night leaving one dead and scores of people injured as police
clashed with demonstrators following a rally of about 150,000 people demanding the arrest of the city's Chinese Christian governor.
CNN reported that 75 people were treated in hospital, mostly related to exposure to tear gas and head injuries from thrown objects.
VIDEO - Jakarta protest: thousands demand governor's arrest
Indonesia correspondent reports Jewel Topsfield outside the largest mosque in South-East Asia on Friday
evening, where thousands of muslims are demanding the arrest of Jakarta's Chinese Christian governor.
Jakarta police spokesman Awi Setiyono told reporters an elderly man had died, possibly from
the effects of tear gas, and four civilians and eight police officers were injured, according to AAP.
[much more, the photos with captions and a video only from here]
Muslim protesters chant slogans near burning police trucks. Photo: AP
A protester holds up a blowtorch during a clash with police outside the presidential
palace in Jakarta. Photo: AP
Protesters use sticks to attack riot police. Photo: AP
Demonstrators rally in Jakarta on Friday to demand the arrest of the city's governor.
Photo: Jewel Topsfield
Dr Ratman, whose organisation is feeding protesters outside the Istiqlal Mosque in
Jakarta. Photo: Roni Bintang
People join the protests from their windows in Jakarta. Photo: Roni Bintang
A protester outside Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on Friday afternoon. Photo: Roni Bintang
Community house Rumah Amanah Rakyat has prepared thousands of meals for
people attending the Friday protests in Jakarta. Photo: Roni Bintang
Malaysian PM Najib key figure in 1MDB corruption scandal, alleges cabinet minister
"Former Malaysian premier Mahathir sues PM Najib over 'abuse of power'"
Communications director for ruling coalition says PM is ‘Malaysian Official 1’ named in US Justice Department lawsuit
Agence France-Presse
Friday 2 September 2016 16.05 AEST
Najib Razak at a celebration outside Kuala Lumpur. A cabinet minister has said Najib is the unnamed official who the
US Justice Department said took part in rampant looting of state funds. Photograph: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images
Agence France-Presse
Friday 2 September 2016 16.05 AEST
A Malaysian cabinet minister has said Prime Minister Najib Razak was the mysterious unnamed official who the US Justice Department said took part in rampant looting of state funds.
The comment follows widespread suspicions that Najib was “Malaysian Official 1” mentioned in a Justice Department lawsuit filed in July.
1MDB: The inside story of the world’s biggest financial scandal
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/28/1mdb-inside-story-worlds-biggest-financial-scandal-malaysia
The lawsuit – part of US moves .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/22/us-investigators-launch-probes-into-scandal-hit-malaysian-pm-najib-razak .. to seize more than $1bn in allegedly ill-gotten assets – repeatedly alleged the official was someone conspiring to divert vast sums from state investment fund 1MDB.
Najib, who launched a crackdown .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/27/malaysia-pm-najib-razak-gets-new-powers-amid-protests-over-1mdb-fund-scandal .. last year to contain the spiralling scandal, has so far not commented on the identity of the unnamed official.
But in an interview with the BBC that aired late on Thursday, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, the minister of urban wellbeing, housing and local government, said it was Najib.
“It’s obvious that the so-called ‘Malaysian Official 1’ referred to by the US Justice Department is our prime minister,” he said in a subsequent clarifying statement.
Rahman Dahlan, who also is communications director for Najib’s ruling coalition, did not address whether Najib committed wrongdoing. But he insisted Najib was not a target of the US lawsuit.
His comments, however, will add fuel to persistent calls for Najib to step down.
Tens of thousands of people paralysed the capital, Kuala Lumpur, in August 2015 with two days of protest over the scandal ..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/31/defiant-prime-minister-vows-not-to-quit-as-malaysia-marks-national-day .
Last weekend, several hundred protesters demonstrated, demanding “Malaysian Official 1” be identified and arrested.
Najib, however, has shut down Malaysian investigations, clamped down on media reporting of the affair, and purged critics from his ruling party.
1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad, was launched by Najib in 2009 and closely overseen by him.
Allegations of a vast international scheme of embezzlement and money-laundering involving billions of dollars of 1MDB money began to emerge two years ago.
In its scathing lawsuit, the US Justice Department detailed how “Malaysian Official 1”, family members, and close associates diverted billions from the now-stricken fund.
Najib and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.
The Justice Department has moved to seize assets including real estate in Beverly Hills, New York and London, artworks by Monet and Van Gogh .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/23/van-gogh-and-monet-paintings-seized-in-1mdb-corruption-investigation , and a Bombardier jet that it alleges were purchased with money stolen from 1MDB.
The reason behind the remarks of Rahman Dahlan, a staunch defender of Najib, was not immediately clear.
But the news dominated headlines in Malaysia, and was a top-trending Twitter topic in the country on Friday.
Senior opposition figure Lim Kit Siang said Najib must immediately submit to justice to avoid further harming Malaysia’s image.
“The prime minister .... [must] purge and cleanse Malaysia’s reputation as a global kleptocracy,” he said in a statement.
Analysts warned the scandal could harm foreign investment in Malaysia.
Political experts see no sign yet that Najib will be ousted before the next elections, due by mid-2018, due to his long-ruling coalition’s firm control.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/02/malaysian-pm-najib-key-figure-1mdb-corruption-scandal-alleges-cabinet-minister
The country working itself to death
March 7, 2015 9:39am
Around 4.74 million people in Japan work more than 60 hours per week.
FRANK CHUNG and AAPnews.com.au
IN this country, people are literally working themselves to death.
Every year, hundreds of overstressed Japanese workers succumb to heart attack, stroke or suicide due to a lack of work-life balance.
The problem, which first rose to prominence in the 1980s, has become so bad it even has its own name: karoshi. Death by overwork.
Last week, a British expat living in Tokyo going by the handle ‘Stu in Japan’ posted a video on YouTube titled ‘A week in the life of a Tokyo salary man .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po8IPh64rVM ’.
INSERT: embed
It’s All Fun and Games, Until Someone Unleashes Death Squads
"'Reign of terror': Fear in the Philippines as police embark on state-sanctioned 'killing spree'"
Anyone wondering how the bare-knuckle populism of Donald Trump’s campaign would translate to office should take a look at the Philippines.
