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Richard Graves: Massive International Turnout in Support of a 'Real Deal' Climate Treaty

2009-12-12T09:03:14Z

Cross-posted from TckTckTck.org - the site of the Global Campaign for Climate Action

This weekend, the world is rallying for a real deal in Copenhagen. A tide of citizen action in support of world leaders signing a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty in Copenhagen is sweeping across the world.

Citizens seeking to inspire world leaders to follow their example have set up signing walls in public areas. Churches across the world are ringing their bells 350 times.

Families and young people are walking together in the tens of thousands to show support for leadership in Copenhagen. Candlelight vigils, a visual demonstration of the hope that over eleven million citizens from around the world have put in a real deal in Copenhagen, are being held in communities big and small.

The scenes streaming in from thousands of citizen organizers, bringing together families to show their support for leadership on climate change, are the perfect antidote to efforts at gridlock and delay coming from political leaders in Copenhagen this past week. Building on the history-making events and mobilizations held in thousands of cities and in 181 countries this fall, today shows once and for all, that the world is ready for a real deal. Read updates for the frontlines of the citizen movement building the political will for action here, on this site, all throughout the day.

Some of the events opening up the weekend are already making history. Take a look at a few highlights!

Australians turnout for a real deal in Copenhagen!

90,000 Australians from all over the country walked against warming with whole families walking together and coming together to hear from civil society and union leaders, and even schoolchildren. The numbers that showed up surprised observers, as 40,000 people showed up in Melbourne alone, making it one of the largest climate rallies in climate history.

Read more about it here: Massive turnout for Walk Against Warming - ABC News

Lebanese citizens are joined by Environment Minister, in signing action for a real deal in Copenhagen!

Hundreds of people rallied in Beirut in a "citizen signing" of a wall representing the real deal they are calling for, this week. They were joined by the new Environment Minister who joined them is signing the "signature wall." In a strong sign of support, "[Lebanese Environment Minister] Rahhal told The Daily Star. "I see civil society organizations as being fundamental when it comes to lobbying for environmental issues. I sincerely wish that Lebanon will get 'a real deal' in Copenhagen."
Beirut vigil urging 'real deal' from Copenhagen Summit - The Daily Star

Delhi rally raises political temperature in India!

About 5,000 artists, musicians, and students from schools and colleges joined the colorful and exciting citizen's march in Delhi with the message "India Wants a Real Deal". People played musical instruments, sang, and beat on plates and drums, to indicate that people aren't going to accept anything short of a real deal as an outcome of the Copenhagen talks. The Climate Satyagraha [faith] movement turned out in force - Bishop Vincent Concesseo and other religious leaders came out to support the march and rally. "Millions of people in India are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Our monsoons are being hit, and so are our glaciers receding rapidly. We cannot squander this opportunity to avert runaway climate change. Our message to the 120-odd Heads of State who arrive next week in Copenhagen is loud and clear: The time to change the future is now," said Naveen Mishra from Global Climate Campaign.

There are almost three thousand more events like these happening around the world this weekend. Check in frequently and watch what happens when civil society takes on the world's biggest challenge, moving world leaders to sign a real deal on climate change.

Sara Schonhardt: Indonesians Rally to Curb Corruption; and It's Only the Beginning

2009-12-09T10:52:34Z

JAKARTA - Thousands of protestors gathered outside the presidential residence here Wednesday to mark International Anti-Corruption Day by rallying against a series of recent scandals that prove graft is still alive and well in Indonesia.

Some demonstrators waved flags with the name of their organization while others held cardboard signs that read, "Let the People Judge," "Crush the Corruptors," and "Save our Country from Corruption."

The predictions leading up to the demonstrations were ominous, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono claiming they were an attempt to attack him, much like the protests in 1998 that led to the ouster of long-running dictator Suharto.

But despite a bit of shoving and the mock immolation of a dummy representing Vice President Boediono, a key figure in the current corruption debacle, the spirit at the rally was almost celebratory.

"Corruption isn't something that is weird here," said Annye, a 24-year-old employee at Uplink, a non-profit organization working in 13 cities to defend the rights of Indonesia's urban poor.
Most of the time people just accept what they see as a part of standard operating procedures, she said. But a series of recent events have woken people up to the need to do something.

First came the arrests of two members of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), an independent agency that since 2003 has successfully prosecuted around 150 high-level politicians and law enforcement officials for bribery and other forms of graft.

Supporters of the KPK, which has the power to wiretap, arrest, and prosecute anyone it suspects of corruption, believe the arrests were an attempt by the police and attorney general's office to stymie the commission.

In response to the fiasco, President Yudhoyono, better known as SBY, appointed a team of lawyers and reform activists to look into the issue. The team responded by calling on SBY to break up the "judicial mafia" that has been rooted in Indonesia's system for decades and has undermined the rule of law through brokers who receive bribes in exchange for settling legal cases.

Then, as SBY waffled on taking decisive action, civil society groups renewed their calls for an investigation into the bailout of Bank Century, a bank that Indonesia's much-respected finance minister said could not have been allowed to fail.

According to watchdog groups, however, the funds from the bailout found their way into the pockets of businessmen with whom the minister was attempting to curry favor as well as recently re-elected SBY's campaign coffers.

Political analysts say the protests could significantly undermine the social and political stability that SBY struggled to rebuild during his first five years in power, particularly as a larger and more diverse array of organizations seem to be jumping on the anti-corruption bandwagon. "Everybody wants to get involved," said Annye, who along with more than 50 members of Uplink wore a surgical mask painted with the word jijik, disgusting.

"That one word represents everything," she said, noting that the scandals have exposed corrupt politicians and should force them to admit to and correct their wrongs.

But getting those in power to change their ways is easier said than done, according to Max Lawalata, a member of Gerindra, an opposition political party started by Suharto's son-in-law. Lawalata believes the only way to rid the nation of corruption is through reformation or revolution. The normal legal channels are stocked with bureaucrats who are used to operating in this corrupt system, he said.

Shortly before the protests began Wednesday a group called ARUS, the People's Alliance for SBY, held a rally in support of the president at a major traffic roundabout in central Jakarta. But Lawalata said it was purely a political maneuver.

When SBY realized he couldn't stop the protests, he tried to change the atmosphere by calling them celebrations, the politician said. "But this is not a celebration, there are messages that people are sending."

One of those messages advocates a Clean Revolution aimed at wiping out corruption in a nation famed for its lack of transparency. The 1998 protests that drove Suharto from power were the culmination of gross economic disparity and dissatisfaction with a ruler who kept limiting peoples' freedoms in an attempt to tighten his grip on power.

"That experience taught us not to wait for change," said Lawalata, explaining that it took 20 years before people were willing to stand up against Suharto. "We don't want to wait another 20 years ... it's what we call democracy."

In addition to anti-corruption groups, a large number of protestors were university students and human rights activists fighting for the rights of the poor and marginalized who they say are the first to suffer from corruption.

"Indonesia has many social problems, people don't yet have enough to eat and there is lots of inequality," said Kurniawan, an activist who was dressed in dark clothing and had painted his hands and face black to illustrate what he called, the "dark spirit of the Indonesian people."

The event also drew out women, children, grandmothers and leaders of the 1998 riots. Most were adamant that such a strong showing would put pressure on the government to makes some changes. But they also realized that big change would need more drastic measures.

"This is only the beginning," said Lawalata. Which will certainly not make SBY happy.

Obama Statue Erected In Jakarta, Indonesia (PHOTO)

2009-12-09T09:34:17Z

Scroll down to see statue

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A statue of President Barack Obama as a 10-year-old wearing shorts and a T-shirt has been erected in a Jakarta park to inspire children in the country where he lived as a boy, officials said Wednesday.

