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New twist in Thailand's battle for seat of power
12 May 2014| last updated at 02:20PM
BANGKOK: The battle for who holds Thailand’s seat of power took on a new twist today as the leader of anti-government protests planned to set up his office at the vacated Government House while the country’s new caretaker leader worked from a makeshift, suburban outpost.
The development was the latest to highlight the government’s lack of power as Thailand’s political crisis grinds into its seventh month. One newspaper compared the political situation to a sinking ship that it called the “Thaitanic.”
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who has led the movement for six months, has called for a “final push” to install an unelected new prime minister — a goal that critics call undemocratic but supporters say is a necessary step for implementing anti-corruption reforms before a new election can take place.
Suthep planned to end a months-long occupation of the city’s main park today and march his followers across Bangkok to the prime minister’s office compound, called Government House, which has been vacant for months due to violent clashes between protesters and police nearby.
Suthep says he will not occupy the actual prime minister’s office inside the compound’s stately Gothic-style main building but will base himself in the adjacent Santi Maitree Building traditionally used for state visits. In more stable times, the building was used for meetings with dignitaries such as President Barack Obama and Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
There was no apparent resistance to Suthep’s plan. The military that provides security at Government House said over the weekend he would be allowed in to avoid further clashes in a crisis that has left more than 20 dead and hundreds injured since November.
Protesters achieved one of their goals last week when the Constitutional Court dismissed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for nepotism in a case that many viewed as politically motivated.
Analysts, protesters and Thai media agree that the ruling did little to resolve the country’s political turmoil.
“Every so often, the stewards of the nation rearrange the deck chairs, as `Thaitanic’ continues to plough relentlessly further into uncharted territory, without a captain,” The Bangkok Post newspaper said in a Sunday editorial. “The ship is still heading right for that iceberg.”
Protesters had been calling for Yingluck’s ouster but say her removal is not enough, and they want to set up an unelected “people’s council” to implement still-undefined reforms to combat corruption and money politics. They oppose elections scheduled for July, which the current ruling party would likely win.
Yingluck’s Cabinet has named deputy premier Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan as acting prime minister, but protesters say he doesn’t hold the authority and status to be the head of the government.
Like Yingluck, he is forced to work out of the Office to the Permanent Secretary for Defence in the unfashionable suburb of Muang Thong Thani. Niwattumrong was to hold his first news conference with the foreign media later today as the crisis continues to batter the country’s image, its tourism industry and overall economy.
Yingluck’s supporters have warned that any attempt to install an unelected prime minister would be a disaster for the nation that could spark “civil war.”
Both supporters and opponents are holding large rallies in the Thai capital, which have raised concerns of violence.
The Senate was also holding a meeting today to discuss the crisis following a controversial proposal by Suthep for the presidents of the top courts and the Election Commission to work together to appoint a new leader.
Thailand’s long-running political crisis began in 2006, when Yingluck’s brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was toppled by a military coup after being accused of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Thaksin, a former telecommunications billionaire, remains highly popular among the rural poor in Thailand’s north and northeast, and parties controlled by him have won every national election since 2001. The anti-government protesters, aligned with the opposition Democrat Party, say they want to remove all traces of his political machine from politics. --AP
http://www.nst.com.my/latest/new-twist-in-thailand-s-battle-for-seat-of-power-1.594365
MNLF: Don’t drag us into kidnapping incident
FMT Staff | April 4, 2014
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Meanwhile the Western Mindanao Command centre said their assets
were on alert to preempt possible landing attempts by the abductors.
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UPDATED
[ photo NUR MISUARI ]
KOTA KINABALU: The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has described attempts to link their guerillas to the kidnapping of a China tourist in Semporna on Wednesday as “black propaganda”.
MNLF spokesman Absalom Cerveza said they were not hostile.
He said in the past, MNLF have been instrumental in negotiating the release of several hostages in kidnapping incidents in Sulu, including a tourist who was kidnapped in Sipadan, Sabah a few years ago.
MNLF is helmed by Nur Misuari. Its breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was involved in the recent inking of a peace pact with Manila. MNLF was left out.
MNLF, MILF and Abu Sayyaf are islamic groups marauding in Mindanao.
The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) pact signed on March 27 before Prime Minister Najib Razak and Philippines President Benigno Aquino III while bringing to an end a decades-long civil unrest in Mindanao which had led to tens and thousands of Sulus seeking asylum in Sabah creating what has now become Umno’s “fixed deposit”, is being weighed in with skepticism by political observers on both sides.
Sabah and the Sulu sultanate have a long history. The Sulu sultanate believes it ‘owns’ North Borneo, Sabah’s former name and that the land was only leased to Malaysia.
Last February the armed Sulus claiming to be soldiers of the Royal Sulu Army ‘invaded’ Kpg Tanduo and staked their claim to the land. Their argument was that Malaysia was still paying the sultanate a lease fee.
Many have alleged that Nur Misuari had stoked this Sulu incursion at the behest of political leaders in Kuala Lumpur who were desperate to harness the Malay votes and rev up patriotism and Islamic brotherhood.
But Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Lt Gen Rustico Guerrero told Philstar.com that the MNLF were “peace-loving people”.
Guerrero said the MNLF members’ only objective was to help the Sultanate of Sulu reclaim Sabah, which they believe is “illegally” occupied by Malaysia.
Meanwhile earlier this afternoon Philippines said that that the abductors were suspected to be members of the Abu Sayayaf Group led by a former MNLF leader Murphy Ambang Ladia, also known as Haji Gulam.
Ladia is a native of the Pandami Island in Sulu, according to Malacanang’s presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda.
No official report yet
On Wednesday’s kidnapping, Reuters News Agency meanwhile reported that the Western Mindanao Command centre had placed all its naval assets on alert to preempt possible landing attempts by the abductors.
Command Centre spokesperson Capt Rowena Muyuela said they still have no information on whether the suspects were Filipinos.
“We are still to receive official reports regarding that,” Muyuela said.
She added that they are also coordinating with the Mindanao police to intensify their security arrangements.
On Wednesday seven armed men stormed Singgahmata Reef Resort in Semporna and kidnapped 29-year-old Gao Hua Yuan, from China and a Filipina worker aged 40 years.
The attack comes at a time when Malaysia’s image has been tarnished in China by negative publicity over its handling of the March 8 disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 people aboard, most of them Chinese nationals.
Sabah has become a popular tourist destination for Chinese in recent years, but has faced security problems due to its proximity to the restive southern Philippines.
Last November, 58-year-old Taiwanese national Chang An Wei, was abducted and her husband Hsu Li-min was killed during an attack on a holiday resort on Pom Pom Island.
Chang was release in December, 36 days after she was kidnapped, after a ransom was paid to the Abu Sayyaf, according to reports.
The kidnapping occured in Semporna which is a district under the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom).
Esscom and Esszone was established in April last year following the Sulu incursion.
http://www.fmtborneoplus.com/category/nation/2014/04/04/mnlf-dont-drag-us-into-kidnapping-incident/
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Sultanate of Sulu .. two bits ..
The Sultanate of Sulu Dar al-Islam (Jawi: [...] (Arabic: [...] was an Islamic Tausug state that ruled over many of the islands of the Sulu Sea, parts of Mindanao and certain portions of present-day Sabah (then North Borneo).
The sultanate was founded in 17 November 1405. by a Johore-born Arab explorer and religious scholar Sayyid Abu Bakr Abirin after he settled in Banua Buansa Ummah (ummah is an Arabic term for "community"), Sulu. After the marriage of Abu Bakr and local dayang-dayang (princess) Paramisuli, he founded the sultanate and assumed the title Paduka Mahasari Maulana al Sultan Sharif ul-Hashim.
At its peak, it stretched over the islands that bordered the western peninsula of Mindanao in the east to Palawan in the north. It also covers the area in northeastern side of Borneo, stretching from Kimanis Bay in Sabah which is also overlap with the boundaries of the Bruneian Sultanate, to Tepian Durian in now Kalimantan.
[...]
Map showing the extent of the Sultanate of Sulu in 1822. Date: 18 August 2013, 12:25:47
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate_of_Sulu
Alleged child trafficking, exploitation and abuse at the "Happy Home" orphanage, Kathmandu, Nepal.
ICAC: Arthur Sinodinos stood to make 'tens of millions' from Australian Water Holdings deal
Date March 17, 2014 28 reading now
Kate McClymont, Michaela Whitbourn and Jonathan Swan
.. VIDEO .. 'Corruption acquaints a man with strange bedfellows'
RAW VISION: counsel assisting, Geoffrey Watson, SC addresses ICAC hearing in relation to corruption
allegations against senior Labor and Liberal figures including Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos.
Labor and Liberal figures including federal Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos stood to make tens of millions of dollars from a company linked to the family of crooked former powerbroker Eddie Obeid, a corruption inquiry has heard.
Senator Sinodinos, then NSW treasurer of the Liberal Party, was installed on the board of the Obeid-linked Australian Water Holdings (AWH) in 2008 ‘‘to open lines of communication with the Liberal Party’’, the Independent Commission Against Corruption heard on Monday.
‘‘There will be evidence that he tried to do so,’’ counsel assisting, Geoffrey Watson, SC, said in his opening address.
ICAC Commissioner the Hon Megan Latham during the opening address for the investigation into Australian Water Holdings and the conduct of several ministers.
ICAC Commissioner the Hon Megan Latham during the opening address for the investigation
into Australian Water Holdings and the conduct of several ministers. Photo: Nick Moir
The former AWH chairman was earning $200,000 a year for ‘‘a couple of week’s work’’ and would have ‘‘enjoyed a $10 or $20 million payday’’ if Australian Water had won a lucrative contract with the state government.
Senator Sinodinos has since abandoned his rights to shares in the water infrastructure company and denies any wrongdoing. ‘‘[He] will attend ICAC as a witness and is looking forward to assisting the inquiry,’’ his spokeswoman said.
Mr Watson alleged the inquiry would show corruption across political party lines. The company assiduously lobbied the Coalition government after the March 2011 state election.
ICAC Council assisting , Geoffrey Watson, SC, during the opening address for the investigation into Sydney Water and the conduct of several ministers.
ICAC Council assisting, Geoffrey Watson, SC, during the opening address for the investigation
into Australian Water Holdings and the conduct of several ministers. Photo: Nick Moir
‘‘It might be said – readapting Shakespeare – that corruption ‘acquaints a man with strange bedfellows,’’’ he said.
The ICAC is examining allegations that the Obeids were ‘‘secret stakeholders’’ in AWH and that Mr Obeid corruptly lobbied Labor colleagues on behalf of the company. The inquiry heard the family stood to make up to $60 million if the government entered into a partnership with AWH.
Mr Obeid’s political allies, Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly, allegedly helped to doctor a cabinet minute in 2010 to benefit AWH, which was ‘‘tantamount to fraud’’.
ICAC witness: Senator Arthur Sinodinos in Canberra on Monday. Photo: Andrew Meares
Mr Watson said Mr Obeid had tried to ‘‘eliminate’’ two senior public servants who stood in his way.
‘‘Of all Mr Obeid’s machinations, the most foul is his involvement in an attempt to ruin the reputations of Dr Kerry Schott and Ron Quill of Sydney Water,’’ he said.
Mr Obeid allegedly told then Labor minister Phil Costa that ‘‘you need to sack that bitch’’, in a reference to Dr Schott, and that Liberal MP Chris Hartcher would make a corruption complaint against her. Mr Watson said that Mr Obeid was ‘‘right on the money’’ and an anonymous complaint was made to the ICAC. ‘‘The source of that complaint is very interesting. This is where the misconduct leaps across party lines,’’ he said.
A second ICAC inquiry, starting on April 28, will examine allegations AWH and other ‘‘unscrupulous businessmen’’ paid into a slush fund linked to Mr Hartcher in exchange for favourable treatment.
The ICAC heard that Senator Sinodinos’ ‘‘other involvements’’ will come under scrutiny.
But Mr Watson said that former Labor treasurer Michael Costa, who is also a former chairman of AWH, was not accused of any wrongdoing and ‘‘his role seems to have been a positive one’’.
There was also ‘‘no evidence to implicate’’ Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell and his former finance minister Greg Pearce in corruption.
The inquiry heard that Nick Di Girolamo, a prominent Liberal Party fund-raiser and Obeid associate, transformed Australian Water from a non-profit venture into a commercial operation charging exorbitant ‘‘administration costs’’ to Sydney Water. This included $75,636 in donations made by AWH to the Liberal Party.
‘‘It seems that Sydney Water has – unwillingly, unknowingly – been a principal Liberal Party donor,’’ Mr Watson said. The party said on Monday it would refund Sydney Water.
Mr Di Girolamo became chief executive of AWH – then called the Rouse Hill Infrastructure Consortium – in early 2007. He took a salary of $1.1 million and bonuses of up to $275,000 when the company had around 10 employees and only one contract. ‘‘Salaries of that size were absurdly high. The Prime Minister of Australia was being paid $330,000 a year,’’ Mr Watson said.
The Obeids allegedly became ‘‘secret stakeholders’’ in AWH in 2010 when they agreed to pay $3 million for a 30 per cent stake in the company. But the family insist the money was a loan. One of the terms of the ‘‘loan’’ agreement was that Mr Obeid’s youngest son, Eddie jnr, would be employed by AWH on a salary of $350,000 a year.
Mr Watson said that Mr Di Girolamo used some of the $3 million to pay off debts relating to a racehorse called Partners In Crime.
The first witness in the three-week inquiry will be called on Tuesday.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/icac-arthur-sinodinos-stood-to-make-tens-of-millions-from-australian-water-holdings-deal-20140317-34x89.html
Corruption NSW aussiland .. Obeid connections again in a different scandal .. a little background first ..
Barry O'Farrell met businessman involved in Obeid deal
Andrew Clennell The Daily Telegraph August 14, 2013 5:24PM
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/barry-o8217farrell-met-businessman-involved-in-obeid-deal/story-fni0cx12-1226697431091
Oct 4, 2013 .. Obeid may entangle Federal Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos. ...
VIDEO .. http://media.smh.com.au/news/federal-politics/sinodinos-and-obeid-4803844.html
.. watched a bit, it looks a good one for any interested in a bit
more of doonudder .. a latest .. pigs from both political sides ..
Deception claims as shareholders name Sinodinos in Obeid lawsuit
Date March 15, 2014
Kate McClymont, Michaela Whitbourn, Sean Nicholls
EXCLUSIVE
ICAC continues to investigate whether Eddie Obeid (pictured), Mr Tripodi and Tony Kelly used their
positions as MPs to benefit the Obeid-linked company, Australian Water Holdings. Photo: Peter Rae
Shareholders who lost millions investing in Eddie Obeid-linked company Australian Water Holdings are suing its former chairmen, federal Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos, former NSW treasurer Michael Costa and Liberal fundraiser Nick Di Girolamo for misleading and deceptive conduct.
Mr Di Girolamo's brother-in-law, his best friend from school and the well-connected Navarra family, who run reception centres including Le Montage, Curzon Hall and Conca D'Oro, are alleging Mr Di Girolamo used emotional ''manipulation and control'' to get them to invest in the infrastructure company.
Also involved in the Federal Court suit are Anthony Karam and his sister Corienne, who are tenants of the Obeid family in a restaurant in Broadway.
Mr Di Girolamo, a prominent Liberal Party fundraiser and associate of the Obeids, is one of those to be examined at an ICAC investigation into Australian Water Holdings. The inquiry will commence on Monday.
Five AWH shareholders are suing Mr Di Girolamo, the company and eight of its current and former directors claiming Mr Di Girolamo gave them false information about the company's prospects and contracts. They also claim the company paid some of its directors excessive salaries.
Several of those suing were close to Mr Di Girolamo and claim he took advantage of their friendship. They include Rod de Aboitiz, his friend from St Patrick's College, Strathfield, and Danny Koutsogiannis, whose late wife Eliana was Mr Di Girolamo's sister. Also suing are Mr Koutsogiannis's brother John and wife Angie.
The Navarra family, including Conca D'Oro Holdings directors John and Salvatore Navarra, and father Filippo, said they regarded Mr Di Girolamo ''as family''. They are also close to former Labor minister Joe Tripodi.
ICAC is examining allegations corrupt former Labor minister Eddie Obeid and his former colleagues, Mr Tripodi and Tony Kelly, misused their positions as MPs in an attempt to benefit AWH.
The Navarra, Koutsogiannis and de Aboitiz families allege Mr Di Girolamo used ''unfair tactics, undue influence and powerful emotional control'' to take advantage of their ''close relationships of trust''.
Senator Sinodinos, who was appointed chairman of AWH in November 2010 and resigned a year later, and Mr Costa, who replaced him before stepping down in November 2012, are said to have been involved in the allegedly misleading or deceptive conduct by Mr Di Girolamo, either directly or indirectly. ICAC has not alleged wrongdoing by either of the men.
Mr Costa said: ''I reject the claim, and it will be defended.''
Mr Sinodinos said he will ''oppose the claim'' of minority shareholders.
Directors of engineering firm BG&E, who became majority shareholders in AWH last year, are also named in the lawsuit. ''There is no basis to the claim as it relates to the new management and board, and we will fully contest it in the courts,'' they said.
The shareholders allege the value of their shares has dropped because of the ''recent exposure of AWH and its former directors to the ICAC inquiry concerning the Obeid family scandal''.
The shareholders invested a collective $2.5 million in the company between 2007 and 2008 under an agreement that gave them the right to have the money repaid with interest in 2010. They claim they subsequently agreed to convert their repayment rights into shares because Mr Di Girolamo told them the company had a ''substantial financial value'' and they would receive a ''healthy return''. The shareholders want the share transfers declared void and are seeking a payment of $4.3 million.
ICAC has heard the Obeids agreed in 2010 to buy a $3 million stake in AWH. But the family claims the agreement was later converted into a loan.
John Navarra said of the legal action: ''We're just trying to seek answers. We're presently seeking legal resolution with AWH and its directors.''
Other AWH shareholders include Belinda Kerr, an assistant director at Macquarie Bank, Joe Craparotta, from Schneider Electrics, and Carlo Logiudice, a former project manager with AWH who bought $500,000 worth of shares in 2012.
Mr Di Girolamo was contacted but did not respond before deadline.
NuCoal seeks 'at least' $500m
[ this, i think, relates to the other one of the step back ]
A mining company at the centre of a corruption inquiry involving former Labor minister Ian Macdonald has launched legal action to overturn a NSW government decision to tear up its coal licence without compensation.
NuCoal has lodged an application in the Supreme Court for a judicial review of the findings of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, upon which the government based its decision.
The ICAC found Mr Macdonald acted corruptly in 2008 in granting a licence at Doyles Creek in the Hunter Valley to Doyles Creek Mining, then chaired by former union official John Maitland.
NuCoal acquired Doyles Creek Mining in 2010. In a statement to the stock exchange on Friday, NuCoal - which will seek compensation of ''at least'' $500 million - said its Supreme Court case alleges the ICAC failed to properly consider NuCoal's submissions to it.
It said NuCoal is seeking advice about a constitutional challenge and action under the US-Australia free trade agreement.
Sean Nicholls
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/deception-claims-as-shareholders-name-sinodinos-in-obeid-lawsuit-20140314-34s3r.html
.. gotta share some bad with the good .. lol ..
Nauru media visa fee hike to 'cover up harsh conditions at Australian tax-payer funded detention centre'
[ Tough guys: Operation Sovereign Borders vs the PNG Solution
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94082835 ]
Updated Thu 9 Jan 2014, 3:40pm AEDT
Photo: Hundreds of asylum seekers are held at a detention centre on the island. (Torsten Blackwood: AFP)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-09/aerial-photo-of-the-bankrupt-island-state-of-nauru/5192064
Related Story: UNHCR slams conditions for asylum seekers on Nauru, Manus Island
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-27/unhcr-report-on-nauru/5118588
Related Story: Nauru employee stood down over allegation of improper relationship with detainee
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-02/allegations-of-improper-relationship-at-nauru-processing-centre/5129708
Related Story: Nauru 'better than mining camps'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-19/an-bishop-says-nauru-better-than-mining-camps/5168144
A huge hike in journalists' visa fees for Nauru is designed to cover up how Australian taxpayers' money is being spent on the "cruel" detention centre there, the Greens say.
A spokeswoman for Nauru's government has told the ABC the cost of a single-entry media visa is due to rise from $200 to $8,000.
Hundreds of asylum seekers who have arrived in Australian waters by boat are held at a detention centre on the island, and the Greens say the sudden price rise is an attempt to cover up what is happening there.
"This is of course part of Tony Abbott's strategy to shut down public information about how Australian taxpayer money is being spent on the cruel and harsh detention camps on Nauru," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
"It's designed to make it difficult for the media to access Nauru and to get information back to Australia.
"This is just more fuel to the fire of Tony Abbott's media blackout strategy rather than anything to do with what is best for humanitarian needs of refugees."
The Government has batted away the claim, with a spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison telling the ABC: "This is a matter for the government of Nauru."
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade added: "While this is a matter for the Nauru Government, we would hope that it would reflect on the implications of any such cost increase."
Only three or four media visas were granted last year, according to Nauru's top visa officer Ernest Stephen, who spoke to current affairs website The Global Mail.
The site also reported that there was a notable increase in the issuing of media visas in the weeks after the former Labor government reintroduced offshore processing for asylum seekers in September.
A damning United Nations report into conditions on Nauru .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-27/unhcr-report-on-nauru/5118588 , released in November, found asylum seekers lived in harsh conditions with little privacy and limited services for those suffering from trauma and the effects of torture.
But Australia's former immigration minister, Chris Bowen, said services at the detention centre were adequate.
Another attempt to 'censor the media'
Mathew Batsiua, a member of Nauru Opposition Group, says the new rules, expected to come into force this week, are a Nauru government tactic to censor the media.
"They certainly bully our local media in terms of what they can show, who they can interview, and this is another illustration of that kind of behaviour in terms of bullying media and avoiding accountability," he said.
"It is an alarming trend, and this [Nauruan] government since they've come in has slowly shown its true colours - they are not interested in true accountability; they are not interested in true transparency.
"They talk hot about it, but it's all lip-service. When it comes down to the crunch, they won't baulk in trying to censor media, and this latest policy ... is another illustration of that kind of behaviour and conduct."
He said his party was opposed to any policy that attempts to curtail any transparency of their actions.
"This hiking up of fees for journalists coming in to Nauru is a step in that direction, and we think that it's the wrong move and we're certainly opposing it."
Visitors from Commonwealth countries travelling to Nauru for holidays can be granted visas on arrival which cost $100.
The journalists fee will not be refunded if the application is unsuccessful.
First posted Thu 9 Jan 2014, 11:43am AEDT
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-09/nauru-visa-fee-increase-censorship/5191108
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Asylum-seeker turnback: Indonesia conflicted on Abbott's hardline policy
Indonesian ministers dispute military chief's agreement claim as Tony Abbott says stopping boats is 'non-negotiable'
Daniel Hurst
theguardian.com, Thursday 9 January 2014 14.17 AEST
Jump to comments (530)
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[ for any interested in viewing comment reflecting Australian opinion and conversation on political/social/humanitarian issues (assuming most are Australia), lol, even if only to compare the tone of comments, albeit some different issues, in the United States .. the comments, as one might expect, are not particularly illuminating as to difference in tone, as yeah, there are lefts/rights (mostly wrong lately) everywhere .. grin .. see the first three there now ..
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thefinnigans1 08 January 2014 11:18pm Recommend 28
Oh dear the coalition supporters fell gullible to the pro coalition media once again
.... forrestgrump2 thefinnigans1 09 January 2014 12:39am Recommend 9
amazing stuff from you lefties you seem to prefer the idea that its okay for people to risk their lives in leaky old fishing boats than to come safely via our refugee intake. its staggering to me that you lot seem to back people smugglers and people drowning over an orderly system! or is you hatred for anything other than socialistic doctrine matters more than life itself.
mangawarra forrestgrump2 09 January 2014 1:01am Recommend 10
Don't let the facts get in the way of your politics brother! To balance the bile and nauseous ignorance in you here's some facts. Facts available to you if you dare to develop independent thinking. Hope it's not too late!
http://www.asrc.org.au/resources/mythbusters/#1375939566-1-1
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.. lol, you see what i mean about not much difference in some tone? .. heh, i decided to include those three
because of the information in the link just above, given, note, by one tending left .. grin .. ok, live link here ..
Mythbusters and Fact sheets
In this section you'll find resources to help inform you about all the issues facing asylum seekers and the current asylum seeker debate. It provides a range of valuable resources for the general community, students, concerned citizens, the media, refugee advocates, health professionals and for people seeking asylum. .. http://www.asrc.org.au/resources/mythbusters/#1375939566-1-1
.. the content, of course, has relevance to refugee questions/ policies everywhere .. aside: i have mentioned before my personal position on the political debate in Australia re refugees is basically .. firstly, that the importance of the discussion within the political climate in Australia, in light of the very small numbers we are talking about compared to the United States and other countries, is that the importance of it here does not exactly place Australia as particularly generous nation on the refugee question .. secondly, no, i don't have a solution, just know which side of the debate i am most comfortable with .. ]
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A boat carrying suspected illegal immigrants is photographed in Australian waters. Photograph: Ho/Reuters
Indonesian officials have sent conflicting signals over their willingness to co-operate with Canberra’s hardline policies on asylum seekers, with the country’s military chief alluding to an agreement with his Australian defence counterpart.
The mixed messages came as Australia’s prime minister, Tony Abbott, said Canberra’s relationship with Jakarta was important but his determination to stop the boats was “non-negotiable”. Abbott also used a radio interview to defend his government’s reluctance to confirm details of the policies being implemented, saying he did not want to trigger “unnecessary fights”.
The commander of the Indonesian Military, General Moeldoko, voiced his support for the Abbott government’s “justifiable” decision to turn an asylum-seeker boat back to Indonesia and said the country need not feel offended, the Jakarta Post reported .. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/01/08/tni-agrees-oz-policy-migrants.html .
“Following [our] halted military cooperation with Australia, the country’s defence force chief called me to discuss several issues, including how to deal with the boat people. He told me that Indonesia should understand if Australia drove back undocumented migrants attempting to enter the country using Indonesian boats or if any Indonesians were found aboard,” Moeldoko was reported as saying. “I have agreed. Therefore, we don’t need to feel offended.”
But the newspaper said the Office of the Co-ordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, which oversees the boats issue, denied it was aware of any such agreement. Earlier this week, the Indonesian foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, reaffirmed his country’s opposition to the policy of “pushing back the boats” which he said was “not a solution”.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the government must answer legitimate, basic questions about the situation, arguing Abbott was treating the Australian people and media with a lack of respect.
"It isn't right that Australians need to buy the Jakarta Post to find out what the Australian government is doing," Shorten said in Melbourne.
Shorten said the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, needed to front the media to explain the government's actions on asylum seeker boats.
"When he was in opposition, you couldn't open the door without tripping over him doing a media interview. Now he's in witness protection. They've cancelled the Friday briefings. I don't think it's fair for the men and women of our defence forces, who I believe are doing a professional job, that no one in Australia knows what is going on," Shorten said.
In an interview on 2GB on Thursday, Abbott said Australia’s relationship with Indonesia was “very strong” and few countries had such strong and underlying links at an official level. He pointed to the reported discussion the Australian Defence Force chief, General David Hurley, had with his Indonesian counterpart.
“There are enormous levels of exchange and understanding between Australia and Indonesia, as evidenced by the discussion that seems to have taken place between General Moeldoko and our General Hurley not long ago,” Abbott said.
“There's a lot of co-operation and mutual understanding here, but the important thing for us is that we do stop the boats … this is a non-negotiable for us. This is for us a matter of our sovereignty.
“Now I absolutely understand Indonesia's concern for its sovereignty and I fully respect Indonesia's sovereignty. There is no way on God's earth that any Australian government, particularly a government that I lead, would in any way trespass on Indonesia's sovereignty, but when these boats keep coming illegally to our country that is a sovereignty issue for us. It is absolutely non-negotiable.
“These boats will stop. These boats must stop. And we will do whatever is necessary, consistent with our international obligations and ordinary decency, to stop the boats and that's exactly what we are doing."
Abbott dismissed suggestions he should publicise boat turnarounds to increase the deterrent effect, saying "obviously some things have changed" but he wanted to avoid "micro-detailed discussion about every last particular measure given that having that discussion just causes unnecessary fights".
The comments follow reports of Australia sending two boats back towards Indonesia – a policy that was a key plank of Abbott’s asylum-seeker policies but one that has previously raised controversy.
The ABC said it had spoken to two asylum seekers from different boats who told of Australian personnel tying ropes to their boats, towing the vessels back towards Indonesia, and misleading them. One told the ABC they were told they were being taken to Christmas Island. Claims have also emerged of asylum seekers being mishandled.
Morrison said personnel acted professionally and responsibly.
The Greens' spokeswoman on immigration, Sarah Hanson-Young, said she was concerned about the reports of asylum seekers being treated harshly during tow-back operations, but it was not the fault of the navy or Customs.
"Tony Abbott is breeding a toxic culture of hate and fear," she said.
Hanson-Young said it was "astonishing" that Abbott thought it was acceptable for Australians to find out more about his government's plans from the Indonesian military than from the prime minister and his ministers directly. She questioned whether Abbott knew what was happening on the high seas given his reference to a conversation that "seemed to have taken place" between the two countries’ military chiefs.
"He doesn't care about the lives of refugees on these boats, he doesn't care about the safety of the Australian men and women who are working on board these boats in very dangerous circumstances, and he simply doesn't care about letting Australian people and the public know what his plans and policies really are," Hanson-Young told reporters in Adelaide.
The acting Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, added that he was worried "a whole generation of our defence personnel" could suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from having to implement the government's cruel asylum policies.
"We are plumbing new depths when it comes to some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people," he said. "What's next? Are we going to start sinking boats when they arrive?
"It's hard to imagine we could get any crueller than taking people in the dead of night, turning their boats around, dropping them off at some godforsaken place, somewhere off the coast of Indonesia."The Jakarta Post quoted the national police chief, General Sutarman, as saying: “If boat people have entered the country’s territory, they must be arrested for violating the country’s territorial integrity, and not be pushed back to us.”
The newspaper also quoted a Golkar party politician, Tantowi Yahya, as criticising the military chief for welcoming Australia’s move. “The boat-people issue is not our business because they are not Indonesians and also because they illegally attempted to enter Australia. Where is the involvement of Indonesia [in the matter]? Australia should not arbitrarily act the way it did especially following the suspended co-operation between the countries,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Australian government refused to confirm the purchase of large, hard-hulled lifeboats .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/08/turning-back-boats-could-antagonise-indonesia , to which asylum seekers in unseaworthy vessels could be transferred and directed back towards Indonesia. It prompted fresh accusations from Labor and the Greens that the government was hiding from accountability needed in a democracy. The Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said Australia was not North Korea and citizens deserved to know what was being done in their name.
