Image via WikipediaChina seeks to silence dissent overseas
Four years ago, shortly after Indonesian followers of China’s banned Falun Gong movement set up a radio station here, Beijing’s embassy in Jakarta sent a stern letter to Indonesia’s government.
Denouncing what it called an “evil cult” and a “tool for overseas anti-China forces,” the embassy urged Indonesia to pay “close attention to the matter” and “take measures” to halt the radio broadcasts so as to avoid upsetting relations with Beijing.Gatot Machali, the director of the station, got a leaked copy of the letter and laughed off China’s demand. “It was ridiculous,” he recalled.
Today, the 51-year-old Falun Gong devotee is on trial for illegal broadcasting, the climax of a long campaign by Indonesian authorities to shut down Erabaru Radio, an unlicensed station that mixes pop music, news and fervent hostility to China’s ruling Communist Party.
The Chinese Embassy in Jakarta declined to comment on its protests, saying it could not discuss “internal documents.” Spokesman Hua Ning said that China “respects measures taken by Indonesia in accordance with the law” against the Falun Gong broadcaster.
Beijing often puts pressure on foreign governments and organizations to curb activities it doesn’t like, a trend that has accelerated in tandem with an increase in China’s economic and diplomatic muscle. Targets for Chinese ire have ranged from a film festival in Australia showing a movie that annoyed Beijing; the Frankfurt book fair, which invited — and then disinvited — authors Beijing objected to; and the Nobel Peace Prize committee, which in December honored jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.
| The second Great Contraction |
The global economy is misdiagnosed as being in a "Great Recession", but the real problem is an overleveraged system. In a conventional recession, the resumption of growth implies a reasonably brisk return to normality. The economy not only regains its lost ground, but, within a year, it typically catches up to its rising long-run trend. The aftermath of a typical deep financial crisis is something completely different. |
The Wrong Worries
Thursday’s more than 500-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average and the drop in interest rates to near-record lows confirmed it: The economy isn’t recovering, and Washington has been worrying about the wrong things.
It’s not just that the threat of a double-dip recession has become very real. It’s now impossible to deny the obvious, which is that we are not now and have never been on the road to recovery.
Not only are vast numbers of Americans unemployed or underemployed, for the first time since the Great Depression many American workers are facing the prospect of very-long-term — maybe permanent — unemployment. Among other things, the rise in long-term unemployment will reduce future government revenues, so we’re not even acting sensibly in purely fiscal terms. But, more important, it’s a human catastrophe.
And why should we be surprised at this catastrophe? Where was growth supposed to come from? Consumers, still burdened by the debt that they ran up during the housing bubble, aren’t ready to spend. Businesses see no reason to expand given the lack of consumer demand. And thanks to that deficit obsession, government, which could and should be supporting the economy in its time of need, has been pulling back.Now it looks as if it’s all about to get even worse. So what’s the response?
To turn this disaster around, a lot of people are going to have to admit, to themselves at least, that they’ve been wrong and need to change their priorities, right away.
Citigroup attempts to disappear its Plutonomy Report #2
We project that the plutonomies (the U.S., UK, and Canada) will likely see even more income inequality, disproportionately feeding off a further rise in the profit share in their economies, capitalist-friendly governments, more technology-driven productivity, and globalization.
| Hopes and Dreams |
Some African migrants pay a high price to realise their European dream. |
How to Beat the High Costs of Dialing Abroad
Deep in Slop, Trying to Stop Bigger Disaster in the Hudson
| Supermax prisons: 21st century asylums |
Solitary confinement* in the new dungeons of the US trigger mental illness in prisoners. * Torture People walked by and asked: 'How are you doing?' I answered: 'How am I supposed to be doing? That’s the craziest question I ever heard.' The mental health people asked: 'Are you having any suicidal ideation? What are you thinking right now?' I said: 'Where the f*** am I? That’s what I'm thinking. Ain't this America?'" - Brian Nelson, on his transfer to Tamms supermax prison in Illinois. He was locked, chained and naked in a holding cell. Supermax prisoners' daily lives are chock full of alienating and undignified experiences, so empty of positive human interaction, thousands are willing to risk death than endure such inhumane conditions. That alone speaks volumes about the reality of life in supermax prisons. One of the most humiliating aspects of life for inmates are the frequent strip searches - forced to be naked, ordered to bend over by guards and spread the buttocks apart to have the anus inspected for contraband while coughing. Strip searches are the old normal. The photos of nude prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq shocked the world, but to be stripped naked for hours or even days is standard operating procedure in supermaxes. Inmates have been punished by "caging", they're held naked* or partially clothed in outdoor holding cages in inclement weather. *It has recently become clear that the shutting down of blood flow to the skin, which is the normal first defence against cold, can explain some of the large numbers of deaths that are associated with cold weather. |
| US special forces killed in Afghanistan crash |
Taliban say they downed helicopter in the deadliest single combat incident of the decade-long war. A Chinook NATO helicopter has crashed in eastern Afghanistan during a battle with the Taliban, killing at least 31 US and seven Afghan soldiers There have been at least 17 coalition and Afghan aircraft crashes in Afghanistan this year. ‘US chopper crash removes all proof of Osama’s death’ According to an Indian TV channel, the presence of as many as 25 SEALs in the same helicopter has astonished everyone. It is significant that 20 out of these 25 Navy SEALs were those who had taken part in Abbottabad ‘Get Osama Operation’. It is worth mentioning that neither any video of Osama Bin Laden’s killing has surfaced nor have any photographs been released Bulgaria Weakness: Serving Expanded U.S. Global Military NetworkThe unprecedented expansion of American military presence throughout the world in the last decade, in support of and consolidated by attacks and invasions in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen and Libya, has been marked by the Pentagon securing new bases in several continents and Oceania. With the activation of the Northern Distribution Network to supply the nearly ten-year war in Afghanistan, all but two of fifteen former Soviet Republics – Moldova and Ukraine – have been incorporated into troop and equipment transit routes for the world’s longest armed conflict: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In January the Russian government announced that U.S. and NATO flights over the country in support of the Afghan war had reached “up to 4,500 flights in one direction in a year.” The next month Voice of Russia, citing Foreign Ministry figures, revealed that 15,000 U.S. military personnel and over 20,000 tons of cargo had crossed Russian territory en route to Afghanistan since October of 2009. In the new century, with a World War Two-level $729 billion military budget this year and a head of state who boasts of being the commander-in-chief of “the world’s sole military superpower,” its reach spans almost the entire globe. The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned against outside interference in the Syrian conflict, saying the country's citizens should solve their problems themselves."The settlement in this country should be carried out by the Syrians themselves without outside interference and should be based on an all-Syria dialogue, which is the only way to resolve the conflict," the ministry said in a statement. Most Discussed |
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