(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

In continuing tribute to Southern Dragon’s practice of keeping us informed of what is going on in a wider world, today we take a look at media from outside the usual sources in the U.S.

The small Central American country of Belize has lost an irrecoverable treasure as local construction crews raided a Mayan temple dating from 300 B.C. or earlier for rock to make gravel.

All of Belize’s ancient Maya sites are protected by law. The Institute of Archaeology plans to investigate the destruction and take those responsible to court, Morris said.

“This Maya site is well known to the local community, who have worked on various projects at the site,” he said. “The Institute of Archaeology is going to use this opportunity to really embark on a national awareness campaign for the preservation and protection of the country.”

Though the site of Nohmul had not yet been developed for tourism, it had been excavated off and on since the early 1900s after first being recorded as a site in 1897.

Bangladesh mourned, and retailers using their laborers for products signed an agreement to improve working conditions, as yet another factory collapsed, killing workers, in Cambodia.   Some retailers, including WalMart and The Gap, failed to sign on to the agreement.

The accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh, which has been signed by H&M, Primark, C&A, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Zara andTesco, aims to compel retailers to pay for rigorous and independent public inspections and blacklist any factories unwilling to comply.

Last night a handful of other retailers did sign up before the deadline, including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, New Look and N Brown, a mail order and online retailer whose brands include High & Mighty, Marisota and figleaves.com.

The decision by the handful of retailers not to sign up was criticised by campaigners, who said it undermined any ethical initiatives the companies may have.

Sam Maher from Labour Behind the Label said: “I think they are running out of excuses. No company can say they have the interests of their workers at heart if they can’t sign up.

The continuing depradation of natural resources that loss of rainforest represents is threatening the ability to produce hydroelectric power.   Studies recently show that contrary to previous speculations, rainforest presence contributes to water flow into streams and rivers,

Deforestation in the Amazon region could significantly reduce the amount of electricity produced from hydropower, says a new study.

Scientists say the rainforest is critical in generating the streams and rivers that ultimately turn turbines.

The drought in Brazil continued, making its effect felt in diminishing sources for energy as well as a threat to agricultural output needed.   The new studies that show rainforest protection is needed for energy output constitutes a surprising benefit from the attention that drought has brought to combating water loss.

Never.Give.Up.

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

Thursday we go to media and news outside the U.S. as Southern Dragon did in his Diner posts not long ago.

The Arctic is a source of food and territory for many species integral to our earth.   The waters there are becoming increasingly acidic, changing the survival conditions.    By overusing petroleum products, we increase CO2 in our planet’s atmosphere.   That in turn produces many results, one being that acidification.

Absorption is particularly fast in cold water so the Arctic is especially susceptible, and the recent decreases in summer sea ice have exposed more sea surface to atmospheric CO2.

The Arctic’s vulnerability is exacerbated by increasing flows of freshwater from rivers and melting land ice, as freshwater is less effective at chemically neutralising the acidifying effects of CO2.

The researchers say the Nordic Seas are acidifying over a wide range of depths – most quickly in surface waters and more slowly in deep waters.

In ongoing efforts to prosecute crimes against civilians, Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal has declared another former official guilty in recent atrocities committed during the war for independence from Pakistan.

Judges at a war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh have found a fourth senior Jamat-e-Islami leader guilty of charges relating to the country’s 1971 war of independence.

They have upheld five out of seven charges, including crimes against humanity.

One of the charges included being a commander during a massacre of 120 people. A sentence has not yet been handed down.

Targeting infrastructure improvements, Indian leadership is balancing a deficit against future growth, speculating about the possibilities of incurring debt at record low interest levels.

The US is having a third round of quantitative easing, and the Fed is deliberately targeting long-maturity bonds to keep long-term rates low. This greatly increases the case for long-term borrowing by India too, to take advantage of cheap rates. The eurozone has always had low rates, and these have just got lower with ECB action. Japan has gone on a new quantitative easing spree under Premier Shinzo Abe.

