Sunday, November 16, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Board Decision Revives Discussion About Religion In Public Schools – NPR
Matt Bush
November 14, 2014

One of the largest public school systems in the United States is dropping all mention of religious affiliations for days off on its official calendar.

That means students in Montgomery County, Md., in suburban Washington, D.C., will still be getting Christmas, Easter and Jewish holidays off, but officially the ones in December will now be called winter break and time off around Easter will be spring break. Other holidays will just be days off.

The path to the board's decision started about two years ago on something that was somewhat unrelated. Members of the county's Muslim community — roughly estimated at around 10 percent of the more than 1 million population — were seeking to have two of their religion's holy days added to the calendar of days off. They wanted Eid al-Adha the most.

"That commemorates the sacrifice, the willingness of Prophet Abraham to sacrifice for the sake of his love for God," says Zainab Chaudry of the Equality for Eid Coalition in Montgomery County.

The board decided against making Eid al-Adha a day off after studying the absentee rate for that day last year. School officials said it was not much different than the rate for the average school day.

Chaudry says many Muslim parents send their kids to the school that day, which is something she experienced as a kid while attending school in the city of Baltimore.

"My parents, during the Eid holiday, they were very adamant that I not miss time from school," she says.

Next year, Eid al-Adha falls on the same day as the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, which Montgomery County schools take off. So Muslims asked for a symbolic gesture — that a mention of their holy day be put next to Yom Kippur on the official school calendar.

Samira Hussain, who works for the county schools and has had four of her children graduate from the system, calls it a token appreciation for Muslims.

"Muslim students in Montgomery County have almost a 100 percent graduation rate," Hussain says. "And they have been accepted to some of the top universities in the United States, which is a great testimonial to our county's fine educational system. These are your students, but Muslim students also need to feel a sense of belonging, recognition and respect for their contributions."

The schools' superintendent responded by recommending the reference to Yom Kippur be dropped instead. When he presented it to the Board of Education, which has the final say, board members in short order approved removing all religious references by a 7-1 vote.


"The best way to accommodate the diversity of our community is to not make choices about which communities we're going to respect in our calendar and which ones we're not going to respect," says board President Phil Kauffmann.

Nearly all of the 16 districts across the country that are larger than Montgomery County already dropped religious mentions on their calendars, including neighboring Fairfax County, Va., which did so several years ago.

But the board's decision is starting anew decades-old arguments over the role of religion in public schools. And it seems to have satisfied very few people.

Chaudry says this is not what she and other Muslims were seeking. They just wanted the symbolic recognition of one of their holidays on an official school calendar.

"Taking this step, I think, would really help to reassure mainstream moderate Muslims in America that they are welcome, and they are a part of society," she says.

Six school systems in the U.S. are off on Eid holidays, and New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio's campaign pledged to make the city No. 7.




“'Muslim students in Montgomery County have almost a 100 percent graduation rate,' Hussain says. 'And they have been accepted to some of the top universities in the United States, which is a great testimonial to our county's fine educational system. These are your students, but Muslim students also need to feel a sense of belonging, recognition and respect for their contributions.' The schools' superintendent responded

by recommending the reference to Yom Kippur be dropped instead. When he presented it to the Board of Education, which has the final say, board members in short order approved removing all religious references by a 7-1 vote.... But the board's decision is starting anew decades-old arguments over the role of religion in public schools. And it seems to have satisfied very few people. Chaudry says this is not what she and other Muslims were seeking. They just wanted the symbolic recognition of one of their holidays on an official school calendar. 'Taking this step, I think, would really help to reassure mainstream moderate Muslims in America that they are welcome, and they are a part of society.' she says.”

I don't like religious training, observation or any other acknowledgment of a particular religion, in a nonsectarian American public school, except as a part of a history or sociology class. I don't like the idea of Muslim women wearing a burqa, either. The head scarf looks okay. When I was in high school, I remember a Bible class that many of us took in my high school, and it was nothing other than hard core religious indoctrination – Baptist, of course. It was an unpleasant and damaging thing for me, as I was agnostic even in those days. In a Catholic or other religious school that would be different, but I wouldn't have to enroll in such a school, after all.


School is for teaching information that an adult in our society needs to know, and to prepare kids for college upon their graduation. There was a similar course that I didn't take in high school, that is often used for political indoctrination by conservatives, which was then called Civics. If they want to teach that information, they should leave out the politics. Teach about the bill of rights, etc. and use class discussion as a part of the teaching. I think anything that indoctrinates to enforce a “norm”in religious, political, patriotic or social terms, as opposed to imparting knowledge about our structure of government, should be taken out of the schools.

The only exception I would make to that is that a school uniform would be welcome to me, now that girls are coming to school showing skin and underwear, and boys are dropping their trousers so as to show their shorts. That sort of thing interferes with the learning process, with discipline, and is simply poor social training for a civilized society.





Controversy Over Scientist's Shirt Mars Celebration Of Comet Landing – NPR
Nell Greenfieldboyce
November 14, 2014

A scientist who contributed to this week's triumphant comet landing mission has upset people by wearing a loud shirt that some say is sexist. On Twitter, people have dubbed the dispute "shirtstorm."

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Some women became targets of nasty online comments just this week because they dared to complain about a shirt - a shirt worn by a scientist with the Rosetta Mission, which just landed a small probe on a comet. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce has more on a controversy that's been called the shirt storm.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE:

Matt Taylor is the project scientist for the European Space Agency. He's a young guy with tattoos and a beard who looks like he could be in a heavy metal band. You can go online and watch a video of a tattoo artist with a mohawk inking an image of the Rosetta spacecraft onto Taylor's thigh. Before the lander made its triumphant touchdown on the comet, Taylor spoke about the Rosetta mission on the space agency's live webcast.

(SOUNDBITE OF WEBCAST)

MATT TAYLOR: I've said it before - Rosetta is the sexiest mission that's ever been. She is sexy, but I never said she was easy.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: As he said this, Katie Mack was watching. She's a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. She noticed that Taylor was wearing a brightly colored shirt.

KATIE MACK: And I looked closer and noticed that it was covered in, like, women in lingerie - like, cartoon women in lingerie. And that was the design of the shirt.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The buxom babes were provocatively posed and shooting laser guns. They looked like illustrations from sci-fi pulp fiction. Mack thought that Taylor's comments and his shirt were just not appropriate for a worldwide broadcast of a major science event.

MACK: To me, it seemed like it was really unwelcoming to women in science to have the lead scientist be wearing women as decoration.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: She says, OK, it's just a shirt. But little things like this add up to a real problem for science.

MACK: It's not a big deal, but it's part of a big deal.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: She made some Twitter comments, as did many others. Then came the backlash - people telling the women to kill themselves or making vile sexual remarks.

MACK: You know, just tweeting profanities at me - just earlier tonight I got an e-mail with the subject heading, you make me sick.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Today, on a webcast about the comet mission, Matt Taylor wore a plain black sweatshirt. He looked stricken. When a moderator asked him about the data coming back from the comet probe, he didn't answer right away. Instead, he talked about the shirt.

(SOUNDBITE OF WEBCAST)TAYLOR: I - the shirt I wore this week - I made a big mistake, and I offended many people. And I am very sorry about this.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: As he struggled to compose himself, a colleague patted his shoulder. After a moment, Taylor began to talk about the science. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.