By Max Boot
September 15, 2016
[ "I'm a lifelong Republican," tweeted historian Max Boot last week, "but (the) Trump
surge proves that every bad thing Democrats have ever said about GOP is basically true."
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=121005963 ]
Listening to Donald Trump’s outlandish pronouncements, it’s all too easy to think: “He’ll never do that once in office. He’ll be restrained by wise advisors and act much more thoughtfully as president than he does as a presidential candidate.” Maybe so, but recent events in the Philippines demonstrate the dangers of voting into office an ignorant demagogue with a big mouth.
The new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte, caught the attention of Americans recently by referring to President Barack Obama as the “son of a whore,” but, in the greater context, that is the least of his sins. There is a reason he is being called “Duterte Harry” and the “Trump of the Philippines” — and those monikers are not intended as compliments. Duterte is showing just what bare-knuckle populism looks like in action, and it’s not a pretty picture.
A few lowlights:
1) Taking advantage of the Philippine people’s understandable concern about a high crime rate, Duterte has unleashed a wave of violence against anyone suspected of being a criminal. During his campaign, he promised .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/12/world/asia/the-philippines-rodrigo-duterte-vigilante-violence.html .. to kill so many outlaws that the “fish will grow fat” in Manila Bay from feasting on the remains. So far, more than 1,800 people have been killed .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/world/asia/philippines-rodrigo-duterte.html .. by police and vigilantes since he came into office. No trial, no evidence: just death. Human-rights advocates are aghast, and understandably so. (It was in reaction to a journalist’s question about what he would say to Obama if the American president criticized his human-rights record that Duterte uttered his witty “son of a whore” comeback.)
Horrifying cases of misconduct are coming to light — for example, the execution of two impoverished Manila residents, Renato and Jaypee Bertes, a father and son who worked odd jobs and smoked shabu, a cheap form of methamphetamine. They were arrested by police, beaten, and shot to death. “The police said the two had tried to escape by seizing an officer’s gun,” the New York Times .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/asia/philippines-duterte-drug-killings.html .. reported. “But a forensic examination found that the men had been incapacitated by the beatings before they were shot; Jaypee Bertes had a broken right arm.”
And just this week a self-confessed assassin testified before the Philippine Senate that he was a member of a death squad that Duterte, when he was mayor of Davao, used to kill not only “drug dealers, rapists, [purse] snatchers” but also political opponents. Some of the victims were allegedly disemboweled and dumped at sea; at least one was fed to crocodiles. In the past, Duterte has both admitted and denied running a death squad.
2) Duterte publicly accused .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/world/asia/duterte-philippine-president-links-150-public-servants-to-drugs.html .. scores of Philippine officials and military officers of involvement in the drug trade without revealing any evidence. He gave them 24 hours to surrender or be “hunted down.”
“Due process has nothing to do with my mouth,” he said. “There are no proceedings here, no lawyers.”
--
Duterte has justified the killing of journalists by saying, “Just because you’re
a journalist you are not exempted from assassination if you’re a son of a bitch.”
--
3) Duterte has justified the killing of journalists .. http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/31/asia/philippines-duterte-journalists/ .. by saying, “Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination if you’re a son of a bitch.”
4) Duterte has announced plans to move the remains of Ferdinand Marcos, the country’s late dictator, to the Cemetery of Heroes, despite copious evidence that Marcos was guilty of egregious misconduct while in office and that he had faked his World War II service record. The move to enshrine this brutal and corrupt ruler has triggered protests from many Filipinos, including victims of torture and imprisonment during the Marcos era. A close friend of the late dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Duterte has often expressed admiration for Marcos senior, calling him .. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/763290/duterte-says-marcos-was-the-brightest-of-them-all .. “the brightest among the past presidents.” Many believe that Duterte hopes to emulate Marcos, who also took power vowing to crack down on crime.
5) Duterte has called .. http://www.smh.com.au/world/south-china-sea-is-philippine-leader-rodrigo-duterte-charting-a-course-away-from-us-20160913-grf22l.html .. for the United States to remove its remaining Special Forces from the southern Philippines, where they have been training the Philippine armed forces in the battle against Islamist terrorists. He has said the Philippine navy will no longer cooperate .. http://www.rappler.com/nation/146103-duterte-stops-joint-patrols-south-china-sea .. with the U.S. Navy in joint patrols in the South China Sea. In other words, he will make no attempt to enforce the judgment of an international tribunal in The Hague, in a case brought by the Philippines, that China is illegally claiming sovereignty over waters that are in the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone. This comes less than two months after Duterte claimed he would ride a jet ski to plant the Philippine flag on the Spratly Islands. He now appears intent on appeasing China, which represents the biggest security threat to his country, while turning his back on the United States, the Philippines’s oldest ally. “I do not like the Americans,” he has admitted .. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/814802/duterte-purposely-skipped-us-asean-summit .
In a stunning strategic reversal, Duterte says he will seek arms from China and Russia, rather than from the United States, thus turning his back on one of the major sources of funding for the threadbare Philippine military. According to the Rand Corp., the United States provided .. http://www.wsj.com/articles/duterte-signals-shift-in-u-s-philippine-military-alliance-1473774873 .. $441 million in security funding to the Philippines from 2002 to 2013. That security relationship has benefited both countries, but whether it will continue under Duterte is at least an open question.
6) Duterte has demanded .. http://www.philnews.xyz/2016/09/pres-duterte-reminds-us-of-bud-dajo.html .. that the United States apologize for the Bud Dajo “massacre” in 1906, which his spokesman has ludicrously likened .. http://www.wsj.com/articles/duterte-demands-departure-of-u-s-military-advisers-from-the-philippines-1473692769 .. to the Holocaust.
The Battle of Bud Dajo was part of the larger American war against Moro extremists, as Philippine Muslims were then known. Hundreds of Moros, including women and children, died in this extinct volcano. Whether U.S. forces were guilty of war crimes remains a subject of dispute. Gen. Leonard Wood, the U.S. commander, claimed .. http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/moro-insurgents-1906/ .. that the Moros fanatically resisted his troops, that even women fought, and that children were used as human shields. Even if U.S. troops massacred the Moros, it is pretty rich for Duterte to demand an apology for an extra-judicial killing carried out more than a century ago while he is carrying out a rampage of extra-judicial killings of his own.