Abbott indicated on Thursday he was comfortable with being criticised for secrecy on asylum-seeker issues.
"We don't want to give rise to a whole lot of mischief making, and I'd rather be criticised for being a bit of a closed book on this issue and actually stop the boats, and that's the point; the point is not to provide sport for public discussion; the point is to stop the boats and I'm pleased to say that it's now several weeks since we've had a boat and the less we talk about operational details on the water the better when it comes to stopping the boats,” he said.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/09/asylum-seeker-turnback-indonesia-conflicted-on-abbotts-hardline-policy
Comment: Changing our view of Muslim Australia
13 Dec 2013 - 4:35pm
[hidden]Only 20-30% of Muslims construct their identity on the basis of their religious practice, writes Saman Shad.
Australia's Islamic communities are becoming a world-leading example of positive
integration. It's time we recognise that Muslims are a diverse lot, writes Saman Shad.
By Saman Shad
UPDATED 4:35 PM - 13 Dec 2013
It might surprise some people in Australia that not all Muslims in this country are the same. Yup, not all of us wear hijabs or pray in mosques or grow beards. In fact some of us don’t even consider our ‘Muslim-ness’ as inherent to our identities. Just as most people consider themselves to be unique individuals, most Muslims do too. (Here’s a secret – we are people just like you and everyone else).
A survey of 6,000 Muslims in ten different countries, conducted by Professor Hasan of Flinders University in South Australia, has revealed that “Between 20-30 per cent of Muslims construct their identity, their 'Muslim-ness', because of their (religious) practice... .. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/12/01/what-muslim-ness-australia ” Which indicates that a large majority of Muslims don’t believe their religion should be a factor in how they are perceived.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise – not many of us want to be defined by our religion, or ethnic background or our race. Most of us want to be viewed by our achievements, where we grew up, where we live, our career aspirations, or basically by what we do for most of the day. Most of us residing here in Australia, simply want to be perceived as Australians more than anything else.
Professor Hasan agrees and states that “Muslim Australians are in many ways in the first instance Australians.” He also believes that Muslims in this country are more positively integrated than anywhere else in the world.
-----
This should be a cause of celebration. We should embrace the fact that no matter what our religion we all want to be identified as being of this nation first and foremost. Yet despite this, many still don’t view Muslims as a valued part of society.
-----
Last year, for example, some media commentators used the violent protests against the screening of an anti-Islam film .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Sydney_anti-Islam_film_protests .. to paint a picture of a society where a clash of cultures seemed to be raging. They used the incident to show that Muslims found it hard to fit in to the Australian mindset; that they are angry and not loyal to the values that are upheld in this country .. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/keep-their-hate-out-of-our-country/story-e6frfhqf-1226475229425 . This is despite the fact that the perpetrators of the violence represented a very tiny minority of the almost half a million Muslims in Australia.
It’s not just media commentators who question the place of Muslims in Australian society. Earlier this year, a two-year parliamentary inquiry into multiculturalism was “overwhelmed by concern about Islamic integration .. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/call-to-quell-rising-tensions-over-islam/story-fn9hm1gu-1226600131137# ”. And then there’s our own Prime Minister who has himself spouted comments that could be viewed as Islamophobic .. http://islaminaustralia.com/2013/09/05/tony-abbott-and-islamophobia-the-greatest-hits/ .
It is no wonder then that many Muslims are beset with frustration – despite feeling like we have integrated into the country we call home, many of our countrymen feel we don’t belong here. The reason for this may be that the majority of the populace has a very narrowly defined image of a Muslim. They typically imagine a very socially conservative person, who wants Sharia law to govern Australia, who holds sexist views towards women, and is pro-terrorism. A bit like Uncle Sam perhaps – who is actually, you know, a caricature.
Thai government building evacuated as protesters surround more ministries
Updated Wed 27 Nov 2013, 11:36pm AEDT
Video: Thai protesters surround more government buildings (ABC News)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-27/thai-protesters-surround-more-government-buildings/5121288
Related Story: Thai protesters besiege more government ministries
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-26/an-thai-protesters-besiege-more-govt-ministries/5118182
Related Story: Thai protesters occupy government buildings in Bangkok
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-26/thai-protesters-take-over-government-offices-in-bangkok/5116222
Related Story: Thousands march in Bangkok seeking ousting of PM
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-25/an-thai-anti-government-protesters-march-through-bangkok/5115786
Related Story: Thai capital tense as political rivals rally
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-24/anti-government-protesters-gather-in-bangkok-ahead-of-rally/5113578
Map: Thailand - http://maps.google.com/?q=15,100(Thailand)&z=5
Thailand's Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has been evacuated after about 2,000 protesters surrounded the building on Wednesday.
The department's director general Tharit Pengdit says the evacuation took place after an attempt by protestors to shut down key government buildings and ministries.
The DSI is Thailand's equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
It is one of several state offices that demonstrators are targeting in hope of toppling Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government.
The anti-government protesters, led by former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban, chanted abuse at the DSI as scores of riot police scrambled to put on helmets and hold up shields as crowds pushed against a low fence.
The DSI shares the compound with important government agencies, including tax, revenue, immigration and land departments.
Some employees were seen leaving their offices and joining the protests.
Ongoing protests
Five ministries in the capital have been evacuated in the past two days and protesters are occupying the Finance Ministry.
About 3,000 people gathered at the Energy Ministry, 700 at the Commerce Ministry and 200 at the Industry Ministry, according to police reports.
Provincial rallies ranged from 20 people in Narathiwat to 4,000 in Surat Thani, Mr Suthep's political base.
Most of the 19 provinces where demonstrators had massed are in the south, a traditional stronghold of the opposition Democrat Party.
But four were in the north and northeast, where former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his family is hugely popular.
The target of Wednesday's rallies was to shut down the bureaucracy to wipe out the "political machine of Thaksin", Mr Suthep said.
The protests, though peaceful, have raised fears of unrest.
Anti-government protest leaders, from all sides, have a tradition in Thailand of trying to provoke a violent crackdown by the government to rob it of its legitimacy.
Anti-government protesters gather outside Thailand's Labour Ministry in Bangkok rallying
to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government. (Reuters: Athit Perawongmetha )
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-27/thaialnd-protestsjpg/5121292
The DSI recently indicted Mr Suthep and former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for murder for their alleged role in the deaths of more than 90 people in 2010 in a military crackdown on demonstrations by Thaksin's supporters.
One demonstrator Chattavorn Sangsuwan says while the DSI is "supposed to be an independent organization", it has "not acted neutrally".
"We will finish off what the coup-makers started in 2006. Their job was not complete, Thaksin's influence is still everywhere. We are here to finish the job," he said.
The demonstrations have been going on for weeks but are gaining momentum.
Thaksin: a controversial figure
Such protests are familiar in Thailand, which has seen eight years of on-off turmoil, from crippling street protests to controversial judicial rulings and military intervention, each time with Thaksin at the centre of the disputes.
Despite fleeing into exile to dodge a jail sentence for abuse of power in 2008, Thaksin, a former telecommunications mogul, has loomed large over Thai politics.
He won the support of the rural poor who voted him twice into office, in 2001 and 2005, before he was ousted in a 2006 military coup.
His supporters remain fiercely loyal to him and the parties he backs.
While his opponents are fewer in number, they hold considerable power and influence especially over the urban middle class.
Many of them see Thaksin as a corrupt, crony capitalist who manipulates the masses with populist handouts and is a threat to the monarchy, which he denies.
Yingluck responds
Prime Minister Yingluck says the police will keep the peace as there is fear that clashes could erupt and further weaken her government.
"My government will not use force. This is not the 'Thaksin regime', this is a democratically-elected government," she told reporters outside parliament, where she is being grilled by opposition lawmakers in a two-day confidence debate.
The anti-government campaign started last month after Yingluck's ruling Puea Thai Party tried to pass an amnesty bill that critics said was designed to absolve Thaksin of his graft 2008 conviction.
Thailand's Senate rejected the bill, but that did nothing to defuse the crisis.
A spokesperson for the protestors Akanat Promphan says they "don't want any confrontation".
"We will ask civil servants to join the people, to stop working for the Thaksin system," he said.
Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-27/an-thailand-government-building-evacuated-as-protestors-gain-gr/5120946
Respected Jesuit Albó Denounces Evo’s TIPNIS highway
.. these on Bolivia i think will interest some ..
Posted: admin on Jul 06 | Environment, Indigenous & Culture
Respected Jesuit author and priest, Xavier Albó, said that the Morales government is using a strategy of deception and confrontation to wear down indigenous groups and validate his meeting with 45 supposed leaders of the area who agreed to a vote on building a highway through the TIPNIS national park. “It’s clear that when Morales signed law 180 (promising never to build a highway through the TIPNIS), just a few days later he was looking for his strategy to do the opposite and found the law 222 and began to attack all the TIPNIS leaders, divide indigenous organizations and make a series of accords with certain lowland groups in order to defenestrate TIPNIS leader Adolfo Chavez.”
Albó continued, “From the beginning the government was against the march. Since the 8th march and now with the 9th march. They repressed the 8th march in Chaparina but now their tactic is to ignore them, to say that they don’t represent anybody, and have placer all their power into a campaign, with Evo Morales at its head, to bring gifts to the TIPNIS when they had never brought anything before.” When Morales visited TIPNIS communities recently he brought gifts of outboard motors, communications equipment, and soccer balls along with promises of education and health if these remote indigenous communities allow him to build a super highway through their protected homeland.
To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia.php?identificador=2147483960874
http://www.boliviaweekly.com/respected-jesuit-albo-denounces-evos-tipnis-highway/2972/
=====
Bolivia: TIPNIS Road On Hold Until Extreme Poverty Eliminated
Emily Achtenberg
Rebel Currents
April 25, 2013
Bolivian President Evo Morales has promised to eliminate extreme poverty in the Isiboro-Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS), before taking any further steps to design, fund, and build the controversial highway that would bisect the reserve. The decision is expected to put the highway on hold for three years, until the end of 2015.
The surprise announcement .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Asamblea-tratara-leyes-TIPNIS_0_1813018726.html .. comes as lowlands indigenous groups and their supporters continue to challenge the highway on a variety of fronts, and as Bolivia gears up for the 2014 presidential elections. Morales is again the declared candidate of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, notwithstanding the current controversy over whether a third presidential term is constitutionally permissible.
Poverty in the TIPNIS. Credit: La Razón.
The Morales government has committed .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Invertiran-Bs-millones-anos-TIPNIS_0_1818418235.html .. $14 million over the next two years for basic services (water, electricity, health, and education), transportation, telecommunications, natural disaster prevention, and sustainable development projects in the TIPNIS. According to Juan Ramón Quintana .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Gobierno-invirtio-Bs-MM-TIPNIS_0_1819618066.html , who is overseeing the anti-poverty effort, more than $2 million has already been invested (presumably reflecting the government’s widespread practice of delivering outboard motors, chainsaws, solar panels, electric generators, and similar benefits to communities during the official consultation process on the TIPNIS road, which has been highly controversial).
By October, says Quintana, the TIPNIS will be the first indigenous territory to achieve 100% documentation, through the distribution of birth certificates and identity cards to every inhabitant. An “ecological regiment” has been launched to carry out park security, ecotourism, sustainable development, and training activities for indigenous youth.
While MAS deputies initially announced that the legislature would not seek to initiate or modify any existing laws affecting the TIPNIS during the three-year period, Quintana has suggested that the law protecting the reserve’s “untouchable” status will need to be altered or substituted, in accordance with the ”mandate” of the consulta. According to official reports, all but one of the TIPNIS communities participating in the consulta voted to overturn the “untouchability” law—which the Morales government interprets as precluding sustainable development activities by native groups as well as major development projects like the highway.
The decision to prioritize anti-poverty efforts, government officials say, is a direct response to community demands articulated during the consulta process. Still, TIPNIS leaders remain skeptical. According to Adolfo Chávez .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Invertiran-Bs-millones-anos-TIPNIS_0_1818418235.html , ending extreme poverty in the TIPNIS will require a deliberate strategy to enhance each community’s particular sustainable development initiatives, with the government guaranteeing prices and markets, and will cost at least three times as much as the amount promised. For Fernando Vargas .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Gobierno-invirtio-Bs-MM-TIPNIS_0_1819618066.html , the program is little more than a strategy to guarantee eventual construction of the TIPNIS highway.
Alejandro Almaraz .. http://www.paginasiete.bo/2013-04-24/Opinion/Destacados/1500000124-04-13-P720130424MIE.aspx , former Minister of Lands in the Morales government who strongly opposes the TIPNIS road, sees the announcement as an admission of defeat by Morales. Despite exhaustive and multi-pronged efforts, he argues, the government has been unable to achieve the necessary social and legal conditions to construct the road. Morales will not be able to deliver the TIPNIS highway “like it or not, in the current adminstration,” as he famously promised in 2011.
The continuing polarization around the TIPNIS highway was evident last month in Washington DC, when TIPNIS leaders denounced the proposed highway and the consulta process before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights .. http://amazonwatch.org/news/2013/0322-bringing-the-fight-over-bolivias-tipnis-road-to-washington-dc .. (IACHR). A counter-delegation of government officials and pro-government indigenous leaders presented the government’s point of view. Morales (along with Ecuador, Venezuela, and Nicaragua) has threatened to withdraw from the IACHR on the grounds that it reflects the ideology and priorities of its primary donors, the United States and Europe, and has been unduly critical of left-leaning Latin American governments.1744
Vargas protests travel restrictions. Credit: La Razón.
The Catholic Church, which recently issued a report critical of the consulta process, has come under attack by pro-MAS groups and government officials. The pro-road CONISUR (an indigenous governing authority in the southern section of the park) has threatened .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Indigenas-Iglesia-Catolica-APDHB-TIPNIS_0_1812418805.html .. to take over church lands within the TIPNIS and bar church representatives from entering the reserve. TIPNIS leaders also charge that increased militarization of the park has restricted .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/seguridad_nacional/Afirman-dificulta-reunion-corregidores_0_1817218294.html .. their freedom of movement, forcing delays in a recent territory-wide congress when indigenous authorities could not get fuel, or permission from the Navy, for river travel.
Recent revelations in the Chaparina case—the official judicial investigation into the police repression of TIPNIS marchers in September 2011, which has dragged on for more than a year, with little progress—have also reignited tensions. Vice-President Alvaro García Linera has testified .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/seguridad_nacional/Garcia-afirma-sabia-operativo-Chaparina_0_1816018422.html .. that neither he, Morales, nor then-Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti, had prior knowledge of the police intervention or know who gave the order .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/seguridad_nacional/Garcia-Linera-Evo-Sacha-Chaparina_0_1815418553.html .. to intervene—contradicting his earlier press statement that the government knows what happened.
Ex-Defense Minister Cecilia Chacón, who resigned in protest after Chaparina, has testified that Morales and other high-level cabinet officials were monitoring events .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/seguridad_nacional/Camacho-Garcia-discrepan-orden-Chaparina_0_1820817944.html .. by telephone immediately following the incident as the marchers were being evacuated—raising questions as to why the police were not ordered to retreat. The official government narrative, which holds that the police broke the “chain of command,” has been challenged by Bolivia’s human rights ombudsman, whose report points a finger at Llorenti. Llorenti has been officially excluded from the investigation and currently serves as Bolivia’s representative to the UN.
Police repression, Chaparina. Credit: Erbol
On the political and electoral fronts, the fallout from the TIPNIS crisis to date has been inconclusive. In the special Beni gubernatorial election last January, the conservative coalition candidate prevailed with 52% of the vote, but the MAS candidate gained 44% —a significant increase compared to the party’s 7% support registered in 2005. In the two provinces .. http://www.ftierra.org/ft/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13687:rair&catid=174:marcha-indigena&Itemid=243 .. where the TIPNIS is located, MAS won 56% and 69% of the vote, respectively—further evidencing indigenous support for the road (for Morales), or the effectiveness of the government’s gifting campaign (for Adolfo Chávez).
Indigenous leader and ex-MAS deputy Pedro Nuni, who ran independently for governor, gained only 2.65% of the vote. Nuni .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Nuni-asume-cargo-gobernacion-beniana_0_1791420876.html .. is now the Secretary of Indigenous Development in the conservative Beni administration. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beni_Department ] Miriam Yuvanore, a survivor of the TIPNIS police attack (whose iconic photo, showing her bound and gagged, has become a symbol of the event) is heading the TIPNIS subgovernment unit created by the new Beni governor.
As for the 2014 elections, both the original lowlands indigenous federation CIDOB .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Indigenas-candidatura_0_1812418789.html .. (now challenged by a rival pro-government organization) and the highland indigenous federation CONAMAQ .. http://www.ftierra.org/ft/index.php?option=com_content&id=13705:conamaq-decide-participar-en-elecciones-2014&Itemid=243 .. have announced that they will remain independent of any established political party. This represents the final rupture of the Unity Pact, the broad alliance of peasant and indigenous movements that have supported the MAS and Morales since 2005. The COB .. http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/COB-inicia-creacion-partido_0_1763223698.html .. (Bolivian Workers Central) is in the process of creating its own political party.
Still, recent opinion polls show Morales maintaining a 59% support level in the major cities, apart from rural areas which are his major political base, with no viable challenger in sight. Putting the TIPNIS road on hold and defusing the conflict for a few years may be an insurance policy to guarantee his reelection. But whether the elimination of extreme poverty—if truly achieved—will represent a genuine or a Pyrrhic victory for inhabitants of the TIPNIS, only to be undermined later by construction of the highway, remains to be seen.
Emily Achtenberg is an urban planner and the author of NACLA’s weekly blog Rebel Currents, covering
Latin American social movements and progressive governments (nacla.org/blog/rebel-currents).
http://nacla.org/blog/2013/4/25/bolivia-tipnis-road-hold-until-extreme-poverty-eliminated
===== .. this one is long, but good .. please at least take a peek in my
NOTE: close to the end of it, which to me contains at least a kernel of sense ..
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Why is Evo Morales still popular?
Introduction
Bolivia’s achievements in recent years have inspired interest and solidarity among many on the left outside that country, and not just in Latin America. Conversely, the government of Evo Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) has produced corresponding hostility from Washington and its allies.
But some of the harshest criticism has also come from some left critics, including a few foreign academics and Bolivia-based NGO activists. Readers of their accounts might wonder how it is that the Morales government still gets the popular support it clearly does in Bolivia.
The following article by a leading Bolivian journalist sheds considerable light on the matter. He focuses on the domestic scene — more particularly, the government’s economic and social reforms — and astutely explains both the accomplishments of the administration and the reasons for discontent on both the left and the right within the country.
His account pays less attention to another reason for the government’s popularity: the “refounding” of Bolivia as a plurinational state that for the first time in its 200-year history constitutionally recognizes the languages and cultures of the indigenous peoples, the majority of its population, as well as the self-governing autonomy of its leading ethnic communities. He does indicate, however, some of the ways in which this “political revolution” has resulted in a profound “substitution of political elites” that has shifted the hegemonic balance of forces in Bolivia more to the side of the subaltern classes.
I am inclined to think the government’s popularity is also reinforced by its international policy, especially in Morales’ campaign to get the major world powers to assume their responsibility in facing up to the challenge of global climate change. Most recently, as well, the government has been one of the few to uphold the right to asylum of Edward Snowden, the NSA whistle blower, in retaliation for which Evo Morales was singled out by Washington earlier this month when it got no less than four European governments to refuse landing rights to Morales while he was returning home from Moscow, thus jeopardizing the life of the Bolivian president.
At this point I am not convinced by the author’s claim that the revolutionary potential of Bolivia’s “process of change” has largely dissipated. However, we can leave it to future events to determine the accuracy of this observation. The article is a valuable summary of the government’s legacy to date.
This article appears in the May-June issue of Nueva Sociedad, a bimonthly journal published by the social-democratic Friedrich Ebert Foundation and now edited by Pablo Stefanoni, an Argentine journalist and former editor of the Bolivian edition of Le Monde Diplomatique.
Once again, my thanks to Federico Fuentes and Cristina Rojas for reviewing my draft translation.
– Richard Fidler
* * *
Why is Evo Morales still popular?
The strengths of the MAS in the construction of a new order
By Fernando Molina
Nueva Sociedad , No. 245, May-June 2013
http://nuso.org/upload/articulos/3937_1.pdf
Last January Evo Morales celebrated seven years in power, which already puts him on the short list of governments with the longest mandates in a history characterized by political and social instability. Notwithstanding the wear and tear of his administration, the Bolivian president maintains an approval rating of at least 50%. Why this strong standing, which shields him for the time being against any of his potential electoral rivals? This article, citing statistics and socio-political analysis, explains the economic, political and social strengths of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) in an economic context that was unimaginable a decade ago.
Last March 28, while celebrating yet another anniversary since the founding of the government party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), Evo Morales and Álvaro García Linera launched the effort to be re-elected for a second time as President and Vice-President of Bolivia in 2014. Given the legal restrictions that might preclude this hope, special authorization allowing their candidacies had been granted by the Tribunal Constitucional.[1] It is certain, however, not only that the MAS and its two candidates will be present in the elections but that they will be the axis around which all the election campaigns will turn.
After six [sic] years of government, the governing party lacks the exciting aura of novelty that surrounded it at the beginning of the so-called “process of change.” Broadly speaking, the change has already occurred and changing has ceased to be the driving force that it was between 2002 and 2009. The major contribution of the MAS to innovation in Bolivia has already been made: the future of this party now depends on its potential to represent the continuity of the laws, institutions and policies that it devised and applied during those years.
However, this statement is problematic. Today the ideological struggle in Bolivia continues to revolve around the question of change. Was it a promise fulfilled, and to what extent? What is the real nature of the transformation of the country, and how should it be defined — socialist, nationalist, state capitalist? That is what drives the political debate, because how these questions are answered depends on the position that each party occupies in relation to the government, whether an ally, a critical follower, an adversary or an enemy.
An indication that Bolivia is entering a new stage is that the discussion is now a projection not toward the future, as it was for so long, but toward the past. Since its revolutionary potential has largely dissipated, the Bolivian process has entered a “retrospective stage” focused on making a balance sheet and drawing on the “heroic years.”
What remains is the capital accumulated by the MAS during and thanks to its administration of government. This article will describe this legacy — on which the new MAS election campaign will be erected — in order to demonstrate that it is not a house of cards, as most of the opposition argues. Our hope is to make an objective evaluation of what has occurred from a very specific standpoint: the construction of a new order. That is why such measures as the creation of relatively unsustainable state enterprises, debatable decisions in terms of achieving national development, are praised for their ability to insert particular population groups in the state apparatus, avoid civil conflicts, and secure the presence of the state in the territory and markets with the goal of promoting local producers. And so on….
For those to the left and the right of the MAS, the transformations of these years have been more rhetorical than real, more symbolic than material, more a work of chance than of will, and have produced more errors than successes. The various oppositions coincide in this diagnosis, although they argue it differently.
For the left opposition, the achievements of this regime do not correspond to the initial dreams. It has fallen back on the extractivist developmentalism and populist nationalism of the 1950s. The progress that has been made in the fight against social inequality is much less than what could have been achieved in some other way.[2] The means employed have ultimately converted the MAS into a “traditional” party, that is, vertical, demagogic, caudillista.[3]
For the right opposition, on the other hand, the problem began with the dreams: statism is a means for changing the model of redistribution, to favour those sectors close to the government (the process hampering private activity), but not to confront the country’s structural problems. The empowerment of the indigenous has been symbolic, and has been restricted to groups close to the governing party, since the flesh-and-blood indigenous continue to confront a lack of economic opportunities, which are ultimately the ones that count.[4] The economy is doing well as a result of the boom in international prices of petroleum and other minerals, which has boosted domestic consumption of imported goods and of those that can only be produced in the country (“non-tradables”), but Bolivia still gets most of its income from exports of two or three varieties of raw materials. And the government is squandering the extraordinary income it receives in projects devoid of economic rationality.[5]
These criticisms have the same defect. They emphasize what the government is not doing or has not become, but they do not faithfully observe what it has done and what it represents. Hence the motive and the need to write these lines.
Economic strengths
The Evo Morales government coincides with the best economic moment in Bolivian history. The existence of a causal relation between the two is doubtful, since the principal dynamo of the national bonanza is the high revenues from exports, which in a decade have increased from about $2 billion to around $10 billion. Those revenues, in turn, are due to the high international prices. However, the government must be credited with having prevented this income flow from being lost through a flight of capital, having nationalized the main export chain — gas, along with some mines and key foundries.
Also, owing to the policy of strengthening the national currency, and the fragility of international finances, investments in Bolivianos are the norm, as shown in the record holdings of deposits and credits (equivalent to $7.7 billion and $6.4 billion, respectively) with which the banking sector finished 2012. Bolivia has never before had such a high amount of international reserves, more than $14 billion, about 60% of its GDP.
With the flight of capital under control, capital has remained in the country and stimulated a strong growth in demand, which in some years largely (and in other years entirely) explains the growth in production, averaging 4.8% annually.[6]
Demand has grown thanks to the expansion in public spending, from about $6 billion in 2005 to more than $20 billion. The State now has 50,000 more employees than it had in 2006 (an increase from 75,000 to 125,000). Public investment has increased six-fold in five years and now accounts for 11% of the GDP, while private foreign and national investments each account for 4%. This total investment of 19% of GDP is higher than what Bolivia has normally received (in the mid-1990s, at the height of the privatizations, the rate went to 16%).[7]
Another major source of demand was the rise in domestic incomes as a result of the almost full employment enjoyed today by the population (above all owing to construction, which is expanding at a rate of 10% per year), the social policy budget, and wage increases, which generally cover the official rate of inflation at about 5%. The minimum wage has risen 127%, a powerful boost to the most vulnerable sectors of the employed labour force: construction workers and maids.[8]
Is this the actual inflation? People complain about the rise in the prices of food and transportation, which no doubt is higher than what is indicated by government figures. However, this discontent is counteracted by the increase in the number of employed persons in each family and the controls on prices of some products (flour, chicken, sugar, rice, bread and milk), which so far have been relatively successful. The government has allocated $395 million to stabilizing the wholesale prices of flour, sugar, rice, hard yellow corn and wheat.[9]
The “bonos,” or conditional cash grants that the government gives to seniors, pregnant women and some groups of students cover 33% of the population, that is, 3.3 million people, with amounts from $28 to $340 per person per year. Up to now the MAS government has allocated $1.2 billion alone on the “Renta Dignidad,” the universal government pension granted to all those over the age of 60, about 900,000 persons.[10]
The increase in the internal market has offered new opportunities to the informal market entrepreneurs, very numerous in a country with a very small formal economy. Many of them engage in smuggling, which is increasing along with the size of the economy notwithstanding the efforts of some bureaucratic (but so far known to be honest) customs officers. One study estimates that the merchandise that illegally crosses the border amounts to a fifth of the amount of legal imports.[11] Applying this percentage to imports in 2012, the figure would be $1.85 billion or 7.4% of the GDP. As a result of this business, and of the drug trade (which is not discussed in the cited study), a lot of jobs have been established.
Other subsidies provided by the government to the population are:
* the freezing of electricity rates, which are set especially low for the poorer consumers (Tarifa Dignidad). The subsidy benefits 890,000 persons and costs more than $8.5 million in revenues to the electricity companies.[12] These measures have kept Bolivian rates the lowest in Latin America, which they already were before the present government came into office.[13]
* the application of the Tarifa Dignidad to the potable water service;
* the freezing of fuel prices at a cost of about $1 billion annually, or $100 per capita. This policy helps to control the level of transport fares, a major expenditure for the poorer population which spends 80% to 90% of its income on transportation and food purchases. At the end of 2011, in what many consider was its worst error, the government moved to suspend the fuel subsidy and the mass reaction was so overwhelming that it quickly had to retreat. Since that time a complex system of controls has operated to prevent the subsidy from stimulating gasoline smuggling across the borders and bleeding the public treasury.[14]
* controlling the level of air travel fares and telecommunications rates through the presence in those markets of state-owned companies with decision-making powers (Boliviana de Aviación and Entel), which have performed this task among others.
* the elimination of the cost of documents citizens request from various state and private authorities such as birth certificates, high school completion certificates, occupational records, etc.
* a credit of $100 million to transport workers’ unions to import 2,000 Chinese buses.
* the direct recruitment of 130,000 unemployed women (former beneficiaries of the Plan Nacional de Empleo de Emergencia – PLANE, the National emergency employment plan) to work on state projects such as reforestation in the Amazon jungle.
These measures and processes have managed to lower urban extreme poverty from 24% to 14%, and rural extreme poverty from 63% to 43%.[15] At the same time, Bolivia has benefited from the phenomenon of an increase in the size of the Latin American middle class (those who receive incomes of more than $10 a day) by about 50 million in recent years.[16]
Since this new middle class results not from an improvement in productivity but rather from a better distribution of income, it has a precarious existence and there is no assurance that it will not disappear later. However, its sudden appearance has changed the usual correspondence between class and ethnicity; in other words, there are increasingly more and more indigenous (and mestizos with a strongly indigenous physiognomy) who are experiencing a certain prosperity, altering the relationship of forces between the old “white” elite and the rest of the population, making unviable the racism of the elite and tending to psychologically empower all of the indigenous, including the poor.
The government has created a set of small state enterprises that do not appear to be very sustainable, such as a plant for manufacturing cardboard, or milk and fruit processors, etc. These initiatives have been criticized as inefficient and in some cases corrupt.[17] However, these companies have the advantage of having been established in remote locations which gives them symbolic value, although it undermines their efficiency. With them, the state goes where it never went before and, in some cases, as in the companies that purchase gold, almonds, honey, etc. from small producers, tends to improve their situation. While these firms are not completely ruinous and the public treasury is in a position to sustain them, they support the idea that the government is winning the country’s economic sovereignty.
For the first time in history, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB, the state hydrocarbons development company) is making extremely important investments with the national currency. Experts are sceptical about what will happen, for example, with the construction of a petrochemicals plant in Cochabamba that will cost $800 million and still has no secure market. However, until this negative prognosis has been verified in reality, this plant, and especially the domestic gas networks YPFB is installing in the major cities, satisfy the nationalist economic sentiment of the majority of the population (judging by opinion polls).[18]
Other investments in infrastructure are also being made. Between 2001 and 2005, 887 kilometres of highways were built, but between 2006 and 2012 this figure doubled. Highway investment during this period rose to $2 billion, the highest level in the country’s history.[19]
Social strengths
The Bolivian social substratum is a tightly woven set of indigenous and corporate organizations that express the demands of the population and, in part, substitute for the state institutions that are lacking in the rural areas and small towns.
