Africa « Tikkunista!

4. Mali, Azawad (& Tunnelbear!)

Apr-13-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Azawad, the northern part of Mali which is the traditional home of the Tuaregs, has declared independence. I had been following this because I’m a fan of Tuareg music, in particular the band Tinariwen, which has many songs about the rebellion. I was hugely pleased when I discovered a New Yorker piece about the rebellion and Tinariwen, but then hit the bane of all non Americans: “This video/spotify/movie is not available in your area.” Enter, the Tunnelbear, free software (Mac or PC) that lets you bypass those restrictions. Now I can link to Jon Stewart again!

* The Crisis in Mali Al Jazeera

In the past two months, the West African nation of Mali has become embroiled in a power struggle. On March 21, disgruntled army soldiers overthrew President Amadou Toumani Touré and dissolved the constitution. The military junta responsible for the coup explained that they were ill-equipped to address security issues in northern Mali, largely due to the government’s lack of material support. For the past several months, the Malian army has unsuccessfully tried to quell a rebellion in northern Mali led by the MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad). MNLA members are from various ethnic groups but are primarily Tuareg or Kel Tamasheq, meaning speakers of the Tamasheq language. The Kel Tamasheq are a nomadic and pastoralist people who travel throughout the Sahelian region of West Africa. The MNLA capitalised on the frenzy which accompanied the coup and quickly gained control of northern Mali, roughy half of the country.
* All Hail Azawad New York Times
Here’s yet another contentious line drawn in the sand of the Sahara desert: The northern half of Mali has just declared independence, and would henceforth like that you call it Azawad, pretty please. “We solemnly proclaim the independence of Azawad as of today,” Mossa ag Attaher, a rebel [1] spokesman, told the France 24 TV channel on Friday, April 6.
The Tuareg rebel group announced it would cease hostilities, and asked the international community to recognize Azawad’s independence, in order to speed along the process of state-building: “Now the biggest task begins,” Mr. Attaher said. It is still unclear what form of government the rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, known by its French acronym MNLA, are proposing, or who would be the chief executive of the new state.

* Culture Desk: Rebel Music: The Tuareg Uprising in 12 Songs by Tinariwen The New Yorker

Over the weekend, Tuareg rebels in West Africa made a rapid advance, capturing the cities of Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu. If Mali is shaped somewhat like a butterfly, the rebels now claim to control its entire vast northern wing. The Tuareg people, longtime camelback masters of the barren byways of the central Sahara, have fought repeatedly over the past fifty years for a desert homeland autonomous from the mostly Bambara-speaking south. This revolt is already their most successful by far, fuelled by an influx of Libyan weapons commandeered during Muammar Qaddafi’s last gasp. Today, the main rebel group, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (M.N.L.A.), claimed that they’ve advanced as far as they intend to, and said they’re ready to negotiate. But a splinter rebel faction called Ansar Dine wants to impose Sharia law across the country, and this morning its black flag was seen flying over Timbuktu.

Meanwhile, another group of Tuaregs is making its way across Europe. They’re the rock band Tinariwen, and they’re midway through their latest world tour. In February, Tinariwen won the Grammy for Best World Music Album for “Tassili,” which includes contributions from members of TV on the Radio and Wilco. In November, they made an appearance on the Colbert Report. They’re scheduled to play five shows in the U.S. in June. But twenty years ago, they were rebels themselves, and they haven’t ruled out becoming rebels once more. “We are military artists!” Abdallah Ag Alhousseini, one of the group’s guitarists and singers, recently told a journalist from Algérie News. “Today, if we see that our brothers need fighters rather than musicians, we will go to the front, because we are always ready to answer the call of the preservation of our land, our values, and our culture. This is what we do through music, and we will do it again with arms!”

So far, Abdallah has stuck to music; this week, he and his bandmates have been performing in France. But the battlefield is there with him, because the history of Tuareg insurrection is written throughout Tinariwen’s lyrics. Here, then, is a brief survey of fifty years of Tuareg uprisings as told through twelve Tinariwen songs. (Plus a Spotify playlist of all twelve.)

