Apparently, we're got basketball news today. Because professional basketball is totally... a thing... that I watch.
Philadelphia 76ers first-round draft pick Nikola Vucevic, who hails from Montenegro and went to USC, signed on Thursday a one-year deal to play for a club in his home nation, KK Buducnost Podgorica. He is the second draft pick to do so, and the first of the first-round picks.
Like many NBA players overseas, Vucevic would much rather be playing in the NBA. But with the lockout in place, that's not an option, so what he and a lot of other NBA players have gotten in their overseas deals is a clause that says as soon as the lockout ends and the NBA is up and running again- whenever that is- the players can immediately break their overseas contracts and go back to the NBA, no hard feelings. The overseas clubs are taking it as the unique, one-time opportunity that it is.
Some more than others. Grantland's Rafe Batholomew wrote in July about how the Philippines, a nation where basketball is the de facto national sport, managed to gather an A-list roster of NBA stars, including Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, Chris Paul and Kevin Durant, for a pair of exhibition games.
Vucevic and fellow Montenegran Nikola Pekovic (of the Minnesota Timberwolves but, for now, signed with Serbia's Partizan Belgrade for the balance of the lockout) will, meanwhile, be representing their country at Eurobasket 2011, the European championship for national teams, which begins on Wednesday in Lithuania and will involve some 28 NBA players in total, with a lot more having their rights held by some NBA team or other should they decide to play there. It will double as Olympic qualifying, and may be the last semi-meaningful basketball that fans are going to get for a while.
For the first time, 24 countries will participate instead of the usual 16. This decision was reached after qualifying had started, and in essence means everybody who participated in qualifying ended up going to Eurobasket. (Except Hungary. Everybody laugh at Hungary.) Montenegro did not need any of the additional qualifying spots; they won their qualifying group and would have gone through anyway.
The more marquee players involved in Eurobasket: Joakim Noah and Tony Parker (France), Zaza Pachulia (Georgia), Chris Kaman and Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), Luol Deng (Great Britain), Danilo Gallinari (Italy), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia), Pau Gasol and Ricky Rubio (Spain), and Hedo Turkoglu (Turkey).
Montenegro has been drawn into Group C, which is sure to be highly contentious, as alongside them are Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, and Finland, who must be wondering why it had to get drawn into this neighborhood. The only other component of the former Yugoslavia to be in the tournament is Serbia, who would have replaced Greece had they been drawn into the group. Serbia instead sits in Group B with Italy, France, Germany, Israel and Latvia. Pre-tournament favorite Spain is in Group A alongside host Lithuania, Portugal, Great Britain, Turkey and Poland. Group D contains Russia, Georgia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Slovenia.
Showing posts with label rng. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rng. Show all posts
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Random News Generator- Burundi
Burundi is one of the poorest nations on Earth, having been repeatedly devastated by civil war. They have seen two genocides between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnicities. In 1972, Tutsis killed Hutus. In 1994, Hutus killed Tutsis in something of an extension of the more well-known genocide going on in Rwanda around the same time. Both of the 1994 genocides were set off by the same event, that being the shooting down of a plane containing the presidents of both nations, both Hutu.
The bulk of the violence only ceased in 2006, though even then, one splinter group, the National Liberation Front (a Hutu group), continued to fight for two more years. Burundi has since turned its attention to rebuilding the smoking crater that has become their home. In terms of GDP per capita, they rank ahead of only DR Congo.
Among the mediators who helped broker peace, or at least tried to, was current South African president Jacob Zuma. Zuma wrapped up a three-day return to Burundi on Friday in which the two signed an economic pact. The scope of the pact seems to be fairly comprehensive, with various articles on the topic mentioning cooperation in agriculture, defense, education, energy, finance, infrastructure, sports (Times Live mentions South Africa sending 3,000 soccer balls), transportation and tourism.
Zuma was also called upon to help soothe once-again-rising tensions in Burundi before they degenerate into another war. Last year, Pierre Nkurunziza was re-elected president with 91% of the vote (and without opposition) after the opposition claimed it to be a rigged election and boycotted. Much of that opposition has since fled the country or went underground.
The chief opponent: Agathon Rwasa of the National Liberation Front.
Zuma, however, declined to get involved this time. Hopefully, someone will.
The bulk of the violence only ceased in 2006, though even then, one splinter group, the National Liberation Front (a Hutu group), continued to fight for two more years. Burundi has since turned its attention to rebuilding the smoking crater that has become their home. In terms of GDP per capita, they rank ahead of only DR Congo.
Among the mediators who helped broker peace, or at least tried to, was current South African president Jacob Zuma. Zuma wrapped up a three-day return to Burundi on Friday in which the two signed an economic pact. The scope of the pact seems to be fairly comprehensive, with various articles on the topic mentioning cooperation in agriculture, defense, education, energy, finance, infrastructure, sports (Times Live mentions South Africa sending 3,000 soccer balls), transportation and tourism.
Zuma was also called upon to help soothe once-again-rising tensions in Burundi before they degenerate into another war. Last year, Pierre Nkurunziza was re-elected president with 91% of the vote (and without opposition) after the opposition claimed it to be a rigged election and boycotted. Much of that opposition has since fled the country or went underground.
The chief opponent: Agathon Rwasa of the National Liberation Front.
Zuma, however, declined to get involved this time. Hopefully, someone will.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Random News Generator- Afghanistan
I think we're all rather well-acquainted with the minor little squabbles in Afghanistan. So let's just hop right in.
In Helmand Province, roadside bombs killed 23 people yesterday- 19 from a minibus and four from a tractor. The number was difficult to ascertain due to the damage to the minibus, and also because when security officials arrived on the scene for cleanup, they were attacked by Taliban forces.
This comes one day after an attack by suicide bombers in Uruzgan province that killed 19 people- 12 of them children- and wounded 35. Statistically, the current situation is the deadliest things have been for civilians since the war began a decade ago.
Things are also more deadly for donkeys. No. Really. Afghanistan is now seeing donkey-based IED's. The exact details have quickly fallen victim to urban legend and the telephone game, ranging from simply strapping bombs to them like you would any other suicide bomber to having "shoved explosives into a place no living donkey would ever tolerate," but one way or another, donkeys are being loaded up with bombs and sent on their merry way. The soldiers seeing them in action can do little but laugh, because it's really either that or go crazy worrying about it.
As far as soldiers returning home, according to the terms of a class-action lawsuit, over 1,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are set to receive PTSD benefits that were previously denied them. When you're diagnosed with PTSD, long story short, you're sent home. That happened with the veterans in the settlement. However, they were denied PTSD benefits because the military did not assign them at least a 50% disability rating. That was the basis of the class-action, which also affects several thousand more veterans who will now see their benefits go up. (Debt ceiling notwithstanding, of course.)
And finally, along those same lines, a press release from the Department of Defense announces $60 million in new grants designed to prevent veteran homelessness. The grants are being handed out to 85 organizations in 40 states and the District of Columbia.
Among the grants:
*$600,000 to Housing First, Inc., Mobile, AL.
*$753,399 to Shelter Network, Burlingame, CA.
*$100,000 to PATH Achieve Glendale, Glendale, CA.
*$730,000 to Shelter, Inc., Martinez, CA.
*$610,000 to Catholic Charities Hawaii, Honolulu, HI.
*$639,000 to United Way of Central Indiana, Indianapolis, IN.
*$1 million to Veterans Inc., Worcester, MA.
*$999,559 to Southwest Counseling Solutions, Detroit, MI.
*$590,928 to Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, Wyandotte, MI.
*$1 million to Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, St. Paul, MN.
*$574,651 to Goodwill Industries of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
*$124,999 to St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, Eugene, OR.
*$1 million to Crisis Ministries, Charleston, SC.
*$684,000 to Opportunity Council, Bellingham, WA.
*$507,000 to Community Psychiatric Clinic of Seattle, Seattle, WA.
*$1 million to Center for Veterans Issues, Milwaukee, WI.
In Helmand Province, roadside bombs killed 23 people yesterday- 19 from a minibus and four from a tractor. The number was difficult to ascertain due to the damage to the minibus, and also because when security officials arrived on the scene for cleanup, they were attacked by Taliban forces.
This comes one day after an attack by suicide bombers in Uruzgan province that killed 19 people- 12 of them children- and wounded 35. Statistically, the current situation is the deadliest things have been for civilians since the war began a decade ago.
Things are also more deadly for donkeys. No. Really. Afghanistan is now seeing donkey-based IED's. The exact details have quickly fallen victim to urban legend and the telephone game, ranging from simply strapping bombs to them like you would any other suicide bomber to having "shoved explosives into a place no living donkey would ever tolerate," but one way or another, donkeys are being loaded up with bombs and sent on their merry way. The soldiers seeing them in action can do little but laugh, because it's really either that or go crazy worrying about it.