(snip)

In the US and Europe too, inflation has remained astonishingly low for years despite huge amounts of monetary expansion, but one day, this mountain of expansion will stoke high inflation.

At that point of time, borrowers will be rewarded with a huge erosion of the real value of their debt. So, borrowers today can look forward to the double advantage of low current rates of interest, plus an erosion of debt value by coming inflation. It is an opportunity not to be missed.

While the Western economies are strangled by powerful financial interests inveighing against any investment that benefits the public, in nations dominated by the people themselves there are great possibilities opening to general prosperity and well-being.

Never.Give.Up.

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

In the Thursday tradition, following Southern Dragon’s own practice, media and news from other countries are  our emphasis.

North Korea continued hostilities which have predominated in the early days of the new president’s regime by sentencing a U.S. citizen to 15 years hard labor for ‘hostile’ acts.

The United States has urged North Korea to free the detainee on “humanitarian grounds.”

“The welfare of US citizens is a critical and top priority for this department. We call on the DPRK to release Kenneth Bae immediately on humanitarian grounds,” deputy acting State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said on Monday.

Seoul-based activist Do Hee-Yoon has told the AFP news agency that he suspected Pae was arrested because he had taken photographs of emaciated children in North Korea as part of efforts to appeal for more outside aid.

US officials have pointed out Bae had entered the country on a valid visa, and admitted to concerns that he could be used as a “political bargaining” chip.

Possibilities of new powers from computers entered a hazardous stage as 3-D printers showed abilities to produce weapons in individual homes.

As the gun debate around assault weapons continues in the United States, one company has decided to combat possible legislation by designing a gun that can be made at home.

The design uses 3D printers and is being made available online for free.

An official stamp was given to increasing evidence that austerity bites, as the U.S.  Fed declared that economic decline has shown itself directly caused by sequestration.   Congressional action to create the bad economy was directly cited.

The FOMC released its statement after two key reports suggested that recovery in the jobs market is slowing, as end of year tax hikes and budget cuts – known as sequestration – seem to take their toll.The Fed announced on Wednesday that it would keep pumping $85bn a month into the US economy, citing concerns about the impact Washington’s budget cuts are having on the US recovery.

Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at the trader BTIG, said: “They increasingly view fiscal policy as an impediment to what they’ve been trying to accomplish and today’s statement is an outright affirmation of that view. Fiscal policy ‘is’ restraining growth, from the Fed’s point of view. And as long as fiscal policy remains constrictive, then the Fed are likely to do more rather than less.”

In a world of hurt, the May Day recognition of truly self-destructive congressional ideology took a step on the possible road to recovery by actions available to the world’s governing bodies, and passed responsibility to them to assist a return to viable actions from them.

Never.Give.Up.

*********

As I am traveling, and times have been confused for purposes of publication, I am putting up this post early to avoid its being unduly delayed.    Apologies for inconvenience, and my absence from comments.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

In the tradition of the original Lakeside Diner, where Southern Dragon kept pups up to date on media and events outside the States, Thursday will be a glimpse into what’s going on in the world this week.

Bangladesh was horrified by the collapse of a large manufacturing building that housed scores of industries supplying clothing items to other countries.   The building had frightened workers by developing fissures, but workers had been sent back inside.

More than 1,000 people were injured when the site housing five garment factories on the outskirts of Dhaka imploded on Wednesday, allegedly after managers ignored workers’ warnings that the building had become unstable.

Flags flew at half-mast on Thursday as the shell-shocked country declared a day of mourning for the victims of the nation’s worst factory disaster, which highlighted anew safety concerns in Bangladesh’s vital garment industry.

(snip)

The disaster came less than five months after a factory fire killed 112 people and underscored the unsafe conditions in Bangladesh’s booming garment industry, the second biggest in the world.

Teachers in Mexico’s Guerrero State stormed local political offices and started fires to protest reforms legislated against claimed corruption in the educational system.