* Download TunnelBear

In the preceding piece, there are links to Colbert and Spotify, both of which will inform you that they are not available in your country,(if you’re not in the US.) Not no more. Tunnelbear is a free program for Macs and PCs that lets you use convince the computer at the other end that you are in the US (or the UK). I use it; it works. Review from Macword follows…MacWorld Review(4/5 stars) TunnelBear is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tool that connects your computer to the net through a gateway in the UK or the US. Any online service that checks the origin of your internet connection will see TunnelBear’s server details instead of your own….Our place is not to judge how you might use TunnelBear. We’re simply reviewing how well it works and it works very well indeed. We’ve used several anonymising services in the past. TunnelBear is more consumer-friendly, with a very-easy-to-configure interface. A dialog pops up, styled like an old, wooden radio. You simply switch to On and decide whether you want to use a UK or US server. That’s it.

4. US Decline: As Seen By Chomsky

Feb-17-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Every website I went to this week had reposts of these two major pieces by Chomsky. That’s a slight hyperbole, but Google reports over 1000 reposts already of these two. As always, Noam is scathing, cogent, and specific about the ongoing decline of the American Empire.

* “Losing” the World Noam Chomsky NationofChange

Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated — Japan’s attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example. Others are ignored, and we can often learn valuable lessons from them about what is likely to lie ahead. Right now, in fact.

At the moment, we are failing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s decision to launch the most destructive and murderous act of aggression of the post-World War II period: the invasion of South Vietnam, later all of Indochina, leaving millions dead and four countries devastated, with casualties still mounting from the long-term effects of drenching South Vietnam with some of the most lethal carcinogens known, undertaken to destroy ground cover and food crops. … The aggression later spread to the North, then to the remote peasant society of northern Laos, and finally to rural Cambodia, which was bombed at the stunning level of all allied air operations in the Pacific region during World War II, including the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

When the war ended eight horrendous years later, mainstream opinion was divided between those who described the war as a “noble cause” that could have been won with more dedication, and at the opposite extreme, the critics, to whom it was “a mistake” that proved too costly. By 1977, President Carter aroused little notice when he explained that we owe Vietnam “no debt” because “the destruction was mutual.”

There are important lessons in all this for today, even apart from another reminder that only the weak and defeated are called to account for their crimes. One lesson is that to understand what is happening we should attend not only to critical events of the real world, often dismissed from history, but also to what leaders and elite opinion believe, however tinged with fantasy.

* The Imperial Way Noam Chomsky Truthout

In the years of conscious, self-inflicted decline at home, “losses” continued to mount elsewhere. In the past decade, for the first time in 500 years, South America has taken successful steps to free itself from western domination, another serious loss. The region has moved towards integration, and has begun to address some of the terrible internal problems of societies ruled by mostly Europeanized elites, tiny islands of extreme wealth in a sea of misery. They have also rid themselves of all U.S. military bases and of IMF controls.

A newly formed organization, CELAC, includes all countries of the hemisphere apart from the U.S. and Canada. If it actually functions, that would be another step in American decline, in this case in what has always been regarded as “the backyard.”

Even more serious would be the loss of the MENA countries — Middle East/North Africa — which have been regarded by planners since the 1940s as “a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history.” Control of MENA energy reserves would yield “substantial control of the world,” in the words of the influential Roosevelt advisor A.A. Berle.

2. Understanding Reactions to Syria

Feb-10-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: The key to understanding why Russia and China opposed NATO UN action in Syria is looking at what happened to Libya and Iraq, both stable countries reduced to chaos in the name of oil profits granting democracy. We start with this week’s Guardian looking at the horror of what’s currently going on in Libya, then follow up with a focus on both Russia and China.

* Libyan Militias Accused Of Torture The Guardian

Three months after the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, concerns are mounting about the mistreatment and torture of prisoners held by Libyan militiamen who are operating beyond the control of the country’s transitional government, as well as by officially recognised security bodies. Amnesty International warned that prisoners from Libya and other African countries have been subject to abuse. The warning comes against a background of anxiety in western capitals about Tripoli’s failure to tackle security and political issues….

The aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières has added its voice to the chorus of concern by announcing that it had halted work in the coastal city of Misrata because staff were being asked to patch up detainees during torture sessions. “Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for more interrogation,” said MSF’s Christopher Stokes. “This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions.”