Women professionals in science, engineering and computer programming have been complaining fairly often in the news about sexist things men do and say in their workplace, and the difficulty for women to break the glass ceiling in those fields. Education is the way forward for all US citizens, and it certainly should provide advancement for women as well as men.

“GREENFIELDBOYCE: She made some Twitter comments, as did many others. Then came the backlash - people telling the women to kill themselves or making vile sexual remarks.” One thing I have noticed about the Internet sites where people tune in to compete together in being as dirty and abusive as they can. They wouldn't say those things to anyone in person. In a world in which people are confronting each other face to face rather than on a computer screen, such smart alecks might lose a few of their teeth for that kind of behavior.

“GREENFIELDBOYCE: The buxom babes were provocatively posed and shooting laser guns. They looked like illustrations from sci-fi pulp fiction. Mack thought that Taylor's comments and his shirt were just not appropriate for a worldwide broadcast of a major science event.” I couldn't agree more. He's a well-educated man and the lead scientist. He should have known better. He does seem to have learned his lesson, though, and gave an honest and seemingly heartfelt apology. That's better than many men would have done in the same situation. Maybe he will improve the way his department is run in the future, and give his women colleagues a raise.






Why The 'Invasivores' Haven't Pounced On Bear Meat
David Sommerstein
November 13, 2014 6:10 PM ET
from NCPR

The fight against nuisance critters is increasingly being fought at the dinner table. We've reported on so-called invasivores eating everything from Asian carp (battered and fried!) to wild pigs (Russian boar carpaccio, anyone?) as a means of reducing pesky populations. Heck, invasivores are even getting stoked on squirrel.

Bears are not an invasive species, but populations of black bear in particular are spiraling upwards in many parts of the northern half of the U.S., as roads, homes and camping spots infringe on bear territory. And bear is a traditional American food: Native tribes, frontiersmen and settlers ate it for hundreds of years in North America. Yet bear lags way behind other wild game as a desirable meat for the plate.

Bears have been caught raiding a candy store in the Adirondack mountains of Upstate New York, wandering through a Chicago suburb, and munching on corn fields from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania.

New Jersey recorded its first fatal attack last September, when a black bear mauled a Rutgers student who was hiking with friends in the northern part of the state.

"There's more sprawl. There's more people living in bear habitat," says big game biologist Steve Heerkens with New York state's department of environmental conservation. Yet fewer, if any, natural predators are still around to keep the bears in check.

Some 29 states have regulated bear hunts to keep the animals at bay. New York expanded its season this year to include some places that hadn't seen a bear hunt since the 1950s. Heerkens says the goal was to keep bears out of suburban Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. "When bears do get into those high density areas, they do cause a lot of problems."

Heerkens says well-managed hunts are proving to be a very effective control. And most of those hunters eat the meat, in addition to saving the animals' hides and skulls.

He and other wildlife experts encourage more people who hunt for deer every year to branch out into bear. But that doesn't mean he's advocating "eat bears to beat them." Hunting bears, after all, is pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

Still, it wasn't hard to get my hands on bear here in Canton, N.Y. Turned out my colleague had a packet in the freezer, gifted to her by a hunter a few years back.

She wasn't dying to invite the neighbors over for some bear stew. But I was.

When I thawed them in their paper-wrapped package, the bear chunks were lean and deep maroon, almost like liver.


I seared them in oil that night, then tossed them in a slow cooker with onion, carrots, celery, beef broth and red wine, and went to bed.

You can find dozens of venison recipes online; even celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse has a venison chili. Yet bear hasn't spread far beyond hunter circles.

New Jersey's hunting guide offers an online bear cookbook, featuring "Grilled Bear Loin with Brown Sugar Baste" and "BBQ Bear Roast." The Alaskagraphy blog features recipes as well.

Wild game cookbook author Hank Shaw, who runs the James Beard Award-winning website, Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook, has gotten creative with bear meat, making black bear osso bucco and Russian pelmeni dumplings with bear.

The meat has a reputation for being tough and greasy. But Shaw says that's just because people aren't cooking it right. "From a cook's perspective, black bear is like beef wearing a hat made of pork fat."

But Shaw says there are other big reasons bear isn't going to make its way to America's fine restaurants, or to the average dinner table, anytime soon.

Hunters aren't allowed to sell bear. It's against federal law to resell bear hunted in the wild to stores or restaurants.

Supply is tight because no one is domesticating bear. This may sound obvious, but while deer, boar, buffalo, and other animals can be penned and farmed for their meat, bear "have always only been a hunted meat," says Shaw.

Flavor Russian roulette. Bears are omnivores, so their meat tends to taste like their last meal. That's fine if they last dined on berries. But if they've been eating, say, salmon, their fat will become infused with fishy flavor. "When you cook it," Shaw says, "it's going to be like low tide on a hot day." Ick.

Bear meat can make you very sick. As omnivores, bears often carry the larvae of a nasty parasite, Trichina spiralis. Eating undercooked bear meat can cause trichinosis, which can cause severe sickness or even death in humans. That's why bear is most often cooked in stews, chilis, braises, or in well-cooked sausage. Skip the medium-rare bear steak.

Teddy Roosevelt. Bears were a pretty conventional food, Shaw says, until the early 1900s, when the president was, ironically, on a bear hunt and refused to shoot a bear tied to a willow tree. A toy company marketed a stuffed bear to commemorate the incident. "The whole Teddy bear thing was the Bambi moment for bears," Shaw says.

Today, think Smokey the Bear. Yogi Bear. Bears are cute, "a charismatic mega-fauna," says Shaw. For many people, bears simply do not equal food.


Animal rights groups like the Animal Protection League have opposed the expansion of the bear hunt, saying humans should change their own behavior. The reintroduction of bear hunting in New Jersey in 2010 was one of the state's most controversial actions, "right up there with the response to Hurricane Sandy," says state spokesman Larry Ragonese.

After a night simmering slow cooker, the bear meat imparted my house with a warm, smoky, delicious aroma. I brought the bear stew into work with a side of rice.

Our web manager, Dale Hobson, tried it first. He immediately declared it "man chow" – like beef stew, but with "a little stronger texture and a little gamier flavor."

Reporter Sarah Harris said if I hadn't told her, she'd have had no inkling what it was. "It's definitely game. But I don't think I would know it was bear. It's good."

The meat came out ropey, like a pot roast, pulled pork or the classic Cuban shredded beef dish, ropa vieja.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd slow cook it with Mexican spices and less broth, then pull it apart and serve with tortillas and shredded vegetables.

David Sommerstein is a reporter and farm and food blogger for North Country Public Radio in Canton, N.Y.