Duterte also refuses to acknowledge that, by the standards of the day, American colonial rule was fairly benign. Manual Quezon, who had fought against the Americans before becoming president of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935, famously complained of the difficulty of rousing a nationalist revolt against U.S. rule: “Damn the Americans! Why don’t they tyrannize us more?” If Duterte is going to demand that the United States apologize for a century-old massacre, will he thank the United States for vastly improving education, transportation, sanitation, and other services in the Philippines — and for liberating that country from Japanese occupation?
Duterte’s presidency is a tragedy for the long-suffering people of the Philippines. A nation of hardworking English-speakers that was one of the first democracies in Asia, thanks to America’s liberal imperialism, should be doing far better economically than it is. (Per capita GDP, $2,886, is lower than Swaziland and Guatemala.) There are many reasons for its deficiencies, but a big part of the explanation lies in terrible leadership.
In the postwar era, the Philippines has had only one great leader — Ramon Magsaysay, who tragically died in an airplane crash in 1957. For the most part, the archipelago has been ruled by corrupt and abusive presidents, the worst being Marcos, who was in office from 1965 to 1986. Of the last three presidents, two — Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo — were accused of corruption. Estrada was impeached, ousted from office in “people power” demonstrations, and sentenced to life in prison before being pardoned by Arroyo, his former vice president. After leaving office, Arroyo had been under detention in a Manila hospital since 2012 before finally having the charges against her thrown out by the Philippine Supreme Court in July. The reformist and relatively honest presidency of Benigno Aquino III, Arroyo’s successor, was a welcome exception to this trend, but now the Philippines is worse off than ever under Duterte’s erratic and violent rule.
The fate of the Philippines should make us realize how high the stakes are in our own election. America may seem far more stable than the Philippines, and it is, but we would be in for profound and disturbing changes if we elect the Rodrigo Duterte of America. Donald Trump is a demagogue who shares Duterte’s vulgarity, his ignorance, his admiration of dictators, his contempt for liberal democratic norms, and his tendency to flip-flop on the issues.
But Trump has much grander aspirations. Duterte is in charge of a poor country with scarcely any military power. Although Duterte can damage the efforts of China’s neighbors to contain Beijing’s expansionism, most of the harm he is inflicting is on his own citizens. If Trump were to win the presidency, by contrast, he would be in charge of the most powerful nation in the world, with thousands of nuclear weapons at his command. He needs to be taken seriously when he threatens, inter alia, to rip up free-trade agreements, impose costly tariffs, build a wall on the Mexico border, deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, abandon NATO, pull U.S. troops out of countries such as South Korea and Japan, recognize Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, and generally turn his back on decades of American international leadership. The example of rowdy “Rody” Duterte — along with countless others, from Juan Perón to Benito Mussolini —suggests that demagogues have a disturbing tendency to act in office much as they said they would do on the campaign trail, no matter how unhinged their ideas may appear to rational observers.
Photo credit: Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/15/its-all-fun-and-games-until-someone-unleashes-death-squads-donald-trump-duterte-philippines/
Will Australia's AG Brandis do a Gonzales and resign?
"Abbott government faces backlash over race hate law changes " .. they were proposed by 'hard right' George Brandis
Attorney-General George Brandis urged to resign amid claims he misled parliament
Michaela Whitbourn
October 5 2016 - 7:32PM
Attorney-General George Brandis is facing calls to resign after the government's top legal adviser accused him of misleading Parliament, in a dramatic escalation of a toxic row between the country's two most senior legal officers.
Senator Brandis has come under fire over a contentious move to restrict his ministerial colleagues'
ability to seek independent legal advice directly from Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson, SC.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/foi-documents-suggest-attorneygeneral-george-brandis-misled-parliament-20160922-grlsh0.html
VIDEO: The Brandis diaries - 01:34
Attorney General George Brandis has to hand over his diaries to Labor's Mark
Dreyfus after losing his bid to keep his meetings secret. Courtesy ABC News 24
Documents released at a Senate inquiry on Wednesday suggest same-sex marriage laws and a proposal to strip dual nationals involved in terrorism of Australian citizenship were flashpoints in a simmering feud between the two men.
Mr Gleeson, the government's top legal adviser, said in an explosive submission to the inquiry that he had not been consulted about a change requiring all ministers – including the prime minister – to obtain the written approval of Senator Brandis before seeking his advice.
Related Content
Has Attorney-General George Brandis misled parliament?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/foi-documents-suggest-attorneygeneral-george-brandis-misled-parliament-20160922-grlsh0.html
Senator Brandis claimed in Parliament Mr Gleeson was consulted about the legally binding change, made days before the election.
Mr Gleeson said he had taken steps to have the change "withdrawn and for a proper consultation process to commence" but they had "proved futile".
"Had I been consulted ... I would have made a submission to the Attorney-General, in the strongest terms, that [the change] should not be made," Mr Gleeson said.
Legal experts have expressed concern the change is a power grab that restricts the independence of the Solicitor-General.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has
called on Mr Brandis to resign. Photo: Nick Moir
Mr Gleeson said there had been times since his appointment in 2013 when he had been asked directly by "persons, such as a Prime Minister or Governor-General" to provide confidential advice and it was "critically important" this should continue.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said "Senator Brandis has misled the Australian Parliament and lied to the Australian people".
Attorney-General George Brandis is facing calls to resign after the government's
top legal adviser accused him of misleading Parliament. Photo: Fairfax Media
"He has no choice but to resign. If Senator Brandis does not resign, then Mr Turnbull must show some leadership and sack Senator Brandis," Mr Dreyfus said.
But Senator Brandis said in a submission to the inquiry, set up by Labor with the support of the crossbench, that he was "surprised" he had not been invited to make a submission.
He insisted Mr Gleeson was consulted about the change. He added that since he made the change he had received ten requests for referrals to the Solicitor-General and had referred "all ten of them".
Mr Gleeson wrote to Senator Brandis in November 2015, raising concerns the Australian Government Solicitor (AGS) rather than his office was consulted on a marriage equality proposal that was "under active consideration by the government".