This is a complex and diverse system that absorbs and channels most of the grassroots movements around public issues. Controlling it is fundamental in order to lead the country’s political mobilization, including electorally, and for ensuring governability.
As is well known,[20] the MAS is part of this structure. If we look at the rise of this party and the ideology it defends, it can be viewed as the return of corporativismo .. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism ] (that is, of a flexible type of collectivism [literally, the corporate spirit –Tr.]) to the political scene, after a decade — the 1990s — in which the liberal predominance purported to remove it in order to make way for a contractual model of society. For historical reasons, corporativismo is the “natural” form of Bolivian organization, and that is why the principal strength of the MAS lies in its ideological and organizational coincidence with it.
The corporations serve to stimulate and channel disputes between groups with different interests. A political system based on them suffers from the factionalism and conflict that is intrinsic to them. However, the Bolivian corporations have encountered in the MAS a lasting and effective way of ensuring that their disputes do not compromise their strategic unity.
The success of the MAS in this sense is due to the historical and political dimension of what has been achieved up to now, to the ethnic solidarity that unites its ranks, to the practical need it has to align in opposition to the “enemy,” etc. However, the most profound reason for this success is the general loyalty to Evo Morales, one of the most effective caudillos in Bolivian political history, which is full of eminent caudillos.
The MAS represents the simultaneous unity of corporativismo and of the Bolivian left behind an ideology and a leader. Thus, while there is constant conflict between its factions, it has not to this point gone beyond the framework constituted by the movement. Also, from its position in governmental office, the MAS carries on an active “management of unity” in various ways:
----
(a) The condemnation of disagreement, which can lead to the expulsion and isolation of dissidents in order to preclude their acting in an independent way. Early this year, Vice-President García Linera deprived of their authority the members of the MAS who were criticizing the party line, in particular the then chair of the Chamber of Deputies, Rebeca Delgado. The MASistas, he argued, are not freethinkers but revolutionaries and hence must adhere to the rules of “democratic centralism.” And if they don’t like this, they should leave.
Of course the MAS, as an organization of social organizations, is far from applying “democratic centralism”… except against dissidents. So in the ceremony marking the anniversary of the MAS, referred to at the beginning of this article, Evo Morales said “We must win back some compañeros who have gone astray. We must unite.”
(b) At the same time, the government gives different treatment to the social movements that confront it depending on whether they are considered allies or adversaries. If they are allies, the conflict is framed by the government as “creative tensions within the revolution”[21] and it seeks to avoid an escalation of the protests by relying on the government’s relationship with the leaders, the popularity of government leaders among the potential mobilizing forces, etc. And various concessions are made, provided that the government considers them acceptable.
When the conflict cannot be prevented in this way, the mobilized sector can become in the government’s perception an adversary, not an ally, and be treated differently. It will be publicly ridiculed, questions will be raised as to whether its intentions are simply to make demands or to raise a political challenge. And concessions will be made if and only when they are unavoidable. In many cases appeals are made to allied sectors to confront (and dissuade) the adversaries.
(c) As soon as it came to power, the MAS instituted the program “Bolivia cambia, Evo cumple” [Bolivia is changing, Evo delivers] that to date has spent $480 million (most of it funded by Venezuela) on 3,900 small projects that are quickly executed with a visible result (e.g. construction) and accordingly a strong political impact in selected rural municipalities that meet a diversity of criteria: in some cases, because a mayor or social organization makes a request and manages to persuade the President, in other cases because electoral support is sought in an adverse zone, or finally, because the distribution of projects is used to construct the political equilibrium that is needed precisely to guarantee unity.
This program is a direct tool of the “permanent campaign” in which Morales is engaged, visiting daily the most remote parts of the country to inaugurate football grounds with artificial grass, classrooms, union headquarters, markets, etc., to establish contact with the local leaders of the MAS, and to address the audience that has not yet been convinced. The program is clearly oriented to the maintenance and reproduction of power. It improves the image of the President, benefits allies, helps attract former opponents and coopt them and attract “clienteles” dazzled by the possibility of obtaining a tangible return in exchange for their political commitment.
At least $20 million of this program will be used in the construction of infrastructure and the purchase of assets for the unions, indigenous centrals and other corporate organizations. And although in some cases the projects were not finished or presented economic and technical irregularities, this has not necessarily affected the President’s reputation, since final responsibility lies in the hands of the local leaders who have in fact received the money for the projects.
----
No doubt, the Bolivian government does not belong “to the social movements,” as the official propaganda states. The major decisions are taken by the President, the cabinet and a small political leadership in which no more than two or three of the founders of the party participate. And there are few indigenous. However, the process has empowered the social movements, which have representatives in the three organs (powers) of the state, have a right of veto over some policies and certain appointments, provide state services (like entitlement to rights, processing of documents, etc.) in the rural areas, and have intimidated the old elites in the contention for land, which the indigenous and campesinos are beginning to win (as in the Chaco, for example).
The government’s role in producing this outcome has been considerable. If between 1996 and 2005 property titles were ratified and 9.3 million hectares registered, benefiting 174,000 persons, since 2005 this has been done on 55 million hectares to the benefit of 982,000 persons. The agrarian titles granted in 2012 alone are four times the total number granted in 1996-2005.[22]
A fundamental mechanism in this empowerment is the coming into force of a law against
racism, [ Law Against Racism 2010 .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Against_Racism_2010 ] which has “denaturalized” racial discrimination, confining it to the private sphere.
Political strengths
During the last decade Bolivia has been going through what Marxists would characterize as a “political revolution,” that is, a substitution of political elites that has been quite thoroughgoing. Groups of different ethnic, class and political-ideological origins have replaced the dominant political strata of the past.
[NOTE: seems to me if there was a consistent logic in so many virulent anti-government people's minds, i mean those who say, 'every politician is rubbish, vote them all out'.. all here know who they are .. if they were honestly consistent in their 'philosophy'/political position, and if they want it done peacefully, wouldn't they be in favor of replacing "the dominant political strata of the past" as has occurred in, in least that one one aspect of the form of Marxism which has taken place in Bolivia? .. do they have a realistically better way to have the elites share more? .. yet, so many of them are even anti-universal healthcare which so many conservative governments about the world are content to support .. Are Republicans truly lunatics? It is actually worse. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=90984836 .. LOL, gotta laugh ]
It has been a peaceful substitution but aimed at the elimination and not the coexistence of the opposing side, and it has unfolded using both political and judicial methods. The members of the old political elite have lost the right to work in the public arena, in a sort of symbolic banishment. Businessmen have been told “not to interfere in politics.”[23] Some leaders have had to go into exile as a preventive measure, others have ended up in jail.[24]
All of this, of course, has contributed to the transformation of the MAS into a sort of “state party” (outside of which political survival is very difficult), albeit lacking in the institutional density that this type of parties has had in other revolutionary experiences and while the opposition manages to retain local governments.
In addition to having the most powerful candidate, with an approval rating of over 50%[25] (based on three things: awarding of projects, roads and cash, concern for the poorest, and socio-economic transformation of the country), the governing party benefits from the new rules of political and election organizing like the strict oversight by the Tribunal Electoral or the possibility of re-election, which in the last half-century was prohibited because — in a country without accountability — the government tended to become electorally unbeatable, which is what already happened in the 2009 elections. Or like the suspension of state funding to the parties, which ends up giving the lead over a competitor who relies on state assistance as opposed to others who hardly ever have to “pay out of their own pockets” the funds needed to conduct an election campaign.
However, the purpose of this article has been to show that the strength of the MAS does not derive solely from these political advantages, although the party has already taken advantage of them in the past and will surely do so again in 2014.
Fernando Molina is a Bolivian journalist and writer. He received the King of Spain Prize for Iberian-American Journalism in 2012. He is the author of El pensamiento boliviano sobre los recursos naturales (Pulso, 2009) and other essays. His most recent book is La trayectoria teórica de Antonio Negri. De Marx al radicalismo posmoderno (Pazos Kanki, La Paz, 2012).
http://lifeonleft.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/why-is-evo-morales-still-popular.html
I don't drink a beer a week. Scotch may be different.
NH
It's 1.25369863 beers a day.
piece of cake. lol.
42.9 gallons??? I have not drunk that much in my life.
NH
'Tamils still being raped and tortured' in Sri Lanka
"Roshini Thinakaran travels to countries ripped by war and reeling in its aftermath. But amid destruction, she sees something
else: Strong, resilient women with a passion for their people and the difficult work of rebuilding lives and countries."
9 November 2013 Last updated at 01:20 GMT
By Frances Harrison Presenter, Our World
VIDEO - Frances Harrison's report on Sri Lanka
Related Stories
Pillay attacks S Lanka rights record - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23899082
Sri Lanka profile - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11999611
Q&A: Post-war Sri Lanka - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11393458
As Commonwealth leaders prepare to meet at a summit in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, allegations of rape and
torture by the Sri Lankan security forces have emerged, some of them occurring four years after the civil war ended.
"When the lady left and that man closed the door, I knew what was going to happen," says Vasantha. "They raped me."
One evening earlier this year, Vasantha says, she was going back to her home in northern Sri Lanka when a white van drew up and two men asked for her identity card.
She says she was thrown into the back of the vehicle and blindfolded.
-----
Find out more
[hidden: A Tamil rape survivor, who we are calling Nandini]
Watch Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War on BBC World News on Saturday 9 November at 11:30
GMT and on Sunday 10 November at 17:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT or watch it later on the BBC iPlayer.
Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03j0r4q/Our_World_Sri_Lankas_Unfinished_War/
[i hope the correct one is posted below for others denied access]
-----
Vasantha says she realised the authorities had finally caught up with her, four years after the war and just as she was about to leave for Britain on a student visa.
Her story is one of a number given to the BBC, horrific accounts of torture carried out long after hostilities ended.
During the civil war, Vasantha had helped Tamil Tiger rebels pass messages and set up safe houses in the capital, but she says she never took part in the fighting or held a gun.
Like other women I have interviewed, Vasantha never saw the outside of the building where she was held or met another detainee, but she said she did hear female voices, screaming in Tamil.
She describes being photographed and fingerprinted and then kicked, beaten with batons and pipes, burned with hot wires and cigarettes, submerged in a barrel of water until she thought she would drown, suffocated by having a petrol-soaked plastic bag put over her head, before being repeatedly raped by men in army uniform.
She says she signed a confession in a language she could not understand - Sinhala - but the torture and rape went on for 20 days before a relative could find her and pay a bribe for her release.
For the last three days, she remembers her skin itching terribly in a filthy cell as she was kept completely naked.
This Tamil man says he was branded during a torture session
"On the last day, at about two in the morning, three people came and they blindfolded me again and handcuffed me. At that moment I thought they were going to kill me," she recalls.
Vasantha has a medical report from an independent expert who corroborates her story of rape and torture, as well as documents to show her family reported her disappearance to Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission at the time.
She has recently been granted asylum in the UK on the basis of her story.
Vasantha is one of 12 men and women who say they were raped by the Sri Lankan security forces in detention this year - one as recently as August.
The Sri Lankan government says it does not tolerate torture and the military says there were only five incidents of sexual violence involving soldiers in the north of the island from 2007 to 2012.
But a Human Rights Watch report documented 62 cases of sexual violence involving the security forces after the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka and said their evidence strongly suggested the abuse was widespread and systematic.
-----
Sri Lanka Timeline
1948 - As Ceylon, the island gains independence from Britain.
1972 - The government changes its name to Sri Lanka and gives Buddhism primary place as country's religion, antagonising largely Hindu Tamil minority.
1983 - As ethnic tensions grow, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launches a violent uprising, seeking autonomy for the Tamil-dominated north and east.
2005 - After years of war, and failed peace talks, Mahinda Rajapaksa is elected president.
May 2009 - Tamil Tigers defeated after army over-runs last patch of rebel-held territory in the north-east. LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran killed.
Apr 2011 - UN says both sides committed atrocities against civilians and calls for an international investigation into possible war crimes. Sri Lanka says the report is biased.
Nov 2012 - Another UN report says 70,000 civilians were "unaccounted for" at the end of the war.
Nov 2013 - Colombo prepares to host Chogm
-----
The UK charity Freedom from Torture has examined 120 incidents that took place after the war in Sri Lanka, while two British doctors from the charity Medact have seen more than 60 cases of Sri Lankans branded on their bodies with hot metal rods since the war ended.
"There is such a systematic set-up in Sri Lanka, whereby it's absolutely clear to me… that detention and torture is going on in a very large scale and that it's done in a very similar way every time," says Dr Alison Callaway, an NHS doctor from Coventry who has written 200 independent assessments for the Home Office of alleged torture cases from Sri Lanka in the past five years.
"It must be assumed that it's the deterrent effect that they will never again be able to have the strength or the purpose to want to fight against the Sri Lankan government or undertake underground activities against them because the terror and the distress and the trauma has been so great," she concludes.
A BBC investigation also found seven Tamil men who allege they were tortured in the Sri Lankan government's official rehabilitation programme for suspected former rebels. Four have documentation to show they were rehabilitated as well as medical reports corroborating their allegations of torture.
Organisations such as the International Commission of Jurists and two United Nations reports have said the Sri Lankan rehabilitation programme failed to meet international standards and warned of the possibility of torture, but this is the first testimony from survivors.
The allegations come as Sri Lanka prepares to host the Chogm summit
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence says it had "a world-class terrorist rehabilitation programme" that offered healthcare, education, vocational training and facilities for sports, meditation and entertainment to former Tamil Tiger rebels.
This was not the experience of Ravi, who says he was forced to join the rebels for the last six months of the war but then spent four years in rehabilitation being tortured in all the places he was detained.
"They would put my testicles in the drawer and slam the drawer shut. Sometimes I became unconscious. Then they would bring someone and force me to have oral sex with him. Sometimes if we lost consciousness during the torture they would urinate on us," he says.
A leading British lawyer examined the evidence of continuing torture and rape gathered by the BBC along with other documentation from the United Nations and human rights groups.
Kirsty Brimelow QC says: "It all equates to a crime against humanity and therefore in cases like this, normally you'd be looking at them being referred to the international criminal court for further investigation."
The Sri Lankan government paints a picture of an Indian Ocean paradise recovering from decades of war
The Sri Lankan High Commission in London said: "Allegations of systematic abuse are a travesty of the truth for they suggest that this is the policy of the Sri Lankan government. It is certainly not so."
They said it was not fair to expect them to respond fully to allegations contained in anonymous testimony.
Their written statement suggested the people who spoke to the BBC could have been paid to discredit Sri Lanka or even tortured by the Tamil Tigers themselves.
The names of Vasantha, Ravi and Nandini have been changed to protect their identities.
Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War will be broadcast on BBC World News on
Saturday 9 November at 11:30 GMT and on Sunday 10 November at 17:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24849699
=====
Sri Lanka's Unfinished War by BBC -8thNov2013 -Part 1 of 3
Pregnancy overtakes disability as top source of workplace discrimination complaints
The World Today
By Lucy Carter, staff
Updated 1 hour 36 minutes ago
Australia's workplace watchdog has revealed that pregnancy discrimination is now the number one complaint against the nation's employers.
The Fair Work Ombudsman says its figures indicate that for the first time there were more complaints about pregnancy-related discrimination in 2013 than for complaints related to mental or physical disability.
Business analysts say it is yet another indication that far too many employers have archaic misperceptions about women, and need to build more flexible workplaces.
Of the 235 complaints to ombudsman, 28 per cent were from pregnant women and 21?per cent were from people with physical or mental disabilities.
Around 11 per cent felt their family or carer responsibilities resulted in them being treated differently.
The commission investigated 76 matters, took three to court and executed enforceable orders in another three.
"Pregnancy discrimination is still alive and well in Australian workplaces."
Elizabeth Broderick
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick says it shows employer attitudes must change.
"I think the key message is that pregnancy discrimination is still alive and well in Australian workplaces," she said.
Ms Broderick says attitudes need to change.
"Women represent more than 50 per cent of the Australian population. They represent half the talent pool that exists in this country," she said.
"And smart employers understand that actually, keeping women attached to the labour market through flexible work arrangements, through parental leave, whether it's the national scheme or a private scheme, they're important strategies to ensure that all people can contribute to the productivity and stronger economy of this country."
ACTU president says bias against women rife
Under Australian workplace laws, women have a legal right to take maternity leave as well as the right to return to the job they left.
Employers are not allowed to make a woman feel uncomfortable about being pregnant, and must modify any shifts or tasks that could become difficult to complete.
The Australian Council of Trade Union's president, Ged Kearney, says it is clear these laws are not always obeyed.
She says pregnancy discrimination can happen in a variety of ways.
"I think it's a deep-seated bias against women with children being
in the workforce. I don't know, maybe it goes back to the '50s and '60s."
ACTU president Ged Kearney
"Discrimination actually whilst pregnant, at work, where, for example, women are not allowed to get lighter duties in the later pregnancy," she said.
"They are not allowed extra toilet breaks, with dire consequences. We have heard of a number of professional women experiences along the lines of handing in a request for maternity leave and being told that they might as well be handing in a resignation letter."
Ms Kearney says archaic attitudes towards women do not belong in modern workplaces.
"I think it's a deep-seated bias against women with children being in the workforce. I don't know, maybe it goes back to the '50s and '60s," she said.
"It certainly goes back to the fact that I think a lot of men now are in are still in predominantly in managerial positions."
But she says there are many employers who realise the value of providing a flexible workplace.
"We've got lots of employers out there who are now offering incentives for women to come back after maternity leave," she said.
"They're giving them bonuses and offering to subsidise childcare because finally, I think, many employers are seeing the benefits to the business of having skilled women back in the workforce with that corporate knowledge and with that loyalty."
Sex Discrimination Commissioner says role of fathers also important
Ms Broderick is travelling around the country to teach people how to deal with discrimination and educating employers on good habits and practices.
She says it is important for the health of the economy for workplaces to be able to help employees balance work and family.
"We need to be in the mindset which recognises that women and men need to work and care and we need to work to make that fit together," she said.
Audio: Pregnancy discrimination become the main complaint (The World Today)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-06/pregnancy-discrimination-become-the-main-complaint/5073620
She says men also need to be recognised.
"By recognising men and their caring responsibilities, it sends a strong message that he can be a serious player at work and an engaged father."
She says fathers need to step and make their caring responsibility visible to others, which will also help women.
Ms Broderick points out that just as women and men returning to work after parental leave face practical and financial challenges, so do some employers and especially small businesses.
The Human Rights Commission has launched a research project into the issue of pregnancy discrimination. It is expected to report back early next year.
Topics: pregnancy-and-childbirth, family-and-children, discrimination, community-and-society, business-economics-and-finance, work, australia
First posted 2 hours 36 minutes ago
Related Story: Workforce age discrimination a 'national disaster': commissioner
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-02/older-people-struggle-to-reenter-workforce/5065854
Related Story: Survey finds 'ideal' worker is man without children
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-21/survey-businesses-prefer-male-workers/4833586
Related Story: New hotline for pregnant women who suffer discrimination
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-05/new-hotline-for-pregnant-women-who-suffer-discrimination/4801258
Related Story: Gillard launches sex discrimination inquiry
Related Story: Discrimination against working mums 'alive and well'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-22/gillard-orders-inquiry-into-discrimination-working-mums/4773548
Map: Australia - http://maps.google.com/?q=-26.000,134.500(Australia)&z=5
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-06/pregnancy-overtakes-disability-as-the-top-source-of-discriminati/5072904
See also:
Pre-existing conditions can mean a whole pluthera of things from acne to stress to pregnancy. There is a list as long as my arm of conditions which could lead to insurance companies to denying or dropping customers. More than 1.3 million Wisconsinites under the age of 65 have been diagnosed with a pre-existing condition.
In fact, simply being a WOMAN has been considered a pre-existing condition for many years.
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The Campaign For Cuccinelli--The REAL Story
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93281888
How the right plays with murder: The antiabortion movement’s cycle of violence
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=93199308
Legally Brown: Muslim comedian finds the funny in radical, be it jihadists or bogans
"Cultivating Identity .. Thomas Keneally"
Waleed Aly Date September 24, 2013 Comments 123 [.. YouTube of embed .. ]
[VIDEO] New road ends isolation for PNG town
[YouTube of embed]
Malaysia’s Multiracial Promise Marred by Bigotry and Political Persecution
Race-based incentives, crackdowns on opposition figures, and an exodus of
non-Malays: how Malay supremacists are creating a divided and fearful society
By Charlie Campbell Sept. 19, 201328 Comments
Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters
Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim during a protest against election results in Petaling Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur, May 25, 2013.
Malaysia .. http://topics.time.com/malaysia/ .. is fond of presenting itself as a beacon of multiculturalism ..
Only Muslims can call their deity Allah, Malaysian court rules
Malay Muslims in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur, cheer an appeals court decision that only the Islamic deity can be referred to as Allah. A Christian newspaper had challenged a 2008 ban on non-Muslims using the name Allah for their god, as has been the practice in the region for more than a century. (Shamshahrin Shamsudin / European Pressphoto Agency / October 14, 2013)
By Carol J. Williams October 14, 2013, 4:41 p.m.
Only Muslims have the right to refer to their god as Allah, a Malaysian appeals court ruled Monday, setting off angry outcries among Christians and opposition political leaders that the government is oppressing minority faiths.
The name of Allah has been used for more than a century in the Malay language, having been adopted from Arabic long before Malaysia became a state and the Malay people were legally obliged to follow Islam.
But in 2008, the government Interior minister banned use of the Muslim deity's name by other religions, arguing that it was justified on the basis of public order. A lower court ruled in 2009 that the minister had overstepped his authority and ordered the ban abolished, which triggered religious violence that left dozens of churches and several Muslim places of worship destroyed.
"It is our judgment that there is no infringement of any constitutional rights" by restricting the use of Allah to Islam, wrote the appellate court's chief judge, Mohamed Apandi Ali. He added that the name Allah was "not an integral part of the faith and practice of Christianity."
A commentary in the Malaysia Chronicle .. http://tiny.cc/htzy4w .. called the court decision "flawed," noting that the panel of three Muslim judges grounded their ruling in an unsolicited interpretation of what is or isn't integral to Christianity, rather than making a decision based on law.
"Hence the court has clearly overstepped its boundaries into the realm of theological discourse, and more critically, breached the Article 3 of the Federal Constitution where other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony," the commentary stated.
A challenge to the 2008 ban was brought by The Herald, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Church in Malaysia that has long referred to God as Allah in its Malay-language weekly publication.
Herald editor Lawrence Andrew called the ruling "a retrograde step in the development of law in relation to the fundamental liberty of religious minorities," the Associated Press reported. He said he would appeal to the nation's highest judicial body, the Malaysian Federal Court.
The ruling and its implications drew worldwide coverage, including reports on Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, two widely read news sites in the Muslim world.
"We are of the view that this decision affects fundamental religious rights of the minorities in Malaysia," Viola De Cruz, president of the Catholic Lawyers Society, told Washington-based The Christian Post .. http://www.christianpost.com/news/christians-banned-from-using-allah-in-malaysia-protest-decision-106620/ . "To find that the minority must yield to the majority also sends a frightening message that the minorities' rights are subject to the whims and fancies of the majority."
Asian media called the ruling a further reflection of religious politicking by Prime Minister Najib Razak and his United Malays National Organization.
The appeals court decision "coincides with heightened ethnic and religious tension in Malaysia after a polarizing May election in which the long-ruling coalition was deserted by urban voters," the South China Morning Post observed in its report.
Razak narrowly held on to power in the May election, and he has continued to press affirmative action for ethnic Malays to bolster his position ahead of a party assembly later this month, the newspaper said.
Muslims make up about 60% of Malaysia's 27 million population, with 20% adhering to Buddhism, 9% Christian and 6% Hindu, according to the CIA World Factbook .. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/my.html .
“There was no problem nor did it create tension between Muslims and non-Muslims," the Borneo Post .. http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/10/15/manyin-accept-court-of-appeals-decision/ .. said of the traditional reference to Allah by all faiths in Malaysia. The newspaper quoted a Christian minister, James Masing, as saying he was saddened by the ruling and warned that the Malaysian government "must not politicize religion."
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-malaysia-allah-court-20131014,0,7086038.story?track=rss
39 degrees - Sydney braces for its hottest October day on record ..
.. video, with a shot of fire .. these photos with captions from the article ..
Sydney's Lanna Roberts, 4, picked one of the hottest days on record to trek through
the beach sand dunes at Burubi Point near Nelson Bay. Source: News Limited
Senior Constable Anthony McLachlan rubs water on his dog "Belle" while Constable Jared Rodger
gives his dog "Bear" a drink after training in Centennial Park. Source: News Limited
Brayden Jacobson, 7, cools down at Newcastle Ocean Baths. Source: News Limited
Gale force winds on Newcastle beach blew Brayden Jacobson's body board away. Source: News Limited
Beach shot posted on Facebook by ronnietylerfan as Sydney heads towards a record temperature for an October day. Source: Supplied
Twitter pic of fire crews tackling a grass fire at Bonnyrigg. Picture: Channel 7 Source: Supplied
Andysolo posted this picture of the Bondi sunrise on Twitter this morning. Picture: Twitter Source: Twitter
.. bit of print with tweet ..
The RFS, NSW Fire and Rescue and police urged people to watch out for fire bugs and obey the fire bans.
NSW RFS @NSWRFS
An Antanov has landed in #Sydney with two Aircranes on deck. First will start service next week. #NSWRFS #nswfires
9:23 AM - 10 Oct 2013
.. more .. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/degrees-8212-sydney-braces-for-its-hottest-october-day-on-record/story-fni0cx12-1226735413589
----- .. ok .. some fun up there with damnable fire forever it seems .. to Abbott's Tea Party/GOP-like anti-science view ..
Tony Abbott’s climate policy: the science is still crap
By Giles Parkinson on 3 September 2013
On Thursday, the good folk at Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s favourite think tank .. http://tiny.cc/an7p4w .. , the ultra conservative Institute of Public Affairs, will host a function in Brisbane .. http://www.ipa.org.au/events/information/event/book-launch-of-taxing-air-facts-fallacies-about-climate-change-by-bob-carter .. to launch the latest anti-climate science book by noted denier, Bob Carter.
The title of the book, “Taxing Air: Facts & fallacies about climate change”, fits neatly into Abbott’s view about carbon trading. Last month he was out dog-whistling to climate denialists .. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/16/tony-abbott-climate-change-denial .. such as Carter on just that theme, when he borrowed an old phrase and said that trading carbon was a “so-called market, in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one.”
Is this book launch just a happy coincidence in timing, or does it amount to the launch of a new policy platform?
It is a question worth asking, because now, just days out from the election, it seems that Abbott is so convinced about the inevitability of his election victory on September 7 that he has judged it safe enough to reveal his true colours on climate policy: He still believes the science is crap.
It is hard to avoid any other conclusion, following his revelations on Monday in response to questions about his Direct Action policy at the National Press Club, and again on the ABC TV’s 7.30 Report on Monday night, that even the Coalition’s 5 per cent reduction target was no longer binding.
In an election debate where the real question on climate policy – how to reach the targets guided by the science (i.e. 25 per cent or more) – has never been raised by the mainstream parties, Abbott revealed that he was quite prepared not to even make it to first base. If the budgeted $3.2 billion proved to be insufficient to reach the 5% reduction target – as Treasury and private analysis conclude unanimously – he would not spend another dollar to ensure that it does.
In effect, on the day that it is revealed Australia has experienced a record high temperatures over the last 12 months .. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/past-year-is-hottest-on-record-for-australia-36128 .. and just three weeks ahead of the IPCC report, Abbott is telling the world that his climate policy will end at the beginning. He simply doesn’t believe in the science.
That should not surprise anyone, because Abbott’s owes his position to the climate deniers that put him there to prevent Malcolm Turnbull agreeing to a an emissions trading scheme. And his impending election victory will owe much to a conga line of supporters who openly ridicule the science – the talk-back radio shock jocks, the Andrew Bolts, and the overwhelming majority of New Ltd columnists.
As Abbott said in a interview to The Conversation’s Michelle Grattan .. http://tiny.cc/cw7p4w , in explaining his policy position: “I think they (the public) are more conscious of the fact that the argument among the experts is not quite the one-way street that it might have seemed four or five years.”
On Monday, Abbott defended his position by stating that the Coalition would target “emissions intensity”, which is the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of GDP. He says it has been falling sharply, but the point is that emissions intensity only reduces emissions from what they otherwise would be. They do not deliver an absolute cut.
The World Resources Institute, for instance, notes that in the past 15 years, China has cut its emissions intensity by 40 per cent, but absolute emissions has increased by 145 per cent. Its commitment to reducing emissions intensity by a further 45 per cent by 2020 will likely reduce emissions from “business as usual” by between 20 and 33 per cent, according to the ANU, but it will not stop another significant rise in absolute emissions.
Australia has also reduced its emissions intensity, and will continue to do so. But it won’t deliver a cut in emissions, as this graph using data from the Department of Climate Change shows.
The Climate Institute noted on Tuesday that if the Coalition wanted to reach even a 5 per cent reduction target, then it would have to rely on regulation, just like Barrack Obama.
But to get some idea on the Coalition’s position on regulation, it is worth recapping Abbott’s speech to the IPA’s 70th birthday party back in April, where he sat alongside Rupert Murdoch and Gina Rinehart, and other noted climate denialists like Bolt, Hugh Morgan, and Cardinal George Pell, and what Crikey described as .. http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/04/05/abbott-bolt-rinehart-fawn-in-the-ipa-court-of-king-murdoch/ .. a sea of “elderly Caucasian males.” He was joined by Corey Bernardi, Greg Hunt, George Brandis and Victorian Premier Dennis Napthine, Crikey reported.
Abbott’s praise was effusive: “The IPA, I want to say, has been freedom’s discerning friend. It has supported capitalism, but capitalism with a conscience. Not for the IPA, a single-minded dogmatism or opposition to all restraint; rather a sophisticated appreciation that freedom requires a social context and that much is expected from those to whom so much has been given. You’ve understood that freedom is both an end and a means; a good in itself, as well as necessary for full human flourishing. I particularly congratulate the IPA and its marvelous director, John Roskam, for your work in defence of Western civilisation.”
