… Europe, Ukraine, the next chapter; the new populist far right; Turkey, Gulen reveals himself; post-Gezi writers speak out; market in natural disasters; secrecy in the name of US safety; Mexico’s left out in the cold; who pays for Amazon clean-up? Sahara, spoils of war; pay the world’s workers! spam, from Monty Python to global crime… and more…
Low-income people of color stand to lose the most from the erosion of net neutrality. By Jay Cassano and Michael Brooks Keystone by the Bay Labor and environmental groups clash in Maryland over fracking. By Rebecca Burns Citizens of Nowhere Thousands of Haitian-Dominicans were stripped of Dominican citizenship. Where’s the U.S. outrage? By Achy Obejas Jersey Hustle The South Jersey political corruption depicted in American Hustle still persists, in a new form. By Bhaskar Sunkara Stamp of Disapproval Activists and union workers fight to stop the U.S. Postal Service from shedding buildings and jobs. By Theo Anderson For Once, Workers Win Over Walmart Walmart has signed onto a contract that guarantees Floridian tomato pickers fair treatment. By Alex Wolff China’s Green Movement Environmentalists cut through the smog of state repression. By Michelle Chen Anti-Fracking Fight Heats Up in Maryland Baltimore’s march against the proposed Cove Point project was the largest environmental protest in the city’s history. By Bruce Vail Free Contraception Is in Danger Again A Supreme Court case may prioritize employers’ religious freedoms over women’s health. By Ruth Rosen COMMENTARY The Billionaires’ Scheme to Destroy Democracy The 1% are advocating a campaign for a one-dollar-one-vote plutocracy. By Leo Gerard The Real Welfare Queens A new report shows corporations like Koch Industries have gotten billions in government subsidies. By David Sirota WORKING IN THESE TIMES After Chokwe Lumumba’s Death, Mississippi Auto Workers Mourn a Union Ally The late Jackson, Miss. mayor was an outspoken advocate for unions and workers rights in a fiercely right-wing state. By David Moberg THE PRISON COMPLEX New York’s Curbs on Solitary Confinement Could Signal National Sea Change The agreement makes New York the largest prison system in the country to prohibit solitary confinement of minors. By Alex Wolff
An exclusive report filmed in the Australian asylum processing centre on Nauru, FEB, 2003.
The isolated pacific island of Nauru was used by the Howard Junta to detain and process asylum seekers. Denied access to lawyers or journalists, detainees were interned in a state of limbo for over 16 months. “We can’t take it anymore. It’s been a month since we had food or water,” despairs one detainee. Mothers were reduced to drinking rainwater and feeding their children expired milk. Access to medical services were severely restricted and the overwhelming feeling in the camp was one of despair.
“I want to die. I don’t have any future,” states one inmate.
Produced by SBS/Dateline
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures
The report, Island of impunity? Investigation into international crimes in the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, was produced by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s (PIAC’s) International Crimes Evidence Project (ICEP).
The report brings together some of the world’s leading experts on war crimes investigations and international law. It combines detailed, impartial, legal analysis and expert forensic and military analysis with new information and eye-witness accounts.
‘This is the most comprehensive, evidence-based report investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Sri Lankan conflict,’ said PIACCEO, Edward Santow.
‘The report builds on what we already know about indiscriminate artillery bombardment of civilian areas, the denial of humanitarian assistance to those most affected by the hostilities, and specific incidents of extrajudicial killing, torture, sexual violence and enforced disappearance.’
The report will assist the UN Human Rights Council in considering how to ensure accountability for allegations of atrocities committed in the final stages of the civil war. The report presents an evidentiary platform for an international investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity.
One new eye-witness alleges that, after the conflict, the Sri Lankan Government has systematically exhumed civilian mass graves and destroyed crucial evidence of human remains. This has critical implications for future investigations and highlights the need for urgent action to be taken.
‘The ICEP investigation reveals some of the gravest crimes under international humanitarian law and demands accountability,’ said John Ralston, Chair of ICEP’s Committee of Experts.
‘This can only occur if there is a full independent and impartial international investigation.’
Here @ the interpretOr, we recall the recentish comments of a certain Murdoch stooge + Rajapaksa apologist at CHOGM…
TONY Abbott has defended Sri Lanka’s human rights record, saying the Rajapaksa government was committed to upholding the democratic charter of the Commonwealth but that “sometimes in difficult circumstances difficult things happen”.
( The Australian, 16/11/13)
More from Abbott on his “excellent cooperation” with the Sri Lankan regime…
Hated on the Left, the TPP Draws Conservative Foes
A ragtag right-wing coalition opposes fast-tracking the deal they call ‘Obamatrade.’
By Cole Stangler
Kshama Sawant: The Great Red Hope
The socialist City Council member shares her plans for Seattle.
By Micah Uetricht
The ‘Sharing’ Hype
Do companies like Lyft and Airbnb help democratize the economy?
By Rebecca Burns
A Final Q&A with Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
At one of his last appearances, the singer looked back at an eight-decade career.
