Login
Η αμηχανία των ελίτ στις ΗΠΑ, για εξωτερική πληροφόρηση των πολιτών της χώρας τους, τζαι η παραβατική αναζήτηση των πολιτών...
«..Μερικές φορές η αμερικανική οξυθυμία του κοινού καταλήγει σε ανακουφιστικούς χώρους. Η απειλή να κλείσουν το Τικ Τοκ, οδήγησε πολλούς της γενιάς Ζ να μετακινηθούν στην επίσης κινεζική πλατφόρμα Red Note...
Τζαι τούτη η κίνηση είσιεν πολλά ενδιαφέρουσες προεκτάσεις, ιδιαίτερα όταν στον διάλογο μεταξύ Κινέζων τζαι Αμερικάνων, αρκέψαν να εμφανίζονται συγκριτικά μέτρα.. όπως λ.χ. την συζήτηση του πόσο στοιχίζει να πάρεις νοσοκομειακή μεταφορά. Οι κινέζοι ρωτούσαν αν όντως χρειάζονται πολλά χρήματα για χρήση νοσοκομειακού στις ΗΠΑ – αρχικά φαίνονταν να νομίζουν, ότι ό,τι είχαν ακούσει ήταν απλά προπαγάνδα της κυβέρνησης τους.... Στον διαλογο, όμως αναδύθηκε που την μερκά των αμερικάνων πόσο δύσκολη είσιεν γίνει η ζωή, ειδικά για του νέους...»
Άτε τωρά να βουρούν να λογοκρίνουν μη-αμερικάνικες πλατφόρμες..
Οι ΗΠΑ χρησιμοποίησαν το προβάδισμα τους στην τεχνολογία της επικοινωνίας που την δεκαετία του 1990, τζαι στους πολέμους με το Ιράκ, αλλά τζαι ευρύτερα την 20ετία, 2000-20... Όπως την χρήση του facebook για ανατροπή καθεστώτων που δεν έλεγχε η Δύση στην Μέση Ανατολή – με κλασικό παράδειγμα την επέμβαση στην Λιβύη το 2011..
Σήμερα όμως... εν οι ΗΠΑ που φαίνονται να θέλουν να λογοκρίνουν. Τζαι οι «αντίπαλοί» τους να έχουν τεχνολογική ανεση – Όπως έγινε με το Τικ Τοκ...
Η ευρύτερα όπως γίνεται με το δόγμα της ελεύθερης αγοράς που επουλήθηκε τόσο μετά το 1990... τζαι σήμερα εφτάσαμε στο σημείο να εν οι ΗΠΑ που θέλουν περιορισμό της ελεύθερης αγοράς.... με προστατευτισμό...»
«But sometimes that American irascibility ends up at a refreshing place. The threat of banning a social media platform so many used actually pushed many Gen Z members to download a Chinese social media app deliciously named Red Note. This is a magnificent fuck around and find out moment. Especially when a topic that made the rounds during early exchanges on that site involved cross-cultural discussions about the cost of taking an ambulance to get care in America. Chinese users on Red Note asked if it was true that in America one needs to pay huge amounts for an ambulance—they thought that perhaps this fact was part of their own government’s propaganda campaign about life in the US. The exchanges back and forth were telling, mainly telling in how difficult life in America has become for many, especially the young. Discussions like, how in many cases, two jobs are needed to simply afford rent, that groceries are beyond expensive, that the homeless are often criminalized and fined. Basically for those who remember the 90’s sitcom term…..it was “bad naked”.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/01/21/the-red-note-white-and-blue/
Ο δημοσιογράφος της Guardian, Owen Jones έκαμεν μιαν αποκαλυπτική έρευνα για το πώς ελειτούργησεν το BBC στην κάλυψη του πολέμου στην Γάζα.. Εμίλησεν με 13 δημοσιογράφους, τζαι άλλους εμπλεκομένους... Τζαι η εικόνα εν σαφής: παρά τις διαμαρτυρίες των δημοσιογράφων, επιβλήθηκε μια ισραηλινή γραμμή..
