/commentisfree

Bad immigration policy doesn’t spring from bad stats

It’s not our immigration data – or perceived lack of – that’s the problem, in fact we know far more than we did a decade ago.

“Disney World can keep better track of its visitors than Britain” was the Mail on Sunday’s summary of the public administration committee’s report on migration statistics. That’s probably true. But it’s hardly surprising; Disney World’s task is, for obvious reasons, rather easier. In particular, Disney doesn’t have to deal with the fact that well over 500 million people are free to come to the UK whenever they like, and stay for as long as they want.

▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/29/bad-immigration-policy-stats-data

#migration #politique_migratoire #statistiques #data #données

Radical thinkers | The Guardian
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/series/radical-thinkers

A series of three minute video talks by modern #philosophy academics on radical philosophers down the ages

#philosophie #critique #théorie_critique #vulgarisation

Jusque-là :
Badiou, Horkheimer, Reich, Critchtley, Feuerbach

cc @pguilli @prac_6 @shaber33

Edward Snowden’s fear of flying is justified | Geoffrey Robertson | Comment is free | The Guardian
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/snowden-asylum-america-international-law

So far #Snowden has had three offers of asylum from Latin America, but to travel there means dangerous hours in the air. International law (and the Chicago Convention regulating air traffic) emphatically asserts freedom to traverse international airspace, but America tends to treat international law as binding on everyone except America (and Israel). Thus when Egypt did a deal with the Achille Lauro hijackers and sent them on a commercial flight to Tunis, US F-14 jets intercepted the plane in international airspace and forced it to land in Italy, where the hijackers were tried and jailed. President Mubarak condemned the action as “air piracy contrary to international law” and demanded an apology, to which Reagan replied: “Never.” The UK supported the action as designed to bring terrorists to trial.

In 1986 Israel forced down a Libyan commercial plane in the mistaken belief that PLO leaders were among its passengers, and the US vetoed UN security council condemnation.

So there must be a real concern, particularly after Nato allies collaborated in forcing down the Bolivian president’s jet, that the US will intercept any plane believed to be carrying Snowden to asylum, either because he is tantamount to a terrorist (Vice-President Biden has described Julian Assange as a “hi-tech terrorist”) or simply because they want to put him on trial as a spy.

#violation du #droit_international #Israël #Etats-Unis #pirates_de_l'air

Democratic establishment unmasked: prime defenders of NSA bulk spying l Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/25/democratic-establishment-nsa

One of the worst myths Democratic partisans love to tell themselves - and everyone else - is that the GOP refuses to support President Obama no matter what he does. Like its close cousin - the massively deceitful inside-DC grievance that the two parties refuse to cooperate on anything - it’s hard to overstate how false this Democratic myth is. When it comes to foreign policy, war, assassinations, drones, surveillance, secrecy, and civil liberties, President Obama’s most stalwart, enthusiastic defenders are often found among the most radical precincts of the Republican Party.

The rabidly pro-war and anti-Muslim GOP former Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, has repeatedly lavished Obama with all sorts of praise and support for his policies in those areas.

...

More significant than the closeness of the vote was its breakdown. A majority of House Democrats supported the Amash/Conyers amendment, while a majority of Republicans voted against it:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/7/25/1374738406126/rollcall.png

This week in press freedoms and privacy rights | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/20/press-freedoms-manning-risen

In 2003, two dozen or so CIA agents kidnapped an Egyptian citizen from a street in Milan where he was living after Italy granted him asylum from persecution by the US-allied Mubarak regime. The CIA then rendered their kidnapped victim back to Egypt where he was interrogated and tortured. Italian authorities criminally charged the CIA agents with kidnapping, and after the US refused to turn them over for trial, they were convicted in abstentia. One of them, Milan CIA station chief Robert Lady, was sentenced to several years in prison. I wrote about that case, and US behavior in it, several months ago: here.