By Mike Elk
Is The Racial Apology Possible?
Madonna’s N-word Tweet, Ani DiFranco’s plantation kerfuffle, and the limitations of ‘sorry.’
By Daisy Hernandez
Grad Students Reunionize
NYU students win recognition through grassroots organizing.
By Andrew Mortazavi
What To Expect From New York’s Black Feminist First Lady
Can we embrace Chirlane McCray without smothering her?
By Andrea Plaid
‘It is Roi who is dead’: Remembering Amiri Baraka (1934-2014)
The rousing, polarizing poet had many selves.
By Andrew Epstein
Yelp, for Fair Dining
A new app tells you which restaurants treat their workers well.
By Analeah Rosen
Throwing Satire to the Wolf
Scorsese’s latest is a romp through vicarious amorality.
By Michael Atkinson
COMMENTARY
Billionaires Attempt To Convince Society That They Are The Good Guys
America’s rich see themselves as victims of Nazi-like persecution.
By David Sirota
The Gap Between Rich and Poor, Accidentally Explained by Bob McDonnell
The scandal shows inequality is not just a slip of some invisible hand of the market.
By Leo Gerard
WORKING IN THESE TIMES
Obama’s Wage Hike For Federal Contractors Won’t Apply to Disabled Workers
This exclusive report reveals a major hole in the president’s minimum wage pledge.
By Mike Elk
THE PRISON COMPLEX
Private Contractor Accused of Skimping on Prisoner Food
Indiana prisoners get a taste of victory as hot weekday lunches are reinstated following a hunger strike.
By George Lavender
…behind the violence in South Sudan; theArab Spring is not over; don’t upset the new middle classes of North Korea; China’s new battle of the Pacific; Japan’s makeover isn’t working; hungry burger workers were not theAmerican dream; why the Romanians are growing their own veg; have the Gameswrecked Sochi’s future? Uruguay fights drugs by unbanning them; a little night music… and more…
destruction of mangroves,
blocking of creeks and…
…non-compliance of other clearance conditions.
The reporting committee, headed by Sunita Narain of Centre for Science and Environment, was set up by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (Government of india), to inspect ship-breaking facility of M/s Adani Port and SEZ Limited near Mundra West Port in Gujarat’s Kutch district. The committee submitted its report on April 18, 2013 and it can be downloaded in pdf by clicking here :::
Subsequently, on July 29, 2013 a public hearing for the project was held where people from four project-affected villages and nearby locations attended the public hearing at Tunda village in Mundra taluka and posed questions about the project and its impact on the environment. But the public hearing ended without the company being able to give comprehensive answers to the queries raised by the project-affected people, report Down To Earth (DTE), the Indian science and environment fortnightly:
Using remote sensing technology, the committee has found that that over the last decade, 75 hectares of mangroves have been destroyed in Bocha Island, a conservation zone. Satellite imagery indicates deterioration and loss of creeks near the proposed North Port due to construction activities. The company has also neglected to inventory its utilisation and disposal of fly ash, and has not ensured that storage tanks, seawater inlets, and discharge outlets are lined to prevent increase in salinity and contamination of water. The report also states that the Adani group has been less than serious about reporting on compliance with the conditions set at the time of clearance. In many cases, non-compliance with reporting conditions has been observed.
The committee also noted that there have been instances to circumvent statutory procedures by using different agencies, at the Centre and state, for obtaining clearances for the same project. The public hearing procedure, which is a critical part of project clearance and helps to understand and mitigate the concerns of local people, has also been bypassed on one pretext or another. The fisher community, which depends on the coasts for their livelihood, is the worst hit by the changes brought on by land acquisition and construction for the project.
(Adani project in Mundra has violated environmental norms: MoEF committee report)
Association of Marine Park Tour Operators president Colin McKenzie, the peak industry lobby group covering tourism in the World Heritage-listed reef region, accused the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority of pandering to politicians.
“Leadership of the Authority needs to be replaced. If they won’t do their job of preserving the environment out there then they should have people there that will,” he told Fairfax radio.
“These guys are just pandering to the politicians. The GBRMPA should do what it is actually being paid to do — which is provide for the protection and conservation of the reef.”
more @ www.agencefrancepresse.com/
the interpretOr has posted recently on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive trade agreement that’s being negotiated in secret by 12 countries across the Pacific. It has 29 chapters covering all kinds of regulations, and we only know what’s in it because of outdated leaks and government statements – (Bill Moyers: The Corporate Plot That Obama and Corporate Lobbyists Don’t Want You to Know About (AlterNet)
A huge number of groups and individuals are opposed to the TPP and other agreements like it for all kinds of different reasons. That’s because only a small part of these agreements deal with traditional “trade” issues like tariffs and market access. They cover regulations on everything from food labeling, labor standards, access to medicines, copyright enforcement, and cross-border investments. The problem is that the only interests that are represented at the negotiating table are corporate advisors—no public interest groups, no elected representatives, and no members of the public. That means that the rules that are in TPP are designed to give new rights and privileges to major corporations, while users, consumers, and everyone else get the worst end of the deal.
