This article appeared in Agence France Press today. France has a large number of people that are against the war, according to recent polls. Hopefully, the countries of Europe can come together and enact some pressure to remove troops from this part of the world.
U.S. may stay in Afghanistan after 2014, Biden says
By Katherine Haddon, Agence France-Presse January 12, 2011
The United States is not in Afghanistan to "govern," but will offer support beyond a 2014 security handover if Afghans wanted, visiting U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden told President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday.
Speaking after talks with the president in Kabul, Biden said: "We're not leaving if you (Afghans) don't want us to leave."
However, he also emphasized that the planned handover of responsibility for security from international troops to Afghan forces in four years, agreed at a NATO summit in November, was on track.
"It's not our intention to govern or to nation-build. As President Karzai often points out, this is the responsibility of the Afghan people," Biden told reporters at a news conference.
"We stand ready to help you in that effort and we'll continue to stand ready to help you in that effort after 2014."
A senior White House official said Biden was not announcing a change in policy.
"The vice-president was simply restating for the public what he had said to the president (Karzai), which was that the United States wants an enduring partnership with Afghanistan," the official said.
There are about 97,000 United States troops serving in Afghanistan as part of an international force of some 140,000. Limited, conditions-based withdrawals are due to start in July ahead of the scheduled 2014 transition.
Biden said Afghanistan was in a "new phase" and insisted that Taliban momentum had been "largely arrested" in key areas such as the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. His comments came despite several recent attacks in the south, seen as the focus of the war, including a suicide bombing at a bath house in Kandahar province last week which killed 17 people.
A U.S. official travelling with Biden said the vice-president's trip came at a "pivot point" for the U.S. in Afghanistan, adding it would allow Biden to review progress toward handing responsibility for security to Afghan forces.
Biden's trip comes four days after the U.S. announced it was sending an extra 1,400 Marines to southern Afghanistan, seen as the heart of the Taliban insurgency, in a bid to preempt an expected spring offensive in April or May.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/stay+Afghanistan+after+2014+Biden+says/4095916/story.html#ixzz1BYUqTLJg
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Social media addiction may lead to a lack of social awareness and a dearth of empathy, leading to a much poorer quality of life. People forgo meaningful contact and connections in the real world, in favour of hours spent staring at soulless screens. Overall, they are less fit and healthy and have less "social capital"- meaningful face to face interactions with one another. Using social media is also an appalling waste of time, likely leading to a massive decrease in human productivity for societies who engage in it. In most societies around the world, including Australia and Canada, one would suspect that the average gross domestic product (GDP) is negatively affected because social networking eats up so much time. As well, the negative consequences for people's health mean that the healthcare burden is significantly higher. Think about it: people can't exercise, don't have as much time to look after the household, etc. Some of the negative consequences of social media addiction have been active day to day neglect of children such that the children have actually been left in the bathtub and died; viral rape scenes where people have shared underage rapes of a victim's sexual activity without the victim's permission, and complicity in online bullying and harassment, wherein schoolchildren experience severe, traumatic, and significant bullying that is likely to alienate and traumatize- to the point of suicide- or potentially radicalize children.
Asia is Facebook’s fastest-growing region, home to roughly 112 million of its 580 million users worldwide, according to Facebook statistics.
In the last 24 months, the network has seen quadruple-digit growth in Malaysia (1,000 percent), Thailand (4,000 percent) and Taiwan (7,500 percent). As of 2010, the largest Facebook population outside America is no longer the United Kingdom. It’s Indonesia, an archipelago where 80 percent still lack Internet access.
“Facebook has swept across the Asian region in a way no other web property has done. Ever,” said Thomas Crampton, social media analyst and Asia Pacific director of the 360 Digital Influence marketing agency.
Facebook’s eastern sweep is driven in part by development and demographics. As the Asian middle class rises, the price of internet access continues to fall. But the boom is also fueled by an Asian obsession with online games, as well as Facebook’s ease of use on mobile devices, far cheaper in Asia than at-home web connections.
Across the region, Chinese-made web-ready mobile devices sell for $150 with unlimited internet access plans as low as $20. Facebook has become an essential diversion during epic traffic jams in Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila.
“I use Facebook when I first wake up,” said Sahid Priambodo, a student at Paramadina University in Jakarta. “Then I go to school, but I’m still Facebooking in class.”
Priambodo’s Facebook addiction even follows him into bed at night via his smartphone. “Sometimes I can’t sleep because of Facebook,” he said. “It affects my GPA at school.”
Investors are convinced there are plenty more Sahids for Facebook to enlist. A Goldman Sachs investment this month led analysts to peg Facebook’s value at $50 billion and forecast continued heavy growth.
So far, Facebook has chewed through competitors Friendster, Hi5 and MySpace with very little local investment. Unlike Yahoo — which built offices in Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere in a bid for Asian dominance — Facebook only maintains offices in Japan and, as of last year, India and Singapore.
“Until mid-last year, if I wanted to talk to someone at Facebook, I had to call one poor guy in Australia,” Crampton said. “He was the only representative on this side of the Pacific Ocean.” (Facebook did not respond to GlobalPost’s repeated inquiries into plans for opening new offices or its overall Asia strategy.)
Facebook’s adaptability to local tongues has aided its Asian spread. When Facebook detects a non-English script, it asks the user to translate portions of the site for free — a clever means of recruiting an army of free interpreters.
Facebook also partially owes its growth to the Asian obsession with Farmville, a game that invites players to tend digital farms while sharing seeds and tools with fellow users.
The online phenomenon, played by an estimated 10 percent of Facebook users, is exclusively accessed through Facebook. Despite its simple 1980s arcade-era graphics, the game’s rules are complex and it begs near-constant attention from cyber-ranchers.
