tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4677796436868090902024-03-13T12:31:44.307+00:00verrykusral's bloggiving each other, exchanging views in mutual acceptance and mutual trustverrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-1582240653017380272019-06-18T04:32:00.001+01:002019-06-18T04:46:53.845+01:00Egypt's former president Mohamed Mursi has died in court: Public prosecutor<div class="yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">
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Former Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi died on Monday after he collapsed in a defendants' cage after speaking in court, Egypt's public prosecutor said.</div>
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He added that the former leader, 67, was pronounced dead at 4:50 pm CET in the hospital. A medical report done on Mursi's body showed no signs of recent injuries.</div>
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The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist organisation Mursi belonged to and which is now considered by the state to be a terrorist organisation, said in a statement that its former leader's death is "full-fledged murder" and called for masses to attend the funeral.</div>
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"Neither the shock of the news nor the haste in spreading information about the details of (Mursi's) death will change the features of this full-fledged murder," the Islamist group said in a statement on its website.</div>
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Mursi, Egypt's first democratically-elected president, was toppled by the military in 2013 after mass protests against this rule.</div>
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State television said he was in court for a hearing on charges of espionage emanating from suspected contacts with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.</div>
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The ousted leader was serving a 20-year prison sentence for a conviction arising from the killing of protesters during demonstrations in 2012 and a life sentence for espionage in a case related to Qatar.</div>
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Mursi's troubled one-year presidency</div>
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Mursi, a civil engineer with a doctorate from the University of Southern California, grew up in a village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya.</div>
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He was propelled to power after the Muslim Brotherhood won an election following a popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011.</div>
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Mursi promised a moderate Islamist agenda to steer Egypt into a new democratic era where autocracy would be replaced by a transparent government that respected human rights.</div>
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He told Egyptians he would deliver an "Egyptian renaissance with an Islamic foundation".</div>
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But when he got to power, Mursi made the tactical mistake in Egyptian politics of antagonising the military. The army chief appointed by Mursi, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, eventually turned on him.</div>
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When mass discontent spilt out to the streets, Sisi adviced Mursi to make compromises with his political opponents, which he refused and instead reached out mainly to other Islamists.</div>
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A youth movement called Tamarud, which means "rebellion" in Arabic started a petition for Mursi to step down. Eventually, millions took to the streets demanding that he leave.</div>
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People accused him of usurping powers, imposing the Brotherhood's conservative brand of Islam and mismanaging the economy, all of which he denied.</div>
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On July 3, 2013, Sisi appeared on television to announce the end of Mursi's troubled one year-presidency and plans for new elections.</div>
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A crackdown happened, which saw most of the Brotherhood's leaders put in jail. Sisi then took over the government, cementing his power and restoring the kind of military-backed government that Mursi had tried to break for good.</div>
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Poor health in jail</div>
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Mursi's lawyer said the former leader's health had been poor in jail. "We had put in several requests for treatment, some were accepted and others were not," the lawyer, Abdel-Menem Abdel-Maqsood, told Reuters.</div>
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Mursi's family had also previously said that his health had deteriorated in prison and that they were rarely allowed to visit.</div>
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His body was taken to the Toray prison hospital, state television reported.</div>
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Authorities refuse to bury Mursi in family cemetery</div>
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Egyptian authorities refused to have Mursi buried in the family cemetery, Mursi's son Abdullah Mohamed Mursi told Reuters on Monday.</div>
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The son said that Mursi's family did not know the location of his body and that their only contact with the authorities was through the family's lawyers.</div>
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"We know nothing about him and no one is in touch with us, and we don't know if we are going to wash him or say a prayer to him or not," Abdullah said.</div>
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"Putting doubts aside, he has become a martyr today with the fulfilment of God's order ... Our prayers are with him," Erdogan said.</div>
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"Condolences to all my brothers who walked the same path as he did. Condolences to the people of Egypt. Condolences to his family and those close to him."</div>
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The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said Mursi had "served Egypt and the (Muslim) nation and the Palestinian cause".</div>
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Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, a backer of Mursi and his Brotherhood, tweeted his condolences to Mursi's family "and to the brotherly Egyptian people".</div>
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Amnesty International called on Egyptian authorities to launch a fair inquiry into the death of Mursi.</div>
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"We call on Egyptian authorities to conduct an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Mursi's death, including his solitary confinement and isolation from the outside world," Amnesty tweeted in Arabic.</div>
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It also urged for an investigation into the medical care Mursi was receiving, and for anyone found responsible for mistreatment </div>
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Egypt's former president Mohamed Mursi has died in court: Public prosecutor</h2>
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Egypt's former president Mohamed Mursi collapsed in his cage after speaking in court, said Egypt's public prosec...</div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-63884217322847442272019-01-26T19:59:00.000+00:002019-01-26T20:08:13.371+00:00'Jokowi’s magic has now gone': Prabowo ready for presidential debate<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Terrorism, human rights, legal affairs and corruption will take centre stage when President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his opponent Prabowo Subianto square off in the first presidential debate of 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tens of millions of Indonesians are expected to tune in for the debatel, which will also feature Widodo's running mate, the Islamic cleric Ma'ruf Amin, and Prabowo's offsider, former Jakarta deputy governor Sandiaga Uno.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Indonesian President Joko Widodo may be targeted for not making enough progress in tackling endemic corruption in Indonesia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both camps have indicated they will try to focus on the issues that matter to voters and their political programs – rather than ramping up political attacks on their opponents – but both sides have vulnerabilities that may be too tempting for the other to ignore.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prabowo is still dogged by allegations of human rights abuses taking place when he was a military commander in East Timor, and alleged involvement in the kidnapping of activists during the 1998 reformasi demonstrations that led to the end of former president Suharto's long rule – charges he has always denied.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The challenger, in turn, may target Widodo for not making enough progress in tackling endemic corruption in Indonesia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Neither candidate had yet made big promises to tackle these issues, he said, but both had indicated their support for greater religious tolerance – a founding principle of Indonesia, but one that has been eroded by the rise of Islamism in recent years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prabowo-Sandi campaign spokesman Andre Rosiade flagged ahead of the debate the case of Novel Baswedan – an investigator with the respected Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (anti-corruption commission, or KPK) – who was attacked with hydrochloric acid in April 2017, and whose case remains unsolved, will likely be raised.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rosiade said that "God willing, Prabowo and Sandi will solve it within 100 days [if they win the election] so that there will be legal certainty for KPK investigators that no more a group of thugs could terrorise KPK".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rosiade claimed the shine had gone from the still-popular President.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The most important thing is that Jokowi’s magic has now gone. He is in fact nothing special; we’ve seen it in the last four years. He offered hope and how he has no more hope [to offer]," he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"We won’t be attacking [Widodo and Amin]. We will only propose ideas for betterment."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Aria Bima, an official in the Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin campaign team, said the President and his running mate would focus on the goverment's achievments in the nearly five years since the last election, and their plans for the future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"We will say, you said that building infrastructure is not important, we will explain that it is not the case, that infrastructure is important. They [Prabowo] said that Indonesia will be extinct one day [an infamous claim made by the candidate in a 2018 speech], we will explain the fact that Indonesia is one among a handful of the most productive countries in the world. We want to build up a good spirit," he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Human Rights Watch Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono suggested neither of the candidates were likely to criticise the other on how to tackle terrorism, but each could critique the other on human rights and corruption.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"What are the biggest human rights issues in Indonesia? According to several public surveys, there are three issues. One is religious violence and intolerance; the second is land grabbing for palm oil plantations and mining; and the third is discrimination against women – female genital mutilation, child marriages, and the mandatory wearing of hijabs [in some places]," he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Infrastructure investment, including in road, rail and housing, has been a major focus for Widodo in his first term.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If re-elected – Widodo leads Prabowo in reputable polls – the President's campaign team says he will focus on investment in human capital and look to spend more on schools, universities and health care in his second term.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prabowo, for his part, has promised tax cuts (though few Indonesians actually pay tax) and programs to improve childhood nutrition so far. Further major promises are expected in the lead up to the Aprl 17 poll, when Indonesians will also vote for local members of parliament.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/asia/jokowi-s-magic-has-now-gone-prabowo-ready-for-presidential-debate-20190116-p50ro4.html?fbclid=IwAR21xInb2tBetTqTjVh37MdV6gIETzBja30w8oxuuE3xMb71rUSgoE-MBys" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">brisbane times</a></div>
verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-254546717731896632018-12-06T01:55:00.000+00:002018-12-06T01:55:01.509+00:00Indonesia: Millions gather for anti-government rally in Jakarta<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By Dandy Koswaraputra | Anadolu</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">JAKARTA: More than 2 million Indonesians gathered in capital Jakarta on Sunday to mark the second anniversary of the "212 movement" by holding a peaceful anti-government rally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The protesters read verses from the holy Quran and sang songs against incumbent President Joko Widodo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"People are lied to, promises are denied, scholars are tyrannised, mandates are betrayed. In 2019, replace the senseless president," said the lyrics of one song.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The protesters dressed in white poured into Jakarta on Saturday night from several cities. They camped overnight to pray in congregation at dawn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some 20,000 troops were deployed for their security.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The "212 movement" was formed after a rally on Dec. 2, 2016 to call for the prosecution over blasphemy of former Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison in May. </span></div>
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<a href="https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/02/12/2018/Conservative-Indonesian-Muslims-hold-big-rally-in-Jakarta"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Peninsula Qatar</span></a></div>
verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-77385091210048895682018-12-05T17:34:00.000+00:002018-12-05T19:57:56.516+00:00Rupiah at lowest since Asian financial crisis, but Indonesia keeps calm and carries on<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With consumer prices falling, wages rising and inflation under control, the Bank Indonesia governor rubbishes comparisons with 20 years ago. “Come on!,” he says. “You make it sound like Indonesia is falling apart”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BY DAVID G ROSE</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saturday, 6 OCT 2018</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Asian financial crisis may have occurred two decades ago, but it continues to cast a long shadow over Indonesia. The country’s modern image was defined in the summer of 1998 as a currency crash sparked social and political chaos, culminating in the downfall of President Suharto and the birth of a reformed democracy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week, the rupiah fell to its lowest level since that fateful summer; it is now trading at more than 15,000 rupiah to the US dollar, having weakened by 10 per cent overall this year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Southeast Asia’s largest economy has proved to be as vulnerable as other emerging markets to the uncertainty and turbulence triggered by the United States-China trade war and rising oil prices. Countries as diverse as Turkey, India, Argentina and South Africa have all seen their currencies weaken as investors retreat to more traditional safe havens and stores of value.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the rupiah’s continued depreciation is a blow to Bank Indonesia (BI), the central bank, which has been determined to avoid another rout, increasing interest rates five times since May in an attempt to stabilise the currency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But while Indonesian holidaymakers may be disappointed in the exchange rate for the rupiah while travelling abroad, back home there is no sense of an imminent crisis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Consumer prices are actually falling rather than rising, largely due to a decrease in prices on staple foods such as chicken, eggs, onions and chillies. Wages are also slightly rising and, for the moment, inflation is under control.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As Perry Warjiyo, the governor of Indonesia’s central bank, puts it, “the fundamentals of the economy are sound”. Warjiyo dismissed comparisons to 1998 when asked this week about the currency’s current slump, which made headlines across the region.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Why do you keep saying it’s ‘the lowest since the Asian crisis’, this kind of thing?” he tells This Week In Asia. “You make it sound like Indonesia is falling apart.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He adds: “How much has the rupiah fallen this year? 9.8 per cent. But how much has the [Indian] rupee fallen? Twelve per cent. How much is the decline in Turkey, how much in South Africa, how much in Argentina?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Come on! Compare [the rupiah] with the rupee and other countries’ currencies. Our depreciation sends many jitters, but it is still manageable. And of course our rupiah is undervalued, compared to its fundamentals.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The BI governor is aiming to restore confidence not just in the aftermath of a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Central Sulawesi, but in advance of the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings that will take place in Bali next week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The biggest players in world finance and development economics will be arriving and Indonesia – as well as the economy of the wider region – will be the focus of attention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2167208/rupiah-lowest-asian-financial-crisis-indonesia-keeps-calm-and">South China Morning Post</a></span></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-54360340742429939802018-10-21T23:47:00.000+01:002018-11-03T04:32:34.730+00:00New Study Shows Half of Cancer Patients are Killed by Chemotherapy, Not Cancer<div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5973" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5974" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5975" style="font-size: 16px;">No matter how much doctors push the treatment, chemotherapy might not be the best option in the fight against cancer, as a new study shows up to 50 percent of patients are killed by the drugs — not the disease, itself.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5980" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5981" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5982" style="font-size: 16px;">Researchers from Public Health England and Cancer Research UK performed a groundbreaking study examining for the first time the numbers of cancer patients who died within 30 days of beginning chemotherapy — indicating the treatment, not cancer, was the cause of death.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5987" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5988" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5989" style="font-size: 16px;">Looking at those death rates in hospitals across the U.K., researchers found an alarming mortality rate associated with chemotherapy.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5994" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5995" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5996" style="font-size: 16px;">Across "England around 8.4 percent of patients with lung cancer, and 2.4 percent of breast cancer patients died within a month," the Telegraph reported.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6001" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6002" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6003" style="font-size: 16px;">"But in some hospitals, the figure was far higher. In Milton Keynes, the death rate for lung cancer treatment was 50.9 percent, although it was based on a very small number of patients."</span></span><br />