The IPA has, at the top of its 75 ideas for a better Australia .. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/ugh-75-radical-ideas-to-transform-australia , demanded three actions: the repeal of the carbon tax (and don’t replace it); the abolition of the Department of Climate Change; and the abolition of the Clean Energy Fund (Clean Energy Finance Corp). The remaining 72 consist of removing regulations of the type that the Climate Institute would deem necessary to meet climate targets.
As Abbott said in his speech, he is giving a “big yes” (his words) to the IPA’s wish list, and will even go further, scrapping the Climate Change Authority, and the Climate Commission [ http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=92277546 ] , the two institutions that can give an independent assessment on the climate issues and policies. He may even oblige on the IPA’s Number 6 demand and repeal the Renewable Energy Target .. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/the-dangerous-thinking-behind-coalition-renewable-energy-policy-84896 .
Abbott’s ability to do so will only be restricted by the opposition he faces in the Senate. The Greens will be implacable in their opposition. Greens leader Christine Milne, who revealed to Point Carbon this week that she had never had a conversation with Abbott, described the Coalition’s position as “laughable” if it wasn’t so serious. And she questioned an Abbott government’s ability, or even commitment, to try to bring the big four polluters together to negotiate a binding treaty.
“By abandoning even the meagre bipartisan 5%-25% target for emissions reduction, he has relegated Australia to global laggard as negotiations are now underway for a 2015 treaty,” Milne said. ”Once a sceptic, always a sceptic is the best way to describe the would-be PM. A man who maintains that global warming is ‘crap’.”
The position of Labor, however, is still not clear. When pushed by ABC Radio National’s Fran Kelly this morning, climate change minister Mark Butler said the ALP had also decided to “repeal” the carbon tax, and replace it with an emissions trading system. He danced all around the question about giving a binding commitment to oppose Abbott’s move to do the same, instead launching an attack on the Greens.
This is not surprising. Depending on who is left within the ALP carcass next week, it is likely that the right wing faction of the party will be out for revenge for being disenfranchised by the Greens these past three years. There may be little appetite to protect the carbon price, or commit to a double dissolution.
Abbott is possibly right about that. The fact that Carter’s book will be launched by Gary Johns, a former Labor minister and prominent member of its right faction, gives some idea about where that faction sits on climate issues. The position of agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon, gives another .. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/why-coal-fitzgibbon-can-dump-on-solar-but-other-mps-cant-71378 .
So despite the fact that yet another survey – this time by ReachTel – says that 77 per cent of Australians believe it is important for the next Australian Government to deliver on the bipartisan promise to reduce carbon pollution by between 5-25 per cent by 2020, the country is in danger of kissing the carbon price goodbye, and being left with a mechanism that will give it no international credibility, and no price signal or incentive for de-carbonising the domestic economy.
And the irony of it all? Direct Action is actually a Socialist construct. Check it out here .. http://directaction.org.au/ . Some of the posters are a bit of a giggle.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/tony-abbotts-climate-policy-the-science-is-still-crap-26327
The Abbott-Putin man off: which leader wins the macho award?
"Abbott’s Ministry – One woman, no science, 12,000 jobs"
.. insert with photo ..
this just to cement the Abbott-Putin image ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=92118595
Tony Abbott passively-aggressively asserted his manliness by showing up late to Vladimir Putin's birthday party. This begs the question: which man is more of a man than the other man?
• Photo gallery: Abbott v Putin - the reign of the macho leader
http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/oct/10/australia-russia-abbott-putin-macho
Ben Pobjie
theguardian.com, Thursday 10 October 2013 10.00 AEST
Jump to comments (125)
Vladimir Putin and Tony Abbott Vladimir Putin and Tony Abbott: who wins the macho award? The answer is in our photo gallery. Photograph: AP/Newspix
Say what you like about our prime minister, but you cannot deny that he’s male: in fact he’s one of the few prime ministers in Australia’s history who seems to walk around every day desperately hoping that somebody will ask him to prove it. And at the Asia Pacific leaders’ summit in Bali, that is exactly what he’s set out to do, pitting his manhood directly against that of Russia’s president, Vladimir “The Centaur of St Petersburg” Putin.
It was at this summit that Abbott swaggered into the opening session seven minutes late .. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10362817/Tony-Abbott-shown-iron-curtain-by-Putin-after-missing-his-birthday-party.html , missing not only the opening remarks, but a small celebration of Putin’s birthday during which Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono played guitar and sang Happy Birthday, a landmark moment in the history of incredibly strange events.
But Abbott obviously thought it was worth missing this epochal weirdness to lay down the gauntlet to Putin: by turning up late, the little Aussie pedaller signalled that he is a dominant male, asserting his power by forcing others to conform to his timetable. “I am far too manly,” our Tony was saying to Vlad, “to concern myself with sissy things like birthdays and punctuality.”
But has Abbott bitten off more than he can chew? Surely, so new to the job, he could’ve eased himself into it by testing his masculinity against less formidably manly foes, like Stephen Harper or Hillary Clinton. Is it courage or foolhardiness to try to bring down an elephant on your first day on safari?
Whatever the case, it’s on. Witnesses reported a “frosty” atmosphere in Bali, and Putin apparently snubbed Abbott as if he was Naomi Watts on Oscar night. The die has been cast and the man-off is on, so let’s take a look at which man is more of a man than the other man.
First of all, let’s look at physique. Putin is renowned for his eagerness to flaunt his bare chest around the plains and forests of Europe, and there’s definitely a Rambo quality to the man when he starts thrusting his nipples at the wildlife. But he may have met his match in Abbott, a man whose desire to achieve the highest political office is exceeded only by his desire to burn the outline of his barely-contained genitalia into the brains of every citizen of Australia. Putin likes to show off his chest, but Abbott is practically a Chippendale: he will flex and pose for anyone.
But it’s not all about appearances: what do these manly men do? Abbott, of course, likes to compete in triathlons, which does take a lot of muscle and involve a lot of sweating, so that’s pretty mannish. He also volunteers as a fireman, a very manly calling, and in his youth he excelled at both boxing and rugby, so in his veins flows that perfect combination of violence and homo-eroticism that all men aspire to.
Vladimir Putin flies hand gliding with young cranes. More pictures in our
photo gallery. [see link above] Photograph: Alexey Druginyn/Ria Novosti/Kremlin/EPA
However, check out old mate Vlad. He does judo .. http://eng.putin.kremlin.ru/interests , which lacks the pure bestial bloodlust of rugby; but when not using others’ own strength against them, he likes to take to the outdoors. On a horse. With a gun. He hunts wild animals. Tigers. Bears. Moose. He prowls around the Siberian woods, shirt nowhere to be seen, as a variety of fearsome beasts find themselves frozen in the high-beams of that cold, dead-eyed KGB stare. It’s lucky he’s got affairs of state to distract him, or extinction rates would double overnight. And when he’s not hunting, he’s hang-gliding: last year he led a flock of endangered cranes .. http://tiny.cc/tw4p4w .. on their migration route.
How many world leaders do you know who can command the obedience of animals in the air, and pop a cap in their asses on the ground? Until Abbott gets on the back of a ute with a spotlight and a shotgun, I think we can be pretty certain who would win in a fight: Tony might have the reach and the technique, but Vladimir has a rifle and a ceaseless thirst for blood.
So I think the man-off has to be awarded to Putin, but Abbott shouldn’t lose hope. He’s just a rookie, and he put up a very creditable fight. He’s still manlier than John Key and David Cameron put together, and with a little more training, a few more dead animals, and a slightly more developed streak of savage homophobia, I am confident that our new prime minister can one day be the most macho of them all.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/10/abbott-putin-macho-leader
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Abbott broke law with media shutout, say Indonesian journalists
Michael Bachelard Date October 2, 2013
Tony Abbott has incurred the wrath of Indonesia's journalists by excluding them from a press conference, and even committed a criminal offence, according to the head of the country's journalists' union.
Local journalists were incensed that, on the Australian Prime Minister's first official visit, he locked them out of his Tuesday morning press conference.
.. more .. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-broke-law-with-media-shutout-say-indonesian-journalists-20131002-2usnn.html
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Tony Abbott’s broken Indigenous promise and News Corp Breaking Bad
Posted by admin in Indigenous Australia, Media, Politics on 23 September, 2013 12:03 pm / 113 comments
Tony Abbott has broken his campaign promise to spend the first week of his prime ministership with the Yolngu people in Arnhem Land, so News Corp is now pretending he never made it. Managing editor David Donovan reports.
.. more with videos way down ..
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbotts-broken-indigenous-promise-and-news-corp-breaking-bad/
Labor attacks Government's move to end announcements of asylum seeker boat arrivals
.. lol .. here we go .. one of the first early Abbott government whoppers ..
By Simon Cullen, staff Updated 3 hours 2 minutes ago
Video: Tony Burke attacks Coalition's asylum policies (Lateline)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-20/friday-forum/4972766
Related Story: Abbott 'respects' Indonesia's sovereignty on asylum policy
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-19/abbott-says-coalition-respects-indonesia-sovereignty-asylum/4968752
Related Story: Asylum policy offensive and illegal: Indonesian MP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-19/indonesian-mp-says-turn-back-the-boats-policy-is-offensive-and-/4966934
Related Story: Campbell to lead fight against people smugglers
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-17/angus-campbell-to-oversee-abbotts-border-protection-plan/4963732
Map: Australia .. http://maps.google.com/?q=-26.000,134.500(Australia)&z=5
Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke has attacked the Federal Government's changes to announcements about asylum seeker boat arrivals, warning of a "culture of secrecy".
The previous government issued media alerts every time a boat arrived, but no new alerts have been issued since the new Government was sworn in.
The ABC asked both Customs and the Immigration Department whether any boats have arrived in recent days, but the questions were referred back to the Minister's office.
A spokesman for the Immigration Minister Scott Morrison would not say if any boats had arrived, and said further details about the Government's Operation Sovereign Borders policy would be provided soon.
"Updates will be provided on Operation Sovereign Borders. We will be making further comments on these matters next week," he said in a statement.
Labor's spokesman, former immigration minister Tony Burke, says the disclosure of information should be automatic.
"I have had journalists from all publications ringing me today saying, 'How do we find out?'" he told Lateline.
"They've been ringing the department and asking if boats have come and they've told them to go to Scott Morrison's office but Scott Morrison's office aren't answering questions.
"The policy, I thought, was that they would stop the boats not hide the information. My concern goes to whether or not they're wanting to re-create a culture of secrecy.
"It should simply be a matter of course that whether the news is good for the government or bad for the government, the Australian people are told."
Acting Opposition Leader, and former immigration minister, Chris Bowen says the government is being deceitful.
"This is a disgrace. Stopping the boats is not the same as stopping the press releases," he said.
"Stopping the boats does not mean not telling the Australian people when a boat has arrived. It's simple, a boat arrives, you tell the Australian people.
"Anything short of that is deceit and not being upfront about it."
Parliamentary secretary Steve Ciobo has told Sky News Labor's suggestions are "shrill" and "hysterical" and says the new government and the system will be transparent.
"This isn't a culture of secrecy it's been about 48 to 72 hours since the Government was sworn in, we've got a three-star general that's going to be there operating the framework, now whether you get the particular information from point A or point B does it really matter?" he said.
"What matters is the information is there that its transparent and that will become apparent in due course."
Seven asylum seeker boats - carrying 480 passengers .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-17/angus-campbell-to-oversee-abbotts-border-protection-plan/4963732 - arrived between the September 7 election and last Tuesday, the day before the Coalition Government was sworn in.
The Government's plans 'offensive to Indonesians'
The Coalition's policy includes turning boats back to Indonesia, buying old boats from Indonesian fishermen and paying Indonesians to spy on people-smuggling operations.
A member of the Indonesian parliamentary foreign affairs commission Tantowi Yahya earlier this week said Jakarta has "major concerns" with the Government's policies and threaten to damage the Australia-Indonesia relationship.
Mr Burke said the Government will have problems implementing its policies which he says is "offensive to Indonesians".
"What I believe will happen [is]... they'll throw up their hands, make a lot of noise, they'll then do what they've already started doing which is not let anyone know whether or not boats have arrived," he said.
"They'll end up having to implement the regional resettlement arrangements that we started."
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has promised the Coalition's policies would "stop the boats" and would have an immediate effect once they were implemented.
View as slideshow .. http://storify.com/abcnews/have-your-say-lnp-s-culture-of-secrecy/slideshow?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=publisher&utm_campaign=embed-header-slideshow
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-21/labor-attacks-changes-to-announcements-of-asylum-seeker-arrivals/4972760
See also:
Abbott's 4 key campaign drones were ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=92161899
Russia attacks Greenpeace activists in Arctic
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=92249326
Abbott’s Ministry – One woman, no science, 12,000 jobs
We now know the make-up of Prime Minister Elect Tony Abbott’s new Ministry – and if it’s a sign of things to come, there are some features that may well be warning signs. For the most part, Abbott made good on his promise to simply remove the word ‘Shadow’ from his front bench. There were a few surprises, however, on which I’ll elaborate below.
.. excuse all these strange names.. hopefully we will all get to know some of them a bit better over time .. Australia and USA have old and close ties, as you know, so it's nice that we are able to get to know each other just a little better .. nice to be able to share here, too ..
Cabinet
Prime Minister – Tony Abbott
Parliamentary Secretary – Josh Frydenberg
Parliamentary Secretary – Alan Tudge
Deputy Prime Minister; Infrastructure and Regional Development – Warren Truss
Assistant – Jamie Briggs
Treasurer – Joe Hockey
Assistant – Senator Arthur Sinodinos
Parliamentary Secretary – Steve Ciobo
Agriculture – Senator Barnaby Joyce
Parliamentary Secretary – Senator Richard Colbeck
Attorney-General; Arts – Senator George Brandis
Communications – Malcolm Turnbull
Parliamentary Secretary – Paul Fletcher
Defence – Senator David Johnston
Assistant – Stuart Robert
Parliamentary Secretary – Darren Chester
Education; Leader of Government Business in the House – Christopher Pyne
Assistant – Sussan Ley
Parliamentary Secretary – Senator Scott Ryan
Employment; Assisting the Prime Minister on the Public Service; Leader of the Senate – Senator Eric Abetz
Assistant – Luke Hartsuyker
Environment – Greg Hunt
Parliamentary Secretary – Senator Simon Birmingham
Finance – Senator Mathias Cormann
Parliamentary Secretary – Michael McCormack
Foreign Affairs – Julie Bishop
Parliamentary Secretary – Brett Mason
Health and Sport – Peter Dutton
Assistant – Senator Fiona Nash
Immigration and Border Protection – Scott Morrison
Assistant; Assisting the Prime Minister for Women – Michaelia Cash
Indigenous Affairs – Senator Nigel Scullion
Industry – Ian McFarlane
Parliamentary Secretary – Bob Baldwin
Small Business – Bruce Billson
Social Services – Kevin Andrews
Assistant – Senator Mitch Fifield
Parliamentary Secretary – Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
Trade and Investment – Andrew Robb
Speaker – Bronwyn Bishop
Whip – Philip Ruddock
Outer Ministry
Assisting Ministers, plus:
Veterans Affairs; Assisting the Prime Minister on the Century of ANZAC; Special Minister for State – Senator Michael Ronaldson
Human Services – Marise Payne
Justice – Michael Keenan
The first, and most glaring, issue is the lack of women in the Cabinet. Out of 20 Ministers, there is only one, Julie Bishop, who stays with Foreign Affairs. In the Outer Ministry there are three ‘Assistant Ministers’ (positions that, under Labor, were called ‘Junior Ministries’), one Parliamentary Secretary, and one Minister – and, of course, Bronwyn Bishop is Abbott’s Speaker-designate. That’s still only 7 appointments out of 42 positions.
When it was in Opposition, the Coalition made much of Labor’s supposed betrayal of its commitment to relatively equal representation, both on its front bench and in its Caucus. Now in government, Abbott could only say he ‘wished’ there could be at least two women in his Cabinet, and mentioned his regret at losing Sophie Mirabella (who looks increasingly likely to lose her seat of Indi). He added that there were many talented women ‘knocking at the door’, but that in the end, he was faced with a wealth of talent and a dearth of positions, and reminded us that the Coalition chooses its representatives based on merit, rather than ‘quotas’ or any other system.
But how true is that? Take a look at the case of Senator Fierravanti-Wells. She was apparently talented enough to serve in Abbott’s Shadow Ministry, in the portfolios of Ageing and Mental Health. She has a strong background in law, was a Policy Advisor for the New South Wales Shadow Minister for Policy and Regional Development, and served as Senior Private Secretary to John Fahey, then NSW Premier. How is she less qualified to fulfil a Cabinet role – or even a Junior, sorry, Assistant Ministry – than, say, Luke Hartsuyker, who was never elected to state government (managing his family’s tourism business before entering federal politics, and then also serving as a Shadow Minister under Abbott)?
For that matter, how is Fierravanti-Wells less qualified to serve than Paul Fletcher, he of the ‘opt-out internet filter’ debacle just prior to the election? He kept his job as Parliamentary Secretary to Malcolm Turnbull, while Fierravanti-Wells was effectively demoted. Does that sound like a meritocracy at work?
Abbott says he’s ‘disappointed’ at the lack of women in Cabinet. This is enormously disingenuous. He is the one person responsible for choosing his Ministers, beholden to neither Caucus nor colleagues. For him to shake his head and feign regret about his own choices is inexcusable.
Oh, and just in case the message wasn’t clear enough – under Abbott there will be no Minister for the Status of Women. Instead, he’ll be advised by Parliamentary Secretary Michaelia Cash, when she’s not helping Scott Morrison turn back the boats. Or was it buy back the boats?
[ Mr Natelegawa told the commission that Indonesia would reject Mr Abbott's policy of buying boats from Indonesian fishermen.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-12/indonesia-set-to-reject-abbotts-asylum-boat-plan/4954574 ]
Then there’s the Curious Case of the Missing Portfolios. Where is Science? Housing? Mental
Health? Ageing? Higher and Early Childhood Education? Disabilities? Resources and Energy?
Abbott had an explanation for some of these absences. He wanted to institute ‘title deflation’, he said, mocking the long Ministerial titles under the outgoing Labor government. For example, the Education portfolio would encompass Higher and Early Childhood Education, with specific responsibilities divided up as Christopher Pyne directed. Mental Health would be folded into Health, and Disabilities and Ageing into Social Services (in the Outer Ministry). Science, it seems, is to be ‘deflated’ almost out of existence. Abbott said that it would largely be taken care of by the Industry Minister.
On the face of it, these seem like reasonable propositions – set up ‘umbrella’ Ministries, under which similar issues can rest, with a single Minister overseeing all. Cast your mind back to the election campaign, though. (I know, I know, we’ve all tried to move on, but bear with me.) On several occasions, the Coalition emphasised the importance of mental health, including allocating significant funds for new beds, and programs such as Headspace. In fact, Abbott suggested that it would be one of its top health priorities – yet there is not even an Outer Ministry assigned to it.
Abbott also announced a number of initiatives aimed at assisting seniors, and improving aged care facilities. With his Shadow Minister for Ageing, Bronwyn Bishop, beside him, he castigated Labor’s handling of the issue and signalled his intention to restructure the aged care system. These are significant, complex initiatives, but again, apparently not complex enough to require the undivided attention of a Minister.
The situation is even worse with disabilities. The Coalition has promised to establish the National Disability Insurance Scheme, arguably the most sweeping reform in the sector. As with ageing, however, Abbott seems to believe that it can be handled by an Outer Minister responsible for the entire Social Services portfolio.
Then there’s Science. Of course, there is overlap between industry and science, but the two are hardly in lockstep. While industry looks to science for innovation, the processes of research, theoretical and experimental sciences are not necessarily driven by industry needs. Consider much of astrophysics, for example. There may be, eventually, practical applications for the study of quasars or the search for planets capable of sustaining life, but these are so far into the future that they are effectively unforeseeable. Even a great deal of medical science is exploratory, rather than focused on a problem-solving, industry-applicable approach. To be blunt, innovation and application depends on theory and experimentation.
And, of course, having Science swallowed up by Industry will take those pesky climate change concerns out of the equation. Or is that too cynical? You be the judge.
The decision to subsume important areas of governance into larger Ministries sends clear signals that conflict with the Coalition’s stated election priorities. That in itself is a huge cause for concern. There is, however, another consequence that may hold the key to why Abbott is willing to field criticism for these moves, and it lies in another election promise – to axe more than 12,000 jobs in the Public Service.
When asked how he would decide which jobs would go, Abbott spoke vaguely of ‘natural attrition’, a remarkably slippery phrase. Often, attrition occurs when someone retires and their position is not filled by a new employee. In this case, however, the new Ministry structure leaves entire departments without a Minister or a portfolio. Undoubtedly, some of the employees will need to move across (say, from Mental Health and Ageing to Health) – but there is no faster way to shed jobs than the kind of restructuring that will need to take place in order to put the Coalition’s proposed ‘streamlined’ and ‘deflated’ Ministry into effect. No one needs to be sacked – the jobs just don’t exist anymore, so sorry, thanks for your service.
So what do we have?
A Cabinet of 20 with one woman.
A claim that there are simply not enough talented women in the Coalition, which is nothing short of a slap in the face to a highly experienced former Shadow Minister.
A series of portfolios that have disappeared, with an unconvincing assurance that Ministers will make the right decisions as to how to properly oversee the issues they addressed.
A slaving of science to industry.
The groundwork laid for potentially thousands of job losses under the guise of ‘natural attrition’ and ‘restructuring’, all overseen by Senator Eric Abetz’s ‘assistance’ on the Public Service.
The Ministry is set to be sworn in on Wednesday. This, according to Abbott, will be ‘Day One’ – and we will, he says, see a difference immediately.
He’s right. Whether it’s a difference that will benefit us, however, is another story.
http://consciencevote.com.au/2013/09/16/abbotts-ministry-one-woman-no-science-12000-jobs/
sooooooo .. Mr Abbott is off to a bit of a controversial start .. lolol .. haha .. go son! .. it will be interesting to see with so many areas of responsibility spread over different ministerial portfolios if/when hiccups occur just where responsibility and accountability will be placed ..
.. dang .. porridge just boiled over ..
What is behind the fighting in the Philippines' Zamboanga?
By Jonathan Head South East Asia correspondent, BBC News
13 September 2013 Last updated at 11:15 GMT
Philippine troops continue to battle insurgents in Zamboanga city on Friday
Related Stories
Philippines fighting: Residents' voices - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24059037
More clashes in Philippine south - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24059035
Residents flee Philippine stand-off - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24044332
Zamboanga is the sixth largest city in the Philippines, and a vital hub for the economy of the south. For the past five days, it has been more or less shut down by a confrontation between the army and a group of insurgents from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Yet the MNLF, the group that started its armed campaign against the central government back in the early 1970s, was also the first to make peace, in 1996.
After that, its leader, Nur Misuari, was the governor of an autonomous region for five years. So why did his followers land in Zamboanga, heavily armed, and then take over several districts of the city?
The Misuari issue
The insurgents, numbering around 180, are believed to be led by Habier Malik, a veteran MNLF commander who has been involved in many other armed attacks in the past, including a similar one in Zamboanga 12 years ago.
He is known to be a loyal supporter of Nur Misuari, but according to the government the MNLF leader has denied authorising this latest operation.
For their part, the MNLF gunmen in Zamboanga have said they are fighting for an independent state, not the autonomy the government is negotiating with the larger MILF insurgent group.
The Philippine military still believe Nur Misuari is responsible, and the authorities are considering laying criminal charges against him, although his exact whereabouts are unknown.
The current whereabouts of Nur Misuari (centre) are uncertain
The MNLF's strongholds are in the Sulu archipelago, a sprawling stretch of islands south-west of Zamboanga, where the government's authority is weak, so finding him would be difficult.
This all has striking echoes of the situation 12 years ago. Back then Nur Misuari had announced that he was taking up arms against the government again, after he was ousted as chairman of the MNLF and it split into rival factions.
In November 2001, his men attacked military bases on the island of Jolo. After that, clashes in Zamboanga between the military and some of his forces, who had been allowed to remain there under the 1996 deal, ended with the MNLF taking all of the inhabitants of a nearby neighbourhood hostage, and marching them, roped together, through the streets of the city, until they were allowed to leave.
'Sense of entitlement'
Nur Misuari fled to Malaysia, from where he was extradited back to the Philippines and charged with rebellion. He was eventually released, and the charges dropped seven years later.
At the heart of this particular fight - among several armed conflicts in the southern Philippines - is Nur Misuari's "sense of entitlement", as the government describes it, and his steady marginalisation from the wider peace process.
The Muslims of the south call themselves the Moro people, and they have been rebelling against the central government for centuries.
During the 1970s, Nur Misuari established himself as the pre-eminent leader of the MNLF, and was recognised as the Moro representative by the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which has played a prominent role in trying to end the conflict.
The first serious blow to Misuari's authority was the split in 1978, which led to the establishment of the MILF, based on the main island of Mindanao rather than in the Sulu archipelago.
[hidden inside .. Philippine government peace negotiator Marvic Leonen, right, and Moro Islamic Liberation Front chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, left, shake hands as they exchange signed documents of their tentative peace agreement following a formal signing ceremony at Malacanang Palace in Manila, Philippines as Malaysian peace broker Dato Tengko Abdul Ghafar, centre, and others, second row from left, MILF Chair Al Haj Murad, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Philippine President Benigno Aquino, and Government peace negotiator Teresita Deles look on and applaud ]
The government and the MILF agreed on a ceasefire last year
The MILF refused to negotiate with the government, so then-President Fidel Ramos turned to Nur Misuari to negotiate the landmark 1996 agreement, creating the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which was intended to be a pre-cursor to a more permanent autonomy deal.
But five years later the deal had soured, with Nur Misuari facing widespread criticism over poor leadership and corruption. His supporters blamed the government for failing to give sufficient assistance and funding to run the impoverished and war-damaged ARMM.
Nonetheless he was voted out of the MNLF chairman's seat. The movement is now divided into three main factions, although much of its armed wing remains loyal to Misuari.
Territorial fighting
The situation is complicated by the presence of so many other armed groups and warlords in this region.
There is the militant Islamic group Abu Sayyaf, notorious for kidnapping and murder, and partly comprised of disaffected MNLF fighters. There is the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters group, which split from the MILF during its negotiations with the government. There are also so-called "lost commandos" - fighters who are not members of any group, but may join battles for either profit or principle.
Villagers in the areas affected by the current fighting have fled to safety
So long as the peace talks remained stalled, as they did for most of the past decade, the various groups operated on their own turf, and the army did little to disturb the status quo.
The exception was Abu Sayyaf, which was hit hard in an operation supported by the US military because of its links to al-Qaeda.
But last year the government and the MILF announced a breakthrough in their talks, and signed a ceasefire. In recent months they have made progress in negotiating power and revenue-sharing.
Government officials have made it clear in their comments that they no longer regard Nur Misuari as a negotiating partner. The MILF is a larger group, and has been the tougher opponent in recent years. The hope is clearly that if the peace deal holds, most of the MNLF factions will want to jump on board to make sure they get their share of the benefits.
Nur Misuari has responded with growing indignation, accusing the government of betraying the agreement it signed back in 1996. But even when he dramatically declared an independent Bangsamoro state last month, he promised he would pursue it through peaceful means.
The government will have to decide now whether he authorised the attack on Zamboanga, and what they do with him. None of the other MNLF factions has supported him; he appears isolated.
But excluding him altogether may prove counterproductive, if it reignites the conflict just as a lasting peace seems within reach.
More on This Story
Related Stories
Sulu: The islands home to Philippine militancy 14 FEBRUARY 2013, ASIA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21349891
Guide to the Philippines conflict 08 OCTOBER 2012, ASIA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17038024
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24079198
~~~~~~ .. where in the Philippines is Zamboanga?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines
~~~~~~ .. to make it easier to find where in the Philippines is ..
"Almost 10 months after the Maguindanao massacre that killed at least 57 people, the trial finally
started with a former house helper of the Ampatuans the first to take the witness stand." ..
Maguindanao of the post this replies to?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maguindanao
.. no .. am not suggesting there is any connection, no idea just
now about that .. i just wasn't sure exactly where either place was .. :)
====
Philippine helicopters fire rockets at Muslim rebels in Zamboanga siege
In an Unsettled Cambodia, Preparing to Confront the Government
Justin Mott for The International Herald Tribune
.. Video ..
Taking to the Streets in Cambodia: Opposition leaders geared up for
a protest Saturday against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: September 5, 2013
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — He screamed, “This is so unjust!” But Yann Rith, a 25-year-old resident of Phnom Penh, did not struggle against the group of men who carried him away.
A supporter of Cambodia’s political opposition, Mr. Yann Rith was taking part this week in a practice protest, a role-playing exercise intended to show other supporters how to submit peacefully if arrested by the riot police.
“We will be nonviolent!” Mr. Yann Rith declared, as he patted down his rumpled, button-down shirt.
Cambodia’s opposition is planning to confront the country’s authoritarian government with a demonstration on Saturday to protest what it says was widespread cheating in the July 28 national election that the ruling party says it won. But in a country scarred by years of civil war and genocide, the leaders of the opposition are proceeding cautiously, doing everything they can to convince the public that the protest will be peaceful even as government security forces have begun deploying.
The planned demonstration here in the capital is scheduled to last only three hours and will remain in the public square that Cambodian law designates as a protest area. The opposition carried out two rehearsals this week with thousands of supporters listening to instructions on how to resist any provocations.
“We don’t want a revolution, we don’t want a brawl,” Kem Sokha, the vice president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, told supporters gathered for a rehearsal on Wednesday. “We just want justice.”
Nearly six weeks after the election, which a number of monitoring groups say was marred by widespread voting irregularities, Cambodian politics remain in a deadlock. The leader of the opposition, Sam Rainsy, early on called for a special committee to investigate the reported irregularities and decide whether new balloting or recounting was necessary. But hopes of a negotiated solution have faded as Mr. Sam Rainsy says his attempts to engage the governing party “led nowhere.” And there seems little doubt who has the upper hand.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power 28 years, has a firm grip over the army, the police, the judicial system and nearly every other institution in the country, analysts say. As a symbol of his power, the Khmer-language news media, which toe the government’s line, preface the prime minister’s name with a Cambodian honorific that roughly translates as “His Highness.”
Ou Virak, the president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, an independent advocacy organization in Phnom Penh, said he supported the right of the opposition to protest but was skeptical it would threaten the governing party’s grip on power.
“How are you going to topple the government with a three-hour demonstration?” he said.
