Friday, December 11, 2009
Australia in two-night blitz on alcohol violence
Australia in two-night blitz on alcohol violence
| By Phil Mercer BBC News, Sydney |
 Although Australia has a drinking culture, people in the UK drink more |
Australian police are beginning their biggest coordinated operation to curb alcohol-related violence.
Operation Unite, deploying thousands of extra officers, will be the most widespread and concerted blitz in Australia and will last for two nights.
It is an attempt to send the message that excessive alcohol consumption and bad behaviour will not be tolerated.
Alcohol-related violence, including sexual assaults and fights, has nearly doubled in the past decade and a half.
Drinking age calls
A wave of intoxication has spread, especially over the young, due in large part to liberal licensing laws and a deep-seated culture of drinking.
This weekend police will flood into towns and cities in an unprecedented show of force.
 |  Our casual approach to drinking in our society is actually destroying lives and destroying people  Alan Morrison, New South Wales Ambulance Service |
Undercover officers will join their uniformed colleagues along with dog squads and mounted units.
Each week the abuse of alcohol kills on average more than 60 Australians, while 1,500 end up in hospital.
Alan Morrison from the New South Wales Ambulance Service says what he calls an epidemic of self-destruction must be addressed.
"There certainly is a cultural acceptance of drinking in Australia and I'm not sure I understand why that is the case.
"I see the effects of it all the time and I think most people don't come into contact with the kind of things paramedics or police or emergency departments see to understand that our casual approach to drinking in our society is actually destroying lives and destroying people", he said.
Health workers have called on the government to raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 19.
Neurological experts have warned that binge drinking could be inflicting untold damage on the brains of young Australians.
Although this country has always had a boozy reputation, it ranks about 20th in the global alcohol consumption league table.
People in Britain, for example, drink about 25% more than their Australian counterparts.
Steve Keen - 1 of 12 Economists who Predicted our Global Market Crash
Skip to the 12 minute mark. The man is amazing because he is what every economist should be. He's realistic in that he knows Free markets, also known as chaotic ones, have enough holes that we can't call ourselves true Capitalists. That's why he had the comment against Milton Friedman.
India to create new southern state of Telengana
India to create new southern state of Telengana
The Indian government is to allow a new state to be carved out of part of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said the process of forming Telangana state would begin soon. Campaigners say the region has long been neglected.
Supporters of the state are celebrating after days of violent protests. One of their leaders ended a hunger strike.
But many in India fear acceding to the protesters' wishes could fuel demands for other new states across India.
|   |
Dozens of Andhra Pradesh assembly members and at least one Indian MP with a seat in the state have announced they are resigning in protest at the move.
Analysts say the flurry of resignations, mostly from the governing Congress party, could lead to a political crisis in Andhra Pradesh.
Correspondents say Telangana state is likely to include one of India's major software hubs, Hyderabad.
The city, currently the Andhra Pradesh capital, is home to leading world companies in India like Microsoft and Google.
The government announcement came at midnight on Wednesday.
"The process of forming the state of Telangana will be initiated. An appropriate resolution will be moved in the state assembly," Mr Chidambaram said after talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.
| ANALYSIS  Sanjoy Majumder BBC News, Delhi Many are concerned that the move may open a Pandora's box. They fear that this will only fuel similar movements in other states and end up significantly redrawing the map of the country. Already one member of parliament from Andhra Pradesh has resigned in protest over the decision to create Telangana. The government appears to have given into the demands of protesters, particularly after the leader of the campaign became dangerously ill following a hunger strike to press home his point. It's clear this is not the last that has been heard on this volatile issue. |
On hearing the news, crowds in Hyderabad and nine other districts of Telangana erupted in celebration, reports the BBC's Omer Farooq in the state capital.
Mr Chidambaram said the government had asked for court cases against leaders, students and others "associated with the present agitation" to be dropped.
He also appealed to protesters to call off their demonstrations.
His announcement was greeted with jubilation among protesters, who let off fire crackers, beat drums, danced and sang songs.
Some of the celebrations took place outside the Hyderabad hospital where one of the campaign leaders, K Chandrasekara Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) party, had been admitted during his fast.
Mr Rao said: "I am happy that this is the victory of 35 million people who live in the Telangana region."
Protest rallies seeking a separate state planned for Thursday were called off.
Thousands of police had been deployed for the rallies, but after Mr Chidambaram's announcement security was relaxed, our correspondent says.