For several hours, masked protesters started fires and attacked the offices with pickaxes and sticks, spraying slogans on the walls.

The state governor has called for support from the federal government.

The reforms impose centralised teacher assessment and seek to end corrupt practices in the education system.

Those practices include the buying and selling of teaching positions.

Innovations to aid in the many afflicted areas of Pakistan are being concentrated in local assistance programs that answer needs outside influences have failed to meet.

To counter perceptions of western influence (the CIA’s connection with a vaccination scheme may have led to attacks on polio workers), the Rural Support Programmes Network and its member organisations draw funds from Pakistan’s federal and regional governments, international aid agencies, corporate sponsors and the beneficiaries.

The US government has acknowledged the difficulties in channelling aid effectively to the neediest in Pakistan and remains supportive, despite repeated attempts in Congress to slash billions from aid. But to continue the progress that is being made, everyone must chip in.

One sign that the needs of Pakistan are not being ignored is a recent decision by the European Union to allocate €42 million (Dh207m) in aid from a fund for five major global hot spots subjected to “long-enduring crises”. The EU acknowledged that “the only new crisis on this year’s list is the one caused by conflict and internal displacement in Pakistan”.

Turning from the courting of outside influences has resolved problems in areas that gain independence along with meeting local needs.

Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

The Thursday tradition that carries on Southern Dragon’s practice of focus on media and news outside our usual sphere has particular poignance today, in a week of intensely localized reports on the Patriot’s Day marathon atrocity.   While we are horrified by the waste of life here, much has escaped our notice while our media zeroed in on this event.

The Venezuelan election produced results that the opposition and other countries, including the U.S., called to have reviewed.   New Secretary of State Kerry asked that the election of Chavez’ successor Maduro be reviewed before making it official.

“We think there ought to be a recount,” he told the foreign affairs committee in reference to Venezuelan opposition demands for a full audit of the vote.

At least seven people have died in the protests that have riven Venezuela following Sunday’s narrow presidential poll. The National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner by 262,000 votes out of 14.9m cast.

The Constitution Project concluded that the crime of torture was committed by U.S. officials in conducting its war on Iraq.

It was led by a former Republican and member of George W Bush’s cabinet; and a former Democrat congressman.

The report will make uncomfortable reading for members of both the Bush and the Obama administrations.

It concludes that “the kind of considered and detailed discussions, involving the president and his top advisors on inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in custody” were unprecedented.

Moreover, the taskforce found ‘no firm or persuasive evidence’ that torture produced valuable information and that the policy ‘damaged the standing of the US’.

Mexico’s long reign of lawlessness has led to the rise of local vigilante forces from the ranks of everyday, frustrated, civilians who need order for daily functions.  In Guerrero state, there has developed an ease of authority that ignores local, generally corrupt, existing police officials.

Since they became a force to be reckoned with earlier this year, this is just one of dozens of arrests made by untrained, armed civilians from Ayutla and its surrounding pueblos. But they have no legal authority, and they should not be carrying their guns in the street.

This does not seem to be of concern to the steady stream of locals who come to the HQ to report crime. Dona Juana, a frail elderly woman, is having problems with a neighbour. He is trying to steal her land.

The law can be corrupted, but the need for order can prevail.   Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

The weekly view of foreign news and media I have been taking on in memory of Southern Dragon at Lakeside Diner is dominated this week by accounts of the President’s trip to Israel.  After meeting with newly installed Prime Minister Netanyahu, today there will be talks with Palestinian Authority President Assad.   While much accord was reached, the President still was not in agreement with Israel on negotiations with Iran.

Mr Netanyahu mentioned it in his first sentence and again and again. He also reminded us more than once that Israel has the right to self-determination and to defend itself. The obvious implication there is that he thinks President Obama still holds out hope for a diplomatic solution which will prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.

The Parliament of Cyprus will receive ‘Plan B’ for bailing out its economy, in which reports are that Russian aid will be included, though as yet the form is unspecified.