Now the White House and the US Trade Representative want the power to “fast track” TPP through Congress. The US Constitution gives Congress members the sole authority to regulate trade. But a new bill that was introduced would let Congress hand their powers over to Obama and the trade office, making this whole process even less transparent and less democratic. It’s called the “Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities Act” (HR.3830/S.1900) or TPA 2014 for short. If passed, it would severely curb Congress’ ability to conduct hearings and limit their power to solely an up or down, Yes or No vote. Stopping this fast track bill is a major part of the fight to block the passage of TPP and other secretive trade agreements.
Today, 10 days of action commence to stop this bill from passing. We’re here to share what we know about TPP, and answer your questions about why such a broad range of groups are opposed to this fast track bill. We need you to help us stop these toxic trade agreements, because mass public pressure is the most effective way to make the US government accountable.
Take Action:
Outside the US? Learn more about the impact of trade policy from these organizations:
Learn more and take action here: Stop Fast Track
In the furore surrounding the Edward Snowden and Wiki leaks revelations it is easy not to notice the connection to three other huge issues that are bearing down on humanity like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
These issues threaten every system that currently supports human existence and happiness on this planet.
The first system is democratic governance, the system of government where power is placed in the citizens to elect their peers to sit in a house of representatives to make rules that are in the best interest of the people that is government of the people by the people.
This is no longer the case in most Western democracies. Many Governments represent sectional interests who in turn fund their election and campaigns. These sectional interests undermine and take over the role and functions of government. Furthermore government departments have modelled themselves on corporations because they use corporate advisors to shape the management and ethos of government departments.
The second issue is the market economy that was designed as utilitarian system to benefit the whole of society by making finance available to build businesses and to provide fairly paid jobs. However, it has been undermined and has lost all sense of equity and balance. Furthermore the lack of sensible regulation has changed its main purpose to speculation with little regard for the production and sale of goods.
Having more and more wealth in fewer and fewer hands is bad for the economy overall and although the economic rise of Asia has seen many more people move from poverty to a middle class lifestyle, the trend in older market economies to less equality of wealth is accelerating.
The third problem area is the growing imbalance between the wealth and power between nation states and giant corporations. Corporations like the giant banks are seen as so integral to the economic basis of national economies they cannot be allowed to fail. These corporations however have no such loyalty to the governments that prop them up with taxpayer’s money and bank guarantees. They quite happily campaign against the same governments and against the interest of the people.
The most significant corporate sector in this power imbalance is the corporate media which the Leveson inquiry in the United Kingdom found that
…the evidence clearly demonstrates that, over the last 30-35 years and probably much longer, the political parties of UK national Government and of UK official. Opposition, have had or developed too close a relationship with the press in a way which has not been in the public interest.
The inquiry heard leading political witnesses say they feared the Murdoch press and courted its favour and that they were heavily criticised and crushed by his papers if Rupert Murdoch felt he could get a better deal from another party or politician.
Finally the most important issue, that of the rapid destruction of the earth’s biosphere and ecosystems has reached the point of mass extinction of species of plants and animals with no strong action or even agreement for action by national governments. Again this is because of dishonest campaigns by giant corporations using anti-environmental front groups to create division and confusion in the public mind about the reality and cost of climate change and its amelioration.
So what has this to do with the revelations of Edward Snowden?
Edward Snowden worked for a private corporation that spied on the online interactions of almost everyone on the planet. He was a just one part of a massive intrusive operation carried out supposedly for the USA Government to keep all Americans safe from terrorism “in the war against terrorism”.
In fact much of this information was being used against law abiding citizens and for the benefit of US corporations. An example of this was the spying on the Occupy movement who were peacefully protesting against the powerful corporations whose grubby share dealing bought about the world financial crisis and who wilfully mislead investors to induce them to buy worthless stock.
That the Occupy movement was spied on by the government may be excusable but their passing on of the information to the bankers and traders was not. This is and was an elected Government acting against the 99% of the people on behalf of the wealthy corporate 1%.
Of the incidents so far revealed, the most shocking instance of a government spying on the CMD (Campaign for Media and Democracy) an organisation that is fighting against the corporate takeover of government in the USA. This takeover has been done through ALEC ( the American Legislative Exchange Committee). ALEC consists of a group of large companies most of which are desperate to replace laws and regulations that might reduce their profits such as environmental protection, anti-smoking and health, workplace safety and gun laws.
ALEC also recruits and funds state and federal politicians to help them promulgate model laws which they then lobby heavily to push through state and federal legislatures.
After a recent rally protesting outside an ARLEC conference the CMD discovered that state based federal anti-terrorist agencies spied on the protest movement and passed on this information to ALEC. To make matters worse it was found that the uniformed police who had violently assaulted protest leaders had been off duty and were being paid by ALEC.
What this clearly signifies is that the US Government and many US State Governments are sharing security information and working with large corporations against peaceful community organisations and colluding in passing legislation that is against the interest of the American people.