As far as soldiers returning home, according to the terms of a class-action lawsuit, over 1,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are set to receive PTSD benefits that were previously denied them. When you're diagnosed with PTSD, long story short, you're sent home. That happened with the veterans in the settlement. However, they were denied PTSD benefits because the military did not assign them at least a 50% disability rating. That was the basis of the class-action, which also affects several thousand more veterans who will now see their benefits go up. (Debt ceiling notwithstanding, of course.)
And finally, along those same lines, a press release from the Department of Defense announces $60 million in new grants designed to prevent veteran homelessness. The grants are being handed out to 85 organizations in 40 states and the District of Columbia.
Among the grants:
*$600,000 to Housing First, Inc., Mobile, AL.
*$753,399 to Shelter Network, Burlingame, CA.
*$100,000 to PATH Achieve Glendale, Glendale, CA.
*$730,000 to Shelter, Inc., Martinez, CA.
*$610,000 to Catholic Charities Hawaii, Honolulu, HI.
*$639,000 to United Way of Central Indiana, Indianapolis, IN.
*$1 million to Veterans Inc., Worcester, MA.
*$999,559 to Southwest Counseling Solutions, Detroit, MI.
*$590,928 to Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, Wyandotte, MI.
*$1 million to Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, St. Paul, MN.
*$574,651 to Goodwill Industries of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
*$124,999 to St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, Eugene, OR.
*$1 million to Crisis Ministries, Charleston, SC.
*$684,000 to Opportunity Council, Bellingham, WA.
*$507,000 to Community Psychiatric Clinic of Seattle, Seattle, WA.
*$1 million to Center for Veterans Issues, Milwaukee, WI.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Random News Generator- Guatemala
Well, we should probably start with the lady who had a sinkhole open up under her bed. That happened in Guatemala City. As the linked article states, while sinkholes can happen anywhere, lots of rain and volcanic deposits make Guatemala City particularly susceptible. Eight sinkholes from the past couple years are given with the article; two of them are in Guatemala City.
How do you fix a sinkhole? There are a couple different techniques, which alternately involve dumping a whole bunch of rock into the hole, and shoring up the foundation followed by dumping a whole bunch of rock into the hole.
Alternately, you probably know that some illegal immigration into the United States originates from south of Mexico. We've already covered that here. That, of course, includes Guatemala, one of Mexico's neighbors. So today's RNG will be used to tell you that in addition to hiking, swimming, car trunks, tunnels, speedboats, trains of death and drug submarines, not to mention overstayed visas that came over with everybody else, the new mode of transportation in play in the illegal-immigration game is: zip lines.
How do you fix a sinkhole? There are a couple different techniques, which alternately involve dumping a whole bunch of rock into the hole, and shoring up the foundation followed by dumping a whole bunch of rock into the hole.
Alternately, you probably know that some illegal immigration into the United States originates from south of Mexico. We've already covered that here. That, of course, includes Guatemala, one of Mexico's neighbors. So today's RNG will be used to tell you that in addition to hiking, swimming, car trunks, tunnels, speedboats, trains of death and drug submarines, not to mention overstayed visas that came over with everybody else, the new mode of transportation in play in the illegal-immigration game is: zip lines.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Random News Generator- Germany
First off, yes, there's the Women's World Cup going on today. Earlier today North Korea lost 1-0 to Sweden, sending the Swedes through to the quarterfinals and eliminating the North Koreans with one game remaining for each in the group stage. The United States plays Colombia shortly; the Americans can advance with a win while a loss will eliminate Colombia.
Also confirmed to advance are France, Japan and host Germany. Confirmed as eliminated are Nigeria, Canada and New Zealand.
However, there is something else notable in Germany today: the formal end of their draft, with the final draftees being released from service on Thursday. West Germany instituted a draft in 1957, with the aim of tying the military more closely to society in general so that it wouldn't get any new bright ideas about world domination. Sometimes the period of required service was 18 months; in later years it was whittled down to six, and eventually, the memory and shame of Hitler and World War 2 just turned the Germans largely off of war entirely. The result has been a shrinking military, fewer campaigns abroad, and the end of the draft that we are now seeing.
Although the recession had something to do with it too.
Swapping to a volunteer force, though, may start causing another cultural echo chamber, as a disproportionally high number of volunteers come from the former East Germany. Lack of opportunity in civilian life leads some to enlist, just like in any other country with a volunteer army, and East Germany never really caught up with West Germany economically after the Cold War.
The move to abolish the draft has drawn opposition from, of all things, the nation's hospitals. With any draft, there will be conscientious objectors. Conscientious objectors are placed somewhere on the homefront where they can still be of use- for instance, a hospital. Or a kindergarten. Or an assisted-living facility. Those places, in turn, receive relatively cheap labor. That is the core of the objection: no objectors means no cheap labor, and no cheap labor means payroll costs go up. In addition, the objectors tend to be given the more basic, menial tasks, tasks that would then have to be reassigned to their regular employees, employees that have gotten used to concentrating on more critical tasks. Productivity, thus, would go down as well.
Jobs, however, would not be much of an issue. Germany is currently riding 24 consecutive months of falling unemployment, with the 7.0% unemployment rate the best Germany has seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall. If someone wants or needs that kind of work, there it is.
Also confirmed to advance are France, Japan and host Germany. Confirmed as eliminated are Nigeria, Canada and New Zealand.
However, there is something else notable in Germany today: the formal end of their draft, with the final draftees being released from service on Thursday. West Germany instituted a draft in 1957, with the aim of tying the military more closely to society in general so that it wouldn't get any new bright ideas about world domination. Sometimes the period of required service was 18 months; in later years it was whittled down to six, and eventually, the memory and shame of Hitler and World War 2 just turned the Germans largely off of war entirely. The result has been a shrinking military, fewer campaigns abroad, and the end of the draft that we are now seeing.
Although the recession had something to do with it too.
Swapping to a volunteer force, though, may start causing another cultural echo chamber, as a disproportionally high number of volunteers come from the former East Germany. Lack of opportunity in civilian life leads some to enlist, just like in any other country with a volunteer army, and East Germany never really caught up with West Germany economically after the Cold War.
The move to abolish the draft has drawn opposition from, of all things, the nation's hospitals. With any draft, there will be conscientious objectors. Conscientious objectors are placed somewhere on the homefront where they can still be of use- for instance, a hospital. Or a kindergarten. Or an assisted-living facility. Those places, in turn, receive relatively cheap labor. That is the core of the objection: no objectors means no cheap labor, and no cheap labor means payroll costs go up. In addition, the objectors tend to be given the more basic, menial tasks, tasks that would then have to be reassigned to their regular employees, employees that have gotten used to concentrating on more critical tasks. Productivity, thus, would go down as well.
Jobs, however, would not be much of an issue. Germany is currently riding 24 consecutive months of falling unemployment, with the 7.0% unemployment rate the best Germany has seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall. If someone wants or needs that kind of work, there it is.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Random News Generator- Latvia
Have you ever gotten a pop-up ad that launches into a virus scan you didn't ask for? Yeah, me too. I'll bet it found all sorts of nasty viruses and stuff in your computer, too, right? And then of course they'd offer some sort of antivirus software to fix all these problems you just found out about. Sometimes the ad is particularly persistent and reappears when you try to close the window.
In case you didn't already know, that pop-up ad is lying about all the viruses it found. The antivirus software that's being pushed on you? THAT'S a virus. It's known as scareware. It's a 21st-century version of those quack doctors that tell you you've got cancer, venereal disease, consumption, typhoid, dysentery, snakebite and broken leg all at the same time, and then they sell you a cure-all pill named after Dr. Somebody-or-Other that turns out to have mercury in it.
Due to the RNG landing on Latvia today, it is my pleasure to tell you that two international scareware rings that specialize in that kind of stunt have been rounded up by the FBI and US Department of Justice in a hunt called Operation Trident Tribunal. Trident Tribunal, aside from Latvia and the United States, has also involved Canada, Cyprus, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
One ring was a two-man operation consisting- allegedly- of 22-year-old Peteris Sahurovs and 23-year-old Marina Maslobojeva. If you regularly visit the site of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, you've run into them at some point. Sahurovs and Maslobojeva are accused of having created a fake ad agency and told the Star-Tribune they represented Best Western. Once accepted by the Star-Tribune, they swapped the original ads for Best Western out for ads that triggered scareware.
By doing this, Star-Tribune readers were allegedly bilked out of $2 million. If you have at some point purchased something called "Antivirus Soft" for $49.95 after visiting the Star-Tribune website, you've been conned.
The other ring, a much larger operation, raked in $72 million from some 960,000 victims who got taken for $129 each. Five different bank accounts were seized from this larger ring. Paradoxially, less info is available on this ring than on the two-man Latvian operation.
Granted, as long as the info is 'the scary antivirus ad people are going to go away now', you probably could care less how they go away.
In case you didn't already know, that pop-up ad is lying about all the viruses it found. The antivirus software that's being pushed on you? THAT'S a virus. It's known as scareware. It's a 21st-century version of those quack doctors that tell you you've got cancer, venereal disease, consumption, typhoid, dysentery, snakebite and broken leg all at the same time, and then they sell you a cure-all pill named after Dr. Somebody-or-Other that turns out to have mercury in it.