Mr Anastasiades will put a proposal to a meeting of political party leaders meeting at 09:30 (07:30 GMT). It is then expected to go before parliament in the afternoon, according to CNA.

State TV said the plan might include a levy on bank deposits over 100,000 euros.

(snip)

One offer of help has come from Cyprus’s Orthodox Church, which is a major shareholder in the third-largest domestic lender, the Hellenic Bank.

Archbishop Chrysostomos I said on Wednesday the Church was willing to mortgage its assets to invest in government bonds

The establishment of a “bad bank” which would take on risky assets held by Cypriot banks has also been mentioned by officials.

Charges of using chemical weapons were brought against each other by both sides in the Syrian conflict.

Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s UN ambassador, announced on Wednesday that he had asked the UN to ”form a specialised, independent and neutral technical mission” to investigate the use of chemical weapons by the opposition in the attack in the town of Khan al-Assal near northern city of Aleppo.

The attack, which killed 26 people on Tuesday, if confirmed, would be the first use of chemical weapons in the nearly two-year-old conflict.

“The Syrian government, if it has such weapons, will never use it against its own population,” Jaafari said.

Denying any involvement into the incident, the rebels have accused the government forces of using the chemical weapons. They have also called for an inquiry into the deadly attack.

Beginnings were made this week to begin advance planning to head off the growing effects of drought and plan accordingly in endangered areas of Africa.

The High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy marked the first globally-coordinated attempt to move towards science-based drought disaster risk reduction and break away from piecemeal and costly crisis-response, which often comes too late to avert death, displacement and destruction.

The meeting issued a declaration encouraging governments to develop and implement national drought management policies consistent with their development objectives. It also provided detailed scientific and policy guidance on how to achieve this.

“Prevention must be our priority,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in a message to delegates. “Nations need urgently to develop strategies for resilience — especially for the poor, who are always hit first and worst.”

Beginnings with promise could be a beacon to backwards countries presently unable to handle the most obvious effects of disastrous policies, such as the U.S. has headed toward in its present economic loggerheads policies.  Informed planning for handling disasters would improve chances of avoiding the public’s being victimized by officials concerned for other influences than those they serve.

Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

The roundup of foreign media and news this week is headlined by the recent death of longtime U.S. bête noire Hugo Chavez.

According to Venezuela specialist George Ciccariella-Maher interviewed by FRANCE 24, the depth and scope of many Venezuelans’ grief cannot be underestimated.
“No matter what we may individually think of Hugo Chavez, the reality is he was a massively popular political leader,” he said. “[He was] someone who was able to generate a powerful, charismatic connection with the Venezuelan masses.”

As for the future of Chavez’s leftist policies, which won him the adoration of poor Venezuelans but infuriated opponents who denounced him as a dictator, much depends on Vice President Nicolas Maduro, the man he tapped to succeed him.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver and union leader, will probably face Henrique Capriles, governor of Miranda state, in the next election in the OPEC nation with the world’s largest oil reserves.

The stakes are huge for the region, given the crucial economic aid and cheap fuel the Chavez government supplied to allies across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Authorities said the vote would be called within 30 days, as stipulated by the constitution, but did not specify the date.

The election of a new Pope evoked quarrels of U.S. cardinals’ speaking out and using social media in what is usually a highly secret process.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, was quoted as saying there were “two schools of thought” in the college of cardinals: those who felt the Roman curia would be best reformed by someone within it, and those who believed an outsider was needed. Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, was quoted as saying the cardinals wanted to be briefed on the Vatileaks scandal in order to make the right choice.

U.N. observers were taken into custody by rebel forces in Syria.  In confused fighting, the U.N. forces had come under fire.  Syria’s military demanded their release.

In the video published on the internet, the gunmen identified themselves as the “Martyrs of Yarmouk”.

They are heard saying that the UN personnel would not be released until forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad withdrew from the village of Jamla in the area.

The rebels later admitted taking the monitors to try to stop the Syrian army from firing on them and civilians in the areas.