Farmville led Facebook’s charge into Taiwan, where people scrambled to sign up simply to access the game. “They wanted to play Farmville,” Crampton said, “but had to sign up for this thing called ‘Facebook’ first.”
Thailand, now the fastest-growing Asian Facebook population, is among the latest to fall under Farmville’s spell.
“Games are one of the main reasons Thai people join Facebook,” said Wattana Pattanagul, a 35-year-old biology professor. His hobby site, “Farmville in Thailand,” was created to decipher the game’s English-language instructions for Thai fans.
“I got tired of always translating for everyone,” he said. “Some people barely sleep because of Farmville. They set their alarm clocks early to wake up and harvest their crops.”
This month, Wattana officiated at a “Farmville Competition,” which drew spectators to a Bangkok exhibition hall where judges awarded points to contestants’ farms for beauty and skill. (Sample commentary: “All this empty space? The farm leaves me feeling cold” and “This garden is arranged strangely ... are the crops meant to spell out something in Chinese?”)
Still, despite its rapid ascent in much of Asia, Facebook remains banned in the region’s most crucial market: China.
Asia’s largest social network isn’t Facebook. It’s RenRen, virtually unknown in America despite its 150 million Chinese users. (Facebook claims roughly 145.7 million U.S. users.) Unlike Facebook, RenRen and other Chinese-language networks are Chinese owned and subjected to communist party oversight.
“Facebook isn’t going to break into China anytime soon,” Crampton said. “Historically, the Chinese government is uncomfortable with any social media used in China but owned by foreigners.” Unblocking Facebook, he said, would require conceding to communist party controls under “some model no one has ever used.”
Still, Facebook watchers have noted China’s influence on founder Mark Zuckerberg. The 26-year-old is studying Chinese, according to a cover story in Time Magazine, and recently visited Beijing with his Chinese-American girlfriend of seven years.
His empire has already proven willing to take on another communist, Facebook-banning nation: Vietnam. Even under an official (but poorly enforced) block there, Facebook quietly advertised in late 2010 for a Hanoi position.
According to the job posting, the company seeks an applicant capable of “communicating with policymakers” and “ensuring the site’s accessibility.”
Japan and South Korea, largely loyal to their homegrown social networks, are two more troublesome countries for Facebook. The tech-obsessed countries have only about 4 million Facebook users combined. Korean authorities in particular are suspicious of Facebook collecting data on its citizens.
If officials officials fear Facebook’s power to coalesce political anger, they need only look at Thailand as an example.
Despite cultural taboos against face-to-face confrontation, Thailand has spawned a notable number of Facebook campaigns channeling fury at various newsmakers and political adversaries.
Within the last month, 300,000 Thais backed a group devoted to denigrating an upper-class, 16-year-old driver who crashed into a van and killed eight people. The campaign insisted the girl was not appropriately remorseful for her wrongdoing.
“May you be cursed so that hell forever chews your heart,” read one comment.
“Some of the most popular groups, actually, are formed around disliking something,” said Benjamas Promchaisiri, a 33-year-old information specialist in Bangkok who joined Facebook last year. “People find it satisfying.”
But Benjamas is far too busy for online hate mongering. Tending her Farmville project — a strawberry ranch overlooked by gingerbread homes and a day-glo “party barn” — is akin to a part-time job.
“I’m on Facebook and Farmville about five hours a day,” she said. “At least.”
Asia is Facebook’s fastest-growing region, home to roughly 112 million of its 580 million users worldwide, according to Facebook statistics.
In the last 24 months, the network has seen quadruple-digit growth in Malaysia (1,000 percent), Thailand (4,000 percent) and Taiwan (7,500 percent). As of 2010, the largest Facebook population outside America is no longer the United Kingdom. It’s Indonesia, an archipelago where 80 percent still lack Internet access.
“Facebook has swept across the Asian region in a way no other web property has done. Ever,” said Thomas Crampton, social media analyst and Asia Pacific director of the 360 Digital Influence marketing agency.
Facebook’s eastern sweep is driven in part by development and demographics. As the Asian middle class rises, the price of internet access continues to fall. But the boom is also fueled by an Asian obsession with online games, as well as Facebook’s ease of use on mobile devices, far cheaper in Asia than at-home web connections.
Across the region, Chinese-made web-ready mobile devices sell for $150 with unlimited internet access plans as low as $20. Facebook has become an essential diversion during epic traffic jams in Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila.
“I use Facebook when I first wake up,” said Sahid Priambodo, a student at Paramadina University in Jakarta. “Then I go to school, but I’m still Facebooking in class.”
Priambodo’s Facebook addiction even follows him into bed at night via his smartphone. “Sometimes I can’t sleep because of Facebook,” he said. “It affects my GPA at school.”
Investors are convinced there are plenty more Sahids for Facebook to enlist. A Goldman Sachs investment this month led analysts to peg Facebook’s value at $50 billion and forecast continued heavy growth.
So far, Facebook has chewed through competitors Friendster, Hi5 and MySpace with very little local investment. Unlike Yahoo — which built offices in Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere in a bid for Asian dominance — Facebook only maintains offices in Japan and, as of last year, India and Singapore.
“Until mid-last year, if I wanted to talk to someone at Facebook, I had to call one poor guy in Australia,” Crampton said. “He was the only representative on this side of the Pacific Ocean.” (Facebook did not respond to GlobalPost’s repeated inquiries into plans for opening new offices or its overall Asia strategy.)
Facebook’s adaptability to local tongues has aided its Asian spread. When Facebook detects a non-English script, it asks the user to translate portions of the site for free — a clever means of recruiting an army of free interpreters.
Facebook also partially owes its growth to the Asian obsession with Farmville, a game that invites players to tend digital farms while sharing seeds and tools with fellow users.