Mr. Sam Rainsy says he is counting on the protests to maintain the momentum and energy of the election campaign. “They will look bad when they come with their guns and water cannons to crack down on us,” he said in an interview, referring to security forces. “We will offer them flowers.”
The election in July was a political milestone for the country because the governing party, the Cambodian People’s Party, lost its near-total monopoly on power, taking 55 percent of the seats in Parliament, down from 73 percent in the previous election, according to unofficial results. Mr. Hun Sen — who with the help of the Vietnamese in 1979 drove out the murderous Khmer Rouge — appeared chastened by the result, and in the days after the election, he spoke in conciliatory terms about his relations with the opposition.
But in recent weeks, he has returned to his characteristic combative style, honed over years in which he has accumulated unrivaled power. Once official election results are announced, which is expected on Sunday, members of his party say, with or without the cooperation of the opposition, they will proceed with the opening of a new session of the National Assembly and form another government, possibly as early as next week.
The government, which is portraying the protest as an attempt to instigate riots, has deployed military units to the outskirts of the capital, and the riot police are conducting their own rehearsals.
“It’s a rebellion,” said Phay Siphan, the secretary of state in the Council of Ministers, which functions as a cabinet. “They plan to use Cambodian bloodshed as their red carpet to power.”
Mr. Phay Siphan, a member of the governing party, said there would be some “policy adjustments” in the new government and shuffling of posts inside the party.
“We are going to get rid of some of our old policy makers,” he said. “The anticorruption unit will be stronger and more active than before.”
Kem Lay, a researcher who has conducted surveys and studied social trends for government ministries as well as for the United States Agency for International Development, said Cambodian intellectuals and human rights advocates were ambivalent about their political choices.
Mr. Hun Sen’s party is resented for allowing land to be seized from farmers, for the opaque way that contracts and concessions are given to groups of businesspeople close to the party and for stifling the independence of the judiciary.
But Mr. Kem Lay said he also saw autocratic tendencies in Mr. Sam Rainsy’s leadership of the opposition — and a generalized lack of competence and experience among the candidates that the party put forward in the July election. “It would have been a big disaster if the opposition had won the election,” Mr. Kem Lay said. “They are not ready.”
Although the result of the election remains disputed, Mr. Kem Lay points to one positive outcome: he noticed that villagers and low-level government officials were speaking their minds, being more analytical and critical of government policies, a development that he describes as the maturing of the Cambodian electorate.
At the rehearsal on Wednesday, a 34-year-old woman named Mai Simorn surged into the crowd with a wad of Cambodian money in her hands. She had collected donations from workers at the garment factory where she works as a seamstress and handed them to the organizers of the protest.
Divorced from her husband, Ms. Mai Simorn earns a base salary of about $80 a month at the factory, barely enough to support her two children. Saturday is a workday, but she plans to ask for half of the day off to attend the protest.
“Our life is not easy,” she said. “We need to dare to protest.”
A version of this article appears in print on September 6, 2013, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: In an Unsettled Cambodia, Preparing to Confront the Government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/world/asia/in-an-unsettled-cambodia-preparing-to-confront-the-government.html?pagewanted=all
The Real Roots of Darfur
The violence in Darfur is usually attributed to ethnic hatred. But global warming may be primarily to blame.
Stephan Faris Apr 1 2007, 12:00 PM ET .. old, yet many roots of weighty problems are ..
Sudanese Liberation Army soldiers walk through the desert
To truly understand the crisis in Darfur—and it has been profoundly misunderstood—you need to look back to the mid-1980s, before the violence between African and Arab began to simmer. Alex de Waal, now a program director at the Social Science Research Council, was there at that time, as a doctoral candidate doing anthropological fieldwork. Earlier this year, he told me a story that, he says, keeps coming back to him.
De Waal was traveling through the dry scrub of Darfur, studying indigenous reactions to the drought that gripped the region. In a herders’ camp near the desert’s border, he met with a bedridden and nearly blind Arab sheikh named Hilal Abdalla, who said he was noticing things he had never seen before: Sand blew into fertile land, and the rare rain washed away alluvial soil. Farmers who had once hosted his tribe and his camels were now blocking their migration; the land could no longer support both herder and farmer. Many tribesmen had lost their stock and scratched at millet farming on marginal plots.
The God-given order was broken, the sheikh said, and he feared the future. “The way the world was set up since time immemorial was being disturbed,” recalled de Waal. “And it was bewildering, depressing. And the consequences were terrible.”
In 2003, another scourge, now infamous, swept across Darfur. Janjaweed fighters in military uniforms, mounted on camels and horses, laid waste to the region. In a campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Darfur’s blacks, the armed militiamen raped women, burned houses, and tortured and killed men of fighting age. Through whole swaths of the region, they left only smoke curling into the sky.
At their head was a 6-foot-4 Arab with an athletic build and a commanding presence. In a conflict the United States would later call genocide, he topped the State Department’s list of suspected war criminals. De Waal recognized him: His name was Musa Hilal, and he was the sheikh’s son.
The fighting in Darfur is usually described as racially motivated, pitting mounted Arabs against black rebels and civilians. But the fault lines have their origins in another distinction, between settled farmers and nomadic herders fighting over failing lands. The aggression of the warlord Musa Hilal can be traced to the fears of his father, and to how climate change shattered a way of life.
Until the rains began to fail, the sheikh’s people lived amicably with the settled farmers. The nomads were welcome passers-through, grazing their camels on the rocky hillsides that separated the fertile plots. The farmers would share their wells, and the herders would feed their stock on the leavings from the harvest. But with the drought, the farmers began to fence off their land—even fallow land—for fear it would be ruined by passing herds. A few tribes drifted elsewhere or took up farming, but the Arab herders stuck to their fraying livelihoods—nomadic herding was central to their cultural identity. (The distinction between “Arab” and “African” in Darfur is defined more by lifestyle than any physical difference: Arabs are generally herders, Africans typically farmers. The two groups are not racially distinct.)
The name Darfur means “Land of the Fur” (the largest single tribe of farmers in Darfur), but the vast region holds the tribal lands—the dars—of many tribes. In the late 1980s, landless and increasingly desperate Arabs began banding together to wrest their own dar from the black farmers. In 1987, they published a manifesto of racial superiority, and clashes broke out between Arabs and Fur. About 3,000 people, mostly Fur, were killed, and hundreds of villages and nomadic camps were burned before a peace agreement was signed in 1989. More fighting in the 1990s entrenched the divisions between Arabs and non-Arabs, pitting the Arab pastoralists against the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit farmers. In these disputes, Sudan’s central government, seated in Khartoum, often supported the Arabs politically and sometimes provided arms.
In 2003, a rebellion began in Darfur—a reaction against Khartoum’s neglect and political marginalization of the region. And while the rebels initially sought a pan-ethnic front, the schism between those who opposed the government and those who supported it broke largely on ethnic lines. Even so, the conflict was rooted more in land envy than in ethnic hatred. “Interestingly, most of the Arab tribes who have their own land rights did not join the government’s fight,” says David Mozersky, the International Crisis Group’s project director for the Horn of Africa.
Why did Darfur’s lands fail? For much of the 1980s and ’90s, environmental degradation in Darfur and other parts of the Sahel (the semi-arid region just south of the Sahara) was blamed on the inhabitants. Dramatic declines in rainfall were attributed to mistreatment of the region’s vegetation. Imprudent land use, it was argued, exposed more rock and sand, which absorb less sunlight than plants, instead reflecting it back toward space. This cooled the air near the surface, drawing clouds downward and reducing the chance of rain. “Africans were said to be doing it to themselves,” says Isaac Held, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But by the time of the Darfur conflict four years ago, scientists had identified another cause. Climate scientists fed historical sea-surface temperatures into a variety of computer models of atmospheric change. Given the particular pattern of ocean-temperature changes worldwide, the models strongly predicted a disruption in African monsoons. “This was not caused by people cutting trees or overgrazing,” says Columbia University’s Alessandra Giannini, who led one of the analyses. The roots of the drying of Darfur, she and her colleagues had found, lay in changes to the global climate.
The extent to which those changes can be blamed on human activities remains an open question. Most scientists agree that greenhouse gases have warmed the tropical and southern oceans. But just how much artificial warming—as opposed to natural drifts in oceanic temperatures—contributed to the drought that struck Darfur is as debatable as the relationship between global warming and the destruction of New Orleans. “Nobody can say that Hurricane Katrina was definitely caused by climate change,” says Peter Schwartz, the co-author of a 2003 Pentagon report on climate change and national security. “But we can say that climate change means more Katrinas. For any single storm, as with any single drought, it’s difficult to say. But we can say we’ll get more big storms and more severe droughts.”
With countries across the region and around the world suffering similar pressures, some see Darfur as a canary in the coal mine, a foretaste of climate-driven political chaos. Environmental degradation “creates very dry tinder,” says de Waal. “So if anyone wants to put a match to it, they can light it up.” Combustion might be particularly likely in areas where the political or social geography is already fragile. “Climate change is likely to cause tension all over the world,” says Idean Salehyan, a political scientist at the University of North Texas. Whether or not it sparks conflict, he says, depends on the strength, goodwill, and competence of local and national governments. (For more on the economic, political, and military tensions that global warming might create, see “Global Warming: What’s in It for You? .. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200704/global-warming ” by Gregg Easterbrook, on page 52.)
In Darfur itself, recognizing climate change as a player in the conflict means seeking a solution beyond a political treaty between the rebels and the government. “One can see a way of de-escalating the war,” says de Waal. “But unless you get at the underlying roots, it’ll just spring back.” One goal of the internationally sponsored peace process is the eventual return of locals to their land. But what if there’s no longer enough decent land to go around?
To create a new status quo, one with the moral authority of the God-given order mourned by Musa Hilal’s father, local leaders would have to put aside old agreements and carve out new ones. Lifestyles and agricultural practices would likely need to change to accommodate many tribes on more fragile land. Widespread investment and education would be necessary.
But with Khartoum uncooperative, creating the conditions conducive to these sorts of solutions would probably require not only forceful foreign intervention but also a long-term stay. Environmental degradation means the local authorities have little or no surplus to use for tribal buy-offs, land deals, or coalition building. And fighting makes it nearly impossible to rethink land ownership or management. “The first thing you’ve got to do is stop the carnage and allow moderates to come to the fore,” says Thomas Homer-Dixon, a political scientist at the University of Toronto. Yet even once that happens, he admits, “these processes can take decades.”
Among the implications arising from the ecological origin of the Darfur crisis, the most significant may be moral. If the region’s collapse was in some part caused by the emissions from our factories, power plants, and automobiles, we bear some responsibility for the dying. “This changes us from the position of Good Samaritans—disinterested, uninvolved people who may feel a moral obligation—to a position where we, unconsciously and without malice, created the conditions that led to this crisis,” says Michael Byers, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia. “We cannot stand by and look at it as a situation of discretionary involvement. We are already involved.”
Stephan Faris is a freelance journalist.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/04/the-real-roots-of-darfur/305701/?single_page=true
South Sudan secedes amid tensions
By Mary Beth Sheridan and Rebecca Hamilton,July 07, 2011
View Photo Gallery - Southern Sudan gaining independence:?The map of Africa will be redrawn…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/southern-sudan-gaining-independence/2011/07/07/gIQAWZrn2H_gallery.html
The map of Africa will be redrawn Saturday, as southern Sudan becomes an independent nation through a peace process championed by successive U.S. presidents but still beset by lingering tensions from years of war.
President George W. Bush put Sudan at the center of his foreign policy in Africa, helping broker a 2005 peace agreement that ended a conflict that had claimed more than 2 million lives. President Obama has rallied international pressure to rescue that accord as it risked unraveling.
U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice, who is scheduled to lead the U.S. delegation at the independence ceremony, said in a telephone interview this week that this was “a fraught and fragile moment, but a remarkable one nonetheless.”
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is expected to attend Saturday’s ceremony. He has promised to accept the oil-rich south’s secession .. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021106252.html , after initially balking at losing a Texas-size region that had provided much of his government’s revenue.
But the north and south are divided over key issues that were supposed to be resolved by now under the peace accord. They include how to fully demarcate the border, divide oil revenue and determine which side will control the disputed region of Abyei .. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/sudans-seizure-of-abyei-raises-war-fears/2011/05/26/AG8ywpCH_story.html .
And northern Sudan is still riven with conflicts. Peace in the Darfur region remains elusive. A month ago, the Sudanese began bombing Southern Kordofan, an oil-producing state that will also remain part of Sudan. Anti-government fighters in the area mostly belong to the Nuba, a non-Arab group made up of northerners who sided with the southern rebels during the 21-year war.
Violence in Darfur, Abyei and now Southern Kordofan has complicated the Obama administration’s strategy of offering financial and diplomatic incentives to Sudan in return for its completing the north-south peace agreement and resolving the conflict in Darfur.
“I don’t think either side wants to go back to full-scale war. I really don’t,” Princeton Lyman, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, said in an interview. But a recent flare-up in Abyei showed how tense the border remains. Sudanese government troops occupied the region in May after clashes with southern police.
“That set everything back a long way. We spent weeks working on plans for having the Sudanese withdraw from Abyei,” Lyman said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped negotiate an agreement .. http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/06/166572.htm .. that allowed 4,200 Ethiopian peacekeepers to move into Abyei last month under a U.N. mandate. But the situation remains “extremely volatile,” Rice said in a State Department briefing Thursday.
Abyei has been called “Sudan’s Jerusalem” because of both sides’ claims of historic ties to the region. Residents were supposed to vote in January on whether to to join the north or south, but the sides couldn’t agree on who was eligible to vote.
Jon Temin, a Sudan expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace, noted that the south had been restrained in responding to the north’s military moves. “The question is, after secession, after they gain that cherished independence, will the southern strategy change at all? Will they become more aggressive militarily in response to provocations from Khartoum?” he said.
The Sudanese government has promised that it will continue participating in negotiations led by the African Union on outstanding issues in the peace process after southern Sudan’s secession.
Rice told reporters at the State Department on Thursday that if Abyei and the other issues weren’t resolved soon, it could “swiftly destabilize the future relationship between these two states. So for our part, the United States will continue to be extremely active in supporting the implementation” of the peace accord.
The 2005 peace accord .. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60373-2005Jan9.html .. ended a grinding war between the largely Arab, Islamic northerners and the southerners, who are mainly Christian and animist and had long complained of discrimination. The plan provided for limited autonomy for the south until a January referendum on secession.
Over the years, an influential coalition of U.S. lawmakers, religious groups and grass-roots organizations has coalesced around ending the north-south war and the fighting in Darfur, where more than 300,000 people died as militias backed by Sudan’s ruling party brutally put down a rebellion. Bashir was subsequently charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-07-07/world/35236647_1_abyei-south-sudan-southern-kordofan
=====
U.S. Pushes for Global Eye on South Sudan Conflict
Camille Lepage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
After fighting, a member of the Lou Nuer tribe returned home to a village in Jonglei State in South Sudan. Feuding with the Murle people is a perennial issue there.
By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 29, 2013
WASHINGTON — When the National Security Council .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_security_council/index.html?inline=nyt-org , the most buttoned-up part of a buttoned-up Obama administration, is aggressively trying to get the word out about a violent, murky conflict in a distant land, it’s worth listening to. It’s also worth asking, why single out this crisis?
Related
Born in Unity, South Sudan Is Torn Again (January 13, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/world/africa/south-sudan-massacres-follow-independence.html?ref=us
Andreea Campeanu/Reuters
Men from the Luo Nuer tribe cooked over a fire in Yuai Uror county, South Sudan, last week.
The men said they are looking for children they allege were abducted by the rival Murle tribe.
Andreea Campeanu/Reuters
A member of the Luo Nuer tribe in Yuai Uror county, South Sudan.
Such is the case with the ethnic and tribal clashes that are rippling through a remote, sprawling part of South Sudan .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/south-sudan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo .. known as Jonglei State. Administration officials say they are deeply concerned about the violence, all the more so because there is so little reliable information coming out of a region that is inaccessible in the best of times.
Rather than monitor events quietly from their offices in the Old Executive Office Building, as they do with more widely publicized conflicts like the one in Syria, senior N.S.C. officials have invited in humanitarian and advocacy groups for briefings. They have written blog items. And they have discussed their fears with American and foreign journalists.
“More than 100,000 people have been displaced,” said Grant T. Harris, senior director for African Affairs at the council. “The international community doesn’t know where these people are.”
Officials describe a desperate situation in which tens of thousands of people are hiding in swamps, without food, water or medicine — fearful of returning to their villages because of attacks by rival tribes or even soldiers who are supposed to be protecting them.
“We’ve got all the ingredients for a conflict that could get much worse very quickly,” said Gayle Smith, the senior director for global development and humanitarian issues at the N.S.C.
Their immediate goal, officials say, is to put an obscure conflict on the world’s radar screen before it mutates into a humanitarian tragedy. But they are also working to preserve one of the Obama administration’s few undisputed achievements in Africa: the 2011 referendum that split South Sudan off from Sudan and created a new nation.
The violence in Jonglei, South Sudan’s largest and most populous state, threatens to destabilize the country and tatter the credibility of its fledgling, American-backed government.
In addition to the perennial feuding between two tribes, the Lou Nuer and the Murle, there are reports of attacks on civilians by troops from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which began as a guerrilla force fighting for South Sudan’s independence and is now the country’s army.
Jonglei, Ms. Smith said, “has all the characteristics of the rest of South Sudan. The problem now is you have tribal tension, a lot of history of bad blood, and a rebellion on top of it.”
The United States and other Western nations have poured billions of dollars into South Sudan, before and after the referendum, to try to turn a destitute land, with oil reserves but a long history of violence and little in the way of institutions, into a viable country.
The administration has strongly supported the South Sudan government, which is led by Salva Kiir, a leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. But now President Kiir is himself a problem: last week, he dismissed his vice president, who had threatened to challenge him for his party’s leadership before elections in 2015, and his entire cabinet.
On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/john_kerry/index.html?inline=nyt-per .. telephoned Mr. Kiir to deliver what amounted to a rap on the knuckles. He warned the president that he should form a new government quickly, stop the ethnic clashes in Jonglei and crack down on soldiers in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army who are found guilty of human rights abuses.
Noting that he had traveled to Sudan to witness the referendum, Mr. Kerry said in a statement: “Too much sacrifice has been made to see that effort go backward. The world is watching to see if South Sudan pursues the path of peace and prosperity, or the tragic path of violence and conflict that has characterized much of its past.”
The National Security Council has held regular deputy-level meetings to determine how the United States should respond, both to the escalating violence in Jonglei and the governance problems. President Obama .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per , they said, has been briefed about the crisis.
In the short term, officials are focused on trying to get relief supplies to the displaced people. Jonglei, which is the size of Bangladesh, has few roads and those are impassable after heavy rains. That means emergency aid must be airlifted into the region. The United Nations’ .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org .. World Food Program is seeking $20 million to lease helicopters.
Another major obstacle is that United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan are reluctant to go to Jonglei because in April, five United Nations employees and five Indian peacekeepers were killed there in an ambush by armed men the South Sudanese described as antigovernment rebels. Five months before that, the South Sudanese military shot down a United Nations helicopter — by accident, according to local officials.
As a big provider of financial assistance, the United States has considerable leverage over the South Sudanese government. It also has sway over how the World Bank and International Monetary Fund treat the country. But having labored for years to nurture democracy in South Sudan, the White House is loath to turn against it.
“They’re very worried that they’re going to have to do a major policy shift,” said Sarah Margon, the acting Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “They’re trying to figure out how to balance a very tricky situation in a way that doesn’t end up being a major fail for them.”
A version of this article appeared in print on July 30, 2013, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Pushes for Global Eye on Obscure Conflict in South Sudan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/us/us-pushes-for-global-eye-on-south-sudan-conflict.html
Does Australia take the most refugees? FACTS FIGHT BACK
.. some repetition here just the refugee vs resettlement spin is
being used again in the present election campaign in Australia ..
Elections are about persuading voters about priorities.
To do so, facts are important, but they can also
be misused when politicians try to influence voters.
Here the facts fight back. This site is to persuade politicians and others to stick to the facts.
July 23, 2013 · in Immigration
Who: “We take more refugees per head of Australian population than any other nation in the world. We take either the second or third most in absolute terms, depending on how you calibrate your calculation” Chris Bowen .. http://ministers.treasury.gov.au/DisplayDocs.aspx?doc=transcripts/2013/014.htm&pageID=004&min=cebb&Year=&DocType= .
The claim: Australia takes the most refugees per capita and takes the second or third most in absolute terms.
The facts: The UNHCR Global Trends Report 2010 .. http://popstats.unhcr.org/PSQ_POC.aspx .. shows that Australia took one refugee per 1, 000 population and ranked 69th in the world for per capita refugee intake. 2012 UNHCR figures for absolute refugee intake show that Australia took nearly 30,000 refugees and ranked 49th in the world.
Discussion of evidence: The country that takes the most refugees per head of population is Jordan, with 72.9 refugees per 1,000 people. The table below shows Australia’s per capita refugee intake compared to the top 5 countries.
Rank .. Country ... Refugees per 1,000 population (2010)
1 ... Jordan ... 72.9
2 ... Syrian Arab Rep. ... 49.3
3 ... Congo, Rep. of ... 32.9
4 ... Chad ... 31
5 ... Montenegro ... 25.9
69 ... Australia ... 1
The country with the largest absolute refugee intake is Pakistan with more than 1.6 million refugees. The table below compares Australia’s refugee intake compared to the top 5 countries.
Rank .. Country .. Refugees (up to 2012)
1 ... Pakistan ... 1,638,447
2 ... Iran (Islamic Republic of) ... 868,239
3 ... Germany ... 589,680
4 ... Kenya ... 564,906
5 ... Syrian Arab Republic ... 476,481
49 ... Australia ... 29,996
Australia’s world rankings for refugee intake are very different to those claimed Chris Bowen. However, Australia does rank highly in the resettlement of refugees. Resettlement .. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4a16b1676.html .. is a scheme whereby a third country takes refugees who cannot be safely settled in the country they originally sought asylum. In 2012 .. http://www.unhcr.org/4fd6f87f9.pdf , less than one per cent of refugees were re-settled. Most countries do not have official resettlement programs and in 2012 only 27 countries resettled refugees. According to the Refugee Council of Australia .. http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/r/stat-int.php , Australia ranked second in 2012 for the resettlement of refugees per capita (0.267 refugees per 1,000 population) beaten only by Canada (0.283 per 1,000). In absolute terms the top three resettlement countries were America (66,300), Canada (9,600) and Australia (5,900).
http://www.factsfightback.org.au/does-australia-take-the-most-refugees-check-the-facts/
Indonesian Police Foil Burmese Embassy Bomb Plot
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS| Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Muslim activists protest outside the Burma Embassy in Jakarta in this Aug. 9, 2012 file photo. (Photo: Reuters / Supri)
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s elite anti-terror squad arrested a man suspected of raising money for an alleged plot to attack the Burmese Embassy to protest that country’s treatment of Muslims, police said Monday.
Muhammad Syaiful Syahbani, 26, was captured Friday in Yogyakarta, a province on Indonesia’s main island of Java, said National Police spokesman Lt. Col. Agus Rianto. Another man who was with him was also being questioned by police, but his connection to Syahbani was not immediately clear.
In May, police arrested two suspected militants—Achmad Taufiq and Sefa Riano—in Jakarta, the capital, and seized five homemade bombs from a backpack they were carrying. Other explosive materials were found later at their rented house in southern Jakarta. The two told authorities they wanted to retaliate against Burma for recent attacks there on Rohingya Muslims. Riano had posted messages on his Facebook indicating he planned to “take action” at the embassy.
Days later, police arrested three other group members including Rohadi, the group leader, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. Their interrogation led police to Syahbani’s whereabouts.
Last week, a small bomb exploded outside a Buddhist temple packed with praying devotees in Jakarta. One person was injured, but two other devices failed to explode. Officials have said the attack appears to have been meant to avenge the death of Muslims in Burma.
Sectarian violence in Buddhist-majority Burma has killed scores of people, and tens of thousands of Muslims have been driven from their homes.
Indonesia has been battling terrorists since the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/41878
Indonesian leader defends economic record as term winds down
August 17, 2013
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. — Reuters pic
JAKARTA, August 17 — Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono offered a favourable assessment of his record even as growth slowed before the 2014 elections, saying the government has expanded the middle class and kept the budget deficit low.
The budget shortfall has stayed under 3 per cent of gross domestic product, unemployment and poverty rates have fallen, and the country has achieved an investment-grade rating, Yudhoyono said in an annual speech in Jakarta yesterday ahead of the nation’s independence day. The government sees economic growth of 6.4 per cent next year, he said yesterday in a separate budget speech, a level at the bottom end of a target range set last month.
Yudhoyono, due to hand over power in elections next year, is seeking to shore up his legacy of political and economic stability in the world’s fourth-most populous nation. As he nears the end of a decade in power, the leader faces an economy that is growing at the slowest pace since 2010, a slumping rupiah and the fastest inflation in more than four years.
“Volatility in the global economy and commodity prices remind us of the need to diversify our sources of economic growth,” Yudhoyono said in the budget speech. “Indonesia can’t rely on natural resources and unskilled labor any more.”
Yudhoyono said he expects the country’s per capita GDP to approach US$5,000 (RM16,376) by the end of 2014, up from US$3,592 in 2012. The country has maintained growth above 4 per cent during his tenure, as spending by the growing middle class shielded Southeast Asia’s largest economy from the 2008-2009 financial crises.
Middle Class
“People’s purchasing power continues to increase, the middle class is growing significantly, fiscal and monetary stability are maintained,” Yudhoyono said in his first speech. He said the country had withstood external shocks such as a global oil-price spike and the financial crisis.
The government expects a slight improvement in the global economy next year, he said. The 2014 budget assumes a deficit of 1.49 per cent of gross domestic product, even as capital spending is set to rise 6.9 per cent from this year, including on higher wages, the election and food security, Yudhoyono said.
Gross domestic product increased 5.81 per cent from a year earlier in the three months ended June 30, the first time the economy grew less than 6 per cent since 2010.
“A 6.4 per cent target for GDP is too optimistic, given the global economy is slowing down, investment and exports are in a slowing trend,” said David Sumual, chief economist at PT Bank Central Asia in Jakarta. Sumual said he expects GDP to grow about 6 per cent next year.
Stock Losses
PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia led banking-stock losses, falling 6 per cent yesterday, while auto seller PT Astra International dropped 3.1 per cent, as investors worry about slowing lending and consumption. Foreign funds pulled US$195.5 million from Jakarta equities this year as of yesterday, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.
The rupiah touched a four-year low yesterday. A report earlier this week showed foreign reserves fell for a third month to US$92.7 billion in July, the lowest level since October 2010. That compared to US$35.4 billion when Yudhoyono assumed the presidency in 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The current-account deficit widened to US$9.85 billion in the three months through June, data from Bank Indonesia showed yesterday. That was the biggest shortfall since at least 1989, figures compiled by Bloomberg show.
Political Ceiling
While Yudhoyono was re-elected with more than 60 per cent of the vote in 2009, he hasn’t been able to overcome parliamentary opposition to economic reforms, Wellian Wiranto, a Singapore- based investment strategist at the wealth management unit of Barclays Plc, said in an e-mail on August 15.
“Political limitation has put a ceiling on how much the Indonesian economy can achieve when times were good — and may well affect how readily the government can now put a floor on a growth slowdown during this tricky period,” Wiranto said.
Yudhoyono said yesterday that food-price volatility remains a challenge and the country plans to add 40,000 hectares of new rice fields as it targets a 10 million ton surplus of the staple grain next year. Higher food prices and the government’s move to lift subsidized fuel prices in June drove the inflation rate to a higher-than-expected 8.61 per cent in July, the highest since 2009, data showed on August 1.
Higher inflation expectations led the central bank to be the first in Asia to raise interest rates this year, with a total increase of 75 basis points in June and July. It left the rate on hold on August 15.
Gas Prices
The move to raise pump prices was aimed at capping an annual fuel-subsidy bill of more than US$20 billion that is sapping funds needed for roads and bridges. Next year’s budget allocates 336.2 trillion rupiah (RM104.81 billion) for total subsidies, little changed from 346.4 trillion rupiah spent last year. In his 2012 independence day speech, Yudhoyono promised to lift government capital spending by 15 per cent this year to boost infrastructure.
“So far, the government spending’s disbursement is always too late and capital spending will only increase 7 per cent next year, which is a very small rise,” Sumual said. “Indonesia can’t have hopes from government spending.” — Bloomberg
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/indonesian-leader-defends-economic-record-as-term-winds-down
Indonesian President Worried By Growing Religious Intolerance
By KANUPRIYA KAPOOR / REUTERS WRITER| Monday, August 19, 2013
People from Indonesian Muslim hardline groups hold a banner and placards during a
protest near the Burma Embassy in Jakarta on May 3, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Beawiharta)
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was concerned by growing religious intolerance in the country with world’s largest Muslim population, which many analysts say his administration has failed to contain.
Indonesia has recently seen a series of increasingly violent attacks on religious minorities like Christians, Shia Muslims and members of Ahmadiyah, a small Islamic sect which is considered heretical by mainstream Muslims.
“I am very concerned about the continuing incidents of intolerance and communal conflict we see, which are often violent,” Yudhoyono said in an annual address to parliament.
“We should always be able to prevent these if we prioritize dialogue and if the country’s leaders, in government and religious institutions, take collective responsibility.”
Yudhoyono, in office since 2004 and whose current term ends next year, has been criticized for failing to defend the rights of religious minorities.
“President Yudhoyono seems to say all the right words. But he does not talk about legal discrimination that his administration had created over the last nine years,” Andreas Harsono, Indonesia director for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in an e-mail.
Human Rights Watch released a damning report this year that listed more than 260 violent incidents against religious minorities in 2012. It accused some cabinet members of fanning the violence.
Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s population considers itself Muslim but the constitution guarantees freedom of worship in a country that was once home to powerful Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms.
Most Indonesians follow a moderate form of Islam but militants linked to al Qaeda have carried out several major attacks on foreign targets since 2002.
Indonesia has largely managed to root out militant networks though sporadic attacks continue.
Yudhoyono also said he would continue to battle corruption in one of the world’s most graft-ridden countries and another key problem which many observers accuse his government doing little to counter.
Two days before his speech, a top energy official was arrested by the anti-corruption agency (KPK) over allegations he pocketed more than half a million dollars in bribes from an oil firm.
It is the latest in a string of corruption scandals that have also damaged many of the major political parties, including Yudhoyono’s ruling Democratic Party whose popularity has been sliding ahead of next year’s general and presidential elections.
