Lettre ouverte dans le Guardian de plus de 100 artistes et personnalités, pour protester contre le choix du Open Source Festival de Düsseldorf, en Allemagne (encore une fois !), de retirer de l’affiche le rappeur Talib Kweli pour ses opinions pro palestiniennes :
Le retrait de Talib Kweli de la programmation du festival fait partie de la tendance à la censure anti-palestinienne
Lettre ouverte de plus de 100 artistes et personnalités, dont Peter Gabriel, Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Eve Ensler, Reem Kelani, Tariq Ali, Avi Mograbi, Eyal Sivan, Eyal Weizman, Danielle Alma Ravitzki, Aki Kaurismäki, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Brian Eno, Roger Waters, Robert Wyatt, Tom Morello, Thurston Moore, Boots Riley, Mark Ruffalo, Patrisse Cullors, Marc Lamont Hill, Ali Shaheed Muhammad du groupe A Tribe Called Quest, Ben UFO, The Black Madonna, The Guardian, le 2 juillet 2019
►http://www.agencemediapalestine.fr/blog/2019/07/03/le-retrait-de-talib-kweli-de-la-programmation-du-festival-fait-
#Palestine #Allemagne #UK #Censure #Rap #Talib_Kweli #BDS #Boycott_culturel
]]>Insect collapse: ‘We are destroying our life support systems’ | Environment | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/15/insect-collapse-we-are-destroying-our-life-support-systems
Scientist Brad Lister returned to Puerto Rican rainforest after 35 years to find 98% of ground insects had vanished
“We knew that something was amiss in the first couple days,” said Brad Lister. “We were driving into the forest and at the same time both Andres and I said: ‘Where are all the birds?’ There was nothing.”
]]>Sport et corruption : un document implique le bras droit de l’émir du Qatar
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/170619/un-document-impliquune-enquete-de-mediapart-et-de-guardian-montre-que-le-d
Une enquête de Mediapart et de « The Guardian » suggère que le directeur de cabinet de l’émir Tamim al-Thani a négocié des versements suspects au cœur de l’enquête judiciaire française pour corruption sur l’attribution des mondiaux d’athlétisme. Le président du PSG, Nasser al-Khelaïfi, est également bien plus impliqué que ce qu’il a bien voulu dire au juge.
#Sports #Lamine_Diack,_Yousef_al-Obaidly,_IAAF,_Corruption,_Qatar,_Nasser_Al-Khelaifi,_Papa_Massata_Diack,_Tamim_al-Thani,_Athlétisme,_Khalid_al-Thani,_BeIn_Sports
ICC submission calls for prosecution of EU over migrant deaths
Member states should face punitive action over deaths in Mediterranean, say lawyers.
The EU and member states should be prosecuted for the deaths of thousands of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean fleeing Libya, according to a detailed legal submission to the international criminal court (ICC).
The 245-page document calls for punitive action over the EU’s deterrence-based migration policy after 2014, which allegedly “intended to sacrifice the lives of migrants in distress at sea, with the sole objective of dissuading others in similar situation from seeking safe haven in Europe”.
The indictment is aimed at the EU and the member states that played a prominent role in the refugee crisis: Italy, Germany and France.
The stark accusation, that officials and politicians knowingly created the “world’s deadliest migration route” resulting in more than 12,000 people losing their lives, is made by experienced international lawyers.
The two main authors of the submission are Juan Branco, who formerly worked at the ICC as well as at France’s foreign affairs ministry, and Omer Shatz, an Israeli lawyer who teaches at Sciences Po university in Paris.
Most refugees in Libyan detention centres at risk – UN
Read more
The allegation of “crimes against humanity” draws partially on internal papers from Frontex, the EU organisation charged with protecting the EU’s external borders, which, the lawyers say, warned that moving from the successful Italian rescue policy of Mare Nostrum could result in a “higher number of fatalities”.
The submission states that: “In order to stem migration flows from Libya at all costs … and in lieu of operating safe rescue and disembarkation as the law commands, the EU is orchestrating a policy of forced transfer to concentration camps-like detention facilities [in Libya] where atrocious crimes are committed.”
The switch from Mare Nostrum to a new policy from 2014, known as Triton (named after the Greek messenger god of the sea), is identified as a crucial moment “establishing undisputed mens rea [mental intention] for the alleged offences”.
It is claimed that the evidence in the dossier establishes criminal liability within the jurisdiction of the ICC for “causing the death of thousands of human beings per year, the refoulement [forcible return] of tens of thousands migrants attempting to flee Libya and the subsequent commission of murder, deportation, imprisonment, enslavement, torture, rape, persecution and other inhuman acts against them”.
The Triton policy introduced the “most lethal and organised attack against civilian population the ICC had jurisdiction over in its entire history,” the legal document asserts. “European Union and Member States’ officials had foreknowledge and full awareness of the lethal consequences of their conduct.”
The submission does not single out individual politicians or officials for specific responsibility but does quote diplomatic cables and comments from national leaders, including Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.
The office of the prosecutor at the ICC is already investigating crimes in Libya but the main focus has been on the Libyan civil war, which erupted in 2011 and led to the removal of Muammar Gaddafi. Fatou Bensouda, the ICC prosecutor, has, however, already mentioned inquiries into “alleged crimes against migrants transiting through Libya”.
The Mare Nostrum search and rescue policy launched in October 2013, the submission says, was “in many ways hugely successful, rescuing 150,810 migrants over a 364-day period”.
Criticism of the policy began in mid-2014 on the grounds, it is said, that it was not having a sufficient humanitarian impact and that there was a desire to move from assistance at sea to assistance on land.
“EU officials sought to end Mare Nostrum to allegedly reduce the number of crossings and deaths,” the lawyers maintain. “However, these reasons should not be considered valid as the crossings were not reduced. And the death toll was 30-fold higher.”
The subsequent policy, Triton, only covered an “area up to 30 nautical miles from the Italian coastline of Lampedusa, leaving around 40 nautical miles of key distress area off the coast of Libya uncovered,” the submission states. It also deployed fewer vessels.
It is alleged EU officials “did not shy away from acknowledging that Triton was an inadequate replacement for Mare Nostrum”. An internal Frontex report from 28 August 2014, quoted by the lawyers, acknowledged that “the withdrawal of naval assets from the area, if not properly planned and announced well in advance – would likely result in a higher number of fatalities.”
The first mass drownings cited came on 22 January and 8 February 2015, which resulted in 365 deaths nearer to the Libyan coast. It is alleged that in one case, 29 of the deaths occurred from hypothermia during the 12-hour-long transport back to the Italian island of Lampedusa. During the “black week” of 12 to 18 April 2015, the submission says, two successive shipwrecks led to the deaths of 1,200 migrants.
As well as drownings, the forced return of an estimated 40,000 refugees allegedly left them at risk of “executions, torture and other systematic rights abuses” in militia-controlled camps in Libya.
“European Union officials were fully aware of the treatment of the migrants by the Libyan Coastguard and the fact that migrants would be taken ... to an unsafe port in Libya, where they would face immediate detention in the detention centers, a form of unlawful imprisonment in which murder, sexual assault, torture and other crimes were known by the European Union agents and officials to be common,” the submission states.
Overall, EU migration policies caused the deaths of “thousands civilians per year in the past five years and produced about 40,000 victims of crimes within the jurisdiction of the court in the past three years”, the report states.
The submission will be handed in to the ICC on Monday 3 June.