“Some 29 states have regulated bear hunts to keep the animals at bay. New York expanded its season this year to include some places that hadn't seen a bear hunt since the 1950s. Heerkens says the goal was to keep bears out of suburban Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. 'When bears do get into those high density areas, they do cause a lot of problems.' Heerkens says well-managed hunts are proving to be a very effective control. And most of those hunters eat the meat, in addition to saving the animals' hides and skulls.... She wasn't dying to invite the neighbors over for some bear stew. But I was. When I thawed them in their paper-wrapped package, the bear chunks were lean and deep maroon, almost like liver. I seared them in oil that night, then tossed them in a slow cooker with onion, carrots, celery, beef broth and red wine, and went to bed.... New Jersey's hunting guide offers an online bear cookbook, featuring 'Grilled Bear Loin with Brown Sugar Baste' and 'BBQ Bear Roast.' The Alaskagraphy blog features recipes as well. Wild game cookbook author Hank Shaw, who runs the James Beard Award-winning website, Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook, has gotten creative with bear meat, making black bear osso bucco and Russian pelmeni dumplings with bear.... Flavor Russian roulette. Bears are omnivores, so their meat tends to taste like their last meal. That's fine if they last dined on berries. But if they've been eating, say, salmon, their fat will become infused with fishy flavor.... Eating undercooked bear meat can cause trichinosis, which can cause severe sickness or even death in humans. That's why bear is most often cooked in stews, chilis, braises, or in well-cooked sausage. Skip the medium-rare bear steak.... After a night simmering slow cooker, the bear meat imparted my house with a warm, smoky, delicious aroma. I brought the bear stew into work with a side of rice. Our web manager, Dale Hobson, tried it first. He immediately declared it 'man chow' – like beef stew, but with "a little stronger texture and a little gamier flavor. Reporter Sarah Harris said if I hadn't told her, she'd have had no inkling what it was.'It's definitely game. But I don't think I would know it was bear. It's good.'”

I would like to taste bear and also rattlesnake. I have had squirrel, dove, lamb, wild turkey, rabbit, alligator, frog legs, turtle, and opossum. Some people eat raccoons, but they too are predators, and may taste like what they eat. They are also like young deer – they're just too cute to eat. Some people keep young ones as pets. Lambs are adorable, too, but like beef, they are a standard part of the American diet and I see them as livestock rather than pets. I can't bring myself to be vegetarian. I like vegies but I don't want to live on them entirely.

Whether we eat bears or not, we need to put a bear-proof lid on all outdoor trashcans. In Alaska or on a camping trip, people sometimes string their garbage bag up in a tree with rope. The bear can't get in it up there. A warning shot or two is sometimes used to scare bear away from yards, farms, landfills, etc. and is probably the best thing to do because if they aren't afraid of people they will freely come into people's yards. In Florida a few months ago a homeowner was having problems and set up a security camera in his back yard. The foraging bear made the news by climbing up into his hammock that was suspended between two trees, and laying back just like a human to rest for several minutes. He then, satisfied of the fun, climbed out without falling out of the hammock, and went peacefully into the woods. One of the problems with bears is that they are like squirrels, they are very clever. Jacksonville has had two bears in the city limits since I have lived here, and raccoons, foxes, snakes, alligators, etc. are actually commonplace. I wouldn't live in one of those lakeside communities because there are usually woods there, and all wild animals are attracted to water. Running into a bear up close can be really dangerous. They sometimes have a hair trigger on their anger, and they weigh in the hundreds of pounds. I love them, but I also respect them highly.





http://www.dailydot.com/politics/anti-net-neutrality-op-eds-time-wall-street-journal/

The troubling truth behind these anti-net neutrality op-ed writers
By Kevin Collier (Google+
November 13, 2014

Don’t trust everything you read on the Internet—especially when it comes to op-eds decrying the value of net neutrality.

Time and the Wall Street Journal both published opinion stories this week from people who oppose strong net neutrality protections—without disclosing that each of them did or do receive money from Internet service providers.

This appears to be glaring evidence of corporate astroturfing—the idea that Internet providers are secretly filtering their opinions to the public, a practice ISPs have been repeatedly accused of. 

Internet freedom advocacy groups, regular people, and even many conservatives overwhelmingly support net neutrality. Conversely, Internet service providers (ISPs), consistently ranked at the bottom of customer satisfaction surveys, oppose it, and want to be able to charge more for certain sites to be accessible at full speed. In particular, they're opposed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) placing broadband Internet service under so-called Title IIlegislation, which would enshrine net neutrality into law by regulating the Internet a public utility, like electricity or landline phone service.

Net neutrality is the principle that all data traveling from ISPs to your home—whether it’s a Google search page, a Netflix video, a Dropbox download, or this article—should all be treated equally. That’s more or less how the Internet has operated since the beginning. Because ISPs like Verizon have successfully challenged the FCC’s previous net neutrality rules in court, however, advocates of net neutrality, including President Obama, argue that the only way to guarantee net neutrality protections is to regulate broadband under Title II.

The FCC is currently deciding on how to implement new net neutrality rules, which are set to come down sometime next year. And at the moment, it’s highly unclear how the Commission will rule—thus, the op-eds.

In a video op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, guest Bret Swanson argued that net neutrality would hurt "Google, Apple, Amazon, thousands of smaller firms all over the Web. That's why this is so bad." Google is an outspoken proponent of net neutrality, and advocates for Title II generally cite smaller websites as the ones that need it the most.

Mary Kissel, host of the paper's Opinion Journal, introduces Swanson simply as a scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Neither she nor the WSJ website mentions that he's the President of Entropy Economics, a technology consulting firm that has authored studies on Internet connectivity that were funded by Verizon and industry trade group Broadband for America—though you’ll find no mention of a client list on its website.

Time similarly published an opinion article Tuesday titled "How To Neuter the Net Revolution," in which author Tom Hazlett argues that Title II, enabled by a 1934 law, is overwhelmingly old-fashioned, and thus antiquated for technology as current as the Internet: 

In a statement issued by the White House, President Obama strongly endorses, in unequivocal language, not the girly man measures previously considered, but a muscle play: Title II. The bureaucratic reference, which dates to the Communications Act of 1934, would affix your great grandfather’s public utility rules — the ones crafted when households had ‘party lines’ and David Sarnoff was the best known ‘tech innovator’ — on the 21st Century Network of Networks.

Time accurately introduces Hazlett as "H.H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics at Clemson University" and that he "formerly served as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission." It doesn't mention—though his online resume from 2006 does—that he has done consulting work for AT&T, Time Warner, and Verizon, as well as numerous industry trade groups.

Neither Kissell nor Hazlett immediately returned request for comment. It's eminently plausible, of course, that a person can have a good reason to oppose net neutrality. It just means a little less coming from someone who's been paid by an industry that stands to enormously profit from it—especially when that fact is kept secret from readers trying to educate themselves on the issue.

Update 3:25pm ET, Nov. 13: In an email to the Daily Dot, Tom Hazlett clarifies his past involvement in issues related to Internet service providers, and says he received no third-party money for writing the article:

No, I'm not consulting for ISPs (nor have I received any money for writing the Time article). If I were doing such consulting I would have disclosed the fact. I would never take third-party money for writing an article. There is no conflict of interest and the views I expressed in the essay were based on my experience and academic research alone. 

To clarify: in past years I gave testimony in several cases—premised on the First Amendment and/or antitrust law—attempting to advance competition in cable/broadband markets. In these instances, I consulted for entrants in matters that went against the interests of incumbent providers. I was, for instance, the expert witness for the victorious plaintiff in Preferred Communications v. City of Los Angeles, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down monopoly cable franchises. This work is not appropriately summarized as "consulting for ISPs."



http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/fcc-web-woes-extend-net-neutrality-deadline-108932.html

FCC Web woes extend net neutrality deadline
By BROOKS BOLIEK and KATY BACHMAN |
7/15/14

The Federal Communications Commission could have used an Internet “fast lane” on Tuesday as a flood of net neutrality comments caused its website to sputter and forced the agency to extend its deadline for accepting public input on its controversial plan.
FCC officials hope the additional time will give people who’ve had problems filing the chance to have their voices heard. The comment deadline was set to close midnight Tuesday, but the commission extended it to midnight Friday. Chairman Tom Wheeler’s original net neutrality proposal has sparked a firestorm for allowing Internet-service providers such as AT&T and Verizon to charge companies for faster delivery of content.

