Reclusive giant pandas fascinate the world, yet precious little is known about how they spend their time in the Chinese bamboo forests. Until now.

A team of Michigan State University (MSU) researchers who have been electronically stalking five pandas in the wild, courtesy of rare GPS collars, have finished crunching months of data and has published some panda surprises in this month’s Journal of Mammalogy.

“Pandas are such an elusive species and it’s very hard to observe them in wild, so we haven’t had a good picture of where they are from one day to the next,” said Vanessa Hull, a research associate at MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS). Jindong Zhang, a co-author on the paper and postdoctoral researcher at CSIS continues “This was a great opportunity to get a peek into the panda’s secretive society that has been closed off to us in the past.” Hull adds, “Once we got all the data in the computer we could see where they go and map it. It was so fascinating to sit down and watch their whole year unfold before you like a little window into their world.”

The five pandas – three female adults named Pan Pan, Mei Mei and Zhong Zhong, a young female Long Long and a male dubbed Chuan Chuan – were captured, collared and tracked from 2010 to 2012, in the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwest China.

The Chinese government is protective of its endangered pandas and for more than a decade banned putting GPS collars on them. While a handful of studies have tracked some, this is one of the first times technology has been used that provided more detail on the pandas’ movements and how they interact with one another over time.

One of the biggest surprises: The pandas seem to hang together sometimes. Usually renowned for being loners, three in this group – Chuan Chuan, Mei Mei and Long Long — were found to be in the same part of the forest at the same time – for several weeks in the fall and outside the usual spring mating season.

“We can see it clearly wasn’t just a fluke, we could see they were in the same locations, which we never would have expected for that length of time and at that time of year,” Hull said.

“This might be evidence that pandas are not as solitary as once widely believed,” Zhang added.

The male panda moseyed across a bigger range than any of the females, leading researchers to speculate that he spent time checking in on the surrounding females and advertising his presence with scent marking – rubbing stinky glands against trees.

Hull said they learned about a panda’s feeding strategy from this surveillance period. Many animals in the wild have a home range, and within that a core area they frequently return to and defend. Pandas have as many as 20 or 30 core areas, which Hull said might be a reflection of their feeding strategy.

“They pretty much sit down and eat their way out of an area, but then need to move on to the next place,” she said.

It’s been known that pandas follow bamboo – the food that makes up virtually all of their diet. Once they munch through one patch they move to the next, which accounts for a lot of their territory. But what this peek into their world revealed, Hull said, is that the pandas returned to core areas after being gone for long spans of time – up to six months. It suggests the pandas do remember successful dining experiences, and return in anticipation of regrowth. Specific locations may also have other importance for pandas to return to if they are communicating with neighboring pandas at certain vantage points.

The deeper understanding of how pandas use their space comes at an especially crucial time. The Chinese government recently issued a state of the panda conservation report. The wild panda population, they say, has increased nearly 17 percent to 1,864 pandas and panda habitat also has improved. But Jianguo “Jack” Liu, the MSU Rachel Carson Chair in sustainability and paper co-author, notes that habitat fragmentation, human impacts and climate change still cast a shadow over the panda’s future.

The post A Peek At Secret Life Of Pandas appeared first on Eurasia Review.

In their first trilateral meeting for three years, South Korea’s Yun Byung-se welcomed Fumio Kishida from Japan and Wang Yi from China to Seoul on 21 March to discuss ways to ease tensions in the region. The ministers agreed to organise a ‘trilateral summit’ for their leaders ‘at the earliest convenient time’.

Following the meeting, Mr Yun said the ministers had agreed ‘to strengthen trilateral co-operation’ in the spirit of looking squarely at history and moving forward to the future’. Reiterating China’s position, Mr Wang said: ‘The war has been over for 70 years, but the problem with history remains a present issue, not an issue of the past’.

It seems unlikely that a summit will be held before ceremonies to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, as China and South Korea will want to see how Japan marks the occasion. There are also concerns in Beijing and Seoul about Japan’s plans to amend the constitution to allow it to use force for ‘collective self-defence’. It is clear that differences remain but all sides now seem to recognise the advantages of cooling the tensions between them.

The poor relationship between Japan and South Korea has become a particular concern for the US, which despairs at the lack of trust between its two most important allies in Asia. Last week, US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel described the tension between the countries as a ‘strategic liability’. Saturday’s meeting was held just days after China and Japan held their first high-level security talks in four years. Those talks centred on the creation of a maritime communication hotline between the countries, following tensions over islands in the East China Sea.

The EU has also become involved with Chancellor Merkel last week using a speech in Japan to urge the powers in the region to engage more in reconciliation rather than nationalist rhetoric. This is a message that EU leaders will continue to push at the respective summits this year with Japan, China and South Korea.

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Cold snaps like the ones that hit the eastern United States in the past winters are not a consequence of climate change. Scientists at ETH Zurich and the California Institute of Technology have shown that global warming actually tends to reduce temperature variability.

Repeated cold snaps led to temperatures far below freezing across the eastern United States in the past two winters. Parts of the Niagara Falls froze, and ice floes formed on Lake Michigan. Such low temperatures had become rare in recent years. Pictures of icy, snow-covered cities made their way around the world, raising the question of whether climate change could be responsible for these extreme events.

It has been argued that the amplified warming of the Arctic relative to lower latitudes in recent decades has weakened the polar jet stream, a strong wind current several kilometres high in the atmosphere driven by temperature differences between the warm tropics and cold polar regions. One hypothesis is that a weaker jet stream may become more wavy, leading to greater fluctuations in temperature in mid-latitudes. Through a wavier jet stream, it has been suggested, amplified Arctic warming may have contributed to the cold snaps that hit the eastern United States.

Temperature range will decrease

Scientists at ETH Zurich and at the California Institute of Technology, led by Tapio Schneider, professor of climate dynamics at ETH Zurich, have come to a different conclusion. They used climate simulations and theoretical arguments to show that in most places, the range of temperature fluctuations will decrease as the climate warms. So not only will cold snaps become rarer simply because the climate is warming. Additionally, their frequency will be reduced because fluctuations about the warming mean temperature also become smaller, the scientists wrote in the latest issue of the Journal of Climate.

The study’s point of departure was that higher latitudes are indeed warming faster than lower ones, which means that the temperature difference between the equator and the poles is decreasing. Imagine for a moment that this temperature difference no longer exists. This would mean that air masses would have the same temperature, regardless of whether they flow from the south or north. In theory there would no longer be any temperature variability. Such an extreme scenario will not occur, but it illustrates the scientists’ theoretical approach.

Extremes will become rarer

Using a highly simplified climate model, they examined various climate scenarios to verify their theory. It showed that the temperature variability in mid-latitudes indeed decreases as the temperature difference between the poles and the equator diminishes. Climate model simulations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) showed similar results: as the climate warms, temperature differences in mid-latitudes decrease, and so does temperature variability, especially in winter.

Temperature extremes will therefore become rarer as this variability is reduced. But this does not mean there will be no temperature extremes in the future. “Despite lower temperature variance, there will be more extreme warm periods in the future because the Earth is warming,” says Schneider. The researchers limited their work to temperature trends. Other extreme events, such as storms with heavy rain or snowfall, can still become more common as the climate warms, as other studies have shown.

North-south shift makes the difference

And the jet stream? Schneider shrugs off the idea: “The waviness of the jet stream that makes our day-to-day weather does not change much.” Changes in the north-south difference in temperatures play a greater role in modifying temperature variability.

Schneider wants to explore the implications these results have in further studies. In particular, he wants to pursue the question of whether heatwaves in Europe may become more common because the frequency of blocking highs may increase. And he wants to find why these high pressure systems become stationary and how they change with the climate.

The post Climate Change Doesn’t Cause Extreme Winters – Scientists appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Numerous prominent progressive US pundits, whose political pronouncements carry great weight in the alternative media, have proclaimed ‘Latin America’s decisive break’ with US domination and have gone on to announce the beginning of a new ‘post-imperial epoch’.

“One of the most spectacular developments of this period is occurring in Latin America – For the first time in 500 years, Latin America has taken significant steps toward its liberation from imperial domination”. — Noam Chomsky, Magisterial Speech at the Forum for Emancipation and Equality, Buenos Aires, Argentina March 14, 2015

Introduction

Numerous prominent progressive US pundits, whose political pronouncements carry great weight in the alternative media, have proclaimed ‘Latin America’s decisive break’ with US domination and have gone on to announce the beginning of a new ‘post-imperial epoch’.

These claims have little basis in reality to anyone minimally familiar with developments in the region, especially to any observer of the economic and financial foundations and socio-economic class structure of the biggest and most important countries in Latin America.