An EU spokesperson said the union could not comment on “non-existing” legal actions but added: “Our priority has always been and will continue to be protecting lives and ensuring humane and dignified treatment of everyone throughout the migratory routes. It’s a task where no single actor can ensure decisive change alone.
“All our action is based on international and European law. The European Union dialogue with Libyan authorities focuses on the respect for human rights of migrants and refugees, on promoting the work of UNHCR and IOM on the ground, and on pushing for the development of alternatives to detention, such as the setting up of safe spaces, to end the systematic and arbitrary detention system of migrants and refugees in Libya.
“Search and Rescue operations in the Mediterranean need to follow international law, and responsibility depends on where they take place. EU operations cannot enter Libya waters, they operate in international waters. SAR operations in Libyan territorial waters are Libyan responsibility.”
The spokesperson added that the EU has “pushed Libyan authorities to put in place mechanisms improving the treatment of the migrants rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jun/03/icc-submission-calls-for-prosecution-of-eu-over-migrant-deaths
#justice #décès #CPI #mourir_en_mer #CPI #cour_pénale_internationale
ping @reka @isskein @karine4
Ajouté à la métaliste sur les sauvetages en Méditerranée :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/706177
’I had pain all over my body’: Italy’s tainted tobacco industry
Three of the world’s largest tobacco manufacturers, #Philip_Morris, #British_American_Tobacco and #Imperial_Brands, are buying leaves that could have been picked by exploited African migrants working in Italy’s multi-million euro industry.
Workers including children, said they were forced to work up to 12 hours a day without contracts or sufficient health and safety equipment in Campania, a region that produces more than a third of Italy’s tobacco. Some workers said they were paid about three euros an hour.
The Guardian investigation into Italy’s tobacco industry, which spanned three years, is believed to be the first in Europe to examine the supply chain.
Italy’s tobacco market is dominated by the three multinational manufacturers, all of whom buy from local producers. According to an internal report by the farmers’ organisation ONT Italia, seen by the Guardian and confirmed by a document from the European Leaf Tobacco Interbranch, the companies bought three-fifths of Italian tobacco in 2017. Philip Morris alone purchased 21,000 tons of the 50,000 tons harvested that year.
The multinationals all said they buy from suppliers who operate under a strict code of conduct to ensure fair treatment of workers. Philip Morris said it had not come across any abuse. Imperial and British American said they would investigate any complaints brought to their attention.
Italy is the EU’s leading tobacco producer. In 2017, the industry was worth €149m (£131m).
Despite there being a complex system of guarantees and safeguards in place for tobacco workers, more than 20 asylum seekers who spoke to the Guardian, including 10 who had worked in the tobacco fields during the 2018 season, reported rights violations and a lack of safety equipment.
The interviewees said they had no employment contracts, were paid wages below legal standards, and had to work up to 12 work hours a day. They also said they had no access to clean water, and suffered verbal abuse and racial discrimination from bosses. Two interviewees were underage and employed in hazardous work.
Didier, born and raised in Ivory Coast, arrived in Italy via Libya. He recently turned 18, but was 17 when, last spring, a tobacco grower in Capua Vetere, near the city of Caserta, offered him work in his fields. “I woke up at 4am. We started at 6am,” he said. “The work was exhausting. It was really hot inside the greenhouse and we had no contracts.”
Alex, from Ghana, another minor who worked in the same area, said he was forced to work 10 to 12 hours a day. “If you are tired or not, you are supposed to work”, otherwise “you lose your job”.
Workers complained of having to work without a break until lunchtime.
Alex said he wasn’t given gloves or work clothes to protect him from the nicotine contained in the leaves, or from pesticides. He also said that when he worked without gloves he felt “some sickness like fever, like malaria, or headaches”.
Moisture on a tobacco leaf from dew or rain may contain as much nicotine as the content of six cigarettes, one study found. Direct contact can lead to nicotine poisoning.
Most of the migrants said they had worked without gloves. Low wages prevented them from buying their own.
At the end of the working day, said Sekou, 27, from Guinea, who has worked in the tobacco fields since 2016: “I could not get my hands in the water to take a shower because my hands were cut”.
Olivier added: “I had pain all over my body, especially on my hands. I had to take painkillers every day.”
The migrants said they were usually hired on roundabouts along the main roads through Caserta province.
Workers who spoke to the Guardian said they didn’t have contracts and were paid half the minimum wage. Most earned between €20 and €30 a day, rather than the minimum of €42.
Thomas, from Ghana, said: “I worked last year in the tobacco fields near Cancello, a village near Caserta. They paid me €3 per hour. The work was terrible and we had no contracts”.
The Guardian found African workers who were paid €3 an hour, while Albanians, Romanians or Italians, were paid almost double.
“I worked with Albanians. They paid the Albanians €50 a day,” (€5 an hour), says Didier. “They paid me €3 per hour. That’s why I asked them for a raise. But when I did, they never called back.”
Tammaro Della Corte, leader of the General Confederation of Italian Workers labour union in Caserta, said: “Unfortunately, the reality of the work conditions in the agricultural sector in the province of Caserta, including the tobacco industry, is marked by a deep labour exploitation, low wages, illegal contracts and an impressive presence of the caporalato [illegal hiring], including extortion and blackmailing of the workers.
“We speak to thousands of workers who work in extreme conditions, the majority of whom are immigrants from eastern Europe, north Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. A large part of the entire supply chain of the tobacco sector is marked by extreme and alarming working conditions.”
Between 405,000 and 500,000 migrants work in Italy’s agricultural sector, about half the total workforce. According to the Placido Rizzotto Observatory, which investigates worker conditions in the agricultural sector, 80% of those working without contracts are migrants.
Multinational tobacco companies have invested billions of euros in the industry in Italy. Philip Morris alone has invested €1bn over the past five years and has investment plans on the same scale for the next two years. In 2016, the company invested €500m to open a factory near Bologna to manufacture smokeless cigarettes. A year later, another €500m investment was announced to expand production capacity at the factory.
British American Tobacco declared investments in Italy of €1bn between 2015 and 2019.
Companies have signed agreements with the agriculture ministry and farmers’ associations.
Since 2011, Philip Morris, which buys the majority of tobacco in Campania, has signed agreements to purchase tobacco directly from ONT Italia.
Philip Morris buys roughly 70% of the Burley tobacco variety produced in Campania. Approximately 900 farmers work for companies who supply to Philip Morris.
In 2018, Burley and Virginia Bright varieties constituted 90% of Italian tobacco production. About 15,000 tons of the 16,000 tons of Italian Burley are harvested in Campania.
In 2015, Philip Morris signed a deal with Coldiretti, the main association of entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector, to buy 21,000 tons of tobacco a year from Italian farmers, by investing €500m, until 2020.
Gennarino Masiello, president of Coldiretti Campania and national vice-president, said the deal included a “strong commitment to respect the rights of employees, banning phenomena like caporalato and child labour”.
Steps have been taken to improve workers’ conditions in the tobacco industry.
A deal agreed last year between the Organizzazione Interprofessionale Tabacco Italia (OITI), a farmers’ organisation, and the ministry of agriculture resulted in the introduction of a code of practice in the tobacco industry, including protecting the health of workers, and a national strategy to reduce the environmental impact.
But last year, the OITI was forced to acknowledge that “workplace abuses often have systemic causes” and that “long-term solutions to address these issues require the serious and lasting commitment of all the players in the supply chain, together with that of the government and other parties involved”.
