country:britain

Palestinian students force British envoy out of West Bank university -

Haaretz

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-students-force-british-envoy-out-of-west-bank-university-1.5074

Dozens of Palestinian students at a West Bank university heckled a British diplomat and attacked his car on Tuesday, preventing him from speaking on campus.

British Consul-General Sir Vincent Fean was mobbed by students at Birzeit University who chanted and held banners protesting what they said was Britain’s support for the establishment of Israel and its policies.

Le très haut débit à faire soi-même arrive dans la campagne anglaise - NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/02/14/172011262/diy-broadband-comes-to-the-english-countryside?sc=tw&cc=share

Des habitants du Lancashire rural en ont eu marre de leur connexion trop lente. Ils ont décidé de créer leur propre réseau à très haut débit : B4RN : ►http://b4rn.org.uk Financé et géré par des bénévoles, le réseau à creusé des trancher pour y poser des câbles à fibre optiques et commencer à relier les gens pour 50 $ par mois. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21455795 Tags : internetactu fing internetactu2net (...)

#hautdébit #refaire #diy #citelabo #villelegere

►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/04/the-return-of-marxism

Il s’agit de l’Iran, donc ce n’est pas la peine de recouper les informations, faisons confiance aux services secrets occidentaux

Iran’s supreme leader orders fresh terror attacks on West - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9490878/Irans-supreme-leader-orders-fresh-terror-attacks-on-West.html

Why Anonymous hacks UK government sites?: Voice of Russia
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_08_22/Why-Anonymous-hacks-UK-government-sites

The famous hacking collective @Anonymous has admitted that it has successfully hacked several British government websites, including that of the Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry. According to the group’s blog on Twitter, the attack was carried out in retaliation for Britain’s handling of @WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Who Owns Lake Nyasa?

http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/198-natural-resources/51849-who-owns-lake-nyasa.html

By Courtney Meyer
Think Africa Press
August 21, 2012

Disputes between Malawi and Tanzania over the ownership of Lake Nyasa, which borders the two countries, were rekindled recently when Malawi awarded a contract to British Surestream Petroleum to start gas and oil exploration on the eastern part of the lake. The 1890 Heligoland Agreement between colonial Britain and Germany defined that the border of Lake Nyasa lies along the Tanzanian side of the lake. This was reasserted at the 1963 Organisation of African Unity summit. International law, however, designates that borders are generally in the middle of a body of water, implying half of the lake belongs to Tanzania. Explorations for oil and gas are likely to endanger the current negotiations between the two countries to resolve the border issue and even pose a security threat.

President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania has insisted that war with Malawi is not a feasible outcome of ongoing disputes between the two countries over the ownership of the lake which borders the two countries.

Lake Nyasa, known as Lake Malawi by Malawians, has been the source of disagreements since colonial times, which were rekindled recently when Malawi allowed gas and oil exploration to begin around the lake’s border. Rhetoric has escalated over the past few months although it seems both sides are now attempting to calm tensions.

#frontières #différend-frontalier #tanzanie #malawi #afrique

The bizarre, unhealthy, blinding media contempt for Julian Assange – Glenn Greenwald
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/22/julian-assange-media-contempt

There are several obvious reasons why Assange provokes such unhinged media contempt. The most obvious among them is competition: the resentment generated by watching someone outside their profession generate more critical scoops in a year than all other media outlets combined (see this brilliant 2008 post, in the context of the Clintons, about how professional and ego-based competition produces personal hatred like nothing else can).

Other causes are more subtle though substantive. Many journalists (and liberals) like to wear the costume of outsider-insurgent, but are, at their core, devoted institutionalists, faithful believers in the goodness of their society’s power centers, and thus resent those (like Assange) who actually and deliberately place themselves outside of it. By putting his own liberty and security at risk to oppose the world’s most powerful factions, Assange has clearly demonstrated what happens to real adversarial dissidents and insurgents – they’re persecuted, demonized, and threatened, not befriended by and invited to parties within the halls of imperial power – and he thus causes many journalists to stand revealed as posers, servants to power, and courtiers.