The online phenomenon, played by an estimated 10 percent of Facebook users, is exclusively accessed through Facebook. Despite its simple 1980s arcade-era graphics, the game’s rules are complex and it begs near-constant attention from cyber-ranchers.
Farmville led Facebook’s charge into Taiwan, where people scrambled to sign up simply to access the game. “They wanted to play Farmville,” Crampton said, “but had to sign up for this thing called ‘Facebook’ first.”
Thailand, now the fastest-growing Asian Facebook population, is among the latest to fall under Farmville’s spell.
“Games are one of the main reasons Thai people join Facebook,” said Wattana Pattanagul, a 35-year-old biology professor. His hobby site, “Farmville in Thailand,” was created to decipher the game’s English-language instructions for Thai fans.
“I got tired of always translating for everyone,” he said. “Some people barely sleep because of Farmville. They set their alarm clocks early to wake up and harvest their crops.”
This month, Wattana officiated at a “Farmville Competition,” which drew spectators to a Bangkok exhibition hall where judges awarded points to contestants’ farms for beauty and skill. (Sample commentary: “All this empty space? The farm leaves me feeling cold” and “This garden is arranged strangely ... are the crops meant to spell out something in Chinese?”)
Still, despite its rapid ascent in much of Asia, Facebook remains banned in the region’s most crucial market: China.
Asia’s largest social network isn’t Facebook. It’s RenRen, virtually unknown in America despite its 150 million Chinese users. (Facebook claims roughly 145.7 million U.S. users.) Unlike Facebook, RenRen and other Chinese-language networks are Chinese owned and subjected to communist party oversight.
“Facebook isn’t going to break into China anytime soon,” Crampton said. “Historically, the Chinese government is uncomfortable with any social media used in China but owned by foreigners.” Unblocking Facebook, he said, would require conceding to communist party controls under “some model no one has ever used.”
Still, Facebook watchers have noted China’s influence on founder Mark Zuckerberg. The 26-year-old is studying Chinese, according to a cover story in Time Magazine, and recently visited Beijing with his Chinese-American girlfriend of seven years.
His empire has already proven willing to take on another communist, Facebook-banning nation: Vietnam. Even under an official (but poorly enforced) block there, Facebook quietly advertised in late 2010 for a Hanoi position.
According to the job posting, the company seeks an applicant capable of “communicating with policymakers” and “ensuring the site’s accessibility.”
Japan and South Korea, largely loyal to their homegrown social networks, are two more troublesome countries for Facebook. The tech-obsessed countries have only about 4 million Facebook users combined. Korean authorities in particular are suspicious of Facebook collecting data on its citizens.
If officials officials fear Facebook’s power to coalesce political anger, they need only look at Thailand as an example.
Despite cultural taboos against face-to-face confrontation, Thailand has spawned a notable number of Facebook campaigns channeling fury at various newsmakers and political adversaries.
Within the last month, 300,000 Thais backed a group devoted to denigrating an upper-class, 16-year-old driver who crashed into a van and killed eight people. The campaign insisted the girl was not appropriately remorseful for her wrongdoing.
“May you be cursed so that hell forever chews your heart,” read one comment.
“Some of the most popular groups, actually, are formed around disliking something,” said Benjamas Promchaisiri, a 33-year-old information specialist in Bangkok who joined Facebook last year. “People find it satisfying.”
But Benjamas is far too busy for online hate mongering. Tending her Farmville project — a strawberry ranch overlooked by gingerbread homes and a day-glo “party barn” — is akin to a part-time job.
“I’m on Facebook and Farmville about five hours a day,” she said. “At least.”
The Plight Of Afghanistan’s Child Water Carriers
...the fact that they are missing school to deliver water that should be delivered by public utilities outrages the people of their neighborhood
By Zarif Nazar, Charles Recknagel
KABUL - Early each morning, the schoolchildren of the Aqibi Silo neighborhood emerge from their homes on a hillside near the center of Kabul.
After the canisters have been filled, children use donkeys to carry the water back uphill.But they don't go to class. Instead, they go off to fetch water -- over and over again -- until long after the school day is done.
They begin by tumbling down the narrow footpaths carrying brightly colored plastic canisters as light as balloons. The banging of the empty cans lends the scene a playful air, until they reach a tap at the base of the hill, where water flows two hours every other day.
The kids fill the canisters with water until they are as heavy as grain sacks. Then, loading the canisters on a donkey, or carrying lighter loads on their heads, they climb back up the hill in the first of many trips.
By the time school has let out elsewhere in Kabul, the children will have ferried enough water uphill to compensate for the municipal pipes that don't deliver water to their hillside homes. To find water tomorrow, they will have to go still farther afield, because the tap at the base of their hill will be off.
The water carriers of Aqibi Silo are hardly the only child laborers in Kabul. But the fact that they are missing school to deliver water that should be delivered by public utilities outrages the people of their neighborhood.
But calling on the government for action is easier in Kabul than getting results. As individuals with complaints quickly learn, there are myriad agencies responsible for public services in Kabul. Worse, there is little coordination between them and little public information about which does what.
'We Face Difficulties'
"Liberty Listeners," a gadfly program produced by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, is aimed at getting officials to address citizens' complaints. The show experienced the maze of bureaucracy firsthand when it sought to relay listeners' concerns about the water carriers to city officials. A phone call to the mayor's office revealed the scope of the problem.
Mayor Yunus Nawandish said a new office had recently been created to manage the distribution of water in Kabul. But he said the office was not under the mayor's jurisdiction.
"Unfortunately, some responsibilities such as water distribution and canalization, which should be actually under the jurisdiction of the mayor of Kabul, are not under the jurisdiction of the mayor of Kabul," he said. "Therefore, we face difficulties. But we are hopeful that this issue will be solved in the future."