Due to the RNG landing on Latvia today, it is my pleasure to tell you that two international scareware rings that specialize in that kind of stunt have been rounded up by the FBI and US Department of Justice in a hunt called Operation Trident Tribunal. Trident Tribunal, aside from Latvia and the United States, has also involved Canada, Cyprus, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
One ring was a two-man operation consisting- allegedly- of 22-year-old Peteris Sahurovs and 23-year-old Marina Maslobojeva. If you regularly visit the site of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, you've run into them at some point. Sahurovs and Maslobojeva are accused of having created a fake ad agency and told the Star-Tribune they represented Best Western. Once accepted by the Star-Tribune, they swapped the original ads for Best Western out for ads that triggered scareware.
By doing this, Star-Tribune readers were allegedly bilked out of $2 million. If you have at some point purchased something called "Antivirus Soft" for $49.95 after visiting the Star-Tribune website, you've been conned.
The other ring, a much larger operation, raked in $72 million from some 960,000 victims who got taken for $129 each. Five different bank accounts were seized from this larger ring. Paradoxially, less info is available on this ring than on the two-man Latvian operation.
Granted, as long as the info is 'the scary antivirus ad people are going to go away now', you probably could care less how they go away.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
RNG Week- Congo-Brazzaville
We close out RNG Week in Congo-Brazzaville, where today, leaders from 32 countries in the Amazon, Congo and Borneo-Mekong forest basins wrapped up a weeklong conference on deforestation. The three regions combined contain 40% of the world's forest-held carbon and 80% of rainforests.
Over the course of the conference, they agreed to a declaration recognizing it as a priority and noted the need to be able to access international funding; however, a concrete coordinated plan eluded them. This is more than they expected going in, though, and there will be more opportunities to construct that plan. Further meetings are set for South Africa in December and for Brazil next year.
The international funding is key. Despite pledges from more developed nations of monetary support, the nations at the summit were in agreement that the money wasn't actually reaching them. As a result, despite deforestation having dropped by a quarter over the last 10 years, 5.4 million hectares a year are still being lost, mostly to farmland. (That's 13.34 million acres.)
Congo-Brazzaville itself, for its part, is intending to plant one million hectares of trees- 2.47 million acres- by 2020. They have also banned the use of plastic bags.
If you're so inclined to help get trees in the ground, whether in the rainforest or elsewhere, suggested on this end is the Arbor Day Foundation. The default status of a donation is to plant new trees within the United States; however, they also do rainforest-preservation donations. If you're in Canada, Tree Canada plants domestically; and Great Britain's Plant A Tree Today Foundation primarily plants in Southeast Asia.
Of course, without sustainable development, those trees will come right back down, so:
For South America, try the Amazon Conservation Team.
For Africa, try the Clinton Foundation.
For Southeast Asia, try the World Wildlife Federation.
Over the course of the conference, they agreed to a declaration recognizing it as a priority and noted the need to be able to access international funding; however, a concrete coordinated plan eluded them. This is more than they expected going in, though, and there will be more opportunities to construct that plan. Further meetings are set for South Africa in December and for Brazil next year.
The international funding is key. Despite pledges from more developed nations of monetary support, the nations at the summit were in agreement that the money wasn't actually reaching them. As a result, despite deforestation having dropped by a quarter over the last 10 years, 5.4 million hectares a year are still being lost, mostly to farmland. (That's 13.34 million acres.)
Congo-Brazzaville itself, for its part, is intending to plant one million hectares of trees- 2.47 million acres- by 2020. They have also banned the use of plastic bags.
If you're so inclined to help get trees in the ground, whether in the rainforest or elsewhere, suggested on this end is the Arbor Day Foundation. The default status of a donation is to plant new trees within the United States; however, they also do rainforest-preservation donations. If you're in Canada, Tree Canada plants domestically; and Great Britain's Plant A Tree Today Foundation primarily plants in Southeast Asia.
Of course, without sustainable development, those trees will come right back down, so:
For South America, try the Amazon Conservation Team.
For Africa, try the Clinton Foundation.
For Southeast Asia, try the World Wildlife Federation.
Friday, June 3, 2011
RNG Week- Turkey
TODAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
Protesters in 30 cities throughout Turkey marched through the streets in mid-May in opposition to a proposed law that would censor Internet sites displaying pornography, violent content or bomb-making tutorials. The proposed law would require every Internet user to sign up for one of four filters: a 'standard' filter, a 'family' filter, a 'children's' filter, a 'domestic' filter (this last one blocks all non-Turkish websites).
I was going to go on, but then realized you are necessarily an Internet user, and thus, you have probably filled in most of the rest yourself. Deutsche Welle has by far the best write-up on the details. Of course, you know how the Internet works. (You are not Turkish. Turkey blocked Blogger in March over the unauthorized distribution of soccer games. Which of course means I'm now free to call them anything I want and imply I have slept with all of their mothers and they can't do anything about it. But that would be wrong.)
The major problem in Turkey is that a lot of them don't know how the Internet works. We talked here last March about how in the 1995, Turkey was pulling a 70% literacy rate and as a result had problems with newspapers. The literacy rate now is 88.7%. While a big improvement, that's still only good for a rank of 104th worldwide. 70% now is the realm of sub-Saharan Africa.
When basic literacy is out of reach for one out of every eight Turks, Internet literacy is a tough, tough ask. When those in charge are ignorant of the Internet, they will do self-destructive things without realizing it. When average users are ignorant, they will go along with them.
And when those in charge actually do know how the Internet works, and the public at large does not, that opens up the potential for abuse.
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
Protesters in 30 cities throughout Turkey marched through the streets in mid-May in opposition to a proposed law that would censor Internet sites displaying pornography, violent content or bomb-making tutorials. The proposed law would require every Internet user to sign up for one of four filters: a 'standard' filter, a 'family' filter, a 'children's' filter, a 'domestic' filter (this last one blocks all non-Turkish websites).
I was going to go on, but then realized you are necessarily an Internet user, and thus, you have probably filled in most of the rest yourself. Deutsche Welle has by far the best write-up on the details. Of course, you know how the Internet works. (You are not Turkish. Turkey blocked Blogger in March over the unauthorized distribution of soccer games. Which of course means I'm now free to call them anything I want and imply I have slept with all of their mothers and they can't do anything about it. But that would be wrong.)
The major problem in Turkey is that a lot of them don't know how the Internet works. We talked here last March about how in the 1995, Turkey was pulling a 70% literacy rate and as a result had problems with newspapers. The literacy rate now is 88.7%. While a big improvement, that's still only good for a rank of 104th worldwide. 70% now is the realm of sub-Saharan Africa.
When basic literacy is out of reach for one out of every eight Turks, Internet literacy is a tough, tough ask. When those in charge are ignorant of the Internet, they will do self-destructive things without realizing it. When average users are ignorant, they will go along with them.
And when those in charge actually do know how the Internet works, and the public at large does not, that opens up the potential for abuse.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
RNG Week- Gibraltar
TODAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
Gibraltar is reeling from an incident on Tuesday when a fuel tank exploded at a waste treatment facility on the port's north mole at about 3:30 PM local time.
Right next to the affected tank was a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Independence of the Seas, carrying 3,892 passengers. 12 of those passengers received medical attention on board, most with minor burns. Two passengers were on shore; neither was injured. The ship pulled away from the dock immediately upon the explosion sans the passengers on shore, then headed to its next stop of Cannes, France. The two passengers will be looked after by Royal Caribbean until they can rejoin the ship.
(AP Photo/Alicia Jimenez)
Two workers who were doing welding work were injured. Both are Spanish nationals. One, age 40, was hospitalized in Seville with life-threatening burns covering 70% of his body. He remains in critical condition. The other, age 25, had minor burns.
The resulting fire took 14 hours to put out, being extinguished at 5 AM local time. Some oil made it into the Bay of Gibraltar and neighboring beaches; a cleanup operation is underway.
With the fire out, also underway is an investigation as to the cause of the blast. That as of right now remains uncertain, though preliminary speculation lies chiefly with a stray welding spark. According to Gibraltar's Chief Minister (effective head of state) Peter Caruana, "Once it was established there were welding operations going on, on top of the very tank at the time it exploded, that makes that a frontrunner for a likely explanation."
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
Gibraltar is reeling from an incident on Tuesday when a fuel tank exploded at a waste treatment facility on the port's north mole at about 3:30 PM local time.
Right next to the affected tank was a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Independence of the Seas, carrying 3,892 passengers. 12 of those passengers received medical attention on board, most with minor burns. Two passengers were on shore; neither was injured. The ship pulled away from the dock immediately upon the explosion sans the passengers on shore, then headed to its next stop of Cannes, France. The two passengers will be looked after by Royal Caribbean until they can rejoin the ship.
(AP Photo/Alicia Jimenez)Two workers who were doing welding work were injured. Both are Spanish nationals. One, age 40, was hospitalized in Seville with life-threatening burns covering 70% of his body. He remains in critical condition. The other, age 25, had minor burns.