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6008" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6009" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6010" style="font-size: 16px;">Alarmingly, the one-month mortality rate at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals for those undergoing palliative, rather than curative, chemotherapy for lung cancer was a full 28 percent. One in five breast cancer patients receiving palliative care at Cambridge University Hospitals died from treatment.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6015" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6016" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6017" style="font-size: 16px;">In certain areas — Blackpool, Coventry, Derby, South Tyneside, and Surrey and Sussex — deaths of lung cancer patients by chemotherapy were 'far higher' than the national average.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6022" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6023" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6024" style="font-size: 16px;">Dr. Jem Rashbass, Cancer Lead for Public Health England — the national health care service, which requested the study — said, as quoted by the Telegraph:</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6029" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6030" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6031" style="font-size: 16px;">"Chemotherapy is a vital part of cancer treatment and is a large reason behind the improved survival rates over the last four decades.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6036" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6037" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6038" style="font-size: 16px;">"However, it is the powerful medication with significant side effects and often getting the balance right on which patients to treat aggressively can be hard.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6043" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6044" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6045" style="font-size: 16px;">"Those hospitals whose death rates are outside the expected range have had the findings shared with them and we have asked them to review their practice and data."</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6050" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6051" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6052" style="font-size: 16px;">For the analysis, researchers "included all women with breast cancer and all men and women with lung cancer residing in England, who were 24 years or older and who started a cycle" of chemotherapy in 2014.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6057" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6058" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6059" style="font-size: 16px;">Long the mainstay for treating various cancers, chemotherapy has finally drawn criticism in recent years, as the medicine does not differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells. Now, this study — published in the Lancet — shows how that powerful cell-destroying property can mean the demise for patients as well.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6064" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6065" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6066" style="font-size: 16px;">Researchers have advised physicians to exercise more caution in vetting which patients should ideally receive chemotherapy. Older and more infirm patients, in particular, might be better off without receiving palliative care, which is designed to offer relief instead of curing the disease.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6071" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6072" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6073" style="font-size: 16px;">"The statistics don't suggest bad practice overall but there are some outliers," noted Professor David Dodwell of the Institute of Oncology at St. James Hospital in Leeds.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6078" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6079" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6080" style="font-size: 16px;">"It could be data problems, and figures skewed because of just a few deaths, but nevertheless it could also be down to problems with clinical practice," he continued.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6085" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6086" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6087" style="font-size: 16px;">"I think it's important to make patients aware that there is potentially life-threatening downsides to chemotherapy. And doctors should be more careful about who they treat with chemotherapy."</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6092" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6093" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6094" style="font-size: 16px;">All hospitals involved said they reviewed the information and remain certain chemotherapy is safe — with the caveat patient selection for the treatment may need to be more discretionary.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6099" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6100" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6101" style="font-size: 16px;">Professor David Cameron of the Edinburgh Cancer Centre at West General Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, noted, "The concern is that with some of the patients dying within 30 days of being given chemo probably shouldn't have been given the chemo. But how many? There is no easy way to answer that, but perhaps looking at those places/hospitals where the death rate was higher might help.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6106" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6107" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6108" style="font-size: 16px;">"Furthermore, if we give less chemo then some patients will die because they didn't get chemo. It's a fine balance and the more data we have the better we can be at making sure we get the balance right."</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6113" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6114" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6115" style="font-size: 16px;">Meanwhile, doctors in the United States should probably take note, considering the sheer number of patients forced to undergo chemotherapy at the State's behest despite objections from those patients and their families.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6120" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6121" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6122" style="font-size: 16px;">In one example, a 17-year-old diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma decided to seek alternatives to chemotherapy, but her doctors — so inculcated in state and Big Pharma propaganda — contacted family services, who then kidnapped the young adult and placed her in foster care.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6215" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6216" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6217" style="font-size: 16px;">She was finally allowed to return home once she agreed to undergo the often debilitating treatment — but ran away once doctors informed her she'd have to endure surgery for the implantation of a chemo port. In an incredible act of Orwellian Big Government, the Supreme Court ruled the State was in the right in this case — and after being kidnapped and forced into treatment against her will, was denied contact with her own family.</span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6222" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: justify;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6223" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6224" style="font-size: 16px;">As unfathomably invasive as that was, it isn't isolated.</span></span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6230" style="font-family: Merriweather, sans-serif;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_6231" style="font-size: 16px;">Alternative treatments do, in fact, exist — the most promising among them for many cancers are various formulations of CBD oil, a cannabis derivative. But, thanks to the phenomenally failed war on drugs, cancer patients in most areas of the U.S. are unable to procure much-needed medicine or are forced to receive treatment on the sly — risking time behind bars simply for wanting to cure themselves.</span></span></div>
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<a class="enhancr2_f8d50ac7-700c-219b-7f41-961db504db28" href="http://newsinstact.com/earth/shocking-new-study-shows-half-of-cancer-patients-are-killed-by-chemotherapy-not-cancer/" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1540160326322_5605">New Study Shows Half of Cancer Patients are Killed by Chemotherapy, Not Cancer</a><br />
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<a href="https://usahealth24.com/2018/04/05/shocking-new-study-shows-half-of-cancer-patients-are-killed-by-chemotherapy-not-cancer/" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">New Study Shows Half Of Cancer Patients Are Killed By Chemotherapy, Not Cancer</a></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-7911171905214631922018-10-04T16:02:00.000+01:002018-10-04T16:38:32.486+01:00My friend the wind song | Demis Roussos<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IaYwr2NJ98w" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My Friend The Wind is a song by Greek singer Demis Roussos. It was released as a single in 1973.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The song was written by Alec R. Costandinos and Stelios Vlavianos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Roussos was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, in a Greek family where his father George (Yorgos) Roussos was a classical guitarist and an engineer and his mother Olga was a singer; her family originally came from Greece.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a child, he studied music and joined the Greek Church Byzantine choir in Alexandria. His formative years in the ancient port city's cosmopolitan atmosphere were influenced by jazz, but also traditional Arab and Greek Orthodox music. His parents lost their possessions during the Suez Crisis and consequently decided to move to Greece.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Demis Roussos has died on January 25, 2015, in Athens, Greece</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Source of stories: Wikipedia</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Song lyrics:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My friend the wind will come from the hills </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When dawn will rise, he'll wake me again </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My friend the wind will tell me a secret </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He shares with me, he shares with me</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Choir:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"My friend the wind will come from the north </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With words of love, she whispered for me </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My friend the wind will say she loves me </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And me alone, and me alone"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'll hear her voice and the words </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That he brings from Helenimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sweet as a kiss are the songs of Aghapimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Soft as the dew is the touch of Manoulamou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh-oh-oh</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We'll share a dream where I'm never away from Helenimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Blue are the days like the eyes of Aghapimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Far from the world will I live with Manoulamou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh-oh-oh</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My friend the wind go back to the hills </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And tell my love a day will soon come </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh friendly wind you tell a secret </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You know so well, oh you know so well</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'll hear her voice and the words </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Choir:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"My friend the wind will come from the north </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With words of love, she whispered for me </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My friend the wind will say she loves me </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And me alone, and me alone"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'll hear her voice and the words </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That he brings from Helenimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sweet as a kiss are the songs of Aghapimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Soft as the dew is the touch of Manoulamou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh-oh-oh</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We'll share a dream where I'm never away from Helenimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Blue are the days like the eyes of Aghapimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Far from the world will I live with Manoulamou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh-oh-oh</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">La la la, Helenimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">La la la, Aghapimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">La la la, Manoulamou</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh-oh-oh</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">La la la, Helenimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">La la la, Aghapimou </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">La la la, Manoulamou</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh-oh-oh</span><br />
<div>
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vkusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12901358908444644120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-76638753834486278712018-08-05T23:51:00.001+01:002018-08-05T23:53:03.324+01:00Breaking: At least 82 dead as earthquake rocks Lombok and Bali<div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">At least 82 people have died after a powerful earthquake rocked the Indonesian tourist islands of Lombok and neighbouring Bali, triggering a tsunami warning just a week after another quake in the same region killed 16 people.</span></div>
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The magnitude 7 earthquake hit about 6.46pm Jakarta time (9.46pm AEST) on Sunday, 27 kilometres north-east of northern Lombok at a 15-kilometre depth.</div>
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<a class="yiv2696827605enhancr2_ac357df1-cdc2-3f68-4a03-23de220212fa" href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/powerful-enough-to-put-us-on-the-floor-earthquake-hits-lombok-bali-20180805-p4zvod.html" id="yiv2696827605yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1533502572230_6989" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank">Multiple deaths after powerful earthquake rocks Lombok and Bali</a></div>
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Multiple deaths after powerful earthquake rocks Lombok and Bali</h2>
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By James Massola</div>