But Yudhoyono made no mention of the latest arrest.
“We continue to try and prevent and eradicate corruption to strive for a ‘Clean Indonesia,’” he said. “And I continue to push law enforcement agencies like the police, attorney general’s office, and even the KPK, to take effective steps to fight corruption.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/42268
South Africa remembers Marikana bloodbath
August 17 2013 12:45 AM Viewd by: 49
Lonmin Mine workers gather at the hill nearby the Marikana Platinum Mine in Rustenburg, South
Africa, yesterday. They gathered to pay their respects to 36 colleagues who where shot dead by
members of the South African Police Service a year earlier, after workers protested for higher wages.
AFP/Marikana
Comrades and families of 34 miners shot dead by South African police marked the first anniversary of the bloodbath at Marikana yesterday in a rally boycotted by the ruling ANC.
An estimated 10,000 people gathered at the foot of the outcrop where on August 16, 2012, police unleashed a 284-bullet barrage that plunged South Africa into crisis and shocked the world.
The owner of the Marikana platinum mine was among those attending the commemorations and for the first time publicly apologised to the relatives of the slain workers.
“We will never replace your loved ones, and I say we are truly sorry for that,” said Lonmin chief executive Ben Magara.
“It should not have taken so many lives for us... as a nation to learn that this should not have happened and this should never happen again.”
The peaceful crowd, including workers wearing green trade union T-shirts and wielding sticks, chanted and danced, while some of the widows fought back tears as a roll call of the dead was read out.
The ruling party African National Congress did not attend the event, which it said had become politicised when organisers invited a militant mining union and opposition leaders to speak.
With many ANC members serving on the boards of mining firms and the government firmly defending police tactics, observers say members of the party may not have been welcome.
“It’s guilty conscience, that is why they are not here,” said Tshenolo Tshenye, an assistant artisan and one of the mourners.
President Jacob Zuma, who launched a state inquiry into the shooting deaths but has studiously avoided becoming publicly involved in it, was in Malawi ahead of a regional summit.
Populist firebrand Julius Malema, a former ANC youth leader who recently launched his own political party, tore into his former allies at the commemoration event, blaming the ANC and the owners of the Marikana platinum mine for the violence.
“Lonmin and ANC have killed our people. You have blood on your hands,” Malema, sporting a revolutionary red beret, said to loud applause.
Lindile Mbukwana, a 28-year-old labourer, said the ANC’s boycott “shows that our government doesn’t care about us”.
No one has been held responsible for the 34 deaths, and with fury still raw, police in riot vans kept their distance while helicopters circled overhead during the six-hour service.
“We want to know the truth,” said Mzoxolo Magidwana, 24, who was shot eight times in last year’s unrest. “Who sent the police to come and kill us?”
The day of violence at the Marikana mine is seen by many as the worst since apartheid in the country ended in 1994.
In the run-up to the killings at least 10 other people - including two police officers - died amid a highly charged work stoppage over wages at the mining firm.
Lonmin boss Magara said the London-listed firm would pay for the schooling of the slain mineworkers’ 147 children.
Many of those present said the low wages and poor living standards that sparked the upwelling of anger last year remain unchanged.
“These people died for nothing,” said Gabriel Shakhane, 42, a migrant miner from Lesotho.
The Lonmin-sponsored commemoration event was organised by a group linked to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which has fought a sometimes bloody battle for power with the ANC-allied National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Several assassinations have taken place over the last year, with union leaders from both sides dying amid the battle for supremacy.
AMCU’s leader Joseph Mathunjwa, who had invited NUM’s leaders to attend, said the event was “not about politicking”.
But at the 11th hour, NUM announced that it would stay away because the anniversary has been “hijacked”, shredding hopes that the day could be a way to mend ties.
“Even as we are remembering victims we are quite frankly messing with their memories by playing politics with the commemoration,” said political commentator Eusebius McKaiser.
Police said yesterday’s event passed off without a major incident.
“In the spirit of healing and reconciliation, all parties present behaved in a manner indicative of the respect being paid to all those who passed away over this period in 2012,” said commissioner Riah Phiyega.
http://www.gulf-times.com/africa/243/details/362933/south-africa-remembers-marikana-bloodbath
The polishing of Tony Abbott
.. i believe sometimes (as in the Romney case) pollie pasts should be considered more
.. we haven't heard much of Abbott's at all in this campaign .. here is some for posterity ..
Posted by Matthew Donovan in Politics on 25 May, 2013 12:01 am / 127 comments
If the polls stay the same, Tony Abbott will be Australia’s prime minister in less than four
months, however Clint Howitt says efforts to portray him as a changed man just don’t add up.
Which Tony will we get?
ALMOST IMMEDIATELY after the announcement of the election date, the Leader of the Opposition underwent a sudden and dramatic transformation. His clothes and grooming started to receive a lot more care and attention.
In his televised National Press Club address in February, the makeover was taken to a farcical extreme, featuring caked fake-tan make-up, white eyeliner, an enhanced hairline, smart new suit, brilliant white shirt and subdued blue tie. There were even suggestions .. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbotts-makeover/ .. of botox injections.
His demeanour became more congenial and restrained. His tone more conciliatory, ‘more prime ministerial’. Overnight, the old in-your-face, abrasive, uncompromising Tony Abbott had virtually vanished without trace.
Since then, we’ve been told that he has mellowed, and is now more compassionate, positive and inclusive. We’re told he is now a political pragmatist. The man seemed to have undergone a Damascene conversion .. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Damascene_conversion .
Obvious makeovers and spin however inevitably arouse suspicion.
It is simply inconceivable that, at the age of 55, a man can suddenly undergo such a radical metamorphosis. It raises questions about why it was so important to conceal his true nature and intentions behind a mask of convenience.
Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott come out fighting over the economy
The two sides are staking out their positions. Who's likely to win
the argument on debt, jobs and the end of the resources boom?
Posted by Greg Jericho Monday 5 August 2013 12.14 EST
Jump to comments (41)
The economic debate is focused on Australia's transition post-
China resources boom. Photograph: Jack Atley/Bloomberg
In their press conferences opening the 2013 election, both Kevin Rudd .. http://www.alp.org.au/kevin_rudd_election_speech .. and Tony Abbott had .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/aug/04/tony-abbott-election-announcement-response-video .. a bit to say about the economy. Mostly it was standard talking points, but it laid down a nice framework for the next 34 days.
After the usual blather, they quickly got into focus. For Rudd it was “new challenges brought about by the end of the China resources boom ... The boom, of course, has fuelled so much of our nation’s wealth. That boom is over.”
Not the most cheerful way to start a campaign, but it certainly is true. Our mining sector is no longer booming, but it’s still doing OK. Mineral exploration remains at historically high levels. The problem is that GDP growth is all about comparing where things are with where they were the previous year, and it is clear that mining investment is not growing at the same pace that it was:
Mineral exploration Actual and expected mineral exploration.
Source: ABS
So how do we cope with this? For Tony Abbott, the solution is (of course) getting rid of the carbon tax, but also delivering “$1bn a year in red-tape cost reduction, particularly to small business”.
The problem with cost reductions from red tape is that the figures are pretty hard to accurately account for. The Productivity Commission’s 2011 report, Identifying and Evaluating Regulation Reforms .. http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/study/regulation-reforms/report , for example, noted of past claims of cost savings, “despite the estimated savings, business surveys report little reduction in compliance costs. There are various reasons why this might be so – not least that some of the savings may be more apparent than real.”
The other issue is that, as fact-checking website PoltiFact has noted .. http://www.politifact.com.au/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jul/31/tony-abbott/coalition-says-labor-adding-red-tape-adding-21000-/ , the LNP’s claim of additional regulatory burden under the ALP government is vastly overstated.
So $1bn in savings? It sounds good, but I’ll wait until I see more than Tony Abbott saying “we believe” before I will believe.
The big issue on which both sides furiously agree to disagree is debt. Tony Abbott noted that “our gross debt is skyrocketing towards $400bn”, while Kevin Rudd took a broader view saying:
And while others continue to make false claims that somehow this country is in a debt and deficit crisis, they can never answer this simple question: if that is the case, why does Australia, among only eight countries in the world, continue to have a triple-A credit rating and stable outlook? Nor can they answer why the Australian government debt per head of population is one of the lowest across all the developed countries in the world.
Now Abbott might be over-egging the amount a bit – the government’s recent economic statement .. http://www.budget.gov.au/2013-14/content/economic_statement/html/index.htm .. has gross debt reaching $370bn in 2016-17 – but aside from that, both sides are correct. The economic argument, of course, relates to whose point of view is more valid. Australia’s debt level is low compared with the rest of the world – and as I noted in my first post, even the increase in debt in the past five years has been lower than average.
But why Rudd refers to debt per head of population is a mystery. The ALP has recently put out an infographic on Facebook showing that we are only second to Estonia in terms of lowest debt per capita. Of course we are second only if you leave out a few countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland.
But economists pretty much only talk in terms of debt per GDP. And on this score we’re still looking OK. The LNP prefers gross debt (because it is bigger), but even that has Australia sitting nicely:
Gross debt General government gross debt, 2012 (% of GDP).
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook
I suspect the per head of population measure is being used because it sounds simpler – people understand population more than they do GDP – but it’s still an odd way to measure it.
The triple-A rating is a good pointer for showing how we sit with regard to the rest of the world, but we shouldn’t worry too much about it. A triple-A credit rating is nice to have, but when a government starts viewing it as the arbiter of a good economy, that way lies madness, and usually massive austerity. Better to aim for employment growth than worry about what Standard & Poor’s or Moody’s are saying about your budget.
And on employment we saw both sides take their positions. Abbott focused on “the numbers of unemployed marching towards 800,000” (it’s currently around 700,000) while Rudd noted that “businesses in Australia have added just under 1m jobs over the last five and a half years” (the actual figure is around 940,000). An update on this will come on Thursday, when the ABS releases the latest figures. A nice little tester to get the campaign going.
Finally, one thing Rudd pointed to: “We need fresh investment in agribusiness because there are rich opportunities for Australia in satisfying the new food demands of Asia.” Now, the agribusiness call has come a bit out of left field. The government released a National Food Plan .. http://www.daff.gov.au/nationalfoodplan/white-paper .. white paper in May, but given agriculture contributes only about 2.5% of our GDP (compared to about 10% for mining and 66% for services) it’s a bit of a stretch to think it will save us from the end of the mining boom.
It may, however, be an indicator that the Liberal party’s “Asian food bowl” pipe dream has caught hold in Queensland. Watch this space to see just what Rudd has planned on this front.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2013/aug/05/kevin-rudd-tony-abott-economy
Abbott pushing the government debt furphy .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furphy , more commonly known as 'bullshit', reminds of Romney .. if only he could, beyond odds, go the same way .. i think if at least all Australians remembered how well Labor got us through the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis 2007-8 (yup, we all know it is far from over) then Labor would have a real chance .. lol, just now it would be 'unreal' if they were able to get up, their present six year stint is against them in some eyes, too .. here's one on an old theme ..
Time to slay the austerity myth
Stephen Koukoulas23 Jul, 6:31 AM62
There was more evidence overnight that budget or fiscal austerity is economic snake oil when it comes to the objective of reducing government debt in a climate of economic weakness or recession.
According to Eurostat, government debt in the 17 countries that make up the Eurozone exploded to 92.2 per cent of GDP in the March quarter 2013 from 88.2 per cent of GDP a year ago and 66 per cent of GDP in 2007. In other words, Eurozone government debt is 8.75 trillion euros or approximately 12.5 trillion Australian dollars.
In many respects, the news of the debt explosion was not unexpected. The on-going recession which has seen GDP fall for six straight quarters and the record high unemployment rate are keeping a lid on government revenue, thereby limiting any narrowing in budget deficits and adding to the level of debt. Indeed, the Euro was firmer against the US dollar at just under 1.32 while stock markets in the region were generally little changed.
That said, the updated news on government debt in the Eurozone was an unfriendly reminder of some of the problems that fiscal austerity and the repair of the budget is creating, especially for countries already with high debt and which still are in recession.
Massive cuts in government spending, tax hikes, public sector job cuts and privatisations have clearly not reduced government debt. If fiscal austerity worked as per the textbook, debt levels would obviously be lower by now. But budget austerity when the private sector is weak or already shrinking knee-caps economic growth, pushes the unemployment rate higher and undermines the fiscal position of the government which in turn sees debt levels rise.
Within the Eurozone, the countries with the highest government debt to GDP ratios are Greece at 160.5 per cent, Italy 130.3 per cent, Portugal 127.2 per cent and Ireland 125.1 per cent. Those countries with the lowest debt to GDP ratios are Luxembourg at 22.4 per cent, Bulgaria 18.0 per cent with Estonia having the lowest government debt to GDP ratio at 10.0 per cent.
Perhaps most disconcerting is the revelation that 24 out of 27 member countries of the European Union saw their debt to GDP ratios increase over the past year with only Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark registering a lower debt level than a year ago.
There is no hint in the recent data that the overall debt to GDP ratio has peaked or will peak soon. Only when the Eurozone locks in an economic pick-up that is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate will there likely be a meaningful reduction in government debt. Economic growth, not austerity, is the medicine for fiscal repair.
In terms of reducing government debt this may not be evident until 2015, given that the consensus view for Eurozone GDP growth in 2014 is just 0.5 per cent which is still too weak to see the unemployment rate fall and government revenue rise.
For the record and by way of comparison, Australia’s government debt is 11 per cent of GDP having risen by 15 per cent of GDP from the low point in 2007 prior to the global banking crisis when there was negative net debt of 3.8 per cent of GDP. Over that time, the debt to GDP ratio rose by 27 per cent in the Eurozone, confirming the fact that the debt widening in Australia was relatively minor.
Furthermore, Australia’s government debt is forecast to peak at 11.4 per cent in 2014-15 before falling as the budget returns to surplus and on current conservative projections net debt will be eliminated around 2020.
With these facts in mind and when compared with most countries in the Eurozone (and the rest of the world for that matter), it is little wonder Australia has a triple-A credit rating with a steady outlook. Our debt levels are chicken feed in absolute terms and certainly when compared with the debt mountain in the Eurozone.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/7/23/economy/time-slay-austerity-myth
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Walks Fine Line In Her New Role
"Aung San Suu Kyi Takes Oath of Office in Burma"
by June 05, 2013 1:12 PM .. [ audio of article inside ]
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been under fire for working with the government on a number of issues. Here, she meets in March with protesters who oppose a copper mine backed by Chinese investors. She supports the mining project.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been under fire for working with the government on a number of issues. Here, she meets in March with protesters who oppose a copper mine backed by Chinese investors. She supports the mining project.
Khin Maung Win/AP
To her many admirers in the international community, Aung San Suu Kyi remains one of the world's best known democracy icons.
But in Myanmar, also known as Burma, she is now very much a politician who is being criticized for trying to cooperate with the former military rulers who kept her under house arrest for nearly two decades.
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“ What we have is a situation where they're very used to top-down, unquestioned power. So anyone who's sitting out of the system, in a system that is still very new and untested, really has to negotiate things really carefully."
- Sean Turnell, Myanmar expert at Australia's Macquarie University
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If you want to see the old, iconic Aung San Suu Kyi, just head to the bustling headquarters of her party, the National League for Democracy, or NLD, in Yangon, the country's largest city and former capital.
Go past the tables selling Suu Kyi T-shirts, coffee mugs and calendars. Step in the door and look to the right, up on the wall. There she is, looking down at you, steely and defiant. The caption reads: "There will be change, because all the military has are guns."
On a recent trip to Japan, though, her message seemed to be that she's a politician and presidential hopeful now, so get used to it.
"I find that people are very interested in the fact that I said I would like to be president," Suu Kyi said. "And yet, I would quite like to meet the leader of any political party who doesn't really want to be the head of government."
In other words, all those years under house arrest and defying a military dictatorship gave her a heap of political capital, and she's going to spend it.
A Target For Protesters
Suu Kyi spent quite a bit of it in March, when, for the first time, she became the target of protesters in the town of Letpadaung.
She traveled there to express her backing of a controversial copper mine that has Chinese investors .. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/16/174431490/now-a-politician-aung-san-suu-kyi-is-the-object-of-protesters . Residents bitterly complained that she had sold them out, but it looks like her investment has paid off.
U Win Htein, a member of the NLD's Central Executive Committee, says that Suu Kyi's handling of the Letpadaung inquiry won her respect within the ruling party, known as the USDP, and the military.
"She's trying to prove to the people that she has the ability to lead the nation," he says. "Because when the report of Letpadaung town was announced, many people from the USDP as well as from the army were satisfied that she is for real. She is for real, and she is fair."
For months, Suu Kyi had tried to get face time with the generals, but they wouldn't meet with her.
But on March 26, she was invited to sit in the front row with the generals at the Armed Forces Day parade. Her supporters saw it as a breakthrough, after months of conciliatory remarks to the military, like this one in a December interview with the BBC:
"People criticize me for saying that, but I have to say this is the truth. I am fond of the army. This is something that is entrenched in my being," she said. "I was taught that my father was the father of the army, and therefore they were part of my family."
Her father, Gen. Aung San, also led the struggle for independence from Britain.
Reconciliation, Rather Than Confrontation
But Suu Kyi's efforts to cozy up to the military rubbed many citizens the wrong way. So have her muted comments on recent ethnic and sectarian violence .. http://www.npr.org/2013/04/24/178806312/as-myanmar-reforms-old-tensions-rise-to-the-surface .. across the country. But U Win Htein says that Suu Kyi's strategy of reconciliation instead of confrontation is a sensible one.
"National reconciliation means everybody — ethnic people, as well as the army," Win Htein explains. "So her determination is to achieve her goal, and that's why she's walking a very delicate line. And she won't abandon her principles."
Some observers think that Suu Kyi struck some sort of deal with the generals, allowing her to play the game of politics as long as she doesn't threaten them. No proof of such a deal has emerged.
Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, says that while the world may regard Suu Kyi as an opposition leader, Myanmar's political system is traditionally not one that brooks any opposition.
"What we have is a situation where they're very used to top-down, unquestioned power," Turnell says. "So anyone who's sitting out of the system, in a system that is still very new and untested, really has to negotiate things really carefully."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/07/03/188303817/Myanmars-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-Walks-Fine-Line-In-Her-New-Role
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Military Involved in Massive Land Grabs: Parliamentary Report
By HTET NAING ZAW and AYE KYAWT KHAING / THE IRRAWADDY| Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Farmers from Rangoon Division’s Swepyitha Township play instruments during a protest on
Saturday to demand compensation for loss of their land. (Photo: Aye Kyawt Khaing / The Irrawaddy)
RANGOON—Less than eight months after a parliamentary commission began investigating land-grabbing in Burma, it has received complaints that the military has forcibly seized about 250,000 acres of farmland from villagers, according to the commission’s report.
The Farmland Investigation Commission submitted its first report to Burma’s Union Parliament on Friday, which focused on land seizures by the military.
According to the report, the commission received 565 complaints between late July and Jan. 24 that allege that the military had forcibly confiscated 247,077 acres (almost 100,000 hectares) of land. The cases occurred across central Burma and the country’s ethnic regions, although most happened in Irrawaddy Division.
The report said farmlands were confiscated for six different reasons: the expansion of urban areas; expansion of industrial zones; expansion of army battalions and military units; construction of state-owned factories; implementation of state-run agricultural and animal husbandry projects; and land allocation to private companies with links the military.
The commission recommends that undeveloped lands are returned to their owners or handed over to the state. In cases where land has been developed, affected farmers should receive adequate compensation from the military, the report said.
Pe Than, Lower House MP for the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party and a commission member, said Burma’s military Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing has acknowledged that the military has been involved in land seizures in the past and would seek to address the issue.
“When I met with Vice Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing at the end of February, he confirmed to me that the army will return seized farmlands that are away from its bases, and they are also thinking about providing farmers with compensation,” he said.
Pe Than said the parliamentary report on military land grabs was submitted to Parliament first because these cases are less complex, have complete data and are more obvious to prove. Further parliamentary reports on other forms of land-grabbing are due to follow.
Lower House member Thein Nyunt said parliamentarians would discuss land-grabbing issues and possible amendments for the existing land laws in coming weeks. “Compensation for confiscated land will be on the agenda, too,” said the opposition MP.
Burma’s military junta ruled the country for decades and land seizures by the army were widespread and local dissent was brutally crushed.
After a nominally civilian government took over 2011, the military let it be known that it would end such practices, but whether it will do so remains to be seen. Land-grabbing by powerful private companies meanwhile, has increased rapidly in the wake of Burma’s socio-economic reforms.
Land rights activist Han Shi Win said Burmese law states that the military should return unused farmlands and compensate for seized land.
“Article 31 of the Farmland Law states that if no work is done on a confiscated land within six months, the land shall be returned to its owner. That’s why we are trying to bring back land to farmers,” he said. “But the army does not follow the law.”
Han Shi Win said the Central Land Management Committee, chaired by Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation Myin Hlaing, had done little to properly implement the law in land seizure cases.
The activist warned that if the long-festering land grabbing complaints were not dealt soon angry farmers might resort to violent protests, such as in Irrawaddy Division’s Maubin Township, where dozens were injured and a policeman killed when villagers clashed with security forces on Feb. 26.
In the Irrawaddy Delta, farmers are becoming increasingly bold in demanding back their land or compensation, now that the government is becoming more tolerant towards public protest.
During a government ceremony to mark Peasants Day on Saturday, about 700 hundred villagers from Shwepyitha Township, located on the northern outskirts of Rangoon, came to demand that authorities resolve their complaints.
Supported by the local Diversity Party, they handed out pamphlets stating that 1,742 farmers lost about 11,000 acres (4,422 hectares) since 1986 to private companies, such as Zay Ka Bar, Yuzana Group and Htoo Group—the latter firm is owned by Tay Za, a business crony of the former junta.
The groups’ leader San Win Myint said the farmers demanded that authorities to resolve the complaints which they sent to the Rangoon Division’s Land Seizures Inquiry Commission.
“We are celebrating Peasants Day here … but we don’t have any plot of farmland,” he added bitterly.
Aung Thein Lin, a member of the Rangoon Division Land Seizures Commission who was attending the ceremony, told reporters that the complaints were being dealt with in accordance to law and that farmers could get compensated for the value of the land at the time of confiscation.
“We … are now making inquiry about land grab situation in Shwepyitha Township. After that, we will send the report to Parliament,” said the Lower House MP, who belongs to the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Khin Maung, a farmer from Lein Kone village in Shwepyitha Township, said the community would not accept the paltry compensation sums that the government was likely to offer.
“We will only have 800 kyats [US $0.93] per acre under the existing law for my land that was grabbed,” he said. “It is not fair for us to get such low compensation.”
Khin Maung warned that if farmers’ demands were not met, they would retake control of their old lands. “We will start to plant our farm plots again in 2013,” he said.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/28506
Tony Abbott - Carbon Dioxide is Weightless - well, at least according to Tony Abbott
Rudd in .. Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd's Labor leadership showdown
Kevin Rudd has returned to the Labor leadership after deposing Julia Gillard three years and two days after being ousted by his former deputy.
The reinstatement of Mr Rudd is a last-ditch effort to avoid a catastrophic defeat at the upcoming federal election, scheduled for September 14.
After days of speculation about yet another challenge, Mr Rudd's supporters began circulating a petition to MPs to force a special Caucus meeting to hold a ballot aimed to remove Ms Gillard from the Lodge.
Ms Gillard responded by calling a ballot of the Labor Party leadership at 7.00pm AEST.
Look back at what Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd had to say throughout a dramatic day in Labor history.
The result
Kevin Rudd and Anthony Albanese Photo: Triumphant: Kevin Rudd and Anthony Albanese (AAP: Alan Porritt)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-26/julia-gillard-in-quotes/4783170
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457 visa laws squeak through
Daniel Hurst Federal political reporter Date June 27, 2013
Rudd blasts turn-back-boats plan .. video inside ..
Kevin Rudd says military and intelligence advice is that asylum boats can't be turned back to Indonesia.
Laws cracking down on the skilled foreign worker visa program have passed the lower house, despite signs new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was heading towards a major policy shift.
The opposition tried to delay the vote and claimed Mr Rudd’s decision to push ahead with the changes as evidence the new leader had ‘‘failed the first test of decency’’.
The bill – requiring businesses to prove they have tried to look for local workers before turning to the 457 visa scheme – passed by the narrowest of margins, 73 votes to 72.
Former prime minister Julia Gillard had made the crackdown on 457 visas a key element of her election-year agenda in a bid to boost Labor’s connection with Australia’s working class and unions. The bill includes extra powers for Fair Work inspectors to investigate alleged rorts.
But business groups and the Coalition accused Ms Gillard of using inflammatory language as she campaigned in western Sydney earlier this year with a vow to ensure foreign workers did not push Australians to the back of the jobs queue.
Labor MPs won support for the measures from Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt and crossbench MPs Bob Katter, Craig Thomson, Andrew Wilkie and Tony Windsor.
Rob Oakeshott and Peter Slipper voted with the Coalition against the bill.
To secure support from crossbench MPs, the government agreed to amendments making clear employers must advertise in a newspaper for local workers up to four months before applying to hire people under the 457 scheme. The changes also reduce exemptions to the new rule.
Unions welcomed the passage of the laws, which also extend the time a 457 visa holder has to find another job if they are sacked.
‘‘It’s an important step forward in protecting the job security of Australian workers,’’ said Dave Noonan, construction division national secretary for the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
‘‘It also provides some more protection for workers who are here on 457 visas.’’
The key changes to the existing laws mean that:
* Employers must now prove they have advertised in a newspaper before hiring from overseas.
* Employers who want to use a 457 visa must have advertised in Australia within four months prior to a sponsoring an overseas worker.
* Only in the agricultural sector can an existing employer hire existing staff who are already working for them.
* Where there is a retrenchment or a redundancy, a position must be advertised for the four-month period before it can be filled.
* A worker on a 457 visa who loses their job will now have 90 days to find a new sponsor, instead of the current 28
Mr Rudd had fuelled expectations of a possible policy shift by declaring in a speech on Wednesday that he would avoid ‘‘things that drive business and Labor apart’’.
Crossbench MPs feared a backflip when debate on the bill was omitted from the daily program for Thursday’s sitting of the House of Representatives – the final session before the expected election.
It had been a priority in a draft list distributed on Wednesday night.
The updated notice paper relegated the debate to the 11th order of government business.
But the government later scrambled to make the 457 visa bill the main priority for Thursday’s sitting.
After Mr Rudd made an opening statement to Parliament at noon, new Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moved to delay other bills so the migration laws could be debated first.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison complained the union-driven bill would ''choke the 457 system'' and Mr Rudd’s first priority was to ‘‘attack’’ skilled migration.
Mr Morrison said the new Treasurer, Chris Bowen, had declared in his previous role as immigration minister that government had already struck the right balance on the visa scheme.
''The unions were running the Labor party yesterday and the unions are still running the Labor party today,'' Mr Morrison said.
''This is a government that’s not only lost its way; it’s lost the plot.''
Mr Albanese said it was a standard procedural motion. At one stage Mr Morrison unsuccesfully tried to delay a vote by calling for independent MP Rob Oakeshott to give his valedictory speech.
Earlier, Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt said he was concerned about the 457 bill’s removal from the daily program of business, but the government had advised him it would in fact be debated.
Former Labor MP Craig Thomson, who is now an independent, also said reports the bill had been shelved were concerning.
''I think the legislation’s important to make sure Aussie workers get the benefit of the doubt in relation to jobs,'' Mr Thomson told ABC TV earlier.
''It'd be a shame if it falls over because of this leadership change.''
The legal changes had prompted an outcry from business groups, which claimed the government was demonising foreign workers.
Mr Rudd used a speech upon his return to the leadership on Wednesday night to pledge to heal Labor’s strained ties with the business community.
Mr Rudd said the government would work ''very closely'' with business.
''What I want to see here in Canberra is for business and Labor to work together. I don’t want to see things that drive business and Labor apart,'' Mr Rudd said.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said Mr Rudd should back up his comments by dumping ''the legislation that makes our successful skilled migration program a political football''.
Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor, a key backer of Ms Gillard, had been campaigning for months on the visa scheme crackdown and spent the past few weeks negotiating with crossbench MPs to secure a compromise.
Mr O'Connor has not announced his resignation.
Key votes to advance the visa bill and reject opposition amendments passed the lower house on Wednesday, just ahead of the leadership drama.
The bill now needs to be passed by the Senate to become law. The Senate is sitting until Friday.
with Clay Lucas
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/457-visa-laws-squeak-through-20130627-2oyri.html
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457 visa changes pass Senate despite business lobby anger
Published 28 June 2013 07:57, Updated 28 June 2013 16:08
Chris Jenkins and Michael Bleby
Industry groups have called on newly reappointed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to dump the Migration Amendment Bill to back his claims he would improve Labor’s relationship with the business community. Photo: Getty Images
UPDATED | Legislation to tighten rules around 457 visas for skilled migrants has passed through the Senate despite a raft of business lobby groups calling for the changes to be dumped by new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
http://www.brw.com.au/p/business/visa_changes_pass_senate_despite_ZbAw2w0LaK5aa1py13fZzL
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Rudd says he stands by claim that turning back boats risks conflict
From: AAP June 29, 2013 12:00AM
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/rudd-says-he-stands-by-claim-that-turning-back-boats-risks-conflict/story-fn59niix-1226671805268
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Coalition prepares for tight battle against Rudd in Sydney, Melbourne
Heath Aston Date June 26, 2013 Comments 69
Liberal Party strategists concede Mr Rudd is hugely popular in ethnically-diverse seats, particularly among Chinese and Arab voters, as evidenced by his hero's welcome recently in the southern and south western Sydney Labor seats of Reid, Barton and and McMahon.
All three seats, on margins of 2.7 per cent, 6.9 per cent and 7.8 per cent respectively were in danger of being lost under a Gillard-led Labor but would likely be held under Mr Rudd, polling suggests.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/coalition-prepares-for-tight-battle-against-rudd-in-sydney-melbourne-20130626-2oxit.html
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Rudd poll bounce boosts Labor
Date June 28, 2013 - 11:39PM 140 reading now
.. video .. Rudd says he has learned from his previous stint at PM that "decisions are much better when done collegiality" http://www.theage.com.au/national/rudd-poll-bounce-boosts-labor-20130628-2p366.html
.. Kevin's autocratic decision making style was one of the
beefs leading to his ouster by Julia Gillard some 3 years ago ..