Then there’s the ideological cause. As one long-time British journalist told me this week when discussing the vitriol of the British press toward Assange: “Nothing delights British former lefties more than an opportunity to defend power while pretending it is a brave stance in defence of a left liberal principle.” That’s the warped mindset that led to so many of these self-styled liberal journalists to support the attack on Iraq and other acts of Western aggression in the name of liberal values. And it’s why nothing triggers their rage like fundamental critiques of, and especially meaningful opposition to, the institutions of power to which they are unfailingly loyal.

Cenk Uygur démonte un papier revanchard du New York Times contre Julian Assange, allant jusqu’à l’accuser de ne pas toujours tirer la chasse des toilettes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_npSb-tyGQ

Julian Assange was absurdly smeared in a New York Times piece by William Neuman and Maggy Ayala. The report stooped as low as making reference to a claim that Assange did not flush a toilet, as if that were somewhow relevant. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks down this shoddy journalism.

Read the article here (the flush reference has been removed, as noted by Drew Grant in the New York Observer):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/world/americas/ecuador-to-let-assange-stay-in-its-embassy.html http://observer.com/2012/08/new-york-times-article-on-julian-assange-asylum-scrubs-its-toilet-referenc

Plus tard, et selon une habitude bien rodée au NY Times, la mention des toilettes disparaît discrètement de la version publiée en ligne.

#wikileaks

Does Copyright Matter ?
Tim Parks | The New York Review of Books

« Mass markets change the equation. The cost of distribution is dropping to zero. Mass markets permit profits on micro prices. Apple has proven both in music and apps that one can sell songs and apps for a dollar and make a profit instead of CDs in jewel cases for 20 dollars. The tech age is crushing the monolithic publishing and distribution business model, copyright law is a regulation protecting an antiquated business model. (…)
Copyright is a business tool to limit expression. We extend it at our own peril. »

Jud Lohmeyer, en commentaire de l’article de Tim Parks.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/aug/14/does-copyright-matter
#copyright

’Londoner against Londoner’ : UK fighters held journalist captive in Syria
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/06/13138884-londoner-against-londoner-uk-fighters-held-journalist-ca

A British photojournalist has described the terrifying week he was held captive by radical Islamist militants in Syria, where he and another photographer constantly feared for their lives at the hands of "disenchanted" young Britons.

Writing in The Sunday Times newspaper (site operates behind a pay wall), seasoned conflict photographer John Cantlie said he and Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans were repeatedly told to prepare to die and at one point "we heard the worst noise we will hear in our lives: the sharpening of knives for a beheading."

It was not supposed to be that way.

Ah ben si on commence à s’égorger entre londoniens :

“I ended up running for my life, barefoot and handcuffed, while British jihadists — young men with south London accents — shot to kill,” Cantlie wrote of the pair’s attempted escape early in their captivity.

“They were aiming their Kalashnikov at a British journalist, Londoner against Londoner in a rocky landscape that looked like the Scottish Highlands,” he wrote.

Why are pimps and feminists making the same arguments?

http://feministcurrent.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/fcbig4.png
http://feministcurrent.com/5711/why-are-pimps-and-feminists-making-the-same-arguments

Syria crisis: west loses faith in SNC to unite opposition groups | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/13/syria-opposition-groups-national-council

Washington, London and Paris now agree that efforts to encourage a unified opposition around the exile-led Syrian National Council (SNC) have failed, and are now seeking to cultivate more direct links with internal Syrian groups.

Has multiculturalism failed in the UK? Not really | Anthony Heath | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/10/multiculturalism-uk-research

Traditional gender roles in some minority communities are often spoken of as evidence of their parallel lives. The new report does find some support for this, but even in the first generation such attitudes are a minority preserve; indeed, the support is in line with the 14% of white British people who also favour the patriarchal model. It also shows that only one fifth of Muslims would support a proposal of sharia law in Britain. Yes, critics may worry it is this high, and we can’t deny that some support for separatism does exist, but similarly we can’t deny that some white British people support ethnic exclusionism. From these results it would seem the characterisation of minorities as living separate lives, rejecting British values and integration into British society is, to put it mildly, a slur on those British citizens.