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Dozens of people have died after a powerful earthquake rocked the Indonesian tourist islands of Lombok and neigh...</div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-21572876937386489482018-07-30T05:58:00.000+01:002018-07-30T06:03:02.513+01:00How Beijing is winning control of the South China Sea<div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span><div class="ydp60fcb38o_h ydp60fcb38D_F ydp60fcb38em_0 ydp60fcb38E_fq7 ydp60fcb38ek_BB" data-test-id="address-info"><div class="ydp60fcb38D_F ydp60fcb38en_0"><br></div></div><div data-test-id="message-body-container"><div data-test-id="message-view-body"><div class="ydp60fcb38msg-body ydp60fcb38P_wpofO ydp60fcb38iy_A" data-test-id="message-view-body-content"><div class="ydp60fcb38jb_0 ydp60fcb38X_6MGW ydp60fcb38N_6Fd5"><div id="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431"><div dir="ltr" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Erratic US policy and fraying alliances give China a free hand</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">SIMON ROUGHNEEN, Asia regional correspondent</font></div><div><br></div><div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--feature" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/B0unFdPma7PSzKFauZGHneBkEtCCwj7hUag-wS8_8N7B69LVTkeagXPdcdQU6muDbStY6xdRhFnFWNBT0tVKMzb14OCWXJZ5GFdH1qFhlHl1TyxyZYZoaYASRvKt0FSyfUby1kfgfmvBtZNJvmHXOHcKDaYY8KkX-YEcShbCtxKR5_u--vF4ua0SOczgM1kyqlbiOaXS1M-FniUUzbr2h6q96NcwV1XKp3HOwyBYVg0EsGiD2ba13CccCxLzaYerRHB6l_252GAJB3b61O2GiBxZsVNuQBRKkiGMNgthZmxKsw=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F2%2F3%2F5%2F9%2F14259532-1-eng-GB%2FRTX5NPNY.jpg?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 100%; width: 705.037px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block;">Chinese warships and fighter jets take part in a military display in the South China Sea on April 12. © Reuters</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px;">Even by his outspoken standards, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's account of a conversation he had with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, was startling.<br></p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">During a meeting between the two leaders in Beijing in May 2017, the subject turned to whether the Philippines would seek to drill for oil in a part of the South China Sea claimed by both countries. Duterte said he was given a blunt warning by China's president.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"[Xi's] response to me [was], 'We're friends, we don't want to quarrel with you, we want to maintain the presence of warm relationship, but if you force the issue, we'll go to war," Duterte recounted.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">A year later, Duterte was asked for a response to news that China had landed long-range bombers on one of the South China Sea's Paracel Islands -- a milestone that suggests the People's Liberation Army Air Force can easily make the short hop to most of Southeast Asia from its new airstrips. "What's the point of questioning whether the planes there land or not?" Duterte responded.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">His refusal to condemn China's military buildup underlines China's success in subduing its rivals in the South China Sea. Since 2013 China has expanded artificial islands and reefs in the sea and subsequently installed a network of runways, missile launchers, barracks and communications facilities.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">These military advances have led many to wonder if Beijing has already established unassailable control over the disputed waters. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea and its islands – claims that are looking increasingly forlorn in the wake of China's military buildup.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"What China is winning is de facto control of nearly the entire South China Sea, including all activities and resources in it, despite the other surrounding Southeast Asian states' respective legal rights and entitlements under international law," said Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">At stake is the huge commercial and military leverage that comes with controlling one of the world's most important shipping lanes, through which up to $5 trillion worth of trade passes each year.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis insists that China faces "consequences" for the "militarization" of South China Sea, which he says is being done for "the purposes of intimidation and coercion."</p><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790ez-embed-type-image" style="float: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--lightbox ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--inline" style="max-width: 770px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid" src="https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/gZaK3mBNiyHn9YEVtWLDf6EYZGQ-hAq3gUAMgzaQiWZ4107YgZeh-2g8WcXtR7zt91WX3kE3FYUSWGK0iMkaLHbtzb_Ye8EOYpHAGXltskAhexQQU9Of7c2CpWl8L-uQYM3aDSLkz2pjUNA1sJ-1wPO7DDRiQtI3gOor_rctUIIrICmuR2q-mm9ysmkboo3g3DvA54NQzaorGTZe8B8bXmkBceDIr6G1n9GRhV6ZfEMtphXOOwzSr3S_0KR1t-yNt1-gPuAu9jvIsdHTZ2OprZykXic7aZ1D_vBGxfXpDDswpLvqW-eDGTMY_mN0Jns3wsLA5PAv4bIqsptgGmjlJPBWHfo=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F_aliases%2Farticleimage%2F9%2F7%2F3%2F6%2F14246379-4-eng-GB%2F20180614-EEZ-Map.png?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 620px; width: 538.139px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block; max-width: 770px;"></span><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control--magnify" style="width: 45px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; min-height: 45px;"></span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"There are consequences that will continue to come home to roost, so to speak, with China, if they do not find the way to work more collaboratively with all of the nations," Mattis said on June 2 at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, a security conference organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Mac Thornberry, chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, added that the U.S. naval presence means China does not have a free hand in the South China Sea.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"I think you will see more and more nations working together to affirm freedom of navigation through the South China Sea and other international waters," Thornberry told the Nikkei Asian Review.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">But what those consequences might be was left unsaid by Mattis, who suggested that there was little prospect of forcing China to give up its growing network of military facilities dotting the sea.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"We all know nobody is ready to invade," he said.</p><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790ez-embed-type-image" style="float: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--lightbox ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--inline" style="max-width: 770px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid" src="https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/V4uifZ0-Kpce_makw5l8kImjmBdE_g6q9xq1tJgYTbCYSz0TKJ8SfSKfm9pF-iaJeB8j3xOWn4_ZdNIZKbXAbVE8_hgdo6Jfb3HtLplnKTLMqDxEMM44OO3aiC0Yn-oGjVobneiuyiFTOb1IPmuBx54plfnfoswrQZcAxt4hTafqHC350z3wMF0FIMx0OipIV6gnpwk1sfaWSWQVpwFQx2xfc4WMrY5CcYayrxqKYkIEvfRhVPgZ1zDjMFDK7R-HWtuCh767KJSw6bbN1ulH_9aBBdp44AOgxYT9PQ8wpkEJd6ApzWWi570xQTFBsmPmHbaXPy2oHDTWdGG_IfZOQD5D2w=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F_aliases%2Farticleimage%2F8%2F6%2F4%2F2%2F14232468-1-eng-GB%2FMattisROUGHNEEN.jpg?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 770px; width: 538.139px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block; max-width: 770px;">U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis talked up the "Indo-Pacific" strategy in his June 2 speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. (Photo by Simon Roughneen)</span><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control--magnify" style="width: 45px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; min-height: 45px;"></span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "There is no reasonable basis for the U.S. to use military force to push China off its outposts, nor would any country in the region support such an effort."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The U.S. pushback so far has included disinviting China from a major Pacific naval exercise. It also continues to carry out so-called freedom of navigation operations, or FONOPs, the most recent of which took place on May 27. This was followed by U.S. military aircraft flying over the Paracel Islands in early June, a move that prompted a countercharge of "militarization'" against the U.S. by China's Foreign Ministry.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">China regards the FONOPs as sabre-rattling and "a challenge to [our] sovereignty," according to Lt. Gen. He Lei, Beijing's lead representative at the Singapore conference.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">He restated the government position on troops and weapons on islands in the South China Sea, describing the deployments as an assertion of sovereignty and said that allegations of militarization were "hyped up" by the U.S.</p><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790ez-embed-type-image" style="float: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--lightbox ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--inline" style="max-width: 770px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/qwUQOnqy-n9A_t5KT2Aj9znW0IandPNFWIMquMbdVE9re93ESZKh0d1aL7V4h6hw2UdWLA7tBUW1VLGX3k4WSbVHHXsuYESZSBPxY79Maw7lv8-W77VIweMU-PGwceOQhUo3iVKg7cfID4nYcKwvbrx4xwJRHdF_4p5CJh8r8g2PkigQ4JG07PgisQeRuufi-S9PeRpZWwwi5DeCyZixw0Ao3Hkz-j0cuFa7EovikIi8cm9Jt76JYolOKmksdc3NoytPM5ufWRZbOfkLUDReuvQ1PQ4R-Ra3nqbuLqRlzm2AT4_Z1QB45D4MFMVzM1vRDnvO06VnaDZpjP7ZYVRsWJUbaERL6YqYJJ2SvBDCFZUD3Gj0A4IsV8zjnYFf4g2f6A=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F_aliases%2Farticleimage%2F3%2F7%2F5%2F5%2F14235573-1-eng-GB%2F20180614%20South%20China%20Sea%20Fleet%20Size.png?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 620px; width: 538.139px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block; max-width: 770px;"></span><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control--magnify" style="width: 45px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; min-height: 45px;"></span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana stopped short of endorsing the FONOPs but told the Nikkei Asian Review that "it is our belief that those sea lanes should be left open and free."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">In contrast to Duterte's reluctance to confront China, his predecessor as president, Benigno Aquino, was frequently outspoken about China's increasing control of the sea. He pressed a case against Beijing to an arbitration tribunal in 2013 after a protracted naval stand-off the year before around Scarborough Shoal, a rock claimed by both countries and lying about 120 nautical miles off the Luzon coast.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">In mid-2016 the tribunal dismissed China's expansive "nine-dash line" claim to much of the South China Sea and its artificial island-building and expansion, all of which the tribunal said contravened the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Duterte said he would not "flaunt" the tribunal outcome, in contrast with his campaign pledge to assert the country's sovereignty -- he even vowed to ride a jet ski to one of China's artificial islands and plant the Philippine flag there. Manila hopes for significant Chinese investment in roads, rail and ports, as part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, a multi continent plan outlining China-backed infrastructure upgrades.</p><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790ez-embed-type-image" style="float: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--lightbox ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--inline" style="max-width: 770px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/7gb5_7ScXGYNFHFp5QubvdGjhC1KXGIK47CERvkr1k59q3V-cLSgNY14eJDqL3F3Hpk1K_pZBSvwNHLlex1orE6sAl75NhqFT8-ZdESPVh42dbYmYUiZEbuK7yzeyW8saMEcYxCN8tFPbniys1tAD4Xhlx_zrBH0aIYfDRUBWxbBIFfrY4FKRFm_APkRioWU0S7HHqNzxaNsFw4DhgTSeCAVeWeDFisRiE1sMzmN5mmtXTAExj7KL-q-tfURkrITK2WvlqBt0VUHxWAtnfkKqJqBR0lPU4Iw_8n2mZ2zZ5sOEBCvdNfaQmUKedIO9VZ2llQUmxluS0EnxLZW=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F_aliases%2Farticleimage%2F6%2F7%2F8%2F2%2F14232876-1-eng-GB%2FRTX4UATE.jpg?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 769px; width: 538.139px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block; max-width: 770px;">Filipino activists rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Manila in February to protest Beijing's continued reclamation activities in the South China Sea. © Reuters</span><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control--magnify" style="width: 45px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; min-height: 45px;"></span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Defense Secretary Lorenzana emphasized in remarks to the media in Singapore that good relations with China remain a priority, regardless of bilateral disputes. "It is just natural for us to befriend our neighbour. We cannot avoid dealing with China, they are near, [and] many Filipinos, including me, have Chinese blood."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">For the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, there are growing doubts about whether the American navy would protect them in a conflict with China, something Duterte, a brusque critic of the U.S., has questioned publicly.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Mattis, like former President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sidestepped a question on that issue in Singapore, saying, "The reason why public figures do not want to give specific answers is that these are complex issues."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">American evasiveness is a reminder to the Philippines that the U.S. might not risk war with China over its old ally. "It is debatable whether Filipinos believe that the U.S. will have its back in a conflict with China," Batongbacal of the University of the Philippines said. "Duterte's repeated statements against the reliability of the U.S. as an ally tends to undermine this further."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Duterte's reticence has left Vietnam as the sole claimant willing to speak up. Discussing recent developments in the South China Sea, Vietnamese Defense Minister Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich told the Singapore conference, "Under no circumstances could we excuse militarization by deploying weapons and military hardware over disputed areas against regional commitments."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Lich did not name-check China in his speech, but described "a serious breach to the sovereignty" of another country that "violates international laws, complicates the situation and negatively affects regional peace, stability and security."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">As well as hindering oil and gas projects in waters close to Vietnam, China's navy has for several years harassed Vietnamese fishing boats -- as it does around the Philippines -- and continues to occupy islands seized from Vietnam nearly five decades ago.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">In 2014, anti-China riots kicked off across Vietnam after China placed an oil rig in South China Sea waters claimed by Hanoi. In early June there were demonstrations against proposals that protesters claimed will give Chinese businesses favoured access in so-called Special Economic Zones in Vietnam.</p><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790ez-embed-type-image" style="float: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--lightbox ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--inline" style="max-width: 770px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/m8UqR7vT6xbMGYWnC01HhPjQK1FGNvHGKgPab4JZIqEfj3T891GwEgy9T2JJ1s_yLTAhaeNu9pq1UIXeMFrykv5ACi8VnZnrAlxp8WQtFltHBgEzHYIbGxssD6G35L2lMaPu-2HmpCcOs7T6zyhof5d0V3-OoGp3HxWf2sMxroxI4qLmFHn7psohuxGwWWgMdpzsNLIOBNfpfOPmaqPlvlOEYorEyzXBRyZRJlUQQxZuoyr_eLWt7OdvLCY4aC2cLDcY379-QU8yGOI_m0wkqxEcyX0mwY9gZuw99GDToG0Q_0-S9X61gJ9G60iqqzrC_VI-IuSxvSFGeHVGK10_2ROesQ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F_aliases%2Farticleimage%2F1%2F5%2F3%2F2%2F14232351-1-eng-GB%2F4%29%20RTS1RQKM.jpg?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 770px; width: 538.139px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block; max-width: 770px;">The Lan Tay gas platform, operated by Rosneft Vietnam, sits in the South China Sea off the Vietnamese coast. China has been hindering Vietnam's oil exploration activities in the sea. © Reuters</span><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control--magnify" style="width: 45px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; min-height: 45px;"></span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Vietnam's response to potential isolation has been a cautious dalliance with the U.S. In late 2016, shortly before the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, American warships docked in Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay naval base, the first such visit since the former antagonists normalized ties in 1995. That landmark was followed in March this year by the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier to the central Vietnam city of Danang.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Hanoi recently called for greater Japanese involvement in the region's maritime disputes, perhaps signalling an interest in a wider effort to counter China. But unlike in the Philippines, Vietnam, which like China is a single party communist-run state, is not a U.S. treaty ally. Historical and ideological differences mean that there are limits to how closely Vietnam will align with the U.S.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"I think there is a good momentum with defence cooperation with the U.S. But I don't think that it would immediately mean jumping into the 'American camp,' whatever it means," said Huong Le Thu, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="font-weight: bolder;">From Bollywood to Hollywood</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The U.S. has sought to widen the array of countries it hopes will join it in countering China's rising influence. During his 12-day swing through Asia in late 2017, Trump peppered his speeches with references to the "Indo-Pacific," dispensing with the long-established "Asia-Pacific" label in favour of a more expansive term first used by Japan.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The "Indo-Pacific" was then mentioned throughout the U.S. National Security Strategy published soon after Trump's Asia trip -- a document that alleged China aims to "challenge American power" and "is using economic inducements and penalties, influence operations, and implied military threats to persuade other states to heed its political and security agenda."</p><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790ez-embed-type-image" style="float: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--lightbox ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--inline" style="max-width: 770px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/fXnNGMuM1NQvr55cnfqbfJ8l6vITu8rEvjwaSUtwbcxqOnFIfLqQiTsQr8lu_JGAyxXkm7lNRGWVu5YzTHzolPuc-py6R1AkI0b1F7jeCGJvLBYa6HuxzVUI100Mfd2TVsUhxi552AX7jPvXJzMhZogZOTkdE9grKtauJnis9d7ebUxwV5vtEY58S_TiqjmiyzxAr3VHSiB6T_FzsrQXAVIhBlEl7MMVZHAfZScqJ4UzaeeQn84wBRmL--HZizNi5RFaG8hIZYwrv6Wk7Tr4lreapsKO7k4N9S2dFRwJR1dSPAB5GbzBx75PdV7hk97DwkLnGQV5WAezpX4stUc1t51lFpyEbqfjJFw6woItnP8D86eXxg5f4Nauko_xuhcjEA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F_aliases%2Farticleimage%2F2%2F4%2F2%2F6%2F14236242-3-eng-GB%2F20180614%20South%20China%20Sea%20Spend%20Line.png?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 620px; width: 538.139px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block; max-width: 770px;"></span><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control--magnify" style="width: 45px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; min-height: 45px;"></span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Three days before his Singapore speech, Mattis announced in Hawaii that the U.S. Pacific Command would be renamed the Indo-Pacific Command, describing the expanded theatre as stretching "from Bollywood to Hollywood."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Mattis later added some gravitas to the cinematic catchphrase, saying in Singapore that "standing shoulder to shoulder with India, ASEAN and our treaty allies and other partners, America seeks to build an Indo-Pacific where sovereignty and territorial integrity are safeguarded -- the promise of freedom fulfilled and prosperity prevails for all."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The Trump administration clearly hopes for greater Indian involvement in its efforts to counter China's growing influence. Kori Schake, deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that while "Indo-Pacific isn't yet an established part of the lexicon," the implications of the term are clear.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"India is an Asian power. The countries adopting the term are encouraging India into greater cooperation in maintaining the maritime commons in the Indian and Pacific oceans," said Schake, a former U.S. State Department official.</p><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790ez-embed-type-image" style="float: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--lightbox ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--inline" style="max-width: 770px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/wXIu_M0i3NmGGMgLwi_reYXMcbDPHNNPL-IOr4O_JFf57kVbfx1frIejKWNXSXfsekW3AN3rqdITeo58_6-6AOf14bxqFksejO0Qp2jez2OTdhRl_hgSWwc0hnAo2n391DlkgkShT_qctdKi68MAfsGVkeVRyZebdPFkqmVhjHE8liYqnmUroU8fEOvpT4zagr4ek4JlGam2yx7p_3CWCzrKrPj-zUYTzzgfz5tUvpgo2eRUfYN-vUim4nUKf9My4lRXGN3Xn5Kspr0YVrhmdTbHcQO79u-g3munXLdv4rhqZRNeZ627X7LbcK4aw5OpTyiBwJucsCJiVOrmuvy1vtA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F_aliases%2Farticleimage%2F7%2F0%2F5%2F2%2F14232507-1-eng-GB%2FModiROUGHNEEN.jpg?