Minister rejects racial issue behind Madawala school incident

2016-05-27Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam today rejected reports of an alleged incident that had taken place during a parent-teacher meeting at the Madina Central College in Madawala, a national school in Kandy as being racially motivated. 

Reports circulating in websites and social media claimed that the parents of the school are demanding that only Muslim teachers be appointed to the school. 

When contacted by Daily Mirror, the minister dismissed the claims but said that there was an issue about the school. “I’m not aware as to the details of the issue and have to contact the additional secretary for further information,” he said.

 Meanwhile, Ceylon Teachers' Union Secretary Joseph Stalin also denied the reports but said a tense situation had arisen during a parent-teacher meeting of the grade-11 class Tuesday. 

“The parents have complained to the ministry against the School Principal. During the parent-teacher meeting, a Sinhalese teacher had reportedly defended the Principal and that was when the tense situation arose. Some parents had brought eggs and tomatoes to be thrown at the Principal,” he said. 


Our reporter said seven parents had been arrested by the Wattegama Police after eggs were thrown at the Principal and that they were released after being produced in the Theldeniya Magistrate’s Court on Friday. 

Ceylon Teachers' Services Union (CTSU) General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe also said that there was a complaint against the Principal by the parents over allegations of financial misappropriation and administration issues. (Lahiru Pothmulla and Nadeeka Daya Bandara)

Prof. Thamilmaran, senior DIG Lalith Jayasinghe to be arrested soon!

May 26, 2016

The CID is due to arrest dean of Colombo University’s law faculty Prof. V.T. Thamilmaran and former Jaffna, and prently Batticaloa, senior DIG Lalith A. Jayasinghe over the gang rape and murder of Sivayoganathan Vidya, a 17 year-old student of Punguditivu Central College, about a year ago, for having aided and abetted the main suspect Mahalingam Sasikumar alias Swiss Kumar, providing him protection in the official police quarters and helping a criminal to escape, say police headquarters sources.

Eight suspects are presently in remand custody over this crime – Swiss Kumar, Pubalasingham Indrakumar, Pubalasingham Jeyakumar, Mahalingam Sasidaran and four others.

 

CID investigations have revealed that Swiss Kumar and Thamilmaran were from the same village. Based on that friendship, Thamilmaran has asked his former student, senior DIG Jayasinghe, to save his friend. Even at newspaper interviews, Thamilmaran has admitted that Jayasinghe was a student of his.

 

He had especially gone from Colombo to Jaffna and stayed at Jayasinghe’s official quarters to help Swiss Kumar to escape. By that time, people of Pungudutivu had caught and bound the culprit. At his ex-teacher’s request, Jayasinghe had sent a team led by a sub inspector and despite objections by the villagers, got Swiss Kumar released and gave him to Jaffna police custody.

 

Thereafter, on Jayasinghe’s instructions the rapist was admitted to Jaffna Hospital for treatment. Later, at Thamilmaran’s request, Swiss Kumar was secretly taken under police protection to Kilinochchi and from there to Colombo, CID investigations have also revealed.

 

Coming to know about this, Pungudutivu villagers awaited Thamilmaran’s arrival and took him and his daughter into house arrest. Thamilmaran was able to inform Jayasinghe about his plight, and the senior DIG had gone there with armed policemen and got the two freed, on the promise given in writing that Swiss Kumar would be arrested. Thereafter, the Kayts headquarters inspector requested the Wellawatta headquarters inspector to immediately arrest him and take him to Jaffna.

 

On the day Swiss Kumar was produced before the Jaffana magistrate’s court, Jayasinghe too went there. Seeing him, the magistrate became angry and ordered him to leave the court immediately. The magistrate remanded Swiss Kumar. Police produced to court a slipper and a pair of earrings worn by Vidya. In addition, a cattle-keeper and a small girl were produced as eyewitnesses to the crime.

 

Swiss Kumar’s past record as rapist

 

The CID has also uncovered details of Swiss Kumar’s past records of being a rapist. He has videoed women being gang-raped and showed them to his friends and also posted the videos on the internet. 

 

An EPDP member and Pradeshiya Sabha driver living in Pungudutivu had tried to start an affair with Vidya, but she had rejected him directly. One day, he had waited for her return from school and tried to grab her hand, but the girl beat him up with her slippers. Shamed in front of all, the man had plotted to take revenge from Vidya. He also had the support of two youths who were on bad terms with Vidya’s family over a court case. It was Swiss Kumar who had given them the idea of raping the girl. He had also provided money to buy liquor, and the camera to video the rape.