Even the mayor was uncertain of the new office's name and location. He did promise, however, to try to independently solve the hillside neighborhood's water shortage.
Children Become Lifeline
A lack of coordination is endemic among Afghan government offices, where officials compete to set up new bureaus to enlarge their patronage systems. But the results are particularly noticeable in Kabul because the population and need for services has swollen with hundreds of thousands of returning refugees since 2001.
The hardscrabble slopes around Kabul pose a particular problem. They are attractive to poor people looking for space to build a home but providing water to them requires pipes with sufficient pressure to flow uphill. During the past 10 to 15 years, the pipes that once did that have fallen into disrepair and now work only occasionally or not at all.
For families with children, the children become the lifeline. And as they do, the children of the poorest families also become the water suppliers to those with no children of their own.
One resident, Zauddin, says he is in too frail health to carry water up to his home himself. So, he buys water from children who deliver the heavy canisters to his door. But he says the water is not clean or healthy and has to be boiled before use.
The children of impoverished families who make a business of selling water earn just a pittance for their labors.
One, Mirwais, tells Radio Free Afghanistan that he earns just 10 Afghanis a bucket, about the price of a piece of bread. But he says the money is needed by his family, so he continues working.
"We have nobody at home who earns money. Everything is very expensive -- rice, wood for heating," he says. "Because of that, I left school and I'm working with my donkey."
The cost for Mirwais himself is high. He has already missed so much time at school that he has given up any ideas of returning. And he has already suffered his first serious injury as he begins what is likely to be a lifetime of hard manual labor.
The accident happened as he and his companions ventured far from their neighborhood to bring water from a cistern near Kabul University. As they moved along a crowded road, a passing car sideswiped their heavily burdened donkey, knocking it off its feet and onto Mirwais.
The boy broke his arm and temporarily had to stop working. But he is back leading his donkey up the steep paths to his neighborhood, as unable to take time off to rest as he is to take time off for school.
Radio Free Afghanistan's Sayaed Jan Sabawoon contributed to this report
Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/01/18/the-plight-of-afghanistan-s-child-water-carriers.html#ixzz1BW0hQ2bT
...the fact that they are missing school to deliver water that should be delivered by public utilities outrages the people of their neighborhood
By Zarif Nazar, Charles Recknagel
KABUL - Early each morning, the schoolchildren of the Aqibi Silo neighborhood emerge from their homes on a hillside near the center of Kabul.
After the canisters have been filled, children use donkeys to carry the water back uphill.But they don't go to class. Instead, they go off to fetch water -- over and over again -- until long after the school day is done.
They begin by tumbling down the narrow footpaths carrying brightly colored plastic canisters as light as balloons. The banging of the empty cans lends the scene a playful air, until they reach a tap at the base of the hill, where water flows two hours every other day.
The kids fill the canisters with water until they are as heavy as grain sacks. Then, loading the canisters on a donkey, or carrying lighter loads on their heads, they climb back up the hill in the first of many trips.
By the time school has let out elsewhere in Kabul, the children will have ferried enough water uphill to compensate for the municipal pipes that don't deliver water to their hillside homes. To find water tomorrow, they will have to go still farther afield, because the tap at the base of their hill will be off.
The water carriers of Aqibi Silo are hardly the only child laborers in Kabul. But the fact that they are missing school to deliver water that should be delivered by public utilities outrages the people of their neighborhood.
But calling on the government for action is easier in Kabul than getting results. As individuals with complaints quickly learn, there are myriad agencies responsible for public services in Kabul. Worse, there is little coordination between them and little public information about which does what.
'We Face Difficulties'
"Liberty Listeners," a gadfly program produced by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, is aimed at getting officials to address citizens' complaints. The show experienced the maze of bureaucracy firsthand when it sought to relay listeners' concerns about the water carriers to city officials. A phone call to the mayor's office revealed the scope of the problem.
Mayor Yunus Nawandish said a new office had recently been created to manage the distribution of water in Kabul. But he said the office was not under the mayor's jurisdiction.
"Unfortunately, some responsibilities such as water distribution and canalization, which should be actually under the jurisdiction of the mayor of Kabul, are not under the jurisdiction of the mayor of Kabul," he said. "Therefore, we face difficulties. But we are hopeful that this issue will be solved in the future."
Even the mayor was uncertain of the new office's name and location. He did promise, however, to try to independently solve the hillside neighborhood's water shortage.
Children Become Lifeline
A lack of coordination is endemic among Afghan government offices, where officials compete to set up new bureaus to enlarge their patronage systems. But the results are particularly noticeable in Kabul because the population and need for services has swollen with hundreds of thousands of returning refugees since 2001.
The hardscrabble slopes around Kabul pose a particular problem. They are attractive to poor people looking for space to build a home but providing water to them requires pipes with sufficient pressure to flow uphill. During the past 10 to 15 years, the pipes that once did that have fallen into disrepair and now work only occasionally or not at all.
For families with children, the children become the lifeline. And as they do, the children of the poorest families also become the water suppliers to those with no children of their own.
One resident, Zauddin, says he is in too frail health to carry water up to his home himself. So, he buys water from children who deliver the heavy canisters to his door. But he says the water is not clean or healthy and has to be boiled before use.
The children of impoverished families who make a business of selling water earn just a pittance for their labors.
One, Mirwais, tells Radio Free Afghanistan that he earns just 10 Afghanis a bucket, about the price of a piece of bread. But he says the money is needed by his family, so he continues working.
"We have nobody at home who earns money. Everything is very expensive -- rice, wood for heating," he says. "Because of that, I left school and I'm working with my donkey."