Lady ended up in Panama, and when the Italians learned of this, they requested his extradition to Italy. The US government intervened and applied significant pressure to Panamanian officials, who, yesterday, predictably released Lady and put him on a plane back to the US. The next time the US lectures the world about the rule of law and need for accountability, I’m sure this incident will be on many people’s minds. It should be.

On a la mémoire courte. Mais en effet, rappel tout à fait pertinent de la part de Greenwald.

En 2003, des agents de la CIA ont kidnappé en Italie un égyptien qui avait obtenu l’asile en Italie. Les agents de la CIA l’ont renvoyé à Mubarak pour qu’il y soit promptement et justement torturé dans le respect des droits de l’homme et de la démocratie... Pas de paix pour les méchâââânts, comme dirait Obama (ironie)...

Le responsable du bureau de la CIA en Italie en 2003 a été coincé au Panama par une demande d’extradition italienne, il a été en effet condamné par la justice italienne pour cet enlèvement. Les US ont fait ce qu’il fallait (pressions) pour que la demande d’extradition ne suive pas son cours. La morale était sauve, donc, pour les gentils (ironie).

No more asylum in Australia for those arriving by boat: Rudd

Asylum seekers who arrive in Australian waters by boat will no longer have the chance to be settled in Australia under new policies announced by prime minister Kevin Rudd. Instead, asylum seekers arriving by boat will be held in an expanded facility at Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and those who are…

►http://theconversation.com/no-more-asylum-in-australia-for-those-arriving-by-boat-rudd-16238

#mer #migration #asile #réfugiés #bateau #Australie #Papoue_Nouvelle_Guinée #île_de_Manus

The crux of the NSA story in one phrase: ’collect it all’
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/15/crux-nsa-collect-it-all

The actual story that matters is not hard to see: the NSA is attempting to collect, monitor and store all forms of human communication (...) Source: The Guardian

Inside look at the internal strife over Al Jazeera America | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/14/al-jazeera-marwan-bishara-email

Le passage suivant cite Marwan Bishara, outré par le fait que AJA semble avoir choisi d’être une banale chaîne US sans consistance parmi d’autres, notamment sur l’argument que la chaîne serait perçue aux Etats-Unis comme « anti-américaine »

"What does ’Anti-Americanism’ even mean here? How did you define anti-Americanism to those polled! Do you estimate that criticizing the American government or its policies ’anti-American’ [or] a fundamental ’American’ trait and essential element of its democracy and freedom of speech, not to speak of the role of global media.

“Do you think The Guardian newspaper asks whether its columnists are anti-American as it expands its presence in America? Or does John [sic] Stewart ask whether John Oliver is an anti-American Brit considering he’s continuously ridiculing American power and at times culture? Since we are Aljazeera from Muslim Qatar, featuring an entire episode critiquing the Catholic Church, why not ask if we are anti Christian! ... Shameful.”

Stand Your Ground Increases Racial Bias in “Justifiable Homicide” Trials - Sociological Images
►http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/07/13/stand-your-ground-laws-increases-racial-bias-in-justifiable-homicid

At MetroTrends, John Roman and Mitchell Downey report their analysis of 4,650 FBI records of homicides in which a person killed a stranger with a handgun. They conclude that stand your ground “tilts the odds in favor of the shooter.” In SYG states, 13.6% of homicides were rules justifiable; in non-SYG states, only 7.2% were deemed such. This is strong evidence that rulings of justifiable homicide are more likely under stand your ground.

But which homicides?

The very kind decided in the Zimmerman trial today. A finding of “justifiable homicide” is much more common in the case of a white-on-black killing than any other kind including a white and a black person. As PBS’s request, Roman compared the likelihood of a favorable finding for the defendant in SYG and non SYG cases, consider the races of the people involved. The data is clear, compared to white-on-white crimes, stand your ground increases the likelihood of a not-guilty finding, but only when a person is accused of killing a black person.