 

On the day of the incident, Vidya left home around 7.00 am, but was abducted by the gang. They took her to an abandoned house and raped her until midday, videoing it in the process. By the time police seized the camera, its chip had gone missing, but using technology, the footage was retrieved.

 

When Vidya did not come home in the afternoon, her family went to Kayts police to lodge a complaint. Police told them that she might have eloped with her boyfriend and return in a couple of days. But, the police became alarmed after her body was found from the abandoned house. She had been strangled with a shoe lace.

 

Two suspects had confessed before the Jaffana magistrate that they had raped the girl. CID investigations into the crime have been completed and a high court trial-at-bar will hear the case. Before, that Prof. Thamilmaran and senior DIG Jayasinghe will be arrested for questioning over the above-mentioned charges.

The PSC secretary who appointed Anusha Pelpita the Sil cloth racketeer as a ministry additional secretary is also a crook..!

(Lanka-e-News -25.May.2016, 7.15 PM) The secretary of the Public Service Commission (PSC) that  authorized the appointment of  Anusha Pelpita  the notorious Sil redhi (cloth)  racketeer as the additional secretary to the ministry of home affairs is himself a most corrupt scoundrel , based on reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division.

There  is a case filed in the high court against Pelpita, the notorious  crook in connection with a fraud (Sil redhi) and misappropriation of public funds to the tune of Rs. 600 million , and he ought to be interdicted under the Establishment code by  the secretary of the PSC finally . Instead , without interdicting him , it is the secretary of the PSC who has appointed Pelpita as the additional secretary with the approval of the minister of home affairs. (with Commission’s green light). This is an absolutely wrongful action.

H.M. Gamini Seneviratne the secretary of the PSC under the present government is a State administrative service officer. He was a former district secretary , Kandy. There is  an investigation  at the Bribery and corruption commission against him  pertaining to a financial fraud committed by him involving public funds when he was the district secretary, Kandy.( a detailed report thereof shall be revealed later).

To Gamini Seneviratne  who brags and poses off as a great Karate exponent , indulging in unlawful and perfidious activities are  his favorite pastime. This is borne out by the  copious information received  by Lanka e news inside  information division exposing his financial rackets and misappropriations involving precious public funds.

Gamni Seneviratne is at present residing at the official quarters  at Summit housing complex , Jawatte , Colombo. He has deployed three workers (male and female) of the private janitorial service of the PSC to clean and maintain  his residence . On top of that he has deployed an officer of the PSC to oversee them .

This is obviously  waste of public funds of the PSC. There is no law that permits Seneviratne to use the workers of a private Co. that has entered into a contract with the PSC to work at his home , because all those workers get paid out of public funds – and not out of his pocket.

It is best if these corrupt officers and scoundrels realize sooner than later that the present government did   not appoint the Public service commission as an independent commission for these racketeers to waste public funds according to their whims and fancies .

According to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division , not only Anusha Pelpita the corrupt scoundrel who has not been interdicted despite a case being heard against him in high court , there are so many government officers similarly enjoying illicit benefits at the expense of public funds. Some of them while the case is being heard against them have gone on pension and are collecting the full pension happily. This is because one scoundrel is helping the other rascal of his  ilk. Buddies of a feather are robbing together.

If the independent Public Service Commission even at this belated stage does not take appropriate action immediately in this connection , the trust and confidence reposed by the public in the Commission will be eroded. 

P.S.
Lanka e news  reveals with pleasure and in the best interests of the nation that like  our  countless instances of exposures  in the past  which bore fruitful results , our recent  exposures pertaining to the illegal appointment  of  Anusha Pelpita as an additional secretary to a ministry against whom there is a case pending in high court , the intense attention of the president has been drawn to this grave wrongful action . It is being inquired how this came about?

---------------------------
by     (2016-05-25 13:54:13)

Five dead, 92 injured in Mumbai chemical factory blast

Rescue personnel work at the site of an explosion at a chemical factory in an industrial area in Dombivali on the outskirts of Mumbai, India May 26, 2016.REUTERS/DANISH SIDDIQUI---Rescue personnel work at the site of an explosion at a chemical factory in an industrial area in Dombivali on the outskirts of Mumbai, India May 26, 2016.REUTERS/DANISH SIDDIQUI

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at the site of an explosion at a chemical factory in an industrial area in Dombivali on the outskirts of Mumbai, India May 26, 2016.REUTERS/DANISH SIDDIQUI--A man sits next to his daughter, who was injured in an explosion at a chemical factory in an industrial area, at a hospital in Dombivali on the outskirts of Mumbai, India May 26, 2016.