The almost life-sized statue, to be unveiled Thursday by Jakarta's governor, shows the young Obama smiling at a butterfly that has landed on his upheld left thumb.

It stands in Taman Menteng Park, near where Obama lived from 1967 until 1971 with his American mother, his Indonesian stepfather and his half-sister. The park was previously an athletic field near Obama's elementary school.

"We welcome the statue, which is designed to give Indonesian children the spirit to reach their dreams," Central Jakarta Mayor Sylviana Murni said.

"There is a message through the young Obama statue that any child and anyone from any background can reach their dreams if they fight for it persistently," she added.

Money for the bronze statue, which cost more than $10,000, was donated by eight Indonesian patrons, a television station and a charity that helps Indonesia's urban poor, said the chairman of the nonprofit Friends of Obama Foundation, Ron Mullers. The Indonesia-based foundation came up with the idea of the statue and found the donors.

Obama has described his Indonesian experience as both exotic and enlightening.

He had a pet monkey, and baby crocodiles swam in a pond behind his house. But he also saw Third World poverty and disease.

The statue's pedestal carries an paraphrased quote from former U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt reading, "The future belongs to those who believe in the power of their dreams."

Magda Abu-Fadil: Vienna Declaration: Press Freedom and Security Compatible in Fight Against Terrorism

2009-12-02T07:35:00Z

Security and press freedom can coexist, with the free flow of information recognized as the best weapon against terrorism, international media experts argued in a final declaration published this week.

"Everyone has the right to access diverse, uncensored sources of information. States should create an environment that encourages the development of a diverse, pluralistic media sector," said the Vienna Declaration culminating from a two-day conference on media and terrorism in October.

It said editorial independence should be respected by states and inter-governmental organizations and that specific obligations should not be imposed on media outlets in the pursuit of counter-terrorism.

"The Vienna Declaration recognizes that a free and unfettered flow of information and ideas is an important antidote to terrorist ideologies and that a free media is indispensable in achieving this," said David Dadge, director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) that organized the event with the Salzburg-based Center for International Legal Studies (CILS).

Journalists, legal, security and anti-terrorism experts from around the world hammered out the declaration after heated discussions at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna during a two-day conference entitled "The War on Words - Terrorism, Media and the Law."

Participants reiterated that freedom of expression and of the media were fundamental human rights, enshrined in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and a professor of constitutional law and human rights at the University of Vienna, every act of terrorism is a very serious crime.

But treaties on human rights stipulate that torture is unacceptable, he said, adding that fighting terrorism must be through the rule of law.

"Certain laws restrict civil liberties," he said.

Participants noted that by establishing secret places of detention post-9/11, the United States had violated all human rights conventions, despite former president George W. Bush's contention he was conducting a war on terror and that human rights were no longer applicable.

"If you didn't like what happened to civil liberties, watch what would happen if it happens again," warned Philip Zelikow, former Executive Director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States who teaches history at the University of Virginia.

"War on Words" panel (Abu-Fadil)

Lucy Dalglish, Executive Director of the Virginia-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said except in most extreme circumstances, there was no restraint on journalists thanks to the First Amendment, but that there was also no special protection for reporters.

Media in the U.S. were timid post-9/11 "but have staged something of a comeback," she said.

Riem Higazi, a talk radio host on Austria's ORF FM4, had an interesting take on the conference (http://fm4.orf.at/stories/1629100).

She was flabbergasted by stereotypical and racist remarks from some members of the audience. Her show's podcast is available for download.

N. S. Mueen, author of downloadable "Working with the Media: A Guide for Local Muslim Groups," demonstrated in a video clip the pitfalls of blaming entire ethnic communities in the U.K. for the sins of the few.

Mueen, who works with The Muslim Council of Britain, showed a segment from the British comedy TV show Exposé where a reporter insists on tarring an Asian Muslim teenager, who is unveiled in the clip, as a captive of traditional parents "who treat her like a piece of property."

The dialogue between the reporter and parents brings out the journalist's biases, ignorance and arrogance by insisting the girl is deprived of her basic human rights, only to be told by her parents -- the mother is also unveiled -- that their daughter goes to the movies and leads a "normal" life.

Gudrun Harrer, senior editor at Austrian daily Der Standard, in a session on how the media reported on terrorism and torture, said consensus post-9/11 broke following the Iraq war, with the jury still out on how news organizations had handled the matter.

"We used to talk about pressure on media from governments, she said," adding that pressure also came from consumers. "It's easier to take sides."

Raphael Perl, who heads the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Action against Terrorism Unit, said media had immense potential as a counter-terrorism resource.

"Accurate and rapid dissemination of information to the public during terrorist incidents can prevent panic, reduce confusion, streamline response efforts and save lives," he argued.

But he admitted communication between the media and counter-terrorism officials was often hampered by lack of cooperation and trust, stemming from various legitimate concerns as well as from mutual lack of understanding of the respective goals and responsibilities of each group.

"It's important for the media to report stories, not create them," said Al Jazeera International's (English) chief Ibrahim Helal.

He defended his network against claims it fanned the fires by inciting violence with its coverage of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and its focus on Israel's wars on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

IPI (www.freemedia.at) plans to promote the Vienna Declaration as a worldwide tool to rally support for freedom of expression.

It will also use it to highlight press freedom, and help legislators, policy and decision makers, and the public at large balance the right to freedom of expression with the need to address the serious threat of terrorism.

Signatories to the Vienna Declaration:
The following organizations, all members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network, have endorsed the Vienna Declaration on Terrorism, Media and the Law:
Adil Soz - International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech, Kazakhstan
Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM)
Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Serbia
ARTICLE 19
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE)
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Philippines
Center for Media Studies and Peace Building, Liberia
Centre for Independent Journalism, Malaysia
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Exiled Journalists Network, UK
Human Rights Watch
Inter American Press Association (IAPA)
Independent Journalism Center, Moldova
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
International Press Institute (IPI)
Instituto Prensa y Sociedad de Venezuela (IPYS Venezuela)
Maharat Foundation, Lebanon
Media Foundation for West Africa
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Media Rights Agenda, Nigeria
Media Watch, Bangladesh
Pacific Freedom Forum
Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)
Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA)
Privacy International
Public Association "Journalists", Kyrgyzstan
Southeast Asia Press Alliance (SEAPA)
Pacific Islands News Association (PINA)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)
World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC)

Climate Change Puts Jakarta In Jeopardy (VIDEO)

2009-12-01T11:57:05Z

A United Nations-produced video shows the very real consequences of climate change for those living in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The video shows how a city of 25 million people is now facing 100-200 floods a year. To make matters worse, areas of the city are actually sinking - even the airport might be under sea level by 2050.

Jakarta may be the front lines of our fight against the effects of climate change, and as such provides lessons of a global importance.

As Alex Heikens, Environmental adviser to the UN Development program in Indonesia, says "Adaptation is adjusting the way you live to a new climate in terms of running your country, in term of managing your city, and in terms of how do you produce your crops as a farmer."

WATCH

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Video: State of Singapore's Consumer

2009-11-27T14:30:06Z

Tourists from Indonesia & China make up almost 30% of the tourism share, with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. (CNBC)

Maria Bartiromo - CNBC - Singapore - Asia - Society and Culture

Read more: Singapore, Indonesia, Home News

Indonesia Ferry Survivor: Woman Found 25 Hours After Ferry Sank

2009-11-23T08:08:29Z

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Rescuers plucked a woman from choppy waters Monday, some 25 hours after she jumped from a crowded ferry that sank in a storm off Indonesia's Sumatra island. At least 29 people drowned, and 20 others were missing.