How far this has spread into other Western democracies is not yet clear but there is evidence that police in the United Kingdom were being paid by the Murdoch press and this is possibly true of Australia where it has been reported that the Murdoch press reporter was tipped off about an impending anti- terrorist raid by a security officer.
What is most important about Snowden, Assange, Manning and the CMD, is not that they made public the invasive level of security in the USA and elsewhere, but that Governments are using the information against ordinary law abiding citizens and that the security apparatus is not only being operated by private companies but it is sharing that information with large corporations often against the public interest.
Citizens, the corporate state has arrived. It is in our bedrooms and on our private communication systems and you and democracy are its enemy.
A Brief History of Anarchism
The struggle for the common good has a long past.
By Noam Chomsky
‘Sorry’ Not Good Enough for Chicago Torture Survivors
Rahm Emanuel needs to put his money where his mouth is.
By G. Flint Taylor and Joey L. Mogul
The Roots of the Tea Party
How conservatives came to dominate U.S. politics.
By Melvyn Dubofsky
Republicans (Still) Have a ‘Female Problem’
In the 2014 midterms, women will be the battleground. And one party has a leg up.
By Ruth Rosen
COMMENTARY
Weed Is Legal And Nobody Died
Washington’s fears of reefer madness haven’t come to pass in Colorado.
By David Sirota
WORKING IN THESE TIMES
Employees at Koch-Owned Georgia-Pacific Can Now Tweet About Work Without Fear
A new decree by the NLRB will allow employees of a Koch brothers owned company to post freely about their jobs to Facebook or Instagram without fear of retribution.
By Mike Elk
THE PRISON COMPLEX
Study funded by private prison dollars praises private prisons; no comment, says public university
A none-too-surprising finding.
By Matt Stroud
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…France, political void at the top; EU,Bulgarians on the move; Iran, open for business; Iraq, Syria’s conflict spreads; Egypt, new script for young writers; acquiring nationality, special report ; Yugoslavia’s nationalist pop music; the road to Amazonia; video games, social control and big business; supplement, universal health cover… and more…
::: just click pic to access :::
Now the agenda is back. Since July the European Union and the United States have been negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) or Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), a modified version of the MAI under which existing legislation on both sides of the Atlantic will have to conform to the free trade norms established by and for large US and EU corporations, with failure to do so punishable by trade sanctions or the payment of millions of dollars in compensation to corporations.
Negotiations are expected to last another two years. The TTIP/TAFTA incorporates the most damaging elements of past agreements and expands on them…
1. Want people to trust you? Try apologising for the rain.
“Superfluous apologies represent a powerful and easy-to-use tool for social influence,” the researchers said. “Even in the absence of culpability, individuals can increase trust and liking by saying ‘I’m sorry’ – even if they are merely ‘sorry’ about the rain.”
2. The 100+ most followed psychologists and neuroscientists on Twitter.
When we updated the list in July, the top five were: Andrew Mendonsa (clinical psychologist), Kiki Sanford (neurophysiologist turned science communicator), Sam Harris (neuroscientist and author), Richard Wiseman (psychologist, blogger and author) and Laura Kauffman (child psychologist). Look out for another update next year.
3. Smiling fighters are more likely to lose.
… [UFC] fighters who smiled more intensely prior to a fight were more likely to lose, to be knocked down in the clash, to be hit more times, and to be wrestled to the ground by their opponent (statistically speaking, the effect sizes here were small to medium). On the other hand, fighters with neutral facial expressions pre-match were more likely to excel and dominate in the fight the next day, including being more likely to win by knock-out or submission.
4. A study of suicide notes left by children and young teens.
Contrary to their predictions, the researchers said that “the notes are coherent and do not reveal confusion or overwhelming emotions. The children and young adolescents emphasise their consciousness of what they are about to do and they take full responsibility.”
5. Women’s true maths skills unlocked by pretending to be someone else.
By separating their performance from their own identity, it seems the women performing under an alias no longer felt pressure to avoid being seen as an example of the harmful gender stereotype [that women are weaker at maths than men].
6. Older, more experienced therapists cry more often in therapy.
Looking at the correlates of being a therapist who cries in therapy, it was older, more experienced therapists and those with a psychodynamic approach, who were more likely to be criers. Surprisingly perhaps, female therapists were no more likely to cry in therapy than male therapists, despite the fact that they reported crying more often in daily life than the men.
7. Kids experience schadenfreude by age four, maybe earlier.
The kids of all ages (four to age years) showed evidence of schadenfreude, suggesting their emotional response to another person’s distress was influenced by their moral judgements about that person. That is, they were more likely to say they were pleased and that it was funny if the story character experienced a misfortune while engaging in a bad deed.
| 8. LEGO figures are getting angrier. |
Nevermind increasingly violent video games or the ever-present danger of an uncensored internet, a far more insidious and unexpected change is afoot that could be affecting our children’s emotional development. Researchers have discovered that the faces on LEGO Minifigures are becoming increasingly angry and less happy.