Très intéressant : comment le plan Annan a été sabordé dès le début. Why Kofi Annan had enough over Syria. L’épisode du Communiqué de Genève est très parlant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/why-kofi-annan-enough-over-syria

In short, the communique appeared to move the US, Britain and France, as well as Turkey and Qatar, which also attended the Geneva meeting, to an even-handed stance at last. It marked Kofi Annan’s finest hour as the UN and Arab League’s special envoy.

A few days later, Russia circulated a draft resolution at the UN in New York to endorse the new approach. It urged member-states to work in the co-operative spirit of the Geneva text, extend the UN monitors’ team in Syria and press for a ceasefire. Then came the spanner. Britain, France and the US proposed a rival resolution with the one-sided elements that provoked earlier Russian and Chinese vetoes – punishment of Assad if he did not comply, threats of new sanctions, no word of pressure on the opposition and veiled hints of eventual military force by referring to chapter seven of the UN charter.

Pour mémoire, le Communiqué de Genève du 30 juin 2012 :
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/pays-zones-geo/syrie/la-france-et-la-syrie/evenements-4439/article/reunion-du-groupe-d-action-pour-la

B4RN.Org.uk - FTTH Broadband for the Rural North : Sponsored By Carrera IT Ltd
►http://b4rn.org.uk

The purpose of the project is to take a new approach to the ownership, financial and deployment models used traditionally, and still proposed by, #telecommunications companies. These models invariably leave rural areas outside of the scope of economic viability for the telecoms companies, and have helped to create the Digital Divide between rural and urban Britain.

#fibre_optique #campagne

Netanyahu seeks war with Iran so he can ethnically cleanse the West Bank - Moshe Machover
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/07/netanyahu-seeks-war-with-iran-so-he-can-ethnically-cleanse-the-west-bank

You see there is a Zionist version of what in America was called “manifest destiny”. The Zionist leadership regards the various accords, for example their agreement to the Partition of Palestine in 1947— they regard it in the exactly the same spirit as the US regarded the Indian treaties. They have just made it explicit with the Levy commission. The Levy Commission actually submitted a report that is going to be problematic, because you see the Zionists want Palestinian land but they don’t want Palestinians. The reason why they have not annexed the bulk of the West Bank with the exception of Jerusalem, where there is a Jewish majority— the reason why they have not annexed, is they want to get rid of the population first.

People forget, they annexed not only East Jerusalem but the Syrian Golan Heights, but first they did a massive ethnic cleansing there. People who are focused on the Palestinian aspect forget about the Golan Heights because it is not Palestine. The occupied territories include also the Golan Heights. What happened in 1967, when the guns were still smoking, Israel executed a massive ethnic cleansing of most of the population of the Golan Heights, more than 100,000 people, with the exception of part of the Druze community whom the Zionists don’t consider Arabs. So some  Druze were allowed to remain, and Israel annexed it.

Bubbles, German WWI reparations, vampire squids & discussion of massive defaulting to wrest power back to the people: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/financial-predators-v-labor-industry-and-democracy-by-mich

Editorial du Guardian du 27 juillet qui incrimine chacun des deux côtés dans la crise syrienne, à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur, dans la situation actuelle. Le fait de pointer aussi le jusqu’au boutisme diplomatique occidental depuis le départ et celui du CNS, à côté de celui de la Russie ou du régime, est un fait assez nouveau. L’article évoque de manière élogieuse la partie de l’opposition (notamment le CNCD) qui appelle à la négociation de San’t Egidio :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/27/syria-destruction-dearth-of-diplomacy/print

Le blogger Djazaïri a traduit cet édito en français :
http://mounadil.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/assad-cest-fini-ou-le-crime-dun-prix-nobel-de-la-paix

British envoy tells Israelis some un-diplomatic truths, and U.K. Jews should also listen in - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/british-envoy-tells-israelis-some-un-diplomatic-truths-and-u-k-jews-should-

Quand l’ambassadeur de France en Israël, au lieu de servir de relais au gouvernement israélien, tiendra-t-il de tels propos ?

