Reko Diq Mystery
Reko Diq is a small town in Chagai District, Baluchistan having the world’s largest Gold and Copper reserves (!!!). Reports emerging from various sources indicate that the US $ 65 Billion natural deposit might have been sold for US $ 21 Billion to Tethyan Copper of Australia which has taken the contract to develop this mine while Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada and Antofagasta of Chile have a joint-ownership of the copper-gold deposit at Reko Diq.
The Reko Diq deposit is being explored by Tethyan Copper Company Pty Ltd (75%) and the (BDA) Balochistan Development Authority (25%). Tethyan Copper Company is held jointly (50:50) by Barrick Gold Corporation and Antofagasta Minerals.
Currently the deposit is at scoping / pre feasibility stage. It is a world class copper / gold porphyry style deposit, typical of the tethyan belt. It has been sold to the Zionist controlled regimes by the Pakistani Government under the dictator at a price of $21 billion. Rough estimates suggest that the gold and copper at the surface accounts for $65 billion worth of deposits.
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The curse of the Neo-Colonized
Guest Post by Areej M
“In the modern planetary situation, Eastern and Western ‘cultures’ can no longer meet one another as equal partners. They meet in a westernized world, under conditions shaped by western ways of thinking.” — W. Halbfass
I have no words to convey my utter disgust at the hypocrisy of the United States, in matters ranging from International Relations to domestic concerns of other nation states. What is deemed correct for one nation is utterly wrong for another. Why then, would someone please explain to me, was there a need for the establishment of the United Nations? If US was bent upon being the sole dictator of the international political environment, why did it participate in the setting up of the UN at all? As far as USA is concerned, the UN is only a machine, a valid front for its inhumane and unjust activities. It is your proverbial curtain in front of your eyes. The UN is a means to manipulate the international community to buy the lies that US sells through its well established and wide spread media.
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Dilemma faced by Pakistani Government
By Abdul Azeem
This post is a reaction to the article “Pakistan: Negligent on Terror?”, published in TIME on 30th June.
TIME: It’s almost like a bad joke. A bus driver, a ski lift operator and a gym rat have turned the Islamic world’s only nuclear-armed nation upside down. On Saturday Pakistani forces chased militants led by former bus driver Mangal Bagh from the fringes of Peshawar, a provincial capital 30 miles from the border with Afghanistan and a key transit point for vital supplies destined for U.S. and NATO forces fighting the Afghan insurgency….. Meanwhile, in Waziristan, followers of Baitullah Mehsud, the physical trainer turned assassin, have slaughtered at least 22 peace negotiators who arrived on behalf of the government seeking to cement a cease-fire accord. Both the CIA and Pakistan’s intelligence agencies say he is behind the attack that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December. Three years ago no one had even heard of these men. What happened?
GHQ to Islamabad
Published in The Nation
by M. Ashgar Khan
The shifting of the Army’s General Headquarters from Rawalpindi to Islamabad has been planned for some time and was given a fresh impetus during 2007. We have not been told what the total financial burden of this move will be but the cost of land alone at the prevalent rates in Islamabad is about Rs 100,000 to Rs 120,000 per sq yard.
The army would, of course, not be required to pay this amount for the land to the CDA but the CDA could earn this amount if they were to sell this land to civilians for residential or commercial purposes. The expenditure involved is believed to be more than the total Defence Budget of Pakistan for the current year and many times more than the education budget of the country. In a country where millions do not get a square meal a day, where we are woefully short of schools and medical facilities and where even clean drinking water is not available for the ordinary citizen, to spend such a large amount on moving an existing facility a few miles cannot be justified.
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GVSummit08: Day 2 Session 4: Translation and the Multilingual Web
MODERATOR: Portnoy.
SPEAKERS: Chris Salzberg (Canada/Japan), Paula Góes (Brazil), Rezwan (Bangladesh), Claire Ulrich (France)
In the short history of global online communication, numerous thinkers have fashioned a vision of the Internet as a barrier-free forum for the inter-national and inter-cultural transmission of knowledge, ideas, and information. In practice, however, online communities are still divided by the differing languages they speak. Is online linguistic segregation a technical or cultural dilemma? Will machine translation tools such as Google Translate fulfill the promise of a multilingual web or is it up to human volunteer translators to construct bridges between language-oriented online spheres?
Day 2, Session 4: Translation and the Multi-Lingual Web
GVSession08: Day 2 Session 3: When Biases Meet Biases
MODERATOR: Xiao Qiang.
Speakers: Isaac Mao(Entrepreneur and Researcher, China), Rebecca MacKinnon (University of Hong Kong and Global Voies), John Kennedy (Chinese Language Editor, Global Voices)
The March 10 protests in Lhasa on the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule immediately won the sympathy and support of Western media outlets, bloggers, and human rights organizations. From the point of view of many Chinese bloggers, however, the international coverage of the protests boiled down to misinformed anti-Chinese sentiment. What can be done to encourage dialogue in times of such heated disagreement? How is the hegemony of truth constructed in the current global media ecology? What is the role of editorialized websites like Global Voices in presenting multiple perspectives on a single issue, while also adding context for an international, multilingual readership?
Day 2, Session 3: When Biases Meet Biases
GVSummit08: Day 2 Session 2: The Wired Electorate in Emerging Democracies
MODERATOR: Solana Larsen.