The cost for Mirwais himself is high. He has already missed so much time at school that he has given up any ideas of returning. And he has already suffered his first serious injury as he begins what is likely to be a lifetime of hard manual labor.
The accident happened as he and his companions ventured far from their neighborhood to bring water from a cistern near Kabul University. As they moved along a crowded road, a passing car sideswiped their heavily burdened donkey, knocking it off its feet and onto Mirwais.
The boy broke his arm and temporarily had to stop working. But he is back leading his donkey up the steep paths to his neighborhood, as unable to take time off to rest as he is to take time off for school.
Radio Free Afghanistan's Sayaed Jan Sabawoon contributed to this report
Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/01/18/the-plight-of-afghanistan-s-child-water-carriers.html#ixzz1BW0hQ2bT
Addiction to Facebook
January 19, 2011
By RASNA WARAH
Posted Sunday, January 9 2011 at 18:18
Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old billionaire founder of Facebook, was voted Time Person of the Year in 2010, and this is why:
One out of every 12 people in the world – or more than 500 million people – has an account with his social networking site, whose membership is growing by about 700,000 people a day.
If Facebook were a country, says Time, it would be the third largest, behind only China and India – and perhaps more influential.
Apparently, members of this rapidly expanding community spend more than 700 billion minutes on Facebook every month. But I am not among them, and I have no apologies to make for it.
Call me an old fuddy duddy or a technophobe, but the fact is that the main reason I have not joined Facebook is because I want keep my private life private.
Facebook allows users to connect and “make friends” with dozens, if not hundreds, of people they would not normally interact with in daily life.
It allows users to know things about other people that they would normally not care to know – such as their birthdays, their hobbies, and their likes and dislikes.
Users can also get into the minds of their “friends” by learning about their deepest secrets and darkest fears. This wouldn’t be so scary if the friends were a select group of people you chose to reveal these facts to.
But the way Facebook works (and also, depending on your privacy settings, which I am told, are not as private as people would like to believe) any Facebook user that you have accepted as your friend can know all of the above, and much more.
He could be your boss, your co-worker, an old school friend who you haven’t seen in years, a former lover, a member of your football team, a fellow church-goers, and even people you absolutely loathe, but who have somehow entered your personal space via Facebook.
Zuckerberg believes that by allowing many to share more of their personal lives with each other, he is helping to create a virtual global community where “people stay in touch and maintain empathy for each other.”
In other words, he is creating a more caring world, where transparency and openness are the modus operandi and where there are no secrets. (I am sure Julian Assange of WikiLeaks would agree.)
Perhaps we can blame his youth for this naïve view of the world, because in real life, relationships, and human beings, simply don’t work that way.
As Time writer Lev Grossman so rightly put it, while the Internet allowed people to lead double lives – real and virtual – Facebook “smooshes together your work self and your home self, your past self and your present self, into a single generic extruded product.”
What is worse, “On Facebook, there is only one kind of relationship: friendship, and you have it with everybody. You’re friends with your spouse and you’re friends with your plumber.”
Moreover, writes Grossman, “relationships on Facebook have a seductive, addictive quality that can erode and even replace real-world relationships”.
Apparently, “Facebook addiction” has even entered the vocabulary of psychiatrists. At least one case has been reported of a woman who lost her job due to Facebook addiction.
Lawyers in the United States are also reporting a rise in the number of divorce cases where Facebook is used as the primary source of online evidence.
Facebook also has a narcissistic quality about it. Tom Hodgkinson wrote in The Guardian in 2008 that Facebook appeals to “a kind of vanity and self importance” in people and encourages a “disturbing competitiveness around friendship” where “quality counts for nothing and quantity (i.e. the number of friends you have) is king.”
Critics have argued that instead of connecting people in meaningful ways, Facebook actually isolates people, who spend more time online rather than doing things that strengthen relationships, such as talking or sharing a meal.
By RASNA WARAH
Posted Sunday, January 9 2011 at 18:18
Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old billionaire founder of Facebook, was voted Time Person of the Year in 2010, and this is why:
One out of every 12 people in the world – or more than 500 million people – has an account with his social networking site, whose membership is growing by about 700,000 people a day.
If Facebook were a country, says Time, it would be the third largest, behind only China and India – and perhaps more influential.
Apparently, members of this rapidly expanding community spend more than 700 billion minutes on Facebook every month. But I am not among them, and I have no apologies to make for it.
Call me an old fuddy duddy or a technophobe, but the fact is that the main reason I have not joined Facebook is because I want keep my private life private.
Facebook allows users to connect and “make friends” with dozens, if not hundreds, of people they would not normally interact with in daily life.
It allows users to know things about other people that they would normally not care to know – such as their birthdays, their hobbies, and their likes and dislikes.
Users can also get into the minds of their “friends” by learning about their deepest secrets and darkest fears. This wouldn’t be so scary if the friends were a select group of people you chose to reveal these facts to.
But the way Facebook works (and also, depending on your privacy settings, which I am told, are not as private as people would like to believe) any Facebook user that you have accepted as your friend can know all of the above, and much more.
He could be your boss, your co-worker, an old school friend who you haven’t seen in years, a former lover, a member of your football team, a fellow church-goers, and even people you absolutely loathe, but who have somehow entered your personal space via Facebook.
Zuckerberg believes that by allowing many to share more of their personal lives with each other, he is helping to create a virtual global community where “people stay in touch and maintain empathy for each other.”
In other words, he is creating a more caring world, where transparency and openness are the modus operandi and where there are no secrets. (I am sure Julian Assange of WikiLeaks would agree.)
Perhaps we can blame his youth for this naïve view of the world, because in real life, relationships, and human beings, simply don’t work that way.