Mr Gleeson also said he was not consulted about significant changes to a proposal to strip dual nationals involved in terrorism of Australian citizenship. Senator Brandis later made public statements that Mr Gleeson had advised there was a "good prospect" the law would withstand a High Court challenge.
Mr Dreyfus said it was "very concerning that Senator Brandis failed to consult the Solicitor-General on this important legal matter".
"It's also very concerning that Senator Brandis ... [appears] to have misrepresented the advice of the Solicitor-General," Mr Dreyfus said.
University of NSW associate professor Gabrielle Appleby told the Senate inquiry on Wednesday the changes "may be in the future a way the Attorney-General can freeze out the Solicitor-General".
In his submission, Mr Gleeson said he was "already seeing evidence that requests for advice on matters of very great significance to the government and the community are going to persons other than the Solicitor-General".
Senator Brandis and the office of the Prime Minister were contacted for comment.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/attorneygeneral-george-brandis-urged-to-resign-amid-claims-he-misled-parliament-20161004-grv3iz.html
---
Solicitor-general Justin Gleeson not consulted on citizenship laws, marriage equality laws
Portrait of Justin Gleeson SC, Banco Chambers. Pic by Nic Walker. Date 4th March 2010.
Justin Gleeson is Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. Nic Walker
Laura Tingle Oct 5 2016 at 3:43 PM
Updated Oct 5 2016 at 5:49 PM
Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson SC was not consulted on "matters of exceptional importance to the government" including the constitutionality of the government's move
to revoke citizenship of dual citizens, on marriage equality and on the release of correspondence between Sir John Kerr and the Queen in 1975, the Senate has been told.
[...]
For something as serious and drastic as removing citizenship from an Australian citizen to not have been based on the advice of
the Solicitor-General shows a government at best disinterested in the rule of law, and at worst completely contemptuous of it."
http://www.afr.com/news/solicitorgeneral-not-consulted-on-citizenship-laws-marriage-equality-laws-20161005-grvgnv
The top two law enforcement officers of Australia at logger-heads. Would love to see Brandis do a Gonzales.
Half of all Australians want to ban Muslim immigration: poll
Mark Kenny, Michael Koziol
September 21 2016 - 12:34PM
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=125288764
---
'Every 2nd person': the poll on Muslim immigration that made Mariam Veiszadeh sick
"Obama’s Last U.N. Address Was One of His Best Speeches"
September 21 2016 - 5:45PM
Patrick Begley
Mariam Veiszadeh was on the bus when she read the poll result.
"I just felt sick in the gut," she said. Sorrow set in. Paranoia worsened.
VIDEO - Pauline Hanson's anti-Muslim manifesto
[ which should make every decent person in this world sick .. malevolent .. racist .. xenophobic
.. absolutely soaking in venom and stupidity .. please, have just a quick glance at this one ..
.. American far-right religious positions echoed in Australia ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=95581274 .. and this ..
One Nation candidate quits race after Islam gaffe
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=90868722 .. as a refresher before ..
The Greens walk out during the One Nation leader's maiden senate speech as she calls for the burqa to be banned, Muslim immigration to be stopped and the construction of mosques to be halted.
"Every 2nd person sitting on the bus I was on this morning would ban people like me from coming here," Ms Veiszadeh, a diversity advocate, wrote on Twitter soon after.
An Essential poll had found 49 per cent of Australians support a ban on Muslim immigration .. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/half-of-all-australians-want-to-ban-muslim-immigration-poll-20160920-grkufa .
Keysar Trad said he was "heartbroken" to hear 49 per cent of Australians support a
ban on Muslim immigration. Photo: Wolter Peeters
Researchers first asked the question in late July and found the numbers "high".
"I was worried that it was what we call a rogue poll," researcher Peter Lewis said, even though that week's two-party preferred figures looked normal.
So Mr Lewis repeated the question a week later. The nearly identical result "floored" him.
The 49 per cent figure was much higher than the 29 per cent of Australians who said they opposed Muslim immigration when asked by the Roy Morgan agency last October.
Mariam Veiszadeh says politicians such as
Pauline Hanson are giving licence to xenophobia.
Roy Morgan found support for Muslim immigration had risen to 65 per cent, up from 54 per cent in 2010.
The latest numbers come after an election campaign in which Pauline Hanson called for a ban on Muslim immigration - a claim she repeated during her maiden speech to federal parliament earlier this month .. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/one-nation-leader-pauline-hanson-delivers-incendiary-maiden-speech-to-senate-20160914-grg60g .
In the United States, presidential candidate Donald Trump has made the same claim as he campaigns for the White House.
"The standard you walk past is the standard you accept," said Ms Veiszadeh, a Sydneysider who founded the Islamophobia Register .. http://www.islamophobia.com.au/ .. to track anti-Muslim sentiment.
"Many of our leaders chose to walk past Pauline Hanson. Some went so far as to hug her."
Husnia Underabi, a Western Sydney University researcher studying mosques in NSW, said she was not surprised by the poll.
"We know that Islamophobia is on the rise," Ms Underabi said, blaming parts of the media, "vociferous" far-right groups and counter-terrorism legislation perceived to target Muslims.
"I've got the whole weight of the world on my shoulders...The more that Pauline Hanson does, the more work we have to do to repair the damage."
Keysar Trad, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said he was "heartbroken" by the poll finding.
"I would never have expected 50 per cent of people to come out with such an attitude," he said. "It's all the evidence we need to see that Pauline's fear politics are influencing people."
Mr Trad said other politicians - such as Cory Bernardi, George Christensen and Jacqui Lambie - should also bear responsibility for fanning Islamophobia. He called for the leaders of the major political parties to publicly respond to the result.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/every-2nd-person-the-poll-on-muslim-immigration-that-made-mariam-sick-20160921-grl3ol.html
.. toldya Australia had these assholes, too, and there is no doubt that the idiot f*wit Donald Trump has energized the fear driven hatred in lands downunder .. SOD!