The resulting fire took 14 hours to put out, being extinguished at 5 AM local time. Some oil made it into the Bay of Gibraltar and neighboring beaches; a cleanup operation is underway.
With the fire out, also underway is an investigation as to the cause of the blast. That as of right now remains uncertain, though preliminary speculation lies chiefly with a stray welding spark. According to Gibraltar's Chief Minister (effective head of state) Peter Caruana, "Once it was established there were welding operations going on, on top of the very tank at the time it exploded, that makes that a frontrunner for a likely explanation."
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
RNG Week- Liberia
TODAY: Liberia
THURSDAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
Liberia's history has been mired in violence and bloodshed, dating back to when the country was first christened as such. When slaves in the United States were freed in the wake of the Civil War, some crossed the Atlantic to settle in Africa and declare the foundation of Liberia. They called themselves Americo-Liberians.
Two problems emerged, though. First, these particular people arriving in Africa had never seen Africa before. Slavery had gone on long enough to where everybody had been born on the American side of the Atlantic. Second, nobody told the actual locals that the people just off the boat were their new rulers.
And the Americo-Liberians ruled the only way they knew: total domination. The Americo-Liberians comprised 5% of the population of Liberia, yet were the only people with voting rights. They built residences that resembled Southern plantations. In 1878, they instituted one-party rule.
Eventually, slavery itself would take hold. The very thing Liberia was created to celebrate against. It continues to this day.
The native Liberians would not wait nearly as long as the Americo-Liberians had to start rebelling. Riots, uprisings and wars would be repeatedly waged until 1980, when the Americo-Liberians were dislodged.
This did not quell the violence even a little bit. By 1989, civil war had kicked off once again; two consecutive wars would take the country into 2003. Only since then has the country even begun to move away from its unending cycle of bloodshed, though the fundamental issue of slavery persists.
Part of the recovery process involves how to account for all those wounded by war, including those who have lost limbs.
This brings us to the Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football, the third edition, which Liberia is scheduled to participate in during October. They are the defending champions, having won on home soil in 2008. This year's tournament, back after a two-year hiatus, is slated for Ghana, who won the inaugural 2007 tournament in Sierra Leone by beating Liberia in the final. Aside from Liberia and Ghana, Angola, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have confirmed their intent to participate. The organizers expect to also see Algeria, DR Congo, Kenya, Mali and South Africa in the field.
How does amputee soccer work? If you have one leg, you play in the field. If you have one arm, you play goalkeeper. The ball cannot touch an outfield player's crutch (no prosthetic limbs allowed) or a goalkeeper's arm stump. The goal is shrunk by half. More detailed rules are here.
Soccer gives the players hope. Employment in Liberia, as in many, many other developing countries, is difficult-to-impossible to find for people with missing limbs. A soccer tournament set aside specifically for amputees gives them a purpose. It gives them recognition. It also gives them a measure of needed respect. Amputees in Liberia, prior to the 2008 victory, were shunned. An amputee was, in the eyes of non-disabled Liberians, a former soldier, and therefore to blame for the nation's many years of misery and for all the people that died. If they suffered, they were seen to have deserved it. Amputees could not so much as get a taxi. With the prominence of the amputee soccer team, though, Liberia's amputees have slowly begun to be treated as people deserving of compassion as opposed to scorn.
How much prominence? In the Guardian article above, in January 2010, the amputee team was scrimmaging next to the club Invincible Eleven, a 13-time Liberian league champion and 15-time winner of the national cup competition. The amputees were drawing the larger crowd.
In addition to being inspiring, with the main Liberian league (in which Invincible Eleven currently lie 7th out of 20) trying to haphazardly sort out a 15-month league schedule this season, following the amputee team more closely may be the logical thing to do anyway.
THURSDAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
Liberia's history has been mired in violence and bloodshed, dating back to when the country was first christened as such. When slaves in the United States were freed in the wake of the Civil War, some crossed the Atlantic to settle in Africa and declare the foundation of Liberia. They called themselves Americo-Liberians.
Two problems emerged, though. First, these particular people arriving in Africa had never seen Africa before. Slavery had gone on long enough to where everybody had been born on the American side of the Atlantic. Second, nobody told the actual locals that the people just off the boat were their new rulers.
And the Americo-Liberians ruled the only way they knew: total domination. The Americo-Liberians comprised 5% of the population of Liberia, yet were the only people with voting rights. They built residences that resembled Southern plantations. In 1878, they instituted one-party rule.
Eventually, slavery itself would take hold. The very thing Liberia was created to celebrate against. It continues to this day.
The native Liberians would not wait nearly as long as the Americo-Liberians had to start rebelling. Riots, uprisings and wars would be repeatedly waged until 1980, when the Americo-Liberians were dislodged.
This did not quell the violence even a little bit. By 1989, civil war had kicked off once again; two consecutive wars would take the country into 2003. Only since then has the country even begun to move away from its unending cycle of bloodshed, though the fundamental issue of slavery persists.
Part of the recovery process involves how to account for all those wounded by war, including those who have lost limbs.
This brings us to the Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football, the third edition, which Liberia is scheduled to participate in during October. They are the defending champions, having won on home soil in 2008. This year's tournament, back after a two-year hiatus, is slated for Ghana, who won the inaugural 2007 tournament in Sierra Leone by beating Liberia in the final. Aside from Liberia and Ghana, Angola, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have confirmed their intent to participate. The organizers expect to also see Algeria, DR Congo, Kenya, Mali and South Africa in the field.
How does amputee soccer work? If you have one leg, you play in the field. If you have one arm, you play goalkeeper. The ball cannot touch an outfield player's crutch (no prosthetic limbs allowed) or a goalkeeper's arm stump. The goal is shrunk by half. More detailed rules are here.
Soccer gives the players hope. Employment in Liberia, as in many, many other developing countries, is difficult-to-impossible to find for people with missing limbs. A soccer tournament set aside specifically for amputees gives them a purpose. It gives them recognition. It also gives them a measure of needed respect. Amputees in Liberia, prior to the 2008 victory, were shunned. An amputee was, in the eyes of non-disabled Liberians, a former soldier, and therefore to blame for the nation's many years of misery and for all the people that died. If they suffered, they were seen to have deserved it. Amputees could not so much as get a taxi. With the prominence of the amputee soccer team, though, Liberia's amputees have slowly begun to be treated as people deserving of compassion as opposed to scorn.
How much prominence? In the Guardian article above, in January 2010, the amputee team was scrimmaging next to the club Invincible Eleven, a 13-time Liberian league champion and 15-time winner of the national cup competition. The amputees were drawing the larger crowd.
In addition to being inspiring, with the main Liberian league (in which Invincible Eleven currently lie 7th out of 20) trying to haphazardly sort out a 15-month league schedule this season, following the amputee team more closely may be the logical thing to do anyway.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
RNG Week- St. Helena
TODAY: St. Helena
WEDNESDAY: Liberia
THURSDAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
St. Helena is a small volcanic island in the South Atlantic that is home to fewer than 5,000 people. It's the place Napoleon spent the last six years of his life after Elba proved to be not far enough away from France.
Hopefully, you will forgive me for wishing Napoleon would rise from the dead overnight so there'd be something to cover here. This is not simple 'nothing happening that's worth covering'. This is the RNG sensing arrogance in my resolve to cover whatever it gives me without exception and smiting me with great vengeance. This is the RNG sensing arrogance in my having put a ball saying 'St. Helena' into the virtual bingo hopper in the first place.
The most recent St. Helena story available is from May 5, which you will recognize as nearly a month ago. The story is that two accountants from Sheffield, England were to travel to St. Helena to conduct an audit of Solomon and Company, a UK-registered business resident to the island.
That's it. That's the entire story. Two accountants are traveling somewhere so they can audit something. Your life is now complete.
There is, interestingly enough, a news organization for which St. Helena is part of the regular beat, as well as the other British islands in the South Atlantic. These include Ascension Island, British Antarctic Territory, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha. If it weren't for the Falklands, one imagines they might be playing Minesweeper all day long.
The most recent article about St. Helena they have on file in from April.
This is not me merely griping about a bad draw. This is actually representative of life on St. Helena, as the BBC reported in January 2010. A ship shows up once a month carrying supplies and groceries and everybody has to live off that until the next ship comes. Unless the ship is in for repairs, in which case there's no ship coming at all. The bandwidth for the entire island is less than some individual households in the UK. Anyone young enough to find employment on the mainland moves there the first chance they get.
In conclusion, Napoleon is buried in Paris.
WEDNESDAY: Liberia
THURSDAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
St. Helena is a small volcanic island in the South Atlantic that is home to fewer than 5,000 people. It's the place Napoleon spent the last six years of his life after Elba proved to be not far enough away from France.
Hopefully, you will forgive me for wishing Napoleon would rise from the dead overnight so there'd be something to cover here. This is not simple 'nothing happening that's worth covering'. This is the RNG sensing arrogance in my resolve to cover whatever it gives me without exception and smiting me with great vengeance. This is the RNG sensing arrogance in my having put a ball saying 'St. Helena' into the virtual bingo hopper in the first place.