Dec 19, 2024
Today Drop Site News is publishing a landmark investigation about the BBC’s coverage of Israel’s unrelenting assault on Gaza by British journalist Owen Jones. His report is based on interviews with 13 journalists and other BBC staffers who offer remarkable insights into how senior figures within the BBC’s news operation skewed stories in favor of Israel’s narratives and repeatedly dismissed objections registered by scores of staffers who, throughout the past 14 months, demanded that the network uphold its commitment to impartiality and fairness. Jones’s investigation of the BBC has three main components: a deeply reported look into the internal complaints from BBC journalists, a quantitative assessment of how the BBC characterizes the year-long siege on Gaza, and a review of the histories of the people behind the coverage—and, in particular, one editor, Raffi Berg.
Appropriately, when Jones began this reporting as an independent journalist and reached out to Berg for comment, Berg at first hired the famous defamation lawyer Mark Lewis, who is also former Director of UK Lawyers for Israel. Jones is a Guardian columnist and hosts his own searing independent news coverage on YouTube. Many thanks to those who donated directly to Owen to help pay for his legal fees.
We are living in an era where many people expect the news to be delivered in 280 characters or less. But investigative journalism often necessitates a careful peeling back of layers, an examination of background and context, and incorporating the insights of many sources. This is a long read, and may take you a couple of sittings to get through, but it’s well worth our attention given the global influence of the BBC, which hails itself as “the world’s most trusted international news provider.” As Jones notes, the BBC website is the most-visited news site on the internet. In May alone, it had 1.1 billion visits.
At Drop Site News, we believe in holding powerful people and institutions accountable, particularly when their actions—or what they publish and how—mean life or death. It is in that spirit that we are publishing Jones’s investigation.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/bbc-civil-war-gaza-israel-biased-coverage
As we write this, potentially thousands of tons of oil are on their way to blanket the east coast of Cyprus, with some of it already reaching Dipkarpaz/Rizokarpaso, irreversibly damaging the sensitive marine and coastal ecosystems of that region. While we are monitoring the situation as it develops, several facts are clear.
First, the spill originated at Baniyas Thermal Station, a power station in Syria that, like in Cyprus and much of the Middle East, uses oil to generate power. As details emerge, it is clear that the plant has been neglected after years of conflict/civil war in Syria.
Unfortunately, countries in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, including Cyprus, have been prioritising conflict and the pursuit of profit at the expense of health, safety, and the environment. The fact that no country in the aforementioned region has embraced the revolutionary potential of renewables, and instead all continue burning fuel, is a testament to the vice grip that fossil fuel led economic and political interests have on countries all across this region.
Second, the administrations in the north and the south of Cyprus are once again hamstrung by the political situation on our island. While we commend the efforts to “inform” one another about developments, the COVID pandemic has demonstrated a huge lack of a coherent plan for cooperation between the two sides in the face of various crises. This became obvious over the past years with the deadly wildfires which have left behind burned land and destroyed ecosystems. Whilst Cypriot authorities have been aware of the oil spill since 26 August, plans to take action only emerged on 31 August. Even though the Republic of Cyprus has an oil spill response vessel (Alexandria) as well as other technical equipment and expertise to handle the crisis, the Turkish Cypriot administration has chosen to ask for help from Turkey. Every person in Cyprus, directly or indirectly, is dependent on our island’s sensitive ecosystems. We deserve a response that prioritises our island first, and sets political agendas aside.
Third, the extraction of and reliance on fossil fuels in the Eastern Mediterranean means that disasters like this are just waiting to happen. Even as we see oil cover our eastern sea, political elites in this country are unified behind the senseless strategy, supporting offshore drilling in those same waters. There is no such thing as a “natural” disaster anymore. Every wildfire, every drought, every square kilometer of nature destroyed, is a result of political decisions or inaction and our politicians have all been complicit in this regard. Even the “green” or the more “socialist” political parties have done nothing to advance environmentalism or socialism, but rather embraced the hydrocarbon projects, contributing to the commodification of our common sea.