What can be scientifically classified as the Anglo-American booby left (AABL) is a taxonomic category characterized by their impressionistic pronouncements based on the rhetorical flourishes of prominent Latin American leaders and their local ideologues. Needless to say the AABL, speaking ex cathedra, are not troubled by deep structural anomalies, which contradict, their flattering orations about the ‘emancipatory’ accomplishments of their Latin American hosts. Let it be said that the prestigious reputations, which adorn the invited speakers, does not preclude including them as premier representatives of the AABL.

Only because the prestigious booby-left systematically ignores basic economic, social and political conditions in Latin America and conflates cyclical and conjunctional changes with long-term historic transformations, can they speak of the ‘end of US domination’ and a ‘new era of social emancipation.’ Paraphrasing Marx, we can say that ‘the demagogic rhetoric of center-left Latin American leaders is the opium of the Anglo-American booby-left.’

What Latin American Emancipation? What Dollar Dependence?

For over a decade, Latin America experienced a period of exceptional growth as commodity prices soared, China’s economy expanded and US bankers and creditors financed Latin American investors. Center-left, centrist and rightwing regimes benefited from China’s rising demand for agro-mineral commodities. Regimes across the spectrum diversified their export markets and their source of imports. With large-scale budget surpluses, center-left and rightwing regimes reduced poverty levels via increased social expenditures, while the elite economic structures, the primacy of private national and foreign capital, remained intact. Landholding remained concentrated: No agrarian reform was implemented anywhere, except in Venezuela.

In fact, under center-left presidents, as well as rightist regimes, the areas exploited by agro-business and agro-chemical corporations expanded. Foreign corporations vastly increased investment and land ownership in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, three of the principal countries cited by the booby-left orators as leading the ‘emancipatory transformation’. The booby left’s ‘vanguard countries’, supposedly leading the struggle against imperialism and neo-liberalism, played a leading role in co-opting, de-mobilizing, de-radicalizing and even repressing the social movements, which had advanced a radical transformative agenda at the beginning of the 21st century. In other words, the AABL is suffering a decade-long amnesia .It confuses an increase in social expenditures, based on the royalties, taxes and loans from imperial MNCs, agro-mineral exporters and banks, with a ‘historic break with the US empire’.

The exuberant emancipatory claims of the AABL totally ignore the fact that Latin America’s growth depended on corporate borrowing, as they sought low US rates, and now have large debts denominated in dollars, and face onerous payments with a stronger dollar. For the last three years Latin America’s center-left governments have suffered the brunt of the devaluation of their currencies and the outflow of capital. Increasing disinvestment is also a result of lower commodity prices, slower growth, and, in the case of Brazil, a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal involving the giant public-private petroleum company Petrobras.

Financial dependence on Wall Street, City of London, Swiss, German and Chinese banks and the resultant onerous conditions for debt payments, has led these ‘emancipated’ regimes to adopt ‘fiscal adjustments’ reversing their social programs. In other words, the AABL’s claims of a ‘historical’ break with imperial domination lasted less than a decade. The moderate reforms were based on weak structural foundations, which made them vulnerable to changes in financial and commodity markets.

Brazil’s President Rousseff is pursuing an orthodox neo-liberal agenda – cutting funds for unemployment, pension and poverty programs. Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and El Salvador, the entire gamut of ‘emancipatory regimes’ have depended on agro-business elites, rejected agrarian reform and based their ‘growth strategy’ on supply-side incentives to attract foreign capital.

According to the Bolivian Economic Minister Luis Arce, during President Evo Morales’ nine years of ‘emancipatory’ government, capitalists have quadrupled their profits. According to the Argentine Secretary of Economic Policy and Development Planning Axel Kicillof, long-term large-scale joint ventures have been signed granting 145,000 acres to Chevron to exploit its oil reserves via highly contaminating fracking while agro-toxic giant Monsanto secured a lucrative royalty contract on the use of the carcinogenic herbicide Roundup. Several other foreign agro mineral multinationals are in line for lucrative contracts.

What makes the ‘emancipatory’ rhetoric of the AABL more ridiculous is that some of their leading anti-imperialist countries are highly repressive toward grass-roots liberation movements. In Ecuador, for example, President Rafael Correa has arrested Indian leaders of CONIAE (the principle indigenous peoples confederation), proposed harsh anti-strike labor legislation and opened nature reserves for exploitation by international petroleum corporations.

The AABL confuses short-term increases in social expenditures, anti-imperial political rhetoric and the diversification of markets, with a ‘historic’ break with US domination. Worse still, they ignore the fact that the second and third biggest economies and several others have deepened economic ties to the US Empire via bilateral free trade agreements. Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama have embraced free trade. Moreover, they are charter members of the US-centered Trans Pacific Free Trade group – a direct competitor of MERCOSUR, ALBA, Petro Caribe and other exclusively Latin American economic groupings.

Moreover, the recently elected governments in Uruguay and Brazil are looking toward greater ties with the US and European Union, as China and Latin America’s growth and demand declines.

A decline in the US share of the Latin America market is hardly an expression of Latin America’s emancipatory struggle, especially since it is accompanied by an increase in financial dependency. While neo-liberal regimes like Chile, Peru and Colombia, as well as center-left governments like Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador, have diversified their markets, those decisions are made by agro-mineral exporters and hardly reflect an emancipatory ethos; they have everything to do with the profit motive. Moreover ‘emancipatory’ Venezuela (leader of Latin American integration) has remained far and away more dependent on a single commodity,oil exports account for 90%of its exports ,and more dependent (80%) on the US market than Colombia, Chile or Peru – with their bilateral free trade agreements.

Conclusion

As a matter of historical accuracy the rise of ‘emancipatory anti-imperialist politics’ reached its high point a decade ago when uprisings, led by unemployed workers, miners, Indian and peasant movements overthrew neo-liberal regimes in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. Fifteen years ago, under the neo-liberal regime of President Henrique Cardoso, the Rural Landless Movement, through a nation-wide land occupation strategy, secured the settlement of 50,000 families a year on expropriated large farms.

Today, under the ‘emancipatory’ regime of Brazil’s so-called Workers’ Party, fewer than 10,000 landless families are land reform beneficiaries. In Bolivia, 90% of financial aid to agriculture goes to the agro-export elite centered in Santa Cruz while over 60% of the impoverished Indian peasantry receive token support. However their leaders do get invitations to the Presidential Palace to applaud the anti-imperialist speeches of Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera. Visiting AABL notables listen, mesmerized by the Vice President’s exposition of what he pompously dubs a Gramscian reading of Andean Socialism.

The AABL notables are invited by the regimes they proclaim to be ‘emancipatory’ to give ‘magisterial addresses’, while local, better-informed, consequential intellectuals, long committed to the class and anti-imperialist struggle, but who have criticized the phony emancipatory rhetoric, are excluded.

The world-renowned intellectuals of the AABL are imported by center-left regimes in retreat, to provide an ideological veneer and prop up their declining legitimacy among their own people. Capitalizing on the AABL’s ignorance and arrogance, the regimes organize costly international forums and flatter their overseas guests, who with gravity and serious demeanor inform their audiences that they are being emancipated. Even they should know that their emancipators are pocketing millions in bribes (Brazil), welcoming US joint military exercises (Colombia, Peru, Uruguay), funding agro-mineral elites at the expense of landless peasants (Bolivia) and implementing fiscal cuts to social programs to pay overseas bankers.

The post Latin America And The Anglo-American Booby-Left – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Abayomi Azikiwe*

Attacks on March 18 at the Bardo Museum in Tunis resulting in the deaths of 24 people have been credited to Islamic State.

Just two days prior to the 59th anniversary of the national independence of Tunisia from France in 1956, two gunmen took over a major tourist destination resulting in a police response that led to another high-profile incident that was utilised as propaganda to escalate the so-called “war on terrorism” in North Africa.

Of the 24 people killed almost all of them were foreign nationals from Poland, Germany, Spain, Italy and other countries. The recently-elected veteran politician President Beji Caid Essebsi criticised the security forces for being lax in their efforts to protect the museum, which is a vital resource in the tourism sector; one of the most lucrative industries for earning hard currencies.

“There were failures … the police and intelligence [services] was not systematic enough to ensure the safety of the museum,” the president told the Paris Match weekly in an interview on March 21. Nonetheless, he went on to praise the police by saying they “responded very effectively to quickly put an end to the attack at the Bardo, certainly preventing dozens more deaths if the terrorists had been able to set off their suicide belts.”

However, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Abdelfattah Mourou reportedly told the French Press Agency on March 20 that the guards hired to protect the museum and the parliament building located close by were drinking coffee at the time of the firing of gunshots by the assailants. Prosecution spokesperson Sofiene Sliti said: “There are developments in the case, but to protect the secrecy of the investigation we prefer not to provide any details.” (AFP)

Although Tunisia is often cited by the Western media as the most stable state among those that experienced upheavals and regime-changes in 2011, the country has experienced political unrest and assassinations. Two leading left-wing politicians, Mohamed Brahmi and Chokri Belaid, members of the same Popular Front alliance, were killed by gunmen just months apart during 2013.

In the aftermath of the assassination of Brahmi the country erupted in mass demonstrations led by youth and workers demanding the resignation of the government, which took over after the forced exile of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. Although the then Prime Minister Ali Larayedh refused to resign, the post-uprising government dominated by the Ennahda Party did eventually dismiss the cabinet setting the stage for new elections and the appointment of a so-called “technocratic” administration.
During the period after the assassination of the two leftist leaders, Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou stated in a press conference that “The same 9mm automatic weapon that killed Belaid also killed Brahmi.” The individual targeted in both assassinations was said to have been Boubacar Hakim, a Salafist who was sought in connection with the illegal transport of weapons from Libya.

POST-GADDAFI LIBYA IS A MAJOR SOURCE OF INSTABILITY

With reference to the March 18 attacks in Tunis, the government and Western states have linked the museum assault with Islamic State fighters based in neighbouring Libya. Since the beginning of the war of regime-change against the government of Col. Muammar Gaddafi the North African state has fallen into political instability and internecine conflict.

IS forces are said to have training camps in Libya while engaging in several high-profile attacks in the capital of Tripoli as well as in the eastern and southern regions of the country. The two men involved in the museum incident were killed when security forces stormed the building.

One of the gunmen involved in the attack, Yassine Laabidi, was said to have been known to intelligence services although they claim he had no formal links to a particular organisation. These extremist organizations based in Libya are a direct outcome of the foreign policy of Washington, London, Paris, Ottawa and their allies, which coordinated the advances of these groups across Libya in 2011 through its massive aerial bombardments that lasted for over seven months.

During the course of the war between February 17 and October 31, some 26,000 sorties were flown and approximately 10,000 bombs were dropped on Libya. Tens of thousands were killed and millions more were displaced amid the destruction of the national infrastructure and the plundering of the country’s wealth.

Yet the Western states that carried out the destruction of Libya and empowered the extremist groups now wreaking havoc on the country are never cited for their culpability in the current Western media reports, which ponder how stability can be restored to the oil-rich state on the Mediterranean. These armed rebel groups are spreading out from Libya into neighbouring and regional states in North and West Africa.

EUROPEAN UNION DENIES PLAN FOR MILITARY INTERVENTION

At present the European Union (EU) is deliberating over whether it should establish another military force to supposedly secure the Libya-Tunisia borders and challenge IS and other rebels in operating in both countries. The EU plan as reported in the media would involve a stronger naval presence in the region as well as the deployment of ground troops backed up by air power.

However, it was announced on March 20 that the EU would continue to seek a political solution to the Libyan crisis and plans to send in troops were unsubstantiated. United Nations brokered talks between the two competing rebel regimes in Libya have failed to bring about the creation of a government of national unity.

Adherents to the former Jamahiriya political system under Gaddafi are barred from participation in the current US-imposed political dispensation in Libya. Neither faction based in Tripoli or in the eastern city of Tobruk represents the aspirations of the workers and youth inside the country or throughout Africa, which under Gaddafi was the focus of the nation’s foreign policy.

An article published by globalpost.com on March 20 reported: “The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, said on Friday [March 20] that the EU is not planning a military intervention in Libya, but advocated the 28 EU countries to devote all possible means of support to the country, including security and defence measures, if Libya can create a unity government. Upon arriving at the European Council held in Brussels on Friday, the senior representative said that there is no plan for a European military intervention, but that Europe is ‘planning all possible ways of supporting, even on the plan of security,’ all of which is contingent on whether Libya can create a national unity government.”

Yet a progressive national unity government can only come about with the advancement of the revolutionary democratic forces inside the country to establish a political system that places the interests of the majority within Libyan society above those of the bourgeois classes that are allied with multi-national oil interests and financiers. Such a system of national self-reliance and regional integration was the basis of the Jamahiriya, which was destroyed by imperialist intervention.

The EU along with NATO and led by the US are responsible for the current chaos in Libya. This pattern of sanctions, massive bombings, ground interventions through direct occupation or proxy forces have failed throughout the entire region of North Africa and the Middle East. Any real reversal of the political crisis in the regions must take on an anti-imperialist character stressing the necessity of genuine political independence and territorial sovereignty designed to break with the legacy of imperialism.

* Abayomi Azikiwe is editor, Pan-African News Wire.

The post US And NATO Policy Underlines Instability In Libya And Tunisia – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Luis Ángel Saavedra

The Ecuadorian government has decided to confront the social organizations opposed to its political project by taking the organizations’ leaders to court to imprison them or restrain them with indefinite trials in order to silence them. Likewise, the government seeks to close down the organizations through a decree that threatens their stability and limits their activities. The organizations, meanwhile, have not yet defined their strategies for dealing with the government threats, but there are looming options for social unity that concern the government.

In 2008, the Constituent Assembly granted amnesty to more than 360 people whose trials were related to protests and acts of resistance. All of these trials began before the government of Rafael Correa, who started his first term in 2007.

In 2011, the Ombudsman’s Office of Ecuador, led at the time by Fernando Gutiérrez, issued a report which found that the practice of criminalizing social protest continued in the government, for it showed the existence of 21 new cases between 2008 and 2010. The new Ombudsman, Ramiro Rivadeneira, who is aligned with the government and who took office in late 2011, chose to cast into oblivion his predecessor’s report, citing methodological errors.

Since then, the government has lashed out in various ways against the organizations and the social protest. Salvador Quishpe, indigenous leader and prefect of the province of Zamora Chinchipe, in the southern Amazon, summarizes these new ways of lashing out, citing the control of the media; control of the poorest social sector through monthly installment of US$50, which is called “human development bonus” and is given to nearly two million people; the division of social organizations and associations; cooption of community leaders with job offers; and finally, the initiation of trials against those not docile enough for the government.

“Since you refuse to submit yourself, now you’ll go to trial,” says Quishpe while analyzing the ciminalization of social leaders.

Harassment of social organizations

Ecuadorian social organizations have slowly moved away from government influence and have began to take actions of opposition, such as the demonstrations of September and November 2014 in which they rejected, among other things, the labor reforms that restrict workers’ rights, the enforcement of Decree 16, issued in June 2013, which controls social organization, restrictions on freedom of expression and the criminalization of social protest.

Last Mar. 19, social movements staged another day of protest in nine cities. In addition to those issues already raised, women’s groups joined to reject the new sex education policy that is based on morality and abstinence, and other consumer groups affected by the new tariffs on imports also joined.

Decree 16 violates the right to freedom of association by requiring a series of reports with which the government can know about the actions and thoughts of organizations.

“The entire state apparatus is controlled by an authoritarian government to shut down social organizations; they want to force us to report on each assembly, each meeting; say what resources [we have], what we have invested, who has given [the resources]. That is, they want a source of information that violates the right to free association,” said Nina Pacari, an historical leader of the indigenous movement, to Latinamerica Press, in regards to the requirements under Decree 16 for an organization to exist.

For his part, the current president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), Jorge Herrera, expressed his concern about the use of this decree to close indigenous organizations down.

“Decree 16 is a measure that has caused unease within our organizations; it is a measure of bad faith that violates the constitutional framework,” says Herrera.

Within the context of the People’s Summit held in Quito on March 5 and 6, the CONAIE staged a march toward the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court to demand the repeal of the decree.

“We have made a claim of unconstitutionality but so far the judges are asleep and have not responded in regards to this request,” says Herrera. The CONAIE’s demand is the fourth claim of unconstitutionality that Ecuadorian social organizations have filed in regards to Decree 16 and that has not been processed by the Constitutional Court.

So far Decree 16 has been the basis for the December 2013 closure of the Fundación Pachamama, non-governmental organization in defense of the environment. It is feared that the decree will also be the basis for the dismantling of the CONAIE as the General Comptroller of the State is demanding a number of documents and reports that go beyond the powers of the Comptroller and that seek to control activities and private decisions of an organization.

Threats and trials

The forms of social control and criminalization of protests that Quishpe has referred, has resulted in the silence of many organizations, some of which are linked to the government through economic agreements. Others are fearful of speaking out to avoid becoming vulnerable to possible closure.