* Cynicism Around Syria Vijay Prashad Counterpunch (Thanks Judith)

Rehearsed statements filled the stale air of the UN Security Council on the last day of January. The Arab League’s Nabil el-Araby pleaded with the Council to adopt a draft resolution on Syria furnished by the Moroccan delegation to the UN. The Moroccan resolution is based on a report by the Arab League’s human rights mission to Syria. This draft called for an immediate cessation of violence in Syria and a national dialogue. “We are attempting to avoid any foreign intervention,” el-Araby told the Council, “especially military intervention.” …

The Qataris are eager to install their allies in the Muslim Brotherhood to authority in the region. They have funded the Brotherhood lavishly from Tunisia to Egypt. They would like to move their influence into the Mashriq, bringing their influence to bear against their principle enemy: Iran. …

The Arab League’s el-Araby need not have been worried about the Security Council sanctioning intervention. This is not on the cards. The Russians, burned by the example of UNSC resolution 1973 for Libya, are unwilling to allow any open-ended statement from the Council. They seem to have come to terms with the reality that any Council authorization for intervention by anyone means military action by NATO. No other power has the military capability to act with the kind of force demonstrated by NATO. …

*Chinese Envoy: Veto aimed at Protecting Syria from Civil WarJuan Cole Informed Comment

Special envoy on Middle Eastern affairs Wu Sike explains that China feared the resolution would push Syria into a full-fledged civil war. He said he also wanted to avoid another Iraq or Libya fiasco. This is the first time I’ve seen either Russia or China give the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq as a reason for their opposition to further Western intervention in the Middle East. The chickens are coming home to roost. Bush and Cheney thought that they were nailing down another American century, but they may have been hastening the demise of that whole notion.

2. The Faces of Arab Democracy

Dec-02-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Egyptian election results, roughly speaking, are 40% Muslim Brotherhood, 20% Salafi (more traditionalist Muslim), 20% liberal coalition. That’s what happened in Tunisia and Morocco, and what we can expect across the Middle East as more elections get held. We look at a handful of commentators on these developments… Wadah Khanfar, the ex-director general from Al Jazeera, is very interesting; though we’re not sure that the US’ Political Christianity, or India’s Political Hinduism have worked so well. And a lovely graphic vividly demonstrates at how Americans are protected from such commentators via this week’s Time Magazine covers.

* Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Says End To Military Rule Is ‘Top Priority’ The Guardian

The Muslim Brotherhood has fired a warning shot at Egypt’s ruling generals, declaring that a swift end to military rule is the country’s “top priority” as it prepares to take charge of a newly elected parliament.

With provisional election results continuing to emerge, confirming earlier predictions of a strong victory for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party, the movement’s leaders emphasised that now was the time for “consensus not collision” and agreed to work with parties across the political spectrum to advance the revolution and facilitate a smooth transition to civilian government.

In a sign the Brotherhood will not tolerate parliament being treated as a rubber stamp by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), which has clung to power despite almost two weeks of anti-junta protests and violent street clashes, senior members of the organisation told the Guardian the generals risked further unrest if they defied the people and failed to return to their barracks next year.

* Democratic Developments in the Arab UpheavalsJuan Cole Informed Comment

The Arab upheavals of 2011 have been very different from one another across countries, but have in common a language of parliamentary democracy as the ultimate ideal (albeit one that sounds more like the old West German Social Democratic Party ideal than like the Neoliberal parliamentary regimes of the US and its close allies). Democracy is not a black and white quality but rather a range of practices that can be highly mature (“consolidated”) or still imperfect and fragile (“unconsolidated”). Whether the aspirations of many Arab young people and intellectuals for greater political freedom will be realized or not, the breadth, depth and fervor of the aspiration is remarkable in itself.

Events are moving quickly in the region, and here are [four] notable developments with implications for democracy in the Middle East:

* What does History Teach Us about the Arab Revolutions? Stephen M. Walt

Anybody who thought that the events that swept through the Arab world in 2011 were going to produce stable and orderly outcomes quickly was living in a dream world. To say this is not to oppose what has happened, or to believe that the old orders could or should have continued. Rather, it is to recognize that radical reform — even revolution — is a long, difficult, and uncertain process, and that the ride is likely to be a bumpy one for years to come.

History also warns that outside powers have at best limited influence over the outcomes of a genuine revolutionary process. Even well-intentioned efforts to aid progressive forces can backfire, as can overt efforts to thwart them. Overall, a policy of “benevolent neglect” may be the more prudent course, making it clear that outsiders are prepared to let each country’s citizens choose their own order, provided that important foreign policy redlines are not crossed. But for a country like the United States, which still sees itself as a model for others and tends to think that it has the right and the wisdom to tell them what to do, patience and restraint can be hard to sustain. And patience is what is needed most these days.