A total of 255 survivors have been pulled from the sea since Sunday when the Dumai Express 10 was hit by towering waves and sank about 90 minutes into an inter-island trip from Batam to Dumai in Riau, a province off Sumatra island in western Indonesia. A second ferry ran aground nearby, but all its passengers were said to be safe.

Indonesia ferry sinks off Sumatra

2009-11-22T09:15:56Z

Indonesia scales down search for survivors after ferry sinks near Sumatra island.

Qanta Ahmed, MD: Guests of God: 2.5 Million Muslims Worship in Makkah, Saudi Arabia in This Year's Hajj

2009-11-19T15:30:36Z

They will arrive from over 160 countries; many have already departed for their journey as I write. Some are old, some young, some unborn, some about to leave this life and go into the next. They will all come, however, just as the Qu’ran predicted: “on every kind of camel”.

This week, Thursday marks the eve of Hajj, centered on the ancient city of Makkah, located in the Hijaz area of southwestern Saudi Arabia. Today more than 1.4 million Muslims will arrive by air. Often at the rate of 50,000 per hour, columns of robed pilgrims will stream through Jeddah’s specially designed, gleaming Hajj terminals. Others will arrive by land and even sea. In recent years, annually, Hajj has hosted more than 2.5 million Muslims as they engage in the most sacred rituals in Islam.

Hajj involves a series of rites, timed over several days. The rituals involve entering a spiritual state of purity through prayer, bathing and dress and immediately, paying homage to God at the Ka’ba in the Al Haram Mosque located at the center of Makkah. In the days to come, millions at a time will circumambulate this extraordinary cuboid building (draped in a black embroidered veil), which has stood for four millennia in the center of what was, for so long, a caravan stop for nomadic merchants.

The Ka’aba is a 49 ft square cuboid “House of God” which Abraham himself built, with guidance from the Archangel Gabriel. After circulating this building which seems as if to emanate an electrifying charge in the atmosphere around it, Muslims move en masse to supplicate in the near by Mina environ, home to the semi-permanent ‘Tent City” where the entire gathering resides for several days. A number of other rituals follow, including standing in prayer on the plain of Arafat where the Prophet Mohammed (SAW) gave his final sermon to his followers and God is believed to be closest to his worshippers at this site. After the exhausting day, considered the pinnacle of Hajj, pilgrims spend a night in prayer in the plain of Muzdallifah, outdoors. At first dawn, the millions begin the march towards a dramatic denunciation of Iblis, the fallen angel -- Satan -- symbolized in the stoning of three pillars at Jamaraat. Finally, reborn, pilgrims again return to Makkah, simulating Hagar’s desperate searching for water for her crying child, and soon after, bid farewell to their Maker by circumambulating the Ka’aba once more. With a final glance at the Ka’aba, Muslims pray they may return to this celestial place once more before death and depart the city limits at once.

Much of Islam is based on orthopraxy and not orthodoxy. Hajj is perhaps most emblematic of this theme. Muslims do not go to Hajj for scholarship, rather they go to observe important rituals, which capture the actions of both the Prophet Mohammed (SAW) and the Prophet Abraham.

Islam’s most important rite has been unfolding for almost 1500 years since the Prophet Mohammed (SAW) first performed the Islamic Hajj. Preparations for the colossal event this year have been underway for months, especially fevered in the current climate of global H1N1 pandemic influenza. The King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud -- in his nation’s role as the Custodian for the Two Holy Cities in Islam (Makkah and Madinah) -- takes Hajj responsibilities very seriously. Safeguarding the pilgrims, the ‘Guests of God’, is an act of grace considered zakat (Islamic charity). It is within the Muslim world an unparalleled privilege to serve these Guests. Each year the Kingdom expends billions of riyals in preparation for every imaginable detail such a mass gathering presents, from healthcare, security, food, water, accommodations, emergency response services, immigration and even repatriation of those who faithful who pass away engaged in the rigors of Hajj.

Unlike Olympic Games, Hajj planners do not have a seven year period for languid preparations. Hajj is annual, allowing at most, a nine month lead-time until pilgrims begin to gather for each new subsequent Hajj season. Planners move fast, and must be agile to a world where SARS can appear one year and Avian Flu another. The degree of international collaboration involved in coordinating 160 nations and their preparations for sending pilgrims is in itself a mammoth undertaking, especially when new infections or emerging diseases threaten to impact Hajj travelers. This year, King Abdullah himself is intensely engaged in pandemic preparations, meeting with Hajj planners personally. He is deeply concerned about the impact of a global pandemic on Hajj travels and feels personally accountable for the welfare of Hajj visitors to his country. His concern is manifested in unprecedented investment and access to the world’s leading experts in mass gathering medicine, pandemic preparedness and crowd dynamics. Many of these experts are themselves Saudi nationals who have acquired extraordinary expertise in mass gatherings through their Hajj management experience and research. Nonetheless even though H1N1 is a serious concern, pandemic or not, Hajj must go on.

Hajj is eternally a place of dynamism, through time and space, and essentially has never come to a halt, since it first began. Hajj is the largest mass gathering in the world and the most culturally and geographically diverse. Representing an extraordinary congress of humanity, anyone who has experienced Hajj understands the diversity embodying Islam. My own Hajj would emerge to be an emphatically transformative experience, leading to a new area of academic interest, the kernel of my first nonfiction book and a growing spirituality which had eluded me despite years of ritualistic observation of Islam.

Hajj is costly and laborious and so Muslims must prepare and save before they can go. Muslims must be of adequate means, go on their own finances devoid of loans or debts and must be able-bodied, healthy and strong. Islam strongly discourages the weak, ill or frail to go or the poor, to avoid any additional affliction on already challenged lives. But those who have the financial and physical wherewithal are in fact expected to perform Hajj once in this lifetime, both men and women are equally accountable to perform Hajj.

It is said one can never go to Hajj until one receives an ‘invitation’ from God. If the invitation comes, Muslims must heed it. Each Muslim who makes Hajj usually has a story which captures the serendipity in which the remote possibility of an imagined Hajj becomes reality. Whatever the circumstances, in many cultures Hajj is pursued only when close to the end of life, in preparation for the hereafter and thus follows a lifetime of increasing piety. In cultures, including SE Asia’s Indonesia, for instance, and also Malaysia, many pilgrims are often of a younger age, reflecting perhaps more affluence but also the cultural preferences of marrying a woman who has already performed Hajj.

Until I had entered the forecourt of the Al Haram Mosque in Makkah, I had only ever been part of one mass gathering. It came to mind as I confronted the Ka’ba. I felt small in the crowds, remembering I had once watched U2 perform their ‘Pop’ concert in the now demolished Shea Stadium. As Bono moved through the crowd of 50,000, I grasped the meaning of celebrity. Several years later, as I approached the Ka’aba, I began to feel the edges of Divinity. I was walking on the ground floor of the three-level mosque, each floor of which has a capacity of 750,000. God was bigger than Bono.

Way bigger.

This introduction to the scale of humanity and the insignificance of my own dimensions was an important reminder of the fragility of life and the scale of creation. Understanding my ‘smallness’ was good for an overgrown ego. But even more so, Hajj was key for me feeling at home in Islam and finding my place. As a westernized British female Muslim of Pakistani heritage who had made a home in New York City, I finally felt at home at Hajj surrounded by Muslims who looked and spoke pretty much like I did and were ultimately just as hybrid as myself. Too often, when we are introduced to religion in our childhoods it is served alongside culture without distinction. Cultural mores often overwhelm spiritual ones. Allowing cultural expectations to fall away by observing Muslims from every culture helped me at last engage in Islam.