Moreover, many leaders have also become silent. “They are threatened with a trial and many avoid comment publicly on the government. Also there are death threats,” says Marlos Santi, former president of CONAIE, to Latinamerica Press.

Indeed, in recent months social leaders, accused of sabotage and terrorism, have been arrested and sentenced, as in the case of campesino leader Javier Ramírez, who was released on Feb, 10 after spending 10 months in prison, or the case of Manuel Molina, another campesino leader detained for four months after being accused of the same crimes. For these same crimes, the government seeks to arrest Mery Zamora, teacher and former leader of the National Union of Educators, despite having already been acquitted of the charges against her. At the request of the President, the Attorney General’s Office asked the Constitutional Court to annul the acquittal the National Court granted to Zamora.

Ramírez was arrested after participating in a meeting with the Ministry of the Interior which he had attended to ratify the decision of the people of Intag, in the north of the country, to oppose mining. After his arrest, the National Mining Company entered Intag and now is a divided population, without the power that once allowed them to stop mining activities in their territories for over 20 years.

Arrested on July 9, 2014, Molina is accused of sabotage and terrorism for participating in a protest against the water law in 2009. Molina had no legal defense for three months because he was advised to “not make a fuss.” He was finally released on Dec. 4 of last year. Molina’s case shows another government strategy that is to initiate lawsuits and keep them open to use when a leader attempts to participate in a new protest.

Other open trials can also buy the silence of organizations, especially when these have maintained agreements with the government that have not been successfully fulfilled. Some organizations, especially indigenous organizations, that wished to participate in the March 19 protests, had to desist from doing so because were activated pending lawsuits from some years ago for failing to comply with the agreements signed with state institutions of this and previous governments.

Almost nonexistent options

The social movement’s options for resistance are few because the government’s control leaves few opportunities for participation. This has caused those from the left and right to begin discussing ways of restoring autonomy to state institutions, especially to justice agencies and the electorate.

The talks the indigenous movements have with right-wing leaders have put them in the eye of controversy. This is used by the government to discredit the indigenous leadership and to plan for the formation of a new indigenous organization that brings together indigenous people who in the past were also questioned for their actions, as is the case of Antonio Vargas, Miguel Lluco or Delia Caguano.

In this scenario, social mobilization is presented as the only form of political participation that can return social movements their previous strength and capacity of advocacy

The post Ecuador: Silence, Fear And Coercion appeared first on Eurasia Review.

While commending the process undertaken by the new government in Sri Lanka, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang reiterated his and his government’s fullest cooperation towards it.

The Chinese Premier said his government’s decisions did not depend on individuals but on correct policies which are important national economies.

Prime Minister Keqiang made these comments during a meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena earlier this week during his visit to China.

President Sirisena said it is the hope of the Sri Lankan government to see the age-old bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and China to further strengthen.

The assistance extended to Sri Lanka by China to defeat terrorism is enormous and it made the relations between the two countries a more friendly and a honourable one.

The country has come forward during the past three months President Sirisena pointed out and said he intends to carry forward the country in a corruption free and a more transparent manner.

Sri Lanka expects further assistance from the Chinese government and its investors for the national development the President said adding that his government is ready to further enhance relations with China.

The Asian regions should also be economically, politically and socially powerful and effective like the European Union President pointed out while emphasizing the importance of having a proper development plan in the region.

Two leaders also discussed about the importance of working together to eradicate poverty in the Asian region.

They also discussed in length on the need to have a pragmatic economic and investment plan among South Asian countries.

The post China Li Keqiang Promises ‘Full’ Support For Sri Lanka Government’s Initiatives appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Demir Azizov

The presidential election kicked off in Uzbekistan on March 29.

The polling stations throughout the whole country opened at 06:00 (UTC/GMT +5 hours) and they will operate till 20:00 (UTC/GMT +5 hours).

In total some 9,060 polling stations, including 44 ones at Uzbekistan’s representative offices in other countries have been created.

Precinct election commissions have made the complete lists of voters – a total of 20,798,052 citizens. All the voters have been informed about the place and date of voting.

The pre-election campaign on started on December 26, 2014.

The presidential candidates are: incumbent President Islam Karimov from the Liberal Democratic Party, the member of the parliamentary faction, chairman of the committee for democratic institutions, NGOs and citizens’ self-government bodies, Akmal Saidov – from the National Democratic Party Milly Tiklanish; the chairman of the Central Council of the People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDPU) Hotamzhon Ketmonov – from the PDPU, the chairman of the executive committee of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Adolat, Narimon Umarov – from SDP.

The election is being observed by about 300 international observers from 43 countries, missions from five international organizations – Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), CIS, Association of World Election Bodies, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as well as 35,000 representatives of four political parties.

The preliminary results of the election will be announced on March 30.

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(Civil.Ge) — Alexander Maisuradze has been appointed as Georgia’s new permanent representative to NATO, replacing Levan Dolidze.

Dolidze, who is brother of opposition MP from Free Democrats (FD) party Victor Dolidze, announced about intention to resign in November when FD quit the Georgian Dream ruling coalition; he stepped down in late January.

Georgia’s new ambassador to NATO, Alexander Maisuradze, who has been serving in the Foreign Ministry since 1998, was deputy head of mission to Austria and Vienna-based international organizations.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili signed a decree on Maisuradze’s appointment, who was nominated by the government, on March 26. Maisuradze will take office from May 1.

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(EurActiv) — The European Commission will propose new air safety measures after the Germanwings crash earlier this week, an EU official said on Friday.

A plane flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf with 144 passengers on board crashed in the French Alps on 24 March leaving no survivors. Preliminary investigations suggest the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz crashed the plane on purpose after locking his captain out of the cockpit.

Two people in the cockpit rule

The Commission is looking at a rule, among other measures, to ensure two people are present in the cockpit at all times for the duration of the flight, the EU official said. The second person does not have to be a pilot but could be a member of the crew, according to the official. The German Aviation Association (BDL) has now introduced a two-person cockpit rule.

The EU executive is waiting for the results of the investigations into the causes of the crash before suggesting any new rules.

The new proposal could come as a non-binding recommendation or a legal act in the framework of the airworthiness directives (AD), the Commission said.

AD are instructions demanding changes to aircrafts with safety problems. They are issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is responsible for drafting and monitoring the EU air safety regulations. It is up to member states to ensure EASA rules are effectively applied. Apart from EASA instructions, national airlines can voluntarily adopt stricter rules as long as it doesn’t contradict EU law, the Commission explained.

EASA recommended Friday that at least two people be present in the cockpit of airliners at all times, with at least one of those being a qualified pilot.

“EASA publishes today a temporary recommendation for airlines to ensure that at least two crew, including at least one qualified pilot, are in the flight crew compartment at all times of the flight,” the agency said on its website. “Airlines should re-assess the safety and security risks associated with a flight crew leaving the cockpit due to operational or physiological needs.”

Post-9/11 rules

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the EU considerably reinforced its air safety requirements.

New EU rules obliged all airplanes above a certain number of passengers to have the cockpit door locked and reinforced, said the official. This has reduced hijacking and fatalities but also made it impossible for the captain on the doomed flight to break back into the cockpit.

No pilot with a medical history, especially a mental disorder, is currently allowed to fly, according to the EU’s executive.

EASA rules oblige pilots to undergo medical check-ups, including psychiatric and psychological controls, once a year. After a certain age, such medical controls are repeated every six months.

Following consultation, the doctor will make a recommendation if the person’s condition can interfere with flying the aircraft.

Apart from the check-ups, airline staff can also report to their national authority on any minor flight incidents or refuse to fly if they are not feeling well.

Strengthening medical check-ups could also be part of the new Commission proposals, the official said.

The European Pilot Association said pilots were “deeply disturbed by the latest turn in the investigation of the tragic Germanwings crash”.

“As trusted professionals, who invest a lifelong career in making air travel safe, this is a very difficult day for us,” said Philip von Schöppenthau, secretary general at the European Pilot Association. He argued that pilots “are determined to work with manufacturers, operators and authorities to improve safety”.

“Even if this turns out to be a single extraordinary event, we are committed to making improvements to ensure flying becomes even safer than it has always been,” said von Schöppenthau.

The post EU Could Pass New Air Safety Measures Following Germanwings Tragedy appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Police responded to an incident near the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., that left one dead and one injured, county police told CNN on Monday.

According to CBS a vehicle rammed the gate, where guards began shooting and at least one person was shot. A spokesman for Fort Meade told AP two people are being treated for injuries but doesn’t know how they were hurt.

Video showed at least one person in uniform had been wheeled onto a stretched, CBS reported.

No comment has been made by the NSA.