Long campaign
Telangana region is spread over 10 northern districts of Andhra Pradesh.
| INDIA'S NEWEST STATE Population of 35 million Formed from 10 districts of Andhra Pradesh, including city of Hyderabad Landlocked, predominantly agricultural area One of the most under-developed regions in India Culmination of 50-year campaign More than 400 people died in 1969 crackdown |
The demand for separate state status for the underdeveloped and drought-prone area dates back 50 years.
More than 400 people died in violence over the demand for a Telangana state in 1969.
Campaigners say Telangana's economic development has been neglected in favour of the richer and more powerful Andhra region - and that a new state is the only solution.
The last three new states in India were formed in 2000: Chhattisgarh was created out of eastern Madhya Pradesh; Uttarakhand was created out of the hilly areas of northern Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand was carved from Bihar's southern districts.
India currently has 28 states.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Egypt starts building steel wall on Gaza Strip border
Egypt starts building steel wall on Gaza Strip border
| By Christian Fraser BBC News, Cairo |
 There are thought to be hundreds of tunnels along the border |
Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels, the BBC has learned.
When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 metres below the surface.
The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers, who the BBC understands have designed the wall.
The plan has been shrouded in secrecy, with no comment or confirmation from the Egyptian government.
The wall will take 18 months to complete.
For weeks local farmers have noticed more activity at the border where trees were being cut down, but very few of them were aware that a barrier was being built.
'Impenetrable'
That is because the barrier, made of super-strength steel, has been hidden deep underground.
The BBC has been told that it was manufactured in the US, that it fits together in similar fashion to a jigsaw, and that it has been tested to ensure it is bomb proof.
It cannot be cut or melted - in short it is impenetrable.
Intelligence sources in Egypt say the barrier is being sunk close to the perimeter wall that already exists.
They claim 4km of the wall has already been completed north of the Rafah crossing, with work now beginning to the south.
The land beneath Egypt and Gaza resembles a Swiss cheese, full of holes and tunnels through which the Palestinians smuggle the everyday items they are denied by the blockade.
But the Israelis say the tunnels are also used to smuggle people, weapons, and the components of the rockets that are fired at southern Israeli towns.
The wall is not expected to stop all the smuggling, but it will force the Palestinians to go deeper and it will likely cut the hundreds of superficial tunnels closer to the surface that are used to move the bulk of the goods.
China activist in for long haul at Tokyo airport
China activist in for long haul at Tokyo airport
A Chinese human rights activist, denied entry to his homeland, has been living in the arrivals section of Tokyo's Narita Airport for more than a month, in a real life version of the Hollywood film, the Terminal.
The BBC's Tokyo correspondent, Roland Buerk, went to meet Feng Zhenghu.
 Feng Zhenghu is a Chinese citizen but has not been allowed to enter China |
All day long and well into the night, planes land at Narita airport.
It is the busiest hub in Japan, full of passengers hurrying to their final destinations.
But amid the bustle one man stands still and alone.
Feng Zhenghu is going nowhere.
Described by Amnesty International as a prominent "human rights defender" he has been blocked from returning home to China.
Four times airlines refused to let him board a plane.
On four occasions he got as far as Shanghai airport - only to be swiftly dispatched back to Japan.
The last time round the 55-year-old decided enough was enough and set up camp in Narita, outside Tokyo.
"The thing I want to do now is go to my country and go back home," he said. "That is the only thing I want."
Unlikely celebrity
For more than a month Feng Zhenghu has been living in a no man's land, stuck between the arrivals gates and passport control in Terminal 1.
| It's very difficult because people stare at me as though I'm a beggar... I feel ashamed Feng Zhenghu |
Tens of thousands of people who pass through the airport every day see him.
He wears a t-shirt with details of his plight written on it in English.
Another, in Mandarin, is stretched over his suitcase as a kind of portable protest banner.
He has turned into something of an unlikely celebrity, so some stop to pose for pictures.
Although Feng Zhenghu says he has never seen it he agrees his situation is rather like the Hollywood film The Terminal.
Conditions are far worse for him, he says, than the character played by Tom Hanks, who was in a departure lounge with a food court and shops to roam.
 Narita is Japan's busiest airport |
Every other passenger passes through Narita's arrivals area in minutes, so there are no restaurants, in fact no facilities at all.
Feng Zhenghu survives on handouts.
