West Papua - The secret war in Asia (2007 - 15min)

http://www.freewestpapua.de/
http://www.freewestpapua.org/
http://www.naturvoelker.org/

The film describes the situation of the West Papuan refugees in Papua New Guinea as well as the history of the annexation by Indonesia and exploitation of natural resources with many interviews, high lighted with an interview from Mathias Wenda. The video got his premiere at the Venice Biennale 2007. The film is made from fPcN Germany.

The film tells the story the forgotten war against tribal people on the island of New Guinea. The western part of the island, West Papua, is annexed by Indonesia and exploited by international companies. The West Papuans struggle for their independence from Indonesia. At least 100.000 Papuans has lost their lives in this conflict.

Watch online:
http://www.fpcn-global.org/content/West-Papua-The-secret-war-Asia-2007-15min
---or---
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6707054975859244286
---or---
http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/fPcN_interCultural/videos/The_secret_war.mov/view

Direct Download:
http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/fPcN_interCultural/videos/The_secret_war.mov

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Greece puts its islands up for sale to save economy

Desperate attempt to repay debts also driven by inability to find funds to develop infrastructure on islands

by Elena Moya

Greece is raising cash by selling off an area of state-owned land on Mykonos for luxury tourism. Photograph: Getty Images

There's little that shouts "seriously rich" as much as a little island in the sun to call your own. For Sir Richard Branson it is Neckar in the Caribbean, the billionaire Barclay brothers prefer Brecqhou in the Channel Islands, while Aristotle Onassis married Jackie Kennedy on Skorpios, his Greek hideway.

Now Greece is making it easier for the rich and famous to fulfill their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases on, some of its 6,000 sunkissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay its mountainous debts.

The Guardian has learned that an area in Mykonos, one of Greece's top tourist destinations, is one of the sites for sale. The area is one-third owned by the government, which is looking for a buyer willing to inject capital and develop a luxury tourism complex, according to a source close to the negotiations.

Potential investorsalso looking at property on the island of Rhodes, are mostly Russian and Chinese. Investors in both countries are looking for a little bit of the Mediterranean as holiday destinations for their increasingly affluent populations. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, is among those understood to be interested, although a spokesman denied he was about to invest.

Greece has embarked on the desperate measures after being pushed into a €110bn (£90bn) bailout by the EU and the IMF last month, following a decade of overspending and after jittery investors raised borrowing costs to unbearable levels.

The sale of an island – or convincing a member of the international jet-set to take on a long-term lease – would help to boost its coffers. The Private Islands website lists 1,235-acre Nafsika, in the Ionian sea, on sale for €15m. But others are on for less than €2m – less than a townhouse in Mayfair or Chelsea. Some of the country's numerous islands are tiny which could barely fit a single sunbed.

Only 227 Greek islands are populated and the decision to press ahead with potential sales has also been driven by the inability of the state to develop basic infrastructure, or police most of its islands. The hope is that the sale or long-term lease of some islands will attract investment that will generate jobs and taxable income.

"I am sad – selling off your islands or areas that belong to the people of Greece should be used as the last resort," said Makis Perdikaris, director of Greek Island Properties. "But the first thing is to develop the economy and attract foreign domestic investment to create the necessary infrastructure. The point is to get money." In its battle to raise funds, the country is also planning to sell its rail and water companies. Chinese investors are understood to be interested in the Greek train system, as they already control some of the ports. In a deal announced earlier this month, the Greek government also agreed to export olive oil to China.

After the socialist government of prime minister Geórgios Papandreou responded to the IMF bailout with draconian budget cuts, rioters took to the streets, costing three lives in May.

In the midst of the crisis, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, delayed her support as she faced local elections and popular opposition to any public-funded help to Greece.

As strikes almost paralysed the country and hedge funds bet against the economy, German politicians called for Greece to start selling islands, historic buildings and artworks. It now appears that the Greek government has heeded their demands.