▻http://static.thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/2013/07/11.png

Et la réaction de David Simon:

▻http://davidsimon.com/trayvon

#usa #justice #racisme #armes #trayvon_martin

George Zimmerman acquitté

« Trayvon Martin avait un profil. Il n’y a pas de doute sur le fait qu’il avait le profil pour devenir un délinquant. Même si le racisme était l’une des composantes dans l’esprit de George Zimmerman », a-t-elle dit. « Mais le droit de porter des armes est un droit dans lequel nous croyons tous ».

▻http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/07/14/georges-zimmerman-acquitte_918145

http://s1.lemde.fr/image/2013/07/12/534x267/3446988_3_fad7_au-tribunal-de-sanford-floride-george_3d3396e503bd8250e687cece8e3e716e.jpg

▻http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2013/07/14/proces-zimmerman-le-jury-fait-part-de-ses-doutes-sur-l-accusation-d-homicide

#usa #justice #racisme #armes #trayvon_martin

À quoi servent les journaux : ici le New York Times dans ses (basses) œuvres
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/10/snowden-denies-information-russia-china

The extraordinary claim that China had drained the contents of Snowden’s laptops first appeared in the New York Times in a June 24 article. The paper published the claim with no evidence and without any attribution to any identified sources.

In lieu of any evidence, the NYT circulated this obviously significant assertion by quoting what it called “two Western intelligence experts” who “worked for major government spy agencies”. Those “experts” were not identified. The article then stated that these experts “said they believed that the Chinese government had managed to drain the contents of the four laptops that Mr. Snowden said he brought to Hong Kong” (emphasis added).

On n’aura pas le mauvais esprit de tenter de remplacer, dans cet article, « New York Times » par « Guardian » et « Snowden » par « Assange » pour voir si ça fonctionne aussi bien.

Contracts, court rulings giving employers legal upper hand - latimes.com
▻http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-scotus-employees-20130706,0,2060456.story

Comment des emplois se créent aux Etats-Unis :

Emboldened by Supreme Court decisions and a weak job market, employers are starting to require workers to sign away their rights in return for a job.

Commentaire de Corey Robin, ▻http://coreyrobin.com/2013/07/06/not-even-a-bourgeois-freedom-freedom-of-contract-in-john-robertss-americ

... we’re back in a version of the nineteenth century, in which this same nexus of employers and judges is being used to sharply abridge whatever modicum of freedom there is to be found in at-will employment.

Egypt’s opposition risks a dangerous hypocrisy | Rachel Shabi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/05/egypt-opposition-hypocrisy-muslim-brotherhood

... the manner of Morsi’s removal is nonetheless a tactical error. That’s not just because it gives the Brotherhood – already insular and defensive after years of persecution – a justified grudge to bear about being forcibly ejected from politics. It also comes across as an unprincipled flouting of the rules – the sort of flouting, in fact, that the Brotherhood became so hated for.

Egypt, Brazil, Turkey: without politics, protest is at the mercy of the elites | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/02/politics-protest-elites-brazil-egypt-organisation

Despite their differences, all three movements have striking common features. They combine widely divergent political groups and contradictory demands, along with the depoliticised, and lack a coherent organisational base. That can be an advantage for single-issue campaigns, but can lead to short-lived shallowness if the aims are more ambitious – which has arguably been the fate of the Occupy movement.

...

In the era of neoliberalism, when the ruling elite has hollowed out democracy and ensured that whoever you vote for you get the same, politically inchoate protest movements are bound to flourish. They have crucial strengths: they can change moods, ditch policies and topple governments. But without socially rooted organisation and clear political agendas, they can flare and fizzle, or be vulnerable to hijacking or diversion by more entrenched and powerful forces.

That also goes for revolutions – and is what appears to be happening in Egypt. Many activists regard traditional political parties and movements as redundant in the internet age. But that’s an argument for new forms of political and social organisation. Without it, the elites will keep control – however spectacular the protests.

