Wikileaks' underground bunker in Sweden

Wikileaks' internet servers are operating in an underground nuclear-proof bunker in Sweden. The front page photo (below) of the Gold Coast Bulletin issue of December 10, and twelve more in the inside pages remind us of the futuristic sets of science-fiction movies.

In contrast, it's jail for Julian Assange, and he's not been allowed to bring his computer to his detention cell.  His arrest has not stopped the leaks though, the latest having to do with Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican regarding Turkey, Anglicans and child sex abuse.

Wikileaks was on the move after the shut-out by Amazon.com, but then around 500 mirror sites sprang up from around the cyberworld capable of releasing the 250,000 US embassy cables anytime.

When Assange was denied bail, Operation Payback, an activist group, attacked the MasterCard and Visa websites, among others.

What would happen if Assange is extradited to Sweden to face the rape charges against him? An arrest warrant went out not because of Weakileaks but of sexual crime he allegedly committed when he visited that country earlier this year.

What would happen if Sweden delivers Assange--the "Ned Kelly of the digital age" to the Sydney Morning Herald--to American custody for a possible espionage case?

Imagine John Lennon on his 30th death anniversary

We were a provincial lad, thin and with a thick, hard-to-comb, curly bush of hair, transplanted from the old hometown for the first time ever to the freshman dormitory of the Philippines' premier state university when the Beatles long-playing album A Hard Day's Night (June 1964) had just been released.  Thus, hardly a day or night passed without someone warbling--without apologies to John Lennon-- I Should Have Known Better along the dorm's long corridors or in the shower room for quite a long period of time.

To us, the Beatles was John Lennon and/or Paul McCartney. The songs we loved simply got stuck in our memory.  We didn't get bothered if You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, Ticket to Ride and Norwegian Wood were Lennon's, and Yesterday, Michelle and Hey Jude were  McCartney's, although they were marked up as Lennon/McCartney collaborations.  

Hey Jude remains a favorite. In some ways it was the theme song of our fraternity's final rites in October 1968, a few months after it was released, because almost everyone would break into singing it whole or in parts every so often during the informal sessions with our candidate brothers.   It doesn't matter that McCartney wrote it to comfort Julian Lennon  after his father left him and his mother Cynthia for Yoko Ono earlier that year.  

John Lennon and Yoko Ono we remember so well for their pacifist stance, and their nude photo in the cover of their album Two Virgins in 1968. 

While we somehow lost much of our Lennon/McCartney consciousness during the people's long marches in the late 1960s, we still responded to their Give Peace a Chance (1969) and Lennon's Imagine (1971) with a different kind of dynamics. These songs came at the height of the American war in Vietnam, and the Philippines was confronting a gathering malevolent political storm.  There came different songs to voice our protests when we went through the dark night of the Philippine soul in the 1970s to 1986, pulling out from our memory's cache of  Lennon/McCartney musical gems something to imagine bright days ahead.

We also deeply grieved when Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon four times in the back thirty years ago today, on 08 December 1980, at the entrance of The Dakota on 71st Street, New York City. A few hours earlier, Chapman asked Lennon for his autograph on a copy of the Double Fantasy album cover.

"Just imagine it never happened," Darryl Sterdan, music critic of the Winnipeg Sun Media, wrote, and  that last year, "Lennon and Ono celebrate[d] their 40th anniversary by making a new CD. They pose[d] nude on the cover a la Two Virgins. Walmart refuse[d] to stock it until Lennon agree[d] to add tiny fig leaves."

This year, Sterdan added further, it would be "the Beatles embrac[ing] the digital age. Once again rejecting massive offers for a reunion tour, Lennon quietly turns 70, teaming up with Sean and Yoko to reform Plastic Ono Band and Elephant's Memory for a one-off concert. On eBay, an autographed but badly damaged copy of Double Fantasy found on the street in 1980 sits unsold."

For more of Sterdan's Just Imagine scenarios,  go to http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/music/2010/12/02/16407886.html

His memory lives on with this official video of him singing Imagine --

For a personal homage to his memory, one can walk across the street from The Dakota to the Strawberry Fields and the Imagine memorials for John Lennon in Central Park.  It can not be missed if one follows the trail on the west side.  The day we went last year, the memorials were not crowded. 