The City, where investors are increasingly shunning Greek investments, welcomed any island sales. "It's a shame if it has come to this but it does at least demonstrate that Greece is prepared to take all actions necessary to try and meet its obligations," said Gary Jenkins, a credit analyst at Evolution Securities.

Property prices have fallen between 10% and 20% since the May riots in Athens, as bad publicity has drawn visitors away, Perdikaris said.

"We have experienced a very slow booking season. Most tour operators offer hugely discounted rates," he said. Britons account for more than 60% of his company's property sales.

EU social model ‘needs correcting’ to avoid unrest

7 June

Though Europe’s social model proved “resilient” against the economic crisis, it must be “corrected” to prevent increasing social unrest, EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner László Andor told EurActiv at the fringes of a meeting with EU trade unions and employers.

EU finance ministers agreed on 9 May to establish a rescue mechanism worth around €750 billion to protect the euro from collapsing under the weight of debt accumulated in countries such as Greece, Spain or Portugal (EurActiv 10/05/10).

Crisis-hit EU countries have adopted highly unpopular austerity measures, which in the case of Greece sparked violent street protests (EurActiv 05/05/10).

The European Commission has developed a blueprint for growth, the ‘Europe 2020′ strategy, which it believes will set Europe on the path to economic recovery. As reported by EurActiv, a number of stakeholders have argued that the Europe 2020 strategy does not have a sufficiently strong social dimension in its current guise (EurActiv 10/03/10).

The term ‘European social partners’ refers to those organisations at EU level which are engaged in the European social dialogue, as provided for under Articles 154 and 155 of the EU Treaties.

Andor confirmed that the European Commission has a “real concern” about social unrest in certain countries where the “financial panic has been out of control”.

He described the need for tough austerity measures in hard-hit countries such as Greece as “inevitable”, adding, however, that EU financial support should help to prevent any severe escalation.

Andor said that these risks should not affect other countries “where this panic doesn’t apply and social unrest can be constrained”.

Specifically, it is essential to maintain a strong social dialogue and fully involve social partners in the development of future plans, he said.

Likewise, he said it was vital to bring forward a convincing strategy for growth and jobs, which is why he believes it is “crucial” that EU leaders give political approval to the Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy at a 17 June summit in Brussels.

In response to the escalating risk of social unrest, he said the EU must continue to reform and “correct” the European social model, as this is the only way to “preserve peace” in the long run.

Sense of urgency ‘missing’, say social partners

Andor was speaking to EurActiv on the sidelines of a 4 June meeting with EU ’social partners’, who were presenting the final input of workers’ unions and employer organisations to the ‘Europe 2020′ strategy for growth and jobs.

Workers and employers joined forces in agreeing that an ambitious growth strategy is the only way to ensure economic recovery.

However, Philippe De Buck, director-general of BusinessEurope, said European employers feel a sense of urgency was missing from the strategy.

NY would collect all criminals’ DNA under new legislation

June 7th, 2010

Anyone convicted of a crime in New York would have their DNA added to a state database, if a new measure, backed by Gov. David Paterson, wins passage. Right now, about 46 percent of all convicts are added to the collection. The proposed legislation would cover misdemeanors, including curfew violation and vandalism. This would make New York pretty much the most aggressive state when it comes to DNA collection, and prosecutors and police say it would greatly help stop future crime.

Surveillance Software Knows What a Camera Sees

2 Jun, 2010

Software offers a running commentary to ease video searching and analysis.

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See demonstration video

[technologyreview.com] A prototype computer vision system can generate a live text description of what's happening in a feed from a surveillance camera. Although not yet ready for commercial use, the system demonstrates how software could make it easier to skim or search through video or image collections. It was developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, in collaboration with ObjectVideo of Reston, VA.

"You can see from the existence of YouTube and all the other growing sources of video around us that being able to search video is a major problem," says Song-Chun Zhu, lead researcher and professor of statistics and computer science at UCLA.