This week, as we watch the pilgrims engage in their rites on CNN with Wolf Blitzer or on Al Jazeera with Riz Khan, one theme will transcend all others: cooperation. And at a time when the world is so lacking in both the will and the opportunity for cooperation, this is a key time to be reminded of this basic human quality which preserves our societies, wherever and whatever they may be.

How do 2.5 million manage to perform all these complex steps and movements in confined spaces without the crowds disintegrating into utter and irretrievable chaos? The answer is that everyone is part of a smaller, informal group and these clutches of worshipers are very much enjoined to conduct their Hajj rites in the spirit of collaboration and concern for the weaker, less able: a wonderful metaphor for the world beyond Hajj.

Scholars have long discussed the innate meanings of Hajj in a number of metaphorical contexts. The best place I have read about that is in Robert Bianchi’s seminal academic work “Guests of God: Pilgrimage and Politics in the Islamic World”. Bianchi helps us understand Hajj is a symbolic metaphor for how all Muslims can collaborate to contribute to peaceful, ordered and supportive society. We must do this whether we choose our homes in Manhattan County or Majma in the Najd.

Because Hajj ultimately subsumes all cultures and all races, its messages are universal and global. For the short few days that the millions gather, in the eyes of their Maker and one another, they are equal in clothing, status, vantage and rank. The crowd is uniform and cannot be distinguished. An Egyptian professor of English literature prays next to an African American nurse aide from Newark, New Jersey, an Arab prince prays abreast with a shepherd, a reformed Mumbai gangster prays, sobbing, comforted by a Lahori polo-player. For these short dynamic days, in the world of Hajj, they are equal. This after all, is how humanity was intended in the context of Divine ideals.

Never has there been a more important time for Muslims to engage in greater introspection, self-evaluation and insight. We face a Muslim world rife with conflicts, sectarian hatreds, misogyny and injustice. We face misunderstanding, Islamophobia and exploitation by nefarious elements who come from within our midst and pose as Muslims when their conduct and code could not be more alien.

As the millions move through the Hajj rituals this week, let us all aspire to greater humility, courage and engagement to improve and advance the constructive contributions Muslims can make around the world, while helping the less advantaged among us. Lets us aspire to being conduits for benevolent Islamic ideals and instruments of clarity in times of crisis and confusion. Let us do that wherever we may be, whomever we are, however we can. Let us serve our societies as Muslims are enjoined: through creative contribution and as Hajj teaches us, through cooperation and a deep sense of public service, service to our societies. Hajj reminds us that we have three duties as Muslims: duty to ourselves, duty to our Maker and duty to our society.

Society waits, Muslims.

Will we rise to the task and meet our duty to society?

David A. Love: Will Obama Help Change Asia's Racism?

2009-11-18T14:39:22Z

For the
nations that were a part of President Obama’s recent Asian tour, surely this
was a new experience for them. For the first time, they greeted and hosted the
most powerful person in the world, one of the most brilliant people they’ve
ever met. And for the first time, that
person is a man of African descent. It
has been a long journey since the 1955 Bandung Conference, that historic
meeting of African and Asian states striving for self-determination and against
colonialism. Meanwhile, black people today are often stereotyped in Asian
countries as dirty, violent, mentally deficient and otherwise inferior—not
unlike the ways in which the West has portrayed people of color for years.

Although
symbolism has its limits, surely, it means a lot for international relations to
have a fresh face on the scene in the form of Obama, a leader of the world who
has lived in the world. Obama was born
in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia. His
half sister is Asian American, and one of his half brothers is an African American
living in China. No other president has had such an international background,
or such potential to make a difference on the world stage.

But for
Asian nations, white skin was the traditional standard of beauty and
prosperity. In the old days, the poorer folks were darker because they had to
work in the fields, where they were exposed to the sun.

As China
welcomes Obama, the nation is forced to deal with its long-standing
prejudices toward black people. But the discrimination is
internal as well. The Chinese government
has been heavy-handed in its treatment of the country’s aggrieved Uighur Muslim
minority, and has waged cultural genocide against the people of Tibet.

In India,
the caste system, although officially banned, still lives on. Brown and black faces predominate in this
nation of over 1 billion people.
However, white skin is desirable, and skin
whitening creams are popular.

And Japan
has had a longstanding problem with racism and xenophobia. Even today, one can find signs that say “No
Foreigners Allowed” and “Japanese Only”, or a recent TV commercial depicting
President Obama as a monkey. In 2005, Doudou
Diene, special rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights, found that
discrimination in Japan is “deep and
profound.” He added
that “This xenophobic drive is expressed by associating minorities, certain
minorities, to crime, to violence, to dirt.”

These
Japanese sentiments do not apply solely to foreigners and foreign workers. Despite its self-portrayal as a homogeneous
society, Japan has its own minority groups that historically have been regarded
as inferior. For example, the Ainu, an
indigenous ethnic group, has suffered from displacement and cultural
assimilation, higher levels of poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of
health and education. Over 1 million Japanese
of Korean descent— products of Japanese wartime colonization and forced
labor—are treated as foreigners in the country of their birth. They face a “hidden apartheid”, in which they
face discrimination in housing and employment, and feel pressure to change
their Korean names and blend in society.
Further, the Burakumin are an
outcaste group similar to the untouchable caste in India. They face discrimination because their feudal
ancestors held occupations such as butchers, tanners and gravediggers—
death-related jobs that were considered tainted and unclean under Buddhist and
Shinto practices.

The topic
of racial attitudes in Asia has fascinated me for a long time. In
high school, I traveled to Japan as an exchange student and lived with a family
in Tokyo. I majored in East Asian
Studies in college, and wrote my thesis on Japanese perceptions of foreigners. After
college, I worked as one of a handful of gaijin
(foreigners) in a Japanese bank, and later for the Tokyo office of a major U.S.
advertising agency. Living in Japan was
a life-altering experience for me, and in a good way. Being a true foreigner in another culture
provided me with a broader world perspective, and helped me deal with
adversity.

Overall,
my Japan experience was positive. It took some time to get used to the stares,
or the occasional child who wanted to touch my skin or hair. Then there were
the people who assumed I was a hip-hop entertainer, or a baseball player, or
some other racial stereotype of a black man in Japan. Clearly, there was an
embrace of black culture in Japan. The music and swagger of black people
permeate international popular culture.
And as I went to work in my business suit on the Tokyo subway, I
couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I passed by Japanese teenagers sporting
their dreads, hip-hop gear and Afrocentric t-shirts. But at the same time, I
had to endure my fellow employees at the company dormitory. Some employees at the bank had the idea to
throw a party, in which everyone would come dressed in blackface. After I protested, they cancelled their
plans, but only after lecturing me about the need for foreigners to understand
Japanese culture.

I believe
that as time passes and the world shrinks, it becomes more difficult for
discrimination to find a safe harbor.
Modern technology serves to eliminate borders and expose our activities
before the light of day. The nations of
Asia, like the U.S., have a long way to go before they eradicate racism. And yet, despite its legacy of slavery and
institutionalized racism, America elected a man by the name of Barack Obama as
president. The leaders of Asia now must
deal with a man of African descent as the leader of the American empire. And he isn’t a racial stereotype, for
whatever that is worth. Certainly, that
alone must give them pause.

David A. Love is an Editorial Board member of BlackCommentator.com, and a contributor to the Progressive Media Project and theGrio. He is a writer and human rights advocate based in Philadelphia, and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His blog is davidalove.com.