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 770px; width: 538.139px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block; max-width: 770px;">Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security conference, in Singapore on June 1. (Photo by Simon Roughneen)</span><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control--magnify" style="width: 45px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; min-height: 45px;"></span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Modi enthusiastically echoed American rhetoric about a "shared vision of an open, stable, secure and prosperous" Indo-Pacific, which he described as "a natural region" -- countering those who wonder if an area stretching from Bollywood to Hollywood might too vast and desperate to be cast into a geopolitical fact on the ground.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">But Modi also heaped praise on China, despite its border dispute with India and increasingly close economic ties with Pakistan, India's neighbour and nuclear rival.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"Our cooperation is expanding. Trade is growing. And, we have displayed maturity and wisdom in managing issues and ensuring a peaceful border," Modi said.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">China's foreign ministry described Modi's speech as "positive," while one of its military delegation at the Singapore conference gloated that India and the U.S. "have different understandings, different interpretations, of this Indo-Pacific."</p><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790ez-embed-type-image" style="float: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--lightbox ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__image--inline" style="max-width: 770px;"><img class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-img-fluid" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/L7H4Ud2M_0OtV6Ka7mM-vGEy6H4fDmsKzXbF2XSaSW6VviIPoEEtaP3k3chHOFbzBYqEqU6y4e_CoBibZgZotKkq5b6x971exVq720AvZ0QgR3SF-uFPmgar7e9NjWpHIER_muqWPSRcLM66X3JBdnnhTVVmZ9ii0DRcWt9i2E-kfpH7mOkGmjYSnxBgQkVZT3C-h86Dyiv25vDi0rY6Wifa_ENC1G4547qfW987SPNx0y1XVzeeTn_Hdjla5KKDryC8tjh-8yCqcj_PeJ_XSK8t7_Lr6NgrGJKjkcic_k0FAr4Kr4B0txYmzMoBuSeMrR99fJKB4E8L9bQ3RrI7hT0MNgiEiDFKOMjk_Q=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%2Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%2Fimages%2F_aliases%2Farticleimage%2F9%2F2%2F4%2F2%2F14232429-1-eng-GB%2FKyodo_PR20180608-0005-01.jpg?source=nar-cms" style="border-style: none; max-width: 770px; width: 538.139px;" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__caption" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: block; max-width: 770px;">China's first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier © Kyodo</span><span class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-lightbox__control--magnify" style="width: 45px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; min-height: 45px;"></span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">It is perhaps no surprise then that China's rivals in the South China Sea do not yet regard the nascent Indo-Pacific alliance-building as something to pin their hopes on when it comes to controlling of the sea.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">"We are witnessing the great power shift toward Asia-Pacific with the 'Indo-Pacific strategy,' Belt and Road Initiative and a series of country grouping[s] in the region," Lich said, cautioning that "the outcomes for the region and the world are somewhat yet to be unveiled."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Lich's Philippine counterpart was even more circumspect, particularly regarding the Indo-Pacific concept. "I have to study it some more," Lorenzana said. "This is a new construct in this area."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, Times, "New serif"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><em>Nikkei staff writers Mikhail Flores in Manila and Atsushi Tomiyama in Hanoi contributed to this article.</em></p><div id="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-AdAsia" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></div><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-o-ads ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__advert ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-article__advert--center" style="margin: 0px auto; text-align: center; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-o-ads__outer"><div class="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-o-ads__inner" id="ydp60fcb38yiv1940172431ydpc54f9f89m_-5996675442048378790gmail-o-ads-slot-2470-gpt"><div style="border: 0pt none;"></div></div></div></div><a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cover-Story/How-Beijing-is-winning-control-of-the-South-China-Sea" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cover-Story/How-Beijing-is-winning-control-of-the-South-China-Sea</a><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></span></div></div>verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-2262609985393932242018-07-26T02:53:00.001+01:002018-07-26T09:35:05.679+01:00Mesut Özil Walks Away from German Team Alleging Racism on a Sad Day for German Football<div style="font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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By <a href="https://www.smobserved.com/author/preity_uupala" rel="nofollow" style="color: #003399;" target="_blank">Preity Uupala</a><br />
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<span style="color: rgb(85 , 85 , 85); font-family: "open sans" , "georgia" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: 0.288px;">Germany's world cup failure blamed on Özil, despite his stellar record over his career</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says today in Ankara that he is glad with Mesut Özil's stance: "I called him on Monday night and we talked. They simply can't stomach the fact that he took a picture with me. His attitude was nationalistic. I kiss his eyes and I stand by him"</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">One of the most scandalous stories to hit the soccer world was yesterday's news surrounding mid-fielder Mesut Özil's departure from the German national team due to "racial and disrespect". A shocking departure following the 2018 world cup in Russia, of Arsenal star Özil, who also played for Germany and is of Turkish descent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">In a statement, Özil writes: " It is with a heavy heart and after much consideration that because of recent events, I will no longer be playing for Germany at an international level whilst I have this feeling of racism and disrespect"- Mesut Özil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">There may have been accusations that Germany's spectacular failure this world cup can be blamed due to his poor performance. But it seems ludicrous. The German team lost because they played poorly and lost as a collective team. No one player can be blamed and management and coach are equally at fault.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">He made a spectacular statement" When we win, I am German; when we lose, I am an immigrant". The issue here is not one of his performance, but a much deeper issue of racism and abuse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">It all started in may 2018 when Özil met and posed for photography with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and signed a t-shirt with the words "For my president". Ozil was quick to justify that this was a courteous gesture on his part and he was not making any sort of political endorsement saying that "It would have been disrespecting the roots of my ancestry", had he not made the gesture. But the photo did not go down well with German media and the German Football Association (FA) who heavily criticized it and left Özil out for a lot of the pre-world cup promo activities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">It is a sad day for Germany because this idea of an integrated German team, one that is inclusive, diverse and respectful is under attack. The fact that one of the most high profile players does not feel comfortable representing the national team makes it a huge story. Özil has always claimed that he has two hearts: one German and one Turkish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">However, these are very tense times for Germany regarding race tensions and a story like this falls right into the arms of those who wish to use it for political gain. It is a shame to see far-right parties like the AFD, use this as a part of their identity politics strategy in an attempt to showcase that diversity and immigration simply don't work. Yes, there are serious issues with immigration and refugee influx, especially where there is no integration or assimilation on the part of those who take refuge. And in many ways, this human refugee experiment has failed Europe and especially Germany creating all sorts of internal conflicts and tensions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">But with Özil, this is hardly the case here. Far from bringing a refugee, he was born in Germany as was his father, speaks perfect German, grew up here and for all intents and purposes is very German, he is an example of the diversity that has triumphed not failed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">What makes things worse is that other foreign players in the German national team like Miroslav Klose and Joseph Podolski are always referred to as German and not German-Polish and yet Özil was always German- Turkish, because of his Muslim heritage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">For someone who has worn that German jersey 92 times scoring 23 goals internationally, being a vital part of the 2014 team that lifted the world cup trophy and who has been German player of the year 5 times, this is a sad ending to a wonderful career. He has done a lot of charity work and has been a great role model on and off the field but all of this seems to be of little significance and consequence for some in the German media and FA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">There have been mixed reactions; from a global outrage for soccer fans around the world who applauded Özil for standing up to racism, to some saying German Football is better off without him, to some in the German Football Association downplaying it and reducing it to poor performance instead of a much more larger, sensitive race problem and to some who realize something precious has been lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Once a hero, Mesut Özil's now just a scapegoat for racists. And his suddenly abbreviated Germany career serves as a microcosm of Europe's shifting stance on immigration.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">The German FA seems to downplay the racial issues and condensing it to Özil poor performance in recent times. The Bayern Munich President, Uli Hoeness, and the German FA have been harsh to come back with scandalous quotes that Özil performance has slumped in the recent past and that he does not belong on the national team. It blames Germany's world cup failure down to one player and seems to erode Özil's stellar record over his career. You may not think he was playing his best soccer in recent times but a total ignorance over the racial issue is very reckless for Germany moving forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">It shows wanted disregard for a serious issue of racial tensions not just in the team but the nation as well. It shows a lack of understating the difference inherent in a player and shoving that difference back into their face rather than protecting them from various racial abuses and mistreatment, subtle, as they may have been. Perhaps this shows the deeply embedded racism that still exists within the DFA and in Germany. How does this affect the future Mesut Özil who dream of playing for Germany; they may now think twice. Time will only tell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Mesut Özil will continue to play for English club Arsenal and possibly create more history there but the real loser here is German football.</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.smobserved.com/story/2018/07/25/news/mesut-zil-walks-away-from-german-team-alleging-racism-on-a-sad-day-for-german-football/3556.html">Santa Monica Observer</a></i></div>
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Mesut Özil Walks Away from German Team Alleging Racism on a Sad Day for ...</h2>
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One of the most scandalous stories to hit the soccer world was yesterday's news surrounding mid-fielder Mesut Öz...</div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-90830220353586783192018-07-24T05:51:00.001+01:002018-07-24T09:42:26.071+01:00Indonesia | 'I felt disgusted': inside Indonesia's fake Twitter account factories<div class="mobile-photo" style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">People attend a rally to show support for jailed former governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama - known by his nickname Ahok. Photograph: Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images via The Guardian</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Kate Lamb in Jakarta</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday, 23 Jul 2018</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To pass them off as real, Alex would enliven his fake accounts with dashes of humanity. Mixed up among the stream of political posts, his avatars – mostly pretty young Indonesian women – would bemoan their broken hearts and post pictures of their breakfasts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But these fake accounts were not for fun; Alex and his team were told it was "war".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"When you're at war you use anything available to attack the opponent," says Alex from a cafe in central Jakarta, "but sometimes I felt disgusted with myself."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For several months in 2017 Alex, whose name has been changed, alleges he was one of more than 20 people inside a secretive cyber army that pumped out messages from fake social media accounts to support then Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as "Ahok", as he fought for re-election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"They told us you should have five Facebook accounts, five Twitter accounts and one Instagram," he told the Guardian. "And they told us to keep it secret. They said it was 'war time' and we had to guard the battleground and not tell anyone about where we worked."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Jakarta election – which saw the incumbent Ahok, a Chinese Christian, compete against the former president's son Agus Yudhoyono, and the former education minister, Anies Baswedan – churned up ugly religious and racial divisions. It culminated in mass Islamic rallies and allegations that religion was being used for political gain. Demonstrators called for Ahok to be jailed on contentious blasphemy charges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The rallies were heavily promoted by an opaque online movement known as the Muslim Cyber Army, or the MCA, which employed hundreds of fake and anonymous accounts to spread racist and hardline Islamic content designed to turn Muslim voters against Ahok.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alex says his team was employed to counter the deluge of anti-Ahok sentiment, including hashtags that critiqued opposition candidates, or ridiculed their Islamic allies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alex's team, comprising Ahok supporters and university students lured by the lucrative pay of about $280 (£212) a month, was allegedly employed in a "luxury house" in Menteng, central Jakarta. They were each told to post 60 to 120 times a day on their fake Twitter accounts, and a few times each day on Facebook.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'Special forces'</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Indonesia – which ranks among the top five users of Twitter and Facebook globally – they are what are known as a "buzzer teams" – groups which amplify messages and creates a "buzz" on social networks. While not all buzzer teams use fake accounts, some do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alex says his team of 20 people, each with 11 social media accounts, would generate up to 2,400 posts on Twitter a day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The operation is said to have been coordinated through a WhatsApp group called Pasukan Khusus, meaning "special forces" in Indonesian, which Alex estimates consisted of about 80 members. The team was fed content and daily hashtags to promote.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"They didn't want the accounts to be anonymous so they asked us to take photos for the profiles, so we took them from Google, or sometimes we used pictures from our friends, or photos from Facebook or WhatsApp groups," says Alex. "They also encouraged us to use accounts of beautiful women to draw attention to the material; many accounts were like that."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Facebook they even made a few accounts using profile pictures of famous foreign actresses, who inexplicably appeared to be die-hard Ahok fans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The cyber team was allegedly told it was "only safe" to post from the Menteng residence, where they operated from several rooms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The first room was for the positive content, where they spread positive content about Ahok. The second room was for negative content, spreading negative content and hate speech about the opposition," says Alex, who says he chose the positive room.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many of the accounts had just a few hundred followers, but by getting their hashtags trending, often on a daily basis, they artificially increased their visibility on the platform. By manipulating Twitter they influenced real users and the Indonesian media, which often refers to trending hashtags as barometers of the national mood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pradipa Rasidi, who at the time worked for the youth wing of Transparency International in Indonesia, noticed the phenomenon when he was researching social media during the election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"At first glance they appear normal but then they mostly only tweet about politics," he said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rasidi interviewed two different Ahok buzzers, who detailed using fake accounts in the same fashion as that described by Alex. Both declined to speak to the Guardian.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A social media strategist who worked one of Ahok's opponents campaigns said buzzing was a big industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Some people with influential accounts get paid about 20m rupiah ($1,400/£1,069) just for one tweet. Or if you want to get a topic trending for a few hours, that costs between 1-4m rupiah," Andi, who only wanted to be identified by his first name, explained.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Based on its study of the buzzer industry in Indonesia, researchers from the Center for Innovation and Policy Research (CIPG) say all candidates in the 2017 Jakarta election used buzzer teams – and at least one of Ahok's opponents skilfully created "hundreds of bots" connected to supporting web portals.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Baswedan campaign denied using fake accounts or bots. A Yudhoyono spokesman said they did not breach campaigning rules.