The most recent St. Helena story available is from May 5, which you will recognize as nearly a month ago. The story is that two accountants from Sheffield, England were to travel to St. Helena to conduct an audit of Solomon and Company, a UK-registered business resident to the island.
That's it. That's the entire story. Two accountants are traveling somewhere so they can audit something. Your life is now complete.
There is, interestingly enough, a news organization for which St. Helena is part of the regular beat, as well as the other British islands in the South Atlantic. These include Ascension Island, British Antarctic Territory, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha. If it weren't for the Falklands, one imagines they might be playing Minesweeper all day long.
The most recent article about St. Helena they have on file in from April.
This is not me merely griping about a bad draw. This is actually representative of life on St. Helena, as the BBC reported in January 2010. A ship shows up once a month carrying supplies and groceries and everybody has to live off that until the next ship comes. Unless the ship is in for repairs, in which case there's no ship coming at all. The bandwidth for the entire island is less than some individual households in the UK. Anyone young enough to find employment on the mainland moves there the first chance they get.
In conclusion, Napoleon is buried in Paris.
Monday, May 30, 2011
RNG Week- Canada
TODAY: Canada
TUESDAY: St. Helena
WEDNESDAY: Liberia
THURSDAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
Canada, today, is seeing a campaign to make 43,000 square kilometers of Manitoba/Ontario boreal forest east of Lake Winnipeg, the largest intact boreal forest on Earth, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The land is currently home to the Bloodvein River First Nation, as well as Atikaki Provincial Wilderness Park. The effort is being led by a group called Pimachiowin Aki, and is being backed by the province of Manitoba, as well as conservationist David Suzuki.
Suzuki stresses 'intact': "The important thing is the "intactness". If you drive a road through a part of a forest, if you put pipes in, or if you put electrical wires through, you don't have an intact forest left. And then degradation is inevitable."
This comes with opposition. Canada's Conservative Party, led in Manitoba by Hugh McFadyen, wants to put a hydro line through the forest, in the interest of supplying electricity to southern Manitoba, as well as exporting energy to Minnesota and Wisconsin. This fight has been going for several years now; when the New Democratic Party took power in 2007, they moved the proposed line west of Lake Winnipeg- still through boreal forest, but not through the forest in dispute. A provincial election in October, if won by the Conservatives, would see the line put back through the east side, effectively killing the World Heritage bid despite Conservative claims that it would not.
There is precedent for worry about UNESCO's opinion. One of the only two World Heritage sites ever to be delisted, Germany's Dresden Elbe Valley, was delisted in 2009 due to the construction of the Waldschlosschen Bridge, which cut through the valley.
Suzuki, for one, is incredulous, saying, "If the planet in which we live, the very things that keep us alive, become a political issue, we're screwed. We're absolutely screwed. We're talking about the life-support systems of the planet. How can that possibly be a political issue?"
Becoming a World Heritage site wouldn't completely block the area from development, but it would serve as a powerful deterrent. In addition to the prestige, World Heritage status allows the site to apply for a portion of a $4 million (US) annual fund allocated to sites in danger, as well as providing a boost to tourism.
Were the boreal forest to gain World Heritage Site status, it would be the first between Alberta and Ottawa. 15 Canadian sites currently enjoy World Heritage status:
Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, Alberta/British Columbia
Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta
Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alberta (yes, that is its name. They have a book on sale there, called 'Imagining Head-Smashed-In'.)
Historic District of Quebec, Quebec
Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Nova Scotia
Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek, Yukon/British Columbia/Alaska (shared with United States)
L'Ase aux Meadows National Historic Site, Newfoundland
Miguasha National Park, Quebec
Nahanni National Park, Northwest Territories
Old Town Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (you may actually know Lunenburg from those Cisco ads done by Ellen Page)
Rideau Canal, Ontario
SGang Gwaay, British Columbia
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Alberta/Montana (shares with United States)
Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta/Northwest Territories
The annual World Heritage Committee meeting is from June 19-29 in Paris. A majority of committee members must vote in favor for a site to be enshrined. They are currently Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Iraq, Jordan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.
42 sites are currently to be considered; the list can, as per Rule 13.4 of the Rules of Procedure, be revised until 48 hours prior to the meeting. No Canadian site is currently among them.
TUESDAY: St. Helena
WEDNESDAY: Liberia
THURSDAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
Canada, today, is seeing a campaign to make 43,000 square kilometers of Manitoba/Ontario boreal forest east of Lake Winnipeg, the largest intact boreal forest on Earth, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The land is currently home to the Bloodvein River First Nation, as well as Atikaki Provincial Wilderness Park. The effort is being led by a group called Pimachiowin Aki, and is being backed by the province of Manitoba, as well as conservationist David Suzuki.
Suzuki stresses 'intact': "The important thing is the "intactness". If you drive a road through a part of a forest, if you put pipes in, or if you put electrical wires through, you don't have an intact forest left. And then degradation is inevitable."
This comes with opposition. Canada's Conservative Party, led in Manitoba by Hugh McFadyen, wants to put a hydro line through the forest, in the interest of supplying electricity to southern Manitoba, as well as exporting energy to Minnesota and Wisconsin. This fight has been going for several years now; when the New Democratic Party took power in 2007, they moved the proposed line west of Lake Winnipeg- still through boreal forest, but not through the forest in dispute. A provincial election in October, if won by the Conservatives, would see the line put back through the east side, effectively killing the World Heritage bid despite Conservative claims that it would not.
There is precedent for worry about UNESCO's opinion. One of the only two World Heritage sites ever to be delisted, Germany's Dresden Elbe Valley, was delisted in 2009 due to the construction of the Waldschlosschen Bridge, which cut through the valley.
Suzuki, for one, is incredulous, saying, "If the planet in which we live, the very things that keep us alive, become a political issue, we're screwed. We're absolutely screwed. We're talking about the life-support systems of the planet. How can that possibly be a political issue?"
Becoming a World Heritage site wouldn't completely block the area from development, but it would serve as a powerful deterrent. In addition to the prestige, World Heritage status allows the site to apply for a portion of a $4 million (US) annual fund allocated to sites in danger, as well as providing a boost to tourism.
Were the boreal forest to gain World Heritage Site status, it would be the first between Alberta and Ottawa. 15 Canadian sites currently enjoy World Heritage status:
Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, Alberta/British Columbia
Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta
Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alberta (yes, that is its name. They have a book on sale there, called 'Imagining Head-Smashed-In'.)
Historic District of Quebec, Quebec
Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Nova Scotia
Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek, Yukon/British Columbia/Alaska (shared with United States)
L'Ase aux Meadows National Historic Site, Newfoundland
Miguasha National Park, Quebec
Nahanni National Park, Northwest Territories
Old Town Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (you may actually know Lunenburg from those Cisco ads done by Ellen Page)
Rideau Canal, Ontario
SGang Gwaay, British Columbia
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Alberta/Montana (shares with United States)
Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta/Northwest Territories
The annual World Heritage Committee meeting is from June 19-29 in Paris. A majority of committee members must vote in favor for a site to be enshrined. They are currently Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Iraq, Jordan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.
42 sites are currently to be considered; the list can, as per Rule 13.4 of the Rules of Procedure, be revised until 48 hours prior to the meeting. No Canadian site is currently among them.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
RNG Week- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Today will mark the beginning of something we'll call RNG Week. It's pretty simple: the Random News Generator is run once a day for the next week. We're doing this mainly so I can do a little bit of assignment training for when and if I make it into the pros. The idea is, the Random News Generator gives me a country and I then have to work within that. But then, up to this point, I've picked the days I want to go to the RNG. The training I have in mind is to see how I do when I have a solid week of limited control over the choice of topic. Odds are, in the event I'm taken on by someone, that will end up being a regular thing.
In addition, normally, if I determine there truly is nothing going on in the place that's been selected, I can just spin again. Not here. I'm taking that privilege away from myself for the week, because we're going to make the schedule right now, in front of everyone, and stick with it. Be kind to me, RNG...
TODAY: St. Vincent and the Grenadines
MONDAY: Canada
TUESDAY: St. Helena
WEDNESDAY: Liberia
THURSDAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
That was not being kind. I gave you life, I hope you know.
Fine then. Today, it's St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Back on Tuesday, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard picked up three nationals of Trinidad and Tobago in a boat five miles off the coast of Ottley Hall Marina & Shipyard in Kingstown. The three were carrying 11 bags filled with 472 pounds of marijuana. The street value is over $4 million, though that's given a piece written in Trinidad and Tobago, which uses the Trinidad and Tobago dollar. That works out to about $630,000 American. Authorities believe the three, traveling in a boat with two Yamaha outboard motors running 200 horsepower apiece, had acquired the marijuana in St. Vincent and were headed for Trinidad. The ages and hometowns of the three were released, but names are unavailable. They are at last report being held at St. Vincent.