Fourth, the rampant conflict and instability in our region is a recipe for climate disaster. As we have seen just this year with the worst wildfires on record, and recently when we had the worst drought in 900 years, we are going to need a coordinated and region-wide response to the climate crisis. The fact that we cannot even coordinate a response to an oil spill, a disaster which struck the same region before, means that we need to make a drastic change. This means putting aside the politics of mutually assured destruction and embracing a policy for the future, one that prioritises health and safety over the pursuit of power and profits.
We demand that the administrations on both sides of the divide rise up to the occasion and immediately coordinate a response to the Baniyas Oil Spill.
At the same time, we demand for a public commitment for the protection of our common natural heritage, with specific emergency response plans for different types of disasters (wildfires, oil spills etc), as well as a joint declaration cancelling hydrocarbon exploration projects combined with a commitment for an island wide decarbonization strategy.
The post One Sea, One Struggle: Avli Statement on the Baniyas Oil Spill first appeared on AVLI.A guest blog on Scottish Environment Link by Glen Smith, a social science researcher and PhD candidate at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Diarmid Hearns is right to point to the importance of the Scottish planning system in determining how space is developed and, subsequently, how people live their lives (The Scotsman Opinion 18/01/2018). The National Trust for Scotland research findings that Mr Hearns discusses are indeed concerning. The sense of disconnect between citizens and a system that helps determine the use and non-use of space needs to be urgently addressed, as does the lack of trust in that system.
Much of the frustration towards the planning system stems from the limited opportunities for people to affect decision outcomes: around 60 per cent of those asked in the National Trust of Scotland survey felt this way. The planning system is plagued by instances of late or limited stakeholder engagement. Or, more worryingly, of no engagement at all.
It must be said that many Scottish people are pushing hard to right these wrongs. It remains a political hot topic, with some communities taking more direct action. Examples include the formation of Development Trusts or, in more radical cases, direct community land buyouts. Whilst it is true that any local ambitions to change land use patterns through these channels are still subjected to planning procedures, they are at least conceived through community-based committees. So the ‘step zero’ of planning can stem from local residents. But not all communities have the means to take such steps. Furthermore, they are a symptom of a problem, rather than a solution. Why would communities feel the need to take matters into their own hands? What is broken? How can we fix it? These are important questions.
Unfortunately, steps taken by the Scottish Government have done little to stop these questions being asked. The rhetoric is in place but the demonstrable impact is not. Communities might have taken centre stage in the most recent round of land reform, as indicated by the emerging Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act of 2015, but true participatory processes require a redistribution of power. That seems like a bridge too far for the Scottish Government. The new Planning Bill does not offer too much hope in this regard either. As pointed out by Planning Democracy SCIO, among others, the Planning Bill actually proposes to reduce the overall number of opportunities for community engagement in planning.
It is important that Scotland continues to push for a more democratic planning system. But I would like to suggest that the push be extended offshore to include marine spatial planning, especially for inshore waters. Scotland’s National Marine Plan is to be implemented in the Scottish Marine Regions where plans will be adapted to meet localised needs and demands. Some regions have already produced pretty comprehensive plans, although they took different routes to get there.
However, having studied the governance of marine spatial planning processes in Scotland for a number of years, it seems that as the system becomes institutionalised it is in danger of adopting some of the same failures from its terrestrial relative. Decisions made about the use or non-use of the seabed affect coastal communities. They can significantly change the social dynamics of coastal towns and villages as the necessary infrastructure and workforce are put in place to capitalise on ‘blue growth’ opportunities. Marine planning partnerships in the regions are designed to incorporate local opinions into decision making; but public input is not assured in most cases.
The challenges, laws and perceived relevance of marine and terrestrial planning differ considerably. But both need to be underpinned by the good governance principles of transparency and participation. The marine planning system is still in the making but it is never too early to ensure that such principles are built in. Diarmid Hearn talks of a great opportunity for “the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament to get people back into planning and ensure their voice is heard”. I couldn’t agree more. But while we are here, let’s discuss the sea as well.
– Glen Smith is a social science researcher and PhD candidate at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. His work focuses on the governance of marine management in Scotland
One Radical Planet 