REUTERS/DANISH SIDDIQUI

Thu May 26, 2016

A powerful blast in a chemical factory located near a residential area in a Mumbai suburb killed five people and left 92 injured on Thursday, police officials said.

The factory building collapsed after the fire and residents living nearby complained of breathing problems from the smell of the gas that was released, police and residents said.

"First we thought it was an earthquake, the way our building was shaking," said Sumedh Joshi, who lives about a mile away from the factory. "Our window panes shattered due to the blast and we quickly came out of our building."

Twenty fire brigades and 15 ambulances were sent for the rescue operation, one police official said.

"We are investigating the reason behind the explosion," local police official Ashutosh Dumbare told Reuters, adding that a disaster response team was trying to rescue several people trapped underneath the debris.

"The rescue work will take time, maybe until tomorrow morning. So far five people are confirmed dead and nine people are seriously injured."

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Palestinian rights groups try to stop Gaza executions

Palestinian human rights defenders are urging Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to halt planned executions in the Gaza Strip.Ashraf AmraAPA images

Ali Abunimah-26 May 2016

Palestinian and international human rights defenders are urging Hamas authorities not to proceed with planned executions in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier this month, Ismail Jaber, the attorney general in the coastal territory, announced that Gaza would soon witness the public executions of 13 persons convicted of murder, with the goal of deterring such crimes.

Ismail Haniyeh, the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza, also announced that the executions would go ahead. On Wednesday, Gaza-based members of the Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council also approved the plan.

Human rights defenders are mobilizing to stop the executions.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) warned on Thursday that the executions would be illegal under the Palestinian Basic Law, which requires that all death sentences be ratified by the Palestinian Authority president.

The group said that the executions would amount to extrajudicial killings.

PCHR said it had written to Haniyeh setting out its legal arguments against the executions. The group stated that leaders who order them could face prosecution in the International Criminal Court in which Palestine is now a member.

“Street justice”

Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, also based in Gaza, said it too was in contact with Hamas leaders to try to prevent the killings.

“We are against it. There’s no logic in violating the right to life and when you implement the death penalty it doesn’t stop the crime,” Al-Mezan’s assistant director Samir Zakout said. “The street wants the death penalty, people who had relatives killed want it. But we are against this kind of street justice.”

Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said his office was “deeply concerned” about the planned executions.

“We urge the authorities in Gaza to uphold their obligations to respect the rights to life and to a fair trial – which are guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the State of Palestine is a party – and not carry out these executions,” Colville said.

“We also urge the Palestinian president to establish a moratorium on executions in line with the strong international trend towards ending the use of the death penalty,” Colville added.

Split authority

The West Bank-based PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has not ratified any death sentences in a decade.

Hamas has however continued the use of the death penalty in Gaza.

The surprise victor in legislative elections in 2006, Hamas took control of the internal governance of Gaza in 2007 after fierce battles with Abbas’ rival Fatah party, which refused to hand over power.

This has meant in practice that most areas of governance, including the judicial system, have been split.

As of January, according to PCHR, a total of 172 death sentences had been issued since the PA was established in 1994, of which 30 were in the West Bank and 142 in Gaza.

Eighty-four death sentences were issued since Hamas took over in Gaza in 2007.

Up to 2010, according to PCHR, approximately half the death sentences were for homicides and approximately half for collaboration with Israel.

No deterrent

The planned executions come in apparent response to several high-profile murders in Gaza and an increase in crime that is seen as linked to the dire economic situation in the territory as a result of the tight siege Israel has imposed since Hamas assumed power.

PCHR, which has long campaigned against the death penalty, challenged the claims of Hamas leaders that public killings would do anything to improve security.

PCHR noted that crime rates in Gaza, where the death penalty has been applied in recent years, are far higher than in the West Bank, where it has not been implemented since 2001.

“In addition, the experiences of other countries, which abolished the death penalty, reveal that no change was noticed regarding the serious crime rate,” PCHR added. “Even in countries applying thousands of death sentences annually, serious crime rates have not decreased.”

“According to scientific research, the crime rate is mainly based on social, economic and cultural circumstances and an efficient security system not on lenient or severe punishments,” PCHR stated.