New lands for the FIFA World Cup; vuvuzelas in Russia, 2018 and Qatar, 2022

It also happened that England was snowbound on the day it lost its bid to host the World Cup in 2018.  The idiom "under the weather" is indeed apt. 

Despite their strong presence in Zurich, Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince William and former football captain David Beckham did not fire up enthusiasm among the 22 members of the FIFA governing body, which gave England only two votes. 

On the other hand, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin canceled initial plans to be there before the secret voting.  Despite his absence, Russia won the bid, reason for him to fly to Zurich to receive the award.  "If you don't take risks, you don't drink champagne," he's reported to have quoted this Russian saying.

Football fans may expect Russia to build stadiums in 13 host cities from Kaliningrad in the west to Yekaterinburg in the east at a cost estimated at around $10 billion. 

Beckham could only cry for England's bitter disappointment. The other losers were Holland-Belgium and Spain-Portugal. 

US President Obama, on the other hand, accused FIFA for making a "wrong decision" when the hosting of World Cup 2022 went to Qatar.  The US, Australia, South Korea and Japan bid for the site.

"We go to new lands" was how FIFA president Sepp Blatter explained the choices. 

Qatar is an interesting issue. It has never qualified for the World Cup finals. It's in the Middle East, and there's the risk from desert heat. FIFA must have strongly believed that Qatar can deliver its "commitment to  

to spend $42.9 billion on infrastructure upgrades and $4 billion to build nine stadiums and renovate three others [and all of them] will have a state-of-the art cooling system that will keep temperatures at about 27 degrees Celsius (81 F)."

Recommended reading on the operational risk assessment and selection of Russia and Qatar as hosts:  "FIFA overlooks risks in picking Russia and Qatar" (04 December 2010) by Stephen Wilson, AP Sports Writer, accessible from My Star online  at http://football.thestar.com.my/story.asp?file=/2010/12/4/football_latest/20101204072455&sec=football_latest

We found this front page cartoon, which came out before the FIFA selection event, very amusing.  It derives its humor from the Wikileaks, insinuating that Julian Assange could possibly do some mining in the rich field of intrigues, accusations and suspicions in international sports organizations, and in this instance, the FIFA.  Who knows if there were also "unclassified", "classified" and "secret" cables that were exchanged in the selection of Olympic, World Cup and other international sports events?

Waiting for WikiLeaks from Manila

"The United States targets Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.  Washington says the publication of more than 250,000 documents is dangerous, and calls the perpetrators criminals."

The 251,287 confidential United States embassy cables started leaking out on Sunday, November 28. 

Just a kid?

On Tuesday, November 30, we caught Secretary of State Hillary Clinton live on TV expressing America's deep regrets about the Wikileaked documents at the same time reassuring American allies. "I want to make it clear," she stressed, "that our foreign policy is not set through these messages, but here in Washington. 

Curiosity led us to Secret US Embassy Cables at http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/ the next day but we could not get to the documents anymore.  We were still able to read the explanatory notes on the cables though, and look at the the map and bar graph showing the various American embassy sources. "The full set consists of 251,287 documents," it said, "comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of "The Iraq War Logs", the world's previously largest classified information release) ...the cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions."
  
We also noted that 15, 652 of these memos are "secret",101,748 "confidential" and 133,887 "unclassified"; Iraq was the "most discussed country" with 15,365 cables, 6,677 came from there; "Ankara, Turkey had the most cables coming from it--7,918"; and 8,017 cables came from the office of the Secretary of State.

One more thing whetted our appetite to look for the leaks--The Philippine Star headlined on the same day that the Wikileaks include "1,796 US memos from [the US embassy in] Manila."  It learned from the Guardian of UK that 982 of these cables are "unclassified", 749 "classified" and 65 "secret", and "all but two of [these] were sent between January 2005 and February 2010, [with] the two ... dated Nov. 21, 2001 and July 19, 1994."  It appears that most of the information flow happened during the reign of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.