* Those Who Support Democracy Must Welcome The Rise Of Political Islam Wadah Khanfar, The Guardian

Ennahda, the Islamic party in Tunisia, won 41% of the seats of the Tunisian constitutional assembly last month, causing consternation in the west. But Ennahda will not be an exception on the Arab scene. Last Friday the Islamic Justice and Development Party took the biggest share of the vote in Morocco and will lead the new coalition government for the first time in history. And tomorrow Egypt’s elections begin, with the Muslim Brotherhood predicted to become the largest party. There may be more to come. Should free and fair elections be held in Yemen, once the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh falls, the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, also Islamic, will win by a significant majority. This pattern will repeat itself whenever the democratic process takes its course.

Reform-based Islamic movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, work within the political process. They learned a bitter lesson from their armed conflict in Syria against the regime of Hafez al-Assad in 1982, which cost the lives of more than 20,000 people and led to the incarceration or banishment of many thousands more. The Syrian experience convinced mainstream Islamic movements to avoid armed struggle and to observe “strategic patience” instead.

* We Must Protect Americans From Arab FacesTime Magazine covers

5. Gene Sharp: “The Machiavelli of Nonviolence”

Oct-07-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: This is a person whose ideas you need to know. Gene Sharp is “is Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts. He is known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world.” (more from Wikipedia here). We start with Prospect magazine’s brief summary of his work, then offer a translation of the pamphlet that Egyptian activists used in Tahrir Square, and end with a link to the Albert Einstein Institution for strategic nonviolence, where Sharp’s works are available for a free download, (though not at the speed of light.)

* How to Start a Revolution Prospect Magazine

The hallmarks of a Sharp revolution are the employment of colours and symbols, signs written in English to maximise western media coverage, women and children strategically positioned at the front of the protest—all now familiar to us now from uprisings in Bosnia, Burma, Zimbabwe, Estonia, Syria and Egypt.

It is not surprising, then, that From Dictatorship to Democracy has been translated into more than 30 languages. How To Start A Revolution charts the spread of Sharp’s ideas and looks at their impact on uprisings across the world. His description of 198 nonviolent means of destabilising dictatorships, for instance, has taken root in oppressed countries around the world, gaining advocates most recently among the protestors of the Arab Spring.

…In late January of this year, a 26-page pamphlet entitled How to Protest Intelligently began circulating in Cairo. The strategies it outlined—carrying flowers, uniting with the police and army, chanting peacefully and taking over government buildings—embodied the nonviolent ethos at the heart of Sharp’s blueprint.

* Egyptian Activists’ Action Plan: Translated Alexis Madrigal The Atlantic

The “How to Protest Intelligently” pamphlet, in English

* Advancing Freedom Through Nonviolent Action Albert Einstein Institution

Free downloads of many of Sharp’s works here, amongst many other fascinating works.

The Albert Einstein Institution is a nonprofit organization advancing the study and use of strategic nonviolent action in conflicts throughout the world. We are committed to the defense of freedom, democracy, and the reduction of political violence through the use of nonviolent action. Our goals are to understand the dynamics of nonviolent action in conflicts, to explore its policy potential, and to communicate this through print and other media, translations, conferences, consultations, and workshops.

Sept 30th, 2011 :: Year 8, Issue 28

Sep-30-2011 | Comments (0)

1. Followups

Bird’s Eye: Robert Fisk, always fascinating and usually insightful, speculates about the future fall out from Palestine’s request for UN recognition. We hear endless amounts about Libya and its relationship to the Arab Spring; here’s a fascinating perspective on how outing Gaddafi changes its relationship to Africa. And an amazing surfing picture that we missed last week

* Why The Middle East Will Never Be The Same Again Robert Fisk The Independent

The Palestinians won’t get a state this week. But they will prove – if they get enough votes in the General Assembly and if Mahmoud Abbas does not succumb to his characteristic grovelling in the face of US-Israeli power – that they are worthy of statehood. And they will establish for the Arabs what Israel likes to call – when it is enlarging its colonies on stolen land – “facts on the ground”: never again can the United States and Israel snap their fingers and expect the Arabs to click their heels. The US has lost its purchase on the Middle East. It’s over: the “peace process”, the “road map”, the “Oslo agreement”; the whole fandango is history.