Also on Tornado Alley
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=125290686
Marriage Falls in China, Transforming Finances and Families
By AMIE TSANG and ZHANG TIANTIANSEPT. 11, 2016
Wu Jingjing, 29, at a Beijing theater. Ms. Wu, who is single and works at an internet company, says young people no
longer just want someone to marry, they want a relationship based on love. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
HONG KONG — Liu Zhenfeng got married at 25. The usual trappings of family life followed — a daughter, a home, furniture, toys.
That daughter, Song Zongpei, now 28, is taking a different path. Ms. Song shares a rented apartment in Beijing with two roommates and is focusing on her career and her finances. She does not see marriage or motherhood in her immediate future. “At this stage, the most important thing for me is personal development,” Ms. Song said.
Fewer Chinese people are getting married, a shift with profound implications for China .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/index.html?inline=nyt-geo ’s economic and social life. The decline in marriages means a decline in the number of babies, and potentially less spending on homes, appliances and other family-related purchases — the kind of spending China needs to drive economic growth.
Already some businesses are thinking single. Jewelry makers are offering cheaper baubles for unmarried sweethearts. One appliance maker is selling smaller rice cookers. Foreign fertility services are advertising for Chinese women who want to freeze their eggs .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/world/asia/china-us-women-fertility.html — a process that is prohibited for single women in China — to have children later.
[ Chinese Women Head Overseas to Freeze Their Eggs
By CAROLYN ZHANG AUG. 30, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/world/asia/china-us-women-fertility.html ]
Ms. Wu, left, shopped with a friend in Beijing. A drop in marriage in China has raised fears of less spending on
homes and other family-related items, threatening economic growth. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
But the marriage slump — caused in large part by China’s aging population and the legacy of its harsh one-child policy — has a silver lining. It also stems from the rise of an educated population of women. Specialists in economics, demography and sociology say some of those women are delaying marriage to build careers and establish financial footing, resulting in a more empowered female population that no longer views marriage as the only route to security.
“Because they are highly educated, they hold well-paid jobs, they lose the financial incentive to get married,” says Zhang Xiaobo, a professor of economics at Peking University’s National School of Development.
China continues to emphasize marriage in its official media, entreating women not to wait for Mr. Right. But demographics and changing social mores make that a tough sell.
Last year, 12 million Chinese couples registered for marriage, making it the second consecutive year the number has declined. Divorces, which stem from some of the same trends, reached 3.8 million last year, more than twice the level of a decade ago.
Much of the marriage decline results from China’s one-child policy. Ended formally in January after 35 years, the policy accelerated a decline in the country’s birthrate. As a consequence, people between 20 and 29 — prime marrying age — make up a declining share of the population compared with two decades ago. And because families often preferred male babies, China has a surplus of men .. http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/china-polyandry-gender-ratio-bachelors/ , further complicating marriage prospects.
________
Tying the Knot — or Not
Fewer couples are getting married in China, as demographics and evolving social mores have changed the equation. China’s one-child policy — now abandoned — combined with other trends, has made China, on average, increasingly older and increasingly male. At the same time, younger women are seeking financial security on their own and no longer need to get married to get that security.
.. image inside ..
Source: Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics provided by CEIC Data,
except 2015 marriage registrations, which is from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
By The New York Times
________
Those trends test cultural notions of family that go back hundreds of years. While arranged marriages have largely faded in China, parents remain deeply involved in the nuptials of their offspring, chasing down leads on potential suitors and hounding their children during holiday visits about marriage plans.
Ms. Liu, Ms. Song’s mother, agrees that her daughter should wait for the right match, but she still hopes that she finds someone. “I want her to have a happy life,” Ms. Liu said, “and I think it’s more secure to have a family.”
On the economic front, the impact could be double-edged. Single people generally buy fewer houses, have fewer children and buy fewer toys and gadgets than married couples. That could complicate China’s efforts to turn its traditionally tightfisted population into American-style spenders .. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/business/international/for-china-a-shift-from-exports-to-consumption.html , to offset its economy’s dependence on exports and big-ticket government projects.
It could also lead Chinese consumers to put more money away in the bank or under mattresses. Families of prospective grooms in China often save money for years to buy a home for a couple before they marry to give them financial stability. Families save more, to buy bigger homes, if brides are hard to find, said Mr. Zhang, the Peking University professor.
But Chinese consumers could simply spend money on something else — with single young people leading the pack. Some of the decline in marriage stems from the growth of a group of young, educated urban women who no longer need to wed to achieve financial security.
A display at a jewelry show in Shenyang, China. The jewelry industry expects sales growth to slow
in China as the number of marriages declines. Credit Wu Hong/European Pressphoto Agency
China still faces yawning gaps in wages and employment between men and women, according to surveys .. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/opinion/global/chinas-entrenched-gender-gap.html . But women made up more than half of undergraduate students in 2014, compared with about 46 percent a decade earlier, and accounted for nearly half of graduate students, government figures show.
Cheng Guping, a 30-year-old from Hangzhou in eastern China who works at a start-up and is pursuing a doctorate in economics, is one of those women. She cited her professional and educational obligations as the reason she and a recent boyfriend broke up. “I felt that our level of affection wasn’t enough yet,” she said. “I want to see how far I can go on my own.”
Suitable mates are simply hard to find, said Ms. Cheng, who describes many men her age as “not mature or irresponsible.” Referring to another former boyfriend, she said: “When we wanted to do something, or go for food, he only liked to act cute and say with a smile, ‘We’ll do whatever you like.’ It made me feel like I had a son.”
Businesses are preparing for the shift. The jewelry industry expects sales growth to slow in China as marriage declines. In response, many stores are offering a greater variety of jewelry, such as cheaper gems to entice dating couples who have less money.
“Even though they are not getting married,” said Annie Yau Tse, the chief executive of Tse Sui Luen, a jewelry chain based in Hong Kong, “people still need someone to be with them, and they still want love.”
A bride at the Bund, the waterfront in Shanghai. Last year, 12 million Chinese couples registered for marriage, making
it the second consecutive year the number has declined. Credit Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Jiajiashun, an online property agent, said it was planning to sell less expensive housing to cater to single buyers. Midea, a Chinese appliance maker, has been expanding its range of smaller rice cookers — giving singles a way to make fresh rice and avoid the refrigerated leftovers that leave many Chinese cold. “We are concerned about the changes in family structures in China,” according to Huang Bing, chief product manager of Midea’s small domestic appliances division.
