Illustration: 'exiledsurfer'
Wednesday 29 December 2010
WikiLeaks: Africa Offers Easy Uranium
Wikileaks cables have revealed a disturbing development in the African uranium mining industry: abysmal safety and security standards in the mines, nuclear research centres, and border customs are enabling international companies to exploit the mines and smuggle dangerous radioactive material across continents.
The Wikileaks cables reveal that U.S. diplomats posted in a number of African countries - the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Niger, and Burundi, among others - have had direct knowledge of the poor safety and security standards in these countries' uranium and nuclear facilities.
The cables also highlight the involvement of European, Chinese, Indian, and South Korean companies in the illegal extraction and smuggling of uranium from Africa. Most European nuclear reactors use uranium imported from African countries.
In one classified document, dated Sep. 8, 2006, the U.S. embassy in the DRC capital Kinshasa reported that several U.S. diplomats and security service personnel toured the Kinshasa Nuclear Research Centre (CREN-K) on Jul. 27 that year in order to assess the facility’s security needs.
CREN-K houses the DRC’s two nuclear reactors. Neither reactor is currently functioning, but staff conduct nuclear-related research and teaching at the facility.
Although inactive, CREN-K stores significant amounts of uranium and nuclear waste. This radioactive material includes 138 nuclear fuel rods, at least 15 kg of enriched and non-enriched uranium, and some 23 kg of nuclear waste.
At CREN-K, "external and internal security is poor, leaving the facility vulnerable to theft," Roger A. Meece, U.S. ambassador to DRC, reported in the 2006 document.
Meece's detailed description of the security measures at CREN-K suggests that security is not just "poor," but non-existent. According to the report, the fence surrounding CREN-K "is not lit at night, has no razor-wire across the top, and is not monitored by video surveillance.
"There are numerous holes in the fence, and large gaps where the fence was missing altogether," Meece wrote.
"University of Kinshasa students frequently walk through the fence to cut across CREN-K, and subsistence farmers grow manioc on the facility next to the nuclear waste storage building," he added...
Continue readiing
Julio Godoy @'truth-out'
If anyone is trying to tell you that the nuclear industry is "SAFE" and "GREEN" they have obviously been spending too much time wandering around this facility in Kinshasa and their brains have been radioactively melted. The complicity/complacency of such "august" governments/companies in this ecological nightmare verges on insanity, and places the whole world at risk by these "eco-deniers", let alone the interminable legacy for the people of Africa.
Cuban medics in Haiti put the world to shame
A medical brigade of 1,200 Cubans is operating all over earthquake-torn and cholera-infected Haiti, as part of Fidel Castro's international medical mission which has won the socialist state many friends, but little international recognition....
Nina Lakhani @'The Independent'
Tuesday 28 December 2010
Egypt's real state of emergency
blakehounshell
New rule: If you take to the Washington Post op-ed page instead of the streets, your pro-democracy cause is in bad shape.
Monday 27 December 2010
27th chaos communication congress
newsbrooke good to see a talk on one of my pet peeves: copyright as the new censorship. Major driver for attacking freedom online #27c3Thanks to the Mission Angels, you’ll be able to interact with the talks going on at the 27c3 and more! While you watch the streams from one of many Peace Missions throughout the world, Mission Angels will be monitoring IRC and Twitter for questions to be asked in selected events during the 27c3.
To ask a question in a session on IRC join #27c3-Saal-1, #27c3-Saal-2, #27c3-Saal-3 on Freenode or use the corresponding terms as a Twitter hashtag to put your question to the session.
If you’re in a Peace Mission, you can even sign up to give a Lightning Talk!
See the Peace Missions entry on the 27c3 wiki for more information. We’ll be updating the entry as we add more communications methods. If you’re at the bcc, consider volunteering to be a Mission Angel!
HERE
Armenian police target teenage rock cult
"It was offensive and frightening at the same time," said Masha, a schoolgirl in the Armenian capital, clearly upset by the experience.
Police in Yerevan have been conducting a campaign against the capital's small but controversial emo community since the recent suicides of two teenagers who were rumoured to have been emo fans.
They claim that the subculture represents a threat to young people's welfare.
Officers have visited schools, searched pupils whose distinctive clothing marks them out as possible 'emos', and mounted surveillance on public places where young people gather.
Several fans have been detained for questioning, despite the lack of any specific legislation against the musical genre or its followers.
In a recent newspaper interview, Armenia's Chief of Police, Alik Sarkisian, claimed that emo could "damage our gene pool". "We should fight against such phenomena because they are morally harmful to our people," he said.
Emo -- an abbreviation of 'emotional' -- is a more melodic and melancholy form of punk rock. It has origins in the United States but has become a well-established global subculture in recent years.
Masha and her friend Ani, also 13, say they started dressing in the unconventional emo style in an attempt to stand out from what they call "the grey masses".
But they now feel that they have to disguise themselves in ordinary clothes for fear of detention or harassment by other youths. "They point and laugh at us. Or even worse, they sometimes beat up our boys," Ani said.
Sensationalist media reports in Europe have suggested that the gloomy lyrics of some emo songs can influence teenagers to harm themselves or attempt suicide, although fans have consistently rejected the accusation.
Emo devotees in Britain and Russia staged protests two years ago against what they saw as negative stereotyping.
Some people in Yerevan not only believe that emo can cause suicidal depression, but also see it as a degenerate Western influence on traditional Armenian values.
One teacher in a Yerevan suburb, who asked not to be named, said the directors of some schools supported the police action, and had even been actively encouraging officers to search pupils who dressed unusually and check them for signs of self-harm.
"We suspected one female pupil of being an emo. We invited our district policeman and the pupil's parents to come in, and explained how dangerous the consequences of this could be," the teacher said.
A local human rights activist compared the police's behaviour to a Communist-era witch-hunt.
"It is like the repression in Soviet times, when law enforcement agencies were chasing hippies, punks and rockers -- all those who refused to live within society's limits and be like everyone else," said Mikael Danielian, chairman of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia.
But the police say they are only intervening to protect vulnerable youngsters. "We are simply doing our job," said the police colonel responsible for youth affairs, Nelli Durian.
"We are conducting explanatory, preventative work among teenagers and their parents to prevent children from becoming hooligans and from thoughts of suicide."
However, she said that she could not blame emo music for the reported rise in teenage suicide attempts in Armenia this year.
Young fans like Masha and Ani have been worried by the anti-emo campaign, but they insist that they will not be pressured into abandoning the subculture that they love.
"It is impossible to ban youth movements using repressive methods," Ani said defiantly. "We will not stop listening to our music and dressing how we like. This is my choice."
@'France24'
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