Native American Languages Siletz Dee-Ni, Ashininaabemowin Facing 'Extinction'

 VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Many of the world's minority languages, some spoken by only a handful of speakers, are on the brink of extinction, and community activists and scientists are teaming to try to keep them alive.

One example is the Native American language Siletz Dee-ni, which was once spoken widely by native people in Oregon, but which now may be spoken fluently by only one man: Alfred "Bud" Lane.

"We're a small tribe on the central Oregon coast," Lane said via telephone here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Like most small groups of people, our pool of speakers has been reduced over a period of time, until the 1980s when very few speakers were left. Linguists labeled it 'moribund.'" [Q&A: Dead Languages Reveal a Lost World]

But Lane and his community decided to fight back.

From the Fracking Front: 5 Noteworthy Narratives

The U.S. Department of Energy may have recently cut its estimates for natural gas reserves from the country's shale formations by 42 percent, but the volume of news coverage that high-volume hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) -- what Time magazine called "the biggest environmental issue of 2011" -- continues to receive has not declined one bit. A lot of the latest news relates to President Barack Obama's election-year State of the Union comments touting the important role that natural gas development can play in the U.S. economy.

Whether you take the president at his word -- agree or disagree with his view or doubt his support for shale gas -- there are many other noteworthy narratives in the debate over whether "to frack or not to frack."

Here are five:

(1) Fox Arrest: A "shameful stain on this Congress"
On Feb. 1, Gasland filmmaker Josh Fox was arrested while attempting to record footage of a congressional hearing on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) investigation into groundwater contamination -- possibly caused by hydraulic fracturing -- in the town of Pavillion, Wyo. The arrest raises questions about open government and censorship. Fox, who was released later that day, was justifiably perturbed by the incident and the lack of transparency displayed in the People's House.
Also agitated by the arrest was Congressman Maurice Hinchey of New York, who continues to call for tougher standards to protect against the risks associated with the controversial natural gas drilling process. In his statement regarding Fox's arrest, Hinchey said:

This is blatant censorship and a shameful stain on this Congress. I stand by Josh's right to record this hearing. His arrest was a huge mistake.

This brouhaha may have died down somewhat but look for the issue of transparency to remain at the forefront at the federal level and in states like New York where a recent rally in the Capitol -- in which Fox participated -- called for an all-out ban of fracking.

'Gag order' in Internet snooping bill prevents Canadians from knowing whether personal information is handed to authorities

A "gag order" written into the government's proposed Internet snooping bill makes it an offence for telecommunication companies to tell customers whether their personal information has been handed over to investigators, police or government, according to one privacy lawyer.

The contentious and dense piece of legislation intends to make it easier for government and law enforcement authorities to get warrantless access to personal information of any Canadian using the Internet, under the pretence of protecting children from online predators.

The law would compel Internet service providers to hand over a person's name and home and emailing addresses to the government, RCMP, CSIS or even the Competition Bureau. But that individual has no right to know their information was tapped -- even long after an investigation has been closed.

The "gag order," as a leading privacy lawyer called it, is contained in Section 23 of Bill C-30. The paragraph is very technical and references provisions of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

"Under that law, if an individual asks about a disclosure of their information, the commercial entity -- so in this case the telecommunications companies -- can not disclose it unless the RCMP, CSIS or whoever gives express permission. It would be an offence for the company to hand over that information," said David Fraser. "That's a gag order."

Clear cutting in Gatineau Park starts Monday

The Wakefield Spring and majestic old growth white pines of Gatineau Park need your urgent help!

Residents of Wakefield are continuing to fight the extension of Highway 5 between Chelsea and Wakefield which threaten old growth pine trees and the Valley Drive (Wakefield) Spring. The cutting of trees in Gatineau Park will begin on Monday. A5X, a group who is now leading this fight, was asked to remove all decorations by noon on Thursday. We need your help to save these trees and the Wakefield Spring!

The group and supporters will return to the park on Monday at 10 a.m. when cutting is scheduled to start. Some members of the group will sit up in some of the largest white pines to block the cutting. At the beginning of January, the group set up a camp in the forest off Brown Lake Road, just south of Wakefield.

If we can delay the cutting by even just a few months, we may be able to buy more time to stop the project. The cutting has to stop in early spring so that the trees are not cut when baby birds are in nests.