Daniel Kessler: Journalists and Activists Detained and Deported from Indonesia's Climate Ground Zero

2009-11-18T14:23:23Z

On November 16th, two Greenpeace activists from Germany and Italy and two members of the press from India and Italy, all of whom were traveling on valid business and journalist visas, were picked up and detained by Indonesian police. They were on their way to meet the villagers of Teluk Meranti, who have been supporting Greenpeace in its efforts to highlight rainforest and peatland destruction in the Kampar Peninsula--ground zero for climate change. The police also took into custody an activist from Belgium who had been working at our Climate Defenders Camp there.

Despite the validity of their travel documents and the absence of any wrongdoing, two of the activists and both journalists are now being deported by immigration authorities on questionable and seemingly contrived grounds, even though no formal deportation permits have been issued. Just a few days before, immigration authorities deported eleven other international Greenpeace activists who participated in a non-violent direct action on November 12th, in a concession where APRIL, one of Indonesia's largest pulp and paper companies, is clearing rainforest and draining peatland on the Peninsula.

We set up the Climate Defenders Camp to bring attention to role of deforestation as a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions in advance of December's Copenhagen climate negotiations. If we are to stop climate change, we must end global deforestation by 2020 and bring it to zero in priority areas like Indonesia by 2015. A drive through the Kampar Peninsula reveals acre after acre of forest conversion from healthy rainforest to palm and acacia trees. There is no sign of animal life or biodiversity -- just row after row of conversion. The destruction of the peatlands helps to make Indonesia the world's 3rd largest emitter go greenhouse gases, just after the US and China.

In the interest of the environment and human rights, Greenpeace is calling upon world leaders and concerned citizens to contact Indonesia's President Yudhoyono to ask him to stop these repressive actions by the Indonesian Police and Immigration authorities. The tactics currently being used by the authorities are likely to adversely impact upon the Indonesian government's international reputation as well as the country's reputation as a vibrant democracy.

It is not Greenpeace activists or journalists who should be the focus of the authorities, but the companies who are responsible for this forest destruction. We are working to make President Yudhoyono's recent commitment to reduce Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions a reality and the journalists are telling that story.

You can take action at www.greenpeace.org.

East Timor documentary airing on NewsHour 11/12

2009-11-12T18:46:13Z

10 years after it voted for independence from Indonesia, this tiny new nation struggles to build itself up from scratch.

Read more: East Timor, Indonesia, Home News

Lewis M. Simons on Southeast Asia: The Next Front

2009-11-11T20:45:35Z

Lewis M. Simons on Southeast Asia: The Next Front

With his co-author, Senator Christopher Bond, Lewis M. Simons, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, argues that Southeast Asia, and especially Indonesia, will be the next hot spot in the war on terror. The authors propose that the U.S., having lost credibility with failed military efforts in the Middle East, deploy "smart power" -- civilians -- instead of soldiers to defuse anger and create alternatives to violent movements.
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Location: Washington, D.C., Politics and Prose,

Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2009/10/24/Lewis_M_Simons_on_Southeast_Asia_Next_Front

Read more: Washington, d.c., Indonesia, Home News

Defiant Sri Lanken Asylum Seekers To Stay On Australian Ship Oceanic Viking

2009-11-05T11:16:57Z

The 78 Sri Lankans aboard the Oceanic Viking in port in Indonesia have declared that their "final decision" is to remain on the Australian ship.

Sara Schonhardt: Indonesia Makes Its Mark in a Monument

2009-11-02T14:42:00Z

I'm a reporter who likes to run. And I believe it's best done in more chaotic, infrastructurally insufficient cities, where the sound of one's feet hitting crumbled pavement mixes with cacophony - the noise of traffic, construction, the cries of food vendors - and becomes hypnotizing.

Each time I arrive in a new locale I tie on my pink and black Brooks with their biodegradable midsole and take to the street. This time it's Jakarta, the smoggy, traffic-choked capital of Indonesia, a nation analysts hail for its successful drive toward democracy ten years after the fall of dictator Suharto.

My runs are my time to see all the sides of multi-faceted Jakarta. The early morning light guides my way as I traverse the narrow alleyways of the city's many kampungs (neighborhoods). Yet my destination is always the same, Merdeka Square - site of political protests, family picnics and Suharto-era extravagance.

It is here that the 422-foot national monument, or Monas, rises high above the Jakarta skyline. Capped with a flame coated in gold foil, the marble-encrusted obelisk defines persistence. Despite the cost to the country's already unstable economy, President Sukarno, who commissioned it in 1961, would not back down on his plans for a grand tower.

Monas remains significant for many reasons, but increasingly because of the lessons it provides about Indonesia, a country caught between tradition and modernization, terrorist extremism and religious moderation.

The monument also marks a crossroads between the past and the present. To the north of the square on which it sits is the old, Dutch section of the city, to the south is modern Jakarta, with its glassed-in air-conditioned malls and fancy entertainment districts.

Along the western perimeter extends the TransJakarta bus line, the government's oft-criticized attempt at creating a working public transportation infrastructure. To the east, an older, elevated train line runs. Beneath these tracks trash collectors deposit their goods and women and children beg for money and food. They clutch the thin green fence posts that bar them from the monument, a symbol of Indonesia's fight for independence and a poignant reminder of the ever-widening gap between poor and rich.

Merdeka Square also stands out in a city that suffers from a gross lack of green space. Like Thailand, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, group exercise is a morning ritual, and the land surrounding the monument is one of the few enclosed places where people can exercise in public.

In the hours between sunrise and the beginning of the work day men and women wearing orange and cream sweat suits walk around the square. It is here that civil servants with their regulation uniforms mix with men from the national military, old Chinese couples performing Tai Chi and top-level politicians, such as Parliament's secretary general. The police, clad in navy jumpsuits with white armbands, watch over their activities.

In the afternoon tourists flock to the monument. Some wait in line for the elevator ride to the top, where on a rare clear day one can get a descent view of the sprawling metropolis and the giant dome of the Istiqlal Mosque. School children come to visit the historical museum housed beneath the tower, and on weekends Jakartans come out to fly kites, picnic and socialize.

In an interesting move last week, Jakarta's Public Order Agency announced it would close the monument's park for four hours each night to crack down on teenagers engaging in sexual activity and crime.

Monas has also been the staging ground for protests, and it was here more than a year ago that a religious clash occurred between conservative Muslims and an Islamic sect they consider heretical. Indonesia is a secular country, but Islamist politics and the introduction of stringent Sharia laws by local governments have raised concerns of creeping radicalization in a country where 87 percent of the 240 million people are Muslim.

These are the lessons I've learned by visiting Monas. I continue to think about the people I see there throughout the day. An image of the woman with a red kerchief will appear to me while I'm browsing for produce, or a man on the bus will remind me of a young police officer chatting on his cell phone.

Every journalist has her way of adapting to a new posting. A friend now based in Bishkek got to know the bar scene. In his book War Reporter, Richard Engle said he liked drawing maps to orient himself to a new city. I like running to Monas, a site where the city's schizophrenic frenzy collides in one sensory-filled lesson on modern-day Indonesia.

Daniel Kessler: Indonesia's Rainforests and the Climate Crisis

2009-10-28T23:33:37Z

I'm on the ground in Sumatra at Greenpeace's Climate Defenders Camp. We're here to let world leaders know that this is ground zero for deforestation and if immediate action isn't taken to end the destruction of our rainforests, climate catastrophe is all but assured.