In Chinese homes, the shift raises questions about family ties and filial responsibilities.
For example, married couples in China traditionally care for aging parents. Wu Jingjing, 29, can see the burden that the aging population could be for her generation. “There’s a group of people who will feel very much crushed by being in the middle layer, being the pillar of a family while raising both the children and their parents,” said Ms. Wu, who works for an internet company. “I think that sense of collapse will happen in 10 or 20 years.”
Her mother worries about who will care for her daughter if she does not marry. “We can still care for her now, but we won’t be here forever,” Zhai Liping, 53, said. “We hope she will find someone who cares for her, so we can feel more reassured.”
Still, Ms. Wu is single and she said she is still determined to wait until she meets the right person.
“Back in the old times, many people met because they were introduced and just wanted to find a partner to live through everyday life,” she said. “There were very few people who had a free relationship based on love. Now lots of people reject that kind of old attitude and want to find the suitable person.”
-----
Follow Amie Tsang on Twitter @amietsang.
Amie Tsang reported from Hong Kong, and Zhang Tiantian from Beijing. Charlotte Yang in Hong Kong contributed research.
Get news and analysis from Asia and around the world delivered to your inbox every day with the Today’s Headlines: Asian Morning newsletter. Sign up here.
A version of this article appears in print on September 12, 2016, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: As Fewer Wed, Effects Ripple Through China. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/12/business/international/china-marriage-falls.html?_r=0
See also:
Is China's Mosuo tribe the world's last matriarchy?
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=124302051
South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar flees to DRC
Former vice president has been handed to authorities in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, says UN
Riek Machar left Juba in South Sudan last month amid violent clashes.
Photograph: AFP/Getty
Reuters in Juba
Friday 19 August 2016 05.24 AEST
Last modified on Friday 19 August 2016 06.00 AEST
Riek Machar, South Sudan .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/south-sudan ’s former vice president and opposition leader, is in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN has said, weeks after he withdrew from South Sudan’s capital, Juba, during violent clashes with government troops.
The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC became aware of Machar’s presence in the country on Wednesday and contacted the Congolese government, who then asked the mission to extract Machar from his location, a UN spokesman said.
“Riek Machar has been handed over to the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/congo . We’re not in a position to confirm his location,” Farhan Haq said.
A spokesman for the DRC’s government, Lambert Mende, denied it had been in touch with anyone about helping the former South Sudanese vice president. But Haq said Machar was extracted from an area close to the border with South Sudan .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/south-sudan .
“We can confirm that an operation was undertaken by the Monusco UN mission on humanitarian grounds to facilitate the extraction of Riek Machar, his wife and 10 others from a location in the DRC in support of the DRC authorities,” Haq said, adding that Monusco had been considered the best suited party to move Machar safely.
A statement issued by the leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition said Machar had left on Wednesday to a “safe country within the region”.
Machar led a two-year rebellion against forces loyal to his longtime rival President Salva Kiir before the two sides reached a peace deal in August 2015 .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/27/south-sudan-president-salva-kiir-signs-peace-deal-despite-serious-reservations . Under the deal, Machar returned to Juba in April to resume his role as vice president.
--
Violence, fear and looting grip South Sudan's capital Juba
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jul/19/south-sudan-violence-fear-looting-juba
--
But fighting flared last month .. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jul/19/south-sudan-violence-fear-looting-juba , leading Machar to withdraw with his forces from Juba in mid-July.
An opposition spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, writing on his Facebook page, said its fighters had “successfully relocated our leader to a neighbouring country where he will now have unhindered access to the rest of the world and the media”.
Machar had sustained a leg injury from weeks of walking in the bush but it was not serious enough to require medical attention, Dak said.
Since the fighting last month, Kiir has sacked Machar from his post and replaced him with Taban Deng Gai, a former opposition negotiator who broke ranks with Machar.
The UN told Kiir that any political changes must be consistent with the peace deal, which stated that the vice president must be chosen by the South Sudan Armed Opposition.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/18/south-sudan-opposition-leader-riek-machar-drc-democratic-republic-congo
See also:
Neighboring Crises In South Sudan, Central African Republic
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=95271533
'Reign of terror': Fear in the Philippines as police embark on state-sanctioned 'killing spree'
7.30By South-East Asia correspondent Adam Harvey in Manila
Updated 3 Aug 2016, 6:41am
Video: The new president of the Philippines has a radical approach to drug control (ABC News)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-02/philippines-president-radical-drug-control-approach/7683582
Related Story: Bodies pile up in Philippines President Duterte's 'war on drugs'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-18/president-dutertes-war-on-drugs-reaping-lethal-results/7636324
Related Story: Duterte tells people to 'go ahead and kill' drug addicts
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-02/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-urges-communists-to-kill-criminals/7562912
Related Story: Duterte defends Philippine crime crackdown in national address
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-25/duterte-defends-deadly-crime-crackdown-in-national-address/7659792
Map: Philippines .. http://www.google.com/maps/place/Philippines/@13,122,5z
People in the slums of Manila are living in fear after new Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte called on police and vigilantes to kill drug suspects.
Key points:
* Around 500 people have been killed since Rodrigo Duterte declared war on crime
* The policy is popular in the nation which has a major drug and crime problem
* But the families of victims say police claims they were shot while resisting arrest don't stack up
The ABC recently spent five days in the Philippines, during which time around 50 suspects were killed, mostly while allegedly resisting arrest.
In Tondo, a Manila slum, the ABC visited the family of one man who had been shot by police while in custody.
Roland Resido was arrested at his home, then taken away in handcuffs. He was one of three suspects shot dead in custody by Tondo police on July 6.
"We arrested three guys and brought them in to get tested," local police commander, Inspector Monico Aliado, told the ABC.
"They grabbed an officer's gun. There wasn't anything our officers could do except defend themselves."
--
Problems facing Duterte
While President Rodrigo Duterte's fight against drugs is grabbing headlines, it's not the only policy problem he faces, writes freelance correspondent Ben Bohane.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-15/the-domestic-challenges-facing-duterte/7630682
--
Mr Resido's family disputes this version of events.