The rebels added that the UN team were their guests.

After only 500 years, Sephardic jews were invited to resume their role in Spain.   In the inquisition, they were ejected and properties confiscated; the Seville cathedral contains a work of art made from confiscated gold.

In November, Spain’s justice minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon announced a plan to give descendants of Spain’s original Jewish community – known as Sephardic Jews – a fast-track to a Spanish passport and Spanish citizenship.

“In the long journey Spain has undertaken to rediscover a part of itself, few occasions are as moving as today,” he said.

Anyone who could prove their Spanish Jewish origins, he said, would be given Spanish nationality.

The leading country producing maize for lands in Africa, South Africa has recently been suffering from drought that threatens its crop for this year.

Dry weather conditions have hit the main maize growing areas in South Africa, wilting the crop and dashing prospects for better yields this year.

South Africa’s provinces of Free State and North West, which together produce more than half of the country’s total maize crop, have been the hardest hit by the dry conditions in recent weeks after good rains earlier in the growing season.

The lessons of U.S. mistakes in invading Iraq have begun to show in Europe’s new approach to the region, and to its relations in the southern continent.

It has been 10 years since the US-led invasion of Iraq, which marked a turning point in the West’s so-called war on terror.

The pretext of the Iraq war was security and freedom, but the bombastic and openly pronounced objective was no less than remaking the greater Middle East region.

(snip)

And as Africa becomes the new frontline in the ‘war on terror’, have the Europeans learnt from America’s mistakes?

Shortly after sending fighter jets and troops into Mali, French President Francois Hollande said: “We will stay…for as long as it’s necessary to ensure victory over terrorism.” That is the same socialist president who recently told his people that there would be: “no men on the ground, no engagement by French troops” and that France would only provide “material support” to Mali’s armed forces.

The twists and turns of the West’s endless ‘war on terror’ continue to confound and confuse.

As Southern Dragon reminded us daily at Lakeside Diner;  Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

Foreign media and news once again is the emphasis I continue in recollection of Southern Dragon and this week perhaps the videos and links will all work for you.

Water shortages will again be the lead feature that we address first, and as in this country, growing drought stresses population in Africa and elsewhere.   In some areas of the southern continent, hydroelectric generation has been prevented as water levels aren’t up to needs determined long ago in estimates of prospects for the future that are now no longer viable.

The intense drought in the northeast of Kenya has already claimed several lives, the International Committee of the Red Cross says, and doctors say they fear that the number of people who die due to starvation could yet rise.

Tanzanian power outages

The drought has also forced Tanzania’s state-run power company to announce daily 12-hour electricity outages, as low water levels at hydropower dams and a shortage of fuel for thermal power generation have made it impossible for it to meet demand.

“The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) regrets to inform its customers … that it has been forced to extend power rationing to all regions connected to the national grid, including Zanzibar,” the company said in a statement seen by the Reuters news agency on Saturday.

TANESCO said that water levels at the country’s main hydroelectric dams were almost below the minimum level required for generation.

The Europeans have chosen to end passing profits on to executives of their banks, as a needed preventive measure to keep from encouraging mismanagement.

European Union officials have struck a provisional deal on new financial rules, including capping bank bonuses.

Under the agreement, bonuses will be capped at a year’s salary, but can rise to two year’s pay if there is explicit approval from shareholders.

Entrepreneur Jin Zingmen offers 200,000n yuan ($32,082.60) for environmental official to swim twenty minutes in his polluted local river.

“If the environmental protection bureau chief dares to swim in [Ruian's] river for 20 minutes, I will pay [him] 200,000 yuan [HK$246,000],” Jin wrote on Sina Weibo.

In three photos Jin posted, a river in small-town Ruian is seen entirely blocked by floating rubbish. Jin blamed a rubber overshoe factory for dumping industrial waste into the river.