Until today, President Noynoy Aquino has yet to receive a call from Clinton although nothing yet of the Philippine cables have hit the remaining open online Wikileaks sources--The New York Times, Guardian of the UK, Der Spiegel of Germany, Le Monde of France and El Pais of Spain--after Amazon.com shut down its host services. It has been reported that Wikileaks has moved its site to Switzerland. 


We've seen the summary reports on the cables that have been released so far at the New York Times and Buenos Aires Herald.  The one we read with utmost delight at Spiegel Online is the confidential dispatch of 31 August 2006 with an intriguing title: "The US Ambassador Learns that Cognac Is Like Wine."  about "high society wedding in the Caucasus -- complete with massive quantities of alcohol, lumps of gold and revolver-wielding drunkards."  It's very well-written like an essay in one's favorite magazine coming in four parts, and these are just excerpts.


The latest releases (05 December) in Spiegel Online include the following:

•  At Sea in the Desert/ US Diplomats Bewildered and Bamboozled in Baghdad
• 'Redder than Red'/ An American Portrait of China's Next Leader
• US Dispatches from Beijing/ 'True Democracy' Within China's Politburo?

Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, is thought of as constantly moving. However, it has been reported by a British newspaper,The Independent, that the whistle blower arrived in Britain in October, the police know of his whereabouts but they have yet to serve the international warrant for his arrest.  The Interpol has issued a 'red notice' for his arrest because he is wanted in Sweden on suspicion of sexual crimes allegedly committed there earlier this year.

The fall-out has caused US President Barack Obama to create a special committee called the Interagency Policy Committee for WikiLeaks that will try to block any other leaks in the future through intelligence agency coordination within the country.

We have yet to see the US file federal charges against Wikileaks. Is cablegate a sound argument for honest journalism?

Rio War Ending: Brazil Flag Waves Over the Slums

Reconquering territory!

Military occupation.

Like any Bruce Willis do-good urban warfare movie, criminal elements either die during the eardrum-splitting exchange of gunfire, or get captured after a hot pursuit by foot or police cars through a maze of hide-outs while a helicopter hovers above for tactical support, or, to everyone's frustration, escape. 

Urban war trophies:  arms and drugs.

The paradox is that it was this urban war that appears to have given the two-year pacification program in the favelas a big push.  President Luiz Inacio da Silva was saying he couldn't understand why the criminals should be in control over the favelas; he himself dispatched 800 troopers to support the police and military forces in their assault of the Complexo do Alemao and Vila Cruzeiro. There were casualties, yes, but the operation succeeded.  The denouement had the soldiers waving the Brazil flag over the re-conquered territory.  Wanted criminals were captured, arms arsenals and drug warehouses captured. The war pains would probably be felt by the slum residents for a long time. 

A hero of the Rio war returns home to his pregnant wife.

President-elect Dilma Rousseff takes over government on December 31st.  Probably, Silva wants Dilma not to be bothered by the favela issues while she takes care of more pressing government agenda, and as Brazil prepares for the great samba welcome to the World Cup 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2018!

A view of the two faces of Rio, the bright city and the dark slums.

Urban War in Rio!

The pictures look like they're stills from one of those high budget and action-packed Hollywood movies. Only that in the movies, the action is cramped within two hours of viewing time. 

But these were actual shots by photo-journalists covering an urban war that lasted for several days in Rio de Janeiro, which was also covered live on TV. 

This is actually Rio preparing to host the Copa Mundial in 2014, and the Summer Olympics in 2016. 

Principal Cast.  Initially, 430 police and military troopers aided by 13 armoured cars and a platoon of marines from the Navy, and would be reinforced by 800 military soldiers later in the week; and "two factions of drug dealers that have joined forces seeking to disrupt a two-year-old favela pacification program, which is aimed at wresting the densely populated areas from the gangs' control."  

Location.  The favelas or slum areas Complexo do Alemão (German Complex) with about 400,000 residents and the Vila Cruzeiro at the foot of the giant statue of Jesus the Redeemer, famous landmark of Rio de Janeiro. Around two million live in more than 1,000 slums, a third of Rio's population. The Alemão is considered the most violent of the city's slums. 