Despite the code, the migrants interviewed reported no change in their working conditions.
In 2017, Philip Morris signed an agreement with the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) to hire 20 migrants as trainees within the Campania tobacco producing companies, to “support their exit from situations of serious exploitation”. Migrants on the six-month trainee scheme receive a monthly salary of €600 from Philip Morris.
But the scheme appears to have little impact.
Kofi, Sekou and Hassan were among 20 migrants hired under the agreement. Two of them said their duties and treatment were no different from other workers. At the end of the six months, Sekou said he was not hired regularly, but continued to work with no contract and low wages, in the same company that signed the agreement with Philip Morris.
“If I didn’t go to work they wouldn’t pay me. I was sick, they wouldn’t pay me,” he said.
In a statement, Huub Savelkouls, chief sustainability officer at Philip Morris International, said the company is committed to ensuring safety and fair conditions in its supply chain and had not come across the issues raised.
“Working with the independent, not-for-profit organisation, Verité, we developed PMI’s Agricultural Labor Practices (ALP) code that currently reaches more than 350,000 farms worldwide. Farmers supplying PMI in Italy are contractually bound to respect the standards of the ALP code. They receive training and field teams conduct farm visits twice a month to monitor adherence to the ALP code,” he said.
“Recognising the complex situation with migrant workers in Italian agriculture, PMI has taken supplementary steps to gain more visibility and prevent potential issues through a mechanism that provides direct channels for workers to raise concerns, specifically funding an independent helpline and direct engagement programme with farm workers.”
On the IOM scheme, he said: “This work has been recognised by stakeholders and elements are being considered for continued action.”
Simon Cleverly, group head of corporate affairs at British American Tobacco, said: “We recognise that agricultural supply chains and global business operations, by their nature, can present significant rights risks and we have robust policies and process in place to ensure these risks are minimised. Our supplier code of conduct sets out the minimum contractual standards we expect of all our suppliers worldwide, and specifically requires suppliers to ensure that their operations are free from unlawful migrant labour. This code also requires suppliers to provide all workers, including legal migrant workers, with fair wages and benefits, which comply with applicable minimum wage legislation. To support compliance, we have due diligence in place for all our third-party suppliers, including the industry-wide sustainable tobacco programme (STP).”
He added: “Where we are made aware of alleged human rights abuses, via STP, our whistleblowing procedure or by any other channel, we investigate and where needed, take remedial action.”
Simon Evans, group media relations manager at Imperial Tobacco, said: “Through the industry-wide sustainable tobacco programme we work with all of our tobacco suppliers to address good agricultural practices, improve labour practices and protect the environment. We purchase a very small amount of tobacco from the Campania region via a local third party supplier, with whom we are working to understand and resolve any issues.”
ONT said technicians visited tobacco producers at least once a month to monitor compliance with contract and production regulations. It said it would not tolerate any kind of labour exploitation and would follow up the Guardian investigation.
“If they [the abuses] happen to be attributable to farms associated with ONT, we will take the necessary measures, not only for the violation of the law, but above all to protect all our members who operate with total honesty and transparency.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/may/31/i-had-pain-all-over-my-body-italys-tainted-tobacco-industry?CMP=share_b
#tabac #industrie_du_tabac #exploitation #travail #migrations #Caserta #Italie #néo-esclavagisme #Pouilles #Campania
ping @albertocampiphoto @marty @reka @isskein
Animalia by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo review – war, violence, sickness and cruelty | Books | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/30/animalia-jean-baptiste-del-amo-review
Bleak is the word. If EM Cioran, the great Romanian philosopher of the bleak, had been a novelist, Animalia is the kind of novel he would have produced. Published by the courageous Fitzcarraldo, this won’t make it on to a list of beach reads. But it is likely to be hailed as a modern classic. You can’t have everything.
Jean-Baptiste Del Amo has published four novels in his native France. Animalia is the first to appear in English, in a translation by Frank Wynne, whose unenviable task it has been to take Del Amo’s original, Règne Animal, and to capture and convey something of its full throttle, bold, dark profundity. He has triumphantly succeeded: Animalia in English has a truly savage quality, all blood and stench and despair.
]]>#Patrice_Lumumba: the most important assassination of the 20th century | Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination
Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated 50 years ago today, on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.
#afrique #rdc #résistance
]]>Bien garder à l’esprit - Pour mesurer ce qu’est réellement l’administration Trump :
In recent months, the Trump administration has taken a hard line, refusing to agree to any UN documents that refer to sexual or reproductive health, on grounds that such language implies support for abortions. It has also opposed the use of the word “gender”, seeing it as a cover for liberal promotion of transgender rights.
UN waters down rape resolution to appease US’s hardline abortion stance | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/23/un-resolution-passes-trump-us-veto-threat-abortion-language-removed
The UN has backed a resolution on combatting rape in conflict but excluded references in the text to sexual and reproductive health, after vehement opposition from the US.
The resolution passed by the security council on Tuesday after a three-hour debate and a weekend of fierce negotiations on the language among member states that threatened to derail the process.
The vote was carried 13 votes in favour. China and Russia abstained. On Monday, the US had threatened to veto the resolution but it is understood that last minute concessions on Tuesday morning got the US on side.
Other omissions included calls for a working group to review progress on ending sexual violence.
]]>Jordi Ruiz Cirera | Mexico-based Photographer
▻http://jordiruizphotography.com/info-contact/info
▻http://jordiruizphotography.com/work/ramallahs-youth-at-a-crossroads
Jordi Ruiz Cirera is an independent documentary photographer and filmmaker from Barcelona, based in Mexico. Devoted to long-term projects, Jordi focuses on the effects of globalisation in small communities and how they are adapting to it, and, since relocating in Mexico City, on migration issues across the Americas.
He is a recipient of Magnum Foundation’s Emergency Fund and winner of global awards including the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London, Magnum’s 30 under 30, POYi, Lucie Awards, Magenta Flash Forward and the AOP’s Student Photographer of the Year. His work has been exhibited widely in galleries and at festivals, and belongs to a number of private collections.
Jordi’s work has appeared in international publications that include The New York Times, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Guardian, Le Monde M and National Geographic’s Proof. He also works on commissions for corporate clients and non-profits such as MSF / Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations and Save the Children.
In 2014, Jordi published his first monograph, Los Menonos, with independent publishing house Éditions du LIC. He holds a BA degree in design and an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication. Jordi is a member of Panos Pictures.
]]>Girl, 11, gives birth to rapist’s child after Argentina refuses abortion | Global development | The Guardian
#catholicisme #pays_catholique #impact
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/28/girl-11-gives-birth-to-rapists-child-after-argentina-refuses-abortion
An 11-year old girl who became pregnant after being raped was forced to give birth after Argentine authorities refused to allow her the abortion to which she was entitled.
The authorities ignored repeated requests for an abortion from the child, called “Lucía” to protect her identity, as well as her mother and a number of Argentine women’s right activists. After 23 weeks of pregnancy, she had to undergo a caesarean section on Tuesday. The baby is unlikely to survive.
The move has been described as the “worst kind of cruelty for this child” and has been blamed on an anti-choice strategy in the country to force girls to carry their pregnancies to term.
]]>Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/12/slavery-sicily-farming-raped-beaten-exploited-romanian-women
ça date de 2017
A vulnerable female workforce
An Italian migrant rights organisation, the Proxyma Association, estimates that more than half of all Romanian women working in the greenhouses are forced into sexual relations with their employers. Almost all of them work in conditions of forced labour and severe exploitation.