9. The supposed benefits of open-plan offices do not outweigh the costs.
“Our results categorically contradict the industry-accepted wisdom that open-plan layout enhances communication between colleagues and improves occupants’ overall work environmental satisfaction,” the researchers concluded. They added: “… considering previous researchers’ finding that satisfaction with workspace environment is closely related to perceived productivity, job satisfaction and organisational outcomes, the open-plan proponents’ argument that open-plan improves morale and productivity appears to have no basis in the research literature.”
10. Working memory training does not live up to the hype.
The results were absolutely clear. Working memory training leads to short-term gains on working memory performance on tests that are the same as, or similar to, those used in the training. “However,” the researchers write, “there is no evidence that working memory training produces generalisable gains to the other skills that have been investigated (verbal ability, word decoding, arithmetic), even when assessments take place immediately after training.”
–Compare this year’s top 10 to last year’s.
–See also: the top 10 psychology books of 2013.
The number of teenagers deliberately hurting themselves is on the increase. For example, the latest data for England show that over 13,000 15- to 19-year-old girls and 4,000 boys were admitted to hospital for this reason in the 12-month period up to June this year, an increase of 10 per cent compared with the previous 12-month period. More than ever we need to understand why so many young people are resorting to this behaviour.
A common motivation teenagers give is that non-suicidal self-harm provides a way to escape unpleasant thoughts and emotions. Another motive, little explored before now, is that self-harm is a way to deliberately provoke a particular desired feeling or sensation. A new paper from US researchers has explored this aspect of self-harm, known as “automatic positive reinforcement” (APR).
Edward Selby and his colleagues gave 30 teenagers who self-harm (average age 17; 87 per cent were female) a digital device to carry around for two weeks. Twice a day, the device beeped and the teens were asked to record their recent thoughts of self-harm, any episodes of self-harm, their motives, their actual experiences of what it felt like, as well as answering other questions…
::: click here for piece in full @ BPS Research Digest :::
J citation: Edward A. Selby, Matthew K. Nock, and Amy Kranzler (2013). How Does Self-Injury Feel? Examining Automatic Positive Reinforcement in Adolescent Self-Injurers with Experience Sampling. Psychiatry Research DOI:10.1016/j.psychres.2013.12.005
Further reading…
Goth subculture linked with history of suicide and self harm
The attitude of casualty staff towards self-harm
Tattoos, body piercings and self-harm – is there a link?
The sight of their own blood is important to some people who self-harm
With China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization has come a growing interest in traditional Chinese culture on a spiritual level. As a means of restoring and repairing our own psychological lack, there has been a rush to make “the past” material and visible. How does this revivalism fit into contemporary art?
For this issue 艺术界 LEAP have invited experts in various fields including philosophy, art criticism, and architecture to debate the state of revivalism in Chinese contemporary art today. Lu Mingjun explains the 2,000-year-old ideological battle between present and past in Chinese thought, revealing a history of a continual synthesis of and opposition to foreign cultures. Pi Li examines the high points in traditional Chinese painting since the eighteenth century to reconsider and reinvigorate its study in the twenty-first-century, offering specific proposals for the theory, historical framework, and exhibition practice of ink painting. For his part, architect Wang Jiahao presents a very particular socio-historical viewpoint based on the history of architecture.
Meawhile, 艺术界 LEAP present the words and work of artists including Chen Zhiyuan, Hao Liang, Jin Shi, Taca Sui, Xie Fan, Zhang Xiaodi, Zhao Zhao, Shi Qing, and the Yangjiang Group, who treat the past as mentor, friend, family, and interlocutor, in order to question and resist what is inside their hearts, and what is outside. Concluding the middle section of this issue are two artist features. Contributor Freya Chou takes a look at the practice of Taiwanese artist Hsu Chia-Wei, which in its deconstruction and reconstruction of narrative space demonstrates a remarkably calm treatment of composition and objects. Meanwhile, critic Bao Dong analyzes how Liang Shuo deals with the cultural experiences in contemporary China that do not conform to artistic norms, transforming these into a method of inspiring aesthetic vigor…(艺术界 LEAP)
::: just click cover to access :::
“merry christmas, Herr Murdoch…” gushed the obsequious, fawning abbott, fumbling with his melting, sweaty toupee…”welcome back!”
“K, Abbott. K. Settle!” barked Roopert.
Look, quite frankly, we are so honoured to be graced by your presence this christmas, this white…white Australian christmas…
K. Just tweeted on way in from Kingsford Smith…
Oh, yes, master? An efficient and deeply masterful stroke of…stroke of the pen of modern technology…I just can’t…
S’enough of that, abbott. Settle! Tweet’s “Australia in deep economic trouble left by last six-year wildly incompetent govt. New govt must take quick, painful actions.”
Oh why thank you, Herr Murdoch…Another present? So soon? Why, than…
Caught American Hustle in the Lear on the way down…decadent nonsense ’bout most people ‘ll believe what they wanna believe.
Indeed, herr murdoch, indeed.
Not really, abbott, not at all really. Most people ‘ll believe what I wan’em ta believe…Uncle Roy Cohn taught me that one…
Indeed, herr murdoch, indeed.