Over 3,000 people depend on the spring for their drinking water needs year round, while another 2,000 people use the spring seasonally. The West Quebec Post reported that "A federal assessment [which approved the extension] acknowledged [that no one knows the exact source of all the spring water ... ] The 1986 Quebec consultation did not look at hydrology." CBC has also reported, "Transport Canada performed a preliminary assessment and determined that the project -- which would involve lopping off a nearby hilltop -- could contaminate the aquifer." It is unclear how much water some residents will get from the new wells that are to replace a communal well in the path of the construction.

Community members are not opposed to an extension in principle. However, they are demanding a better environmental assessment and an altered plan that would save the old growth trees and the Wakefield Spring.

What you can do:

* Show your support to the tree-sitters on Monday! The location of where the cutting will begin remains unknown. Please check the AX5 website or Facebook page on Sunday evening for the exact location. The protest will begin at 10 a.m. so be ready to come out and let the Quebec government know you don't want the trees to be cut!

* Contact Jean Charest's office -- A sample French and English can be viewed at: http://www.a5x.org/do-something-faites-quelque-chose.html

- Fax:418 643-3924 and/or 514 873-6769
- Email via the website: www.premier-ministre.gouv.qc.ca/premier-ministre/joindre-pm/courriel.asp
- Tel: 418 643-5321 or 514 873-3411


Original Article
Source: rabble.ca
Author: Emma Lui

Online Piracy: Youth Shaping Future Of Online TV, Movies, Music

CHICAGO (AP) — Young people want their music, TV and movies now — even if it means they get these things illegally.

A recent Columbia University survey found, in fact, that 70 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they had bought, copied or downloaded unauthorized music, TV shows or movies, compared with 46 percent of all adults who'd done the same.
With such an entrenched attitude, what can be done about widespread online piracy?

Certainly law enforcement has gone after scofflaws like these, hitting them with fines and, in some cases, even jail time. Congress is considering controversial anti-piracy bills that would, among other things, forbid search engines from linking to foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. And there are lawsuits pitting media heavyweights against Internet firms — notably Viacom's billion-dollar litigation against YouTube.

But here's a radical notion to consider: What if young people who steal content weren't viewed as the problem?

What if they and advocates for maximum online access could persuade the entertainment industry to loosen its tight grip on its coveted, copyrighted material — quite the opposite of what the industry is trying to do right now?

"The real problem is not pirates downloading illegally, but a failure to innovate on the part of the content providers," says Steven Budd, a law student at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Like it or not, that's how a lot of people of his generation view the situation. And some experts think they're gaining clout, as they insist on easy access to music and other content while the Internet world loudly protests anti-piracy legislation that it says unfairly puts the responsibility of policing piracy sites on search engines and other sites.

Eve Ensler Unveils "One Billion Rising"

It hasn't exactly been a stellar start to 2012 for American women. Rick Santorum's theory that birth control is "harmful to women" would have Margaret Sanger spinning in her grave. Then there was Fox pundit Liz Trotta's question to those who have been raped in the military, "What did you expect?" The landscape has appeared dismally pre-1970.

The bright spot was the immediate and visceral reaction from women on the Susan G. Komen vs. Planned Parenthood imbroglio. It showed that social media is very much a force for organizing -- a point overlooked by Komen founder Nancy Brinker when she haughtily dismissed pushback as "Internet chatter."

Grasping the power of social media -- along with the need to decisively move forward -- playwright, activist, and feminist Eve Ensler has revitalized the terrain with her announcement on February 14 outlining the launch of the ONE BILLION WOMEN initiative. The yearlong action will culminate on February 14th, 2013, the fifteenth anniversary of V-Day. The goal is to have one billion women and men "dancing, striking, rising" across borders to demonstrate their demand to end the global violence against women.

Why one billion? The number is based on a computation from the United Nations statistic that one out of three women on earth will be beaten or raped in their lifetime.

On Valentine's Day, Ensler talked with reporters by telephone to present her plans for One Billion Rising, and to field questions. Just off a plane from Australia, she joked about being able to celebrate V-Day in two time zones.