As Time writer Lev Grossman so rightly put it, while the Internet allowed people to lead double lives – real and virtual – Facebook “smooshes together your work self and your home self, your past self and your present self, into a single generic extruded product.”
What is worse, “On Facebook, there is only one kind of relationship: friendship, and you have it with everybody. You’re friends with your spouse and you’re friends with your plumber.”
Moreover, writes Grossman, “relationships on Facebook have a seductive, addictive quality that can erode and even replace real-world relationships”.
Apparently, “Facebook addiction” has even entered the vocabulary of psychiatrists. At least one case has been reported of a woman who lost her job due to Facebook addiction.
Lawyers in the United States are also reporting a rise in the number of divorce cases where Facebook is used as the primary source of online evidence.
Facebook also has a narcissistic quality about it. Tom Hodgkinson wrote in The Guardian in 2008 that Facebook appeals to “a kind of vanity and self importance” in people and encourages a “disturbing competitiveness around friendship” where “quality counts for nothing and quantity (i.e. the number of friends you have) is king.”
Critics have argued that instead of connecting people in meaningful ways, Facebook actually isolates people, who spend more time online rather than doing things that strengthen relationships, such as talking or sharing a meal.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times
January 18, 2011, 2:52 p.m.
E-mail Print Share Text Size la-fg-afghan-fuel-shortage-20110119
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan — Winter in Afghanistan is always a hardscrabble time, but this year the season's bite has been sharpened by a growing shortage of fuel. And because the dwindling supply is due to an Iranian blockade, the dispute is further tangling complicated dealings with a powerful neighbor.
For the last five weeks, a traffic jam of fuel tankers, now swelled to about 2,500 vehicles, has been backed up at the Iranian-Afghan frontier, with only a fraction of the usual number allowed to pass. The resulting shortages were initially felt most keenly in the agricultural south and west. But in recent weeks, the effects have spread to the crowded, car-choked capital, Kabul, with higher pump prices, longer lines and ever-shortening tempers.
"Sometimes people get angry and argue with us about why it has become so expensive, but there is nothing we can do about it," said gas station attendant Abdul Farwad, who was manning the pumps on a recent chilly morning, fending off customers' grumbles as he did so. In the last month, the cost of a gallon of gasoline has risen by about 20%, to $4.35 in the capital, with higher prices in the provinces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As often happens, some of the resentment is aimed at a highly visible target: the 150,000-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization force. Iranian officials have blamed the chokehold on "technical reasons" but also have suggested that at least some fuel ends up in the hands of the Western military.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which is composed largely of U.S. troops, has stated repeatedly that its supply routes do not run through Iran. But the denials are to little avail; the belief that Americans are indirectly responsible for the fuel shortage has taken hold strongly among many Afghans.
Analysts say a likelier culprit is regional muscle-flexing, with Afghanistan cast in its familiar role as the pawn of great powers. When Iran feels squeezed by the United States, it can in turn put the squeeze on Afghanistan, where few tasks are easier than stoking resentment against the unpopular administration of President Hamid Karzai.
"All this is because we have no real government," said a student who gave his name only as Hamayoon, fuming after a pricey fill-up for his battered Toyota. "They can't look after our basic needs. Or they won't."
A potential break in the crisis came Tuesday, when Karzai's office announced that Tehran was prepared to ease the restrictions in coming days provided that Afghanistan spells out for Iran its fuel requirements. But Afghanistan has previously balked at, in effect, petitioning Iran for permission to import what it needs.
Afghanistan is entirely dependent on the outside world for fuel, and between one-third and half of it passes through Iran. Afghan officials have talked of trying to develop direct supply links with neighbors such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. But in the meantime, Iran has a heavy hand on the spigot.
In this instance, Iran's motivation is murky. Some observers have pointed to continuing U.S. pressure over its nuclear program.
"Above all, for Iran, it's a way of showing power," said Haroon Mir, an independent political analyst in Kabul.
The fuel shortage has been blamed for an overall creeping up of food prices, including for staples such as cooking oil, and hikes in the cost of crucial items such as firewood, which is used to heat most Afghan homes and often needs to be transported long distances. In this impoverished country, where children pick through trash for saleable items and burka-clad widows beg for small change in the street, the winter months mean cold and hunger for many.
Some of the anger against Iran has boiled over into street protests, including rock-throwing demonstrations at the Iranian Consulate in Herat, the nearest large Afghan city to the western frontier. Protesters also have gathered in recent weeks outside the Iranian Embassy in Kabul, galvanized not only by the developing fuel crisis but also by reports that Afghan laborers in Iran have been mistreated.
Iran then fanned the flames by calling on Afghan authorities to crack down on such demonstrations, stirring indignant sentiment over this perceived affront to Afghan sovereignty. Even so, Afghan officials are treading carefully, mindful of the importance of Iranian patronage.
Only this week, after the near-embargo had been in place since mid-December, did Commerce Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady term Iranian actions "unfortunate."
In agricultural areas, some farmers are having difficulty finding and affording diesel to run their irrigation pumps. The insurgency is strongest in the south, and such pressures can tip the balance between villagers supporting the U.S.-backed government or throwing in their lot with the Taliban.
Farmers come under constant threats and blandishments from the insurgents to switch to growing opium poppies, which do not need as much water and can be trafficked by the Taliban to fund its war effort. Noor Agha, a farmer in the bitterly contested Arghandab district of Kandahar province, said that because of a lack of fuel for irrigation pumps, it was all he could do to save his fruit orchards. His wheat fields, and those of his neighbors, were a loss.
"And tomorrow," he said, "the Taliban will come and tell us there is another way."
laura.king@latimes.com
January 18, 2011, 2:52 p.m.