Police say they believe that up to 7,500 women, the majority of whom are Romanian, are living in slavery on farms across the region. Guido Volpe, a commander in the carabinieri military police in Sicily, told the Observer that Ragusa was the centre of exploitation on the island.
“These women are working as slaves in the fields and we know they are blackmailed to have sex with the owners of the farms or greenhouses because of their psychological subjugation,” he says. “It is not easy to investigate or stop this from happening, as the women are mostly too afraid to speak out.”
Many of the Romanian women leave children and dependent families at home and feel forced into making the desperate choices that have carved deep lines of grief into Bolos’s face.
]]>The Twitter Smearing of Corbyn and Assange
▻https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/14/the-twitter-smearing-of-corbyn-and-assange
Analysis of 11 of these individuals has been undertaken to assess to what extent their tweets have linked Corbyn unfairly (for a definition see below) to Russia. The results show two things:
– first, the smearing of Corbyn about Russia is more extensive than has been revealed so far;
– second, many of the same individuals have also been attacking a second target – Julian Assange, trying to also falsely link him to the Kremlin.
Many of these 11 individuals are associated with The Times and The Guardian in the U.K. and the Atlantic Council in the U.S. The research does not show, however, that these tweets are associated with the Integrity Initiative (see further below).
]]>Revealed : Google’s ’two-tier’ workforce training document
▻https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/11/google-tvc-full-time-employees-training-document
Exclusive : internal document shows how Google employees are trained to treat temps, vendors and contractors Google staff are instructed not to reward certain workers with perks like T-shirts, invite them to all-hands meetings, or allow them to engage in professional development training, an internal training document seen by the Guardian reveals. The guide instructs Google employees on the ins and outs of interacting with its tens of thousands of temps, vendors and contractors – a class (...)
#Google #travail #journalisme #surveillance #travailleurs #discrimination
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0bbbd5584385eba24f16d9e96a94dd50c3327e9e/0_41_3874_2325/master/3874.jpg
]]>High score, low pay : why the gig economy loves gamification | Business | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/20/high-score-low-pay-gamification-lyft-uber-drivers-ride-hailing-gig-econ
Using ratings, competitions and bonuses to incentivise workers isn’t new – but as I found when I became a Lyft driver, the gig economy is taking it to another level.
Every week, it sends its drivers a personalised “Weekly Feedback Summary”. This includes passenger comments from the previous week’s rides and a freshly calculated driver rating. It also contains a bar graph showing how a driver’s current rating “stacks up” against previous weeks, and tells them whether they have been “flagged” for cleanliness, friendliness, navigation or safety.
At first, I looked forward to my summaries; for the most part, they were a welcome boost to my self-esteem. My rating consistently fluctuated between 4.89 stars and 4.96 stars, and the comments said things like: “Good driver, positive attitude” and “Thanks for getting me to the airport on time!!” There was the occasional critique, such as “She weird”, or just “Attitude”, but overall, the comments served as a kind of positive reinforcement mechanism. I felt good knowing that I was helping people and that people liked me.
But one week, after completing what felt like a million rides, I opened my feedback summary to discover that my rating had plummeted from a 4.91 (“Awesome”) to a 4.79 (“OK”), without comment. Stunned, I combed through my ride history trying to recall any unusual interactions or disgruntled passengers. Nothing. What happened? What did I do? I felt sick to my stomach.
Because driver ratings are calculated using your last 100 passenger reviews, one logical solution is to crowd out the old, bad ratings with new, presumably better ratings as fast as humanly possible. And that is exactly what I did.
In a certain sense, Kalanick is right. Unlike employees in a spatially fixed worksite (the factory, the office, the distribution centre), rideshare drivers are technically free to choose when they work, where they work and for how long. They are liberated from the constraining rhythms of conventional employment or shift work. But that apparent freedom poses a unique challenge to the platforms’ need to provide reliable, “on demand” service to their riders – and so a driver’s freedom has to be aggressively, if subtly, managed. One of the main ways these companies have sought to do this is through the use of gamification.
Simply defined, gamification is the use of game elements – point-scoring, levels, competition with others, measurable evidence of accomplishment, ratings and rules of play – in non-game contexts. Games deliver an instantaneous, visceral experience of success and reward, and they are increasingly used in the workplace to promote emotional engagement with the work process, to increase workers’ psychological investment in completing otherwise uninspiring tasks, and to influence, or “nudge”, workers’ behaviour. This is what my weekly feedback summary, my starred ratings and other gamified features of the Lyft app did.
There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that gamifying business operations has real, quantifiable effects. Target, the US-based retail giant, reports that gamifying its in-store checkout process has resulted in lower customer wait times and shorter lines. During checkout, a cashier’s screen flashes green if items are scanned at an “optimum rate”. If the cashier goes too slowly, the screen flashes red. Scores are logged and cashiers are expected to maintain an 88% green rating. In online communities for Target employees, cashiers compare scores, share techniques, and bemoan the game’s most challenging obstacles.
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But colour-coding checkout screens is a pretty rudimental kind of gamification. In the world of ride-hailing work, where almost the entirety of one’s activity is prompted and guided by screen – and where everything can be measured, logged and analysed – there are few limitations on what can be gamified.
Every Sunday morning, I receive an algorithmically generated “challenge” from Lyft that goes something like this: “Complete 34 rides between the hours of 5am on Monday and 5am on Sunday to receive a $63 bonus.” I scroll down, concerned about the declining value of my bonuses, which once hovered around $100-$220 per week, but have now dropped to less than half that.
“Click here to accept this challenge.” I tap the screen to accept. Now, whenever I log into driver mode, a stat meter will appear showing my progress: only 21 more rides before I hit my first bonus.
In addition to enticing drivers to show up when and where demand hits, one of the main goals of this gamification is worker retention. According to Uber, 50% of drivers stop using the application within their first two months, and a recent report from the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California in Davis suggests that just 4% of ride-hail drivers make it past their first year.
Before Lyft rolled out weekly ride challenges, there was the “Power Driver Bonus”, a weekly challenge that required drivers to complete a set number of regular rides. I sometimes worked more than 50 hours per week trying to secure my PDB, which often meant driving in unsafe conditions, at irregular hours and accepting nearly every ride request, including those that felt potentially dangerous (I am thinking specifically of an extremely drunk and visibly agitated late-night passenger).
Of course, this was largely motivated by a real need for a boost in my weekly earnings. But, in addition to a hope that I would somehow transcend Lyft’s crappy economics, the intensity with which I pursued my PDBs was also the result of what Burawoy observed four decades ago: a bizarre desire to beat the game.
Former Google “design ethicist” Tristan Harris has also described how the “pull-to-refresh” mechanism used in most social media feeds mimics the clever architecture of a slot machine: users never know when they are going to experience gratification – a dozen new likes or retweets – but they know that gratification will eventually come. This unpredictability is addictive: behavioural psychologists have long understood that gambling uses variable reinforcement schedules – unpredictable intervals of uncertainty, anticipation and feedback – to condition players into playing just one more round.