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The authorities have made moves to crack down on fake news and the spread of hate speech online but buzzers, which operate in a grey area have largely slipped through the cracks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Even the central government appears to employ such tactics. The Twitter account @IasMardiyah, for example, which Alex says was utilised by his pro-Ahok buzzer team, now posts a steady flow of government messages and propaganda for President Joko Widodo – mostly retweets about Indonesia's infrastructure and diplomatic successes, or the need to protect national unity.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Featuring an avatar of a young woman wearing a headscarf and sunglasses, the account tweets almost exclusively pro-government content with accompanying hashtags.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Recently the account has posted about Indonesia's election to the United Nations security council, fighting terrorism, boosting agricultural exports, a new airport in West Java, next month's Asian Games, but also on sensitive issues such as West Papua.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A presidential spokesperson was asked for comment by the Guardian, but did not respond.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A spokesperson from Twitter declined to specify how many fake Indonesian accounts it had identified or removed from its platform in the past year. The company said it had "developed new techniques and proprietary machine learning for identifying malicious automation".</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/23/indonesias-fake-twitter-account-factories-jakarta-politic" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Guardian</a></h4>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-79717049377705471852018-06-06T22:06:00.001+01:002018-06-06T22:06:42.364+01:00A Catch-22 From China That Could Derail Indonesia's Widodo<div dir="ltr"><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">To win votes, the Indonesian leader needs Chinese cash to build railways and ports. To build those railways and ports he needs to accept the Chinese workers who are losing him votes</span><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">BY JEFFREY HUTTON</span><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;display:inline">Saturday, </div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">12 M</span><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;display:inline">ay </div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">2018</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">On his FIRST visit to Indonesia this month as president of China Railway Corp, Lu Dongfu could have been forgiven if he felt bemused at the delays bedevilling the US$6 billion (HK$47 billion) Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project that his company was helping build.</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Disputes with landowners have meant work has only just started on several sites along the 150km route – three years after Lu's firm beat out Japanese rivals for the train line. By comparison, Lu said in January that the CRC would bring another 3,500km of high-speed rail into operation in China this year alone.</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">"He said he understands," said one Chinese reporter <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div></span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">accompanying Lu on a visit to a construction site near Jakarta's Halim Airport, where the excavation on tunnel No. 1 is now under way. The reporter did not want to be identified because he was discussing an off-the-record conversation. "He said it's never easy pushing infrastructure projects in democratic countries."</span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Such comments hint at a growing sensitivity on behalf of Chinese officials towards local laws. If so, that is good news for President Joko Widodo, who has staked his hopes of a second term partly on securing badly needed infrastructure investment from China.</span><br><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">What's made Indonesian students forget the China taboo?</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">As China has stepped up investment in Indonesia – and more Chinese have taken up jobs here – resentment has driven some locals to protest. That has left Widodo to balance his country's appetite for trains, ports and power plants with protecting local workers as he eyes re-election next April.</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">"Widodo's relationship with China is shaping up as an election issue," said Keith Loveard, senior analyst with Jakarta-based business risk firm, Concord Consulting. "The relationship with China could turn toxic for him."</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">So China appears to be cutting Widodo some slack. Without giving details, Li promised to rein in the number of Chinese workers building steel plants, infrastructure and even serving as tour guides in Bali. This week on the popular resort island of Bali, Indonesian tour guides swarmed the immigration office protesting against a surge in the number of Chinese nationals working in the same profession.</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Meanwhile, local media reporting on the Morowali special economic zones in Central Sulawesi alleged thousands of illegal workers from China had arrived to help build a nickel smelter and mill capable of churning out 3 million tonnes of steel a year.</span><br><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">While the government has vowed to investigate the reports, the operation – owned by Bintangdelapan Group and China's Dingxin Group – has denied the existence of illegal workers.</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">With its parks and Dutch colonial architecture, Bandung is a popular weekend getaway.</span></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">But the train journey currently takes three and half hours and with heavy peak-hour traffic, car journeys can take twice as long.</span><br><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><b><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Banks on board<div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline"></div></font></b><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><b><br></b></font><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">When Li's project is complete, it is hoped high-speed trains will catapult up from sweltering Jakarta through 760 metres of mountainous terrain and tea plantations to the balmy hilltop city.</span><br><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">And although some Chinese designs propose a train that can top 350km/h, the four stops along the relatively short track mean it is unlikely to ever reach those speeds.</span><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font><div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">But the project is going full-steam ahead. Before Li's visit, which wrapped up on Tuesday, the China Development Bank disbursed US$170 million in loans to kick-start work on the technically challenging project – which was a campaign pledge of Widodo's successful 2014 leadership bid.</font></div></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><div>And by disbursing the funds, China has done Widodo a favour with voters who may be frustrated with the project's glacial progress, said Rene Pattiradjawane, a researcher at the Centre for Chinese Studies in Jakarta.</div><div><br></div><div>"China is trying to ensure that Jokowi's pledge is on track, so to speak," Pattiradjawane said, referring to Widodo's widely used nickname.</div><div><br></div><div>"The money is there and work is starting."</div><div><br></div><div><b>Rising resentment</b></div><div><br></div><div>But Widodo's reliance on Chinese investment risks backfiring amid the worker influx and the rising resentment it has caused.</div><div><br></div><div>China is Indonesia's third biggest investor behind Singapore and Japan. But according to government data, the number of Chinese nationals working in Indonesia has ballooned fivefold over the past decade to more than 24,000. That is nearly twice the number of workers from Japan, which comes a distant second and is the second largest investor.</div><div><br></div><div>Indonesia's health scheme dwarfs Obamacare. But there is a problem</div><div><br></div><div>Anti-China bias has a long history in Indonesia. Last year Jakarta's former governor, Basuki Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, was drummed out of office in an election that turned on religion and race. During his 2014 election bid, Widodo was the victim of smear campaigns alleging his grandfather was Chinese. And this month marks 20 years since rumours of Chinese merchants hoarding rice sparked deadly riots, killing an estimated 1,000.</div><div><br></div><div>"The Chinese are acknowledging the number of foreign workers is a huge number," Pattiradjawane said. "This is a statement they are going to do something."</div><div><br></div><div>Even so, Widodo cannot afford to drive too hard a bargain with the imported Chinese workers.</div><div><br></div><div>While work has started on the train, much of the president's infrastructure wish list remains unfulfilled with the country still chasing more than US$150 billion worth of investment earmarked for his current term. Meanwhile, his administration has pledged US$15 billion for this year alone.</div><div><br></div><div>Widodo has promised to spur economic growth to about 7 per cent from about 5 per cent now, in part by investing in infrastructure. But slow trains and tangled ports drive up costs. Indonesian manufacturers spend a quarter of their sales on logistics, according to the World Bank. In Thailand it's 15 per cent.</div><div><br></div><div><div><b>Promises for growth</b></div><div><br></div><div>Scott Younger, director of Jakarta based consultancy Nusantara Infrastructure, said that to reach Widodo's growth target, Indonesia needed to secure annual investment of about US$90 billion.</div><div><br></div><div>"Indonesia needs everything: ports, roads, rail, everything if it hopes to have faster rates of growth."</div><div><br></div><div>In April, Luhut Pandjaitan, the country's coordinating minister for maritime affairs, visited Beijing and scraped together about half the US$20 billion of investment he was seeking.</div><div><br></div><div>Nevertheless, Widodo has plenty of margin for error. Opinion polls put him in front of his most likely challenger, Prabowo Subianto, whom he beat in 2014 by double digits; inflation is under control; and the jobs that Chinese are said to be taking are largely in remote areas.</div><div><br></div><div>Even so, Widodo ignores the issue at his peril. "Any country would be upset," said Concord's Loveard. ■</div></div></font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2145806/catch-22-china-could-derail-indonesias-widodo">http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2145806/catch-22-china-could-derail-indonesias-widodo</a><br></font></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div> verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-30841812161204082612018-04-16T21:26:00.000+01:002018-06-06T09:48:04.953+01:00What to know about the U.S.-led strikes in Syria<div class="mobile-photo">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By BLOOMBERG via FORTUNE</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The U.S., U.K. and France launched strikes on Syria a week after U.S. President Donald Trump said there would be a "big price" to pay for the apparent use of chemical weapons by President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the town of Douma, an attack that killed scores of civilians. Here's what we know and what's still to come:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. What did they attack?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May released statements after the attack had begun, saying the missile strikes were focused on chemical weapons sites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that naval and air forces struck three primary targets, including a chemical weapons research facility outside Damascus and a weapons storage area near Homs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war through activists on the ground, said installations belonging to the country's elite Republican Guards were also targeted. Russia's defense ministry said more than 100 cruise missiles were fired.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This was not geared towards weakening Assad's conventional military capabilities," said Kamran Bokhari, a senior fellow with the Center for Global Policy in Washington. It was "a little more than the symbolic strike from last year but steering clear of any major operation."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. How did Syria react?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Syria said the strikes failed to achieve their goal and breached international law. Syrian air defenses hit several incoming missiles, state-run media said. Analysts and diplomats said the strike was unlikely to shake Assad's hold on power or change the trajectory of the conflict.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The attack "was a victory for Syria," former lawmaker Sharif Shehadeh said by phone from Damascus. "Instead of weakening the government, it only made it stronger," he said. "Trump did it to save face."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assad's allies, including Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah group, also condemned the strikes. Iran's Supreme Leader called the attack a crime and the country's Revolutionary Guard Corps said it gave "the resistance a more open hand," although it did not threaten to retaliate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Are the attacks over?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">May in her statement called it a "limited and targeted strike." U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that "right now, this is a one-time shot and I believe it has sent a very strong message to dissuade him, to deter him." The U.K. Defense Ministry said the strikes were "successful."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still, Trump warned in his televised address of a readiness to "sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents," though he didn't specify what that meant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. How did Russia respond?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Russia denounced the attacks as aggression against its ally, but there was no sign of an immediate military response.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Our worst apprehensions have come true. Our warnings have been left unheard," Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the U.S., wrote on Facebook. "Insulting the President of Russia is unacceptable and inadmissible," he added, an apparent reference to Trump's mention of President Vladimir Putin in his speech.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Kremlin released a statement from Putin saying the strike was an "act of aggression against a sovereign state which is in the front line in the fight against terrorism," and that there was no proof a chemical weapons attack had taken place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The strikes appeared to have taken place far from Russia's bases near the Syrian coast. U.S. officials said they gave Russia no specific warnings of the attacks or the targets, but used the usual hotline with Moscow's military to ensure the airspace was clear. Still, French Defense minister Florence Parly told reporters that Russian authorities were warned ahead of time, as proof the action would be limited to specific targets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">French authorities said the allies don't seek any military escalation, nor confrontation with Russia. Macron, who called Putin on Friday to discuss the situation, still plans to travel to a security conference in St Petersburg in May, where they are expected to meet, an official said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">May on Saturday made her case for action in the face of opposition from much of the public and the Labour Party, saying in a further statement it was highly likely Assad's regime had used chemical weapons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"We would have preferred an alternative path, but in this case there was none," May said. "We cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalized."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She authorized the strikes without parliamentary backing and it's not clear she would have got it if she'd sought it. Parliament refused U.K. participation in a planned punitive raid on Syria in 2013, one of the reasons then-U.S. President Barack Obama called it off.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">May will address Parliament — where she doesn't have a majority — next week. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong anti-war campaigner, has accused May of " waiting for instructions from President Donald Trump."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6. And Germany?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Germany did not take part in the action against Syria, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday she supported steps taken by the allies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://fortune.com/2018/04/14/why-did-we-bomb-syria-attack/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://fortune.com/2018/04/14/why-did-we-bomb-syria-attack/</a></span></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-10208996297303759382018-04-13T05:08:00.001+01:002018-06-06T09:44:29.370+01:00Algeria military plane crash: 257 dead after military transport aircraft crashes near Algiers<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nearly 260 people including members of
Western Sahara's Polisario independence movement were killed when an Algerian
military plane crashed soon after takeoff, officials said.<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">TV footage showed crowds gathering around
the smoking and flaming wreckage near the Boufarik military base, near the
capital Algiers.<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A line of white body bags could be seen on
the ground next to what media said was a Russian Ilyushin transport plane<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A total of 257 people died in the crash,
the Algerian defence ministry said in a statement.<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The ministry said 247 passengers and 10
crew members were killed.<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A member of Algeria's ruling FLN party told
the Ennahar TV station the dead included 26 members of Polisario, an
Algerian-backed group fighting for the independence of neighbouring Western
Sahara, a territory also claimed by Morocco in a longrunning dispute.<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dzair TV said five people were in a
critical state, but it was unclear whether they were inside the plane when it
crashed. <span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Footage from the scene showed thick black
smoke coming off the field, as well as ambulances and Red Crescent vehicles
arriving at the site. <span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The tailfin of a plane could be seen above
olive trees, with smoke and flames rising from the wreckage.<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Algerian soldiers oversee the wreckage of the military plane after it crashed in Boufarik, <br />near the Algerian capital, Algiers (AP)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Several witnesses told Ennahar TV they
saw flames coming out of one of the planes' engines just before it took off.