The commission is once again engaged in the net neutrality debate after a D.C. appeals court tossed out a pair of key rules in January. The court ruled the FCC has the authority to regulate the Internet but said its logic was flawed.
In May the FCC approved a notice of proposed rule making based on Wheeler’s preferred lighter regulatory touch — which has been hammered for permitting Internet “fast lanes.” It also floats a more robust approach that treats the Internet like a telecom utility. A majority of the comments filed thus far have pushed the FCC to go the utility route, known as Title II.

A group of 13 senators urged Wheeler on Tuesday to adopt the Internet-as-utility strategy. Signing the letter were Democrats Ed Markey (Mass.), Al Franken (Minn.), Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Ben Cardin (Md.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Cory Booker (N.J.), and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) along with Independent Bernie Sanders (Vt.).
“If the FCC allows big corporations to negotiate fast lane deals, the Internet will be sold to the highest bidder,” Sanders said at a news conference. Franken called Wheeler’s proposal almost “Orwellian.”

Two Democratic state attorneys general — Eric Schneiderman of New York and Lisa Madigan of Illinois — also waded into the debate Tuesday, saying in their own comment that the FCC should avoid fast lanes and treat the Internet like a utility.

The big telecommunications companies have a different take, with companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast arguing that applying telephone-style regulation to the Internet would chill investment and result in drawn-out litigation.

“Title II reclassification not only is unnecessary to achieve the Commission’s policy objectives, but would affirmatively undermine those objectives by significantly deterring the ongoing investments necessary to deploy broadband further and support the Internet’s continuing evolution,” the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said in a comment filed with the commission Tuesday.

With the FCC’s portal down, some net neutrality advocates used the opportunity to turn delivery of comments into an event. Groups like Free Press, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Common Cause planned to submit their comments by hand to the FCC’s headquarters in Washington.

An alliance of musicians and songwriters also got into the act. Artists such Charles Bissell of The Wrens and REM backed the Title II approach. Smarting from radio consolidation, the music industry fears allowing fast lanes could become the new payola of the 21st century. “We music people know payola when we see it, and what we see in Chairman Wheeler’s proposal doesn’t give us any confidence that we won’t end up with an Internet where pay-by-play rules the day,” the consortium of musicians wrote.

“Having hundreds of thousands of people writing into the FCC will clearly have an effect on the agency’s thought process,” said Paul Gallant, managing director of Guggenheim Securities. “But in the end they have to go with hard economic and legal evidence because this decision is going to court, and that’s all the judges care about.”

Aaron said Free Press and other public interest groups intend to keep up the pressure on Wheeler over the next few months, in what he’s calling “the summer of net neutrality.”
Wheeler has said he’d like the commission to make a decision on net neutrality by the end of the year.



http://cir.ca/news/legal-challenges-to-net-neutrality

Circa
Obama asks FCC to regulate broadband as public utility

"…. The FCC first implemented net neutrality rules in late 2010, but it was quickly sued by Verizon to prevent their imposition. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 14 that the agency did not have the regulatory authority to implement net neutrality rules as they were then written.

Verizon is now funding a technology news website called SugarString.comthat will not be allowed to report on net neutrality. The reporting restriction was first reported Oct. 28 by The Daily Dot."



http://www.newsweek.com/sugarstring-theory-verizons-new-media-venture-banning-most-important-topics-tech-281458

SugarString Theory: Is Verizon’s New Media Venture Banning Some Topics?
BY LAUREN WALKER 
10/31/14

Verizon is in the midst of launching a tech website it hopes will rival sites likeWired and The Verge. But unlike its established competitors, writers forSugarString.com are not allowed to touch topics that are sensitive to its owner, The Daily Dot reported on Tuesday.

SugarString was first registered by Verizon in June as a site that “delivers the latest in technology and lifestyle news for a generation that doesn't separate tech from everyday living. From breaking news to thoughtful essays, best-in-class op-eds and beyond, this site covers what millennials really care about today.”

According to The Daily Dot, multiple journalists who were contacted for recruitment by the SugarString’s new editor-in-chief, Cole Stryker (who has written for Newsweek), were told that the site will avoid articles related to government spying and net neutrality—two controversies that the telecommunication giant is deeply entangled in.
“I was one of the reporters who received that email. The premise and rules behind the site were explained to me in a series of messages throughout the day. I declined the job offer,” Patrick Howell O’Neill, who authored The Daily Dotpiece, wrote. “Other reporters, who asked not to be named, have confirmed that they have received the same recruiting pitch with the same rules: No articles about surveillance or net neutrality.”

But Verizon denies that it has banned certain topics, saying in a statement toNewsweek:
“SugarString is a pilot project from Verizon Wireless’ marketing group, designed to address tech trends, especially those of interest to our customers. Unlike the characterization by its new editor, SugarString is open to all topics that fit its mission and elevate the conversation around technology.”

In a follow-up email with Newsweek, Verizon iterated that SugarString (which will cover breaking news) is a “pilot project from our marketing group.” Despite Verizon’s after-the-fact claims, the site’s status remains in a dubious no man’s land--somewhere between journalism and a PR initiative.

“If you put out a job call, sending out emails trying to recruit editors and reporters, it sounds like it’s a journalistic enterprise,” said William Youmans, assistant professor of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University in an interview with Newsweek. “But then when you have commercially driven restrictions on content it becomes clear that its something a little more like a PR shop.”
Since its launch, the site has published dozens of articles, with only a few stories like “Why the Future Of Anonymous Browsing Lies in Hardware” and “Is Your Child Being Tracked?” grazing the supposedly not banned subject areas. Neither article makes any mention of U.S. government surveillance. And the absence of net neutrality and government spying coverage is not due to a lack of news.

“I’m sure Cole Stryker wasn’t making it up that he wasn’t allowed to talk about these issues,” Youmans said. “I think that the faux pas was in telling journalists we want to hire you but you can’t talk about these issues because that’s not going to go over very well with journalists.”

Cole Stryker did not return Newsweek’s request for comment.
While drawing red lines around sensitive topics is problematic (especially blocking a tech site from reporting on two of the most controversial topics in the field), the concept is nothing new in journalism.

So why is the case of Verizon so shocking?

The first rule of censorship is you do not talk about censorship. “It’s kind of self censorship 101, you don’t say that there are red lines. Most places have more subtle means of implementing an editorial agenda or bias,” Youmans said. “By putting red lines around these issues it reminds people of the political power and influence that Verizon has.”

With a decline in reader-supported news, more hybrid products may be in news consumers futures. “It’s actually going to become more of a common thing as entities like Verizon realize that they want to participate in the public sphere,” Youmans said. “ I think we are going to see more hybrid products like this where the mission isn’t exactly clear and I just think a lot of people aren't ready to go there yet.”