Southeast Asia is the region most exposed to and least prepared for the impacts of climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The ADB warns that the poor -- and especially women -- are the most vulnerable. Approximately 2.2 billion Asians are subsistence farmers; they are already experiencing falling crop yields caused by floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts.

As well as supporting biodiversity and forest-dwelling communities, forests and their soils are huge carbon stores; they contain nearly 300 billion tones of carbon. That is 40 times more carbon than we currently emit to the atmosphere every year.

Tropical forest destruction accounts for about a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world's trains, planes and cars put together. Therefore, we can only avert a climate crisis if world leaders commit to deep and binding cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions from both fossil fuels and deforestation at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

Globally, more than one million hectares of forest, mostly tropical rainforest, is destroyed every month -- that is an area of forest the size of a football pitch every two seconds.

Destruction and degradation of forests drives climate change in two ways. First, the clearing and burning of forests releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and second, the area of forest that absorbs carbon dioxide is reduced. Their role in regulating the climate is so crucial that if we destroy the last tropical forests, we will likely lose the battle against climate change.

INDONESIA'S RAINFORESTS AND PEATLANDS 
On the ground, it's easy to see the massive destruction that has taken place here. A drive through the Kampar Peninsula reveals hectare after hectare of forest conversion from healthy rainforest to palm oil plantations. There is no sign of animal life or biodiversity -- just row after row of palm. The roads are congested with trucks carrying out palm kernels and the sky is filled with the smoke from hundreds of fires set to clear the land for planting.

Indonesia is a stark example of the need for a robust plan and the provision of international funds to protect tropical forests. According to the latest available figures, it has one of the fastest rates of deforestation. This emits so much CO2 that Indonesia is the third largest climate polluter, after China and the US.

The reason these emissions are so high is twofold. It is caused by the rapid rate of deforestation, and the drainage and burning of the carbon rich peat soil the forests grow on. Deforestation of tropical forests is driven by global demand for products like paper, and palm oil which is used in toothpaste, chocolate and as a biofuel. Since 1950, over 74 million hectares of Indonesia's rainforests have been destroyed completely and others have been seriously degraded.

In a recent report, the Indonesian Government identified the oil palm, pulp and paper, agriculture and logging industries as those primarily responsible for draining peat, for destroying its forests and for causing the country's enormous CO2 emissions. It predicts that, unless action is taken, these emissions will continue to increase. However, the government continues to hand out the concessions that allow these companies to destroy the remaining rainforest.

The Indonesian government has laws to protect some of these carbon-rich peat areas but it fails to enforce the law and even continues to grant permits to companies to destroy them. Under Indonesian law, it is prohibited to develop or clear the forest and to drain any peat if it is deeper than three metres. Over 80% of Kampar's peat is deeper than that, but companies are still granted licences to destroy its forests and peatlands. Only 10% of the peatlands that remain intact are officially "protected". The remaining 90% is under immediate threat, encircled by encroaching pulp and paper companies. They have been allocated for conversion in spite of the law.

THE COPENHAGEN SOLUTION
International governments give companies that are destroying the rainforest here an incentive to keep up business as usual and drive climate change by allowing imports of paper and palm oil products that come from forest destruction.

With the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit just around the corner, the Heads of State of developed countries must show real leadership and secure a robust climate deal in December that includes a global funding mechanism that will transfer $42 billion annually from industrialized countries to poor forested countries like Indonesia, Congo and Brazil, with the aim of ending deforestation by 2020. Such a deal must deliver substantial emissions reductions from deforestation as well as protect wildlife and respect the rights of forest dwelling people. It must also ensure that money does not end up in the hands of those responsible for forest destruction, like those in the logging industry.

Greenpeace is also calling on Indonesia's President Yudhoyono to commit to zero deforestation by 2015 in Indonesia and to implement an immediate moratorium on the destruction of forests and peatlands to give the climate some breathing space while the forest protection plans in put into action.

President Obama can do his part by coming to Copenhagen to attend the negotiations himself and help push other world leaders to commit to funding solutions to end deforestation. Obama must show leadership now by pushing Congress to pass legislation that will cap our emissions to the levels scientists say is safe and that will help pay for a global funding mechanism for forests. The bills in Congress are too weak and the international talks are veering of course. Now is the time for action from President Obama.

Read more: Green, Redd, Obama, Indonesia, Deforestation, Green News

Scott Benson: Leatherback Turtles Along the Cali Coast

2009-10-28T21:15:31Z

Scott Benson: Leatherback Turtles Along the Cali Coast

Marine ecologist Scott Benson discusses the leatherback turtle population along the California coast.

Learn about leatherback turtles in coastal central California and their origins in the remote beaches of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Location: San Francisco, CA, California Academy of Sciences,

Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2009/10/20/Scott_Benson_Leatherback_Turtles_Along_the_Cali_Coast

Religious minority clamors for legal rights in Indonesia

2009-10-22T19:00:04Z

Correspondent and producer Jamilla Trindle reports from Indonesia, where fundamentalists are posing new challenges to the democratically-elected government and to members of minority religious groups.

(View full post to see video)
Correspondent and producer Jamilla Trindle reports from Indonesia, where fundamentalists are posing new challenges to the democratically-elected government and to to members of minority religious groups.
http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/10/th_indonesia_ahmadiya.jpg
http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/10/th_indonesia_ahmadiya.jpg

Full Show: October 22, 2009

2009-10-22T18:00:04Z

(View full post to see video)
Watch the show from Thursday, October 22: Calls to close American military bases in Japan; a personal story about how political violence is changing Pakistani way of life; small religious groups in Indonesia come under attack by fundamentalists; and, potable mineral water in a Russian resort town.
http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/10/th_fullshow_20091022.jpg
http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/10/th_fullshow_20091022.jpg

Antony Loewenstein: Life in Aceh, Indonesia

2009-10-21T18:01:00Z

In a collection of just released work by Acehnese writer Azhari, Nutmeg Woman, we are brought into a world before the devastating 2004 tsunami that killed over 220,000 Indonesians. Civil war wracked the province. Indonesian occupation was brutal and fought against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Like the Papuans and East Timorese, the Acehnese wanted to be an independent nation.

Azhari -- who wore a t-shirt with the word "iBoobs' under the Apple logo when I saw him -- often writes in riddles, demanding the reader understand the struggles of a people that no colonial power has ever controlled. Outsiders and eccentrics are treated with suspicion. Strong women counter the absence of men, many of whom have disappeared after generations of fighting. Jakarta still refuses to fully investigate this legacy.

During my recent visit to the area -- as a guest of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival -- I found unconventional attributes of an Islamic state and fierce resistance to orthodox interpretations of the Koran. Aceh is not Saudi Arabia, Iran or Gaza, all places I have witnessed creeping Islamization and brave men and women challenging its implementation.

Aceh remains a traumatized province despite a 2005 peace deal that ended the decades-old, violent conflict. Sharia law is now implemented with homosexuality and adultery punishable by stoning. Poverty is rife -- the smell of rubbish is everywhere and dirty water runs across some streets -- while women mostly wear headscarves and sit separately from men at public events.

There are no cinemas. Entertainment options are limited. Religion often fills the breach, but I met many young people who thrived on satellite television and the Internet. Facebook was a common thread, an obsession and window to the world. Everybody under the age of 30 asked if I had a Facebook account and if I'd accept their friend request.

Nindy Silvie, Raisa Kamila and Mifta Sugesty, three schoolgirls who were my translators, regularly watch The Simpsons, Family Guy, BBC and CNN. Nindy spoke with an American accent, had a South Park tune as her ring-tone, didn't wear a veil and read Noam Chomsky, Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens. I couldn't believe my ears. Here I was in Aceh, talking about the "fundamentalist atheism" of Hitchens and his hatred of religion. She thought he went too far, though she was hardly a devout Muslim.