SPEAKERS: Daudi Were (Kenya), Onnik Krikorian (Armenia), Hamid Tehrani (Iran), Luis Carlos Díaz (Venezuela)
The rise of blogging, social networking and micro-blogging services like Facebook and Twitter, video- and photo-sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr, and the spread of mobile technology ave given ordinary citizens the means, at least potentially, to participate more fully in the democratic process. This session looks at the impact these tools have had on recent elections in Kenya, Venezuela, Armenia and Iran and poses the question: is citizen media having an actual impact on democracies in transition?
Day 2, Session 2: The Wired Electorate in Emerging Democracies
GVSummit08: Day 2 Session 1: Web 2.0 Goes WorldWide
MODERATOR: Lova Rakotomalala.
SPEAKERS: Catalina Restrepo (HiperBarrio, Colombia), Collins Dennis Oduor (REPACTED, Kenya), Cristina Quisbert (Voces Bolivianas, Bolivia), Mialy Andriamananjara (FOKO, Madagascar)
The participatory web has, so far, been limited to the participation of select communities. Thanks to the steady proliferation of broadband connectivity and digital literacy campaigns throughout the developing world, however, some of the most exciting uses of online tools are now taking place in locations where, merely a decade ago, internet access was rare, if available at all. This panel will gather leaders of cutting-edge Web 2.0 initiatives from Colombia, Kenya, Bolivia, and
Madagascar who seek to make the global conversation more representative of the global population.
GVSummit08: Day 1 Wrap up
A good roundup by Rebecca MacKinnon at the end of the first day of Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008. Budapest, June 27, 2008
GVSummit08: Day 1 Session 5: NGO’s and on-the ground activists: Defending the Voices
MODERATOR: Xiao Qiang.
SPEAKERS: Elijah Zarwan (Human Rights Watch), Clothilde Le Coz (Bureau Internet et Libertés, Reporters Without Borders), Rebecca MacKinnon (Global Voices & University of Hong Kong), Nasser Weddady (Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance), Stephanie Hankey (Tactical Tech), Antony Loewenstein (Amnesty International Australia’s campaign Uncensor)
How can NGOs seeking to advance freedom of expression most effectively work with on-the-ground free speech activists to combat censorship?
LIVE COVERAGE
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GVSummit08: Day 1 Session 4: Frontline Activists meet the Academy: Tools and Knowledge
MODERATOR: Ethan Zuckeman.
SPEAKERS: Roger Dingledine (Tor), Nart Villeneuve (Citizen Lab), Isaac Mao (Digital Nomads project, China), Robert Guerra (Privaterra, Cuba), Danny O’Brien (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
The tools to circumvent web filtering and other methods of online censorship exist, but they don’t always reach the people who need them as easily as they could. How can we facilitate better coordination between the developers of these tools and the anti-censorship activists that need them? And how do we facilitate the flow of feedback from the activists back to the developers so the latter can design more appropriate tools?
LIVE BLOG
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GVSummit08: Day 1 Session 3: Living with Censorship
MODERATOR: Awab Alvi
SPEAKERS: Helmi Noman (Researcher - Middle East & North Africa), Razan (Free Tariq, Syria), CJ Hinke (Freedom Against Censorship, Thailand), Andrew Heavens (Sudan), Rezwan (Bangladesh), John Kennedy (China)
Dealing with blocked access to popular websites and unclear restrictions about what can and cannot be published online has become an ordinary fact of life for internet users in many parts of the world. This session’s speakers will share their experiences of living in countries where government censorship is a reality, and of being part of organized efforts to combat it.
LIVE COVERAGE
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GVSummit08: Day 1 Session 2: Citizen Media and Online Free Speech
MODERATOR: Mary Joyce.
SPEAKERS: Ory Okolloh (Kenyan Blogger), Wael Abbas (MisrDigital, Egypt), Mehdi Mohseni (jomhour.org, Iran), Amine (digiactive.org, Morocco), Oiwan Lam (Global Voices, Hong Kong), Au Wai Pang (Singapore)
Citizen media allow for more active and open participation in political processes, but threats of censorship and oppression discourage citizens from expressing their own opinions. This session will present case studies from Kenya, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
LIVE COVEAGE
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GVSummit08: Day 1 Session 1: Toward a Global anti-censorship network
MODERATOR: Helmi Noman.
SPEAKERS: Andrey Abozau, (Belarusian activist from LuNet), Chris Salzberg (Global Voices, Japan), Alaa Abdel Fatah (Egyptian Blogger), Ethan Zuckerman (Global Voices), Awab Alvi (Don’t Block The Blog, Pakistan)
Internet censorship by governments around the world has threatened both freedom of expression and free access to information. In response, free speech activists are leading campaigns and creating tools to ensure the rights of internet users, but they often work in isolation and without the support of a community. Why do we need a global anti-censorship network? How can we facilitate the sharing of techniques, best practices and experiences around the protection of online free speech?
LIVE COVERAGE
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GlobalVoices Advocacy Summit ‘08
I share with you the Global Voices Advocacy Summit help today on 26th June 2008 at Budapest, Hungary. I apologize for posting this live blog late after the event, it was more because I arrived in Budapest at noon after a 13-hour journey, and screeched into the meeting room just before lunch.
The advocacy session was amazing, with some very active discussion on the PsiPhon and TOR as a tool to bypass the censorship. Later it was followed up with a talk about creating a financial fund to help support cyber dissidents who may stand to be exposed, providing them with aid as well as good legal support. The Advocacy session was a closed session and care was taken not to publish any names of the ‘at risk’ participants, that is the reason why this Live blog rendition does not identify any specific blogger
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