Original article

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By N. Sathiya Moorthy*

For a bilateral visit at the highest-level after an undesirable and inexplicable gap of 28 long years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day tour of Sri Lanka was noted as much for what it achieved as for the optics. It came after an earlier visit by Sri Lanka’s new President Maithripala Sirisena to India only weeks earlier, and between them, the two visits and the two leaders have now put bilateral relations in a new trajectory, from where their policy makers can and should take it forward to mutual benefit with greater confidence, to shared peace and prosperity.

It’s not unlikely that analysts from either side of the Palk Strait view the visit from the other side as inadequate in terms of ‘substance’ and ‘value’. It is doubtful if the policy makers and the political leadership from either side had planned for or expected anything more from this visit than what was achieved, not achieved, or deliberately left out. That which was not planned cannot be quantified, and hence cannot be said to have not been achieved.

President Sirisena’s India visit stirred a lot of hopes and expectations about the traditional warmth and bonhomie in bilateral relations restored after a strained period towards the closing months of predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime. It went beyond the unresolved part of the ‘ethnic issue’ in Sri Lanka against which promises had been made. It also went beyond large-scale developmental aid from China.

The inexplicable and discomforting berthing of two Chinese submarines in Colombo port had queered the pitch for bilateral relations – not that it was the sole determinant. President Sirisena’s electoral victory first, and his choice of India for his maiden overseas visit after assuming office, produced right and ready reverberations in Delhi. Even the reticent-to-hostile sections of the Tamil Nadu political class did not have cause for complaint this time, only suggestions for Prime Minister Modi on issues – not even specific suggestions/solutions — to be taken up with the visitor.

Prime Minister Modi’s subsequent visit to Sri Lanka was even a greater success, if it could be said so. If President Sirisena’s electoral victory had led to disbelief from which stake-holders in India are yet to wholly recover from, Prime Minister Modi’s poll prospects were being closely followed by all sections in Sri Lanka for months – and welcomed in an equal measure. They could not exactly put their finger on what to expect from a new government and leader in Delhi, but they did expect better days for bilateral ties, whoever was the stakeholder and whatever was the specific area that he was looking at.

Beyond 13-A

For a prime ministerial visit from India, Modi’s first major engagement in Sri Lanka was an address to the nation’s Parliament. Apart from underlining various aspects of bilateral relations, he referred to power devolution under the Thirteenth Amendment, which India had helped fashion during the previous visit of the LTTE-slain prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, as far back as 1987.

Owning up a commitment to cooperative federalism, Modi, a three-term former Gujarat chief minister, said that Sri Lanka should ‘go beyond’ 13-A, and address the aspirations of ‘all communities’ (and not just the Tamils, who alone have been craving for the same). He also underlined the traditional Indian commitment to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, implying continued support for whatever official position that the new rulers in Colombo would take on ‘war crimes’, ‘accountability issues’ and other security-related demands of the Tamil leadership and concerns of the Sri Lankan State.

Prime Minister Modi’s Sri Lanka visit was even more noticeable for his tour of the Tamil-majority Northern Province, punctuated beforehand with his offering prayers at the Maha Bodhi tree, the original sapling of which was believed to have been planted at the Buddhist holy town of Anuradhapura by Emperor Ashoka’s children centuries ago. In the North, he visited the Siva temple at Naguleswaram. The prime minister’s engagements in the province and those with the local leadership and the people at large underlined India’s commitment to the well-being of the people who had suffered enough and more during the decades-long war.

It was thus that Prime Minister Modi flagged off the train on a railway line, re-laid by India, commenced the handing over of constructed/reconstructed war-destroyed houses to the 50,000 beneficiaries in true sub-continental style, and laid the foundation stone for a world-class cultural centre in the provincial capital of Jaffna. Media reports indicated that the local population was enthralled by the reassuring presence of the Indian leader, which they had hoped for long.

Ocean economy and more

Taking a comprehensive and all-embracing look at bilateral relations, Modi continuously underscored various components that had either been not addressed in the past or not wholly and meaningfully addressed. He referred to the unfinished task of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which came under unilateral Sri Lankan review after the draft had been initialled and readied for political level attestations when then prime minister Manmohan Singh visited Colombo for the SAARC Summit, as far back as 2008.

After a three-day visit to two common neighbours, namely, Seychelles and Mauritius, on the previous days, the prime minister gave greater breadth and depth to what was predecessor Singh’s commitment of India being the ‘net provider of security’ in the region. His call for evolving an ‘Ocean economy’ or ‘blue economy’, and speaking and initiating bilateral maritime security cooperation with all three nations should not be seen as India seeking to compete with the West-inspired China’s ‘String of Pearls’ or Beijing-committed ‘Maritime Silk Route’.

The well-timed Indian initiative to network with smaller neighbours in the shared Ocean for shared prosperity on the one hand and secured neighbourhood seas on the other has to be viewed in the overall context. Apart from the fact that extra-territorial powers are becoming increasingly assertive and even more competitive in the shared seas of South Asia in recent years of the post-Cold War era, their national and home economies have also suffered due to global issues over which none have got any control.

If India is coming to be seen as being responsive and responsible, at times to the point of being assertive, as seen by others, it owes to the ever-improving economy and consequent importance it now commands in the global fraternity, and the increasing challenges it faces all-round, including on the geo-strategic front. Today, there is enough in the Indian pot to share with the neighbours than ever before in the past.

There is also the greater Indian confidence that it could manage its future and also help the neighbours manage theirs, which includes their greater sense of security and sovereignty, to secure which they would continue to lack the wherewithal, now as ever. In the 21st century India, Prime Minister Modi personifies new India’s new confidence. His Sri Lanka visit thus was a reflection of the new Indian confidence in being able to manage the affairs of the region through regional cooperation and global cohabitation of a new order.

Modi’s Sri Lanka visit in the new environment and circumstances in the two countries and the neighbourhood Indian Ocean region as a whole was not one of ‘came, saw and conquered’. Instead, it was one of ‘came, saw and won over’ the minds of the leadership and the hearts of the people! It is also how a larger neighbour with a long history of cultural linkage should be drawing the neighbours with their distinctive civilisational independence and inter-dependence, to work for their common good, now and always.

*N. Sathiya Moorthy is Director, Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation. He can be reached at sathiyam54@gmail.com

The post Modi’s Sri Lanka Visit: Came, Saw, Won Over – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Conflict mapping manifests that there is a disturbing nexus between the phenomena of xenophobia and apartheid in South Africa; both deeply-grounded in exclusionary practices and evoking cultural and structural violence coinciding with identity, space and territory. This is a sad case in light of post-apartheid South Africa’s supposed culture of inclusiveness. To combat this scourge, there is a need for intensive civic education on xenophobia and its implications for South Africa.

By Phillip Nyasha Fungurai*

The scourge of xenophobia in South Africa evokes the cultural and structural violence that was associated with apartheid. Notwithstanding the that xenophobia can rightfully be deemed neo-racism in post-apartheid South Africa, both xenophobia and apartheid were stirred by exclusionary practices – such as the politics of access and unmet needs – that evoke cultural and structural violence, and coincide with identity, space and territory. Xenophobic attacks in South Africa begun in May 2008 in Alexandria, Johannesburg; where sixty-two foreigners were killed and a thousand displaced. Xenophobic attacks continue to fester as social conflict, often degenerating into physical, cultural and structural violence. Recognizing South Africa’s apartheid history, coupled with its post-apartheid culture of inclusiveness and tolerance enshrined in its 1996 constitution, xenophobia seemed unlikely.

Xenophobia in its fundamental form is a social, psychological, attitudinal, either overt or indirect, hostility and tension towards foreigners manifesting as physical violence, social conflict or a mere latent dislike of foreigners. The Declaration on Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance against Migrants and Trafficked Persons (2001) conceptualised xenophobia, as the attitudes, prejudices and behaviour that vilify persons based on the perception that they are foreigners.

Drivers of Xenophobia

Xenophobia in South Africa is driven and stirred by an interplay of social and economic factors ranging from disequilibrium in socio-economic resources coupled with basic amenities and lack thereof. The human needs,  economic and frustration-aggression theories respectivelyu also best explain the causes of xenophobia and the atmosphere that breeds the phenomenon. The frustration-aggression theory points out that growing frustration from unmet needs, competition over scarce resources like jobs, and disequilibrium in resource distribution can degenerate and amount to aggression. The net effect of the frustration is aggression and thus xenophobia attacks.

The economic theory, on the other hand, traces xenophobia to economic factors like poverty and unemployment. The essence of this theory is that the poor, unemployed and/or economically crippled are more likely to be xenophobic than the employed and the elite.  This resonates well with trends of xenophobic attacks in South Africa which has almost always been perpetrated by unemployed youth, and the poverty stricken disgruntled citizenry.