This river was where villagers used to wash vegetables and clothes in his childhood, Jin told Chinanews.com.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Italy rejected a failed austerity plan the autocrats seem to think can be foisted off on the public that’s already suffered economic disasters at their hands since 2008.

Three years of German-led austerity and budget cuts aimed at saving the euro and retooling the European economy was left facing one of its biggest challenges as Italian voters’ rejection of spending cuts and tax rises opened up a stark new fissure in European politics.

The governing stalemate in Rome and the vote in the general election – by a factor of three to two – against the austerity policies pursued byItaly‘s humiliated caretaker prime minister, Mario Monti, meant that the spending cuts and tax rises dictated by the eurozone would grind to a halt, risking a re-eruption of the euro crisis after six months of relative stability.

The Beeb (BBC) has its own sequester to promote, nothing like the silliness our Congress has blundered into – as its solution to maintaining the full faith and credit of our country.

Did you and the SO have plans for the next couple of years? and are you middle aged?   then Inspiration Mars Foundation has a great plan for you to take a trip.  An older couple is the Right Stuff for their as yet unfunded Mars outing, and back.

… conditions would be squeezed and spartan, with no room for pressurised space suits. The report suggests that 1,360kg of dehydrated food will be enough to last the journey and the manifest includes 28kg of toilet paper for a crew of 2 for 500 days.

But the issue of radiation protection according to Mr Ojha is “glossed over” with the recognition that more work and “creative solutions” need to be explored. More work will also need to done to improve recycling technologies to convert urine into water.

This may be a perfect lab for relationship testing, are you brave and very tolerant?

Brave New World for; Never.give.up.

Over Easy

Sometimes our domestic news sounds foreign, but today is a day I’ve chosen to visit foreign media and news. For Valentine’s Day something heartening would do well. A reassuring story about a reporter resolutely presenting news many of his fellows don’t want to know strikes a chord as the fact seeking congregate ever more in the remaining places truth is held in esteem, and insisted on.

In the interest of letting Israeli readers know the effects of the occupation of Palestine, a Haaretz reporter has made his emphasis the facts most of Israel’s press avoids or at least softens.

Gideon Levy is someone who evokes strong emotions from fellow Israelis.

The writer and journalist has made weekly visits, over the past three decades, to the occupied Palestinian territories, describing what he sees – plainly and without propaganda.

For some Israelis, he is seen as a brave disseminator of the truth. But many others condemn him as a propagandist for Hamas. And his columns for the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper have made him, arguably, one of the most hated men in Israel.

(snip)

Levy’s reports have told of young Palestinians gunned down by Israeli soldiers after being accused of throwing stones; the lack of retribution against soldiers who kill Palestinians in cold blood; and the plight of Palestinian farmers, who make their livelihoods from olive trees, but who have had them burned and destroyed by settlers time and time again.

Many in Israel have criticised Levy’s reporting, saying that he and his colleagues are responsible for reinforcing anti-Semitism around the world.

But others see Levy as an individual who is courageously going against the common views of the society in which he lives.

North Korea’s third nuclear test has put its few remaining allies in an awkward position.

China is likely to agree to new or tightened economic sanctions on North Korea or possibly curb its own assistance as its frustration with its ally grows, experts believe.

China summoned the North Korean ambassador and delivered a stern protest, and as after previous tests, the foreign ministry called for a calm reaction and denuclearisation talks. However, it stopped short of the harsh criticism it unleashed in 2006 when it described the North’s first nuclear test as “brazen”.

South American governments pledged to grow economies often are overriding the interests of their people to accomplish those aims, particularly with regard to mining and mineral extraction by industry. Water sources are a particular concern.

Leaders across the region, elected on promises to fuel economic growth and lift their populations out of poverty, are fast tracking water-use approvals for projects like the Conga mine. Helped by mining and agriculture exports, Brazil’s gross domestic product increased 43 percent from 2002 to 2012, after adjusting for inflation, while Chile’s economy grew 58 percent.

Peru is on target to expand 6 percent in 2013, the fastest pace in South America, driven by investments in gold, silver and copper mines.