St. Vincent is, according to the US State Department, St. Vincent is the largest producer of marijuana in the Eastern Caribbean, partially a result of the country trying to diversify away from bananas, which currently make up half the economy and employ 60% of the workforce. The rise of marijuana, and its subsequent distribution throughout the Caribbean, has in turn given rise to a conflict in the region. On one hand, the Rastafarian community is thrilled, seeing as they need marijuana for religious purposes. On the other, marijuana is not legal in the Caribbean, and on top of that, the Rastafarians have over the years felt discriminated against. That includes Jamaica. Junior Spirit Cottle of Agencia Prensa Rural tells of underestimating the marijuana community playing a factor in the 2001 defeat of the ruling New Democratic Party, though most other sources tell more of a party that had become complacent and corrupt. The NDP, however, has since returned to power.
They return in the wake of the opposition ULP instituting a two-week eradication program in the spring of 2009 called "Vincy Pac". Vincy Pac resulted in the destruction of 51 marijuana fields, 42,683 pounds of dried and compressed marijuana, and 8.5 million plants and seedlings. 12 firearms were seized, and 30 people were arrested.
Over the past decade, the marijuana community, until then largely a nonvoting group, has attempted to flex some political muscle, in St. Vincent and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
As it stands, they still have a long way to go.
In addition, normally, if I determine there truly is nothing going on in the place that's been selected, I can just spin again. Not here. I'm taking that privilege away from myself for the week, because we're going to make the schedule right now, in front of everyone, and stick with it. Be kind to me, RNG...
TODAY: St. Vincent and the Grenadines
MONDAY: Canada
TUESDAY: St. Helena
WEDNESDAY: Liberia
THURSDAY: Gibraltar
FRIDAY: Turkey
SATURDAY: Congo-Brazzaville
That was not being kind. I gave you life, I hope you know.
Fine then. Today, it's St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Back on Tuesday, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard picked up three nationals of Trinidad and Tobago in a boat five miles off the coast of Ottley Hall Marina & Shipyard in Kingstown. The three were carrying 11 bags filled with 472 pounds of marijuana. The street value is over $4 million, though that's given a piece written in Trinidad and Tobago, which uses the Trinidad and Tobago dollar. That works out to about $630,000 American. Authorities believe the three, traveling in a boat with two Yamaha outboard motors running 200 horsepower apiece, had acquired the marijuana in St. Vincent and were headed for Trinidad. The ages and hometowns of the three were released, but names are unavailable. They are at last report being held at St. Vincent.
St. Vincent is, according to the US State Department, St. Vincent is the largest producer of marijuana in the Eastern Caribbean, partially a result of the country trying to diversify away from bananas, which currently make up half the economy and employ 60% of the workforce. The rise of marijuana, and its subsequent distribution throughout the Caribbean, has in turn given rise to a conflict in the region. On one hand, the Rastafarian community is thrilled, seeing as they need marijuana for religious purposes. On the other, marijuana is not legal in the Caribbean, and on top of that, the Rastafarians have over the years felt discriminated against. That includes Jamaica. Junior Spirit Cottle of Agencia Prensa Rural tells of underestimating the marijuana community playing a factor in the 2001 defeat of the ruling New Democratic Party, though most other sources tell more of a party that had become complacent and corrupt. The NDP, however, has since returned to power.
They return in the wake of the opposition ULP instituting a two-week eradication program in the spring of 2009 called "Vincy Pac". Vincy Pac resulted in the destruction of 51 marijuana fields, 42,683 pounds of dried and compressed marijuana, and 8.5 million plants and seedlings. 12 firearms were seized, and 30 people were arrested.
Over the past decade, the marijuana community, until then largely a nonvoting group, has attempted to flex some political muscle, in St. Vincent and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
As it stands, they still have a long way to go.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Random News Generator- Iceland
You may recall that, a few years ago, Iceland's economy went off a cliff. Granted, so did everybody else's. But Iceland stood out for the severity of their downfall.
The good news for Iceland today is that Standard and Poor's has today removed Iceland from their negative credit watch. This was done on the heels of measures taken to encourage- or force- money to remain in the country; Icelandic citizens are less able to invest overseas than they were at the start of the crisis, and non-Icelandic people are less able to exchange Icelandic krona for some other currency.
The bad news is that even after openly becoming a money vacuum, Iceland's financial state is still fragile. In the eyes of Standard and Poor's, Iceland is very nearly a junk investment, a designation Fitch has already assigned. Their situation remains fragile. A program with the IMF expires this year, and voters last month rejected a repayment plan concerning online bank Icesave, a move that very nearly caused S&P to downgrade Iceland to junk.
When Icesave's parent company, Landsbanki Islands, collapsed in 2008, investors in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands moved to repay depositors for their losses. The referendum was on whether to pay those investors 4 billion Euros, plus interest, as compensation. By a 60-40 margin, voters killed the repayment, sending the matter to the European Free Trade Association.
Fitch's junk rating, they warned, could be in place as long as those restrictions on investing outside of Iceland remain in effect. The Icelandic government has made their own warning that those restrictions could be in place until 2015.
For more on just what in blazes happened in Iceland, a new book is out, Deep Freeze: Iceland's Economic Collapse by Philipp Bagus and David Howden. It's available free on Kindle or iBook.
The good news for Iceland today is that Standard and Poor's has today removed Iceland from their negative credit watch. This was done on the heels of measures taken to encourage- or force- money to remain in the country; Icelandic citizens are less able to invest overseas than they were at the start of the crisis, and non-Icelandic people are less able to exchange Icelandic krona for some other currency.
The bad news is that even after openly becoming a money vacuum, Iceland's financial state is still fragile. In the eyes of Standard and Poor's, Iceland is very nearly a junk investment, a designation Fitch has already assigned. Their situation remains fragile. A program with the IMF expires this year, and voters last month rejected a repayment plan concerning online bank Icesave, a move that very nearly caused S&P to downgrade Iceland to junk.
When Icesave's parent company, Landsbanki Islands, collapsed in 2008, investors in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands moved to repay depositors for their losses. The referendum was on whether to pay those investors 4 billion Euros, plus interest, as compensation. By a 60-40 margin, voters killed the repayment, sending the matter to the European Free Trade Association.
Fitch's junk rating, they warned, could be in place as long as those restrictions on investing outside of Iceland remain in effect. The Icelandic government has made their own warning that those restrictions could be in place until 2015.
For more on just what in blazes happened in Iceland, a new book is out, Deep Freeze: Iceland's Economic Collapse by Philipp Bagus and David Howden. It's available free on Kindle or iBook.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Random News Generator- Somalia
Any roundup of the day's news in Somalia looks, for all the wrong reasons, like any other from the past 20 years: fighting and killing here, a town taken or retaken by some faction or other over there, a terrorist arrested or killed in this other place, piracy off the coast, and children starving all the while.
Most of the people who try and improve matters end up completely ineffective at best and targets at worst. The last link provided involves 20 teenagers arrested by one of the factions, Al-Shabab, for refusing to fight, or more specifically, refusing to fight for Al-Shabab. They've been taken to an unknown location.
Just to let you know, every single one of those links has been from an article written this weekend, and the last one is the only article not from the last 24 hours. Not a single story concerning anything that could clearly be considered as good came out of that same period. Believe me, I looked. I thought I'd found one from Friday, concerning a singer by the name of Sado Ali Warsame, but the piece turned out to be largely a screed against Somaliland, which has been noted here a year ago as the only place in the country that could even begin to be described as stable or functioning. Even a piece about shoe-shining children from April 15, which I originally thought might be a cute little flicker-of-hope story about an odd job to make money, turned horrific when it went into detail about how the shoe-shiners get caught in crossfires when the soldiers whose shoes are being shined get shot at, are frequently unpaid, and then shot deliberately if they press the issue.
These are children, mind you, of ages ranging in the article from 9-14.
There's nothing new under the sun in Somalia. And that's the worst news of all.
Most of the people who try and improve matters end up completely ineffective at best and targets at worst. The last link provided involves 20 teenagers arrested by one of the factions, Al-Shabab, for refusing to fight, or more specifically, refusing to fight for Al-Shabab. They've been taken to an unknown location.
Just to let you know, every single one of those links has been from an article written this weekend, and the last one is the only article not from the last 24 hours. Not a single story concerning anything that could clearly be considered as good came out of that same period. Believe me, I looked. I thought I'd found one from Friday, concerning a singer by the name of Sado Ali Warsame, but the piece turned out to be largely a screed against Somaliland, which has been noted here a year ago as the only place in the country that could even begin to be described as stable or functioning. Even a piece about shoe-shining children from April 15, which I originally thought might be a cute little flicker-of-hope story about an odd job to make money, turned horrific when it went into detail about how the shoe-shiners get caught in crossfires when the soldiers whose shoes are being shined get shot at, are frequently unpaid, and then shot deliberately if they press the issue.
These are children, mind you, of ages ranging in the article from 9-14.
There's nothing new under the sun in Somalia. And that's the worst news of all.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Random News Generator- Zimbabwe
You're expecting Robert Mugabe's name to show up here, right?