It is not uncommon to hear ride-hailing drivers compare even the mundane act of operating their vehicles to the immersive and addictive experience of playing a video game or a slot machine. In an article published by the Financial Times, long-time driver Herb Croakley put it perfectly: “It gets to a point where the app sort of takes over your motor functions in a way. It becomes almost like a hypnotic experience. You can talk to drivers and you’ll hear them say things like, I just drove a bunch of Uber pools for two hours, I probably picked up 30–40 people and I have no idea where I went. In that state, they are literally just listening to the sounds [of the driver’s apps]. Stopping when they said stop, pick up when they say pick up, turn when they say turn. You get into a rhythm of that, and you begin to feel almost like an android.”
In their foundational text Algorithmic Labor and Information Asymmetries: A Case Study of Uber’s Drivers, Alex Rosenblat and Luke Stark write: “Uber’s self-proclaimed role as a connective intermediary belies the important employment structures and hierarchies that emerge through its software and interface design.” “Algorithmic management” is the term Rosenblat and Stark use to describe the mechanisms through which Uber and Lyft drivers are directed. To be clear, there is no singular algorithm. Rather, there are a number of algorithms operating and interacting with one another at any given moment. Taken together, they produce a seamless system of automatic decision-making that requires very little human intervention.
For many on-demand platforms, algorithmic management has completely replaced the decision-making roles previously occupied by shift supervisors, foremen and middle- to upper- level management. Uber actually refers to its algorithms as “decision engines”. These “decision engines” track, log and crunch millions of metrics every day, from ride frequency to the harshness with which individual drivers brake. It then uses these analytics to deliver gamified prompts perfectly matched to drivers’ data profiles.
To increase the prospect of surge pricing, drivers in online forums regularly propose deliberate, coordinated, mass “log-offs” with the expectation that a sudden drop in available drivers will “trick” the algorithm into generating higher surges. I have never seen one work, but the authors of a recently published paper say that mass log-offs are occasionally successful.
Viewed from another angle, though, mass log-offs can be understood as good, old-fashioned work stoppages. The temporary and purposeful cessation of work as a form of protest is the core of strike action, and remains the sharpest weapon workers have to fight exploitation. But the ability to log-off en masse has not assumed a particularly emancipatory function.
After weeks of driving like a maniac in order to restore my higher-than-average driver rating, I managed to raise it back up to a 4.93. Although it felt great, it is almost shameful and astonishing to admit that one’s rating, so long as it stays above 4.6, has no actual bearing on anything other than your sense of self-worth. You do not receive a weekly bonus for being a highly rated driver. Your rate of pay does not increase for being a highly rated driver. In fact, I was losing money trying to flatter customers with candy and keep my car scrupulously clean. And yet, I wanted to be a highly rated driver.
How much is an hour worth? The war over the minimum wage
Read more
And this is the thing that is so brilliant and awful about the gamification of Lyft and Uber: it preys on our desire to be of service, to be liked, to be good. On weeks that I am rated highly, I am more motivated to drive. On weeks that I am rated poorly, I am more motivated to drive. It works on me, even though I know better. To date, I have completed more than 2,200 rides.
#Lyft #Uber #Travail #Psychologie_comportementale #Gamification #Néo_management #Lutte_des_classes
]]>’When you rescue a trafficked child it’s like saving a life’ | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/nov/26/rescue-trafficked-children-like-saving-life-old-delhi-india-railway-sys
The window available to identify and assist the huge number of trafficked children passing through Old Delhi station is fleeting. Yet, as India ramps up rescue efforts, there is real progress
]]>Des nouvelles du « Black Friday » en Norvège, c’est à la Une de toutes les télés et de tous les journaux -> pour alimenter un futur billet sur la #consommation
Ici à Arendal, certains parents ont filé l’équivalent de 50 euros à leurs enfants qui voulaient « participer à la fête »... En sortant de l’école, ils iront dans la gallerie marchande pour faire « des bonnes affaires » avec leur billet de 500 NoK.
Alors :
A commencer par un reportage et un débat sur la NRK qui montre des images tournées à 5:00 ce matin... J’ai rarement vu qu’elque chose d’aussi obscène.
Basé sur les chiffres de l’année dernière, dans le pays le plus riche du monde, on devrait dépenser dans les magasins environs 400 millions d’euros rien qu’aujourd’hui (soit la même somme que plusieurs semaines voir plusieurs mois en temps normal)
Le truc est déjà complètement gore, et on apprend que les proprio des grands magasins et des shopping centers situés en général en périphéries on loué de milliers d’autobus pour organiser des services de navettes gratuites depuis les centres villes, loués des espaces de parkings supplémentaires, proposent des aides pour transporter les produits achetés, et je ne parle pas de la bouffe gratuite, des boissons etc...
Venter shoppingkaos : Her stormer kundene inn porten klokka 05.00 – NRK Norge – Oversikt over nyheter fra ulike deler av landet
▻https://www.nrk.no/norge/venter-shoppingkaos_-her-stormer-kundene-inn-porten-klokka-05.00-1.14307195
Venter shoppingkaos : Her stormer kundene inn porten klokka 05.00
VESTBY (NRK) : Butikkene har doblet og triplet antall ansatte på jobb. Antall vektere er firedoblet og Røde Kors sto klare da Oslo Fashion Outlet i Vestby åpnet portene på Black Friday.
❞
–---
Mais il y a quand même un petit mouvement de protestation et cetaines et certains resteront fermé aujoud’hui :
Biskopen meiner Black Friday er med på skape uro og kjøpepress – NRK Sogn og Fjordane – Lokale nyheter, TV og radio
▻https://www.nrk.no/sognogfjordane/biskopen-meiner-black-friday-er-med-pa-skape-uro-og-kjopepress-1.14305896
Stengjer butikken i protest på Black Friday
– Black Friday øydelegg for småbutikkane, hevdar Maja Dahl Igland Vigeland og Marita Hjelmeland hos konseptbutikken Nério+Fend i Stryn. Dei stengjer like godt i protest.
❞
–---
Les télés ont envoyé des équipes pour filmer le chaos, ils diffusent en direct et facilitent le captures d’écrans pour que les gens puissent copier et poster plus facilement sur les réseaux. Faire le buzz à tout prix. Le spectacle affligrant de personnes qui se battent à mains nues pour un manteau, un écran, un T-shirt... C’est décadant.
#consommation #décadence #comportement #aliénation #domination #pouvoir
Ce matin, ce que j’ai vu en ville m’a donné la nausée.
]]>Saudis demanded good publicity over Yemen aid, leaked UN document shows | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/30/saudis-demanded-good-publicity-over-yemen-aid-leaked-un-document-shows
Saudi Arabia demanded that aid agencies operating in Yemen should provide favourable publicity for Riyadh’s role in providing $930m (£725m) of humanitarian aid, an internal UN document reveals.
Saudi military intervention in the three-year civil war is widely regarded as a prime cause of the humanitarian disaster that has seen 10,000 civilians killed, and left millions close to starvation. The kingdom intervened in Yemen to restore a UN-recognised government, and push back Iranian-supported Houthi rebels.
Un seul tag possible #psychopathie en plus de #arabie_saoudite
]]>From nail bars to car washes: how big is the UK’s slavery problem? | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/18/nail-bars-car-washes-uk-slavery-problem-anti-slavery-day
From nail bars to car washes: how big is the UK’s slavery problem?
Across Britain, there are thousands of victims of this often invisible crime. To mark Anti-Slavery Day we look at the scale of hidden exploitation
by Annie Kelly
#esclavage_moderne et meci @fil
Tax evasion: blacklist of 21 countries with ’golden passport’ schemes published | Business | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/16/tax-evasion-oecd-blacklist-of-21-countries-with-golden-passport-schemes
A blacklist of 21 countries whose so-called “golden passport” schemes threaten international efforts to combat tax evasion has been published by the west’s leading economic thinktank.