The group urged Hamas leaders to take another factor into account: the potential gift to Israeli propaganda of public executions.

“Implementing the death sentences in this manner might contribute to displaying a negative image about the Gaza Strip that Israel attempts to market to justify their crimes against Palestinian civilians,” PCHR said.

While Israel and its supporters have certainly tried to exploit executions by Palestinians to portray them as barbaric, Israeli leaders are enthusiastic about executing Palestinians, whether judicially or extrajudicially, just as long as it is done by Israelis.

Bahraini human rights lawyer faces arbitrary deportation: Amnesty 

Tairmoor Karimi faces expulsion from Bahrain, amid reports that increasing numbers of activists are being rendered stateless

 

Tairmoor Karimi could be expelled from Bahrain at any time and has not been told where he would be deported (BIRD) 

Jamie Merrill-Thursday 26 May 2016

A Bahraini human rights lawyer faces deportation after the country’s appeal court upheld a sentence that stripped him of his nationality.

Tairmoor Karimi heard that his citizenship was to be revoked when it was read out on state media while he was asleep at home in the capital Manama in 2012.

His children had to wake him to break the news and, four years later, after his final appeal was rejected on Monday, he has effectively been rendered stateless and is at risk of expulsion, Amnesty International has warned.

Karimi, who took part in protests against the government in 2011, may now be expelled from Bahrain at any time, potentially in breach of international human rights law that prohibits arbitrary deportation and exile.

Ariel Plotkin, Amnesty International's campaigner on Bahrain, told Middle East Eye: “Banishing Bahraini lawyer Taimoor Karimi from his own country, after he was arbitrarily stripped of his only nationality, is wrong on so many levels.

“His expulsion would send a clear signal that Bahrain blatantly disregards international law and is stepping up its chokehold on freedom of expression."

Karimi was one of the first 31 people whose citizenship was revoked by the Sunni-led government for what it called “harm to state security” in 2012, in the wake of the 2011 uprising in the country, which was put down with the help of troops from neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

According to Plotkin, at least 268 Bahrainis, including human rights activists and lawyers, have been stripped of their nationality since 2012, with at least 208 in 2015 alone “pointing to an increasing trend of the authorities resorting to nationality revocation to silence critical voices".

Earlier this year in an interview with Reuters, Karimi said: “I am a Bahrani, down from my grandfather to my father. Now, I am out of work, I cannot keep a bank account or travel? What do I do?”.

Sayed Alwadaei, from the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, told MEE: “Bahrain is trying to tie being Bahraini with loyalty to the government and ruling family. Taimoor Karimi is being treated like an illegal migrant in his own country, and the government is punishing him and his entire family 

arbitrarily. This is a twisted and disturbing policy which is destroying the lives of hundreds of people.”

Karimi first received a court summon threatening expulsion in August 2014, citing “violations of asylum and immigration law”. He had previously spent six months in jail for involvement in what authorities called “riots and incitement to hate the ruling system”. He had denied the charges and said he was participating in legitimate protests.

Activists say the Bahraini government has increasingly used administrative methods against opponents, who it has portrayed as part of a plot inspired by Iran to bring down Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy. The opposition denies any influence from Tehran.

On Thursday a Bahraini court jailed 19 Shias for attacks against police, including five for life sentences, a judicial source told AFP.  

In one case, five men were convicted of a bomb attack in a Shia village east of the capital Manama in August last year. The bomb exploded when a police vehicle was clearing barricades that had been erected by protesters, the source said.

Venezuela’s Problems Are Political, Not Economic

BY PAUL BONICELLI-MAY 26, 2016

Scattered among the numerous commentaries on Venezuela’s spiral into chaos are suggestions for how to resolve the economic crisis. Little is said about the real cause of the economic problems, which is the politics of Venezuela — and it has been the problem for quite some time. Example: Jeff Spross at The Week wrote recently about the travails of Venezuela and how to “fix it,” but focused on the regime’s economic policy. Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic Policy Research argues similarly, writing that the regime’s currency exchange rate policy has lead to soaring inflation and a black market. That black market distorts the economy and destroys the incentive for producers to supply the basic goods for which citizens clamor.

I applaud their accurate analysis regarding the foolish and counterproductive economic policies of the regime, but these analysts and commenters fail to offer a true “fix” for Venezuela because they are not focused on what really ails the country. Venezuela is a dictatorship, and has been since Hugo Chavez took power; the policies that strangle the economy are only symptoms of the regime’s authoritarianism.

