Democracy & Civics

Data Snooping and its Discontents

By |

The limits of data privacy are being tested in Western democracies, as governments and corporations push for greater access with sometimes unexpected results. British authorities demanded that a group of about 30 animal rights activists hand over the keys to encrypted files stored on computers that had been seized by police. The demand is the first of its kind under a recently enacted measure of the nation’s controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, reports BBC News. The provision of the law that deals with decryption was written to combat pedophiles and terrorists, although many critics say it is flawed and possibly even unenforceable. One of the animal rights activists, choosing to remain anonymous, told the BBC, “Even if they hate our guts my personal view is that this is a matter where there’s great issues of public interest that should be being talked about.”

World

The Plagues of Uganda

By |

Concurrent outbreaks of several diseases in Uganda have health officials there on the defensive, reports The Monitor in Kampala. Even as the country struggles to contain an ebola outbreak, new cases of meningitis, cholera, bubonic plague and yellow fever are turning up in different parts of the country. Suspected cases of hepatitis have also been reported. Some of the diseases have claimed dozens of lives so far, and thousands have been infected. According to the newspaper, simple behavior changes among individuals and authorities can help prevent disease transmission.

Economy

Dollar's Drop a Drag for Americans Abroad

By |

The good fortune of the Euro — not to mention the Czech Crown — makes for dismal tidings for American expatriates and their European colleagues paid in dollars. According to The Prague Post, employees of American firms and institutions in the Czech Republic have taken the equivalent of a 15 percent salary cut as a result of the dollar’s devaluation. U.S.-based tax-exempt organizations in the Czech Republic, with their fundraising base back home, are also taking a hit. One economist told the Post that the dollar’s fall could eventually drag down foreign currencies with it, as the American market for imported consumer goods diminishes. Source:
“Free fall: Expats paid in dollars watch their salaries drop”
The Prague Post, November 28, 2007

Economy

Whither Cuba's Green Thumb?

By |

Floods, storms, drought and heat, plus an array of economic concerns, are taking their toll on Cuban agriculture. Inter Press Service reports that 75 percent of Cuban land used for crops and grazing has fallen into disuse, even as produce prices increase and the variety of crops available diminishes. Raul Castro, who heads the Communist government there, said earlier this year that “structural and conceptual changes will have to be introduced” to address the situation. Armando Nova, a Cuban academic in Havana, told Inter Press that increased local control over farming decisions, profitmaking, and allowing farmers to sell their crops directly at local markets, rather than mandatory sales to state agencies, are all necessary to boost cultivation and food production. Source:
“AGRICULTURE-CUBA: Waiting for Announced Reforms”
Inter Press Service, December 5, 2007

Democracy & Civics

Sex on the Beach and Birds in Hand? Kenya's Tourist Trap

By |

Miles of shoreline, coastal forests, mountains, plains and the continent-spanning Great Rift Valley all make Kenya a world-class tourist destination. But the complications of this burgeoning trade are abundant. Kenya’s beach towns, notorious for an illicit sex industry involving thousands of regional girls and boys, now have a new wrinkle to consider — older caucasian women seeking uncomplicated dalliances with young African men. Critics say the practice revives a colonial past of white women “serviced” by “black minions,” reports the Mail & Guardian of South Africa, and also note the health risks of casual encounters in a nation with a high incidence of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. One British woman told the newspaper that the “social arrangement” is nothing more than a role reversal on older men wining and dining younger women, though a hotel manager said the liaisons, while legal, are “unwholesome.”

Democracy & Civics

Cracks at the Seams? China Bolsters Three Gorges

By |

Everything about the Three Gorges Dam seems larger than life. It was built at a cost of $15.6 billion, caused the relocation of 1.2 million people, and has 19 hydropower generators that are expected by 2009 to produce 84.7 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year. And now, with increasing reports of landslides and environmental problems around the dam, thoughts of a larger-than-life disaster have come to the fore. China’s project director for the dam, Wang Xiaofeng, said in a press conference that the current environmental problems caused by the dam have been anticipated and planned for. But concerns persist about a variety of issues, including water pollution, and the safety of the surrounding landscape
According to the International Herald Tribune, the latest press conference contrasts with a forum in the city of Wuhan in September in which state officials warned of “catastrophe” if environmental issues were not addressed.

Democracy & Civics

Tear Gas for Ethnic Protest in Malaysia

By |

Riot police greeted thousands of minority protesters in Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur, turning back their calls for increased social benefits with water cannons and tear gas. The protesters, primarily Tamils, seek business licenses, access to scholarships and “other privileges reserved exclusively for native Maylays,” reports Asia Times Online. Tamil activists also sought reparations from the United Kingdom for relocating their ancestors to Malaysia as indentured laborers 150 years ago, according to the Web site. The protestors represent a Hindu minority that makes up roughly eight percent of the population in the majority Muslim nation. Economic programs established in the 1970s have created a burgeoning middle class, but one that is limited to Malays.

World

Kosovo Threatens Unilateral Independence

By |

Ethnic Albanian negotiators rejected a proposal for increased autonomy for their home province of Kosovo, and threatened a unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia if no deal is struck by a December 10 U.N. deadline. According to Agence France-Presse, the deal would have ensured self-governance in all of Kosovo’s economic, legal and “daily” affairs, while Serbia would retain possession of the province, as well as control over foreign policy and border security. The region has been administered by the United Nations and Nato since 1999, following military intervention in a bloody conflict between Albanian separatists and Serbian security forces. The United States and some E.U. nations said they would back independence for Kosovo, but Serbia, with the support of Russia, is steadfast in its opposition, and has called for further talks. Source:
“Deadlock in Kosovo talks”
Agence France-Presse/Sapa, November 27, 2007

Democracy & Civics

Japan to Expand Atomic Bomb Victim Definition

By |

More than 50 years after the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a string of court losses has forced Japan’s government to create a new standard that will recognize 20,000 new victims of diseases and health problems related to the blasts. The Kyodo news wire notes that nine kinds of diseases, including cancer and leukemia, will be recognized among the 250,000 registered bomb survivors in Japan. Under current standards, roughly 2,200 are recognized as victims.
The new standards will open the door for anyone who was within four kilometers of the blasts, or visited ground zero within 100 hours of the attacks. Source:
“New standard aims to certify more people as A-bomb disease sufferers”
Kyodo/Associated Press, November 27, 2007

Democracy & Civics

Hizb-ut-Tahrir: Winning Hearts and Minds

By |

The Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir is gaining a foothold across Central Asia and is making its presence felt in Britain and elsewhere. Governments have banned the group, with its alleged bent towards violence, and the appeal of its charismatic leaders and Islamic ideology. Founded in the Middle East, Hizb-ut-Tahrir spread to Muslim communities in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan in the 1990s. The group, which calls itself a political party even though it has no elected members, aims to replace all secular governments with a united front of Islamic governments. The group professes nonviolence, but is banned in many places and its members are arrested on a regular basis, according to the Institute for War & Peace Reporting.