"He was supposed to be taken to the precinct, and he went with them willingly," his widow Marissa Resido said.
"I did not realise this is what they will do to him."
Mr Resido's son, JR, said: "That is just a show that the police said that he fought them, so that's why they killed him.
"He was in handcuffs. How can he fight when his hands were handcuffed?"
'Police are on a killing spree'
Photo: People walking into a mass oath-taking of "drug personalities" in Tondo in the Philippines. (ABC News: Adam Harvey)
One month into Mr Duterte's six-year presidency, around 500 drug suspects have been executed. Police are responsible for many of the killings.
One of the very few Filipinos prepared to speak out about the extra-judicial killings is Catholic priest Father Amado Picardal.
"I think there is more to come, because the reign of terror has started. The police are on a killing spree, and so are the vigilante groups," he said.
Photo: Catholic priest Father Amado Picardal has spoken out against President Rodrigo Duterte. (ABC News)
Father Picardal worked in Davao City, where human rights groups say about 1,300 criminal suspects were executed by police and death squads over 20 years.
Father Picardal said the killing of suspects was "murder encouraged by the President".
"My worst fears are being realised, but even I did not think it would begin so quickly," Father Picardal said.
"The way I see it is that they want to make an example, so the addicts are so scared, so intimidated they go to surrender in groups. They have to do a lot of killings to convince others of what they are doing."
Drug users pledge not to reoffend
Photo: A crowd of 'surrendered drug personalities' swearing the oath to give up drugs at a mass ceremony in the Philippines. (ABC News: Adam Harvey)
Tens of thousands of drug users have been forced to "surrender" to police at mass-pledging ceremonies where they promise to give up drugs.
The ABC attended one event in a Manila slum where about 500 people suspected of using crystal methamphetamine — known in the Philippines as shabu — were forced to register as drug criminals and promise not to use again.
Those who don't turn up are sought out in the slums by police and district officials and given final warnings.
The ABC accompanied one patrol through Tondo, where users were visited at their homes. One man, who said he was a user who supported his habit by working as a "runner" for dealers, was told, "This is your warning, let's not wait for it to get worse."
Users are expected to get clean on their own. In Manila the handful of rehab clinics are privately run and cost around $US1,000 a month for in-house treatment. Most Tondo residents earn less than $10 a day.
'Kill him ... I'll give you a medal'
Photo: The Manila slum of Tondo. (ABC News: Adam Harvey)
There is no need to directly threaten Tondo's drug suspects with the prospect of being killed if they don't reform — the president is doing that himself at public events.
"Rehab is no longer an option," Mr Duterte told a cheering audience in his home town of Davao City.
"So those of you in your neighbourhood, feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have a gun. You have my support."
In one rally, Mr Duterte told police in the crowd: "In an arrest, you must overcome the resistance of the criminal. You must really overcome it. And if he fights, and he fights to death, you can kill him ... Then I'll give you a medal."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-02/reign-of-terror-has-started-in-philippines/7682466
See also:
Rodrigo Duterte: Philippines presidential candidate hits back as rape remark sparks fury
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=121981788
He seems to share one of Trump's problems. Motor-mouth.
India Hindus: Modi urges action against cow vigilantes
"Is Modi’s India Safe for Muslims?"
4 hours ago
AP
Hindus, who comprise 80% of India's 1.2bn population, consider cows holy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has criticised vigilantes who portray themselves as protectors of cows - an animal considered sacred by Hindus.
Mr Modi, a Hindu nationalist, said such people made him "angry", and any such attacks must be investigated.
He had been criticised for saying nothing about a public flogging last month of low-caste men by vigilantes.
The self-styled cow defenders accused the four men from the Dalit caste of harming cattle.
The victims insisted they were taking a cow's carcass for skinning, as was their tradition.
Also in July, two Muslim women were beaten up by vigilantes over accusations that they had been carrying beef.
Growing pressure
Speaking in the capital Delhi on Saturday, Mr Modi said he would ask state governments across India to investigate anyone linked to such vigilante attacks.
He said he believed "70-80% of them will turn out to be people who are involved in anti-social activities and masquerade as cow protectors to save themselves".
Up to now some commentators believed Mr Modi was staying quiet on the issue of vigilantes so he could maintain his appeal among Hindu nationalist voters, the BBC's Charles Haviland says.
Mr Modi was similarly criticised last year, when he took two weeks to condemn the lynching of a Muslim man over rumours he had stored and consumed beef.
The slaughter of cows is banned in several Indian states.
But the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government has come under increasing pressure from Hindu hardliners to do more to protect cows.
The majority of India's estimated 1.2 billion population is Hindu. However the country is also home to large Muslim, Christian and Buddhist minorities.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-37000604
Mental instability hits Japan in stabbing attack.
At least 15 killed, up to 45 injured in stabbing attack at Japanese disabled facility
Updated about an hour ago
Photo: The site of a stabbing attack at a disabled facility in Sagamihara. (Supplied: NHK)
Map: Japan .. http://www.google.com/maps/place/Japan/@36,138,5z
At least 15 people have been killed and up to 45 injured by a knife-wielding man at a facility for the disabled in Japan, Japanese media reported.
Police in Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture, about 40 kilometres south-west of Tokyo, have arrested a man in his 20s who told police he was a former employee of the centre, Kyodo said.
Japanese media said staff called police at 2:30am local time on Tuesday with reports of a man armed with a knife on the grounds of the sprawling Tsukui Yamayuri Garden facility.
A man handed himself over at a police station half an hour later and said: "I did it", a spokesman at Kanagawa Prefecture Police said.
Asahi Shimbun reported that the suspect was quoted by police as saying, "I want to get rid of the disabled from this world".