I have written about this before at The Federalist (here and here) and here atShadow Government. Venezuela used to be one of the success stories of Latin America even though it was never fully democratic and always a country of rich elites dominating the poorer masses without a fully developed middle class. But all that changed for the worse when Hugo Chavez, a former coup-leader, embarked on the path of a statist-socialist populism in the late 1990s. He called his project Bolivarian Socialism, thereby sullying the Great Liberator’s name; the better name is Chavismo, for it is Chavez and his cronies that deserve all the opprobrium for the failures of their project.


Once in power, Chavez implemented a dictatorship and took over and destroyed the once thriving oil industry. He intimidated every independent sector of the economy and social life into subservience. He died before he had to face the full fruition of his policies. As Venezuela crashed and his popularity plummeted, the opposition used the regime’s failures to finally take back the legislature, but now political stalemate rules between the presidency held by Chavez’s inept successor, Nicolas Maduro, and the opposition-held assembly. Things have gotten much worse in the last six months. The regime jails its political opponents (including business leadersit falsely accuses of hoarding); Venezuelans go without basic goods like toilet paper and nourishing food; and the government appears helpless to deal with murder, robbery, assault, and corruption. Vigilantism is replacing formal policing. People die in pools of their own blood in filthy hospitals for lack of prescriptions and care. To save energy and ease the strain on the budget, government employees are required to show up for work only two days a week.

Chavismo — which is nothing more nor less than authoritarianism — has ruined Venezuela, as authoritarianism usually does. With unchecked political power, dictators are free to engage in any dumb idea they choose without a reckoning. For those who think Deng’s China or Pinochet’s Chile are examples to the contrary, note well that neither saw any economic thriving until they embraced a market economy, and only an economic illiterate or a moral idiot would encourage other countries to try their path with all the human rights abuses and instability that come with dictatorship. Chile mercifully passed into democracy with a push from the Reagan administration and its economy does well, while the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship breeds corruption and mismanagement; its economic model is obviously shaky, if not terminal. The comparison between Chile and Venezuela is also quite telling.


Authoritarianism ruins countries because in destroying the liberties of the people, it crushes creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit, and hinders the application of everyone’s talents and labor in building prosperity. Human flourishing, which should be the goal, is not possible when the state tries to run the economy because economics is best understood as a human endeavor that encompasses the material as well as the spiritual. That is, we are more than matter, so econometrics and fiscal formulas are insufficient to promote lasting and stable economic growth. It is human liberty to flourish that matters first: all the rest is logistics.

But that is not what many economists and development workers see when they look at Venezuela and the scores of other countries ruined and impoverished over the years by statism, socialism, and big government planning. Why do smart people miss the most obvious facts? One reason is that they wish to avoid being criticized for attacking the politics of developing countries. Having worked in this field for years I know that most of these smart people know exactly what causes economic problems, but they either cannot or will not bring themselves to say so publicly. Another reason is that some are so enamored of their econometric cyphering and so focused on the material element of humankind that they won’t consider the moral and spiritual elements. They assume that poor countries can flourish with the right technical analysis and advice. They focus on the symptoms of dictatorship instead of the actual problem of dictatorship itself.

Venezuela doesn’t just need some economic tinkering; it doesn’t simply need reforms to its currency exchange rules. It needs a constitutional and republican political order; it needs democratic capitalism (see Michael Novak’s timeless work, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, for the diagnosis and the cure). The donor nations of the world, the international aid agencies, and the opinion leaders, should have been decrying the lack of a free political order in Venezuela for all the years that Chavez and his cronies were ruining the country. With soaring poverty and crime, with thousands of protestors in the streets, with the country on the verge of a civil war, it is time for some clarity about the root problems in Venezuela. In 2016, the answer to the kinds of problems Venezuela is enduring is human freedom, not technocratic tinkering.

Photo Credit: Anadolu Agency / Contributor

China attempts to make Karl Marx ‘cool’ again with a catchy rap song (VIDEO)

26th May 2016 

CHINESE state media is leveraging on a rap song to make Karl Marx and communism appealing to its youngsters.

The song, entitled “Marx is a post-90” (a “post-90” being China’s version of a millennial), praises the philosopher’s supposed coolness with lyrics about how a Chinese youth “discovered how awesome he is” after being exposed to his teachings.