One farmer said some passengers jumped out of the aircraft before the
accident. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"The plane started to rise before
falling," an unidentified man lying on what seemed to be a hospital bed
told Ennahar TV. "The plane crashed on its wing first and caught
fire." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Farouk Achour, chief spokesman for the
civil protection agency, said the plane was carrying soldiers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He said some passengers were
"extracted with deep burns caused by the fuselage catching
fire." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The cause of the crash remained unclear and
an investigation has been opened, Algeria's defence ministry said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The ministry said most of the victims were
soldiers and their relatives and the victims' bodies were transported to the
Algerian army's central hospital in the town of Ain Naadja for
identification. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/algeria-plane-crash-latest-killed-military-boufarik-airport-a8299046.html"><span style="color: blue;">More than 100 people dead after military plane crashes in
Algeria</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">More
than 100 people dead after military plane crashes in Algeria<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #979ba7; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Samuel Osborne<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #979ba7; font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">More than 100
people were killed when an Algerian military plane crashed soon after
takeoff. Emergency services ...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-72436021906988320812018-03-25T19:04:00.001+01:002018-07-24T17:51:10.345+01:00Audrey Young: Visiting leaders show disrespect by failing to share platform with Jacinda Ardern<div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7xf5JuGWK10/W1dY7oPsYlI/AAAAAAAAByI/KXsWmqNCdSIqR7tQIDd7plca8bNquxP8wCLcBGAs/s1600/cats-nzherald.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="640" height="316" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7xf5JuGWK10/W1dY7oPsYlI/AAAAAAAAByI/KXsWmqNCdSIqR7tQIDd7plca8bNquxP8wCLcBGAs/s640/cats-nzherald.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">By Audrey Young</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was a shame that Barack Obama refused to allow any meaningful media opportunities on his trip to New Zealand but he had an excuse given that it was a private trip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Indonesia President Joko Widodo had no such excuse. It was shameful that on a state visit he failed to present himself in some manner to the public of New Zealand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When preparing for the visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade raised the issue of holding a joint press conference alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, but the Indonesians declined.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ardern will be too diplomatic to describe it as an insult, but it is one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When New Zealand leaders visit other countries, they are expected to behave according to the protocols and values of that country. The same should apply for visitors to New Zealand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two leaders fronting together and talking about the relationship is an implicit display of respect for the other leader and country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The opposite applies. To decline to do so is implicitly disrespectful to Ardern and New Zealand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Government needs to send a swift message to Mfat that such events for future VIP visits must be raised not by invitation but in the context of an expectation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It need not be expressed in terms of compulsion but an obligation except for exceptional circumstances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If Ardern does not make this clear now, Mfat will continue to present it as a take-it-or-leave-it option for the visiting country to dictate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Widodo visit followed a high-level visit the previous week from Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, again during which no press conference was organised. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These two examples should not set a pattern for the rest of her premiership.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Holding a joint public press event was an expectation for VIPs under both Helen Clark and John Key's leadership.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 2001, when Clark was hosting the first Indonesia President to visit New Zealand in 29 years, Abdurrahman Wahid, he surprised everyone at their press conference by talking about the problems with corruption in his country's justice system, including the judiciary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was in the context of questions about justice for the killers of Private Leonard Manning, who was killed on patrol near the West Timor border.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Setting an expectation that VIPs front will definitely leave them open to questions about potentially sensitive areas, West Papua in the case of Widodo</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But if they don't have the skill to handle those, maybe they should not be in politics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is not New Zealand or Mfat's job to protect VIPs from sensitive issues.</span></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-49270083081338421492018-03-04T16:06:00.001+00:002018-07-24T12:51:25.746+01:00Accidents mar Indonesia's fast-and-furious infrastructure program<div>
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By ERWIDA MAULIA, Nikkei staff writer<br />
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Deadly 'construction failures' put Widodo in hot seat ahead of elections<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Five workers were injured when a box girder they were installing collapsed at an LRT construction site in East Jakarta. (Photo by Takaki Kashiwabara)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A string of accidents is threatening to undermine Indonesian President Joko Widodo's signature infrastructure development drive. Though the causes remain unclear, the president's political rivals have seized on the problems ahead of local and presidential elections, blasting the administration for pushing projects too hastily.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just a month after Widodo opened a railway connection to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, heavy rain triggered a landslide at a rail underpass near the airport on Feb. 5. Tumbling concrete and soil crushed a passing Honda Brio, killing the female driver and injuring the other passenger. Railway operations were suspended for three days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The landslide occurred a day after a deadly accident at a construction site for a commuter rail line in Central Jakarta. A heavy crane fell over, killing four workers and injuring at least one other. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These are the latest in a series of at least 14 accidents involving infrastructure projects over the past several months -- 10 in Jakarta and its suburbs. The total death toll stands at nine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The troubles have coincided with a pickup in construction, after sluggish funding and progress in the first half of Widodo's presidency. Most of the cases are still under investigation, but skepticism is building over the quality of the infrastructure and the government's ability to fulfill its ambitions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some observers see a combination of factors at play: the unprecedented scale and variety of the projects, coupled with pressure on builders to complete them quickly -- in many cases by 2019, when Widodo is expected to seek re-election.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Consider the Jakarta LRT, the capital's first light rail transit network. The project should have been launched in 2015, but due to funding and other kinks, construction did not begin until January 2017. Despite the long delay, the target for completion was left unchanged -- before the Asian Games in August. The government wants athletes to be able to use the LRT to avoid the city's notorious traffic jams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The train carriages will arrive in April," Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan told reporters in December. "God willing, [the line] will be able to start operations in July at the latest."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Jan. 22, however, workers were installing a box girder for elevated tracks near a velodrome in East Jakarta when the girder collapsed, injuring five of them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Franky Rivan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Sekuritas Indonesia, is among those who believe rushed work is to blame.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The LRT that will connect the velodrome, [built by] Wijaya Karya, is the fastest LRT construction because it is aimed for the Asian Games," said Rivan, who has been following state contractors involved in infrastructure projects, such as Wijaya Karya and Waskita Karya. "But they shouldn't have rushed the completion."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Opposition politicians took the opportunity to criticize the Widodo administration's election-oriented deadlines. Lawmakers are reportedly planning to summon and interrogate government officials and construction companies over the "construction failures."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Simultaneous developments running on tight deadlines surely afflict moral burden to anyone, including construction companies," said lawmaker Nurhasan Zaidi of the Prosperous Justice Party. "The government must bear responsibility."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Public Works Minister Basuki Hadimuljono also pointed to the human element. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"We observed that many of the accidents happened on Saturday [or] Sunday," Hadimuljono told Kompas TV in an interview. "So there may have been carelessness, which we must acknowledge as human error."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Police have blamed human error in at least one case -- the deadly crane accident on Feb. 4. The operator of the crane has been detained and named as a suspect, with the authorities ruling out equipment failure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dradjat Hoedajanto, chairman of the Indonesian Society of Civil and Structural Engineers, spoke broadly about an unprepared labor force. Of the 8.1 million construction workers in Indonesia, less than 10% have proper certification, according to the Public Works Ministry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Human resources in the construction sector are probably not well-prepared to do so many [jobs] and have to complete them in such a short time," Hoedajanto said. "There is a shortage of qualified workers across all levels -- including laborers and engineers -- so they are overstretched."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Obfuscation of the investigations has also prompted whispers about unsuitable appointments of contractors and subcontractors, which Hoedajanto said are frequently based on "forced efficiency."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Winners of the bids are often those who offered the cheapest prices," he said. "That's problematic."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Five state-owned construction companies -- Waskita Karya, Wijaya Karya, Adhi Karya, Hutama Karya and Pembangunan Perumahan -- have snapped up the majority of the transportation projects. Private builders have found themselves with only a small slice of the pie, despite the government's calls for their participation in the infrastructure program. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The state companies have only said they are looking into the accidents. The Public Works Ministry, meanwhile, has so far only issued a reprimand to Waskita, the contractor behind nearly half the accident-hit projects.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The reprimand was intended to nudge the company to "fix the work system and address [the issue of] construction supervisors, so they will be more careful," said Arie Setiadi Moerwanto, the ministry's director general. "Waskita has followed up [on the reprimand]. Let's say that they've changed the system."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The ministry last month formed a Construction Safety Committee to investigate the accidents and evaluate related projects. It also plans to set up a Building Safety Committee to evaluate the infrastructure once construction is completed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But apart from brief halts of the affected projects, there is no indication that the government is willing to change its fast-and-furious approach.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Widodo last week launched the construction of what will be the first toll road in West Sumatra -- part of the Trans-Sumatra project, which will connect the southern and northern tips of the island with a total of 2,800km of pavement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Accidents-mar-Indonesia-s-fast-and-furious-infrastructure-program">NIKKEI ASIAN REVIEW</a></span></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-68794622590822296012018-02-22T20:01:00.001+00:002018-07-25T00:31:06.561+01:00Widodo’s smoke and mirrors hide hard truthsIndonesian leader has become a master of the art of official obfuscation and embellishment with 2019 elections in his sights<br />
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By JOHN MCBETH<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Indonesian President Joko Widodo waves at an ASEAN summit event at Clark, Pampanga, northern Philippines November 12, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Erik De Castro</td></tr>
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Facilitated by a largely unquestioning media, Indonesian President Joko Widodo's government has become a master at the game of smoke and mirrors, which in its simplistic form is all about convincing the public that things are happening when they really aren't.<br />
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The protracted negotiations with US mining giant Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold are a good example, but going back to the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono the deceptive game-playing has covered everything from beef to natural resources to infrastructure.<br />
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While not new, the official obfuscation and embellishment of the truth has become more apparent as the 2019 legislative and presidential elections approach and Widodo and his palace spin doctors perceive the need to display his accomplishments.<br />
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Yudhoyono played this game back in mid-2011 when the Australian government suspended live cattle exports to Indonesia over animal welfare issues, and Jakarta decided some payback was in order by ordering a ban of its own.</div>
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Over the next two years, it slashed cattle imports by half and sought to convince consumers that the local industry could fill the gap when rising prices – and one of the lowest per capita beef consumption rates in Asia — clearly showed it could not.<br />
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Fast forward to the much-vaunted China-backed US$5.8 billion Jakarta-Bandung fast-rail project, once seen as the showcase of Widodo's ambitious infrastructure program and now stalled over land acquisition issues that should have been foreseen.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Joko Widodo and China Railway Corp manager Sheng Guangzu (C) examine a high-speed train model at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Jakarta-Bandung line on January 21, 2016. Photo: Reuters / Garry Lotulung</td></tr>
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Getting it started hasn't been for the want of trying. Widodo attended a ground-breaking ceremony in January 2016, only to see Transport Minister Jonan Ignasius call a halt to the project five days later because of several "unresolved issues."<br />
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Widodo and the Chinese weren't amused. In July, the same month the construction permit for the project was finally issued, Ignasius — the former, highly successful chief executive of state-run railway Kareta Api — was unceremoniously sacked.<br />
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The president should have already learnt his lesson. In mid-2015, he had presided over the ground-breaking of the US$4 billion, Japan-funded Batang power station in Central Java, only to discover local farmers were still refusing to sell a key patch of land.<br />
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The courts finally resolved that one, but the railway still isn't going anywhere despite the efforts of State Enterprise Minister Rini Soemarno, who showed up last July for yet another ground-breaking event – this one a tunnel.<br />
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It takes a lot to beat the whole Freeport saga, though, starting with last year's framework agreement which was hailed at the time as a major victory for the Widodo government in forcing the company to agree to divest 51% of its shares in its local subsidiary.<br />
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Maybe so, but no-one seemed to notice that the devil was in the small print. In fact, the Indonesia media failed to point out at the time that the crucial questions of valuation and management control had yet to be settled.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A protestor at PT Freeport Indonesia’s headquarters in Jakarta calling for the closure of its mine in Papua province. Photo: Reuters/Beawiharta</td></tr>
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Little surprise then that the negotiations continue, interspersed on frequent occasions with reassuring pronouncements by senior government officials that a final, final deal is just around the corner. It has been a long corner.<br />
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So far, there have been at least four government-imposed deadlines, all based on the extension of Freeport's permit allowing it to continue exporting copper concentrate from its high-altitude Grasberg mine in Papua's Central Highlands. The next one is in June.<br />
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Refusing the permit would clearly hurt the company's profits, but it would also cut deeply into government revenues and, perhaps more importantly, lead to worker lay-offs that could spark unrest in the country's already volatile Papua region.<br />
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In the latest show-and-tell, the government last week ceremonially signed a memorandum of understanding under which it will hand over 10% of the Freeport Indonesia shares it still needs to acquire to the Papua provincial administration.<br />
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The government spin machine has also recently turned to eastern Indonesia's Marsela natural gas project, which for reasons even some senior Indonesian politicians can't figure, Widodo wants to be developed on a remote, sparsely-inhabited island.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Pertamina worker sits under pipes at Bunyu island, Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province in a file photo. Reuters/Beawiharta</td></tr>
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Joint venture partners Inpex and Shell have been dragging their feet, arguing that only an offshore facility makes sense, given the undersea terrain and a lack of existing infrastructure.<br />
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With the project seemingly in limbo, the government announced earlier this month that the partners were working on detailed plans for an onshore plant that would be finished by the end of this year. Tellingly, there was no word from either company.<br />
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"The officials are talking on behalf of the company, without the company knowing anything about it," says one Indonesian oil veteran. "That's politics, but for me as an industrialist it is very troubling."<br />
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The French oil giant Total has maintained a similarly stoic silence since the state-run Pertamina oil company claimed the firm wanted back into the Mahakham gas field, which it had to leave when its contract expired last December.<br />
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In fact, with little money to maintain the Mahakham, it is the government that has been offering Total a slightly higher 39% participating interest to entice it to return as a partner in the field it ran for more than 40 years.<br />
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Widodo also adopted Yudhoyono's cattle chicanery, part of an economic self-sufficiency program in which, with little planning and a lot of wishful thinking, Indonesia was hoping to produce all its own beef, rice, sugar, corn and soybeans.<br />
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In 2015, it was proudly announced that the proportion of beef imports to total consumption had dropped from 31% to 24%, without anyone noting that Indonesians were eating just 2.7 kilograms a year, the lowest per capita rate in the region.<br />
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A year later, that figure had shot back up again to 32% and last year it increased yet again to 41% with the price of beef at US$10 a kilogram and officials acknowledging the obvious: that Widodo's five-year self-sufficiency target was now unattainable.<br />
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Again, that has a familiar ring to it. By importing rice, seen as almost a crime in some nationalistic quarters, past governments have often been forced to admit (if anyone is listening) that Indonesia's supposed self-sufficiency in rice is nothing but a myth.<br />
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That would have former President Suharto, who did achieve rice self-sufficiency back in the early 1980s with careful planning and a slew of coordinated programs, rolling over in his grave.<br />
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Sooner or later, the smoke and the mirrors will inevitably lift to reveal hard realities.<br />
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<a href="http://www.atimes.com/article/widodos-smoke-mirrors-hide-hard-truths/"><span style="color: black;">ASIA TIMES</span></a></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-53294723009176910402018-01-06T00:18:00.002+00:002018-07-25T04:00:55.501+01:00China’s Creditor Imperialism<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chinese Garment Factory in Senegal | Image: Fibre2Fashion</td></tr>
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Just as European imperial powers employed gunboat diplomacy, China is
using sovereign debt to bend other states to its will. As Sri Lanka's handover
of the strategic Hambantota port shows, states caught in debt bondage to the
new imperial giant risk losing both natural assets and their very sovereignty.</div>
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BERLIN – This month, Sri Lanka, unable to pay the onerous debt to China
it has accumulated, formally handed over its strategically located Hambantota
port to the UAsian giant. It was a major acquisition for China’s Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI) – which President Xi Jinping calls the “project of the
century” – and proof of just how effective China’s debt-trap diplomacy can be.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unlike International Monetary Fund and World Bank lending, Chinese
loans are collateralized by strategically important natural assets with high
long-term value (even if they lack short-term commercial viability).
Hambantota, for example, straddles Indian Ocean trade routes linking Europe,
Africa, and the Middle East to Asia. In exchange for financing and building the
infrastructure that poorer countries need, China demands favorable access to
their natural assets, from mineral resources to ports.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Moreover, as Sri Lanka’s experience starkly illustrates, Chinese
financing can shackle its “partner” countries. Rather than offering grants or
concessionary loans, China provides huge project-related loans at market-based
rates, without transparency, much less environmental- or social-impact
assessments. As US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson put it recently, with the
BRI, China is aiming to define “its own rules and norms.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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To strengthen its position further, China has encouraged its companies
to bid for outright purchase of strategic ports, where possible. The
Mediterranean port of Piraeus, which a Chinese firm acquired for $436 million
from cash-strapped Greece last year, will serve as the BRI’s “dragon head” in
Europe.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By wielding its financial clout in this manner, China seeks to kill two
birds with one stone. First, it wants to address overcapacity at home by
boosting exports. And, second, it hopes to advance its strategic interests,
including expanding its diplomatic influence, securing natural resources,
promoting the international use of its currency, and gaining a relative
advantage over other powers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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China’s predatory approach – and its gloating over securing Hambantota
– is ironic, to say the least. In its relationships with smaller countries like
Sri Lanka, China is replicating the practices used against it in the
European-colonial period, which began with the 1839-1860 Opium Wars and ended
with the 1949 communist takeover – a period that China bitterly refers to as
its “century of humiliation.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">China Expansion Plan | Picture: Mirror Business</td></tr>
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China portrayed the 1997 restoration of its sovereignty over Hong Kong,
following more than a century of British administration, as righting a historic
injustice. Yet, as Hambantota shows, China is now establishing its own Hong
Kong-style neocolonial arrangements. Apparently Xi’s promise of the “great
rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” is inextricable from the erosion of smaller
states’ sovereignty.4</div>
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Just as European imperial powers employed gunboat diplomacy to open new
markets and colonial outposts, China uses sovereign debt to bend other states
to its will, without having to fire a single shot. Like the opium the British
exported to China, the easy loans China offers are addictive. And, because
China chooses its projects according to their long-term strategic value, they
may yield short-term returns that are insufficient for countries to repay their
debts. This gives China added leverage, which it can use, say, to force
borrowers to swap debt for equity, thereby expanding China’s global footprint
by trapping a growing number of countries in debt servitude.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even the terms of the 99-year Hambantota port lease echo those used to
force China to lease its own ports to Western colonial powers. Britain leased
the New Territories from China for 99 years in 1898, causing Hong Kong’s
landmass to expand by 90%. Yet the 99-year term was fixed merely to help
China’s ethnic-Manchu Qing Dynasty save face; the reality was that all
acquisitions were believed to be permanent.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd | The last contractor for the Hambatota Proect</td></tr>
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Now, China is applying the imperial 99-year lease concept in distant
lands. China’s lease agreement over Hambantota, concluded this summer, included
a promise that China would shave $1.1 billion off Sri Lanka’s debt. In 2015, a
Chinese firm took out a 99-year lease on Australia’s deep-water port of Darwin
– home to more than 1,000 US Marines – for $388 million.</div>
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Similarly, after lending billions of dollars to heavily indebted
Djibouti, China established its first overseas military base this year in that
tiny but strategic state, just a few miles from a US naval base – the only
permanent American military facility in Africa. Trapped in a debt crisis,
Djibouti had no choice but to lease land to China for $20 million per year.