E-mail Print Share Text Size la-fg-afghan-fuel-shortage-20110119
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan — Winter in Afghanistan is always a hardscrabble time, but this year the season's bite has been sharpened by a growing shortage of fuel. And because the dwindling supply is due to an Iranian blockade, the dispute is further tangling complicated dealings with a powerful neighbor.
For the last five weeks, a traffic jam of fuel tankers, now swelled to about 2,500 vehicles, has been backed up at the Iranian-Afghan frontier, with only a fraction of the usual number allowed to pass. The resulting shortages were initially felt most keenly in the agricultural south and west. But in recent weeks, the effects have spread to the crowded, car-choked capital, Kabul, with higher pump prices, longer lines and ever-shortening tempers.
"Sometimes people get angry and argue with us about why it has become so expensive, but there is nothing we can do about it," said gas station attendant Abdul Farwad, who was manning the pumps on a recent chilly morning, fending off customers' grumbles as he did so. In the last month, the cost of a gallon of gasoline has risen by about 20%, to $4.35 in the capital, with higher prices in the provinces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get dispatches from Times correspondents around the globe delivered to your inbox with our daily World newsletter. Sign up »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As often happens, some of the resentment is aimed at a highly visible target: the 150,000-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization force. Iranian officials have blamed the chokehold on "technical reasons" but also have suggested that at least some fuel ends up in the hands of the Western military.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which is composed largely of U.S. troops, has stated repeatedly that its supply routes do not run through Iran. But the denials are to little avail; the belief that Americans are indirectly responsible for the fuel shortage has taken hold strongly among many Afghans.
Analysts say a likelier culprit is regional muscle-flexing, with Afghanistan cast in its familiar role as the pawn of great powers. When Iran feels squeezed by the United States, it can in turn put the squeeze on Afghanistan, where few tasks are easier than stoking resentment against the unpopular administration of President Hamid Karzai.
"All this is because we have no real government," said a student who gave his name only as Hamayoon, fuming after a pricey fill-up for his battered Toyota. "They can't look after our basic needs. Or they won't."
A potential break in the crisis came Tuesday, when Karzai's office announced that Tehran was prepared to ease the restrictions in coming days provided that Afghanistan spells out for Iran its fuel requirements. But Afghanistan has previously balked at, in effect, petitioning Iran for permission to import what it needs.
Afghanistan is entirely dependent on the outside world for fuel, and between one-third and half of it passes through Iran. Afghan officials have talked of trying to develop direct supply links with neighbors such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. But in the meantime, Iran has a heavy hand on the spigot.
In this instance, Iran's motivation is murky. Some observers have pointed to continuing U.S. pressure over its nuclear program.
"Above all, for Iran, it's a way of showing power," said Haroon Mir, an independent political analyst in Kabul.
The fuel shortage has been blamed for an overall creeping up of food prices, including for staples such as cooking oil, and hikes in the cost of crucial items such as firewood, which is used to heat most Afghan homes and often needs to be transported long distances. In this impoverished country, where children pick through trash for saleable items and burka-clad widows beg for small change in the street, the winter months mean cold and hunger for many.
Some of the anger against Iran has boiled over into street protests, including rock-throwing demonstrations at the Iranian Consulate in Herat, the nearest large Afghan city to the western frontier. Protesters also have gathered in recent weeks outside the Iranian Embassy in Kabul, galvanized not only by the developing fuel crisis but also by reports that Afghan laborers in Iran have been mistreated.
Iran then fanned the flames by calling on Afghan authorities to crack down on such demonstrations, stirring indignant sentiment over this perceived affront to Afghan sovereignty. Even so, Afghan officials are treading carefully, mindful of the importance of Iranian patronage.
Only this week, after the near-embargo had been in place since mid-December, did Commerce Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady term Iranian actions "unfortunate."
In agricultural areas, some farmers are having difficulty finding and affording diesel to run their irrigation pumps. The insurgency is strongest in the south, and such pressures can tip the balance between villagers supporting the U.S.-backed government or throwing in their lot with the Taliban.
Farmers come under constant threats and blandishments from the insurgents to switch to growing opium poppies, which do not need as much water and can be trafficked by the Taliban to fund its war effort. Noor Agha, a farmer in the bitterly contested Arghandab district of Kandahar province, said that because of a lack of fuel for irrigation pumps, it was all he could do to save his fruit orchards. His wheat fields, and those of his neighbors, were a loss.
"And tomorrow," he said, "the Taliban will come and tell us there is another way."
laura.king@latimes.com
Monday, January 17, 2011
This law actually did pass in 2008, courtesy of the Conservative government.
A new set of patent rules proposed by the federal government would delay generic versions of Lipitor, Viagra and several other blockbuster drugs by as much as two years, The National Post reports. And generic drugmakers, not surprisingly, are warning the effort will cost consumers and taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually.
The government says the regulations would simply restore fairness and stability to the brand-name industry after two court rulings put unexpected new curbs on the practice of “evergreening,” which involves filing new patents on a drug in an attempt to stave off generic competition. Generic drugmakers say the move is an unjustified sop to the brand-name industry, the paper writes.
“It completely surprised us. We had no inkling it was coming,” Jim Keon, president of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, tells the Post. “The provincial drug plans (which pay for many medications) are really going to feel this in a big way.”
The affected drugs have combined sales of more than a $1 billion a year and generic versions are up to 50 percent cheaper than the brands in some provinces. But Deirdra McCracken, a spokeswoman for Industry Minister Jim Prentice, tells the paper the new regs are just an attempt to uphold government policy as it was before the court rulings, and avoid abrupt changes to the pharmaceutical market.
“Canada currently has a reputation as an internationally competitive location for innovation and investment,” she tells the Post. “To ensure that reputation stays intact, we need predictable and stable intellectual property laws.”