See also:
Australia’s PM Julia Gillard Rips Misogynist a New One in Epic Speech
Double standards: why we hate Gillard so much
"Army email scandal: Expert says sexism is deeply ingrained in Defence Force"
Labor saved Australian with good stimulus practices, yet the Australian people are being suckered by
Murdoch paper polls, general right-wing media double standards, and negative opposition tactics.
Tim Dunlop 3 May 2012 962 Comments
To read the mainstream media at the moment, you would think Australia was being ruled by Visigoths or that we had somehow returned to subsistence survival.
Things have gotten so bad in our poor country, apparently, the nation is in such a dire predicament, that a leading journalist .. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/credibility-gone-pm-should-fall-on-her-sword-20120429-1xt3a.html .. has seen fit to say that the prime minister should "fall on her sword".
A former Liberal staffer, a mainstay of media talkfests and panel shows, declared on national television .. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/prominent-liberal-says-gillard-should-be-kicked-to-death/ .. that Julia Gillard should be "kicked to death", a comment that drew virtually zero condemnation in the mainstream media.
Violent metaphors dominate the discussion of the Gillard Government.
A recent article .. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-hildebrand-guide-how-labor-destroyed-itself/ .. in (appropriately enough) The Punch managed to use all of these expressions in the course of its ranting: "assassination", "bloody execution", "swung a sledgehammer into its own political heartland", "knifed".
The same article put the PM's problems down, in part, to her not having had a baby, and offered this brilliant piece of analysis:
Meanwhile ... middle-of-the-road voters have written her off as bulls**t artist and are declaring themselves for a Liberal leader they largely hate because anything is better than a leader you simply cannot believe.
Yes, that's right. People are longing for the honesty of Tony Abbott.
Lying is, of course, at the heart of the attacks on the Prime Minister herself, which personally, I think is fair enough. Politicians should be called out if they lie.
The hilarious thing about such attacks is that their intensity and the level of sheer repetition they garner would make an outsider think that this was the first time in the history of Australian politics that a government had reneged on a commitment or said one thing and done another.
As anyone who dared criticise John Howard's tangential relationship with the truth will know, many of those now getting the vapours about Julia Gillard's dishonesty were more than willing to excuse such behaviour from him.
In fact, a standard theme of commentary throughout the Howard years, recycled as holy writ by journalists and other sage readers of the political entrails, was that 'the punters' didn't care about Howard's lying.
Anyone who brought up his "non-core promises", his selling of the Iraq War on the basis of Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction, his and his ministers' knowledge of matters to do with the AWB's dealings with the same Hussein, or his appalling behaviour regarding the children overboard affair, was liable to be treated to chapter and verse about about how such complaints were the sort of thing that only concerned 'Howard haters'.
Decent, ordinary people were too busy getting on with their lives to concern themselves with hairsplitting about what Howard did or didn't say.
Part of the logic governing rationalisations of Coalition dishonesty was that people didn't worry about it because the economy was going so well. Low interest rates, low unemployment, and a booming mining sector stopped any temptation to hand-wring about ethics.
Oh, how times have changed!
Now, we are regularly told, it is the decent ordinary people who are mortally offended by any and all political dishonesty. We are told that they are shocked - shocked! - that a politician might not be as pure as an angel riding a unicorn in the land of clouds and sugar. We are told that having the most successful economy in the world is irrelevant.
The change of narrative is simply extraordinary.
Of course, none of this is to excuse the various problems of the Gillard Government. But there is a point to make about the level of aggressive hysteria that currently infects mainstream commentary about this government.
It cannot simply be explained by the performance of the government or the behaviour of the current prime minister. If economic issues are what matter, then this government is performing as well, arguably better, than the Howard Government, and in much more difficult circumstances.
It cannot simply be explained by the 'scandals' each government brought upon itself.
Maybe you can argue that Gillard's problems with Slipper and Thompson are more serious than Howard's with, say, Mal Colson .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal_Colston .. and the plethora of ministers he had to sack for breaching the code of conduct.
But the differential doesn't explain why so many commentators were willing to excuse Howard's problems but portray Gillard's as some sort of existential crisis for Australian democracy itself.
And honestly, what is more serious than a government committing the nation to war on the basis of demonstrably false intelligence? Compared to that, shifting positions on a price on carbon is small potatoes.
So what's going on?
Stripped of all the self-justifying nonsense used to maintain the rage that currently fills our newspapers and airwaves, there are three pertinent distinctions between this government and the Howard Government: it is a Labor Government, it is a minority government, and the current prime minister is a woman.
Being a Labor government not only alienates the dominant right-wing media, it brings business into public discussion in a way that simply never happens with a Coalition government.
Bad behaviour by Howard was excused by a phalanx of media apologists. Policy disagreements that would have been discussed in backrooms with a Coalition government are now made the subject of multimillion dollar advertising campaigns.
The hung parliament forces the government into deal making that is nearly always interpreted as weakness by the media, and they also tend to preference stability (interpreted as 'strength') over achievement. The buzzword is 'authority'.
Gillard being a woman means she is judged by a different standard, and let's not pretend otherwise. It may not be a decisive matter, but it is one that shifts the balance of interpretation.
When she is tough, she is seen as treacherous and unbecoming. When she prefers compromise and negotiation, she is seen as weak. Oh yeah, and she doesn't have kids: how can she relate to 'normal' people?
The Gillard Government is far from perfect, and ultimately has no-one to blame for its poor standing but itself. All I'm trying to put my finger on is why their bad behaviour is deemed so much more unacceptable than the bad behaviour of the previous Coalition government. Those three reasons are key.
Tim Dunlop was the author of two of Australia's most successful political
blogs, The Road To Surfdom and Blogocracy. View his full profile here.
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3985592.html
See also:
Obama SAVED the US Economy - Running Away From that Record Would be Suicidal in 2016
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=89180566
Army email scandal: Expert says sexism is deeply ingrained in Defence Force
By Simon Lauder, staff - Updated Fri Jun 14, 2013 6:56am AEST
Video: Army admits new sexual controversy (7.30)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/worse-than-skype-scandal---army-admits-new-sexual/4752862
.. embedded ..
Related Story: Defence Force rocked by explicit email scandal
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/lieutenant-general-david-morrison/4751800
Map: Australia - http://maps.google.com/?q=-26.000,134.500(Australia)&z=5
The latest Defence scandal has prompted calls for a zero-tolerance approach to
misconduct, with experts suggesting that ingrained sexism in the Army may be worse than first thought.
The Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General David Morrison, yesterday revealed three personnel had been stood down over a series of explicit and offensive emails .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/lieutenant-general-david-morrison/4751800 .. that degrade women.
A further five personnel are facing suspension and nine others are being investigated, with around 90 more people implicated in the emails.
On Thursday night Lt Gen Morrison told 7.30 he has been in contact with several of the women targeted by the emails to apologise.
-------
Key points:
* Three senior Army personnel suspended, five facing suspension and nine under investigation.
* 90 people implicated over the emails, which contained explicit and offensive images and text.
* Women at the centre of the emails are angry and concerned.
* Email scandal said to be worse than the Skype incident due to the seniority of the staff involved.
* Incidents occurred during the investigation of sexism and sexual abuse within Defence Force.
-------
"There are victims of this group's alleged behaviour who have been denigrated in different ways," he said.
"Some through texts, some through distortion of imagery, some through the distribution of material without consent."
Defence Minister Stephen Smith says the Army should take a zero-tolerance approach to the misconduct.
Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, made a similar recommendation when she investigated the culture of sexism in the Defence Force less than a year ago.
The email scandal involves a Lieutenant Colonel, majors, warrant officers, sergeants and corporals.
Ms Broderick says she is appalled at the range of people implicated.
"That's what's so abhorrent about it and it also shows the complexity of the issues that have to be solved," she said.
Video: Elizabeth Broderick discusses 'systemic cultural issue' in Defence Force (ABC News)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/elizabeth-broderick-discusses-systemic-cultural/4752178 .. embedded ..
"Because this is just not a particular rank who are all coming together, it's across from senior officers - Lieutenant Colonel - right through to general enlistment."
Culture of sexually objectifying women
Dr Ben Wadham spent five years in the Australian Defence Force and is now a sociologist at Flinders University.
Dr Wadham, a former infantryman, says the use of images to denigrate women is a long-standing tradition in the Australian Defence Forces, but he says the involvement of senior personnel shows the problem may be much worse than previously thought.
"My own experience of being involved in Facebook groups, watching soldiers engage in this sort of behaviour... younger soldiers and... soldiers of different ranks, and the kinds of imagery - the kinds of words and meanings and names and things which come out - are often quite extreme," he said.
"This is a case of quite senior officers over a long period of time and we've just got to ask the question, when will military culture get this right?"
Dr Wadham says the senior ranks of those involved shows that sexism is not confined to young members of the Defence Force.
"I think it also highlights many of the excuses that the Australian Defence Force has used over the past don't hold water," he said.
Video: Chief of Army addresses latest sexual scandal (7.30)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/chief-of-army-addresses-latest-sexual-scandal/4752866 .. embedded..
"In the past, we've blamed it on young men. We've said that this is the sort of behaviour we see in broader society, even in universities. Well, here's an example of a very entrenched culture, a predatory culture amongst a group of men sexually objectifying women."
Lt Gen Morrison was at a loss when he was asked to explain why the poor behaviour persists in the Defence Force.
"I don't have one. I can't be more honest with you than that. I can't put a theory on it. I certainly can't find an easy switch to flick to turn it off," he said.
"I suspect that it's rooted in part in human nature, but that's no excuse either. It's on me. I'm responsible for this, I'm the Chief of the Australian Army.
"This is a setback, but I'm going to pick myself up, use it in conversations with the workforce of Army, reflect on where things have gone wrong and try and put them right."
'Backwards step' for women in defence
The email scandal comes as the Defence Force tries to recover from the 2011 Skype incident, in which a female ADFA cadet was unknowingly broadcast having consensual sex on camera.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told Fairfax radio the allegations are very disappointing.
"A lot of work has gone into changing the culture in the Army to make it embracive of women. I'm very disappointed, I'm very concerned and clearly the material here is repugnant," she said.
Mr Smith says the latest scandal will damage the reputation of the Army and have a real impact in the ranks of the entire Defence Force.
"To the Army to the Air Force and Navy, the service chiefs, all of whom are seeking to encourage more women to join, this is a backwards step," he said.
"This will discourage women from thinking about either joining the Army, the Air Force or the Navy, or continuing their career," he said.
Lt Gen Morrison says he would still encourage women to join the Army.
"I would say the Army workplace environment will provide challenges for you because we are yet to deal completely with the issues that confront many other workplaces in Australian society in terms of employment for women," he said.
"But I got to tell you the hundreds of thousands of women who are part of our Army are doing an extraordinary job."
Army scandal - experience levels
Those suspended or under investigation include commissioned and non-commissioned officers with years of experience and in dozens or in some cases hundreds of soldiers under their command.
Rank ...... Status ...... Level of Experience
Lieutenant-Colonel .. Commissioned officer .. More than a decade of service. Usually in command of units of up to 650 soldiers and responsible for unit's military capability. Highest of the non-senior ranks.
Major .. Commissioned officer .. Usually between eight and 10 years service. Command a sub-unit (a company, squadron or battery) of 120 soldiers. Also employed in HQ staff roles.
Captain .. Commissioned officer .. Usually between three and eight years experience and 2IC of a sub-unit of 120 soldiers.
Warrant Officer .. Non-commissioned .. A Class One officer is senior adviser to a unit commanding officer, responsible for discipline of up to 650 officers and soldiers. Typically has 18 years of service.
Corporal .. Non-commissioned .. Usually six to eight years service. Command of small group of soldiers. Can be used as instructors to train junior soldiers.
Source: army.gov.au
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/experts-say-sexism-is-deeply-ingrained-within-defence-force/4752658
.. remember this one ..
Australia’s PM Julia Gillard Rips Misogynist a New One in Epic Speech
Young woman in northern India takes turns sleeping with five husbands, who are all brothers
'We all have sex with her but I’m not jealous,' her first husband says. 'We’re one big happy family.'
By David Boroff / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, March 18, 2013, 12:53 PM Comments (122)
Shariq Allaqaband/Cover Asia Press
Brothers Sant Ram Verma, Bajju Verma, Gopal Verma, Guddu Verma and Dinesh Verma with
their wife Rajo Verma and her 18-month-old son. She is unsure which brother is the father.
A young woman in northern India is taking brotherly love to a new level.
Rajo Verma has five husbands who are all brothers – and she sleeps with a different one every night.
“Initially it felt a bit awkward,” she told the Sun newspaper .. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4846650/Young-mums-sex-rota-with-five-husbands-who-are-all-BROTHERS.html . “But I don’t favor one over the other.”
Shariq Allaqaband/Cover Asia Press
Rajo Verma shares one room with her five husbands.
The 21-year-old Verma is also not sure which one fathered her now 18-month-old son.
Verma and first husband Guddu were united in an arranged Hindu marriage four years ago, but she has since married Baiju, Sant Ram, Gopal and Dinesh. Baiju is the oldest at 32, while Dinesh is the youngest at 19. The seven of them live in one room in Dehradun.
“We all have sex with her but I’m not jealous," first husband Guddu told the newspaper. "We’re one big happy family.”
Shariq Allaqaband/Cover Asia Press
Rajo Verma married Guddu first and later married the others, in accordance with ancient customs.
Verma married the four brothers in support of an ancient tradition called polyandry, according to the Sun.
“My mother was also married to three brothers so when I got wed I knew I had to accept all of them as my
husbands," she said. “I sleep with them in turn. We don’t have beds, just lots of blankets on the floor.
“I get a lot more attention and love than most wives.”
dboroff@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/northern-india-woman-marries-brothers-article-1.1291875
LOL .. another good news story .. love gutsy women .. ones who are different ..
from the first page of the comments, the 2nd (now) is best .. 'husbands as....' .. :)
See also:
Footprints in the Bajra is a portrait of Muskaan, a Maoist rebel from the age of 13 .. March 2010
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India Urges Kabul not to Deal with Taliban; Logar Protesters Torch NATO Fuel Trucks .. April 26, 2010 by Juan
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[Nepal] Police move to detain 700 ‘trouble makers’ in Capital sparks debate
Last Updated: Tue, 26.02.13 14:32
Nepal Police’s move to detain more than 700 young men from the streets of Kathmandu for sporting long hair and earrings has sparked a debate among the general public. While police have defended the drive, some people have opposed it saying that it is breach of a person's rights.
Police on Monday rounded up over 700 so called ‘mundres and tyapes’ from various parts of the city saying that they were potential trouble makers.
“Are we under the Taliban and Nepal Police our ‘discipline in-charge’? Is it against the law that I want to keep my hair long?” said a man who was one of those held. “I was only released after my father came to the police station,” he said declining to be identified.
"The police should not use such derogatory terms as 'tyape', 'mundre' and 'gunda'," said the boy's father.
Police, however, said that the move was aimed at discouraging potential trouble makers. Officials say that in most violent cases of crime in the city, the perpetrators have long hair and wear earrings.
Just a few days ago Ayush Shrestha (18) of Raktakali, Kathmandu, was stabbed to death over a minor dispute among local youth, police said. Nepalnews.com
http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2013/feb/feb26/news08.php
======
Do you think Nepal Police should continue its campaign to
detain youngsters whom it sees as potential trouble makers?
"The real 'gundas' are the politicians not "jhapleys and
kundalays" (those with long hair and wearing ear rings)."
Chandra Kumar Limbu
"There are bigger troubles to deal with. They never deal with
bigger ones. It's like they have chosen to look busy. Foolish!"
Samin Jay Budha Magar
"They should, but without being
influenced by dirty politics."
Bipin Joshi
"Not all long haired youths with piercing are
murderers or member of gangs. It's their choice."
Esor Thapa
"Let's assume boys with long hair are potential troublemakers…if the police
cut it off how will they distinguish the so called "trouble makers"
from others? By doing so, the police are annoying people."
Manash Ghimire
"Its time for Nepali youth to stand
up against police brutality in Nepal."
Shashi Gurung
"This is not the right way to deal with this kind of
problem. The police are destroying their image."
Harka Rai
http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/voxpop/2013/03/vox_01.php
Australia - National Disability Insurance Scheme has become political football
by: Steven Scott
From: The Courier-Mail
May 02, 2013 12:00AM
Trudi Ayken and son Marcus, who has Cerebral Palsy, at home at Salisbury, on Brisbane's south. Ms
Ayken says the NDIS would give her life more certainty. PIC: Glenn Barnes Source: The Courier-Mail
THE National Disability Insurance Scheme, which both sides of politics claim to support, has become a political football.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard turned desperately needed help for the disabled into a political stoush with plans to increase the Medicare levy to help pay for it.
Within hours yesterday she shifted to two new positions on how to get the necessary legislation through parliament.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott will today outline his own plans to pay for the scheme, but he branded Ms Gillard's announcement of a tax rise "chaotic".
The scheme is meant to eventually provide lifelong support for 410,000 people with disabilities.
Ms Gillard yesterday said she would seek a mandate from voters for her plan to increase the Medicare levy from 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent from July 2014.
But after Mr Abbott urged her to put the plan to parliament, Ms Gillard said she was willing to introduce legislation before the September 14 election only if the opposition guaranteed support.
"If the Leader of the Opposition is unable to answer the question, what he believes in, on this matter, or wants to oppose this increase to the Medicare levy, then I will take it to the Australian people in September," Ms Gillard said.
Mr Abbott said he was concerned the Medicare levy increase would only pay for part of it.
"If you have only got half the funding, it stands to reason that you're only going to get half the scheme," Mr Abbott said.
"We want it to happen, we want it to happen in this term of parliament."
Mr Abbott has not confirmed whether he would support the increased levy.
But Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey earlier said the tax rise would "hit every household budget".
EDITORIAL: Check out devil in NDIS detail .. [ link operative, no URL?? .. first time for me ]
Under the proposal, which was previously ruled out by Ms Gillard, taxpayers would pay an extra 0.5 per cent Medicare levy to set up a fund to help pay for the disability insurance scheme.
This would cost about $350 a year for people who earn $75,000.
The tax increase would raise about $3.3 billion a year and $20.4 billion by 2018-19 when the disability scheme is meant to be fully operational.
The tax would cover only part of the cost of the insurance scheme, which is likely to be $8 billion a year and rise to $15 billion by the end of the decade.
But the government says this compares with the Medicare levy, which currently covers about half of federal spending on health.
State governments have been offered a quarter of the money to cover their costs over the next decade.
Ms Gillard won backing from Queensland Premier Campbell Newman, who had previously called for a levy and complained the state could not afford the scheme.
"We need to be grown up about this. Australians have said that they want this scheme, well it has to be paid for somehow," he said.
"If you're going to do something like that you have to either find new money - a tax or a levy and savings - or you have to do a combination."
Queensland is now almost certain to take part in the scheme and Mr Newman said the state may host some trial sites.
But West Australian Premier Colin Barnett attacked the proposal and said it was part of a federal take over of disability support.
People with Disability Australia spokesman Craig Wallace said the levy would take the scheme out of annual Budget debates.
"It makes it perpetual and actually means there's a secure underpinning of the scheme," he said.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/national-disability-insurance-scheme-has-become-political-football/story-e6freoof-1226633415204
======
Disabled sex
Often peaceful, vigil increased along China border
Gaurav Bisht, Hindustan Times Shimla, April 26, 2013
First Published: 17:19 IST(26/4/2013) | Last Updated: 17:21 IST(26/4/2013)
In the wake of reports of Chinese incursions in Ladakh, vigil along the China border in Himachal Pradesh has been stepped up.
Taking precautionary measures, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force - manning the Indian border along China - has beefed up security, while military formations in tribal Kinnaur district is keeping a close tab on the situation.
Himachal Pradesh shares 260 km of the porous borders with China. Of the total border length, 140 km is along tribal Kinnaur district, while 80 km of border falls in tribal Lahaul and Spiti district.
Three battalions of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are guarding the border with China. In total, there are 20 ITBP posts along the border. The sensitive post includes Kaurik - it's the last village situated beyond Sumdoh.
The ITBP posts are situated in Lakuma, Morrang, Morni, Dogri, Rishi Dogri, Domti and Niltahla pass. Though the troops along the border are asked to keep strict vigil, ITBP officials refused to comment on any issues related to the border. “The matter is sensitive. I cannot reveal anything,” deputy inspector general, ITBP, Sanjay Chaudhary said.
Barring instance of isolated air space intrusion along the border areas by Chinese choppers, the region has otherwise remained peaceful.
A year ago, two Chinese choppers intruded into the Indian territory in Kaurik sector, while locals often complained about sighting Chinese choppers along the Indian border.
Air intrusion had raised concern for the Himachal Pradesh government. The then chief minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal, had stressed the need for developing the infrastructure along the Indian border. There are reports that the Chinese army was gradually building up its infrastructure along the Indian border, which did not witness any intrusion even at time of Chinese aggression in 1962.
A defense analyst maintains that tough terrain and high passes forbids the troops along the border to intrude the border. The main passes between China and India in Himachal Pradesh includes the Khimokul Pass and Simthong Pass, located ahead of the Trungla valley, which crosses into China-occupied Tibet.
Similarly, the 5,280-m-high Rangio La and 5,320 Keobrangla pass situated ahead of Nesang valley lead to Tibet.
Yamrangla - situated at the height of 5,570 m - is the highest mountain pass. The 5,200-m-high Shipki La pass is the most famous pass between the India-China border.
Shiplki La Pass is used for the cross-border trade between two countries. The trade route was closed after the Chinese aggression in 1962, but was reopened after India and China signed a protocol in 1994. The trade between the two countries restarted in 1994.
Thought the porous border has not witnessed any intrusion, the cross border smuggling of goods has often been reported.
Once the porous borders were used to smuggle red sanders - a wood used in traditional medicines - into China.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/HimachalPradesh/Often-peaceful-vigil-increased-along-China-border/Article1-1050789.aspx
======
Know where to draw the line
Hindustan Times April 24, 2013
First Published: 22:40 IST(24/4/2013)
Last Updated: 22:52 IST(24/4/2013)
Unfortunately for India, it has a longer disputed and unresolved length of border than any other major country in the world. This means that it will inevitably find itself in endless boundary imbroglios, minor and major. It also means it must also be permanently on guard against attempts to adjust the border against its own interests.
Pakistan’s claims, the most important of the country’s territorial disputes, are really about an entire state, the border being an inevitable but incidental part of the larger issue. The problem with China, however, is largely about tiny bits and pieces of land. Which is why this is the border dispute that keeps intruding into the public domain. India has poorly demarcated borders with almost all of its other neighbours, but it is understood that none of these are of strategic concern.
The Chinese picket that has reportedly been set up 10 km inside the Indian claim area in the Depsang sector, south of the Daulat Beg Oldi area of eastern Ladakh, is a bilateral irritant but not a security threat. These parts of the border are often marked with “aggressive patrolling” by both sides, sometimes on orders from on top and sometimes because of a rush of testosterone by local officers.
The real question that should be asked is whether there is something more to the Chinese intrusion than the traditional tit-for-tat game that both militaries play. It has been assumed that the ascension of Xi Jinping would mark an ebb tide in China’s erratic and assertive policies in the 2008 to 2010 period. Yet this intrusion has taken place at a time guaranteed to cloud the coming state visit by their premier, Li Kejiang.
In the past, pinpricks along the border have been used by Beijing to test New Delhi’s resolve, communicate unhappiness with Indian policy or sometimes to merely slow down Indian attempts to shore up its woefully inadequate border defence infrastructure. But they have also been linked to internal squabbles inside Beijing, particularly to help assert the military’s authority.
While the motives of China are often obscure, they are probably best treated as academic. New Delhi’s policy response should be broadly the same. The basic assumption that India needs a stable, though not necessarily friendly, relationship with China is unquestionable. But it must also be recognised that Beijing is ruled by men who take realpolitik as a behavioural norm. They understand firmness, often treating conciliatory gestures as weakness.
Thankfully, New Delhi has become a lot more forceful about border incidents in the past three years. On the other hand, it has allowed its defence relationship with the US — a key reason why China backed down to India during the 2008-2010 problem period — to wither on the vine. India’s ability to hold the line with China is a function of both domestic and foreign actions by New Delhi.
11 comments
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/Editorials/Know-where-to-draw-the-line/Article1-1049844.aspx
Bangladesh Factory Disaster: Police Fire Teargas to Quell Rana Plaza Protests
Rescue attempts grind to halt as battles erupt in Dhaka between police and protesters
By Gareth Platt - April 26, 2013 11:03 AM GMT
The scene of Dhaka factory collapse remains blighted by choas and recrimination. [Reuters]
Fire crews stopped attempts to rescue survivors from the rubble of a collapsed clothing factory in Bangladesh after violence erupted between protesters and police.
Hundreds of workers are still unaccounted for in the rubble but rescuers had to halt their search for two hours as protests raged around them. The death toll from the collapse has passed 300.
According to police sources, 50 people were injured in clashes.
Police fired teargas at protesters, who were angry that rescuers were not working fast enough to find and identify bodies or survivors in the rubble of the Rana Plaza complex.
A mob massed on the fringe of the complex were also protesting against the unsafe conditions which led to the building's collapse and the heavy-handed tactics used by police to maintain order.
Majid Mia, who had been waiting for news of his missing daughter Minara, told the Guardian: "The police barred us from going near the spot and when we protested, starting hitting us with sticks.
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"When some men pelted the police with stones, they fired teargas."
More than 2,200 people have been rescued. About 3,000 people were thought to be working in the building when it gave way.
Although a number of workers have been found alive beneath the debris and pulled to safety, others have been so severely injured that time is running out on getting them out of the wreckage.
"We want to go inside the building and find our people now. They will die if we don't find them soon," Shahinur Rahman, whose mother is missing, told CBS.
Retail giant Primark, which sold clothes made at Rana Plaza, has been urged to sign up to a new safety agreement in the wake of the disaster.
A group of NGOs have implored the budget retailer to sign the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Agreement, which would make independent building inspections of factories mandatory.
Within hours of the collapse, it emerged that a large crack in the building's wall was detected less than 24 hours earlier .. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/460961/20130424/bangladesh-dhaka-building-collapse-wake-up-call.htm .. but the owner decided to keep the building open - even after engineers ordered its evacuation.
"Workers expressed concerns about the building and nothing was done," Liana Foxvog, of the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), told IBTimes UK.
To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: g.platt@ibtimes.co.uk
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.co.uk
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/461683/20130426/bangladesh-factory-rana-plaza-police-tear-gas.htm
.. not surprisingly the cockroach factory owner is in hiding ..
Bangladesh Factory Building Collapse "Raw Footage"
Australians fighting in Syria: what is the threat at home?
by Andrew Zammit - 16 April 2013
Reports of Australians fighting with the Syrian insurgent group
Jabhat al-Nusra’s highlights a security threat to Australia.
The Syrian insurgent group Jabhat al-Nusra’s recent pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda, alongside reports of Australians fighting in the insurgency, highlights a security threat to Australia.
According to ASIO director-general David Irvine .. http://tiny.cc/xso4vw , there are hundreds of young Australians fighting in Syria, with possibly 100 active with Jabhat al-Nusra.
When Syrian president Bashar al-Assad brutally suppressed peaceful protests in early 2011, it sparked an insurgency that continues today. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, and international actors have moved in to exploit the situation, including al-Qaeda.
The bulk of the Syrian rebellion operates under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army .. http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/a-fight-for-the-spoils-the-future-role-of-syrias-armed-groups .. (FSA), but several jihadist groups, loosely unified as the Syrian Islamic Forces .. http://www.ui.se/eng/upl/files/86861.pdf .. (SIF), also play a prominent role. One of these jihadist groups, Jabhat al-Nusra, has drawn attention for its explicit rejection of democracy and close al-Qaeda links, leading to its designation as a terrorist organisation by the US state department.
Any doubts about Jabhat al-Nusra’s links with al-Qaeda can be dispelled by recent announcements. On April 7, al-Qaeda released a video statement, calling for unification to achieve an “Islamic state” in Syria. On April 9, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI, the current name of al-Qaeda in Iraq) released a pre-planned audio message, declaring that Jabhat al-Nusra was a mere extension of the ISI, and that they were unifying under the new name of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.
On April 10, Jabhat al-Nusra released an audio message disputing that it was solely an extension of the ISI and rejecting the new name. However, in the statement Jabhat al-Nusra confirmed its close cooperation with the ISI and explicitly pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda’s current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, based in Pakistan.
This announcement will worsen the tragic situation for Syrians caught in the middle, and further complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to support the anti-Assad insurgency.
The announcement will also heighten concerns that the Syrian conflict is providing a new pathway for Westerners to join al-Qaeda. A recent study by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), based on 450 sources including Western and Arabic media and online jihadist forums, estimates that 135-590 Europeans have joined the insurgency.
At the time the ICSR’s European estimates were published, April 2, the study’s author Aaron Zelin provided the following estimate for Australia: 18-123 fighters.
If we use the ICSR’s minimum figures, there are fewer fighters in Syria from Australia than from Britain, France and Ireland, but more than from other European countries. If we use their maximum figures, only Britain has more of its citizens fighting in Syria.
Most of these Australians are believed to be Lebanese dual citizens, as both sides of the conflict have recruited fighters from Lebanon, Syria’s fragile neighbour. The jihadists often recruit from and through the Northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, which is itself experiencing increasing violence since the Syria conflict broke out.
The ICSR’s estimate has been superseded by the more recent figure of 200 Australians involved. This new figure cannot currently be verified, and should be treated cautiously until more information comes out. The estimate is higher than the ICSR’s maximum estimates for any European country, and one third of their maximum estimate for Europe as a whole. This seems doubtful, particularly as Australia usually has far lower rates of jihadist activity than many European countries.
Open-source research by myself and my colleague Shandon Harris-Hogan has found 17 cases of Australians allegedly involved in jihadist activity in Lebanon between 2000 and 2012. If the estimate of 200 Australians involved in jihadism in the Syria-Lebanon region since the outbreak of the Syria conflict is accurate, it represents an unprecedented escalation.
Regardless of which figures turn out to be accurate, there has been substantial Australian involvement in the Syrian insurgency, including at least four reported deaths so far: on August 2012, October 2012, November 2012 and January 2013.
The Australian Federal Police have been openly concerned about people joining the insurgency and released an official statement .. http://muslimvillage.com/pdfs/Syrian-Aust-Govt-Advice.pdf .. warning that it is illegal. The Attorney-General’s Department has similarly released a fact sheet .. http://www.resilientcommunities.gov.au/informationadvice/Documents/FactSheet-OngoingViolenceinSyria.pdf , warning of the relevant laws and recommending non-violent methods of assisting Syrians.