"Almost all search for images or video is still done using the surrounding text," he says. Zhu and UCLA colleagues Benjamin Yao and Haifeng Gong developed a new system, called I2T (Image to Text), which is intended to change that.

It puts a series of computer vision algorithms into a system that takes images or video frames as input, and spits out summaries of what they depict. "That can be searched using simple text search, so it's very human-friendly," says Zhu.

The team applied the software to surveillance footage in collaboration with Mun Wai Lee of ObjectVideo to demonstrate the strength of I2T. Systems like it might help address the fact that there are more and more surveillance cameras--on the streets and in military equipment, for instance--while the number of people working with them remains about the same, says Zhu.

The first part of I2T is an image parser that decomposes an image--meaning it removes the background, and objects like vehicles, trees, and people. Some objects can be broken down further; for example, the limbs of a person or wheels of a car can be separated from the object they belong to.

Next, the meaning of that collection of shapes is determined. "This knowledge representation step is the most important part of the system," says Zhu, explaining that this knowledge comes from human smarts. In 2005, Zhu established the nonprofit Lotus Hill Institute in Ezhou, China, and, with some support from the Chinese government, recruited about 20 graduates of local art colleges to work full-time to annotate a library of images to aid computer vision systems. The result is a database of more than two million images containing objects that have been identified and classified into more than 500 categories.

To ensure that workers annotate images in a standard way, software guides them as they work. It uses versions of the algorithms that will eventually benefit from the final data to pick out the key objects for a person to classify, and it suggests how they might be classified based on previous data. The objects inside images are classified into a hierarchy of categories based on Princeton's WordNet database, which organizes English words into groups according to their meanings. "Once you have the image parsed using that system that also includes the meaning, transcription into the natural language is not too hard," says Zhu, who makes some of the data available for free to other researchers. "It is high-quality data and we hope that more people are going to use this," he says.

Growing Protests As UN Attacks Haitian Refugee Camp

Last week, the United Nations peacekeeping mission fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowded refugee camp, leaving at least six hospitalized and others suffering respiratory problems. Citizen organizations plan demonstrations for today, the sixth anniversary of the U.N. armed presence in Haiti. The march is part of growing protests against the military forces which have amassed in Haiti since the January 12 earthquake and the lack of attention to displaced people’s needs.

On May 23, students at the School of Ethnology of the State University of Haiti held another in a series of protests on the central Champs de Mars Boulevard. The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, by its French acronym) and Haitian police went into the school, firing tears gas and rubber bullets while the students threw rocks.

Then at about 3:00, MINUSTAH troops began firing in the internally displaced people’s camp in the downtown parks around Champs de Mars, where many thousands of people are crowded into tight quarters. The firing continued for hours, according to residents interviewed for this article and other reports. Camp residents reported that babies and small children choked on the gas and passed out, as did at least two women with preexisting heart conditions. Three doctors with Partners in Health at the University Hospital reported treating at least six victims of rubber bullet rounds. Two children were wounded in the face, one of them requiring about ten stitches, according to one of the doctors.[1]

When the attack began, camp residents, including many elderly and infirm people, and babies and small children fled. “I saw one woman running with her twins that are three or four months old,” said Eramithe Delva. “She had one in each arm, and with every step as she ran they banged against her chest. Is this what they want for us?” Many spent the night in the streets, for fear of returning to the camp. Residents interviewed said they had no idea why MINUSTAH fired on them.

MINUSTAH has since issued an apology for entering in the School of Ethnology. The statement did not mention the attack on the camp.

Demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and other areas of the country have become a daily occurrence. Most of them protest the government’s handling of the disaster and the heavy political and military presence of foreign powers since January 12. Within days after the earthquake, 12,600 U.N. troops, 20,000 U.S. troops, 2,000 Canadians, 600 French, and more from other countries amassed there.