In the tangled world of drug patent law, the suggested new regulations have a complex background. In 2006, the government cracked down somewhat on evergreening. Still, brand-name drugmakers are often able to obtain a two-year, court-ordered stay on generic competition while patent disputes are adjudicated.
In October, 2006, amendments included a grandfather clause that allowed new patents filed before June of that year to stay on the books. A month later, though, the Supreme Court of Canada brought down a decision that said many new evergreen patents were improper. The Federal Court later applied the reasoning in a separate decision.
Such court judgments could result in “sudden and unexpected loss of market exclusivity for a number of innovative drugs,” Industry Canada says in a preamble to the new reg. The changes would override the rulings and allow Industry Canada to keep the grandfathered patents on the books.
While the amendments could result in “delayed savings” to consumers and provincial drug plans, they are needed to maintain the industry’s confidence in Canada as a place to invest and introduce new products, the department’s statement says.
“The government never intended this part of the [2006] regulations to apply retroactively, since this would have been inequitable,” Jacques Lefebvre, spokesman for Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, tells the Post. “This will in no way prevent the generic drug makers from entering the market after the expiry of patents.”
Lefebvre noted that the prices for generic meds in Canada are among the highest in the industrialized world. Meanwhile, Keon says the changes were likely the result of lobbying by brand-name companies, according to the paper.
Lobbyists for the industry association, according to a federal registry, include two prominent Conservatives. Goldy Hyder is a Tory strategist and was chief of staff to Joe Clark, then opposition leader, in 2001-2002. Geoff Norquay was director of communications in the office of Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, in 2004 and 2005, the Post writes.
A new set of patent rules proposed by the federal government would delay generic versions of Lipitor, Viagra and several other blockbuster drugs by as much as two years, The National Post reports. And generic drugmakers, not surprisingly, are warning the effort will cost consumers and taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually.
The government says the regulations would simply restore fairness and stability to the brand-name industry after two court rulings put unexpected new curbs on the practice of “evergreening,” which involves filing new patents on a drug in an attempt to stave off generic competition. Generic drugmakers say the move is an unjustified sop to the brand-name industry, the paper writes.
“It completely surprised us. We had no inkling it was coming,” Jim Keon, president of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, tells the Post. “The provincial drug plans (which pay for many medications) are really going to feel this in a big way.”
The affected drugs have combined sales of more than a $1 billion a year and generic versions are up to 50 percent cheaper than the brands in some provinces. But Deirdra McCracken, a spokeswoman for Industry Minister Jim Prentice, tells the paper the new regs are just an attempt to uphold government policy as it was before the court rulings, and avoid abrupt changes to the pharmaceutical market.
“Canada currently has a reputation as an internationally competitive location for innovation and investment,” she tells the Post. “To ensure that reputation stays intact, we need predictable and stable intellectual property laws.”
In the tangled world of drug patent law, the suggested new regulations have a complex background. In 2006, the government cracked down somewhat on evergreening. Still, brand-name drugmakers are often able to obtain a two-year, court-ordered stay on generic competition while patent disputes are adjudicated.
In October, 2006, amendments included a grandfather clause that allowed new patents filed before June of that year to stay on the books. A month later, though, the Supreme Court of Canada brought down a decision that said many new evergreen patents were improper. The Federal Court later applied the reasoning in a separate decision.
Such court judgments could result in “sudden and unexpected loss of market exclusivity for a number of innovative drugs,” Industry Canada says in a preamble to the new reg. The changes would override the rulings and allow Industry Canada to keep the grandfathered patents on the books.
While the amendments could result in “delayed savings” to consumers and provincial drug plans, they are needed to maintain the industry’s confidence in Canada as a place to invest and introduce new products, the department’s statement says.
“The government never intended this part of the [2006] regulations to apply retroactively, since this would have been inequitable,” Jacques Lefebvre, spokesman for Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, tells the Post. “This will in no way prevent the generic drug makers from entering the market after the expiry of patents.”
Lefebvre noted that the prices for generic meds in Canada are among the highest in the industrialized world. Meanwhile, Keon says the changes were likely the result of lobbying by brand-name companies, according to the paper.
Lobbyists for the industry association, according to a federal registry, include two prominent Conservatives. Goldy Hyder is a Tory strategist and was chief of staff to Joe Clark, then opposition leader, in 2001-2002. Geoff Norquay was director of communications in the office of Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, in 2004 and 2005, the Post writes.
Surfing the Century
Good news!!!!!
"Along with working directly with the elite of NSW surfing, Hamish will be implementing a new National Development Plan, working closely with surfers and mentoring coaching state-wide."
The State Coaching Director will implement the National High Performance Development Program, an initiative of Surfing Australia. The intent is to develop surfers and provide ongoing support, using the world's best practice in all regional coaching, training camps, and competition setting, with the ultimate aim being to maintain Australia's number one ranking in global surfing.
NSW has the largest resident surf population in Australia and with junior surfers dotted all over the most accessible surf coastline in the country, the funding will provide more opportunities for NSW surfers.
www.aspworldtour.com
www.surfingnsw.com.au
"Along with working directly with the elite of NSW surfing, Hamish will be implementing a new National Development Plan, working closely with surfers and mentoring coaching state-wide."
The State Coaching Director will implement the National High Performance Development Program, an initiative of Surfing Australia. The intent is to develop surfers and provide ongoing support, using the world's best practice in all regional coaching, training camps, and competition setting, with the ultimate aim being to maintain Australia's number one ranking in global surfing.
NSW has the largest resident surf population in Australia and with junior surfers dotted all over the most accessible surf coastline in the country, the funding will provide more opportunities for NSW surfers.
www.aspworldtour.com
www.surfingnsw.com.au
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