Democracy & Civics

Muslims Down Under: Bias, Sketch Comedy

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A fight over a proposed Islamic school in a small Australian town has turned nasty, with locals accusing Muslims of trying to take over their country. The disagreement reflects a larger struggle among Muslims to define their identity in the land Down Under. According to the BBC, Sydney’s Quranic Society has purchased 15 acres of land on the outskirts of Camden, New South Wales, with the idea of building a 1,200-student Islamic school. At a town council meeting last fall to discuss the proposal, one resident said, “Why hasn’t anyone got any guts? They’ve got terrorists amongst ’em,” according to the BBC.

Democracy & Civics

A Gathering Around Cluster Bombs

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Activists and diplomats from around the world are in Dublin, Ireland, this week to try to establish a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs, which they say pose unacceptable risks to civilians. The United Nations and over 100 countries have pledged their support to the ban, according to news reports, as did Pope Benedict XVI. The BBC quoted the pontiff as saying, “It is necessary to heal the errors of the past and avoid them happening again in the future. I pray for the victims of the cluster munitions, for their families and for those who will join the conference too, wishing that it will be successful.” Opposing the ban are some of the world’s leading manufacturers and users of cluster bombs, the United States, Russia, China and Britain.

Democracy & Civics

Australian Press Points to Children of Burmese Junta

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Since Cyclone Nargis ravaged Burma earlier this month, the military junta that rules the nation has been roundly condemned for its handling of the emergency, but Australian newspapers took an unusual tack; several publications revealed that children of Burmese military leaders are residing in Australia as students. Some newspapers went so far as to publish the names of some of these students. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, privacy laws prevent Australian universities from commenting to the press about individual students, but the Herald, along with the Age and other publications, found other sources who identified the Burmese students. The number is apparently small; the Australian Broadcasting Corporation cites an activist who says there are about eight such students in the country, compared to about 10,000 ordinary Burmese also in residence there. The ABC notes that there are strict limits on money transfers into Australia from members of the Burmese junta.

Democracy & Civics

New Execution Inquiries

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The United States resumed executions last week after a brief moratorium, but several other nations that still carry out the death penalty have recently begun to question the practice. Japanese radio listeners were surprised last week to hear a broadcast of a condemned man’s last words and the sound of his hanging. The execution was recorded more than 50 years ago, and was used in a new documentary about the nation’s secretive death penalty practice. Details of executions are rarely released to the public, and according to The Guardian, the condemned are not told the time of their execution until minutes before they are hanged. The newspaper quoted filmmaker Tatsuya Mori as saying, “If the justice ministry masks the reality, then it is up to the media to expose it.

World

Japan's Military Dilemma

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Japanese activists turned out in the thousands last week to oppose changes to the nation’s pacifist constitution. At issue is the so-called Article 9, a charter which severely restricts the activity of the Japanese military, and which has been targeted for updating as the nation’s international role has changed in recent years. According to the Associated Press, thousands of activists gathered outside of Tokyo last week for a peace conference centered around the issue. A statement by the organizers of the event said, “We believe that Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution constitutes a world-class model for peace and should be protected as a global treasure for future generations,” according to the Associated Press. Imposed after Japan’s defeat in World War II, the charter states, “The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”

Democracy & Civics

For Cold War Brits, the Day After was a Tea-Time Nightmare

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A wry old anti-nuclear slogan used to say “One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.” If you’re British, and the nuclear bomb manages to ruin your afternoon tea, well, then you’ve really got a problem. Or so one might conclude from the release last week of declassified Cold War-era documents that found British officials worrying about what a nuclear war would do to food supplies. The BBC quoted one document from 1955 as saying the government must be “completely ready to maintain supplies of food to the people of these islands, sufficient in volume to keep them in good heart and health from the onset of a thermonuclear attack on this country.” But, the document stated, the kind of rationing that existed in World War II would be “fatally deficient” in keeping the British people fed in the case of a nuclear war.

Democracy & Civics

New Wind-Power Projects Becalmed

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With oil prices setting new highs nearly every day, wind power is getting another look. But, like most weather reports, the outlook for large windmill projects is anything but predictable, plagued as they are by noise complaints, endangered species and fickle commercial backers. In the United Kingdom, a giant wind farm planned for the Thames River estuary now appears to be in jeopardy after Dutch oil giant Shell announced it would pull out of the project. The BBC reported that Shell, citing the rising cost of building materials, would sell its 33 percent stake in the London Array, a proposed wind farm that had been listed by Forbes magazine as one of the biggest clean energy projects in the world. The pullout sparked anger on the part of environmentalists and other supporters of the project.

World

Drought Persists Down Under

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Australians had high hopes for the Pacific weather pattern known as La Nina. That periodic cooling of the eastern Pacific typically brings increased rainfall to the land Down Under — which would have been a blessing for a country entering its tenth year of drought in some regions. But, with the La Nina pattern fading, the prognosis is grim. Heavy rainfalls did indeed come to Australia, but only certain parts, and not in the quantities need to break the enduring drought cycle. Areas plagued by record-low rainfall are actually increasing, and the resurgence of average rainfall elsewhere wasn’t enough to officially close out the dry spell.

World

Africa Reels from Illegal Fishing

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Billions of dollars have been lost worldwide, and entire ecosystems are at risk from the effects of illegal fishing. Africa, in particular, is threatened by the trend, according to Kenya’s The Nation newspaper. The culprits — mostly large commercial fleets from Asia and Europe — break international law, and prey on developing nations that lack the infrastructure and clout to enforce fishing regulations. While the collective financial losses are huge — adding up to $1 billion annually in sub-Saharan Africa alone — the effects are felt at the local level. Family and subsistence fishers, for example, find their traditional waters suddenly populated with massive trawlers they can’t compete with.

World

More Deaths Alleged at Myanmar Pipeline

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Alleged human rights abuses by soldiers guarding a Burmese pipeline have revived old questions about pipeline co-owner Chevron’s relationship with the military dictatorship that hosts it. The activist group EarthRights International says it has interviewed villagers near the Yadana Pipeline who claim government troops working for Chevron have killed local residents, and used others as slave labor. The pipeline brings in $969 million annually for the Myanmar junta. Marco Simons, the EarthRights legal director, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Chevron has a “moral responsibility” to shut down the pipeline, pressuring the dictatorship to end the abuses. Chevron, however, says the charges are unfounded.