The human needs theory propounded by Burton further explains the emergence of xenophobia in South Africa. This theory attributes xenophobia to the inevitability of violent conflict when human needs are unmet. Violent conflict is an inevitable part of human existence with an ontological basis on human needs. Unmet human needs thus spark a train of events that culminate in all forms societal crisis and collective identity hostility. The net effect of this in a rainbow nation with an entrepreneurially dominating foreign populace is  xenophobic attacks.

Xenophobia versus apartheid – the nexus

Both phenomena of xenophobia and apartheid were immensely grounded in the politics of access, frustration –aggression theory, perceived disequilibrium in socio-economic resources, coupled with unmet human needs that evoke hostility and tension. Similar to Apartheid, xenophobia can also be deemed a social ill, premised on the politics of segregation and exclusion. Both phenomena also result in upsurge of criminal activities, cultural violence and structural violence.

A cursory conflict mapping of xenophobia exhibits the fact that it is rooted in the apartheid racism history and legal immigration domestic policies. Reitzes (2009) points out that South Africa’s immigration policy is rooted in its racialised Apartheid past, which has contributed towards conceptions of South Africa’s national identity and the construction of the ‘other’ comprising migrants who are non-South African, indirectly perpetuating racial exclusionary practices and adding fuel to xenophobic sentiments and violence against foreigners.  Therefore the genesis of xenophobia was never in 2008 in Alexandria, but was latent, lying idle in the hostile and xenophobic immigration policy of South Africa. The exclusionary immigration policy generated a congenial breeding ground for xenophobic tendencies within the South African citizenry.

Synonymous to apartheid, xenophobia in South Africa has also been associated with a legacy of discriminatory practice where identity coincides with space and territory. A sad case of deja vu, in which the then victim is now the perpetrator of exclusionary practices. Reitzes (2009) contends that although the domestic movement of people across South Africa is no longer legislatively constrained, the movement of people across South Africa’s international boundaries continues to be controlled in ways reminiscent of apartheid policies, informed by similar assumptions.

Immigration policies and legislation in South Africa sign posts to the citizenry the framework within which to handle foreigners and the lens through which to view them. Therefore xenophobia can rightfully be called ‘neo-apartheid’ and ‘neo-racism’ in a free South Africa ironically rich with verbose of inclusiveness, tolerance, reconciliation, and unity.

The way forward for South Africa

• It is paramount for the South African government and civil society organizations to engage in intensive anti-xenophobia and peace education campaigns through media, community dialogues and cyber campaigns. If these campaigns become a national pastime, this will make fruitful strides towards inculcating a culture of peace that overlaps the current culture of violence in South Africa.

• Designing and establishing xenophobia early warning systems. This will assist in the paradigm shift from the current reactionary and remedial approach by the South African government to a more preventative approach. Prevention is better than cure. To achieve this, the government in cohorts with the civil society can establish anti-xenophobia committees in schools, churches, universities and other focal community institutions. Such committees will act as watchdogs and whistleblowers to xenophobic tendencies. This is a robust conflict prevention strategy.

Xenophobia can chiefly be attributed to an interplay of socio-economic drivers. Conflict mapping manifests that there is a disturbing nexus between the phenomena of xenophobia and apartheid in South Africa. Notwithstanding the fact that both phenomena were deeply-grounded in exclusionary practices and the politics of access and unmet needs, both evoke cultural and structural violence coinciding with identity, space and territory. This is a sad case in light of post-apartheid South Africa’s supposed culture of inclusiveness. To combat this scourge, there is a need for intensive civic education on xenophobia and its implications for South Africa.

*Phillip Nyasha Fungurai is a passionate young researcher who holds a BSc (Hons) in Peace and Governance. He is co-founder and president of the Movement for Youth in Peace and Conflict transformation (MYPCT), a youth association registered with the Zimbabwe Youth Council. He is also a peace and governance, human rights and democracy patron and specialist who works with civil society organizations, think tanks and research institutes in Zimbabwe.

The post Xenophobic Attacks In South Africa: Redefining Apartheid – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By C. Uday Bhaskar*

The fidayeen (suicide) attack by a group of terrorists dressed in military fatigues on a police station in Kathua district of Jammu on Friday (March 20 ) that resulted in the death of three security personnel and injuries to 11 others, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, is the first such attack since a new government led by the PDP-BJP (Peoples Democratic Party – Bharatiya Janata Party) coalition has taken office in Srinagar. This was followed by an attack on an army camp in Samba a day later on Saturday (March 21) though this was averted without the loss of life.

Kathua it may be recalled was the site of a similar attack in March last year and is a reflection of the reality that the Jammu sector of the state of Jammu and Kashmir is more susceptible to such infiltration from across the border. The IB (international Border ) which is the demarcation line in this sector is manned by the paramilitary forces and is not fenced in the manner that the LoC (Line of Control) is in the Kashmir part of the state where the Indian Army is the primary security force.

The topography of the Kathua-Samba sector being what it is, the advantage lies with the determined infiltrator and the suicide bomber is the most virulent face of terrorism that Indian security forces have to contend with. The loss of life is tragic and it is a grim fact that this is neither the first attack in this sector – nor alas, is it likely to be the last.

The political context of this attack is instructive. The Mufti Sayeed-led PDP-BJP coalition government is an unexpected one, given their divergent political ideologies, but is an innovative exercise in pragmatic politics in one of India’s most troubled states.

While the PDP has often been perceived to be ‘soft’ on the extremist-separatist constituency in the state, the BJP now in power at the centre in Delhi is seen to be a hard line party on national security – particularly in relation to Pakistan-related issues. However, the Kathua incident has compelled the coalition to deal with the security challenge in a united manner, and to the credit of the Mufti government, the state legislature passed an unanimous resolution condemning the act. Chief Minister Mufti further added: “Pakistan should control terrorism if it wants peace and reconciliation” and said that when he took over as chief minister for the first time in late 2002, a similar attack was launched on the Raghunath temple in Jammu.

Two inferences are discernible in the Kathua incident. One is the attempt of the adversary to test the resilience of the PDP-BJP coalition and stoke the core sentiment of Hindu Jammu and Muslim Kashmir as represented by the BJP and the PDP respectively. This ought to be stoutly resisted and as of now, the signals from the political leadership of both parties is encouraging. What will be critical will be the stance adopted by the local opposition parties in Srinagar (National Conference in particular) and that of the national parties in Delhi led by the Congress.

The second inference which flows from this is the need to avoid falling into the communal cauldron that will pit one part of the state against the other by the deliberate targeting of the Hindu population of Jammu. Regrettably, most political parties have adopted cynical tactics in this regard and this has resulted in a deterioration of the overall national security ambiance.

The more desirable current policy approach would be to internalize the significance of this attack in the Kathua-Samba sector and review existing security procedures and force responsibility allocation. The IB and the LoC are very different security topographies and related intelligence grids. The contrast is that while a determined group of terrorists from across the border could breach the IB in a matter of a few hours, a similar action across the more heavily defended LoC could take as many days. Ways to improve the cordon along the IB must rank high in the holistic review that Delhi and Srinagar need to undertake.

The related strand in this regard is the constant demand for revoking the AFPSA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) by the J&K political parties that was strongly advocated by the former chief minister Omar Abdullah. At the time Kathua was one of the four districts so identified and this issue should be objectively reconsidered and impulsive decisions avoided.

The proxy war being waged against India began in May 1990 and J&K is the principal site for this contestation. The current Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is one of India’s most experienced politicians and was the union home minister in the V.P. Singh government at the time. He was personally scarred by the terror malignancy when his daughter was abducted 25 years ago and is more than aware of the tentacles that have since spread in the state and the eco-system that nurtures these groups from across the border.

All stakeholders to the future of the traumatized people of J&K are agreed that an equitable political solution is the only way ahead. An informed debate about this highly emotive and contentious subject – militancy and terror in J&K – is imperative and in this regard, the recent recommendation by a parliamentary panel is welcome. The Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Home Ministry has advised (March 22) that while the various aspects of militancy in J&K have been well documented, all these facts should still be brought out in the form of a White Paper as part of a single document for public information – and hopefully, an objective debate in the legislature.

This is a commendable recommendation and would allow the Kathua incident to be framed in the appropriate context so as to preempt a repetition.

*Commodore C. Uday Bhaskar (Retd), is Director of the Society for Policy Studies. He can be contacted at cudaybhaskar@spsindia.in

The post India: Kathua Attack Test For New J&K Government – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

As the rare statesman who has engaged all five generations of Chinese leadership, Lee Kuan Yew had a deep and profound understanding of China. Policymakers and scholars would do no worse than to overlook Lee’s insights on the rising power.