…This vote at the UN – General Assembly or Security Council, in one sense it hardly matters – is going to divide the West – Americans from Europeans and scores of other nations – and it is going to divide the Arabs from the Americans. It is going to crack open the divisions in the European Union; between eastern and western Europeans, between Germany and France (the former supporting Israel for all the usual historical reasons, the latter sickened by the suffering of the Palestinians) and, of course, between Israel and the EU.

* Has Africa lost Libya? Knox Chitiyo The Guardian

For decades, Libya has been an integral part of Africa. Indeed Sirte, the Colonel Gaddafi stronghold where fighting still continues, was the birthplace of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. About a quarter of indigenous Libyans are black, while African migrant workers in Libya exceed one million; and during his 40-year rule Gaddafi championed pan-Africanism and African multiculturalism.

…The revolution has moved Libya into the democratic wave of the Arab spring. There will be continued interactions between Libya and Africa; but culturally, ideologically and financially, Libya has moved towards a greater identification with its north African, Middle Eastern and south Mediterranean neighbours. Libya is embracing its Arab heritage. In a way this should be no surprise: Gaddafi’s embrace of pan-Africanism, while popular south of the Sahara, had little backing from Libyans. But the question of support for Libya’s revolution has divided sub-Saharan Africa.…

* Surfing Camera EyeWitness

Pro tip: When glueing your camera to a surfboard, it is important to choose your adhesive carefully

9. Desert Treats

Sep-30-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: No, not a misspelling: desert. We start with the Tuareg, a desert culture sliced up like dessert, and given to different countries. Then a song by Tinariwen, the world-renowned Taureg musicians (their new album is just out), a photo feature on sand dunes, and your chance to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, up close and personal.

* The Sahara’s Tuareg National Geographic Magazine

* Mataraden Anexan Tinariwen youtube

* The Most Beautiful Sand Dunes on Earth Environmental Graffiti

* Dead Sea Scrolls Online The Presurfer

Two thousand years after they were written and decades after they were found in desert caves, some of the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls went online for the first time in a project launched by Israel’s national museum and web giant Google. Images of several Dead Sea Scrolls are now available allowing users to examine and explore these ancient manuscripts at a level of detail never before possible. The high resolution photographs, taken by Ardon Bar-Hama, are up to 1,200 megapixels, almost 200 times more than the average consumer camera, so viewers can see even the most minute details in the parchment.

4. Global Warming’s Coming Attractions

Sep-09-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: As we head further down the climate change path, countries are reacting differently. Some (the US) are in denial. Some (China, the Middle East) are scrambling to prepare by buying land (“agro-imperialism” is your new political word for the week: remember it.) Others, like Canada, are gambling that the disasters destroying millions of lives overseas will help their economies at home. There is some good news on the environmental front… but is it too little too late?

* Water wars: 21st century conflicts? Al Jazeera (Thanks, Gabe!)

As global warming alters weather patterns, and the number of people lacking access to water rises, millions, if not billions, of others are expected to face a similar fate as water shortages become more frequent.

Presently, Hassain is one of about 1.2 billion people living in areas of physical water scarcity, although the majority of cases are nowhere near as dire. By 2030, 47 per cent of the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Environmental Outlook to 2030 report.

* Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism? New York Times

In a series of meetings, Saudi government officials, bankers and agribusiness executives told an institute delegation led by Zeigler that they intended to spend billions of dollars to establish plantations to produce rice and other staple crops in African nations like Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Ethiopia. “They laid out this incredible plan,” Zeigler recalled. He was flabbergasted, not only by the scale of the projects but also by the audacity of their setting. Africa, the world’s most famished continent, can’t currently feed itself, let alone foreign markets.

…Foreign investors — some of them representing governments, some of them private interests — are promising to construct infrastructure, bring new technologies, create jobs and boost the productivity of underused land so that it not only feeds overseas markets but also feeds more Africans. (More than a third of the continent’s population is malnourished.) They’ve found that impoverished governments are often only too welcoming, offering land at giveaway prices. A few transactions have received significant publicity, like Kenya’s deal to lease nearly 100,000 acres to the Qatari government in return for financing a new port, or South Korea’s agreement to develop almost 400 square miles in Tanzania. But many other land deals, of near-unprecedented size, have been sealed with little fanfare.