While Youmans believes not allowing SugarString to report on breaking news related to the taboo topics will hurt its credibility, he said, “this idea of them just advertising and saying we’re not willing to report on these issues, but everything else we talk about is going to be value to you I think might have been a much smarter way of going about it.”




“Time and the Wall Street Journal both published opinion stories this week from people who oppose strong net neutrality protections—without disclosing that each of them did or do receive money from Internet service providers. This appears to be glaring evidence of corporate astroturfing—the idea that Internet providers are secretly filtering their opinions to the public, a practice ISPs have been repeatedly accused of. ... Internet freedom advocacy groups, regular people, and even many conservatives overwhelmingly support net neutrality. Conversely, Internet service providers (ISPs), consistently ranked at the bottom of customer satisfaction surveys, oppose it, and want to be able to charge more for certain sites to be accessible at full speed. In particular, they're opposed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) placing broadband Internet service under so-called Title IIlegislation, which would enshrine net neutrality into law by regulating the Internet a public utility, like electricity or landline phone service.... Because ISPs like Verizon have successfully challenged the FCC’s previous net neutrality rules in court, however, advocates of net neutrality, including President Obama, argue that the only way to guarantee net neutrality protections is to regulate broadband under Title II.... Neither Kissell nor Hazlett immediately returned request for comment. “

“In a video op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, guest Bret Swanson argued that net neutrality would hurt 'Google, Apple, Amazon, thousands of smaller firms all over the Web. That's why this is so bad.' Google is an outspoken proponent of net neutrality, and advocates for Title II generally cite smaller websites as the ones that need it the most.” Conservative interests not only always favor the largest businesses over smaller ones, they lie about it. Because WSJ is a prominent news source, many Americans would tend to trust it, but it clearly has a right wing bias.

The Circa article on Verizon's news website SugarString reports that it has blocked its writers from reporting on government surveillance and net neutrality, since October 31. Verizon not only is suing the FCC over Net Neutrality it is already censoring its writers. The article quotes a news reporter Patrick Howell O’Neill of The Daily Dot, who received an email offer for employment on SugarString, which openly stated that various story topics would not be allowed. He goes on to say the other reporters had received and rejected the same offer. Censorship of the news is not popular in this country. The stories on government surveillance and Net Neutrality are of great interest to most Americans. I thought censorship of the news media was unconstitutional. Allowing such control by ISPs is a direct danger to our democracy, which rests largely on the free flow of information and the right to state our own opinions.





http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/11/gasb-corporate-welfare.html

A ray of sunlight on secretive corporate welfare

Tell the Government Accounting Standards Board you want full disclosure on tax subsidies for corporations

by David Cay Johnston
November 12, 2014

Each year billions of your state and local tax dollars get diverted from public coffers for corporate subsidies. Just how much you are forced to pay for corporate welfare could soon move from the darkness of official secrecy into the light — but only if you act now.

A proposed rule requiring state and local governments to disclose the total amount of property tax and some other abatements in any year is being considered by the little-known private rule-making body known as the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

In 44 states, laws let county, city and other local officials grant tax reductions or exemptions to companies, often with little disclosure and no accountability. Exemptions from taxes benefit thousands of companies, from online retailer Amazon to shampoo maker Zotos International.

The proposal is tepid and narrow, but far better to let in a ray of light than to allow these deals the cover of total darkness in which they are typically carried out.

Picking your pocket

Just how many billions of tax dollars corporations escape paying is a mystery. The reason: Everyone responsible for picking your pocket — the politicians who grant the subsidies, the companies that get them and the brokers who charge fees to arrange them — prefer to hide in the dark.

Every dollar of tax not collected from these companies is a dollar you must make up through higher taxes, fewer government services or more government debt.

Nationwide, property taxes provide three-fourths of local government tax revenues. From 2000 to 2011, as wages stagnated and job growth slowed, the burden of local property taxes soared to $443 billion. Adjusted for inflation over those years, property taxes soared 30 percent, to $1,423 per American, Census Bureau data show.

People know little about the myriad local and state subsidies to corporations because governments report welfare costs using two systems, separate and unequal: a fully transparent one for individuals and an opaque one for companies.

Governments at every level publish finely detailed reports on how much taxpayer money is spent to help children, the chronically sick, the disabled, the elderly and the poor. But virtually no statistics exist on welfare for the rich and the corporations they own, as those of us whose who report on these matters know from years of painstaking work to extract limited facts from the public record.

The best estimate is that corporate welfare costs state and local governments more than $70 billion per year. That works out to $900 annually for a family of four, which is more than a week’s take-home pay for the typical family.

All these corporate welfare programs operate on the assumption that the lucky companies will create jobs. Good Jobs First, a research organization based in Washington, D.C., and various tax watchdog groups have shown that often far fewer jobs were created than promised. Sometimes jobs are destroyed despite massive corporate welfare. The jobs that are created are too expensive; subsidies of more than $1 million per job are becoming common. 

A modest rule change

The proposed rule clearly addresses only one narrow segment of local government welfare for corporations: property taxes that are reduced or waived entirely on new or refurbished factories, hotels, office buildings and other business real estate.

It may not apply to retail stores such as Walmart, Lowe’s and Home Depot, which in many towns legally keep the sales taxes collected at the cash register — money not made available for schools, police and libraries. Nor would it apply to interest-free loans, some of which never need be repaid, free land and buildings or job training at local government expense.

The proposed rule is about disclosure regarding rules under which you are forced to pay your taxes in full while others get a free ride.

Greg Leroy of Good Jobs First said the rule also appears to exclude the growing practice of corporations covertly taxing their workers. Nearly 3,000 companies in 20 states have deals to pocket state income taxes withheld from paychecks. The workers are in the dark because the state treats them as having paid their taxes even though government never receives the money.

GASB records show the issue has been under internal discussion during the past quarter century, when local corporate welfare systems ballooned.

The board’s use of the opaque term “abatement” in reference to companies’ being excused from some taxes indicates how gingerly it is dealing with the politicians, corporations and subsidy brokers that want to obfuscate these deals so they can continue to enjoy the benefits of picking your pocket.

Simply put, this proposed rule is about disclosure regarding rules under which you are forced to pay your taxes in full while others get a free ride. It is about corruption,

which in our time has become sophisticated and institutional. Instead of cash bribes, which come with a risk of prison, today money flows as campaign contributions, cushy jobs for friends and family of the politicians who approve these deals and other harder-to-track payoffs.

Politicians who give your money to corporations also get to crow about jobs they brought to town. Never mind that often these giveaways just shuffle jobs away from businesses that must pay their taxes in full and toward firms showered with tax favors. Never mind that this means politicians, rather than the competitive market, determines economic winners and losers.

Comments welcome

The proposed rule is very limited in scope. It would require disclosure of only the net total of tax abatements and perhaps only for a single year rather than the full cost over the years when the giveaways are in effect. The disclosures would appear as footnotes to local government financial reports, the GASB report suggests. In addition, the rule would not require naming companies.

Contrast this limited disclosure regime with property tax records generally. The price you paid for your house, the current assessment of its value, the property tax owed and whether you paid are all public record. What justifies any less disclosure for exemptions from property taxes?

I’d love to tell you what the GASB and its staffers think, but the private organization’s publicist said they were too busy to talk. I got no response to an emailed suggestion that I delay my column for a few days so I could conduct interviews.