Although Aceh is no longer under occupation, tourism is virtually non-existent. International NGOs invaded after the 2004 tsunami and huge re-development dots the landscape. A new airport, large German-backed hospital and tsunami museum are tangible signs of modernity.

It was surreal seeing Jewish gravestones, in Hebrew, in the Dutch-era cemetery in the shadow of the tsunami museum. Writer Fozan Santa, with black, greasy shoulder-length hair, told me that there was no hatred towards these monuments and generations of Acehnese had protected them. "People here don't hate Jews", he said, "they hate the Israeli occupation of Palestine."

I met many young men under 20 who said they had wanted to fight against Israel during its bombardment of Gaza in December and January. "For our fellow Muslims", one said. Many had never met a Jew before and were amazed that I expressed deep disquiet towards Israeli behaviour in Palestine.

Fozan showed me the bookshop he ran near the heart of Banda Aceh, the capital. Most books were in the local language, including titles about Marx, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Hitler's Mein Kampf and the power of the Israel lobby in America.

Politics flowed through the veins of many activists, a leftist perspective on the world. During a public forum, I was asked what I thought about the "real terrorism...the issue of globalization and free trade. How do we overcome that?" I replied, slightly unsure what angle to take, that the post-1945 world order was in desperate need of reform and the Muslim world's time would surely come. Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim country, is talking about assuming a more powerful position on the global stage, not least towards the Israel/Palestine conflict.

The election of US President Barack Obama was welcomed warmly across the province. People like his rhetoric and his apparent change in attitude towards the Muslim world, but their patience is limited. Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Palestine continue with no signs of closure. The relationship to American power is contradictory. Washington's influence on their lives is minimal but its ability to bring peace doubtful. The idea of a benevolent America was appealing but images on satellite television from the Arab world dispelled those myths very quickly.

Acehnese identity is intimately related to Indonesia's wish for integration and historical desires for independence. Many craved true freedom but realized it was impossible at the present time. The cataclysmic tsunami wiped out entire families and communities but brought a desperately needed resolution to civil strife.

History can have a cruel sense of humor.

Indonesia: Veiled Iranian Women Suspected Of Smuggling $12.5M Worth Of Methamphetamines

2009-10-21T08:18:18Z

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A group of 10 alleged Iranian drug smugglers, including eight veiled women, were caught with $12.5 million worth of methamphetamines at Indonesia's main airport, the customs chief said Wednesday.

The group was picked up at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport with 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of crystal methamphetamine and 5 gallons (23 liters) of the drug in liquid form, said customs chief Anwar Suprijadi.

Earthquake Rocks Indonesia As Nation Recovers From Last Month's Quake

2009-10-16T08:00:00Z

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A strong undersea earthquake caused minor damage and made buildings in Indonesia's capital sway Friday, but there were no immediate reports injuries.

The quake came as Indonesia is still recovering from another, more powerful earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people last month, not far from Friday's temblor.

Wade Norris: Rejoice! Ice Free Arctic Summers Within a Decade!

2009-10-15T15:31:44Z

Great news here! Oil companies are going to have a great opportunity to drill in the Arctic Sea floor to find more fossil fuels, because the Arctic Circle will soon be ice-free in the summers -- making it very cost effective for drilling the last place we have not drilled for more oil.

So be happy! Gas prices are going to go down, you can invest in more profitable oil stocks, shipping lanes will open giving a shorter route than Panama, which will also increase transportation and thus increase oil consumption. It is a real win-win for America!
And heck, you can invest in beachfront property in the Arctic. Just this past summer because the sea ice was missing, kids in the Arctic circle could go swimming with the temps in the mid 80's.

Oh wait, you are wondering if there is any downside to this news? Well, just a few things ... but don't continue reading if you want to make your money guilt free ...

So what if the Arctic becomes ice free in the summer -- what's the big deal?
For starters, once the Arctic ice opened in 2007 with the arrival of the long sought Northwest passage, something significant was set in motion that had an exponential effect. The ice had been blocking currents from the Atlantic and Pacific from entering the Arctic circle, but once they did encroach upon the Arctic, they brought in significantly warmer currents, starting a feedback loop of warming. This was an effect that scientists had not anticipated as little as a decade ago, which is why all the models for climate change are being drastically revised with shocking changes due to occur in years and decades instead of centuries.

And this from Martin Sommerkorn of the World Wildlife Fund:

Such a loss of Arctic sea ice cover has recently been assessed to set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself. This could lead to flooding affecting one-quarter of the world's population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions from massive carbon pools and extreme global weather changes.

This video done by Al Jazeera on Greenpeace reports on the new phenomena of tropic temperature water in the Arctic.

And what does this mean for the Indigenous Arctic peoples?

For the first time, people in the Arctic are reporting changes in the types of fish they catch and birds they see in their regions, with species of both fish and birds arriving from temperate climates. Native wildlife such as walrus, seals and polar bears are all becoming thinner and scarcer. Most alarming is the new presence of the sound of thunder, which is usually foreign in the Arctic circle.

Elders of these areas, have told oral folk myths, one of which warns that should the ice ever disappear during the summer, their way of life will end. This has been, until recently, a myth that seemed impossible, with the vast expanse of sea ice seeming to last forever.

For some, like the Kivalina of the coast of Alaska, the changes also include losing the very land they live on.

There is also the fact that islanders around the world will also become the world's first wave of Environmental Refugees, losing their land, national identity, and way of life through relocation to a mainland continent.

But that might take at least 10 years for some islanders and decades for others, so no rush, right?

The majority of countries won't be affected, right?

Well, there is the fact that this heating is destabilizing the ice caps on Greenland from the heating Arctic weather pattern.

What does that mean?

In Greenland, and to a lesser extent, Antarctica, ice sheets and glaciers are melting and more importantly, sliding in rapid bursts. This is caused by moulins, which are holes that melting water form from the top of a glacier to the bottom. The water then lubricates and melts the underside of the glacier, causing them to detach from the bedrock -- and creating a 'slip-n-slide' for glaciers that weigh in the megatons -- some the size of Manhattan.

Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, said in Ilulissat [Greenland] yesterday: "We have seen a massive acceleration of the speed with which these glaciers are moving into the sea. The ice is moving at 2 meters an hour on a front 5km [3 miles] long and 1,500 meters deep. That means that this one glacier puts enough fresh water into the sea in one year to provide drinking water for a city the size of London for a year."
The glacier is now moving at 15km a year into the sea although in surges it moves even faster. He measured one surge at 5km in 90 minutes - an extraordinary event.

The result, each 'slide' of these multi-ton glaciers sets off an 'ice quake' that register an average of 3 to 5 on the Richter scale. This might sound minor, but these are occurring multiple times a year. This means that the Earth is being jolted repeatedly by these ice quakes, destabilizing faults lines which has many, many consequences.

The latest scientific discipline to enter the fray over global warming is geology.
And the forecasts from some quarters are dramatic - not only will the earth shake, it will spit fire.

A number of geologists say glacial melting due to climate change will unleash pent-up pressures in the Earth's crust, causing extreme geological events such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

A cubic metre of ice weighs nearly a tonne and some glaciers are more than a kilometre thick. When the weight is removed through melting, the suppressed strains and stresses of the underlying rock come to life.

(from Alan Glazner, a volcano specialist at the University of North Carolina)

"When you melt glacial ice, several hundred metres to a kilometre thick . . . you've decreased the load on the crust and so you've decreased the pressure holding the volcanic conduits closed.