* Total Arctic Sea Ice At Record Low In 2010: Study Reuters

The minimum summertime volume of Arctic sea ice fell to a record low last year, researchers said in a study to be published shortly, suggesting that thinning of the ice had outweighed a recovery in area. The study estimated that last year broke the previous, 2007 record for the minimum volume of ice, which is calculated from a combination of sea ice area and thickness. The research adds to a picture of rapid climate change at the top of the world that could see the Arctic Ocean ice-free within decades, spurring new oil exploration opportunities. (Editor’s note: Well, that’s good news then, innit?)

*Top Ten Good News Green Energy Stories Juan Cole Informed Comment

Here are the week’s top ten energy good news stories.

1. A Japanese technical innovation has the potential to double or triplethe power generated by wind turbines.

2. Germany now gets over 20% of its energy from low-carbon sources:6.5% wind, 5.6% biomass, 3.5% solar, 3.3% hydro and 0.8% other.

3. Over 100 companies are researching wave energy, which will likely provide 180 gigawatts of power by 2050. It takes the world’s 440 nuclear power reactors to produce 376 GWe at the moment, so this would be equivalent to building 220 new nuclear plants.

5. Recent Anonymous Actions

Jun-10-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Anonymous and Wikileaks aren’t exactly the same group: the former is Anonymous, the latter merely anonymous. But they overlap their interests and targets. We look at the five big Wikileaks stories of this year (largely ignored by the MSM), at an Al Jazeera interview with Anonymous, focussing on their role in fomenting the Arab uprisings, and at a recent Anonymous manifesto in response to NATO’s targeting them.

* Five WikiLeaks Hits of 2011 That Are Turning the World on Its Head AlterNet

Number Four: World leaders are practically lighting a fire under the Arctic. As Secretary of State Hilary Clinton met with the Arctic Council last month to discuss oil exploration, WikiLeaks, with impeccable timing, published a new trove of cables highlighting a race to carve up the Arctic for resource exploitation. Nations battling to poison the arctic with oil drilling include Canada, the US, Russia, Norway, Denmark, and perhaps even China, which all have competing claims to the Arctic.The leaks illustrate a frightening reality, where world leaders are greedily awaiting the opportunity to exploit the oil and natural gas that lie beneath the melting Arctic ice, even arming themselves for possible resource wars.

…Clearly, banking on the melting of the polar ice caps has taken priority over halting or even reversing the catastrophic effects of climate change. The Arctic contains as much as one quarter of the world’s gas and oil reserves, once hidden under huge masses of ice and inaccessible through frozen seas. However, ice is melting faster than predicted, presenting profitable business opportunities which are leading the Arctic countries to lose sight of longer-term climate issues.

* Anonymous and the Arab Uprisings Al Jazeera

Anonymous’s rapid rise from the depths of geekdom to becoming a catalyst and nerve centre for real-life revolutionaries is one that has taken even some of its own members by surprise. The loosely-knit hive brings anonymous techies, hackers and, increasingly, activists together under a single appellation, united in their non-violent but often illegal collective action.
With high-profile campaigns, centred on “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks that knock target websites offline, it has been transformed from a fringe group of law-breaking pranksters that emerged in 2006 into an international movement that draws new recruits by their thousands. In an interview with a group of Anons conducted on their home turf, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), they tell Al Jazeera that they are fighting, above all, for the free flow of information. “You can’t make a decision on something if you don’t know anything about it,” one Anon says.
…While mainstream media was slow to tune in to the revolutionary drumbeat that has been rising in the Arab world, Anonymous was present from the beginning. Tunisian Anons collaborated with their international counterparts on Operation Tunisia, which was launched on January 2 – well before most Western media outlets had clicked onto the fact that there was a revolution underway.

* Anonymous Message to NATO (via reddit.com)

Anonymous is not simply “a group of super hackers”. Anonymous is the embodiment of freedom on the web. We exist as a result of the Internet, and humanity itself. This frightens you. It only seems natural that it would. Governments, corporations, and militaries know how to control individuals. It frustrates you that you do not control us. We have moved to a world where our freedom is in our own hands. We owe you nothing for it. We stand for freedom for every person around the world. You stand in our way.