Still, even though the proposed rule would lift the window shades just a little, any sunlight is an improvement.

That’s where you come in. The GASB is inviting comment on the proposed rule from now through January. This is your chance to not just support the rule as proposed but also demand a much broader one. Tell the board you want disclosure of all state and local subsidies to businesses, that you want the recipients and their brokers fully identified along with any fees paid, any campaign contributions by the companies and brokers and a rigorous accounting of how many jobs were added, if any. And tell the GASB that you want disclosures to cover the entire period of each deal as well as annual snapshots.

Send your comments to director@gasb.org or mail them to Governmental Accounting Standards Board, PO Box 5116,
 Norwalk, CT 06856-5116 and mention project 19-20E. 

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article misstated the scope of the proposed GASB rule. It covers both state and local taxes and more than just property taxes. We regret the error.

David Cay Johnston, an investigative reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize while at The New York Times, teaches business, tax and property law of the ancient world at the Syracuse University College of Law. He is the best-selling author of “Perfectly Legal,” “Free Lunch” and “The Fine Print” and editor of the new anthology “Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality.”

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America's editorial policy.



Governmental Accounting Standards Board
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is the source of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) used by State and Local governments in the United States. As with most of the entities involved in creating GAAP in the United States, it is a private, non-governmental organization.
The GASB is subject to oversight by the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), which selects the members of the GASB and the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and funds both organizations.

The mission of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board is to establish and improve standards of state and local governmental accounting and financial reporting that will result in useful information for users of financial reports and guide and educate the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of those financial reports.

The GASB has issued Statements, Interpretations, Technical Bulletins, and Concept Statements defining GAAP for state and local governments since 1984. GAAP for the Federal government is defined by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board.



Financial Accounting Foundation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) is located in Norwalk, Connecticut. It was organized in 1972 as a non-stock, Delaware Corporation. It is an independent organization in the private sector, operating with the goal of ensuring objectivity and integrity in financial reporting standards.
The foundation is responsible for [1]:
Establishing and improving financial accounting and reporting standards;
Educating constituents about those standards;
The oversight, administration, and finances of its standard-setting Boards, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), and their Advisory Councils;
Selecting the members of the standard-setting Boards and Advisory Councils; and
Protecting the independence and integrity of the standard-setting process.
FAF operates four branches in its organization:
FASB
the Appointments and Evaluations Committee
the Finance and Compensation Committee
the Audit Committee
the Standard-Setting Process Oversight Advisory Committee
the Corporate Governance Committee

GASB
The Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC). This branch is composed of FASB constituents and consults with FASB on issues.
The Governmental Account
ing Standards Advisory Council (GASAC). This branch is composed of GASB constituents and consults with GASB on issues.
The FAF Board of Trustees is made up of members from constituent organizations having interest in financial reporting. These constituent organizations include:
American Accounting Association
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
CFA Institute
Financial Executives International
Government Finance Officers Association
Institute of Management Accountants
National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
There are currently five officers and fourteen trustees. The FAF operates seven committees:
the Executive Committee
the Development Committee
the Appointments and Evaluations Committee
the Finance and Compensation Committee
the Audit Committee
the Standard-Setting Process Oversight Advisory Committee
the Corporate Governance Committee




“Each year billions of your state and local tax dollars get diverted from public coffers for corporate subsidies. Just how much you are forced to pay for corporate welfare could soon move from the darkness of official secrecy into the light — but only if you act now. A proposed rule requiring state and local governments to disclose the total amount of property tax and some other abatements in any year is being considered by the little-known private rule-making body known as the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB).... It is about corruption, which in our time has become sophisticated and institutional. Instead of cash bribes, which come with a risk of prison, today money flows as campaign contributions, cushy jobs for friends and family of the politicians who approve these deals and other harder-to-track payoffs.... Never mind that often these giveaways just shuffle jobs away from businesses that must pay their taxes in full and toward firms showered with tax favors. Never mind that this means politicians, rather than the competitive market, determines economic winners and losers.... The proposal is tepid and narrow, but far better to let in a ray of light than to allow these deals the cover of total darkness in which they are typically carried out. Just how many billions of tax dollars corporations escape paying is a mystery. The reason: Everyone responsible for picking your pocket — the politicians who grant the subsidies, the companies that get them and the brokers who charge fees to arrange them — prefer to hide in the dark. Every dollar of tax not collected from these companies is a dollar you must make up through higher taxes, fewer government services or more government debt. The disclosures would appear as footnotes to local government financial reports, the GASB report suggests. In addition, the rule would not require naming companies. Contrast this limited disclosure regime with property tax records generally.”

Here we go with another grubby bit about how the government works. This time it seems to be state and local governments. Of course I basically knew that the Republican favorite activity of “bringing in jobs” was about deal making, but I thought it was tax breaks, primarily. This is much more direct – corporate contributions to candidates, payoffs to friends and family of politicians, and increased debt, even the fact that the citizen in the end has to pay for the gap in taxation and must suffer under a lessening of government benefits. For all these goodies the corporations are supposed to create jobs in the county or state in question. Sometimes they don't.

This is what is sometimes called “Corporate Welfare.” It is the reality of the way Conservatives, and I am afraid the government in general, work. If the GASB makes this ruling and all the corporate payoffs to legislators are brought out in a report, it should bring about a public outcry for reform. The GASB is soliciting comments from the public, to be sent to one of the following: “Send your comments to director@gasb.org or mail them to Governmental Accounting Standards Board, PO Box 5116,
Norwalk, CT 06856-5116 and mention project 19-20E.” 






Why is China investing in the Comoros?
By SHANNON VAN SANT CBS NEWS
November 12, 2014, 3:59 AM

MORONI, Comoros -- An experimental malaria drug isn't the only gift China has given the small, Islamic island nation of the Comoros.

China was the first nation to recognize the Comoros after its independence in 1975, and Mohamed Soilih, director of the Comoros television station, says China has replaced France as its chief benefactor, "After 40 years, China has become the first partner. Before it was France, now it is China."

Locals describe the vast, gated Chinese Embassy compound in Moroni as "a town within a town." They say China invests in large projects that actually have a positive effect on the lives of everyday Comorans.

"People will applaud if you mention China, because they can see the investment," Soilih says. "The perception is that other governments help governments; China however, helps the people."

America's most visible investment here, by contrast, is a small library of English language books.

Made in China

"The United States' vision for foreign aid and investment is for one or two years. China thinks of the future in terms of centuries," Soilih says, "China has solutions for big problems."

Problems like regular power outages; China is building a new power plant.

Health centers across most of the Comoros consist of sparsely equipped, cement block rooms. China regularly sends teams of doctors to the country, and it's building a $12 million, modern, eight-story hospital.

The Chinese are paving roads, building new schools, new mosques, new government buildings, a new airport, a center to facilitate tourism to the country and even new homes -- for politicians.

Local TV and radio stations were designed and built by China, and four Chinese government-run television channels now pipe programming from Beijing directly into Comorans' homes.

Late last year, China announced a $2 million gift to the Comoros to build a new sports stadium.

They all amount to very visible reminders of the nation's benefactors about 6,000 miles away in Beijing.

But other aspects of China's influence are less visible here.