Israël c’est Goliath et les Palestiniens David
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=279963

British envoy tells Israelis some un-diplomatic truths, and U.K. Jews should also listen in - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/british-envoy-tells-israelis-some-un-diplomatic-truths-and-u-k-jews-should-

Quand l’ambassadeur de France en Israël, au lieu de servir de relais au gouvernement israélien, tiendra-t-il de tels propos ?

Israël c’est Goliath et les Palestiniens David
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=279963

JO JO2012 Jeux olympiques Londres

Corporate sponsors tighten grip on the Olympics

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/olym-a02.shtml

By Paul Stuart
2 August 2012

The accumulated impact of corporate sponsorship on each successive games is choking to death whatever remains of the original Olympic ideal.

The Daily Telegraph quoted Marina Palomba, for the McCann Worldgroup agency, who said the sponsorship rules this time were “the most draconian law in advance of an Olympic Games ever.”

The London Olympics commercial sponsors include Visa, Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Cadburys, Heineken, Samsung, Nature Valley, Adidas, Lloyds TSB, BT, Proctor & Gamble and EDF energy. Organisers have drawn up a list of things banned in the Olympic park, including “any objects or clothing bearing political statements or overt commercial identification intended for ‘ambush marketing.’”

The alternative games in London : Voice of Russia
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_07_31/The-alternative-games-in-London

In spite of the excitement and the extravagant opening ceremony - not everyone in London is thrilled that the city is hosting the Olympic Games.

Crackdown on London graffiti artists ahead of Olympics : Voice of Russia
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_07_27/Olympics-launching-with-crackdown-on-graffiti-artists

Police in Britain have been accused of needlessly arresting people to keep London looking smart ahead of the Olympics. Four graffiti artists have been arrested by transportion police and banned from using public transportation and games venues.

Les autres facettes des Jeux Olympiques

Mass arrests outside London’s Olympic opening ceremony: an eye-witness account
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/kerry-anne-mendoza/mass-arrests-outside-londons-olympic-opening-ceremony-eye-witness-acc

London 2012’s opening ceremony paid tribute to Britain’s rich history of political dissent. But while Suffragettes and trade unionists were on parade inside the Olympic village, outside a group of peaceful cyclists on their monthly ride around the city were being stopped and kettled by police. Kerry-anne Mendoza, one of the 182 arrested, gives her personal account

#JO #UK #Police #Anti-JO

The Fog of Civil War - By Stephen Starr | Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/23/the_fog_of_civil_war

Contrary to reports, the Syrian government is allowing foreign journalists to enter the country. Teams from Fox News and Britain’s ITV television were recently granted 10-day visas to cover Syria from the capital. Many of these journalists are reporting from the bedsides of wounded regime soldiers and have remarked that Syria is, in fact, a divided country and that significant support does exist for the regime. But the limitations on official reporting are manifold. Government minders place restrictions on travel and contact with locals, making it difficult to report anything that does not fit the regime’s narrative.

Embedding with the rebels, who are equally eager to present themselves as victims rather than aggressors, invites similar hurdles in accessing the truth. But the rebels are a complicated bunch. Elizabeth Palmer, a journalist with CBS, recently managed to escape her government minders and go in search of fighters in the Free Syrian Army. When she found them, however, she was promptly told that she would be executed for having Syrian government stamps in her passport. Others covering events in the countryside have reported insurgents to have been a menace.

Ministers line up to lobby for Olympic billions - UK Politics - UK - The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ministers-line-up-to-lobby-for-olympic-billions-7953433.html

British ministers have been ordered to lobby cash-rich emerging nations such as Brazil and China during the Olympics to win multi-billion-pound contracts and help the stuttering UK economy.

#JO #business