There have already been cases of violence from the Syria conflict spilling over into Australia, and al-Qaeda’s increasing role heightens this threat.
This does not mean any Australian connection to the conflict should be cause for alarm. Many Australians are travelling to Syria without taking part in the conflict. Moreover, many may be fighting for the non-jihadist insurgent groups, and many fighting for the jihadist groups may have no intention of engaging in violence outside of the Syrian conflict zone.
However, any fighting with Jabhat al-Nusra, now openly loyal to al-Qaeda, could pose a serious security risk in Australia. Al-Qaeda’s increasingly prominent role increases the likelihood that the conflict will provide opportunities for aspiring Australian jihadists to gain experience, contacts and deadly skills. Australia’s four major jihadist terror plots have all included people who had training or fighting experience with overseas jihadist groups, or ongoing communication with such groups.
Research by Norwegian academic Thomas Hegghammer found that one in nine Westerners who trained or fought in an overseas jihadist insurgency ended up becoming involved in terrorist plots against the West. If this trend holds true in the future, it suggests that most Australians fighting in Syria will not become a security risk, but some could become highly dangerous.
The ICSR study stated that .. http://hegghammer.com/_files/Hegghammer_-_Should_I_stay_or_should_I_go.pdf : “European security services are well advised to monitor the situation closely and adopt an intelligence led, highly discriminate approach towards dealing with returning fighters”. A similarly pro-active but cautious approach is appropriate for Australia.
Andrew Zammit is a researcher in the Global Terrorism Research Centre in the School of Political and Social Inquiry in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University.
A version of this article also appeared in The Conversation .. http://theconversation.com/australians-fighting-in-syria-what-is-the-threat-at-home-13492 .
http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/australians-fighting-in-syria-what-is-the-threat-at-home
Australia apologizes for nearly 225,000 forced adoptions after WWII
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=85954771
thanks to sideeki for that one .. below is also in reply there ..
An apology to forced adoption birth mothers: it’s about time
.. some background, and to other reconciliation efforts..
25 June 2012, 3.19pm AEST
[ image, unable to reproduce ]
The trauma of women forced to give up their children will finally be recognised. .Andi.
Authors
Patricia Fronek - Senior Lecturer School of Human Services and Social Work at Griffith University
Denise Cuthbert - Dean, School of Graduate Research, RMIT at RMIT University
Disclosure Statement
Patricia Fronek is a member of NICAAG (National Intercountry Adoption Advisory Group).
Denise Cuthbert is one of three Chief Investigators on an Australian Research Council funded project, A history of adoption in Australia.
A national apology .. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/forced-adoption-apology-a-significant-step-for-healing-20120622-20tod.html .. to Australian mothers who experienced forced adoptions was announced by Attorney General Nicola Roxon last weekend.
This apology will follow those made to the Stolen Generations .. http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/progserv/engagement/Pages/national_apology.aspx , [ link gone, insert video from 2nd article below ]
MRRT High Court challenge begins .. Australian uber rich grab .. as everywhere ..
AAP Updated March 6, 2013, 9:20 am
Andrew Forrest. Picture: Bill Hatto/The West Australian.
UPDATE 1pm: A lawyer for mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest says the Federal Government's mining tax breaches the constitution and nothing can be done to bring it back from the dead.
"It is not revived or quickened by being put through the crematorium of this court,” counsel for the Fortescue Metals Group, David Jackson QC, told High Court judges today.
Mr Forrest wasn't in court for the start of the case that pits his Fortescue Metals Group against the Commonwealth of Australia over the validity of the Minerals Resources Rent Tax (MRRT).
The full court of the High Court, sitting in Canberra, has set down three days to hear the case.
At one point, Justice Kenneth Hayne observed: “Nothing is unduly simple in this.”
Mr Forrest has vigorously opposed the MRRT from the outset.
He foreshadowed a legal challenge last year - long before the government revealed just how little the MRRT raised in its first six months.
To the end of December 2012, the tax garnered $126 million from miners against a full-year forecast of $2 billion.
Fortescue expects to pay no MRRT this year.
Opening the case, Mr Jackson said Fortescue did not dispute the commonwealth's power to raise tax.
But the company was challenging the validity of the MRRT on grounds that it contravened a provision of the constitution which stipulates tax must be applied equally to all states.
"It discriminates against the states in that it gives rise to a preference to some states,” Mr Jackson said.
He argued the MRRT was levied differently in each state because of the variation in mining royalties which are offset against tax liabilities.
The commonwealth, represented by Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson, has yet to present its case.
But it will argue the tax is constitutional because it is imposed at a uniform rate regardless of a mine's location.
Royalties were deemed merely one type of allowance for which a miner can calculate deductions in calculating MRRT liability.
The MRRT is levied at the rate of 22.5 per cent on total profits over $75 million derived from extraction of iron ore, coal and coal-seam gas.
Mining companies can reduce MRRT liability through claiming certain expenditure including royalty payments to state governments.
The case has attracted considerable interest with the solicitors-general for Queensland and WA granted leave to intervene.
It's being heard by six of the court's seven judges after Justice Stephen Gageler excused himself on grounds that he provided legal advice to the commonwealth on the MRRT when he was solicitor-general.
The case is expected to run for another two days.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/16304689/mrrt-high-court-challenge-begins/
======
Judges wary of mine tax challenge
Andrew Tillett Canberra, The West Australian March 7, 2013, 5:29 am
High Court justices have cast doubt on a key plank of Andrew Forrest's constitutional challenge to the mining tax as hearings opened yesterday.
Lawyers for Fortescue Metals Group spent much of the day arguing that the minerals resource rent tax is unconstitutional because it discriminates between the States on taxation grounds.
But they appeared on stronger ground with their claim the MRRT was a "crude form of control" by Canberra and hampered the States' ability to discount royalties to encourage mining development.
Fortescue has not paid a cent of the mining tax but the company launched an eleventh-hour High Court challenge last year on June 22, just days before the tax commenced.
Counsel for the company, David Jackson, told the court the heart of Fortescue's argument was a miner's MRRT liability was levied differently in each State because the States set different royalty rates.
As royalties were deductible against a company's mining tax bill, a lower royalty rate meant a company paid more MRRT, and vice versa, despite section 51 of the Constitution requiring Commonwealth taxes to be imposed equally across the States.
But several justices appeared sceptical about this, pointing out to Mr Jackson that companies were able to claim a range of deductions that reduced what they paid in company tax.
Justice Kenneth Hayne cited how States set different rates of workers compensation premiums paid for by companies.
The justices did not quiz Mr Jackson as much about a second constitutional argument. He said the mining tax curtailed a State's ability to encourage the development of mines by discounting or waiving royalties because this would result in a corresponding increase in MRRT liability.
The hearing got off to an amusing start when WA Solicitor-General Grant Donaldson unsuccessfully tried to have WA budget papers, 1960s parliamentary speeches and extracts from company agreements between miners and the State Government added to submissions to show WA had a lot of iron ore deposits and mining was crucial to the economy.
Chief Justice Robert French, a West Australian, replied drolly: "We've worked out that for ourselves."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/16314217/judges-wary-of-mine-tax-challenge/
Thank goodness Scalia did not happen to be born in Australia. LOL,
course, if he had been chances are he could be a more rational cretin.
Malaysian Incursion by Filipinos Ends in a Deadly Clash
By FLOYD WHALEY
Published: February 28, 2013
MANILA — An obscure, centuries-old territorial dispute between Malaysia .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/malaysia/index.html?8qa .. and the Philippines .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/philippines/index.html?8qa .. erupted in violence on Friday, leaving at least 13 people dead and straining relations between the close Southeast Asian neighbors.
Malaysian security forces battled on Friday morning with about 180 Filipinos, some of whom were armed, in an effort to remove them from a remote coastal village they had occupied for two weeks in the northeastern Malaysian state of Sabah.
The Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported that 10 to 12 Filipinos died in the clash and two Malaysian police commandos were killed in a mortar attack.
The group, which represented itself as a royal militia in service of the sultanate of Sulu, which for centuries controlled the southern Philippines and part of what is now the Malaysian state of Sabah, arrived by boat .. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/world/asia/malaysians-encircle-military-clad-intruders-from-philippines.html .. on Feb. 12 to re-establish its long-dormant claim to the area.
The Philippines and Malaysia for weeks had tried to persuade the group to leave peacefully. The Malaysian authorities, who had surrounded the Filipinos, had given repeated deadlines for the group to leave peacefully. The deadlines passed without incident until Friday, when the violence erupted.
“Our patience has reached the limit,” Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia was quoted as saying on Friday by Bernama.
The battle on Friday apparently ended the standoff, Malaysian diplomatic officials told their Philippine counterparts. But the fate of the Filipinos in the area was unclear. Raul Hernandez, a Philippine foreign affairs spokesman, suggested that some had fled the fighting and some had been arrested, but he did not provide further details during a news briefing on Friday.
“It appears that what has been transpiring has ended [see below] ,” said the Philippine president, Benigno S. Aquino III .. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/benigno_s_aquino_iii/index.html?inline=nyt-per , who was traveling in the central Philippines.
There were different accounts of how the violence started.
Ricky Carandang, a Philippine presidential spokesman, said it appeared to have begun when the Filipinos tried to breach the perimeter established by Malaysian police. “They apparently tried to leave the area and were stopped,” Mr. Carandang said by telephone.”
The Malaysian home minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said on his Twitter account .. https://twitter.com/HishammuddinH2O .. that “the situation is fully under control [see below].”
“I confirm that our security forces have not taken a single shot, but were shot at at 10 a.m. this morning,” he wrote on Friday, adding that the group at that point was still surrounded by the Malaysian police.
But the Filipinos said they did not start the confrontation. Abraham Idjirani, a spokesman in Manila for the armed group, said Friday that at about 6 a.m. Friday the Malaysian police began approaching the perimeter and shots were fired. The police then retreated, he said.
He said that 10 Filipinos had been killed and that four were injured in the assault. “The first shot came from the Malaysian authorities,” the spokesman said.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 2, 2013, on page A3 of the New
York edition with the headline: Malaysian Incursion by Filipinos Ends in a Deadly Clash.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/world/asia/malaysia-said-to-open-fire-on-armed-filipinos.html?_r=1&
======
Malaysia Planes Bomb Armed Insurgents to End Deadly Standoff
By Daniel Ten Kate & Barry Porter - Mar 5, 2013 1:45 PM ET .. with links ..
Malaysian troops began a ground and aerial assault on armed insurgents in the eastern state of Sabah today to end a standoff with a Muslim clan from the Philippines .. http://topics.bloomberg.com/philippines/ .. that invaded last month to assert a territorial claim.
At least 31 people have died over the past week in clashes between Malaysian police and several hundred followers of Jamalul Kiram, a Filipino who asserts he’s the sultan of Sulu. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully had failed.
Malaysian soldiers ride in an armored personnel carrier drive towards the area where
the stand-off with Sulu gunmen is ongoing in Tanduo village on March 4, 2013.
Photographer: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images
“As the intrusion prolonged, it was clear that the intruders had no intention to leave Sabah,” Najib said in an e- mailed statement today. “The government must take action to defend the country’s dignity and sovereignty.”
The battle unfolding in Borneo may disrupt palm oil production in a state that accounted for 30 percent of the country’s output last year. It also comes weeks ahead of a late- April deadline by when Najib must dissolve parliament for elections.
“Malaysians will want to know how on earth this large a number of people got into Malaysian soil and gained a foothold,” said Joseph Chinyong Liow, associate dean of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore .. http://topics.bloomberg.com/singapore/ . “The followers of the Sulu sultan are prepared to fight to the end. That sets the whole thing up for a pretty gruesome outcome.”
Fighter Jets
Kiram’s followers exchanged gunfire today with Malaysian forces and saw fighter jets drop bombs, Agbimuddin Kiram, the self-proclaimed crown prince of Sulu, said in an interview with DZMM radio from Sabah. The group invaded Lahad Datu on Feb. 12.
“They stopped listening, both the Philippine and Malaysian governments,” he said. “We can’t confirm casualties yet. Only God knows. God will help us.”
[ Sorry to suggest, God's involvement may not be positive. ] useful. ]
Eight Malaysian police officers and 23 Kiram loyalists have been killed in shootouts since March 1. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario was updated on the situation after arriving in Malaysia .. http://topics.bloomberg.com/malaysia/ .. late yesterday, Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, Najib’s spokesman, said by phone.
Malaysia began aerial attacks this morning to “soften the ground” before seven battalions moved into the area, Tengku said. Police and soldiers began moving into areas around Lahad Datu today, said Nik Khusairi, a spokesman for the Home Ministry.
The Sulu sultanate says it leased Sabah to the British North Borneo Company in 1878, an agreement that Malaysia views as a secession of the region. Sabah fell under British control after World War II and joined Malaysia in 1963.
Felda Refinery
Conflicts in the state could affect palm oil harvesting, transportation and sales, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. (CIMB) .. http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CIMB:MK .. analyst Ivy Ng wrote in a report today. Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd. (FGV) .. http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/FGV:MK .. and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd. (KLK) .. http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/KLK:MK .. each have a refinery in Lahad Datu and have the most exposure to Sabah, Ng wrote.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino yesterday called on Kiram’s group to surrender to avoid more bloodshed. He accused allies of former Philippine President Gloria Arroyo .. http://topics.bloomberg.com/gloria-arroyo/ .. of involvement in the incident, saying that “certain members of the past administration” assisted Jamalul Kiram, who ran for a Senate seat in 2007 elections under Arroyo’s party.
“There are those who conspired to bring us to this situation -- a situation that has no immediate solutions,” Aquino said. “Some of their identities are clear to us, while others continue to skulk in the shadows. The family of Sultan Jamalul Kiram could not possibly have settled on this course of action alone.”
Elena Horn, a spokeswoman for former president Arroyo, didn’t return a phone call and a mobile phone message seeking comment.
The Philippines and Malaysia had been cooperating to resolve the standoff peacefully, Aquino said last week. Najib helped Aquino reach a peace deal with Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines last year. Najib must dissolve parliament by April 28 and hold elections within 60 days.
To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net; Barry Porter in Kuala Lumpur at bporter10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-05/malaysia-begins-aerial-bombardment-of-armed-insurgents-in-sabah.html
Bangladesh death sentence sparks deadly protests
"Bitter enmity at the heart of communal unrest in western Myanmar has spilled online, with
incendiary posts on social media sites reflecting deep-rooted hostilities in the region, experts said.
Several days of deadly violence between Muslims and Buddhists have
seen the government declare a state of emergency in Rakhine state"
Dozens reported dead in clashes across the country after Islamist politician sentenced for 1971 war crimes
Syed Zain Al-Mahmood in Dhaka and Jason Burke in Delhi
The Guardian, Friday 1 March 2013
Bangladeshi activists and former freedom fighters rally outside the court where Delwar
Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death. Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty
More than 40 people have died, many shot by police, and hundreds have been injured amid violence in Bangladesh .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bangladesh .. over the sentencing to death of an Islamist politician by a court investigating the atrocities of the war of independence from Pakistan.
The Bangladesh court sentenced 73-year-old Delwar Hossain Sayedee, vice-president of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, to death on Thursday, finding him guilty of eight charges connected with the 1971 war, including murder, arson, rape and religious persecution, lawyers said.
The verdict first set off wild scenes of jubilation in Shahbag square, in the capital, Dhaka, where hundreds of thousands of people have been agitating for weeks in favour of executing Islamist politicians on trial for war crimes.
But clashes erupted when backers of Jamaat-e-Islami protested at the verdict. At least 14 demonstrators were said to have been shot dead by security forces across the country in the afternoon. Two policemen and a ruling party activist were also killed. By Friday the death toll was being put at more than 40, according to the Associated Press.
The police defended their actions, saying they acted to maintain law and order.
Protesters also set fire to a Hindu temple and houses in Noakhali district, south of Dhaka, news agencies said. In the town of Cox's Bazar, a police camp was attacked.
In the capital extra police and a rapid response force were deployed, and paramilitaries put on standby, a home ministry official said.
Haider Ali, a prosecutor at the tribunal, said the court decision had meant justice being done.
The tribunal was set up in 2010 by Sheikh Hasina's government to secure justice for victims of the 1971 conflict and heal the rifts of the civil war era but has proved hugely divisive.
Haider Ali said after the verdict: "The nation is rid of stigma after 40 years. It's a victory for the people."
But Abdur Razzaque, the lead defence lawyer, said Sayedee, a well-known Islamic preacher, was the victim of mistaken identity. "Justice has not been served today. The man the prosecution has described as committing atrocities is not the same man as the [Jamaat] leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee." The defence would appeal.
Lawyers in court during the verdict said Sayedee told the tribunal the judges had bowed to pressure from pro-government protesters and "atheists" in Shahbag.
At Shahbag square activists who had held a vigil demanding capital punishment for all the men tried at the tribunal, celebrated as the verdict filtered out, waving flags and hugging each other.
"This is the outcome we wanted," said Shahab Uddin, a college student, who said he had been participating in the rallies at Shahbag since 5 February. "This is what the people are here for."
Analysts say the rival demonstrations and spiralling violence indicate the gulf between those who think the Shahbag rallies are righting a historical wrong and those who see them as a diversion cracking down on Islamist parties.
Some observers have likened the protests to those in Egypt two years ago. Both involved large numbers of young people and were in part dependent on social media for mobilisation.
However the demonstrations in Bangladesh have been pro-government, pointed out Farzana Shaikh, an analyst at London's Chatham House.
Michael Kugelman, south Asia expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre, Washington, also warned against comparisons with the Arab spring. "In Eypt and elsewhere it was all about movements to bring democratic change. Bangladesh already has democracy, however flawed," he said. A general election is likely later this year.
Kugelman added however that "there are a lot of young people really looking at this occasion to stress the necessity of liberalism, secularism, in Bangladesh and who see this as a springboard".
Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan in 1971. The Pakistani army fought and lost a brutal nine-month war with Bengali fighters and Indian forces that intervened. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died, many of them at the hands of Islamist militia groups who wanted the country to remain part of Pakistan.
Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, and daughter of the wartime leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, set up the war crimes tribunal to investigate atrocities committed during the 1971 conflict – a move she said would bring closure for victims and families and heal the rifts.
The leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party, Khaleda Zia, the widow of the independence war's best-known military commander, has accused Hasina of politicising the tribunal, using it to hound political enemies.
All of the 10 indicted for war crimes by the tribunal are opposition politicians, eight from Jamaat-e-Islami, the party that is an ally of the BNP.
"These are deep unhealed wounds, going back for decades and there is a very strong popular desire to resolve many unanswered questions [about the 1971 conflict] and deep frustration with successive governments' failure to do that," Shaikh said. "But its not entirely accidental that the momentum for this resolution has come from the Awami League not the BNP."
Kugelman also stressed that the demonstrations in Bangladesh remained relatively localised and had yet to attract significant support in rural areas.
Observers have noticed how, despite criticism from human rights groups about politicisation and procedural flaws, the war crimes tribunal has remained broadly popular.
Last month the tribunal sentenced a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami to death for his role in the 1971 war. On 5 February Abdul Quader Molla, a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami received a verdict of life imprisonment.
Sam Zarifi, the Asia director for the International Commission of Jurists, a Geneva-based legal advocacy group, said a fair trial process was necessary to heal the wounds of the war.
"It is very important that victims of 1971 get justice," he said. "But justice must be ensured through a fair and transparent trial process. Unfortunately, if judges are intimidated by mass protests into handing out death sentences, that's not justice and may unleash yet another cycle of violence."
The trial has been dogged by controversy. Earlier, the tribunal's chairman resigned after transcripts emerged of Skype conversations between him and a Belgium-based Bangladeshi lawyer not officially connected to the case.
Human rights groups said the resignation left a panel where none of the three judges had heard the entire evidence. Appeals for a retrial were dismissed by the tribunal.
Jamaat-e-Islami has called a three-day general strike beginning on Saturday.
• This article was amended on 1 March 2013 because the original misspelled Farzana Shaikh's surname as Sheikh.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/28/bangladesh-death-sentence-deadly-protests
Whatever anyone wants to call it, unfortunately it seems there is a religious war going on .. at least in many
people's minds .. it's soooooo sad, the grip extremist religious elements have on so many of all sides ..
Moscow's Homeless Walk All Night to Avoid Freezing to Death
Dr. Elizaveta Glinka renders assistance to a homeless person inside a medical van in
Moscow in this Dec. 3, 2007 photo. (ITAR-TASS/Landov)
By KIRIT RADIA (@KiritRadia_ABC) and TANYA STUKALOVA
MOSCOW Dec. 24, 2012
It had already dropped well below zero degrees Fahrenheit by the time Sergei arrived at the white medical van near the train station.
A threadbare coat did its best to block the bitter wind. Sergei tugged on a wool cap as cold gusts slammed into gaps of exposed skin. But that wasn't his biggest concern. Night was coming soon and his feet were freezing. He'll need them to keep moving if he wants to survive until morning.
Sergei joined dozens of others crowding around the van. They are among this frozen city's most vulnerable population: the homeless, and they fear freezing to death every night.
Some of them came for the a warm meal, others for medical attention. Sergei opted only for a pair of warm socks.
Nearby another man named Gennady clutched a bag of medicine he picked up.
He has to be careful. Recently a friend was among the estimated 220 Russians who have died during the past three weeks, the longest deep freeze here in 75 years. Temperatures have fallen as far as -14F on some nights. Few days have risen above 2F.
Gennady's story is sad, but not unique.
He arrived in Moscow .. http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/moscow.htm .. in 1997 from his native Belarus to find work in construction.
"I got a job and everything was great," he recalled.
When new bosses took over the company, however, anyone without a Moscow residence permit was fired. He survived for a while on odd jobs remodeling homes.
But one day he says he was beaten up by a group of drug addicts and was in the hospital for two and a half months. During the scuffle he lost his registration papers, making finding legitimate work impossible in a country where a passport is required for even simple tasks like picking up dry cleaning.
From there it was not long before he found himself on the streets.
Many other men who came to the van that night had similar stories. Most migrated to the Russian capital from the countryside or from neighboring countries in search of work. Many who were lucky to find a job faced discrimination from employers. Some struggled with addiction.
Their plight on the streets is compounded during the long, harsh Russian winter. The cold lasts six months a year and the darkness lasts up to 17 hours a day.
"We try to survive," Gennady said.
During the day he rides the subway for hours. It's one of the few warm places where he can sleep. At night he wanders the streets to fight off frostbite after he and other homeless people are kicked out of the stations.
Sunday was Gennady's 43rd birthday.
After a half dozen years providing medical care to Moscow's homeless, Dr. Elizaveta Glinka, or Dr. Liza as she is known, has seen everything. The most common injuries are frostbitten extremities and burns from unsafe heaters.
The worst, she says, are the frozen bodies she and her fellow volunteers find.
Every day she sees homeless patients in her clinic, part of a charity she runs called "Just Help .. http://doctorliza.ru/ ." Every day about 100 people come there for food. A couple times a week she and her team take the van out to reach more people in need.
As men and women crowded around her van she doled out medicine, clothing, advice, and a hopeful smile. This was a good day. Someone donated a jar of caviar and she was able to spoon out some of the delicacy to the needy.
"This time of year there are a lot more people than in the summer. Now there are lots of people," said Nikolai Belikoff, one of the volunteers.
One of them is another homeless man named Alexander, who came to the van that frigid night in search of medicine and a warm meal.
Page 2 of 2 MOSCOW Dec. 24, 2012
Moscow's Homeless Walk All Night to Survive Frigid Temperatures
He was a welder, but he said one day his employer took his identification documents to issue work permits. He never saw the man or his papers again.
He explained that he cannot get into the city's homeless shelters at night because they are reserved for people from Moscow. He also knows people who have died from the cold, but so far he hasn't gotten frostbite.
"Thank God, not yet," he said.
Alexander comes to the mobile clinic most Wednesdays for warm food and medicine. He says they've help keep him alive.
Stanislav is luckier than most. He has been going to the same building entrance every night for two years. They don't kick him out, he explains, because he doesn't cause any trouble.
"They know me there. They don't touch me," he said.
Others, he said, are expelled from public buildings when they close for the night. He knows homeless people who disappeared after a particularly cold night.
As Dr Liza saw her last patient for the night -- a man who wanted her to inspect his ear -- Nikolai and the other volunteers packed up the van.
The crowd dispersed and Sergei, his new socks still in hand, walked off into the night.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/moscows-homeless-walk-night-avoid-freezing-death/story?id=18057192
======
Hunger and homelessness rise in the US
December 22, 2012 00:49
Bennie Thomas, who is homeless, eats a free Thanksgiving meal for the Skid Row homeless
and needy at the Los Angeles Mission in Los Angeles, California November 21, 2012.
(Reuters/Jason Redmond)
Homelessness and poverty is on the rise, with 84 percent of US cities reporting that requests for emergency food assistance increased in 2012. Of those seeking emergency food, 51 percent were families and 37 were employed.
The news comes just a few days before millions of Americans get together for Christmas. With homelessness and poverty reaching record levels this year, many families may not be able to afford the feast they were able to prepare in the past.
The Hunger and Homelessness Survey released by the US Conference of Mayors states that of 25 cities surveyed, 21 have seen an increase in homelessness this year and the remaining three said it remained at the same level. Cities of all sizes, regions and wealth levels were surveyed, including Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Salt Lake City.
The report found that 46.2 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, were living in poverty, and the number of homeless people on a single night in January 2012 was 633,782. The struggling US economy has caused many workers to move from full-time work to part-time, scraping by and living from paycheck to paycheck.
“In the last year, we saw a brand-new 26,000 households [about 56,000 individuals] needing food who never did before,” Steveanna Wynn, executive director of the SHARE food program in Philadelphia, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The increase in poverty and homelessness is “the worst it’s ever been,” she added. “These people never in their wildest dreams through they’d have to go to a food cupboard.”
Of those who sought emergency food, more than half were providing for their families, 37 percent were employed but not making enough money, 17 percent were elderly, and 8.5 percent were homeless, the survey found.
To add to the severity of the situation, states are not able to provide the resources that people are seeking. Of the people needing emergency food assistance, 19 percent did not receive it – even though budgets for emergency food purchases increased by 11 percent this year. With a demand greater than the supply and a looming ‘fiscal cliff’ threatening to cut the already-scarce number of benefits, poverty-stricken Americans may be facing a crisis.
With 2012 creeping to an end, struggling families are concerned that the potential ‘fiscal cliff’ could worsen their situation, especially if government funds for safety net programs are reduced and emergency unemployment benefits come to an end. Mayor Terry Bellamy of Asheville, N.C. told the Salt Lake Tribune that she is worried there won’t be enough resources for a growing number of struggling Americans in the future.
“Dealing with growing needs in the face of dwindling resources is nothing new for mayors, but we are especially concerned about what could happen to our emergency food and shelter programs next year, and in the years beyond, if Washington cannot find a responsible way around – not over – the fiscal cliff,” she said.
Carey Morgan, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, said she doubts conditions will improve for those in need of food or shelter.
“Congress is considering cutting food stamps,” she said. “Things could all be culminating in a great disaster. It’s all kind of disgusting.”
http://rt.com/usa/us-food-percent-emergency-612/
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Homeless Persons' Week 2013
Monday 5th August - Sunday 11th August
Homelessness Australia’s 2013 campaign will look at people who often do have shelter but are still homeless. According to the 2011 ABS Census of Population and Housing 94% of people who are experiencing homelessness are not on the streets. HA has identified four key groups of people who are often overlooked and undercounted when it comes to finding the homeless.
• Women (and children) homeless because of domestic and family violence
Domestic and family violence is the single largest reason people present to specialist homelessness services. Statistics show that one in three women will experience violence in their lifetime, with one in six women experiencing violence at the hands of a partner. Not all people will become homeless as a result of domestic and family violence, but there is a clear link between domestic violence and homelessness. Because of threats to their safety women (and children) are often forced, or make decisions, to leave their home, and as a result experience social and personal disruption and financial disadvantage.
• The ‘old’ and the ‘young’ staying with other households
Nearly half the people who are experiencing homelessness are under 24 years of age. Young people experiencing homelessness are more likely to be exposed to factors which are detrimental to their health such as drug use, inadequate nutrition, limited access to medical care and school, unsafe sexual encounters and violence. Research shows that young people who first experience homelessness before the age of 18 are more likely to experience persistent homelessness in adulthood.
Recent estimates have people over 55 years of age comprising of one fifth of Australia’s homeless population. Australia’s population of over 55s is predicted to double between 2010 and 2050, making it very likely that homelessness among them will be a growing issue. A third of those over 55 who are experiencing homelessness are “staying with other households.” Some of the reasons older Australians become homeless include: problems family conflict, poor physical/mental health and problems associated with housing itself (eg private rental housing turned into housing developments, no savings and living off the pension). Older women are particularly vulnerable to homelessness due to family violence and the economic disadvantage related to low income and lack of savings and superannuation, lack of equity in housing and the high cost of private rental and home ownership.
• People in housing crisis
The increasing cost of living means more and more people are in housing crisis and at risk of becoming homeless. In the last 10 years house prices have increased by 147% in comparison to incomes which grew by 57%. Rents in capital cities have risen at twice the rate of inflation and over 150,000 Australians in private rentals are paying more than 50% of their income on housing costs.
More than 1 million Australians are in housing stress. Housing stress means that people cannot financially cover their full living costs or maintain their house. Data from the AIHW shows that there is a great number of people presenting to specialist homelessness services because of housing stress and housing crisis. Not all people who present require accommodation assistance, with a growing number looking for material aid, financial counselling and information and assistance to sustain tenancy or foreclosure.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
According to the 2011 Census, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders comprise of 25% of the
homeless population – a gross over-representation of the 2.5% of the Australian population.
More than 20% of people supported by specialist homelessness services identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander including more than 1 in 4 children aged 0-10.
The concept of home for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders can be different. In addition to physical homelessness, spiritual homelessness (a disconnect from traditional land or country) can be a significant issues for Indigenous Australians.
There is currently a shortage of more than 20,000 properties across Australia that are affordable and appropriate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The shortage of larger houses that can accommodate kin and increasingly children in kinship care arrangements means that high numbers of Aboriginal people are in severely overcrowded households.
Due to the remote locations of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people there is often a lack of specialist homeless services, less workers and substandard housing, which all contribute to severe overcrowding and other forms of homelessness in remote communities.
Need ideas for your Homeless Persons Week event?
http://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/index.php/events/hpw/hpw-2013
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FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
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