One Billion Rising

It's 14 years since we started V-Day. We made a determination that we were going to end violence against women and girls. It was an audacious and almost absurd idea, but we committed to it. We believed we could change human consciousness and make the world a place where women were safe, free, equal, with agency over their bodies and futures. This determination fueled our work with urgency, possibility and wild creativity. It was not about magic (although uttering and hearing the word "vagina" has brought inexplicable transformations and occurrences). The work was practical and painstaking. Thousands of activists volunteered their time and talent and energy year after year. They put on theater that broke taboos, got some arrested, others censored, that raised money and attention. They did this at colleges, in churches, in Parliaments, in offices, in factories, in community centers. They did it in Ithaca and Islamabad, Manila and Manchester. In 140 countries. They did it in solidarity and collaboration with thousands of awe-inspiring local groups and leaders whose daily work was on the front lines in community shelters and hotlines, fighting for laws and policies, advocating and healing.

The work was about brave women survivors breaking their silence, telling their stores, risking their lives and helping others to do the same. It was about holding perpetrators accountable and ending impunity and speaking back to governments and international elites. It was about calling out racism and colonialism. It was about developing trust and partnerships with male allies. It was about putting the issue of violence against women smack in the center of the conversation, culture and media. It was about turning shame to strength and pain to power. It has been an extraordinary 14 years. There have been many victories.

Hundreds of thousands march against labour reforms in Spain

Hundreds of thousands of protesters were marching throughout Spain on Sunday in the first large-scale show of anger over new labour reforms that make it easier for companies to fire workers and pull out of collective bargaining agreements.

The country's main trade unions organized marches in 57 cities, beginning midmorning in Cordoba in the south and expected to end with evening marches in Toledo and Valencia, with a very large demonstration planned in Madrid from midday.

Union organizers said around a million people had marched by mid-afternoon, but official figures were not released.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government passed the package of reforms nine days ago in an effort to shake up a labour market seen as one of Europe most rigid and to encourage hiring in a country battling the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone, at nearly 23 per cent. Mr. Rajoy was overheard saying that the reform will “cost me a general strike.”

“If we want Spain to grow and create employment, we had to do what we've done,” Mr. Rajoy said at his Popular Party's annual congress in southwestern Seville on Sunday.

The government's sweeping changes allow Spanish companies facing dwindling revenues to pull out of collective bargaining agreements and have greater flexibility to adjust employees' schedules, workplace tasks and wages, as well as making it easier and less costly to fire workers.

“If the government doesn't rectify this, we will continue with an ever-growing mobilization,” said General Workers Union spokesman Candido Mendez.

Original Article
Source: Globe
Author: Harold Heckle 

Pro-Palestinian remark cut from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s UN address

OTTAWA — A Canadian expression of goodwill toward the Palestinian people was left on the cutting-room floor when Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird addressed the United Nations General Assembly last fall.

Baird rejected early departmental drafts of his maiden address to the UN that said Canada is a “leading supporter” of the Palestinian people and outlined major spending that backed that assertion, The Canadian Press has learned.

Baird ended up delivering a much tougher address than envisioned by his speech writers, one that unequivocally emphasized Canada’s support for Israel — a position for which he makes no apologies and which has generated much criticism of the Harper Conservatives.

Copies of the draft texts of the speech, obtained under the Access to Information Act, show Baird used a radically reworked text when he represented Canada for the first time at the General Assembly on Sept. 26, 2011.

In his address, Baird drew a parallel with pre-Second World War appeasers of Nazi Germany, saying: “Canada will not accept or stay silent while the Jewish state is attacked for defending its territory and its citizens. The Second World War taught us all the tragic price of ‘going along’ just to ‘get along.’

America's Youth Uprising

The uprising of February 2011 made a single word, “Wisconsin,” not just the name of a state but the reference point for a renewal of labor militancy, mass protest and radical politics. But it did something else. It signaled that a new generation of young Americans would not just reject the lie of austerity. They would lead a fight-back that has extended from the Capitol in Madison to Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan and across the United States.

A remarkable transition has happened since Wisconsinites occupied their streets and their Capitol. Progressives have moved from despair to hope. Not to victory, but to a sense of possibility. That is the radical progress that students, young workers, rockers and rappers demanded from a political process too prone to cynicism and surrender—and it is the radical change they have made. To understand how radical, consider where things began.

Governor Scott Walker, a Republican narrowly elected in the GOP sweep of 2010, proposed just weeks after taking office to strip teachers and other public sector workers of the collective bargaining rights and union representation that provide the last thin layers of protection in an era of globalization, privatization, downsizing and deep cuts. The governor and his party had the upper hand, with control of both houses of the state legislature, a dysfunctional Democratic opposition, weakened unions, a pliant press and a right-wing machine funded by billionaires like Charles and David Koch.