The Calm Before the Storm?

Posted on | april 17, 2012 | No Comments

The Calm Before the Storm?
CODELCO can’t possibly be serious
Manduriacos communities unite

A plea for high-school transportation funds

It got real quiet after CODELCO took its drills out of the Paraiso area. First rumors that circulated were that the drill results were disappointing and that was that. Then, more recently, Codelco workers have been saying that the results are quite positive and that they’ll be coming back soon to continue the drilling program,, this time drilling deeper and more bore holes with much bigger equipment. It’s possible that they’ll wait till the start of the dry season, which should start in about a month and a half in the Magdalena area, but my guess is that they’ll return this month.
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VIETNAM : Vietnam must free bloggers Dieu Cay, Phan Thanh Hai and Ta Phong Tan

Posted on | april 17, 2012 | No Comments

Blogger Dieu Cay

His Excellency Trương Tấn Sang, President, Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Your Excellency,

I am writing to express my concern about the founding members of the Club for Free Journalists Nguyen Van Hai (a.k.a Dieu Cay), Phan Thanh Hai (a.k.a Anhbasg), and Ta Phong Tan. The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City will reportedly convene a criminal trial against them on April 17, 2012, for conducting propaganda against the state under article 88 of the penal code. The three are charged under Article 88.2 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code on “spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” which is punishable by ten to twenty years in prison.
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Category: crime, human rights, media, South-east Asia
Tags: Anhbasg > arrest > article 88 > blogger > Blogging > charges > Dieu Cay > Ho Chi Minh City > journalists > Nguyen Van Hai > penal code > Phan Thanh Hai > Political Rights > propaganda > Ta Phong Tan > Trương Tấn Sang > Vietnam

Temperature Data: 1880 – 2011 (Video)

Posted on | april 16, 2012 | No Comments

Watch a graphic depiction of the earth as it warms over the last 131 years. A concise review of the temperature record from 1800 to 2011 clearly shows the earth is warming.
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Category: environment, global
Tags: Earth > temperature > warming > warms

Horizontal Versus Vertical Social Cohesion: Why the Differences Matter

Posted on | april 16, 2012 | No Comments

Social cohesion is an underappreciated but crucial element in development, state building, and poverty reduction.

It is an especially important factor in determining whether a state is fragile or not. As I argued in Fixing Fragile States:

Two factors above all others decide how a country’s political, economic, and societal life evolves: a population’s capacity to cooperate (which depends, for the most part, on the level of social cohesion) and its ability to take advantage of a set of shared, productive institutions (especially informal institutions at the crucial early stages of development when formal institutions are usually feeble and ineffectual). . . . These two ingredients shape how a government interacts with its citizens; how officials, politicians, and businesspeople behave; and how effective foreign efforts to upgrade governance will be. Together with the set of policies adopted by the government, they make up the three major determinants of a country’s capacity to advance.

Fragile states are deficient in both these areas. And the combination of political identity fragmentation and weak national institutions works in a vicious cycle that severely undermines the legitimacy of the state, leading to political orders that are highly unstable and hard to reform.
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Category: global, poverty
Tags: fragile states > MDGs > OECD > poverty reduction > Social cohesion > state building

Report exposes discrimination and apartheid in the occupied Jordan Valley

Posted on | april 16, 2012 | No Comments

School for Palestinian children in Area C of the Jordan Valley (Photo: Maan Development Center)

A new report by Maan Development Center exposes the sharp contrast in living conditions between Palestinians and illegal settlers in the occupied Jordan Valley. Israeli policies facilitate the extravagant lifestyle of Jewish settlers at the expense of the basic rights of Palestinians. Palestinians are denied access to their own natural resources, while Israeli settlers can fully profit from the rich agricultural land and abundant water resources of the valley. Water, education and health facilities are segregated.

The Jordan Valley and Dead Sea area covers about one third of the West Bank and is one of the most isolated and restricted areas in occupied Palestine. Israel exercises full control over 95% of the Jordan Valley – so-called Area C, prohibiting Palestinians from freely using their land. About 56,000 Palestinians live in the Jordan Valley and 9,500 Israeli settlers have established 37 settlements in the area.
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