Three European countries – Malta, Monaco and Cyprus – are among those nations flagged as operating high-risk schemes that sell either residency or citizenship in a report released on Tuesday by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
]]>’It’s against the law’: Syrian refugees deported from Turkey back to war | Shawn Carrié and Asmaa Al Omar | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/16/syrian-refugees-deported-from-turkey-back-to-war
Tareq* can recall in detail each of the 22 times he climbed over the concrete border wall, dodged a flurry of bullets, and sprinted as fast as he could – until Turkish border guards caught him and turned him back.
On his 23rd attempt, the soldiers drove the 26-year-old Syrian to a police station called Branch 500 in Hatay. There they presented him with a choice: either stay in prison – for how long, they wouldn’t say – or sign a paper and walk free.
]]>"the Guardian [...] should just be fair. Take the term “fugitive” t...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/7818462
"the Guardian [...] should just be fair.
Take the term “fugitive” they used in their latest story on “Operation Hotel”: that is precisely the word the #UK government uses to refer to Julian #Assange " ▻https://www.opendemocracy.net/yorgos-boskos-stefania-maurizi/just-be-fair-when-does-journalism-undermine-its-own-reputation
]]>????
Rapport sur la stabilité financière dans le monde
▻https://www.imf.org/fr/Publications/GFSR/Issues/2018/09/25/Global-Financial-Stability-Report-October-2018
L’évaluation montre qu’une décennie après la crise financière mondiale, beaucoup de progrès ont été accomplis dans la réforme de la réglementation.
World economy at risk of another financial crash, says IMF | Business | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/03/world-economy-at-risk-of-another-financial-crash-says-imf
Debt is above 2008 level and failure to reform banking system could trigger crisis
]]>Charity criticises British army campaign to recruit under-18s | UK news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/29/charity-criticises-british-army-campaign-to-recruit-under-18s
The campaign includes beautifully produced 30-second films showing fictional scenes of young soldiers in various training and combat situations helping and supporting each other, facing difficult challenges with camaraderie and good humour. The films were disseminated via social media, television and cinema.
A briefing campaign document seen by the Guardian in the summer spelled out that the key audience was 16- to 24-year-old “C2DEs” – marketing speak for the lowest three social and economic groups.
The document also made it clear that while the campaign was UK-wide, there were “up-weights” to cities in northern England including Manchester and Sheffield, and to Birmingham, Belfast and Cardiff.
]]>Votre commande Deliveroo ne vient plus forcément d’un vrai restaurant : découvrez la nouvelle recette du géant de la livraison
▻https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/emploi/metiers/restauration-hotellerie-sports-loisirs/votre-commande-deliveroo-ne-vient-plus-forcement-d-un-vrai-restaurant-d
Tout n’a pas toujours été rose pour autant. À leur lancement, en 2016, ces cuisines ont rapidement été affublées d’un surnom : les « dark kitchen ». Des locaux « invisibles » pour les consommateurs installés entre des zones industrielles et des axes routiers. Les premiers boxes n’avaient pas toujours de fenêtre et les cuisiniers travaillaient la porte ouverte, près de bidons d’huile de cuisson, rapporte le Guardian (en anglais) en octobre 2017. Deux chefs affirment que ces conteneurs en métal étaient soit chauds, soit froids, selon la météo, et qu’ils ne disposaient que d’un petit radiateur pour les jours froids.
Ce n’est pas le seul problème. À Camberwell, dans le sud de Londres, des élus ont accusé Deliveroo de ne pas respecter les règles d’urbanisme. Des riverains se plaignaient aussi du défilé des livreurs, souvent en scooter, et des camions de livraison. « Depuis que le commerce a ouvert, le bruit a dramatiquement augmenté chez nous », s’inquiète Ayman Ibrahim, habitant de Hove, près de Brighton, dans le Brighton & Hove News. Dans cette ville, le conseil municipal a ordonné la fermeture des cuisines du site de Portslade pour des raisons de licence d’exploitation. Deliveroo a fait appel.
]]>The free speech panic: how the right concocted a crisis | News | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/26/the-free-speech-panic-censorship-how-the-right-concocted-a-crisis?CMP=s
Snowflake students have become the target of a new rightwing crusade. But exaggerated claims of censorship reveal a deeper anxiety at the core of modern conservatism
]]>Banu Cennetoğlu: ’As long as I have resources, I will make The List more visible’ | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/20/banu-cennetoglu-interview-turkish-artist-the-list-europe-migrant-crisis
►http://unitedagainstrefugeedeaths.eu
►http://unitedagainstrefugeedeaths.eu/about-the-campaign
►http://unitedagainstrefugeedeaths.eu/map
▻http://unitedagainstrefugeedeaths.eu/about-the-campaign/fortress-europe-death-by-policy
he artist Banu Cennetoğlu can remember precisely the moment she was overwhelmed by the List, a catalogue, made by volunteers, of those who had died in their attempt to make a new life in Europe. It was 2002. She was based at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, studying photography. Researching the architecture of border posts for a project, she stumbled across it on the website of United for Intercultural Action, a network of NGOs supporting migrants and refugees. Back then, it was a document of 15 pages and 6,000 names; now it has over 30,000. “I started to read, and that was it,” she says. It was the start of a relationship that still continues in all its original fervour. “I know,” she adds, “that as long as I have resources as an artist I will continue to make this list more visible.”
Cennetoğlu, an intense, warm woman in her mid-40s, immediately realised that she wanted – needed – people to encounter the List, in all its terrible rawness and cumulative power. She printed it out and pressed it on to people she met, left copies in cafes, made stickers and stuck them on ATMs around the city. It didn’t seem enough. She liked the idea of hiring billboards – not enormous hoardings but the kind of eye-level, poster-size advertising sites that were dotted around Amsterdam. The question was where to get the money, though that seemed easy enough – the Netherlands, at the time, had plenty of money for artists. “But then there were five years of constant attempts and they all failed,” she says. The conversations with potential funders played out repetitively. “People would ask me, ‘Is it an artwork?’ I would reply that it wasn’t. And they would say, ‘Well, if it’s not art, we cannot give you the money.’”
–---
The Guardian publishes the full UNITED List of 34,361 Refugee Deaths on 20 June International Refugee Day
In recognition of World Refugee day, The Guardian, in collaboration with artist Banu Cennetoglu, Chisenhale Gallery and Liverpool Biennial is distributing the full UNITED ’List of Deaths’ in its print and online edition.
Since 1993, UNITED for Intercultural Action has recorded the reported names, origins and causes of death for more than 34,000 refugees and migrants who have died whilst trying to get into Europe due to the restrictive policies of “Fortress Europe”. The List, which currently contains 56 pages of names, will be included in full in print and available to download on The Guardian’s as well as the UNITED website.
In a 64-page print supplement, The List is accompanied by thought pieces covering how the shape of the refugee crisis has changed over the years. There are also case studies taking a deeper look behind some of the names of those listed and an interview with artist Banu Cennetoglu, who since 2007, facilitates distribution of the List around the world.
Free of charge copies of the newspaper with the 64-page supplement will be available at Chisenhale Gallery (28 June-26 August 2018) and Liverpool Biennial (14 July-28 October 2018).