South America has more water than any other region on earth, with 29 percent of the world’s reserves, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The rub is that the water isn’t always where the best mineral or agricultural resources are located.

South Sudan struggles to survive after achieving status as a nation independent of Sudan. Its attempts to  supply citizens of the new state with basic necessities is under constant attack.

The South Sudanese government has long accused Sudan of backing rebellions in its territory to destabilise the country after it seceded in 2011, but this is the first time Juba has linked the alleged support of rebels with its attempts to build a new oil pipeline.

“The government of Sudan is deliberately sponsoring all militia activities in this country, especially in Jonglei state,” South Sudan’s information minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said.

Authoritarian governments distinguish themselves as always by inability to respect humanity.

Still we proceed; Never.give.up.

Read the rest of this entry →

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

As formerly, I’m exploring news today from foreign sources, something that Southern Dragon did for us not so long ago, and that we appreciated.

Unsurprisingly, the lead article is a revelation about our own practices, the location of CIA drone facilities in Saudi Arabia.   The war continues as our troops are withdrawn, not exactly suited  to the taste of seekers of actual peace.

Kristian Coates-Ulrichsen, an expert on Gulf politics at the London School of Economics, told the BBC that Saudi anxieties about the growing threat of AQAP would have been behind the government’s decision to allow the US to fly drones from inside the kingdom.

“The Saudis see AQAP as a very real threat to their domestic security,” he said. “They are worried about attacks on their energy infrastructure and on the royal family, so it fit their strategy to allow the drone attacks.”

The existence of the base was likely a “sensitive issue” for both Washington and Riyadh, Mr Coates-Ulrichsen added.

The role of Saudi Arabia is a complex one in the ‘sphere’ of our influence.   Noam Chomsky has good observations on the matter.

Concern about political Islam is just like concern about any independent development. Anything that’s independent you have to have concern about because it might undermine you. In fact, it’s a little ironic, because traditionally the United States and Britain have by and large strongly supported radical Islamic fundamentalism, not political Islam, as a force to block secular nationalism, the real concern.

So, for example, Saudi Arabia is the most extreme fundamentalist state in the world, a radical Islamic state. It has a missionary zeal, is spreading radical Islam to Pakistan, funding terror. But it’s the bastion of US and British policy. They’ve consistently supported it against the threat of secular nationalism from Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt and Abd al-Karim Qasim’s Iraq, among many others. But they don’t like political Islam because it might become independent.

While western nations ignore facts, China seems to be learning the lessons of austerity.

China has unveiled sweeping tax reforms to make wealthy state-owned firms, property speculators and the rich pay more to narrow the gap between the urban elite and hundreds of millions of rural poor.

The plans approved by the state council – China’s cabinet – also included commitments to push forward market-oriented interest rate reforms to give savers a better return and more security.

Public interest from the country we consider autocratic even more sets apart our government’s resistance to prosperity and the means to insure it, the lessons we’ve learned over and over – and still refuse to make part of economic planning.

Analytics by the methods available with computers has vastly increased available knowledge, and standards are changing with scientific possibilities.   The rainforests have been protected, but other climates have failed to receive consideration as threatened, until available data increased.

An analytics project Dr. Sanchez-Azofeifa leads in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais changed the way 16,000 square kilometers of tropical “dry forest” was classified under Brazilian law – allowing it to come under federal conservation protection in a court case that will likely transform how environmental protection is granted across South America.

Tropi-Dry, an effort of the University of Alberta funded by the Inter-American Institute (tself supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation) utilizes several years’ worth of ecological and social science research. In this case, a logging consortium faced a court challenge when it wanted to harvest within one of Brazil’s so-called tropical dry forests. While rainforests receive the lion’s share of environmental interest and protection in South America, tropical dry forests play a special part in maintaining ecological balance.

Growing capacity creates growth in care for environment, wonders never cease.

Still we persevere;  Never.Give.Up.