Local fishermen complained that Chinese fishing boats were depleting fish-stocks off the coast, a vital source of income for many Comorans. Journalists here tell us their government told them to stop reporting the story, at China's request.

Military leaders would not meet with CBS News, but the Comoros government says China is bringing large groups of Comoran soldiers to Beijing for military training and intensive Mandarin language training. They say within a few years, the entire Comoros army will be fluent in Chinese.

Why the Comoros?

So why is powerhouse China so interested in this tiny, impoverished, politically unstable African nation?

A former American diplomat who was based in the region tells CBS News the islands lie along a key shipping route, and could also serve as a listening station to monitor satellite communications.

There are also potentially huge offshore energy reserves.

"I think China has their own goals here. I don't think a state has to give a gift like this," TV station director Soilih tells us. "Every nation, every state, every country has its own goals. Maybe we have something they need. Personally, I think it is about the possibility of our region, and our country, for petroleum and gas."

Soilih's suspicions may be well-founded. Stanislas Drochon, a research director for IHS Energy Insight, says there have been major gas reserves discovered just north in the waters of Mozambique, "so close to Comoros territory, there is the hope we can replicate in the Comoros what has been discovered in Mozambique."


The Comoros, like all of Africa, is also an increasingly important export market for Chinese goods.

Vice President Fouad Mhadji, who is also Health Minister, contrasts China's investment with the Comoros' former colonial ruler, France.

"The French were here for 200 years," he tells us. "What did they build? What did they leave us?"

Photos of the Great Wall, books by Chinese authors and framed calligraphy of Chinese scripture fill the walls of government leaders' offices here now.

They say that unlike France, China does not interfere with the internal politics of the Comoros.

Regardless of Beijing's motives, Mhadji welcomes the investment, insisting, "China tries to do all the best for us."

But it is an investment, not just a gift, and the leaders of the Comoros know their nation's fate is now tied directly to China's battle with other big countries to dominate the region.

"Next time America should not send reporters to find out who has died in our country. You [the U.S.] should give us medicine and build hospitals," Mhadji says, before adding with a wink, "so we won't be seduced by al Qaeda."



Comoros
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Comoros (i/ˈkɒməroʊz/; Arabic: جزر القمر‎, Juzur al-Qumur / Qamar), officially the Union of the Comoros(Comorian: Udzima wa Komori, French: Union des Comores,Arabic: الاتحاد القمري‎ al-Ittiḥād al-Qumurī / Qamarī), is asovereign archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel off the eastern coast of Africa, between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar. Other countries near the Comoros areTanzania to the northwest and the Seychelles to the northeast. Its capital is Moroni, on Grande Comore.

At 1,862 km2 (719 sq mi), excluding the contested island ofMayotte,[5] the Comoros is the third-smallest African nation by area. The population, excluding Mayotte, is estimated at 798,000. The name "Comoros" derives from the Arabic word قمر qamar("moon").[6] As a nation formed at a crossroads of many civilizations, the archipelago is noted for its diverse culture and history. The Union of the Comoros has three official languages – Comorian, Arabic and French – though French is the sole official language on Mayotte.

Officially, in addition to many smaller islands, the country consists of the four major islands in the volcanic Comoros archipelago: northwesternmost Grande Comore (Ngazidja); Mohéli (Mwali);Anjouan (Nzwani); and southeasternmost Mayotte (Maore). Mayotte, however, has never been administered by an independent Comoros government and continues to be administered by France (currently as an overseas department) as it was the only island in the archipelago that voted against independence in 1974. France has since vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions that would affirm Comoriansovereignty over the island.[7][8][9][10] In addition, a referendum on the question of Mayotte becoming an overseas department of France in 2011 was held on 29 March 2009 and passed overwhelmingly.

The Comoros is the only state to be a member of the African Union, Francophonie, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League (of which it is the southernmost state, being the only member of the Arab League which is entirely within the Southern Hemisphere) and the Indian Ocean Commission. Sinceindependence in 1975, the country has experienced numerouscoups d'état and, as of 2008, about half the population lives below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.[11]

The first human inhabitants of the Comoros Islands are thought to have been Arab, African and Austronesiansettlers who traveled to the islands by boat. These people arrived no later than the sixth century AD, the date of the earliest known archaeological site, found on Nzwani, although settlement beginning as early as the first century has been postulated.[12] The islands of Comoros were populated by a succession of diverse groups from the coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, the Malay Archipelago, andMadagascar. Bantu-speaking settlers reached the islands as a part of the greater Bantu expansion that took place in Africa throughout the first millennium.

Development of the Comoros was divided into phases. The earliest reliably recorded phase is the Dembeni phase (ninth to tenth centuries), during which each island maintained a single, central village.[13] From the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, trade with the island of Madagascar and merchants from the Middle East flourished, smaller villages emerged, and existing towns expanded. Many Comorians can trace their genealogies to ancestors from Yemen, mainly Hadramawt, and Oman.

In 1793, Malagasy warriors from Madagascar first started raiding the islands for slaves. On Comoros, it was estimated in 1865 that as much as 40% of the population consisted of slaves.[15] France first established colonial rule in the Comoros in 1841. The first French colonists landed in Mayotte, and Andrian Tsouli, the Malagasy King of Mayotte, signed the Treaty of April 1841, which ceded the island to the French authorities.[16]

The Comoros served as a way station for merchants sailing to the Far East and India until the opening of the Suez Canal significantly reduced traffic passing through the Mozambique Channel. The native commodities exported by the Comoros were coconuts, cattle and tortoiseshell. French settlers, French-owned companies, and wealthy Arab merchants established a plantation-based economy that used about one-third of the land for export crops. After its annexation, France converted Mayotte into a sugar plantation colony. The other islands were soon transformed as well, and the major crops of ylang-ylang, vanilla, coffee, cocoa bean, and sisal were introduced.[17]

In 1886, Mohéli was placed under French protection by its Sultan Mardjani Abdou Cheikh. That same year, despite having no authority to do so, Sultan Said Ali of Bambao, one of the sultanates on Ngazidja, placed the island under French protection in exchange for French support of his claim to the entire island, which he retained until his abdication in 1910. In 1908 The islands were unified under a single administration (Colonie de Mayotte et Dépendances) and placed under the authority of the French colonial governor general of Madagascar. In 1909, Sultan Said Muhamed of Anjouan abdicated in favor of French rule. In 1912 the colony and the protectorates were abolished and the islands became a province of the colony of Madagascar.[18]

Agreement was reached with France in 1973 for Comoros to become independent in 1978. The deputies of Mayotteabstained. Referendums were held on all four of the islands. Three voted for independence by large margins, while Mayotte voted against, and remains under French administration. On 6 July 1975, however, the Comorian parliament passed a unilateral resolution declaring independence. Ahmed Abdallah proclaimed the independence of the Comorian State (État comorien; دولة القمر) and became its first president.