(TBC)
A Canadian court Tuesday granted Ecuadorean farmers and fishermen the right to attempt to seize the Canadian assets of Chevron due to a 2011 decision in an Ecuadorean court that found the company liable for nearly three decades of soil and water pollution and the ruined health and livelihoods of people living in nearby areas of the Amazon rainforest.
In the intervening period, the victims have been trying to collect roughly $18 billion in environmental damages. Chevron responded by filing its own lawsuit that argued the verdict was won through fabrication of evidence and bribery.
Paul Barrett of Bloomberg Businessweek talks with “Democracy Now!” on Friday about how oil corporations including Chevron and BP are fighting lawsuits brought against them by attacking the lawyers handling the cases.
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly @ truthdig.com
“Such a decision will come at a huge social, financial and ecological cost to the community.”
Here’s a link to the full article online:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/20374182/water-corp-wants-fracking-ban/
As “one term Tony’s” backflips and lies become evident, the people of Australia are waking up, opinion polls are starting to sway against this Government. This isn’t what the Australian people wanted or what they voted for. Say what you need to get into power, then do what you like when you get there… One term Tony will not last, and will go down as our worst PM EVER. (source: MassiveClock)
…The more publicity that came Scott Morrison’s way, the more hardline he became. So much so that last February, on the morning when victims of the Christmas Island boat people tragedy were due to be buried in Sydney, he launched an ill-tempered attack on the government for paying for family members to make the long journey from Christmas Island. Among them was Madian El Ibrahimy, a detainee at the Indian Ocean detention centre, whose wife, Zman, four-year-old son, Nzar, and eight-month-old daughter, Zahra, had all died at sea. “Do you think you run the risk of being seen as heartless on the day of these funerals to be saying — to be bickering over this money?” asked ABC reporter Barbara Miller, whose report that morning was broadcast on AM. Morrison replied: “When it comes to the question of do I think this is a reasonable cost then my honest answer is, ‘No, I don’t think it is reasonable.’” Seasoned commentators struggled to recall a nastier instance of gutter politics from a senior politician since the heyday of Pauline Hanson. Labor accused him of “stealing soundbites from One Nation”…
(click here for Nick Bryant’s piece in full @ the Monthly)
click the pic through to George Monbiot and continuation of this lucid and disturbing story…
salon.com / By Joan Walsh
“Much of the American right supported apartheid, almost to the bitter end. We must remember that…
…It’s shocking how little American leaders of both parties did to oppose the rise and consolidation of the brutal apartheid regime in the ‘50s and ’60s, but it was Richard Nixon who developed closer ties. The anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s and ’80s – where Barack Obama got his political start; I covered the University of Wisconsin’s successful divestment movement with the Daily Cardinal in 1978 — was demonized as the far left at the time. Moderates proposed alternatives like the Sullivan Principles, named after Rev. Leon Sullivan, a General Motors board member, which tried (and failed) to impose a code of conduct on companies doing business in South Africa (Sullivan eventually agreed they weren’t enough)…”
Complaint Filed with Spy Authorities…
A complaint has been filed with the Australian Inspector-General of Intelligence Security.
It calls for an immediate investigation into deeply troubling reports that the Australian intelligence services offered to violate the privacy rights of millions of citizens by handing over bulk metadata to its Five Eye partners.
Australian lawyer, Carly Nyst, Head of International Advocacy for Privacy International, said that “the ASD are violating their own Rules to Protect the Privacy of Australians, as well as the Intelligence Services Act 2001”.
That law prescribes that “an agency must not undertake any activity unless the activity is necessary for the proper performance of is functions; or authorized or required by or under another Act”.
PI’s Media Release is at: https://www.privacyinternational.org/press-releases/privacy-international-files- complaint-with-australian-spy-authorities-over-five-eyes
A copy of the complaint is at: https://www.privacyinternational.org/sites/privacyinternational.org/files/downloads/pres s-releases/igis_complaint.pdf
In an article for the Guardian, The UN special rapporteur Ben Emmerson QC said Snowden had disclosed “issues at the very apex of public interest concerns”. He said the media had a duty and right to publish stories about the activities of GCHQ and its American counterpart the National Security Agency…
“The astonishing suggestion that this sort of responsible journalism can somehow be equated with aiding and abetting terrorism needs to be scotched decisively,” said Emmerson, who has been the UN’s leading voice on counter-terrorism and human rights since 2011.
“It is the role of a free press to hold governments to account, and yet there have even been outrageous suggestions from some Conservative MPs that the Guardian should face a criminal investigation. It has been disheartening to see some tabloids giving prominence to this nonsense.”
just click the pic to go through to…to the FB page of “Don’t Blame me…”
Ian Dunlop’stilt at the board of BHP Billiton has highlighted the risk ignoring the climate imperative poses, kick starting a discussion about BHP Billiton’s contradictory claims of climate leadership while supporting the abolishment of carbon pricing. Cognitive dissonance in the industry was again demonstrated on Monday, when billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart launched “National Mining and Related Industries Day”, celebrating “an industry group that is too often shy about speaking of its efforts and contributions”. Given its vast advertising spend, its fondness for highly paid lobbyists and its expensive and brutal campaign against the mining tax, the thought of the industry being a wallflower is as believable as the World Coal Association’s claim that “high-efficiency coal” is a low-emissions technology.