According to local news portal People’s Daily, the song is proof of Marx’s longevity and how he will “never completely go out of style”, reported Xinhuanet.

The song was released to accompany a television program about books which will soon be aired in northern China meant to introduce Marxism to a young audience in a relatable way.

The rap’s lyrics draws a connection between Karl Marx and qualities that China’s post-1990’s generation aspire to, featuring lines such as “Not for power, not for money, but for faith, we march ahead” and “We both won’t give up till we die”.

The song’s writer, Zhuo Sina, in an interview with the People’s Daily, said: “The lyrics are meant to tell everyone that Marxism is still in fashion, and is not something outdated.

“If this song could change students’ attitudes toward Marx and prompt greater willingness to learn about Marxism, then I think that’s a good thing,” she added.

In China, students are required to take “theoretical thinking” courses that include Marxist theories, but they may not embrace it as much as the Chinese government would like.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

Stephen Hawking Warns Humanity: Leave Earth Before the Ruling Class Destroys It

Claire Bernish-January 20, 2016

(ANTIMEDIA) United Kingdom — Humanity’s future is in peril thanks to so-called advancements in science and technology, claims Professor Stephen Hawking, 

who cited “nuclear war, global warming, and genetically-modified viruses” as deadly threats to our existence.

Hawking described various “things that could go wrong” to an audience of hundreds attending the first in a series of BBC Reith Lectures, which pertain to research about black holes. He asserted the necessity for colonization of other planets to ensure survival of the human species.According to the BBC, Hawking cautioned:

“Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year might be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years.

“By that time, we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race.

“However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period.”

Though it would seem counterproductive for such a well-respected scientist to decry scientific progress as humanity’s most existential threat, this isn’t the first time Hawking has advised us to exercise caution, as Anti-Media has reported several times. Last summer, the theoretical physicist was among over 1,000 artificial intelligence experts who signed an open letter about the weaponization of robots and the ongoing “military artificial intelligence arms race” among the world’s military powers.

In October of last year, Hawking warned scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) about the potential for the Higgs Boson “God Particle” to initiate “catastrophic vacuum decay” — the formation of a quantum bubble that expands at the speed of light and could decimate the entire universe. Concern over the automation of the world’s workforce coupled with capitalist greed also earned the scientist’s stern alarm.

In fact, taken collectively, Hawking’s numerous warnings are aimed directly at the careless hubris of the ruling elites and their tendency to act in favor of profit — in a variety of fields — without consideration given to long-term consequences resulting from such hastily implemented projects.

Despite the numerous cautionary scenarios Hawking has proffered, he claims society will likely discover the means to cope.

“We are not going to stop making progress, or reverse it, so we have to recognize the dangers and control them,” he stated. “I’m an optimist, and I believe we can.

“It’s important to ensure that these changes are heading in the right directions. In a democratic society, this means that everyone needs to have a basic understanding of science to make informed decisions about the future.

“So communicate plainly what you are trying to do in science, and who knows, you might even end up understanding it yourself.”

The BBC will broadcast this first lecture with Stephen Hawking on January 26 and February 2. It will also be found online here.

Hawking’s theories, of course, haven’t escaped criticism; yet he does maintain a healthy enthusiasm, which was evidenced in this advice he offered young scientists:

“From my own perspective, it has been a glorious time to be alive and doing research in theoretical physics. There is nothing like the Eureka moment of discovering something that no one knew before.”

MORE FROM ANTI-MEDIA:

— Stephen Hawking and 1,000 Experts Sign Letter Warning Of Weaponized Robots
— Stephen Hawking Warns About The Greatest Threat to Humanity

This article (Stephen Hawking Warns Humanity: Leave Earth Before the Ruling Class Destroys It) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Claire Bernish andtheAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Image credit: LWP Kommunikacio. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.

Australia scrubbed from UN climate change report after government intervention

Exclusive: All mentions of Australia were removed from the final version of a Unesco report on climate change and world heritage sites after the Australian government objected on the grounds it could impact on tourism

Revealed: Guardian Australia has obtained the Unesco report Australia didn’t want the world to see. Read it now

The Great Barrier Reef is in the midst of its worst crisis in recorded history. Unusually warm water has caused 93% of the reefs along the 2,300km site to experience bleaching. Photograph: XL Catlin Seaview Survey/AFP/Getty Images

Burnt alpine vegetation at the Lake Mackenzie fire in Tasmania. Photograph: Rob Blakers for the Guardian

Michael Slezak-Thursday 26 May 2016

Every reference to Australia was scrubbed from the final version of a major UN report on climate change after the Australian government intervened, objecting that the information could harm tourism.