China has also used its leverage over Turkmenistan to secure natural gas by
pipeline largely on Chinese terms.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Several other countries, from Argentina to Namibia to Laos, have been
ensnared in a Chinese debt trap, forcing them to confront agonizing choices in
order to stave off default. Kenya’s crushing debt to China now threatens to
turn its busy port of Mombasa – the gateway to East Africa – into another
Hambantota.<o:p></o:p></div>
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These experiences should serve as a warning that the BRI is essentially
an imperial project that aims to bring to fruition the mythical Middle Kingdom.
States caught in debt bondage to China risk losing both their most valuable
natural assets and their very sovereignty. The new imperial giant’s velvet
glove cloaks an iron fist – one with the strength to squeeze the vitality out
of smaller countries.<o:p></o:p></div>
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- Brahma Chellaney | | Professor of Strategic Studies at the New
Delhi-based Center for Policy Research and Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy
in Berlin,<o:p></o:p></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-59495565997099340172017-09-16T18:33:00.003+01:002018-07-25T05:54:47.352+01:00A Syrian: “It was Never a Revolution nor a Civil War. The Terrorists are sent by U.S. Government"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bashar Al Assad, Photo: Flicker</td></tr>
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Three years ago (2014), “Majd” wrote these words on a Facebook posting:</div>
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”I am Syrian… living in Syria in the middle of everything. We have seen horrors. It was never a revolution nor a civil war. The terrorists are sent by your goverment. They are al Qaeda Jabhat al Nusra Wahhabi Salafists Talibans etc and the extremist jihadists sent by the West, the Saudis, Qatar and Turkey. Your Obama and whoever is behind him or above him are supporting al Qaeda and leading a proxy war on my country.</div>
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We thought you are against al Qaeda and now you support them.</div>
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The majority here loves Assad. He has never committed a crime against his own people… The chemical attack was staged by the terrorists helped by the USA and the UK, etc. Everyone knows that here.</div>
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American soldiers and people should not be supporting barbarian al Qaeda terrorists who are killing Christians, Muslims in my country and everyone.</div>
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Every massacre is committed by them. We were all happy in Syria: we had free school and university education available for everyone, free healthcare, no GMO, no fluoride, no chemtrails, no Rothschild IMF- controlled bank, state owned central bank which gives 11% interest, we are self-sufficient and have no foreign debt to any country or bank.</div>
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Life before the crisis was so beautiful here. Now it is hard and horrific in some regions.</div>
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I do not understand how the good and brave American people can accept to bomb my country which has never harmed them and therefore help the barbarian al Qaeda. These animals slit throats and behead for pleasure… they behead babies and rape young kids.</div>
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They are satanic. Our military helped by the millions of civilian militias are winning the battle against al Qaeda. But now the USA wants to bomb the shit out of us so that al Qaeda can get the upper hand. </div>
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Please help us American people. They are destroying the cradle of civilization. Stop your government.</div>
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Impeach that bankster puppet you have as president… support Ron Paul or Rand or anyone the like who are true American patriots. but be sure of one.thing..if they attack and I think they will….it will be hell.</div>
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Be sure that if it were to be a world war, many many will die. Syria can and will defend itself and will sink many US ships. Iran will go to war..Russia and China eventually if it escalates… and all this for what ? For the elites who created al Qaeda through the US government and use it to conduct proxy wars and destabilize countries which do not go along with their new world order agenda !!?</div>
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American people…you gotta regain control of your once admirable country. Now everyone hates you for.the.death you bring almost everywhere.</div>
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Ask the Iraqis…the Afghans…the Pakistanis…the Palestinians…the Syrians…the Macedonians and Serbs…the Libyans…the Somalis…the Yemenis ….all the ones you kill with drones everyday. Stop your wars, Enough wars. Use diplomacy..dialogue…help..not force.”</div>
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<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/i-am-a-syrian-living-in-syria-it-was-never-a-revolution-nor-a-civil-war-the-terrorists-are-sent-by-your-government/5544450">Global Research</a></div>
verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-71624389364803804402017-09-15T19:57:00.000+01:002017-09-15T20:34:40.684+01:00Syrian refugees respond to Hurricane by cooking feasts for displaced victims<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white;">Syrian refugees Abeer and Nora (Facebook/Sweet & Savory)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two Syrian refugee sisters living in Georgia, USA, cooked an assortment of Middle Eastern dishes to welcome a group of 40 people affected by Hurricane Irma.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Abeer and Nora al-Sheikh Bakri, who fled their hometown of Douma in 2012 before resettling in Georgia in 2016, told Huffpost that they know what it’s like to lose everything, and thus felt "compelled" to help.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They drove for an hour to deliver the food to the Hamzah Islamic Center in Alpharetta, Georgia, where dozens of evacuees had taken refuge from the storm, the Huffpost reported.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The sisters refused to receive any compensation for their efforts, saying that they had lived through displacement themselves and didn't want the evacuees to “feel uprooted” in the same way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“We are the same as Americans. We don’t wish ill on anyone. This is within our nature as Syrians. This is what our religion tells us to do,” Nora told the website.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hurricane Irma displaced more than half a million people in a devastating storm which hit the southeast of the country.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I called my sister Nora and we got cooking,” Abeer, 28, told HuffPost. “We were uprooted from war. We know the feeling of leaving everything behind.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“The food looks fantastic and what a wonderful gesture. Best wishes to your new beginnings from Portland, OR and welcome to your new home!” said Stephanie Estby on Facebook when she saw photos of the sisters’ meal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are more than five million Syrian refugees, and 6.5 million displaced internally, together accounting for half of the entire population, figures from the UN show.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The two sisters have set up their own catering business Sweet & Savoury, which has attracted more great compliments since their show of generosity.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RPhxTPetv7U/WbwoEfCrNhI/AAAAAAAABVs/tWl08NPrcmgb3wRoFhnmjOuPofVc7XILwCLcBGAs/s1600/Irma-0170916-030807-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="1108" height="264" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RPhxTPetv7U/WbwoEfCrNhI/AAAAAAAABVs/tWl08NPrcmgb3wRoFhnmjOuPofVc7XILwCLcBGAs/s400/Irma-0170916-030807-crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white;">Irma passes by in Miami Beach, Florida. 10 Sep 2017, Photo: AP</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hurricane Irma has killed more than 60 people so far with destru</span><span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ction widespread throughout Florida and nearby states.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It has been categorized as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record. </span><span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At least 18 people have died in Florida </span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tabouleh-and-kebabs-syrian-refugees-cook-storm-hurricane-irma-evacuees-1278352881">MIDDLE EAST EYE</a></span></div>
<br />verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-64093297279292933282017-09-13T20:57:00.000+01:002017-09-13T21:00:03.120+01:00Libya: Ten Things About Gaddafi They Don’t Want You to Know<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This article was first published by Global Research in November 2014. Today Libya as a Nation State has been destroyed by US-NATO.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do you think of when you hear the name Colonel Gaddafi? Tyrant? Dictator? Terrorist? Well, a national citizen of Libya may disagree but we want you to decide.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For 41 years until his demise in October 2011, Muammar Gaddafi did some truly amazing things for his country and repeatedly tried to unite and empower the whole of Africa.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So despite what you’ve heard on the radio, seen in the media or on the TV, Gaddafi did some powerful things that are not characteristic of a “vicious dictator” as portrayed by the western media.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are ten things Gaddafi did for Libya that you may not know about…</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. In Libya a home is considered a natural human right</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Gaddafi’s Green Book it states: ”The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others”. Gaddafi’s Green Book is the formal leader’s political philosophy, it was first published in 1975 and was intended reading for all Libyans even being included in the national curriculum.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Education and medical treatment were all free</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under Gaddafi, Libya could boast one of the best healthcare services in the Middle East and Africa. Also if a Libyan citizen could not access the desired educational course or correct medical treatment in Libya they were funded to go abroad.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The largest irrigation system in the world also known as the great manmade river was designed to make water readily available to all Libyan’s across the entire country. It was funded by the Gaddafi government and it said that Gaddafi himself called it ”the eighth wonder of the world”.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. It was free to start a farming business</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If any Libyan wanted to start a farm they were given a house, farm land and live stock and seeds all free of charge.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5. A bursary was given to mothers with newborn babies</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When a Libyan woman gave birth she was given 5000 (US dollars) for herself and the child.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6. Electricity was free</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Electricity was free in Libya meaning absolutely no electric bills!</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7. Cheap petrol</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During Gaddafi’s reign the price of petrol in Libya was as low as 0.14 (US dollars) per litre.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8. Gaddafi raised the level of education</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans were literate. This figure was brought up to 87% with 25% earning university degrees.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">9. Libya had It’s own state bank</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Libya had its own State bank, which provided loans to citizens at zero percent interest by law and they had no external debt.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">10. The gold dinar</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before the fall of Tripoli and his untimely demise, Gaddafi was trying to introduce a single African currency linked to gold. Following in the foot steps of the late great pioneer Marcus Garvey who first coined the term ”United States of Africa”. Gaddafi wanted to introduce and only trade in the African gold Dinar – a move which would have thrown the world economy into chaos.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Dinar was widely opposed by the ‘elite’ of today’s society and who could blame them. African nations would have finally had the power to bring itself out of debt and poverty and only trade in this precious commodity. They would have been able to finally say ‘no’ to external exploitation and charge whatever they felt suitable for precious resources. It has been said that the gold Dinar was the real reason for the NATO led rebellion, in a bid to oust the outspoken leader.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, was Muammar Gaddafi a Terrorist?</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Few can answer this question fairly, but if anyone can, it’s a Libyan citizen who has lived under his reign? Whatever the case, it seems rather apparent that he did some positive things for his country despite the infamous notoriety surrounding his name. And that’s something you should try to remember when judging in future.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-ten-things-about-gaddafi-they-dont-want-you-to-know/5414289"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Global Research</span></a></div>
verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-49013417574724950512017-09-08T18:32:00.000+01:002017-09-08T18:34:21.366+01:00Who are the Rohingya Muslims? The stateless minority fleeing violence in Burma<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sL4d7Xu2uO8/WbLRN-gv6pI/AAAAAAAABUA/RH2KHK8XRs0wl-hi0LGusK4nogRtNT3JQCLcBGAs/s1600/Rehingya_Refugees%252C017090.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="1053" height="246" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sL4d7Xu2uO8/WbLRN-gv6pI/AAAAAAAABUA/RH2KHK8XRs0wl-hi0LGusK4nogRtNT3JQCLcBGAs/s400/Rehingya_Refugees%252C017090.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rehingya Refugees,<br />
Photo: ZANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES via Telegraph</td></tr>
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<span style="color: white;">They have often been called the most persecuted minority in the world. The 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims squeezed precariously into the north-west state of Rakhine, in mainly Buddhist Burma, bordering majority Muslim Bangladesh, are stateless and unwanted.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Neither country will give them citizenship even though their families’ roots in modern-day Rakhine, once called Arakan, can be traced back to the Eighth Century. </span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Since World War Two they have been treated increasingly by Burmese authorities as illegal, interloping Bengalis, facing apartheid-like conditions that deny them free movement or state education while government forces intermittently drive out and slaughter them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Over the past year, military operations against Rohingya villages have been so intense and cruel that the minority’s defenders have warned of an unfolding genocide.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The United Nations has reported that the army may have committed ethnic cleansing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The inhumane treatment of the Rohingyas has tarnished the image of Myanmar’s civilian leader and Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, once a famously unflinching defender of human rights and darling of the West.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">She now faces international fury, particularly from Muslim nations, for failing to stand up to armed forces chief General Min Aung Hlaing, whose soldiers are accused of rape, murder, arson, and of ripping Rohingya babies from their mothers’ arms and throwing them into rivers and fire.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Ms Suu Kyi has publicly stuck to the military’s line that the Rohingya are illegally squatting on the Burmese territory, leaving fellow Nobel winner, Malala Yousafzai, aghast and urging her to speak out against the tragedy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The latest military crackdown, which began on August 25, caused almost 90,000 Rohingyas to flee under fire to squalid, overflowing relief camps across the Bangladeshi border in just two weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Officially close to 400 people had died by early September, but human rights activists claim to have confirmation of at least 1,000 deaths and believe the figure is much higher.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The death toll will inevitably rise after Burma, also known as Myanmar, blocked UN agencies from delivering vital food, water and medicine supplies to 250,000 Rakhine residents desperately in need.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Ongoing persecution of the Rohingya has inevitably led to an armed, if disorganised, resistance.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The army “clearing operations” which sparked the mass exodus of civilians in both October 2016 and in August 2017, were launched after insurgents known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked several paramilitary checkposts.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Rohingya activists claim the insurgents are mainly young men who have been pushed to breaking point by relentless oppression.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">A report released in early September by the Burma Human Rights Network documents the rise of systematic abuses against Burmese Muslims since 2012, including the creation of “Muslim-free zones”, denial of ID cards, and the banning of Islamic holidays.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The oppression has been mirrored by an upsurge of ultra-nationalist Buddhist groups who encourage an anti-Muslim rhetoric.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">ARSA has so far been described as a rag-tag collection of small groups armed with knives, sticks and some basic IEDs, rather than a robust military force or mass mobilisation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">But rising anger in the Muslim world about the plight of the Rohingya has compounded fears of homegrown militancy as well as support from international jihadists.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Al Qaeda’s offshoot in Yemen has already called for retaliatory attacks against Myanmar, while the Afghan Taliban called on Muslims to “use their abilities to help Burma's oppressed Muslims.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Matthew Smith, director of Fortify Rights, a human rights group working with Rohingya refugees, said there was a danger of escalation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">“There is certainly a risk that international extremist organisations will seek to be involved in northern Rakhine state,” he said. “The best way to prevent this from escalating is to protect the rights of the civilian population. Myanmar is doing the exact opposite.”</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/02/rohingya-minority-beheaded-burned-alive-burma-army/">The Telegraph</a><br />