Time 1 - Sunday, 21 November.  Suspected gang members attacked police stations and burned vehicles, reportedly on orders from their imprisoned colleagues to retaliate against police efforts to wrestle away their hold in more than a dozen slums.

Time 2 - Overnight Wednesday to Thursday. Six buses were torched; ten suspects arrested on drug trafficking charges and sent to maximum security prisons in distant states. 

Time 3 - Thursday, 25 Nov. Death toll rose to 30. Armored vehicles carrying police officers rolled over burning tires during an operation at Vila Cruzeiro. Electrical wires destroyed.  Bullet holes scarred walls and homes.  Cars and pedestrians searched at entrances and exits. 

 

"TV networks broadcasting live from helicopters hovering above showed knots of men, many with packs and automatic rifles strapped to their backs, scrambling up the hills behind the slum ahead of the police offensive. Some of the armed men could be seen trying to drive up the hills, covered with thick bushes, in motorcycles and even cars."

Time 4 - Friday, 26 Nov.  Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva dispatched 800 army soldiers to the Alemão complex.. The death toll climbed to 41; about 100 cars and buses burned on major roadways, their passengers robbed and sometimes shot. 

Later in the day, police reported they have gained control of the areas.

References:

1.   Domit, Myrna. (2010, Nov 26). Brazil Military Says It Cornered Rio Drug Gangs. New York Times Online.  Retrieved fromhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/world/americas/27brazil.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a22 

 

2.   Fonseca, Pedro. (2010, Nov 25). Brazil Marines join slum battles, 30 people killed.  Yahoo News.  Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101125/wl_nm/us_brazil_rio_violence_2   

 

3.   Oliveira, Claire de. (2010, Nov 25).  Military deploys armored vehicles in Rio crime crackdown. AFP Yahoo News.  Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101125/wl_afp/brazilcrimedrugviolence_20101125194715

Thanksgiving America 2010

As I write this, most of America probably are resting or are already asleep after a tiring day at the kitchen preparing the turkey, baking the cakes, cooking the family favorite gourmet dish, chilling the bottle of champagne or wine, setting up the dinner table, and later--after the Thanksgiving prayer, the cheerful toasts, the best wishes and the warm family feasting--the cleaning up and putting back everything into the pantry and the china and silver cabinets.  

It's likely that Black Friday is already in the clocks of brave souls and are now moving towards the malls, going through their must-buy list, and psyching themselves up to bravely line up in the autumn cold and wait for the stores to open.

May everyone at home or at the shelters had the  

Happiest Thanksgiving Day!

Children thankful for "all things big and small."

A family holiday, as Rockwell portrayed it for all time.

Thankful for "the good things that bring us and keep us together..."

"Thankful, even in hard times."

Giving thanks by making the holiday bright for those in need.

Food for thought.  Was it really a turkey the Pilgrims had on their first Thanksgiving? It could have been eels.  Here's James Prosek telling us all about it in Thanksgiving issue of the New York Times:  

"As the story goes, Squanto — a Patuxet Indian who had learned English — took pity on the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony who had managed to survive that first brutal winter, and showed them how to plant corn, putting a dead fish in each hole where a seed was planted. But before that, before the ground had even fully thawed, he taught them a perhaps more valuable skill: how to catch a fatty, nutritious fish that would sustain them in the worst of winters. And this food item, likely on the table of that first Thanksgiving, would have carried special significance to those remaining colonists. Eels — a forgotten staple of our forefathers. 

"Indeed, eel was the dinner that Pilgrims were given on the very day after they made peace with Massasoit, the sachem, or leader, of the region. The following account is from “Mourt’s Relation,” mostly written by a Plymouth resident, Edward Winslow: “Squanto went at noon to fish for eels. At night he came home with as many as he could well lift in one hand, which our people were glad of. They were fat and sweet. He trod them out with his feet, and so caught them with his hands without any other instrument.”"