Nope. Today, the focus goes to Raoul du Toit, one of six winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. The Goldman Prize is awarded annually to one person on each of the six inhabited continents (though 'continent' is defined somewhat loosely, with other winners this year coming from Germany, Russia, Indonesia, the United States and El Salvador); each winner gets $150,000 on top of it.
du Toit is director of the Lowveld Rhino Trust. In 1992, poaching along Zimbabwe's border with Zambia had driven Zimbabwe's black rhinocerous population below 600. The poachers seek the rhino's horn, believed in Asia to have medicinal properties but which in fact contains just about the same medicinal property as your fingernail; the horn and the fingernail are made out of the same stuff. du Toit's goal has been to get the surviving rhinos away from the border and into a protected area. He did this by working with cattle ranchers, setting up perimeter fencing so both the ranchers and rhinos had room to do their thing without having to worry about outside threats. This worked out well.
Until 2000, when Robert Mugabe engaged in "land reform", which basically entailed reforming the names on the deeds to a whole bunch of land. Okay, so his name did pop up. Sue me.
The ranches du Toit was working with suddenly had the legs taken out from under them, and by extension, so did du Toit. Subsistence farming encroached on the ranches, and the rhino habitats, and a breakdown in security meant the poachers were back. It was a major setback, but where other conservation efforts gave up, du Toit perservered. He began again, working with any local entity or community available. He envisions a sort of trust fund set up for communities that house a rhino. He would fund that trust with money from international development funds and wildlife tourism, with dividends paid to the communities whenever a rhino is born to them. The $150,000 prize awarded by Goldman is earmarked for that purpose. In this way, du Toit hopes to somehow make the rhino more valuable to the community than to the poachers; to, in effect, outbid the Asian medicinal market.
There's not an entirely happy ending here- poaching is still the major issue, with 71 rhinos falling victim in 2009, with a current surviving population of only 530 under du Toit's watch by the San Jose Mercury News' count ("over 400" by the BBC's count) and 4,800 across Africa- but there is progress; the number poached was down to 21 in 2010. A community watch, while nice, is still inferior in du Toit's mind to harsher measures against poaching. Currently, as he says, "The penalties and fines are still not as much as we would like to see and some of those caught go back and shoot more rhinos to pay legal fees and bribes. That's the blowback from efforts to deal with them." If the poaching can be stifled completely, the unthreatened rhinos would stand to increase their ranks by 10% per year.
The mere fact that this fight is still taking place, the fact that the black rhinos are still out there with a fighting chance, is according to many solely due to du Toit. One of those many is outdoor sporting goods company Orvis, which since 1994 has taken up a number of environmental goals. du Toit recieves some of their attention in 2011; they intend to match any customer donations up to $60,000. If you'd like to nudge the donation thermometer a bit, click that last link and they'll send you through to Paypal.
du Toit and the other winners are to be honored tonight at the San Francisco Opera House.
Nope. Today, the focus goes to Raoul du Toit, one of six winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. The Goldman Prize is awarded annually to one person on each of the six inhabited continents (though 'continent' is defined somewhat loosely, with other winners this year coming from Germany, Russia, Indonesia, the United States and El Salvador); each winner gets $150,000 on top of it.
du Toit is director of the Lowveld Rhino Trust. In 1992, poaching along Zimbabwe's border with Zambia had driven Zimbabwe's black rhinocerous population below 600. The poachers seek the rhino's horn, believed in Asia to have medicinal properties but which in fact contains just about the same medicinal property as your fingernail; the horn and the fingernail are made out of the same stuff. du Toit's goal has been to get the surviving rhinos away from the border and into a protected area. He did this by working with cattle ranchers, setting up perimeter fencing so both the ranchers and rhinos had room to do their thing without having to worry about outside threats. This worked out well.
Until 2000, when Robert Mugabe engaged in "land reform", which basically entailed reforming the names on the deeds to a whole bunch of land. Okay, so his name did pop up. Sue me.
The ranches du Toit was working with suddenly had the legs taken out from under them, and by extension, so did du Toit. Subsistence farming encroached on the ranches, and the rhino habitats, and a breakdown in security meant the poachers were back. It was a major setback, but where other conservation efforts gave up, du Toit perservered. He began again, working with any local entity or community available. He envisions a sort of trust fund set up for communities that house a rhino. He would fund that trust with money from international development funds and wildlife tourism, with dividends paid to the communities whenever a rhino is born to them. The $150,000 prize awarded by Goldman is earmarked for that purpose. In this way, du Toit hopes to somehow make the rhino more valuable to the community than to the poachers; to, in effect, outbid the Asian medicinal market.
There's not an entirely happy ending here- poaching is still the major issue, with 71 rhinos falling victim in 2009, with a current surviving population of only 530 under du Toit's watch by the San Jose Mercury News' count ("over 400" by the BBC's count) and 4,800 across Africa- but there is progress; the number poached was down to 21 in 2010. A community watch, while nice, is still inferior in du Toit's mind to harsher measures against poaching. Currently, as he says, "The penalties and fines are still not as much as we would like to see and some of those caught go back and shoot more rhinos to pay legal fees and bribes. That's the blowback from efforts to deal with them." If the poaching can be stifled completely, the unthreatened rhinos would stand to increase their ranks by 10% per year.
The mere fact that this fight is still taking place, the fact that the black rhinos are still out there with a fighting chance, is according to many solely due to du Toit. One of those many is outdoor sporting goods company Orvis, which since 1994 has taken up a number of environmental goals. du Toit recieves some of their attention in 2011; they intend to match any customer donations up to $60,000. If you'd like to nudge the donation thermometer a bit, click that last link and they'll send you through to Paypal.
du Toit and the other winners are to be honored tonight at the San Francisco Opera House.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Random News Generator- Romania
Sorry for nothing yesterday; a citywide circuit breaker tripped or something. The whole town seemed to lose power at once for a couple seconds, which was enough to eat yesterday's post.
That post was supposed to be a Random News Generator anyway, so we'll just spin again, and we land on Romania.
First off, if you're Romanian, don't forget to set your clocks forward. Daylight Savings starts on Sunday.
That established, the movie Periferic, about a prison inmate who gets released for 24 hours and decides to use it to flee the country, is to be released online in Romania, because there aren't enough theaters to make a theatrical release worth it. Only 182 screens exist in the country.
And alongside Bulgaria, Romania is, according to German foreign ministry state secretary Werner Hoyer, on pace to join Europe's Schengen area by the end of the year. That may sound nice, but this is a schedule slip. They were supposed to be in by this month, but corruption problems in both nations, and their failure to adequately punish the corrupt, have delayed their ascension, and several countries remain in opposition, including Germany.
What is the Schengen area? It is a region, encompassing most of Europe, in which there is no border patrol between countries (and strengthened border control with non-Schengen countries). They just pull up stakes on the border stations and let everyone move freely within the Schengen area. The only thing you'll often see at the border is a 'Welcome to (name)' sign. Of course, law enforcement works the same way, making it a situation something like that within the United States: a fugitive can cross the state line, but so can the cops, including in hot pursuit. That's what Romania and Bulgaria hope to get. But with the corruption problems, the other Schengen nations would be allowing Romanian and Bulgarian corruption to move freely into their countries as well, meaning they would have to take up Romania and Bulgaria's slack. As it stands, there's still just too much slack to pick up. The entire European-multistate-harmony concept teeters on the fact that the group is only as strong as its weakest link. One bad apple can drag down everybody.
They are under pressure to make it happen, though; Schengen compliance is something required of all EU nations aside from Ireland and the United Kingdom, and along with Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria are the only countries that are not yet in compliance.
Maybe it would help if they set their clocks forward.
That post was supposed to be a Random News Generator anyway, so we'll just spin again, and we land on Romania.
First off, if you're Romanian, don't forget to set your clocks forward. Daylight Savings starts on Sunday.
That established, the movie Periferic, about a prison inmate who gets released for 24 hours and decides to use it to flee the country, is to be released online in Romania, because there aren't enough theaters to make a theatrical release worth it. Only 182 screens exist in the country.
And alongside Bulgaria, Romania is, according to German foreign ministry state secretary Werner Hoyer, on pace to join Europe's Schengen area by the end of the year. That may sound nice, but this is a schedule slip. They were supposed to be in by this month, but corruption problems in both nations, and their failure to adequately punish the corrupt, have delayed their ascension, and several countries remain in opposition, including Germany.
What is the Schengen area? It is a region, encompassing most of Europe, in which there is no border patrol between countries (and strengthened border control with non-Schengen countries). They just pull up stakes on the border stations and let everyone move freely within the Schengen area. The only thing you'll often see at the border is a 'Welcome to (name)' sign. Of course, law enforcement works the same way, making it a situation something like that within the United States: a fugitive can cross the state line, but so can the cops, including in hot pursuit. That's what Romania and Bulgaria hope to get. But with the corruption problems, the other Schengen nations would be allowing Romanian and Bulgarian corruption to move freely into their countries as well, meaning they would have to take up Romania and Bulgaria's slack. As it stands, there's still just too much slack to pick up. The entire European-multistate-harmony concept teeters on the fact that the group is only as strong as its weakest link. One bad apple can drag down everybody.