UNITED Campaign “Fatal Policies of Fortress Europe”: No More Deaths - Time for Change!
Fortress Europe is nearly impenetrable. Several deals made over the last years, such as the EU-Turkey deal or the more recent Italy-Libya deal, as well as the continued construction of walls and fences increasingly close routes to a life in safety. As a last chance, many are forced to choose a journey of life and death crossing the Mediterranean. However, most Lifeseekers don’t get to the other side of the Mediterranean. Refugees die suffocated in trucks, crossing rivers and mountains or are shot by guards. They die due to the inhumane conditions of detention centers or lack of medical assistance, commit suicide out of despair, or are killed after being deported to their country. They are denied both protection of our authorities and recourse to justice. Rescue boats are stranded on the Mediterranean for weeks while their passengers try to survive under inhumane conditions until an EU member state agrees to accept them at their port, such as in the recent case of the Aquarius. As diverse as they may seem, all of these deaths are direct results of EU border militarization, asylum laws, detention policies and deportations.
Many national governments throughout Europe have shifted to the right and changes in asylum legislation follow suit. Afghanistan today is categorised as a safe country of origin to deport people to, whereas European citizens are not advised to travel there claiming the country is one of the most dangerous in the world. Such explicit double standards are persistent and established in migration legislation throughout the European Union. Italy’s recent deal with Libya has resulted in severe human rights violations by the Libyan coast guards and increased the risk of [refugees to be subject to] human trafficking.
Every human has the right to look for a safe place to live, and the EU needs to establish secure access and humane treatment for those seeking refuge in Europe. We demand that death by policy ends and all member states provide safety and dignity for all as a minimum standard of human rights.
Mark Rice-Oxley, special projects editor, Guardian News & Media, said:
“This List of Deaths is a startling and heroic piece of work by UNITED for Intercultural Action. It exposes a terrifying truth of mounting human misery, of utterly preventable death stretching back more than 25 years - and of a failure of imagination by the world’s biggest bloc of liberal democracies. That is why The Guardian is publishing it in full on 20 June.”
Banu Cennetoglu, artist, said:
“I believe the power of printed material and its possible impact especially in the case of this List. I hope the dissemination and the contextualisation through The Guardian and its editors will remind people of the capacity they do have in order to interfere with those fatal policies and their makers.”
Geert Ates, UNITED, said:
“Since 1993, we have recorded the names and incidents of refugee deaths to draw public attention to the deadly consequences of the building of a Fortress Europe. The dissemination of our full list by the world’s leading newspaper, The Guardian, on World Refugee Day, will help UNITED enormously to find wider support for the necessary change of policies: No More Deaths! Time for Change!”
For more information, please contact:
Geert Ates (UNITED)
+31-6-48808808
listofdeaths@unitedagainstracism.org
#migrations #asile #Réfugiés #mourir_en_mer #forteresse_europe
]]>Conflict displaces almost 700,000 Syrians in deadly first months of 2018 | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/apr/10/conflict-syria-displaces-almost-700000-people-2018-un-united-nations
Almost three-quarters of a million Syrians have been forced out of their homes by fighting in the first months of 2018, according to the senior UN official coordinating the crisis response.
#syrie #réfugiés #migrations #déplacés
With growing anticipation that retaliatory US strikes may be launched imminently in response to the latest suspected use of chemical weapons in Douma, Panos Moumtzis, regional humanitarian coordinator for the country’s crisis, issued a bleak picture of continuing large-scale displacement.
“I am deeply concerned about the continuing massive displacement of close to 700,000 Syrians since the beginning of the year due to ongoing hostilities in the country,” Moumtzis said in a statement.
]]>Alors comme ça, on veut quitter Facebook ?
▻http://www.makery.info/2018/03/27/alors-comme-ca-on-veut-quitter-facebook
L’affaire Cambridge Analytica fait vaciller le réseau social. Quelle stratégie adopter après ces révélations : supprimer son compte, exiger ses datas, passer au libre ? On savait qu’il y avait du rififi chez Facebook. Mais alors là, c’est le pompon. Depuis que The Guardian, The Observer et le New York Times ont révélé les pratiques plus que douteuses de l’entreprise Cambridge Analytica, la tentation de supprimer Facebook semble être plus grande que jamais dans la communauté aux 2,13 milliards d’amis. (...)
#CambridgeAnalytica #Facebook #algorithme #thisisyourdigitallife #élections #manipulation #électeurs #comportement #données #publicité #BigData #marketing #prédictif (...)
]]>Connecting Cambridge Analytica, Mercers, Steve Bannon, Nigel Farage, Donald Trump And Russia – Gronda Morin
▻https://grondamorin.com/2017/07/24/connecting-cambridge-analytica-mercers-steve-bannon-nigel-farage-donald
On May 20, 2017/ last updated on June 14, 2017 Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian (The Observer) penned the following exposé, “The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked.”
Excerpts:
“This is not just a story about social psychology and data analytics. It has to be understood in terms of a military contractor using military strategies on a civilian population. Us. David Miller, a professor of sociology at Bath University and an authority in psyops and propaganda, says it is “an extraordinary scandal that this should be anywhere near a democracy. It should be clear to voters where information is coming from, and if it’s not transparent or open where it’s coming from, it raises the question of whether we are actually living in a democracy or not.”
“Paul and David, another ex-Cambridge Analytica employee, were working at the firm when it introduced mass data-harvesting to its psychological warfare techniques. “It brought psychology, propaganda and technology together in this powerful new way,” David tells me.”
#boycott_facebook versus #deletefacebook
July 24, 2017
]]>Sri Lanka declares state of emergency after communal violence.
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/06/sri-lanka-declares-state-of-emergency-after-communal-violence
Sri Lanka has imposed a nationwide state of emergency for the first time since the civil war era in response to days of violent unrest between Sinhalese and Muslim communities.
The special measures permitting soldiers to be deployed in civilian areas will initially apply for 10 days, at which point the deployment would need to be ratified by parliament, said Mano Ganesan, the Sri Lankan minister for co-existence.
“There were concerns that communal violence would spread,” Ganesan told the Guardian. “We don’t want to spread communal disharmony and hate speech.”
Arson attacks and riots have hit the central district of Kandy in recent days and there was similar violence in late February when mobs set fire to Muslim-owned businesses and a mosque in the east.
The violence in Kandy is understood to have been sparked when a group of Muslim men in Digana town were accused of killing a man belonging to the majority Sinhala Buddhist community, who make up about 75% of the population.
]]>Flint Town: Netflix docu-series shines light on the harsh reality of US policing | Television & radio | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/03/flint-town-netflix-docu-series-shines-light-on-the-harsh-reality-of-us-
Episodes are stacked with local and personal dramas tied to the series’ main characters – about a dozen police officers in Flint’s understaffed and underfunded force. Given the renewed scrutiny placed on police since demonstrators in Ferguson took to the streets to protest against police violence in August 2014, these armed officers are an unlikely vehicle for showcasing systemic issues.
“It was our intention to do something that added additional layers to that,” said series co-director Jessica Dimmock. “It felt important to us that we go home with officers, we learn about their personal lives or personal struggles, we understand the emotional toll when someone’s mother dies or they are having relationship troubles. But also show that policing doesn’t exist in a bubble in this city.”
The episode where Watson arrests his longtime pal’s son is loosely focused on the uptick in crime at Halloween, but also features Donald Trump’s visit to Flint while running for president.