Guardian Australia can reveal the report “World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate”, which Unesco jointly published with the United Nations environment program and the Union of Concerned Scientists on Friday, initially had a key chapter on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as small sections on Kakadu and the Tasmanian forests.

But when the Australian Department of Environment saw a draft of the report, it objected, and every mention of Australia was removed by Unesco. Will Steffen, one of the scientific reviewers of the axed section on the reef, said Australia’s move was reminiscent of “the old Soviet Union”.

No sections about any other country were removed from the report. The removals left Australia as the only inhabited continent on the planet with no mentions.

Explaining the decision to object to the report, a spokesperson for the environment department told Guardian Australia: “Recent experience in Australia had shown that negative commentary about the status of world heritage properties impacted on tourism.”

As a result of climate change combined with weather phenomena, the Great Barrier Reef is in the midst of the worst crisis in recorded history. Unusually warm water has caused 93% of the reefs along the 2,300km site to experience bleaching. In the northern most pristine part, scientists think half the coral might have died.

The omission was “frankly astounding,” Steffen said.

Steffen is an emeritus professor at the Australian National University and head of Australia’s Climate Council. He was previously executive director of theInternational Geosphere Biosphere Programme, where he worked with 50 countries on global change science.

“I’ve spent a lot of my career working internationally,” Steffen said. “And it’s very rare that I would see something like this happening. Perhaps in the old Soviet Union you would see this sort of thing happening, where governments would quash information because they didn’t like it. But not in western democracies. I haven’t seen it happen before.”

The news comes less than a year after the Australian government successfully lobbied Unesco to not list the Great Barrier Reef in its list of “World Heritage Sites in Danger”.

The removals occurred in early 2016, during a period when there was significant pressure on the Australian government in relation to both climate change and world heritage sites.

At the time, news of the government’s science research agency CSIRO sacking 100 climate scientists due to government budget cuts had just emerged; parts of the Tasmanian world heritage forests were on fire for the first time in recorded history; and a global coral bleaching event was beginning to hit the Great Barrier Reef – another event driven by global warming.

The environment department spokesperson told Guardian Australia: “The department was concerned that the framing of the report confused two issues – the world heritage status of the sites and risks arising from climate change and tourism.”

The report said the case studies were chosen partly because of their geographic representation, their importance for tourism and the robustness of evidence around the impact of climate change on them.

A recent study found the conditions that cause the current bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef was made at least 175 times more likely by climate change and, on the current trajectory, would become the average conditions within 20 years.

Without mentioning the Great Barrier Reef, the report notes: “Research suggests that preserving more than 10% of the world’s corals would require limiting warming to 1.5C or less, and protecting 50% would mean halting warming at 1.2C (Frieler et al. 2012).”

The full statement from the environment department said:

The World Heritage Centre initiated contact with the Department of the Environment in early 2016 for our views on aspects of this report.

The department expressed concern that giving the report the title ‘Destinations at risk’ had the potential to cause considerable confusion. In particular, the world heritage committee had only six months earlier decided not to include the Great Barrier Reef on the in-danger list and commended Australia for the Reef 2050 Plan.

The department was concerned that the framing of the report confused two issues – the world heritage status of the sites and risks arising from climate change and tourism. It is the world heritage committee, not its secretariat (the World Heritage Centre), which is properly charged with examining the status of world heritage sites.

Recent experience in Australia had shown that negative commentary about the status of world heritage properties impacted on tourism.

The department indicated it did not support any of Australia’s world heritage properties being included in such a publication for the reasons outlined above.

The Department of the Environment conveyed these concerns through Australia’s ambassador to UNESCO. 

The department did not brief the minister on this issue.”

A country of a quarter-billion people is trying to provide health care for all

Medical personnel transfer patients to be treated in government hospitals in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, last July. The country’s flagship national health-insurance program was launched in early 2014. (Hotli Simanjuntak/European Pressphoto Agency)

By Jon Emont May 19

JAKARTA, Indonesia — In November 2014, Andri, a 33-year-old worker with a nongovernmental organization in Jakarta, began feeling weak and disoriented. Medical tests established that she had leukemia. Then she learned that her private health insurance would cover only a single annual session of chemotherapy.