“China was the first nation to recognize the Comoros after its independence in 1975, and Mohamed Soilih, director of the Comoros television station, says China has replaced France as its chief benefactor, 'After 40 years, China has become the first partner. Before it was France, now it is China.' Locals describe the vast, gated Chinese Embassy compound in Moroni as 'a town within a town.' They say China invests in large projects that actually have a positive effect on the lives of everyday Comorans.... Problems like regular power outages; China is building a new power plant. Health centers across most of the Comoros consist of sparsely equipped, cement block rooms. China regularly sends teams of doctors to the country, and it's building a $12 million, modern, eight-story hospital. The Chinese are paving roads, building new schools, new mosques, new government buildings, a new airport, a center to facilitate tourism to the country and even new homes -- for politicians. Local TV and radio stations were designed and built by China, and four Chinese government-run television channels now pipe programming from Beijing directly into Comorans' homes.... A former American diplomat who was based in the region tells CBS News the islands lie along a key shipping route, and could also serve as a listening station to monitor satellite communications. There are also potentially huge offshore energy reserves.... Vice President Fouad Mhadji, who is also Health Minister, contrasts China's investment with the Comoros' former colonial ruler, France. 'The French were here for 200 years," he tells us. "What did they build? What did they leave us?' Photos of the Great Wall, books by Chinese authors and framed calligraphy of Chinese scripture fill the walls of government leaders' offices here now. They say that unlike France, China does not interfere with the internal politics of the Comoros.... But it is an investment, not just a gift, and the leaders of the Comoros know their nation's fate is now tied directly to China's battle with other big countries to dominate the region. 'Next time America should not send reporters to find out who has died in our country. You [the U.S.] should give us medicine and build hospitals,' Mhadji says, before adding with a wink, 'so we won't be seduced by al Qaeda.'”

“But other aspects of China's influence are less visible here. Local fishermen complained that Chinese fishing boats were depleting fish-stocks off the coast, a vital source of income for many Comorans. Journalists here tell us their government told them to stop reporting the story, at China's request. Military leaders would not meet with CBS News, but the Comoros government says China is bringing large groups of Comoran soldiers to Beijing for military training and intensive Mandarin language training. They say within a few years, the entire Comoros army will be fluent in Chinese.”

There seems to be no end to the troubles the US is having around the world in the last several decades. Is it because we have the reputation of being “The Ugly American,” or is it a simple matter of human competition? I hope our government is watching this Chinese expansion. China has done a great deal of work for the country, so maybe they do deserve to have a major influence there. Still, they aren't encouraging local control entirely. The Chinese commanded journalists to stop reporting on overfishing by Chinese fleets to the detriment of local fishermen And the supposedly witty comment that we should give them medicine and hospitals so they won't be tempted to be “seduced by al-Qaeda” is less than humorous.




Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 debris collected, 4 months later
CBS/AP
November 16, 2014, 10:21 AM

HRABOVE, Ukraine - Workers in rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine began to collect debris from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on Sunday, four months after the plane was brought down.

The operation is being carried out under the supervision of Dutch investigators and officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The recovered fragments are to be loaded onto trains and taken to the government-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The investigation into the cause of the crash is being conducted there and in the Netherlands.

Alexander Kostrubitsky, the head of the emergency services in the rebel-held areas of Donetsk region, said at the site that gathering debris could take around 10 days. The debris is being sawn into smaller pieces to facilitate its transportation, Kostrubitsky said.

All 298 people aboard the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed when it was shot down July 17 over a rebel-held area. Charred remains of the aircraft are scattered around fields over an area of 8 square miles.

The first batch of plane debris was delivered from an area near the village of Hrabove to a lumber warehouse in the town of Torez shortly after lunchtime Sunday. They were due to be put onto cargo trains later in the day.

Efforts to conduct investigations and recovery operations have been delayed amid continued fighting between government troops and separatist fighters. A truce was agreed in September, but hostilities have raged on nonetheless.

Ukraine and the West have blamed the downing of the MH17 flight on Russia-backed separatists using a ground-to-air missile.

Russian state television has released a satellite photograph it claims shows that a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. But the U.S. government dismissed the report as preposterous and online commentators called the photo a crude fake.

The photo released Friday by Russia's Channel One and Rossiya TV stations purportedly shows a Ukrainian fighter plane firing an air-to-air missile in the direction of the MH17. The channels said they got the photo from a Moscow-based organization, which had received it via email from a man who identified himself as an aviation expert.

Several bloggers said the photograph was a forgery, citing a cloud pattern to prove the
photo dates back to 2012, and several other details that seem incongruous.

Some saw the photo as a propaganda effort intended to deflect criticism over the tragedy that Russian President Vladimir Putin faced as he attended the Group of 20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.

Putin was the first leader to depart the summit Sunday. He told reporters that he left ahead of a final leaders' lunch because he wanted to rest before returning to work.

The U.S., Australia and Japan issued a statement condemning Russia for its actions in Ukraine, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper reacted to an offer of a handshake from Putin by responding, "I guess I'll shake your hand, but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine."

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been particularly strong-worded in his criticism of Russia since the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down. There were 38 Australian citizens and residents on the plane when it was downed.

Abbott said he and Putin had engaged in a "very robust" discussion about the situation in Ukraine.

"I utterly deplore what seems to be happening in eastern Ukraine," Abbott said. "I demand that Russia fully cooperate with the investigation, the criminal investigation of the downing of MH17, one of the most terrible atrocities of recent times."

Dutch authorities said in late October that 289 victims of the crash had been identified. They said work on concluding the identification process was hampered by lack of usable DNA profiles and because not all remains had been collected from the crash site.

At the wreckage site, Kostrubitsky said more bone fragments were discovered Sunday after part of the plane was lifted away.

Investigators revealed in October that the body of one passenger of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was found wearing an oxygen mask, raising questions about how much those on board knew about their fate when the plane plunged out of the sky above Eastern Ukraine in July.

The passenger, an Australian, did not have the mask on his face, but its elastic strap was around his neck, said Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the Dutch National Prosecutor's Office which is carrying out a criminal investigation into the air disaster.

Dutch air crash investigators said last month it was likely struck by multiple "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft," which some aviation experts say is consistent with a strike by a missile.

The head of the criminal investigation said the most likely of possible scenarios being investigated is that the Boeing 777 was shot down from the ground.




“The operation is being carried out under the supervision of Dutch investigators and officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The recovered fragments are to be loaded onto trains and taken to the government-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The investigation into the cause of the crash is being conducted there and in the Netherlands. Alexander Kostrubitsky, the head of the emergency services in the rebel-held areas of Donetsk region, said at the site that gathering debris could take around 10 days. The debris is being sawn into smaller pieces to facilitate its transportation, Kostrubitsky said.... Efforts to conduct investigations and recovery operations have been delayed amid continued fighting between government troops and separatist fighters. A truce was agreed in September, but hostilities have raged on nonetheless.... The U.S., Australia and Japan issued a statement condemning Russia for its actions in Ukraine, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper reacted to an offer of a handshake from Putin by responding, 'I guess I'll shake your hand, but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine.' Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been particularly strong-worded in his criticism of Russia since the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down. There were 38 Australian citizens and residents on the plane when it was downed.... Investigators revealed in October that the body of one passenger of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was found wearing an oxygen mask, raising questions about how much those on board knew about their fate when the plane plunged out of the sky above Eastern Ukraine in July.”

Putin encountered openly hostile reactions from the Australian and Canadian representatives to the Group of 20 summit, and an official written statement condemning Russia was issued by the US, Australia, Canada and Japan. He still claims, however, that it was a Ukrainian fighter that downed the airliner, and has produced a photograph as proof of his contention, which “several bloggers” have pronounced a forgery. Though there was a peace agreement, the fighting between the two groups is continuing.