By Hoo Tiang Boon*

Among the many abilities that made Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, such a valued and influential interlocutor to foreign leaders and governments was undoubtedly his prodigious and masterly understanding of China. Lee was, in the words of Graham Allison, ‘the world’s premier China watcher’. This is an accolade attributed to the fact that his assessments of Beijing—frank, unvarnished and sometimes contrarian—often proved to be uncannily correct or prescient.

This was a profound wisdom borne out not just from a scholastic and historical appreciation of the nuances and contradictions of China. It was one honed by Lee’s more than 30 visits to China, starting from 1976, and unique friendship and access to several of the top echelons of the Chinese leadership, both past and present. Lee remains the rare statesman who has met with all five Chinese leaders, from Mao Zedong to current President Xi Jinping. Everyone of them since Deng Xiaoping, including Xi, have described Lee as a ‘mentor’.

On China’s rise

It was thus this blend of ground knowledge, elite relations, historical awareness and intellectualism that enabled Lee to ‘[spot] the rise of China before anyone else’. Lee believed that once China reversed course to more effectively harness the productive capacities of its people, its rise was only a matter of time.

He had met and found ‘very capable minds’ during his early visits to China, and could see that once ideology was no longer an encumbrance, China would soar. That was in the 1970s, a time when most people were hardly bullish about China’s prospects.

Lee was clear about the psychological underpinnings that fuelled China’s rise. At the heart of the Chinese strategic mindset, he noted, was the fundamental belief that China should be the world’s greatest power, like how it was before its ill-fated century of humiliation and reigned supreme as Asia’s dominant power. Ergo, Lee saw no reason why China would not want, if it could, to replace the United States as Asia’s ‘number one’ power.

But to achieve this goal, Lee did not think China would be ‘foolish’ and compete with others, in particular the US, in armaments. Rather, China’s strategy would be to ‘out-sell and out-build’ the rest. Moreover, Lee knew that the Chinese leaders took a long-term perspective on strategic issues, and were prepared to ‘bide [their] time’ until China becomes powerful enough to ‘redefine’ the extant order.

One thing Lee did not count on China doing to succeed in its goal is to adopt Western-style liberal democracy. In fact, he was reasonably sure that China would not go down that route, and that ‘if it did, it would collapse’. This conclusion stemmed from Lee’s recognition that Chinese leaders fear the instability and ‘loss of [central] control’ which liberal democracy might engender.

Lee himself was not convinced that China should be judged or adopt Western political standards, which he thought do not sufficiently take into account China’s past. As he wryly observed, throughout 5000 years of its history, China’s rulers ‘chopped heads, not count heads’.

It was this sort of thinking which led Lee to conclude quickly that in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen incident, Deng Xiaoping would act decisively to quell the protests, and that Western diplomatic isolation would not succeed in pressurising China to change its political course.

Leader reader

Lee’s reading of the Tiananmen situation was aided by a keen ability to ‘figure out’ the personalities, thinking and leadership styles of Chinese leaders he met. In Deng, Lee saw a strong-willed leader who was not afraid to make tough decisions when problems came up during China’s reform and opening-up process. Five-footer Deng in fact stood so high in Lee’s estimation that he considered the former to be ‘the most impressive leader he ever met’.

Interestingly, Lee had singled out current Chinese leader Xi Jinping for particular praise. Calling Xi a man with ‘iron in his soul’ and ‘gravitas’, Lee saw Xi as being comparable to a leader like Nelson Mandela. Lee’s assessment of Xi is telling because in the two years since ascending to the top position in China, Xi has emerged to be widely considered as the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng.

Lee has been described as being ‘obsessed’ about China. But it is worth emphasising that this was an obsession informed and shaped by a bigger obsession on Singapore’s long-term national interests. From the time in the late 1970s when he accurately saw and foretold China’s rise, Lee knew that Singapore could not afford to miss the Chinese growth train that was about to take off. As one interviewer of Lee noted, the former prime minister had been ‘worried about Singapore being left behind when China got back up to speed’.

It had thus been clear to Lee early on, that with China’s impending rise, it would be advantageous for Singapore to get to ‘know’ the country and its leaders better. This does not mean of course, short of a utilitarian purpose, China held little personal interest to Lee. As a country, China had always occupied Lee’s attentions while its size meant that it was simply too big to ignore. But having gazed into and understood the future, China’s importance became even more evident to Lee and Singapore.

All this has meant the bequeathment of a legacy and wealth of knowledge on China, captured in Lee’s several speeches and interviews as well as writings based on these material. While China is an evolving creature, future generations of China watchers as well as policymakers would do no worse than to overlook Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s insights.

*Hoo Tiang Boon is Assistant Professor, China Programme and Coordinator of the MSc (Asian Studies) Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. This is part of a series on the Legacy of Lee Kuan Yew.

The post Lee Kuan Yew’s China Wisdom – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

More than 2,000 Palestinians in southern Nablus took part in a march to mark the 39th anniversary of Land Day on Monday, commemorating Palestinian protests against Israeli land seizures that were violently suppressed on Mar. 30, 1976.

More than 15 Palestinians suffered tear-gas inhalation when Israeli forces attempted to suppress the march, which took place in the village of Huwwara.

The injured included Fatah member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Walid Assaf.

Many were treated on the spot while others were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Hundreds of soldiers were reportedly deployed, witnesses said.

Protesters waved Palestinian flags and repeated slogans calling for Palestinian unity and demanding an end to the Israeli occupation.

Other Palestinian leaders taking part in the march included Mahmoud al-Aloul, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, Qais Abd al-Karim, member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s politburo, and MP Mustafa al-Barghouthi, among others.

More marches are expected to take place across the West Bank to commemorate Land Day.

The 1976 protests against Israeli land confiscations were sparked when Israeli authorities announced plans to confiscate 21,000 dunams (5,190 acres) of land from several Palestinian villages in Galilee, northern Israel.

Palestinians living in these villages called a general strike, and clashes broke out when Israeli forces attempted to suppress the strike.

Six Palestinians were killed, four by the Israeli army and two by Israeli police, and more than a hundred were injured.

The day marked the first mass act by Palestinians living inside Israel and also served as a major symbol of the unity of Palestinians on both sides of the 1949 Armistice Line.

Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, whose population has risen from approximately 150,000 in 1976 to some 1.3 million today, still mark Land Day to demonstrate their continued will to hold onto their land and homes.

In recent years, Israel has deployed large numbers of soldiers in the days leading up to Land Day, and Israeli forces have regularly fired on protesters commemorating the day.

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New research has identified some of the processes by which molecules associated with neurological diseases can disrupt the biological clock, interfere with sleep and activity patterns, and set the stage for a spiral of health concerns that can include a decreased lifespan and Alzheimer’s disease.

The research was published in Neurobiology of Disease by scientists from Oregon State University and the Oregon Health & Science University, in work supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Previous studies have shown that disruption of the biological clock – the natural pattern of day-night activity that’s genetically controlled in many animals – can cause neurodegeneration, loss of motor function and early death.

The newest results help outline the molecular mechanisms involved, and show how proteins associated with neurological disease can diminish the biological clock function and ultimately lead to very serious health problems, including severe cognitive deterioration. It also confirms that these risks increase significantly with age.

“The molecular basis underlying biological clock deficits in Alzheimer’s disease has been difficult to tease out,” said Matthew Blake, an OSU faculty research assistant and author of the study. “Only recently have we been able to utilize our model system to accurately dissect this mechanism.”

This research was done with fruit flies, which have many genes and biological processes that are similar or identical to those of humans, retained through millions of years of evolution. Circadian clocks are so essential to health that they are found throughout the nervous system and peripheral organs.

Proper function of circadian rhythms has been shown to affect everything from sleep to stress reaction, feeding patterns, DNA repair, fertility and even the effectiveness of medications.

“Alzheimer’s disease has always been of interest in this research, because sleep disruption is one of its earliest symptoms, and almost everyone with Alzheimer’s has some sleep problems,” said Jadwiga Giebultowicz, corresponding author of this study, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology in the OSU College of Science, and expert on the biological and genetic underpinnings of the biological clock.

“This research adds more support to the hypothesis that neurological damage is a circular process that, in turn, causes more disruption of the biological clock,” Giebultowicz said. “We’ve identified a new player in this process, a fragment of the amyloid precursor protein called AICD, that is able to enter the nucleus of cells and interfere with central clock function.”

One known cause of Alzheimer’s disease is cleavage of an amyloid precursor protein, which creates a peptide that’s toxic to neurons. An enzyme involved is elevated in Alzheimer’s patients. This study took that process further and showed that increased production of the enzyme, which in flies is called dBACE, reduced the expression of a core clock protein.