They are under pressure to make it happen, though; Schengen compliance is something required of all EU nations aside from Ireland and the United Kingdom, and along with Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria are the only countries that are not yet in compliance.
Maybe it would help if they set their clocks forward.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Happy News Generator
I think we can all agree that the world's basically done gone blown to hell lately. If I mention Japan, you'll think of the hell that's broken loose there. If I mention Wisconsin, same thing. Or just about anywhere in the Middle East or North Africa. The South Pacific got hit with the same tsunami Japan did, as did the entire rest of the Pacific rim. The UN is looking at deteriorating conditions in Libya and responded with its all-too-stereotypical response of bickering. Arizona's the laughingstock of the country, even as half the rest of it wants to take after either Arizona or Wisconsin, if not both. Italy is getting hit with a flood of Tunisian refugees. Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Maldives continue to slowly sink into the sea. And this is not counting the other ongoing trouble spots and disaster zones- North Korea, DR Congo, Mexico, Somalia, Afghanistan, Haiti.
It's all getting to be a little too much to handle all at once. You just want to curl up into a corner and cry until all the bad things go away.
So here's what we're going to do. We're going to take some spins of the Random News Generator, but with this caveat: we're going to only cover nice things. We kind of need nice things at the moment. We'll take three spins.
ENGLAND: Is considering a revision of its libel law, allowing for more freedom to express honest opinion. As it stands, the laws are such that the papers there often have to dance around what they think might have happened in a particular incident, relying on euphemisms and double entendres. It's also, many believe, stifled scientific and academic debates, with sides self-censoring opinions, wary of triggering a lawsuit. Lawsuits can also currently be brought years after the original publication (publication online is currently considered as continuous); revisions in consideration would place a time limit one year from the date of original publication.
TANZANIA: Is seeing a couple of improvements in their healthcare system. First, they've acquired a medivac- air-based evacuation- that will cover the entirety of the country. Second, there are two new pediatric HIV clinics in the cities of Mbeya and Mwanza. With HIV as rampant as it is in much of Africa, particularly southern Africa, the disease is commonly passed on from mothers to their children. However, out of an estimated 140-150,000 children in the country with HIV, a dismal 8% are recieving care for it. The linked article notes that 5.6% of Tanzanians have HIV, with Mbeya, one of the cities in which a clinic was placed, clocking in at a downright tragic 9.2%.
CAMBODIA: Has been trying to repatriate Vietnamese corpses from fighting in that country during what we know here as the Vietnam War. Over the past decade, they've located and transferred 5,100 sets of remains. Of course, in order to make this particular piece of news happy, one must look past the fact that they all died in the war, or that it took so long to find the bodies, or the fact that they're still looking for more, and simply focus on the fact that these particular 5,100 who fought, no matter whose side they were on, are, sooner or later, finding their way home.
It's all getting to be a little too much to handle all at once. You just want to curl up into a corner and cry until all the bad things go away.
So here's what we're going to do. We're going to take some spins of the Random News Generator, but with this caveat: we're going to only cover nice things. We kind of need nice things at the moment. We'll take three spins.
ENGLAND: Is considering a revision of its libel law, allowing for more freedom to express honest opinion. As it stands, the laws are such that the papers there often have to dance around what they think might have happened in a particular incident, relying on euphemisms and double entendres. It's also, many believe, stifled scientific and academic debates, with sides self-censoring opinions, wary of triggering a lawsuit. Lawsuits can also currently be brought years after the original publication (publication online is currently considered as continuous); revisions in consideration would place a time limit one year from the date of original publication.
TANZANIA: Is seeing a couple of improvements in their healthcare system. First, they've acquired a medivac- air-based evacuation- that will cover the entirety of the country. Second, there are two new pediatric HIV clinics in the cities of Mbeya and Mwanza. With HIV as rampant as it is in much of Africa, particularly southern Africa, the disease is commonly passed on from mothers to their children. However, out of an estimated 140-150,000 children in the country with HIV, a dismal 8% are recieving care for it. The linked article notes that 5.6% of Tanzanians have HIV, with Mbeya, one of the cities in which a clinic was placed, clocking in at a downright tragic 9.2%.
CAMBODIA: Has been trying to repatriate Vietnamese corpses from fighting in that country during what we know here as the Vietnam War. Over the past decade, they've located and transferred 5,100 sets of remains. Of course, in order to make this particular piece of news happy, one must look past the fact that they all died in the war, or that it took so long to find the bodies, or the fact that they're still looking for more, and simply focus on the fact that these particular 5,100 who fought, no matter whose side they were on, are, sooner or later, finding their way home.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Random News Generator- Trinidad and Tobago
Actually our third go-around with the Trinidadians; they're the first country to be able to say that.
To celebrate this completely meaningless statistic kept by a small-time one-man blog in Wisconsin, they have opted to hold Carnival, the largest such celebration in the Caribbean. Not as large as Rio's Carnival or New Orleans' Mardi Gras, but large. Carnival there lasts for two days, the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which here means that it kicks off tomorrow.
Curiously, while poring over the stories concerning it, while most coverage of it has centered around your basic detailing of the various festivities, the Trinidad and Tobago Express has been running piece after piece detailing what a sad and scary thing the Trinidadian Carnival is: this piece by Lennox Grant, this letter to the editor, stories about and by the police presence here and here and here and here. And while Marion Miller appears to be caught up well enough in the celebration, he doesn't appear to have much company on the staff of the Express. Not sure what to make of that.
To celebrate this completely meaningless statistic kept by a small-time one-man blog in Wisconsin, they have opted to hold Carnival, the largest such celebration in the Caribbean. Not as large as Rio's Carnival or New Orleans' Mardi Gras, but large. Carnival there lasts for two days, the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which here means that it kicks off tomorrow.
Curiously, while poring over the stories concerning it, while most coverage of it has centered around your basic detailing of the various festivities, the Trinidad and Tobago Express has been running piece after piece detailing what a sad and scary thing the Trinidadian Carnival is: this piece by Lennox Grant, this letter to the editor, stories about and by the police presence here and here and here and here. And while Marion Miller appears to be caught up well enough in the celebration, he doesn't appear to have much company on the staff of the Express. Not sure what to make of that.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Random News Generator- Indonesia
The Oscars are coming up, and you know what that means: the annual speculation on who will win the Montage of Dead People. (Come on. You know you do it.) Also there will apparently be some awards handed out for whatever people thought was halfway decent this year.
One thing you might hear about is people who use the nomination list for Best Picture as a kind of homework assignment: they feel obligated to watch everything nominated that they have not yet watched. In Indonesia, they would love to have this problem. Right now, however, they are fighting for the ability to be able to watch any of them, as the MPAA is ordering Hollywood films removed from Indonesian cinemas.
There are two reasons for the MPAA taking this step. First, the taxes on importing the film to Indonesia has more than doubled, from 20 cents per meter of film to 43 cents, plus an import duty tax and a cut of the profits. This is too expensive for Hollywood. Second, it's not like they see much of the profits anyway, as piracy is rampant. European and Asian distributors have thought along those lines as well.
So okay, maybe Indonesia is watching the movies. Just not the way they're supposed to.
'Why not just watch the locally-produced films', you might ask. Because, by their own admission, the locally-produced films suck, nobody actually watches them, and there aren't enough of them to meet demand anyway, that's why. In response to immense pressure from all corners, distributors, theaters and filmgoers alike, the tax has come under review; it will take about two weeks to render a final verdict.
Indonesia's Finance Ministry, for their part, has called it a misunderstanding, claiming that the taxes were simply being moved from the back end to the front end of the import process. It doesn't appear to be convincing anyone.
One thing you might hear about is people who use the nomination list for Best Picture as a kind of homework assignment: they feel obligated to watch everything nominated that they have not yet watched. In Indonesia, they would love to have this problem. Right now, however, they are fighting for the ability to be able to watch any of them, as the MPAA is ordering Hollywood films removed from Indonesian cinemas.
There are two reasons for the MPAA taking this step. First, the taxes on importing the film to Indonesia has more than doubled, from 20 cents per meter of film to 43 cents, plus an import duty tax and a cut of the profits. This is too expensive for Hollywood. Second, it's not like they see much of the profits anyway, as piracy is rampant. European and Asian distributors have thought along those lines as well.
So okay, maybe Indonesia is watching the movies. Just not the way they're supposed to.
'Why not just watch the locally-produced films', you might ask. Because, by their own admission, the locally-produced films suck, nobody actually watches them, and there aren't enough of them to meet demand anyway, that's why. In response to immense pressure from all corners, distributors, theaters and filmgoers alike, the tax has come under review; it will take about two weeks to render a final verdict.
Indonesia's Finance Ministry, for their part, has called it a misunderstanding, claiming that the taxes were simply being moved from the back end to the front end of the import process. It doesn't appear to be convincing anyone.
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