The coal industry appears to be increasingly delusional about its future, pushing for expansion as investment slows, pretending to acknowledge the climate imperative while supporting the repeal of carbon pricing, and claiming it is shyand green when it is anything but. Despite State and Federal government enthusiasm to expand coal mining and the industry’s willingness to make increasingly risky bets, there is no future for growing coal use in a world struggling to stay under 2DegC of global warming. The vast majority of Australia’s coal reserves – particularly in the Galilee basin – must stay in the ground if the world is to have any hope of addressing climate change.
Tools and resources
- After bringing a “hard-line ideological agenda” and wrecking ball tactics to COP19, Australia is now being seen as an “anti-climate” nation, actively working against a constructive outcome at the UNFCCC negotiations. Despite being a rich, affluent nation, it is ignoring the fact its historic emissions give it an obligation and commitment to provide funding for developing countries for climate mitigation and adaptation.
- Australia is now the number one emitter per capita among developed nations, and his has slid to the bottom of global rankings for climate action. This, combined with its irresponsible language and backward steps at the COP19 negotiations, have earned it a record four Fossil of the Day awards. Australia is the 16th largest emitter of CO2 in the world, ranking 10th, higher than any other major western nation, in terms of per capita emissions, and it is ranked 57 out of 61 for efforts to slow global warming. A drop of six places.
- Despite the damage to its international reputation, tens of thousands of Australians rallying for increased climate action, and warnings that annual losses to extreme weather have almost quadrupled in recent decades, the Coalition government is instead choosing to be “in the coal business”. However, the coal industry is in decline, and by supporting its expansion in the face of growing global action on climate change, the Coalition is risking stranding both coal assets and the country diplomatically.
Former diplomat Bruce Haigh spent years in some of the world’s hotspots where he saw and did somtimes extraordinary things. In South Africa he befriended the legendary dissident Steve Biko. In Afghanistan he took pictures of Russian military installations. In Pakistan he flirted with Benazir Bhutto, or perhaps it was Benazir flirting with him…He is a regular contributor to the Canberra Times, Crikey and other Oz media…
…here is an excerpt of Bruce Haigh’s recent piece in the Canberra Times, (15/11/13):
“…State imposed secrecy, with respect to managing minorities, dissidents or groups judged to be antithetical to the interests of the ruling elite, leads to oppression through lack of accountability. Morrison does not want to be accountable for deaths in detention or drowning at sea. Lack of transparency is a threat to human rights and democracy, but Morrison is no democrat; he is the Reischsfuhrer of asylum seekers. He decides who goes where, and when. He sends back to Sri Lanka, Tamils who are given no opportunity to express their claims for asylum in Australia and who are detained on return by the Rajapaksa regime, many to be tortured and some held indefinitely.
Sending back people without a hearing, who on the face of it, may have a legitimate refugee claim, is illegal under Australian and international law. Morrison plans to send minority oppressed Hazaras back to Afghanistan. That would also be illegal…”
…well worth a squizz…’the trial of Donald Rumsfeld’…a prosecution by book…
“A gripping expose of the systematic, premeditated crimes of Rumsfeld and his colleagues – crimes against humanity more shocking than any committed by U.S. officials in this generation. If we push back against state-sanctioned torture and the tyranny that always, historically, follows upon it, we will have Ratner and his brave team at the Center for Constitutional Rights substantially to thank. An indispensable document and page-turning human story.”
-NAOMI WOLF, author of The End of America
“Michael Ratner is a hero. This book will be required reading for all of Donald Rumsfeld’s lawyers and travel agents – he’ll have to check twice before leaving the country if he hopes to stay out of prison. To war criminals walking free among us, beware: Ratner and the Center for Constitutional Rights are on the case! ”
-AMY GOODMAN, host of Democracy Now!
As negotiations at the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) roll into their second week, the madness of Poland allowing the coal industry to sponsor the COP is climbing to greater heights as the World Coal Association (WCA) begins a conference of its own alongside the COP. The cosy relationship between the industry and the Polish government has led to COP19 being dubbed the “Coal COP” in “Coaland”. It illustrates just how deep the industry’s influence is in the country, and the extreme lengths Poland is prepared to go to in order to protect it.
The future of the coal industry was called into question by scientists, health professionals and environmental activists frustrated by pro-coal firms descending on Warsaw for a major conference during international climate talks (COP19). The Polish government added to its growing collection of slapstick diplomatic moves by inviting the World Coal Association (WCA) to unveil plans for “high-efficiency” or “clean” coal during the UN climate negotiations where Donald Tusk and his gang are also playing the hosts. With the Polish government wrapping up climate problems and selling them as solutions, 27 top scientists from around the world were moved to jointly discredit the claim that “high efficiency coal” represents the energy of the future.