"They're cracks, that's how magmas gets to the surface . . . and where they hit the surface, that's where you get a volcano."

And it is not likely to slow down, but may instead speed up:

...quakes ranged from six to 15 per year from 1993 to 2002, then jumped to 20 in 2003, 23 in 2004, and 32 in the first 10 months of 2005 - matching an increase in Greenland temperatures.

But are these ice quakes causing anything to really happen?

Consider the multiple earthquakes and tsunamis that have been occurring in the past 3 weeks in Indonesia and Samoa.

But not in America right? From the BBC - 'Earthquakes weaken distant faults'.

"(Professor Taira) and his team studied repeating earthquakes because they provided a "background frequency" against which changes in the fault could be compared.
"These events happen regularly and the size of the event is about the same," he told BBC News.
"But after Sumatra (in 2004) the frequency changed - it increased - but the magnitude decreased.
"That is a signal of the fault weakening; you only have to push a little bit and the fault fails."

This fault that the team is studying, one that has weakened significantly since the Boxer Day earthquake and Tsunami in Sumatra, is the San Andreas Fault.

Well, it is not so bad, look on the bright side. You can vacation to Glacier National Park and you will be able to tell your kids and grandkids about what it was like to see a Glacier in the park.
Or you can book a cruise to the Arctic and watch calving glaciers -- lots of fun!

Hooray! What fun!!!!

Whatever, invest while you can, before this oil opportunity passes you by!
Profits are always more important than human life.

Richard Walden: Can People Still Afford to Care?

2009-10-10T14:39:11Z

Operation USA, a small, highly respected Los Angeles-based international relief agency (www.opusa.org) thought two weeks ago that its relief efforts in the triple disasters striking The Philippines, Samoa and Indonesia had finally tapped into the public's consciousness when it simultaneously was listed at the top of USA Today's list of charities responding to the disasters; was on Perez Hilton's website as his recommended relief group to support; had three posts published on HuffPost (one for each disaster); was covered by ABC's Los Angeles station, which came to the group's Port of Los Angeles warehouse to witness its preparation of relief supplies; and, was one of only two relief groups recommended on a blast e-mail from GOP Chairman Michael Steele advising on how to help American Samoa. Operation USA also emailed its own donor list asking for help.

After a full week, the results were in. Just $7,700 was contributed online. This compares with over $1 million donated online within 24 hours in 2004 after the Asia Tsunami.

Operation USA also collects bulk donations of medical and other relief supplies from long-time corporate donors and those amounted to just over $500,000 in product donations in the past three weeks. For the Asia Tsunami, the figures exceeded $10 million.

Being part of the larger relief community, Operation USA's experience was in large part mirrored by other nonprofit groups as far as private funds are concerned. Unlike Operation USA, however, the vast majority of established international relief agencies are also funded by the US Government and can fall back on whatever aid Congress and the Administration decide to give to cope with certain disasters. If private donations are down, they can rely on taxpayer funds to initiate their relief efforts. (There are no non-military US Government relief workers, so nonprofit groups accepting US Government funding implement US Government aid or other foreign policy objectives, which can be fine in Samoa but often troubling in Iraq or Afghanistan.)

What's going on here is that the empirical evidence of the effects of the US and the global recession has come home to roost. One nonprofit chief executive, Jonathan Estrin of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, opined recently that he believes as many as 30% of US nonprofits will fail or be forced to merge with financially stronger organizations in order to continue their humanitarian, educational, peace-making, cultural, faith-based or other activities. As there are well over 700,000 US nonprofit entities, even if Estrin is off by half, over 100,000 groups providing services to Americans and their neighbors, will cease to do so.

This graphically illustrates our economic crisis and the growing crises of both self-confidence in one's economic future and a growing reluctance to give to those whose mission is to help others. That makes which charity to give to ever more important. It's essential to do your own research since, if you can read through HuffPost, you can certainly pull up any charity's website and also Google what others say about the group. While it's true that any clever charlatan can pay to have a slick website designed for them and collect money from the uninformed, HuffPost readers should look at watchdog groups like Charity Navigator and Guidestar as well as discuss with friends, family and co-workers what their experience has been with particular charities.

Give and it gets there is a useful guideline to follow in choosing whom to entrust your shrinking treasure to.

Catholic Relief Services: Sumatra Quake: Man Amputates Leg To Free Himself From Rubble

2009-10-09T17:02:15Z

By Tim O'Connor, Caritas Australia

"I was just thinking I have to save my Adik (little brother)", says Eman a construction worker with an incredible story of courage and survival in the wake of the recent Sumatran earthquake.

It was 5.16pm local time on a humid 30th of September in Padang city. Ramlan was working with his friend Eman and their team on the seventh floor of a construction site and their long day was nearing an end.

Yet everything was about to change. Within seconds the building was shaking violently and huge chunks of concrete and debris began to rain down. The workers quickly fled to get out to the street below. But as they did, Ramlan was left behind.

One can only imagine the fear that must have welled within Ramlan as after several minutes the quaking stopped and he came to the realization that he was trapped. A massive concrete girder had squashed his right foot up to his shin.

In this earthquake prone province, it is well known that the first quake is often followed by aftershocks. Lying in the billowing dust Ramlan quickly realized he must free his leg and get down before the building crumbled.

He was stuck fast though and no matter how hard he pulled, his leg was trapped. And with it, he was too.

The awareness quickly dawned. He had to cut off his leg if he was going to survive. Reaching around in the rubble, Ramlan's hand grasped a hoe. Bracing against the pain he hacked it into this leg. The pain was excruciating. Yet after several attempts he realized the hoe was too blunt and could not get through the bone.

Thinking quickly, he reached into his pocket and called his friend and co-worker Eman.

Eman explains his feelings when he took the call, "I just thought I have to save my friend and I raced back up to the where he was. I did not think of the danger just of the welfare of my friend".

Seeing Ramlan trapped, Eman quickly assessed the situation. He found a concrete trowel and handed it to his friend who attempted again to sever the lower leg. It too was not sharp enough. Eman looked around and found a wood saw.

Ramlan, incredibly still conscious through all this, took the saw in his right hand and began to saw through his own leg.

The pain was too great and his strength was wavering. He could not continue.

Eman took the saw and unperturbed, proceeded the gruesome task of successfully amputating the leg and freeing Ramlan.

Eman wrapped the wound which was bleeding profusely and taking his friend in his arm, quickly descended to the street.

Within minutes he was in the Yos Sudarso Catholic hospital where doctors quickly staunched the bleeding.

Two hours later a further amputation slightly higher up had cleansed the wound and although the leg is gone forever, Ramlan due to his own courage and the solidarity of his friend Eman, is now on the mend.

We meet Ramlan and Eman eight days after the earthquake in a makeshift clinic set up in the grounds of the crumbling Yos Sudarso Catholic hospital. Ramlan reclines on a hospital bed one of twelve lined up in two rows covered by blue tarpaulins. And beside him sits is his savior Eman.

Although Eman, 53, calls Ramlan 'Adik' which translates as little brother, it is a term of endearment rather than of familial connection. They live in the same street and have always been friends but their recent incredible experience has brought them much closer. For eight days Eman has sat here, ensuring his friend is ok.

Despite the tragedy there is no hint of it in the eyes of the young Ramlan. His smile lights up the makeshift ward. The resilience of Ramlan is undoubtedly exceptional but the strength of the people affected by the earthquake is seen across the devastated area. Ramlan, like all the people across Padang and throughout the neighbouring provinces that have been affected by this earthquake, have had their lives changed forever. Caritas and our local partners will be there for the long haul to make sure we give them all the support they require.