Reference: 

Prosek, James. (2010, Nov 25).  Give Thanks for ... Eel?  New York Times Online.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/opinion/25prosek.html

Life for 29 coal miners in China; death for 29 in New Zealand's Pike River coal mine

At 2:37pm today (Wednesday, 24 November), a massive second explosion ripped through the Pike River coal mine on the coast of  southern New Zealand, dashing all hopes of rescuing twenty nine (29) miners alive five days after they were trapped underground.  It must have taken great courage for the mine's CEO to face the grieving families and announce the heartbreaking news.

The coal miners--24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two British and one South African--have ages between 17 and 62 years:  Conrad Adams, 43, Malcolm Campbell, 25 (Scottish), Glen Cruse, 35, Allan Dixon, 59, Zen Drew, 21, Christopher Duggan, 31, Joseph Dunbar, 17, John Hale, 45, Daniel Herk, 36, David Hoggart, 33, Richard Holling, 41, Andrew Hurren, 32, Jacobus 'Koos' Jonker, 47 (South African), William Joynson, 49 (Australian), Riki Keane, 28, Terry Kitchin, 41, Samuel Mackie, 26, Francis Marden, 42, Michael Monk, 23, Stuart Mudge, 31, Kane Nieper, 33, Peter O'Neill, 55, Milton Osborne, 54, Brendon Palmer, 27, Benjamin Rockhouse, 21, Peter Rodger, 40 (British), Blair Sims, 28, Joshua Ufer 25 (Australia), and Keith Valli, 62.

Joseph Dunbar is just a boy, an only son.  He turned 17 the day before the accident.  He had always been excited to work in the coal mine, and he could hardly wait to turn 17, the qualifying age to become a miner in New Zealand.  When he stepped into the mine could have been a very great moment for him, but he did not know that death awaited him on his first day on the job,

Then there is Joshua Ufer from Australia.  He was an expectant father, leaving behind a pregnant fiancee. Their first child due in May. 

Rescue operations were delayed by the presence of toxic gases, and another explosion may cost the life of rescue teams should these be dispatched.  Hence, robots were sent in to test the environment and do a visual survey of the accident site.  

The presence of toxic gases doomed the 29 Pike River miners.  On the other hand, it was water that the 29 coal miners in Weiyuan, Sichuan province of China had to contend with.   The Batian coal mine was flooded around noontime Sunday (21 November), and the miners were successfully rescued the next day.

"Pike River joins list of mining tragedies," says Adrian Evans in the New Zealand Herald today, ranking as the "worst national mining disaster in 96 years since 43 coal miners lost their lives at Ralph's mine."  The world has seen major tragedies in coal mines around the world, and Evans cited the following --

• 1942.  1,572 miners killed, Honkeiko coal mine, China
• 1906.  1,099 lives lost,  Courrieres mine, France
• 1907.  362 miners killed,  Monongah, West Virginia, USA
• 1906.  96 men and boys killed, Mt Kembla Mining, Australia
• 2010.  130 miners killed in four separate mine accidents, China
• April 2010.  29 miners killed, West Virginia mine, USA
• May 2010. At least 66 miners killed, Raspadskaya mine, Russia 
• June 2010.  More than 70 miners killed, coal mine in Colombia.

The coal mining industry in New Zealand has also been marked by major accidents, the Pike River tragedy being the latest --

• 21 February 1879.  34 miners died, Kaitangata 
• 26 March 1896.  65 killed,Brunner 
• 12 September 1914.  43 miners killed, Ralph's Mine, Huntly
• 3 December 1926.  9 men killed, Dobson mine  
•  24 September 1939. 11 men killed, Glen Afton mine, Huntly  
• Strongman mine, 19 January 1967.  19 miners kiilled, Strongman mine

 

References:

1.   Evans, Adrian.  (2010, Nov 24).  Pike River joins list of mining tragedies. New Zealand Herald.  Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10689823

2.   NZ Herald Staff Writers.  (2010, Nov 24).  Pike River: 'We want our boys back' - Whittall.  New Zealand Herald.  Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10689828

3.  Booker, Jarrod, Dickison, Michael & Nordqvist, Susie. (2010, Nov 23). 'Why didn't they put gladwrap on robot?'  New Zealand Herald.  Retrieved fromhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10689533