In accord, health and environmental activists took to the streets to protest outside the WCA conference, arguing that the Polish government’s deep support for the dirtiest of fuels is in defiance of the science, health concerns, and the deteriorating economics of coal as the world moves away from fossil fuels…(big thanks to the Tree)
Related Coverage
The company is a local subsidiary of New Jersey-based Genie Energy Ltd. The Strategic Advisory Board of another subsidiary, Genie Oil and Gas, includes former Vice President Dick Cheney, media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and former Republican Rep. Jim Courter...
The company’s website, http://genie.com/ has the following homepage announcement…
Genie Energy (NYSE: GNE, GNEPRA), said today that the government of Israel has awarded its subsidiary, Genie Israel Oil and Gas, Ltd., an exclusive petroleum exploration license covering 396.5 square kilometers in the Southern portion of the Golan Heights.
from http://nofirezone.org/:
Carefully evidenced and powerfully measured, ‘No Fire Zone’ is a feature length film about the final awful months of the 26 year long Sri Lankan civil war told by the people who lived through it. It is a meticulous and chilling expose of some of the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity of recent times - told through the extraordinary personal stories of a small group of characters and also through some of the most dramatic and disturbing video evidence ever recorded. This footage allows us to document the day to day horror of this war in a way almost never done before: Footage recorded by both the victims and perpetrators on mobile phones and small cameras – viscerally powerful actuality from the battlefield, from inside the crudely dug civilian bunkers and over-crowded makeshift hospitals. Footage which is nothing less than direct evidence of war crimes, summary execution, torture and sexual violence. This was supposed to be a war conducted in secret. The Government excluded the international press, forced the UN to leave the war zone and ruthlessly silenced the Sri Lankan media – literally dozens of media workers were killed, exiled or disappeared. While the world looked away in the first few months of 2009 around 40,000 to 70,000 civilians were massacred – mostly by Sri Lankan government shelling, though the Tamil Tigers also stand accused of war crimes. The film starts in September 2008. An air of deep foreboding hung over Kilinochchi– the de facto capital of the Tamil homelands of Northern Sri Lanka. The armed forces of the ultra-nationalist Sinhalese government of Sri Lanka were on the move, and the brutal secessionist army of the Tamil Tigers was on the retreat. After a twenty-six year revolt – the scene was set for the final awful endgame.
“The Prime Minister’s silence on human rights abuses in Sri Lanka was inexcusable complicity, but this is nothing less than collaboration and it is abhorrent,” Senator Milne said.
“I am devastated and heartbroken at the thought of Australia assisting a disgraced government to suppress and control its citizens.
“In order to sure up Tony Abbott’s cruel and hollow policy to stop the boats he is resorting to collaboration with Sri Lanka and will turn a blind eye to human rights abuses. This has nothing to do with fairness, justice or saving lives.
“I don’t think Australians who genuinely thought that stopping the boats was about saving lives will feel comfortable knowing that ‘stop the boats’ now means preventing people from running away from torture and condemning them to human rights abuses.
“Sri Lanka is not a transit country. People are escaping from torture and abuse.
“Any resources provided to Sri Lanka would be better spent in leading a genuine regional solution that cares for refugees by bringing more of them to Australia and by pushing for global action to investigate alleged war crimes.
“The Australian Greens congratulate David Cameron for doing what Australians expected their Prime Minister to do, to stand up for people suffering from persecution and abuse.”
May 1st, 2009, I interviewed Tamil demonstrators at a rally outside ABC headquarters, East Perth…Many people were extremely concerned and visibly upset about the plight of those surviving relatives and friends who were trapped in a brutal nightmare…the killing fields of the Vanni region of north eastern Sri Lanka…
…we were about to go to press with a report from behind the lines in Vanni by David Gray of Reuters …”I managed to get a few ‘usable’ frames of a scorched and destroyed landscape. Every single dwelling was either destroyed or uninhabitable. It reminded me of East Timor in 1999. Burnt out vehicles lined the road….”
…here are a few Tamil perspectives from the demo that resonate still…
“To understand the ground situation (in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka), where there are no independent observers or media allowed by the Government, it is vital to understand the motive behind the Sri Lankan onslaught on the Tamil civilians. The meticulously planned disenfranchisement of the Tamils has been going on since independence from the British in 1948. The Tamil Tigers are an outcome of this long deprivation of basic rights to exist as equal citizens in Sri Lanka…”
“Sri Lanka – don’t kill the media. Sri Lanka – don’t bomb the hospitals. Sri Lanka – stop the genocide of Tamils.”
“Anyone really concerned about humanity and freedom should impress upon both parties for an immediate ceasefire, send in independent observers and media, provide international protection to the refugees and bring a permanent peace solution.”
Around this time, UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) put out an urgent appeal:
Sri Lanka: 250,000 People In War Zone Need Food
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
C21 hereditary tyrant
'If artists betray the social conscience and the basic principles of being human, where does art stand then?' Ai Weiwei
chamber of horrOrs...
jellybellypolies of the very recent past
the interpretOr 