<br />verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-56352471381864709382017-09-03T17:51:00.002+01:002017-09-03T23:46:53.542+01:00Survivors tell of mass killings, beheadings as Myanmar 'cleansing operation' underway<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By Lindsay Murdoch</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Survivors have described mass killings, including beheadings of children, and arson attacks in a dramatic escalation of the Rohingya crisis that the United Nations warns could be a humanitarian catastrophe.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A 41-year-old witness told the rights monitoring group Fortify Rights he found his brother and other family members in a field after attacks by Myanmar security forces on the Rakhine state village of Chut Pyin in Ratheduang township.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"They had marks on their bodies from the bullets and some had cuts," he said.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"My two nephews, their heads were cut off. One was six years old and the other was nine years old. My sister-in-law was also shot with a gun."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A27-year-old survivor from the village told Fortify Rights "some people were beheaded and many were cut…when we saw that, we just ran out of the house".</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The situation is dire," said Matthew Smith, Fortify Rights' chief executive officer.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Myanmar security forces responded to the August attacks with a brutal counter-offensive they called "cleansing operations" that forced almost 40,000 Rohingya to flee to the border with Bangladesh in the past week.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But rights monitors put the death toll in the thousands.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Myanmar security forces responded to the August attacks with a brutal counter-offensive they called "cleansing operations" that forced almost 40,000 Rohingya to flee to the border with Bangladesh in the past week.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thousands more arriving at the border each day.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Human Rights Watch said on Saturday that new satellite imagery shows hundreds of buildings have been destroyed during the past week, including the "total destruction" of villages.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The New York-based group said numerous refugees who have fled villages in Rakhine, home to 1.1 million stateless and long persecuted Rohingya Muslims, have told how Myanmar soldiers and police had burnt down their homes and attacked villagers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many of those arriving at the border were suffering bullet and other wounds.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bangladesh has refused to open its border posts, leaving about 20,000 Rohingya stranded.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The crisis has widened to the Rakhine capital, south of the conflict areas, where 120,000 already displaced Rohingya are not receiving food supplies or healthcare. UN and aid groups have suspended operations after the government accused them of supporting insurgents.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged restraint and calm in the state, cautioning that the situation may otherwise lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Other countries, including Australia, have told Myanmar's government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to ensure the protection of all its citizens.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Chris Lewa from the Rohingya monitoring group The Arakan Project, says it appears Myanmar security forces are trying to drive out a large proportion of the Rohingya population.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The latest bloodshed comes just days after an international commission led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned of more radicalisation if ethnic tensions in Rakine were not addressed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Late last year, UN investigators detailed mass rapes, killings, brutal beatings, the torching of homes and forced disappearances by Myanmar security forces.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The UN said the "devastating cruelty" could amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ms Suu Kyi's government has repeatedly denied its security forces have been responsible for any serious rights violations and blocked three UN investigators travelling to the country to further investigate.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Shadow foreign minister Penny Wong on Saturday said Labor is "deeply concerned" at the reports of abuses in Myanmar urged the Turnbull government to continue to speak out on human rights in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/survivors-tell-of-mass-killings-beheadings-as-myanmar-cleansing-operation-underway-20170902-gy9gd8.html">The Sydney Morning Herald</a></span></div>
verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-41835846176483862832017-08-31T22:11:00.000+01:002017-08-31T22:30:26.968+01:00The Burmese army of burning down villages and shooting Rohingya Muslim civilians <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAHNGMtnF_I/WahzSrmdTzI/AAAAAAAABhI/i0PTcS89328348zTfPOcLYElJxhHQOSBQCLcBGAs/s1600/burma-burn-rohingya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="1240" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAHNGMtnF_I/WahzSrmdTzI/AAAAAAAABhI/i0PTcS89328348zTfPOcLYElJxhHQOSBQCLcBGAs/s400/burma-burn-rohingya.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 16px; text-align: right;">Credit: Independent/GettyImages</td></tr>
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<span style="color: white;">Activist groups have accused the Burmese army of burning down villages and shooting Rohingya Muslim civilians as part of a crackdown on insurgents in Rakhine state.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Violence has driven thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing towards Bangladesh for safety, along with a smaller exodus of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, where they face growing danger of sickness and attempts by the Bangladesh authorities to send them home.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The Burmese government has blamed Rohingya insurgents for the violence, including the arson.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Laura Haigh, Amnesty International's Burma researcher, said reports of villages being burned were "deeply disturbing."</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">"While the Myanmar authorities have the duty to investigate criminal attacks on security force posts, they must refrain from violence, and ensure that they are making every effort to distinguish between suspected militants and ordinary people," she said, using an alternative name for Burma. </span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">"This cannot lead to a repeat of last year’s vicious military reprisals responding to a similar attack, when security forces tortured, killed and raped Rohingya people and burned down whole villages."</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">Reuters</td></tr>
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<span style="color: white;">Insurgents launched coordinated attacks last week against police patrols, with the government giving an official death toll of 96, although the actual number is likely to be higher.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Both the government, in official statements, and its critics, in posts on social media often accompanied by video clips, said there was widespread burning of buildings and even whole neighbourhoods in Maungdaw township in northern Rakhine.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">"Extremist terrorists blew out improvised bombs, set fire the villages and attacked the police outposts in Region-2 of Maungtaw yesterday from the morning to afternoon," an English-language statement issued by the Information Ministry said.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Arakan Times, an online news website serving the Rohingya community, said Burmese troops and border guard police burned down 1,000 homes in actions beginning Saturday and continuing on Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Both sides' claims are difficult to verify, because the government denies most journalists access to the area.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">New York-based Human Rights Watch said satellite photos appear to show widespread burning in 10 areas of northern Rakhine.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SIXYpPYKbsg/Wah-NivxIjI/AAAAAAAABh0/9geIN-iz1_47BuBEtgW4FsD2aMh_4G9MACLcBGAs/s1600/burn-ed-satelitte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="960" height="179" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SIXYpPYKbsg/Wah-NivxIjI/AAAAAAAABh0/9geIN-iz1_47BuBEtgW4FsD2aMh_4G9MACLcBGAs/s320/burn-ed-satelitte.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: white;">While the causes of the fires could not be ascertained, it noted that it "compared the locations of these fires with witness statements it has collected and media reports, and found a correlation with some reported incidents where residences have allegedly been deliberately burned."</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">The group urged the government to "grant access to independent monitors to determine the sources of fires and assess allegations of human rights violations."</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">A Rohingya insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, took responsibility for Thursday night's attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were in defence of Rohingya communities that had been brutalised by government forces. They vowed to continue to defend the communities.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">The treatment of around 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in Burma has become the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out on behalf of the long-persecuted minority</span>.<br />
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Aung San Suu Kyi, Photo: Reuters</div>
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<span style="color: white;">The Rohingya have faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people — predominantly Rohingya — from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">The government refuses to recognise Rohingya as a legitimate native ethnic minority and most Rohingya are denied citizenship and its rights.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/rohingya-muslims-burma-army-burn-villages-persecute-minority-rakhine-state-a7917926.html">INDEPENDENT</a><br />
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vkusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12901358908444644120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-64257485568327052372017-08-25T13:00:00.000+01:002018-07-25T05:21:07.138+01:00North Korea is far richer in minerals than its southern counterpart<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">North Korea Gold Reserve. Picture: YouTube</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><br />Mining currently only makes up 14 per cent of North
Korea's economy – but the dictatorship may in fact be sitting on vast reserves
of mineral wealth.</span><br />
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International sanctions imposed on the hermit kingdom in
response to its nuclear tests should, in theory, be crippling its trade in
minerals.</div>
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A March 2016 UN resolution banned the export of gold,
vanadium, titanium, and rare earth metals from North Korea.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Another resolution in November capped production of coal
and banned shipments of nickel, copper, zinc and silver.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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But a UN report published at the start of the year found
that North Korea was covertly exporting banned minerals and finding new ways to
evade sanctions.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Egyptian authorities intercepted a ship carrying 2,300
tons of iron ore from North Korea to the Suez Canal, with 30,000
rocket-propelled grenades beneath the ore, according to the report from
February.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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This “showed the country’s use of concealment techniques,
as well as an emerging nexus between entities trading in arms and minerals,” it
said.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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North Korea's economy is roughly forty times smaller than
that of the South, according to estimates by The Economist published last year.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The North is however far richer in minerals. In 2014 it
produced 3.4 million tonnes of iron-ore to the South’s 0.6 million.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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And North Korea's mineral wealth was estimated at $10
trillion (£7.5 trillion) in 2012 by a South Korean research institute.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The mountainous country has sizeable deposits of more
than 200 different underground minerals, according to a recent report by Lloyd
Vasey, founder of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think
tank.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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These include coal, iron ore, magnesite, gold ore, zinc
ore, copper ore, limestone, molybdenite, graphite and tungsten, all with
potential for the development of large-scale mines.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The country's magnesite reserves are the second largest
in the world after China, and its tungsten deposits the planet's sixth largest,
according to the report.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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South Korea’s state-run Korea Development Institute last
September described mineral trade between North Korea and China as a “cash cow”
for Pyongyang.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The institute said that mineral trade accounted for 54
per cent of the North’s total trade volume to China in the first half of 2016.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Its reserves have up until now remained underdeveloped,
with the average operational rate of mine facilities below 30 percent.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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This is in part due to antiquated infrastructure, with
just 3 per cent of roads paved, and in part due to the fact that private mining
remains illegal.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-trillions-mineral-resources-nuclear-iron-ore-a7818651.html#gallery"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Independent</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-467779643686809090.post-84025459838573817652017-08-20T16:35:00.000+01:002017-08-23T12:44:51.334+01:00Jokowi Widodo Is In Error, the Inequality or the Poverty that is being grown out of?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o9xGFJ6zxMM/WZmkNMKLODI/AAAAAAAABRw/ECDaRSELVos8DNpvMoW6Ei32s7oUxP7wQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Indonesia_Villagers-22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="1464" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o9xGFJ6zxMM/WZmkNMKLODI/AAAAAAAABRw/ECDaRSELVos8DNpvMoW6Ei32s7oUxP7wQCEwYBhgL/s320/Indonesia_Villagers-22.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white;">Villagers in Indonesia, Picture Credit: World Bank</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: white;">By Tim Worstall, contributor about economics, finance and public policy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">It's always slightly worrying when the ruler, or leader, of a place manages to get the basic diagnosis wrong, which is what I think is happening here with Jokowi in Indonesia. He's saying that the country needs a more equitable distribution of the wealth when that's not the problem at all, rather, there's not enough wealth to distribute. Thus the attention should be upon creation of more wealth rather than distributing the inadequate amount currently available. It's entirely possible that at some point the inequality becomes the greater problem but I severely doubt that this is so in Indonesia as yet:</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: white;">Indonesia's president on Wednesday vowed a fairer distribution of the nation's wealth and a renewed commitment to protecting diversity after volatile months in which the country's reputation for tolerance was undermined by religious tensions and attacks on minorities.</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: white;">The problem is that the distribution of extant wealth has, despite what many wish to claim, negative effects upon the creation of more wealth. Thus we need to decide whether the problem actually is inequality, or poverty. If it's overall poverty then we should be skewing our rules towards more wealth creation at the expense of that inequality. If inequality is the greater problem then vice versa of course. Which you think is the greater problem will be to some extent a matter of taste of course, but with GDP per capita at PPP at around $11,000 I would still be voting for poverty being the greater problem.</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: white;">In a second</span></i><i><span style="color: white;">a</span></i><i><span style="color: white;">speeches, a ate of the nation address, Widodo said his administration's focus this year was to ensure that the benefits from an average 5 percent economic growth in the last few years should be felt by everybody.</span></i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kiejuBwF9cw/WZmmzqR5azI/AAAAAAAABSA/6WxzobrhP4saaWg4y16EkJOVJhawKoAagCEwYBhgL/s1600/capture-20170820-223600.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="1600" height="83" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kiejuBwF9cw/WZmmzqR5azI/AAAAAAAABSA/6WxzobrhP4saaWg4y16EkJOVJhawKoAagCEwYBhgL/s400/capture-20170820-223600.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Well, yes, but we do know two things about the interaction of inequality and economic growth. The first is that some inequality boosts growth--there's no point in struggling to get ahead if the rewards are the same as not struggling--and further that growth itself creates inequality. It is again that balance, which do we care about more, the inequality or the poverty that is being grown out of? My own weighting, as above, is that it's the poverty to be got rid of first, then the inequality. That requires a concentration upon growth until rather later that the stage Indonesia has got to in my mind. Indonesia's currently about where the US was in the 1930s, 1940s, I tend to think that the American poor have done better out of general economic growth since then than anything that has been done to reduce inequality. Certainly today's American poor live better than today's Indonesian middle classes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Copied from: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/08/16/jokowi-widodo-is-in-error-here-its-more-development-indonesia-needs-not-equality-of-poverty/#59a574204e80">Forbes</a></span></div>
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verrykusralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16114711839187874131noreply@blogger.com0