Farming subsidies: this is the most blatant transfer of cash to the rich
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/01/farm-subsidies-blatant-transfer-of-cash-to-rich

As the British government cut benefits for the poor at home, in Europe it fought to keep millions in subsidies for wealthy farmers

#subventions #ue #agriculture

#Snowden's fate is a distraction from the important question: how do citizens control #surveillance ? Keep asking !
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/23/nsa-intelligence-industrial-complex-abuse

Failed states are a #western_myth | Elliot Ross | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/28/failed-states-western-myth-us-interests

Quibbling with the many bizarre claims of the index is tempting (Kenya is “less stable” than Syria, we learn), but in the end such gripes only give credibility to this tedious yearly exercise in faux-empirical cultural bigotry. For anyone interested in actually finding out about places such as Yemen or Uganda, the index is probably the last place you’d want to go. But what’s more interesting, and more helpful in understanding what the index really does, is to grasp that the very concept of the “#failed_state” comes with its own story.

The organisation that produces the index, the #Fund_for_Peace ▻http://global.fundforpeace.org/index.php, is the kind of outfit John le Carré thinks we should all be having nightmares about. Its director, JJ Messner (who puts together the list), is a former #lobbyist for the private military industry. None of the raw data behind the index is made public. So why on earth would an organisation like this want to keep the idea of the failed state prominent in public discourse?

The main reason is that the concept of the failed state has never existed outside a programme for western intervention. It has always been a way of constructing a rationale for imposing #US_interests on less powerful nations.

Luckily, we can pinpoint exactly where it all began – right down to the words on the page. The failed state was invented in late 1992 by Gerald Helman and Steven Ratner, two US state department employees, in an article in – you guessed it – #Foreign_Policy, suggestively entitled Saving failed states. With the end of the cold war, they argued, “a disturbing new phenomenon is emerging: the failed nation state, utterly incapable of sustaining itself as a member of the international community”. And with that, the beast was born.

Mais dire « US interests » c’est adopter le vocabulaire de ceux que l’on dénonce.

Want expert opinion ? Former #Stasi lieutenant-colonel comments on US mass #surveillance :
▻http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/26/195045/memories-of-stasi-color-germans.html #USA

Candidate Obama debates President Obama on Government Surveillance - YouTube
▻http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BmdovYztH8

Compilation des dires du candidat Obama versus le président Obama,

“This administration acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our security. It is not.”

“My assessment and my team’s assessment was that they help us prevent terrorist attacks.”

“This [Bush] administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide.”

“You can’t have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices.”

Via Gary Younge ▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/21/obama-worse-than-bush

Bono can’t help Africans by stealing their voice
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/17/bono-africans-stealing-voice-poor

Last week I drew attention to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, launched in the US when it chaired the G8 meeting last year. The alliance is pushing African countries into agreements that allow foreign companies to grab their land, patent their seeds and monopolise their food markets. Ignoring the voices of their own people, six African governments have struck deals with companies such as Monsanto, Cargill, Dupont, Syngenta, Nestlé and Unilever, in return for promises of aid by the UK and other G8 nations.

A wide range of activists, both African and European, is furious about the New Alliance. But the ONE campaign, co-founded by Bono, stepped up to defend it. The article it wrote last week was remarkable in several respects: in its elision of the interests of African leaders and those of their people, in its exaggeration of the role of small African companies, but above all in failing even to mention the injustice at the heart of the New Alliance – its promotion of a new wave of land grabbing. My curiosity was piqued.

The third thing I discovered is that there’s a long history here. In his brilliant and blistering book The Frontman: Bono (in the Name of Power), just released in the UK, the Irish scholar Harry Browne maintains that “for nearly three decades as a public figure, Bono has been … amplifying elite discourses, advocating ineffective solutions, patronising the poor and kissing the arses of the rich and powerful”. His approach to Africa is “a slick mix of traditional missionary and commercial colonialism, in which the poor world exists as a task for the rich world to complete”.

#ong #alimentation #agriculture