The results suggest that dBACE acts via dAICD to cause the disruption of the biological clock and loss of daily sleep and activity cycles. This disruptive process was much more severe in older flies.

“A general message from this is that normal day-night, sleep and activity cycles are important,” Giebultowicz said.

“There’s evidence that proper sleep allows neuronal repair activity and the maintenance of neuronal health,” she said. “Since neuronal damage is a destructive process that can build on itself once it begins, it’s important that sleep issues should be taken seriously by people and their doctors, especially as they age.”

Molecular clock oscillations decline with age, Giebultowicz said, and finding ways to help maintain or restore them might form the basis for a possible therapy to reduce or prevent the associated health problems.

Collaborators on this research included Eileen Chow in the Department of Integrative Biology at OSU, and Doris Kretzschmar at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, an international expert in the use of fruit flies as a model for neurodegenerative diseases.

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By R. Banerji*

Twin suicide attacks which occurred outside the Catholic St. John’s Church, Lahore and the Protestant Christ Church, half a mile away, on Sunday March 15 morning, killing at least 15 persons only confirmed the status of siege and persecution Christians in Pakistan, as indeed other hapless minorities have been living with in Pakistan. Their status worsened after the introduction of blasphemy laws to drastically alter the 1973 constitution during Zia ul Haq’s authoritarian rule, between 1980-1987.

In September 2013, the famous All Saints Church in Peshawar, built in 1883 in a unique design of an Islamic Saracenic mosque with a dome and minarets, located in the Kohati gate area of the old walled city, was attacked by suicide bombers during a crowded mass service, killing at least 87, including 37 children.

The Peshawar attacks were claimed by a splinter faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) calling itself the TTP Jundullah, while the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, recently formed outfit owing allegiance to Islamic State (IS), was behind the Lahore church bombings.

The Lahore attacks were the fourth major incident against the Christian community in Pakistan in the last six years. In 2009, 60 houses and a church were torched by Muslim fanatic mobs in Gojra. Again in 2013, 160 houses, 10 shops and two small churches were gutted in Joseph’s Colony, Lahore. None of the miscreants arrested after these incidents were convicted, the majority being released on bail. Inquiry tribunal reports on the incidents have not been implemented by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) (Nawaz) government in Punjab.

Christians number about 2.09 million, which is 1.9% of Pakistan’s population. They are mostly located in urban areas of Punjab, living in abysmal shanty settlements and engaged in the profession of municipal sweepers, derisively referred to as “churaas”. Those living in village communities near Punjab towns of Sheikhupura and Faislabad have had to face frequent false allegations of desecrating the Quran or violating blasphemy laws on the slightest pretext if involved in local altercations with the Sunni majority.

The case of Aasia Bibi Naureen of village Ittanwali, Sheikhupura comes to mind instantly. Picked up in June, 2009 for having dared to drink water from a rural well while picking berries, she was convicted in November 2010 by a Sheikhupura court and sentenced to death by hanging. Governor Punjab Salman Taseer visited her in jail even as there were reports that then president Asif Ali Zardari was considering a presidential pardon. This never fructified. Governor Taseer was gunned down by his own police guard, Mumtaz Qadri in January 2011. Two months later, then minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who had expressed sympathy, was also killed by assailants.

Aasia Bibi’s appeal has been turned down by the Lahore High Court and she languishes in solitary confinement in a Lahore prison as her lawyers prepare to appeal in the Supreme Court. In another recent case, 11-year-old Rimsha Masih, afflicted by Down’s Syndrome, was accused of blasphemy and imprisoned in March 2012. After considerable travails she could be released on bail, and her family had to flee to Canada.

Hindus number about 1.8 million, constituting roughly 1.6% of the total population. In 1947, minorities in Pakistan numbered 22%. Hindus in West Pakistan accounted for between 11-12% .Their numbers have drastically dwindled. They live mostly in the province of Sindh, having sizable presence in Tharparkar, Mirpur Khas districts. They are most commonly engaged in professions of goldsmiths, petty shopkeepers etc.

Apart from periodic attacks on their temples, big and small, their main problem has been the forcible abduction of their women, both married young wives and teenage daughters, by Sindhi wadheras (feudal landlords under whom they work in rural areas as `Haris’) and other influential local big wigs, against whom law enforcement personnel have not been able to act effectively under existing laws.

The notorious Rinkle Kumari case of February 2012 stands out where complaints of kidnapping by parents were overlooked even by the Supreme Court, as a small time local Maulvi, Pir Mian Shaman, from her own town, Mirpur Mathelo, claimed that Rinkle had eloped and married a Muslim boy, Naveed Shah and converted voluntarily to the faith.

The Movement for Solidarity and Peace, a Pakistani NGO has alleged that this reflects a trend wherein at least 20 forcible abductions take place every day in cities like Karachi and about 100 Hindus are converted per annum.

In terms of representational politics, though separate electorates have been disbanded, minorities remain poorly represented, with 10 seats in the National Assembly and 23 in four provinces, which are filled up by proportional representation, depending on votes obtained by mainstream parties.

An unwritten policy of gradual but sustained provocation and repression seems to have been allowed to prevail, under growing pressure of radical Sunni fundamentalist outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Anjuman Sipah –e-Sahaba (ASSP). This rests on five prongs – periodic terror attacks and pogroms on or near shrines of minorities; forcible abduction and marriages of female members; implementing forcible conversion laws; accusing / implicating defiant minority community elements through blasphemy charges; building pressure conditions through a combination of these tactics to force minorities, especially Hindus to flee across the border to Rajasthan. All this while, political elements are primed to keep making the right noises about the need to preserve constitutional safeguards and obligation to protect minorities in Quad-e-Azam Jinnah’s Pakistan.

*Rana Banerji is a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Peace & Conflict Studies, New Delhi. He can be reached at contributions@spsindia.in

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The Nigerians are awaiting the results of Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections, amid notable tension. According to Nigeria’s top newspapers, the results should be released by the end of the day.

In many states of the nation – Africa’s main economy and oil producer – the vote continued also on Sunday after a malfunction of the biometric ballots, impeding many from voting. An inconvenience that forced the Electoral commission to issue an urgent statement for polling station officials to proceed in a manual count of votes.

Despite 14 candidates in the presidential race, predictions widely indicate a head to head between exiting President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the retired General Mohammed Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

Aside from the delays and episodes of unrest reported in the states of Borno, Gombe and Yobe, the vote was relatively calm, though concerns of the announcement of final results sparking violence remains high. In a bid to prevent eventual violence, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), called on authorities to declare a curfew in the areas most at risk before the release of election results.

“The experiences of the past teach us that violence breaks out straight after the release of results”, said CAN secretary Rev. Shuaibu Byel, urging to allow the necessary time for calm to return. He also applauded the peaceful vote and high turnout to the polls, as a clear indication of a maturing democratic awareness in the nation.

Buhari supporters protested yesterday in the southern Rivers State over alleged “collusion” between electoral officials and the ruling PDP in an aim to manipulate the results. The Electoral commission head Attahiru Jega expressed “concern” over the allegations.

A presidential candidate must obtain an absolute majority and at least 25% of votes in two thirds of the Federation’s 37 states to win in the first round. An eventual runoff between the top two candidates is set for April 4. Both the PDP and APC both claimed “certainty” over the victory of their candidates.

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Nine members of the extremist Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, attributed for the attack against the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, were killed in clashes with security forces in the mountain zone of Sidi Aich, in the Gafsa governorate, reports the Foreign ministry.

The region is situated along the border with Algeria, however much further south than the habitual area of action of the group, security forces have been combating for over two years.

Tunisia’s Prime Minister Habib Essid announced that the founder of the main extremist group of the nation, the Algerian Lokmane Abou Sakhr, was among those killed in the operation. The Interior ministry accuses the Brigade of carrying out the attack on the Bardo Museum, despite it being claimed by the so-called Islamic State (IS).

The objective of Okba Ibn Nafaa, a local branch of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AMQI), is to create an Islamic caliphate in Tunisia. The armed group, which gets its name from a Muslim military commander and founder of the homonyous mosque in Kairouan, claimed an attack last spring against the home of former Interior minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou and is responsible for the deaths of over sixty police officers and soldiers since December 2012.

Most of the group’s members are part of the Ansar Sharia movement headed by Abu Iyadh, suspected of carrying out the September 2012 attack against the US Embassy.

The Tunisian government believes Okba Ibn Nafaa to be the result of military interventions in Mali and Libya, which facilitated arms trafficking and Jihadist movements throughout the Sahara.

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