]]>Sweden tried to drop Assange extradition in 2013, CPS emails show | Media |
▻https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/11/sweden-tried-to-drop-assange-extradition-in-2013-cps-emails-show
UK prosecutors tried to dissuade Swedish counterparts from doing so, exchange shows
Swedish prosecutors attempted to drop extradition proceedings against Julian Assange as early as 2013, according to a confidential exchange of emails with the Crown Prosecution Service seen by the Guardian.
The sequence of messages also appears to challenge statements by the CPS that the case was not live at the time emails were deleted by prosecutors, according to supporters of the WikiLeaks founder.
The newly-released emails show that the Swedish authorities were eager to give up the case four years before they formally abandoned proceedings in 2017 and that the CPS dissuaded them from doing so.
Some of the material has surfaced from an information tribunal challenge brought late last year by the Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi.
The CPS lawyer handling the case, who has since retired, commented on an article which suggested that Sweden could drop the case in August 2012. He wrote: “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!”.
As the case dragged on, the Swedish director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny, wrote to the CPS on 18 October 2013 explaining that she had few options left. “There is a demand in Swedish law for coercive measures to be proportionate,” she informed London.
]]>California police worked with neo-Nazis to pursue ’anti-racist’ activists, documents show | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/09/california-police-white-supremacists-counter-protest
Au moins c’est clair !
California police investigating a violent white nationalist event worked with white supremacists in an effort to identify counter-protesters and sought the prosecution of activists with “anti-racist” beliefs, court documents show.
The records, which also showed officers expressing sympathy with white supremacists and trying to protect a #neo-Nazi organizer’s identity, were included in a court briefing from three anti-fascist activists who were charged with felonies after protesting at a Sacramento rally. The defendants were urging a judge to dismiss their case and accused California police and prosecutors of a “cover-up and collusion with the fascists”.
#extrême_droite #police #Californie #répression #protestation #anti-fa
]]>Mary Lee Berners-Lee, la maman de Tim, mérite mieux que le hashtag #grand_mère_du_web - Mary Lee Berners-Lee obituary | The Guardian
►https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/23/mary-lee-berners-lee-obituary
The computer scientist Mary Lee Berners-Lee, who has died aged 93, was on the programming team for the computer that in 1951 became the first in the world to be sold commercially: the Ferranti Mark I. She led a successful campaign at Ferranti for equal pay for male and female programmers, almost two decades before the Equal Pay Act came into force. As a young mother in the mid-1950s she set up on her own as a home-based software consultant, making her one of the world’s first freelance programmers.
]]>Scientists confirm what women always knew: men really are the weaker sex | Global development | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/15/scientists-confirm-what-women-always-knew-men-really-are-the-weaker-sex
Women are more likely than men to survive in times of famine and epidemics, research has found.
While it has long been known that women have a higher life expectancy than men in general, analysis of historical records stretching back 250 years shows that women have, for example, outlived men on slave plantations in Trinidad, during famines in Sweden and through various measles outbreaks in Iceland.
Even when mortality was very high for both sexes, women still outlived men, on average, by six months to four years, according to the report (pdf) by Duke University in North Carolina.
The datasets included seven groups of people for whom life expectancy was 20 years or under for one or both sexes. Among them were working and former slaves in Trinidad and the US in the early 1800s; people experiencing famine in Sweden, Ireland and the Ukraine in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries; and Icelanders affected by the 1846 and 1882 measles epidemics.
Lead researcher Virginia Zarulli, from the University of Southern Denmark’s Institute of Public Health, attributed the life expectancy gender gap to biological factors such as genetics and hormones, with the simple conclusion that “newborn girls are hardier than newborn boys”.
]]>Ça y est, la Corée a bombardé les États-Unis (#ou_pas) :
▻https://apnews.com/179e1a9dc23d43b2996ac7093897fa77
A push alert that warned of an incoming ballistic missile to Hawaii and sent residents into a full-blown panic Saturday was a mistake, state emergency officials said.
The emergency alert, which was sent to cellphones, said in all caps, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesman Richard Repoza said it was a false alarm and the agency is trying to determine what happened.
]]>Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars | US news | The Guardian
►https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/28/adjunct-professors-homeless-sex-work-academia-poverty
Adjunct English professor Ellen James-Penney and her husband live in a car with their two dogs. They have developed a system. ‘Keep nothing on the dash, nothing on the floor – you can’t look like you’re homeless, you can’t dress like you’re homeless.’ Photograph: Talia Herman for the Guardian
There is nothing she would rather do than teach. But after supplementing her career with tutoring and proofreading, the university lecturer decided to go to remarkable lengths to make her career financially viable.
She first opted for her side gig during a particularly rough patch, several years ago, when her course load was suddenly cut in half and her income plunged, putting her on the brink of eviction. “In my mind I was like, I’ve had one-night stands, how bad can it be?” she said. “And it wasn’t that bad.”
The wry but weary-sounding middle-aged woman, who lives in a large US city and asked to remain anonymous to protect her reputation, is an adjunct instructor, meaning she is not a full-time faculty member at any one institution and strings together a living by teaching individual courses, in her case at multiple colleges.
]]>Edward Snowden’s New App Uses Your Smartphone to Physically Guard Your Laptop
▻https://theintercept.com/2017/12/22/snowdens-new-app-uses-your-smartphone-to-physically-guard-your-laptop
Like many other journalists, activists, and software developers I know, I carry my laptop everywhere while I’m traveling. It contains sensitive information; messaging app conversations, email, password databases, encryption keys, unreleased work, web browsers logged into various accounts, and so on. My disk is encrypted, but all it takes to bypass this protection is for an attacker — a malicious hotel housekeeper, or “evil maid,” for example — to spend a few minutes physically tampering with it without my knowledge. If I come back and continue to use my compromised computer, the attacker could gain access to everything.
Edward Snowden and his friends have a solution. The NSA whistleblower and a team of collaborators have been working on a new open source Android app called Haven that you install on a spare smartphone, turning the device into a sort of sentry to watch over your laptop. Haven uses the smartphone’s many sensors — microphone, motion detector, light detector, and cameras — to monitor the room for changes, and it logs everything it notices. The first public beta version of Haven has officially been released; it’s available in the Play Store and on F-Droid, an open source app store for Android.
#haven #surveillance
▻https://github.com/guardianproject/haven
Coming to the aid of drowning migrants? Get ready to be treated like a criminal | Lorena Gazzotti | Opinion | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/20/aid-drowning-migrants-criminal-activists-ngo-witness-brutal-border-poli
Activists and NGOs defending migrants’ rights will remember 2017 as the year in which they were targeted by legal systems in Europe and north Africa. Take the case of Helena Maleno Garzón, a Spanish journalist and human rights advocate. You may not have heard of her. But authorities on both sides of the strait of Gibraltar know her well.
Maleno, who has been living in Tangier since 2001, will on 27 December face a hearing as part of an investigation by Moroccan authorities into her alleged collusion with smuggling and human-trafficking networks. Central to the case are the calls that Maleno has been making to the Spanish and the Moroccan coastguards since 2007 about boats in distress in the strait and the Alboran Sea. Because of their proximity to migrant communities in northern Morocco, Maleno and other activists regularly receive distress calls, and they relay the signals to naval authorities, a vital step in ensuring migrants’ rescue.
]]>Follow that stork ! How animals move through cities | The guardian
►https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2017/dec/06/mapping-how-animals-interact-with-cities