The treatment she needed was too expensive for her family, as it would be for most Indonesians, said Andri, who for reasons of privacy asked that only her first name be used. “In the past, a lot of people died at home with cancer.”

Fortunately for Andri, she had fallen ill in a new era. In early 2015, she signed up for Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN), Indonesia’s newly rolled-out single-payer health-care program. It fully covered her monthly chemotherapy sessions at a top-flight Jakarta hospital. She is now in the second stage of her chemotherapy treatment, feels healthy and is deeply grateful to the Indonesian government.

In 2014, Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation of 250 million people, began phasing in one of the world’s largest single-payer health-care systems. Two and a half years later, its government guarantees comprehensive health insurance for 165 million citizens and residents, with plans to expand coverage to the entire population by 2019. According to the office of the Social Security Administering Body for Health, which runs the program, more than 100 million health-care visits have been covered since its launch.

But the picture is not entirely rosy. Revenue is falling well short of costs, health clinics are overwhelmed by the rush of new patients, and fraudulent claims and bureaucratic dysfunction are rife. Some question whether a developing country that devotes only 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product to health care can realistically guarantee comprehensive coverage to each of its citizens.

Physician Sidartawan Soegondo talks with diabetes patients at his clinic in Jakarta in April. (Beawiharta/Reuters)

“On the face of it, they’ve made much bigger promises than the government has capacity to deliver,” said May Tsung-Mei Cheng, a health policy research analyst at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

When China began unrolling its universal health-care program in 2009, only certain high-priority conditions were covered, with the list gradually expanding as the country’s economy grew. Indonesia, which is substantially poorer than China, has imposed no such restrictions, covering routine procedures and complex, expensive operations alike. Aging Indonesian farmers have had kneecaps replaced. Heart transplants are funded.

In 2015, JKN’s first full year of operation, the program’s expenses exceeded government projections by more than $300 million. Costs will climb further when the government expands coverage to the country’s rural poor, who disproportionately lack coverage today. As it is, hospitals and health clinics complain that the state does not generally compensate them sufficiently for the care they provide to those with national health insurance.

As a result, the public’s experience has also been mixed, according to Hasbullah Thabrany, a professor of health economics at the University of Indonesia who is one of the chief architects of the program.

“Due to low or perceived low payments, providers have shifted their costs to members/patients directly with discrimination of services, charging out of pocket or creating long queues” for services, Thabrany said.

The abrupt influx of tens of millions of new patients, all with claims and other paperwork needing to be processed, has also contributed to the interminable wait times. On the day of her chemotherapy treatments, Andri had to get in line at the hospital at 2 a.m. to receive the required authorization for her 2 p.m. appointment. Moreover, her state insurance allowed her to consult with only one doctor a day, she said, so if she needed to consult with someone other than her oncologist, she had to repeat the process the next day.

Many others, less lucky than Andri, are placed on long waiting lists before receiving critical care.

Indonesian public-health experts are now calling for substantial reforms, beginning with boosting revenue. The government recently raised the amount wealthy Indonesians are required to contribute to the system, but the cap is still lower than experts think is necessary. “The costs must be increased to ensure better quality of care and to ensure middle class customers join happily,” Thabrany wrote.

Donald Pardede, a senior adviser to the health minister on health economics, acknowledges the need for urgent reforms and said that, in an ideal world, “sky-is-the-limit” benefits would be reconsidered. But government legislation says all citizens have a right to comprehensive health care, and he says it is unlikely to be revised. “The citizenry would cry out, so that’s unlikely to happen,” he said.

Pardede noted that the government is working with hospitals to help them cut fraud and waste, which he says will reduce health-care costs in the long run. Overall, he remains optimistic.

“If I was forced to choose whether things are better now or before, I would choose now, because we’re better allies to ordinary people now,” he said.

On a recent Monday morning at the Cempaka Putih Health Clinic in central Jakarta, the facility’s three floors were overflowing with patients and crying babies, and benches had been set up outside the building to accommodate even more patients. The administrative staff is packed into an attic, processing paperwork. Ati Sukhmanhsih, the clinic’s chief administrator, said that officials were hoping to move to a larger space soon to accommodate the huge volume of new patients with access to free health care.

For Sukhmanhsih, the crowding can be viewed as a positive.

“Before, there were many who were sick, who didn’t receive care,” she said. “Now, because of the JKN, they can come to the clinic and we can help them.”