We hope you come to see that your attempts to censor and control our existence are futile. But if this is not the case, if you continue to object to our freedoms — we shall not relent.

We do not fear your tyranny. You cannot win a battle against an entity you do not understand. You can take down our networks, arrest every single one of us that you can backtrace, read every bit of data ever shared from computer to computer for the rest of this age, and you will still lose.

So come at me bro. You can retaliate against us in any manner you choose. Lock down the web. Throw us in prison. Take it all away from us. Anonymous will live on.

Cross-posted on rabble.ca, Canada’s voice from the left.

2. Africa Fighting Back

Apr-08-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: We hear about the revolutions in North Africa against tyranny, but we don’t hear much about the rest of the continent. So our lead is with a story from South Africa, about Lewis Pugh, (whose biography makes Indiana Jones look a desk-bound wimp!) fighting the frackers at Shell. Then we look at the other side of the piracy off Somalia, used as a toilet to flush away European radioactive waste.

* Lewis Pugh At The Public Hearing Into Shell’s Proposed Fracking For Gas In South Africa (Thanks Gabe!)

There may be gas beneath our ground in the Karoo. But are we prepared to destroy our environment for 5 to 10 years worth of fossil fuel and further damage our climate? Yes, people will be employed – but for a short while. And when the drilling is over, and Shell have packed their bags and disappeared, then what? Who will be there to clean up? And what jobs will our children be able to etch out?

Now Shell will tell you that their intentions are honourable….When I hear this – I have one burning question. Why should we trust them? Africa is to Shell what the Gulf of Mexico is to BP. Shell, you have a shocking record here in Africa. Just look at your operations in Nigeria. You have spilt more than 9 million barrels of crude oil into the Niger Delta. That’s twice the amount of oil that BP spilt into the Gulf of Mexico. You were found guilty of bribing Nigerian officials – and to make the case go away in America – you paid an admission of guilt fine of US$48 million. And to top it all, you stand accused of being complicit in the execution of Nigeria’s leading environmental campaigner – Ken Saro-Wira – and 8 other activists. If you were innocent, why did you pay US$15.5 million to the widows and children to settle the case out of Court?

Shell, the path you want us to take us down is not sustainable. I have visited the Arctic for 7 summers in a row. I have seen the tundra thawing. I have seen the retreating glaciers. And I have seen the melting sea ice. And I have seen the impact of global warming from the Himalayas all the way down to the low-lying Maldive Islands. Wherever I go – I see it. Now is the time for change. We cannot drill our way out of the energy crisis. The era of fossil fuels is over. We must invest in renewable energy. And we must not delay!

* Radioactive Waste Surfaces In The Coastline SomalilandPress.com

During the height of the Somali civil war, Swiss and Italian firms Achair Partners and Progresso, signed a secret agreement with the transitional government of warlord Ali Mahdi Mohamed. Taking advantage of the chaos and the fact that Ali Mahdi was desperate for arms and cash to oust rival General Farah Aideed– the European firms began to unload thousands of tonnes of toxic waste arriving in steel drums off the coast of Somalia. Some even made it to the mainland and were buried in 40 inches by 30 inches holes.

* You Are Being Lied To About Pirates Johann Hari The Independent

The words of one pirate from that lost age, a young British man called William Scott, should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: “What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirateing to live.” In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

…At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia’s seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: “If nothing is done, there soon won’t be much fish left in our coastal waters.”

*‘Toxic waste’ behind Somali piracy Al Jazeera

Somali pirates have accused European firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste.

The ransom demand is a means of “reacting to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years”, Januna Ali Jama, a spokesman for the pirates, based in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said. “The Somali coastline has been destroyed, and we believe this money is nothing compared to the devastation that we have seen on the seas.” The pirates are holding the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military hardware, off Somalia’s northern coast.

2. Libya

Apr-01-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Not surprisingly, the business of war grinds inexorably on. Gaddafi’s air power is gone, and his inner circle is starting to fragment and flee, a good thing if you’re hoping for regime change, says Juan Cole. Al-Jazeera excoriates those Arab leaders who support air attacks but not bombing, while the Telegraph explains how quid pro quo of realpolitik played out for Bahrain and the Saudis. Steve Sailer looks at Obama’s endgame, and a Tom Lehrer chaser puts it all in historical perspective.