"Passengers who get off flights give me food, so I have enough," he says, pointing to a hold-all full of sweets, biscuits and noodles.
"But I can't sleep very well. Only at 11 or midnight can I go to sleep because that's when flights stop coming in. But I can't sleep beyond 0500 because that's when flights start arriving.
"There's no shower, no bath. It's very difficult because people stare at me as though I'm a beggar. It's very, very difficult. It's very hard to endure psychologically. I feel ashamed."
Long wait
Equipped with a mobile phone and laptop he is keeping in touch with the outside world by blogging and tweeting.
Feng Zhenghu has a valid Japanese visa in his Chinese passport so the airport authorities could force him to leave the building, but so far they have chosen not to.
Even though he does not speak much Japanese, staff at the airport say they have grown fond of their uninvited guest.
"He's my friend, he's a friend to all of us," said Yoshiyuki Kurita. "He's been here more than 30 days. I want him to understand his situation and to enter Japan willingly."
But Feng Zhenghu hopes his solitary purgatory in so public a place will persuade the Chinese government to let him go home.
And he says he is prepared to wait for as long as it takes.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
When doing nothing is an option
When doing nothing is an option
| A POINT OF VIEW |
Living in a democracy can be trying, says Clive James in his weekly column. Until you think of the alternatives.
In my share of these columns I've placed a lot of emphasis on democracy, and on how it can never be a perfect system, but by the mere fact that no tyrant or oligarchy can ever count on remaining in power unchallenged, democracy can hope to avoid some of the abuses that even less perfect systems are guaranteed to generate.
As somebody once said - I think it was Winston Churchill, but it could have been my Uncle Harold - democracy is the worst political system you can imagine, except for all the others. If it was Uncle Harold, it was generous of him to say this, because during the Great Depression he spent a lot of time out of work. Some of the competing political systems sounded quite persuasive in that period, but Uncle Harold didn't like the sound of a lot of people all shouting at once.
| FIND OUT MORE...  A Point of View is on Fridays on Radio 4 at 2050 GMT Or listen to it here later |
He himself was a man of few words. When I was very small the longest speech I ever heard from him was "Go away". After he came back from the war he sat down on the back veranda and spent 30 years reading the papers. He only ever got up to go and vote, and if voting hadn't been compulsory in Australia he wouldn't even have done that.
He was the living refutation of the fond idea that democracy should be participatory. The first duty of a government, in his view, was to leave people alone. More than half a century later I feel the same way myself. My last sparks of fiery radicalism have long been quenched. Privately I define democracy as that political system which leaves me free not to care about it. About that, I care passionately.
Boom to bust
The first trouble with my view of democracy is that it tends to sound complacent. When the dizzy level of greed which is free to operate in the democratic countries leads to something as ridiculous as the so-called bonus culture in which bankers are rewarded for gambling with your money, and then the banks are bailed out with more of your money so that they can re-establish the very same bonus culture while they gamble with your money all over again, it does sound complacent to say: yes, it looks bad, but it would be even worse if there were no democratically elected government to intervene. The government did intervene, and look what happened.
 Workers toil to build another skyscraper in Dubai |
But think what might have happened if it hadn't intervened at all. Last week, Dubai hit the economic buffers largely because it was one vast playground for the rich that had no other asset except the virtual slave labour of the workers who built it. Will there be any government agency in Dubai to get those workers home to the countries they left in the doomed hope that Dubai would make them less poor? Probably not.
A democracy would feel obliged to at least make noises about doing something to ease the suffering, and almost certainly it would never have allowed a situation in the first place by which workers would have toiled all day with 15 minutes for lunch. There would have been questions in parliament, and the lunch break would have been extended to 30 minutes.
At almost the same moment in history as Dubai's debt crisis mounted, the American film star Nicholas Cage went broke too. He went broke because he had bought too many castles, too many yachts, too many cars, too many everything. He was a one-man Dubai, but that was the point: he was just one man. In a liberal democracy he was free to go mad with his cheque book but he couldn't turn himself into a whole city and hire builders to slave all day trying to earn their passports back.
Even in the supposedly unchecked Darwinian struggle of American capitalism, there are mechanisms in place, as the modern saying goes, to ensure that the collapse of Nicholas Cage injures only those people who were left holding his IOUs. There won't be a shanty town of indentured labourers who worked for nearly nothing and now have nothing at all.