"We are still confirming details of the case," the police spokesman added.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-26/stabbing-attack-in-japan/7660310
Treatment of children in brutal Four Corners footage compared to Abu Ghraib
Tuesday 26 July 2016 6:50AM (view full episode)
Image: Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre, Darwin (ABC)
Footage on Four Corners last night showed the brutal treatment of children in a Darwin juvenile detention
centre in a manner that some advocates have compared to American war time prison in Iraq, Abu Ghraib.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/treatment-of-children-in-brutal/7660262
---
Evidence of 'torture' of children held in Don Dale detention centre uncovered by Four Corners
Four Corners
By Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Elise Worthington
Updated about 3 hours ago
VIDEO and more .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-25/four-corners-evidence-of-kids-tear-gas-in-don-dale-prison/7656128
Researchers: Tibetan Glacial Melt Threatens Billions
"The Koala in the Coal Mine"
FILE - Herders graze their yak in the grasslands of the high Tibetan Plateau in the
county of Naqu, Tibet, China, July 6, 2006.
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Yeshi Dorje
November 28, 2015 7:37 AM
With temperatures rising four times faster than anywhere else in Asia, the Tibetan Plateau might soon lose most of its glacier and permafrost, affecting water supplies throughout Asia, Chinese scientists say.
Long known as the “roof of the world,” the Tibetan Plateau is about the size of Western Europe and supplies water to nearly 2 billion people in Asia as the source of several major rivers, including the Yangze, Mekong, Salween (Gyalmo Ngulchu), Indus, Brahmaputra and Yellow rivers.
But because of the impact of climate change, the glaciers are retreating rapidly, grasslands are shrinking as desertification expands, regional precipitation has become irregular, water levels are dropping in major rivers and the permafrost is thawing.
The melting of Tibetan glaciers, the largest mass of frozen fresh water outside the polar regions, is linked to many environmental consequences both locally and globally, including heat waves in Europe, according to some studies.
Glacial retreat
Chinese officials estimate Tibet holds 14.5 percent of the world’s total glacier mass. While there are a few different theories on what is causing the glaciers to melt, researchers agree the pace is staggering.
FILE - Tibetan Plateau in background of Himalayan range, viewed from flyover in Nepal.
[ How wonderful is that view! Absolute majesty. ]
China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported in April that an average of 247 square kilometers of glacier is disappearing annually, and that some 7,600 square kilometers of glacier, or about 18 percent of the total, has disappeared since the 1950s.
Zhang Mingxing, a Chinese official who heads the Tibet Mountaineering Administration, said the glacier at the Everest base camp, 5,200 meters above sea level, has already disappeared. “There is nothing but stones [left],” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Prior Chinese research of substances within Tibetan glaciers indicated carbon from forest fires, crop burning and domestic cooking stoves from India have caused the melting. While these could be contributing factors, scientists say the global rise in temperatures is indisputably the primary cause.
Tibetans say there has been a drastic change of temperature since 1980s. One U.S.-based Tibetan who recently returned to Lhasa expressed shock at seeing the climatological impact on people’s clothing style. “When I lived in Lhasa, it was very rare that people could walk outside in T-shirts,” said the man, who asked that his name be withheld. “Now people are walking in shorts!”
National Geographic reported in 2010 that one glacier was retreating by about 300 meters a year, the length of a U.S. football field.
As early as 2009, China’s leading scientist on glaciers, Qin Dahe, said glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau were melting faster than in any other part of the world. In the short term, he warned, the melt would trigger more flooding and mudslides; in the long term: "water supplies in the region will be in peril.”
Some researchers have predicted that most of the Himalayan glaciers will be gone in 20 years.
Water needs
Those shrinking glaciers feed some of the largest rivers that run through China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
“Water is the most important resource that this region has, the common region of Tibet part of China, India, Bhutan and all of that,” said R. Rangachari, honorary scholar at India’s Center for Policy Research and former secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources of India.
“Water is the key to removing poverty, generation of power, agriculture, et cetera,” he told VOA’s Tibetan service.
A former researcher of Tibetan Plateau climate change for the Chinese Academy of Science, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said diminished glacial runoff had already reduced water levels on the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. “The headwaters for any major rivers come from [the] Tibetan Plateau and there is [a] lesser water supply to those head rivers,” he said.
China’s Ministry of Water Resources announced in 2013 that as many as 28,000 smaller rivers in China had abruptly disappeared by 2011. While Beijing did not cite specific causes, the anonymous researcher said warming on the Tibetan Plateau was at least partly to blame.
“Another important reason is the meltdown of the permafrost soil," which leads to subterranean water drainage, he said. “Like when you have [a] thick sponge.”
The latest research conducted by the Chinese Academy of Science predicted that more than 80 percent of Tibetan Plateau permafrost could be gone by the year 2100, and that almost 40 percent of it would be gone within the “near future.”
Increased risk of conflict
The apparent changes in the Tibetan Plateau have raised concern about the potential for water-security conflicts in the region, particularly between China and India.
To mitigate the environmental impact, China has stepped up construction of dams along rivers cascading from the Tibetan Plateau, despite complaints from downstream nations that need the water.
In fact, the Salween remains the only Tibetan river that has not yet been interrupted by major dams; Tibet's Yarlung Tsangpo River, which feeds India's Brahmaputra River, recently saw construction of a single dam.
FILE - View of the Salween River seen from a small Thai-Karen village Tha Tafang on
the Thai side of the river Nov. 17, 2014.
According to Rangachari, India takes the water issues seriously.
“Nobody wants to hand over their right to do something — [especially] what the other is doing,” he said. “Political boundaries might be created by man, but geography is created by God.”
Tibetans are calling for greater international intervention and attention to the plateau, describing water as the next oil, a nonrenewable resource people could fight over.
“Tibet is very important because many experts say that wars were fought over land before, but nowadays, wars are fought over energy and soon there will be wars fought over water,” said Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan Administration in Exile.
The Tibetan government in exile has launched a campaign calling for greater ecological care for the "roof of the world" at COP21, the November 30-December 11 climate summit in Paris.
In September, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, also called for the international community to pay greater attention to environmental changes that are taking place in his homeland.
“This is a concern for over a billion human lives,” the Dalai Lama said in a video statement.
This report was produced in collaboration with VOA Tibetan service .. http://www.voatibetanenglish.com/ .
http://www.voanews.com/content/melting-tibet-could-threaten-billions-of-people/3075426.html
See also:
West Antarctica Glaciers: Past the Point of No Return
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FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
Thank you to, Amaunet, who gave birth to this board and was
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a smile in this dastardly, only one, world of ours .. thank you, Amaunet .. :))
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