* Defections, US Withdrawal Point to Political Solution in Libya Juan Cole Informed Comment

The significance of Kussa’s defection lies in its being a sign of the winds shifting against Qaddafi with his inner circle, which will affect the loyalty of his outer circle of tribal leaders. Many key members of the powerful Warfalla and Megarha tribes have already declared against Qaddafi, and Firjan and others are wavering. Tribes as loose systems of kinship politics, are volatile and fluid, and their allegiances can change rapidly….

Gates’s premise seems to be that most Libyans don’t want to be under Qaddafi’s rule, and that the only way he subdued Zuara, Zawiya, Tajoura, Ra’s Lanuf, and other cities that had thrown him off was by main force. When his main force is subjected to sufficient attrition, his advantage will suddenly disappear and the opposition to him of the liberation movement will suddenly cascade. I don’t personally think that this cascade requires military means. It happened once largely peacefully, as in Egypt in Tunisia, and can happen again if Qaddafi’s heavy weapons can be neutralized. People who want the attrition of Qaddafi’s forces to be visited in only a week or two are just being unrealistic. It would happen over weeks and maybe months.

* The Burden Of Leadership Al Jazeera

No good deed, they say, goes unpunished. Still, the haste with which Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, began to chastise those implementing the no-fly zone over Libya mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 1973 – a resolution, mind you, solicited only days before by the Arab League itself – was almost breathtaking.

….As Raghida Dergham of Al Hayat newspaper put it to him in a subsequent interview, did he not know that enforcement of a no-fly zone would “require bombings on the ground”? In that same interview, questioned as to the prospect of continued violence and an open-ended Libyan civil war, Mr. Moussa suggested the likelihood of quick success for the UN’s humanitarian mission, with the prospect of a ceasefire and international observers in place. This is pious nonsense, and Moussa knows it.

* Bahrain Hardliners To Put Shia Mps On Trial The Telegraph

Human rights activists also accused the [Bahrain] regime of torturing wounded protesters being held in a hospital in the capital Manama. Bahrain has declared martial law and called in troops from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to quell protests that have left at least 24 people dead. Saudi officials say they gave their backing to Western air strikes on Libya in exchange for the United States muting its criticism of the authorities in Bahrain, a close ally of the desert kingdom.

* Obama’s Libyan End Game Isn’t Really That Confusing Steve Sailer’s iSteve Blog

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Allies Are Split on Goal and Exit Strategy of Libya Mission,” is full of fun phrases:

inchoate … remains divided … complicated the planning … ill defined for now … days of public quarreling … divisions among the alliance’s members … frayed almost immediately … papering over the differences … questions swirling … larger strategic divisions … reservations percolated in Congress… In fact, Mr. Obama has not made clear what will happen …

Yet, the bottom line about what will happen isn’t really all that confusing. What matters most is that Obama has an election coming up in 19 months. He can’t afford to go into the campaign known as The President of the United States Who Started a War with Muammar Gaddafi and Failed to Win. He’d be better off getting the word LOSER tattooed on his forehead.

So … Obama is going to keep dropping bombs on Libya until Khadafy is gone.

That’s it. That’s the goal / strategy / end game / whatever: don’t lose the election by losing the war.

* Send the Marines Tom Lehrer Youtube video, September 11th 1967

For might makes right, and till they’ve seen the light,

They’ve got to be protected, all their rights respected,

Till somebody we like can be elected.

Members of the corps all hate the thought of war,

They’d rather kill them off by peaceful means

Stop calling it aggression, we hate that expression….

1. Actions

Jan-28-2011 | Comments (2)

* Stop the Meter on Internet Use. Canadian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are about to impose usage-based billing on you. This means we’re looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay MUCH more for less Internet.

Protest, most of all, because this will reduce internet access as a voice for people without power.

* Protest “Corrective Rape” ‘Corrective rape’ is based on the outrageous and utterly false notion that a lesbian woman can be raped to ‘make her straight’, but this heinous act is not even classified as a hate crime in South Africa….This is ultimately a battle with poverty, patriarchy, and homophobia. Ending the tide of rape will require bold leadership and concerted action to spearhead transformative change in South Africa and across the continent. If enough of us join this global call for action, we could push Zuma to speak out, drive much-needed government action, and begin a national conversation that could fundamentally shift public attitudes toward rape and homophobia in South Africa. Sign on now and spread the word.

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