Rural organizer Selina Pierre-Louis said, “We don’t know what these soldiers came to do. They have batons and guns in their hands. They zoom up and down in their huge vehicles all day. We’re not at war and we’re not armed. We need technical support, we need reconstruction, we need psychological help. They’re not doing anything to help the rebuilding. They’re just adding to our trauma.”

Troop levels overall have abated since the first months after the earthquake. The most recent figures on MINUSTAH’s web site show that just over 9,000 MINUSTAH forces remain there. The mission’s cost for the current fiscal year is $611.75 million.[2]

The Security Council-approved MINUSTAH was established on June 1, 2004 with a triple mandate of ensuring a “secure and stable environment,” promoting a constitutional political process, and strengthening human rights. Francky Etienne Remy, who owns a small craft shop in Jacmel, said, “The Haitian police are totally ineffectual so MINUSTAH fills a vacuum.”

Yet MINUSTAH troops have repeatedly been accused of killings, arbitrary arrests, and human rights violations throughout the duration of the mission. (See, for example, the reports of Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch.) These charges include an attack by MINUSTAH forces in Cité Soleil on April 15, 2005, killing several[3]; an attack on July 6, 2005, resulting in an uncertain number of deaths[4]; the killing of at least five, and possibly many more, people in Cité Soleil in December 22, 2006[5]; and the shooting death of a young man at the funeral of a prominent priest on July 14, 2009[6].

In February, 2008, the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services released its findings from an investigation into accusations against Sri Lankan MINUSTAH troops. It found that acts of sexual exploitation and abuse of children were “frequent” and occurred “at virtually every location where the contingent personnel were deployed.”[7]

MINUSTAH forces have also been shot at and killed. MINUSTAH claims it has suffered 152 troop fatalities.[8]

Beyond charges of unnecessary force, others like the student, small farmer, worker, and popular organizations who are organizing today’s march, oppose MINUSTAH because they claim the mission undermines Haitian sovereignty. The May 26 press statement for the march, signed by ten organizations, states, “After the January 12 catastrophe, the occupation has been strengthened with other foreign soldiers and MINUSTAH, on the pretext that they are helping us… [T]hey did nothing to help prevent more than 300,000 people from dying under rubble… Now on the sixth anniversary of the occupation, we are taking to the streets of Port-au-Prince to get the country out from under the rubble of MINUSTAH.”[9]

Community organizerNixon Boumba with the grassroots organization Democratic Popular Movement said in an interview, “We’re asking for Haitians to be the true actors in their future, and for an end to the occupation to allow the country to have dignity and autonomy for the development and transformation of the country. We need schools, we need people in the camps attended to. After January 12 there have been a lot of opportunities to resolve the problems in the country. Instead, Canada, France, the U.S., Brazil, and others have acted like imperialists, strengthening their power and trying to undermine our chance to change the quality of our country. The U.S. wants Haiti to serve as a military base for the Caribbean, to control resistance from Latin America. And they want to prevent a massive emigration toward the U.S. and Canada.”

[1] Information gathered from author interviews as well as first-person testimony collected by Melinda Miles, KOMPAY, and reported in a May 25 email to the author; and by Ansel Herz, Inter Press Service, reported in “U.N. Clash with Frustrated Students Spills into Camps,” May 25.

[2] MINUSTAH Facts and Figures, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/facts.shtml

[3] Eyewitness testimony, AP television news story, April 15, 2010.

[4] http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/yearman/cite_soleil.htm

[5] http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/12-another-massacre-in-haiti-by-un-troops/

[6] http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/secret-funeral-for-a-minustah-victim/

[7] Human Rights Watch, “Haiti: Events of 2008,” http://www.hrw.org/en/node/79214

[8] MINUSTAH Facts and Figures, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/facts.shtml

[9] Gwoup 77 et al., “Press Release: Let’s mobilize to get the country out of the rubble of foreign aid and the rubble of the occupation,” Port-au-Prince, May 26, 2010.