Reporters Without Borders’ annual study of press freedom shows that blogging is becoming a serious media channel as bloggers are now finding themselves prey to censorship from repressive governments as much as journalists in traditional media. The report says governments realise the internet is now a key tool in promoting democracy and are moving to …
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Category:Risk and Terror
Lying to ourselves
The delusion of our own integrity has worn thin. Linked here is an NYT editorial, The Good Germans Among Us, detailing the quilt of lies and deception that we have sewn to keep ourselves in “the right” while portraying others (Iraqis, Burmese, Chinese, Afghan …) as brutal, terrorists and wrong. While the tale is focussed …
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The only security of all is in a free press
As civil liberties have been constrained in the name of a “war on terror” even the free press has found itself gagged. (And not just traditional media but bloggers too.) The Economist concludes a four part review of civil liberties with a discussion of the rationalisation of controlling free speech even though for national security. …
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Conflict wipes out aid in Africa
The cost of conflict on African development was approximately $300 billion between 1990 and 2005, according to new research by Oxfam International, IANSA and Saferworld. This is equal to the amount of money received in international aid during the same period. The study Africa’s Missing Billions is the first time analysts have estimated the overall …
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King John and all that – fighting for habeas corpus
The Economist’s penultimate paper on civil liberties discusses detention without trial. When I heard the history of King John of England playing fast and loose with people and how his own barons and courtiers had to rein him in and force him to contract to behave ethically (Magna Carta 1215), it was one of those …
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US administration torture policy uncovered
In 2005, after the US Justice department declared torture abhorrent in December 2004, the Bush/Cheney administration obtained from the Attorney General an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency. That secret opinion provides explicit authorisation to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, …
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North Korea agrees to halt nuclear arms for food, for now
North Korea agreed to a specific timetable for the North to disclose all its nuclear programs and disable all facilities in return for 950,000 metric tons of fuel oil or its equivalent in economic aid by the end of the year. The agreement does not discuss when North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons. …
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Middle East worst case scenario
A number of commentators have discussed a middle east worse case scenario over the past couple of months. The Futurist joined in with their September-October issue. The discussion is interesting and you can see a summary online here. The lead article acknowledges that a regional war engulfing the Middle East is still a “low probability …
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A quick solution to climate change from the US: stop fighting
This linked article by Daniel Kammen at GreenBiz offers simple options to change the US energy consumption profile. His six point plan is: A national commitment to saving money and energy through energy efficiency measures at every step of the economic value chain (some states, including California are fully 40 percent more efficient than the …
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Israel secretly bombs Syria for nukes …
former Israeli prime minister and Likud opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel launched an air strike against Syria on September 6, aafter weeks of refusing to confirm the operation. It appears the rationale for the strike is that Syria had nuclear weapon making materials from North Korea. While this may have been true and …
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