 Mr James is not a fan |
Nobody will be left desperate by the career of Nicholas Cage except those who have been unfortunate enough to see his movies, in all of which he pops his eyes with his wet mouth half open, looking exactly like a man who wants to buy Windsor castle and employ the tenants as ground staff. A Western liberal democracy has institutions that limit damage.
But just by saying that, I edge into a second stage of complacency that I have to watch out for, and we all have to watch out for. They have to be the right institutions. Many of them grow automatically, by the operation of the free market, but some of the most vital of them have to be imposed. In fact that's what a democratic government does: it intervenes in the free market for the benefit of all.
Publish or be damned
The intervention, however, sometimes defeats its object. As the apocryphal Hollywood producer once said, "There'll be a meeting Monday to delete the improvements." There is a new, or revised, institution on the way which already has many good people in our universities worried about how it might turn out.
 Turing developed this device to decode Germany's wartime messages |
The present system of allocating university funds to support research has been known, for the last 20 years, as the RAE, standing for Research Assessment Exercises: more than one exercise because there have been several systems, all of which have been troublesome enough, because they have all laid great stress on the number of publications per member of staff, which led to the possibility that staff members might be thought of as not performing if they weren't publishing.
If that system had been operating in the time of the Cambridge mathematician Alan Turing, for example, he might have been thought of as a drag on the funding of his department because he had produced only one paper. His work eventually led to the code-breaking triumph at Bletchley Park and the development of the computer, but not even he knew that at the time, and if he had had to spend much time explaining to the assessment board what he was on about he might never have got his work done.
The cumbersome RAE system is now to be streamlined but there is a question of whether the improvements might not lead to paralysis, especially in the humanities. The new system will be called the REF, standing for Research Excellence Framework. Excellence is always a bad word in such a context because it presupposes the result at which it aims, but there are stronger reasons than that for being suspicious.
 Universities offer time to think |
Under the new system, a quarter of the rating scores which will affect the funding will be awarded for "impact", meaning a verifiable effect of the research in the outside world. Traditionally the humanities have defined themselves as those learned activities which are pursued for their own sake, but pursuing them for impact is plainly something else.
As Stefan Collini outlines in a recent issue of the Times Literary Supplement, impact could be achieved when you write a scholarly work about a secondary 19th Century Scottish poet and someone decides to make a TV programme about him. But you score for impact only if you yourself, or a representative of your department, makes the contact with the television producer. It isn't enough to wait for the outside world to find you. You have to market your work in what the new guidelines (another bad word) call the wider economy and society (five more bad words).
Thinking allowed
The philosopher Wittgenstein often turns up in these columns because when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge he was my ideal example of what a thinker should be.
 Seat of learning |
When he was teaching at Cambridge he made zero impact in this new sense. Even under the outgoing Research Assessment system he would have been a liability to his department, because he published only one philosophical book in his lifetime. The book was the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and it had a huge influence in the long run, but it might not have scored many funding points after he told the assessment board they were a bunch of dummies. He wasn't just incapable of diplomacy, he disapproved of it.
If he were teaching now under the incoming Research Excellence system he would be a disaster for his department. You couldn't imagine him making contact with a television producer and saying "Look, I've got this terrific idea for a programme about a man obsessed with language and it's perfect for Daniel Day Lewis."
At PR, Wittgenstein would have been hopeless.
But that was just what I liked about him. It was what I liked about all the dons, even the crazy ones. There was one guy who was given a fellowship in about 1923 and spent the rest of his life walking around town with a bundle of newspapers under his arm. But that was the price a great university was willing to pay for extending to its scholars the freedom to pursue an interest for its own sake.
In the years I spent pretending to study for a PhD, I would sit in the Copper Kettle cafe opposite King's College and read Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. Occasionally I would look up to make a philosophical investigation of a passing undergraduette.
Then I looked down again to puzzle at another brilliantly compressed paragraph. Wittgenstein was having his impact, and it was an impact that couldn't be measured. A university is, or should be, a place where you can't yet tell what will be useful to the outside world, because it deals with the inside world, the most inside of all worlds, the mind.
For all I know, that was what my Uncle Harold was doing. He had done his time in the outside world, fighting for democracy against Japanese soldiers on the Kokoda trail, and now he was gazing within.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Commentary
Although this article takes random twists and turns and looses it's key idea, it brings up a lot of important points. I wish maybe he had written 2 or 3 different articles instead of jumbling them together like this. Regardless it's still worth the read because important topics are mentioned and it provokes thought.