Understanding cheap oil

On November 28, following the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) meeting, oil proceeded to plunge over 10 percent. At the meeting, OPEC decided not to cut production, in order to match demand, but continue to overproduce and drive the price lower. OPEC by its very nature is a cartel, a group of companies conglomerating their vast resources and market shares to make output decisions that affect the market as a whole. A cartel may not have full influence over the price of a good or commodity but can greatly influence its general price level in order to serve the interests of the group. OPEC is made up of many diverse countries, ranging from Iran and Saudi Arabia to Venezuela and the UAE. These countries encompass many geographic, economic, and cultural differences, but are driven to cooperate for their economy’s major export, oil.
Share this
Share

On November 28,  following the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) meeting, oil proceeded to plunge over 10 percent. At the meeting, OPEC decided not to cut production, in order to match demand, but continue to overproduce and drive the price lower. OPEC by its very nature is a cartel, a group of companies conglomerating their vast resources and market shares to make output decisions that affect the market as a whole. A cartel may not have full influence over the price of a good or commodity but can greatly influence its general price level in order to serve the interests of the group. OPEC is made up of many diverse countries, ranging from Iran and Saudi Arabia to Venezuela and the UAE. These countries encompass many geographic, economic, and cultural differences, but are driven to cooperate for their economy’s major export, oil.

Oil is an essential commodity for every nation on the planet. With major changes in price, its effects are sure to be felt. In the past six months oil has fallen from over $100 per barrel to $61 per barrel. This sudden drop is the culmination of several things, a strong US Dollar, geopolitical tensions, increased non-OPEC production, and OPEC’s reaction to increased production. By assessing these four factors, one can comprehend why oil has fallen and just how low it might go from here.

The US Dollar has been on a bull run since July. As the value of the dollar increases, the price of oil measured in US dollars will decrease, as long as the value of oil does not appreciate more than that of the dollar. This was part of the reason why the price of oil has been gradually falling since this past July.

Geo-Political tensions are also a reason for falling prices. The US relationships with both the Saudi’s and the Russians are key when examining the political effects on economies. US relations with Saudi Arabia have become strained, which is an entire topic in itself, and relations with Russia have become tense as a result of political upheaval in the Ukraine. Oil can be wielded as a weapon and political tool against Russia. Oil and gas exports make up 68% of the country’s total exports. So by slicing oil prices, Russia’s oil and refining companies, as well as their economy, are hit hard.

A major factor in determining global oil supply is the production from non OPEC members. The amount of barrels produced per day by non OPEC members has been growing steadily since 2000. Most of this growth can be attributed to the United States, and its surge in production. This increased oil drilling has come from new startups in the North Dakota oil boom and from offshore drilling. This increased supply is not being exported but is instead used by consumers in the US. This cuts the global demand for oil and makes business less profitable for other oil-producing countries. The domestic oil boom in the US can be attributed to the high price of oil from foreign sources. This made it profitable to bear the high start-up costs of more oil wells in the US. But as the supply on the market increased and the demand began to decrease, the US, and OPEC have historically called on Saudi Arabia to slow its production in order to keep the global price high. This is at the expense of Saudis and consumers abroad but to the benefit of other oil-producing countries.

This is where the reaction by Saudi Arabia and OPEC have had so much to do with the low price of oil. The burden of an artificially high price of oil was placed squarely on the backs of the Saudis, and they found it in their best interests to dump off that burden, even if it meant plummeting prices. Since Saudi Arabia is a major oil producer and part of an oligopoly, it has a large part in the setting of the international price of oil. If they were able support high global oil prices, they can easily do just the opposite and drag them down. This strategic move shifts the burden from themselves, to new oil producers that caused the increase in supply the first place, this being the US producers. These new producers were created because of high oil prices, and still have enormous start-up costs that need to be paid off. By being critically dependent on high oil prices, US producers have nowhere to turn in this low-priced market. They can’t export the oil from the US, it’s against the law, so they either cut production like the Saudis once did or suffer the devastating consequence of cheap oil on their businesses. One can see these effects in the sector of energy stocks, which have seen very large declines in the past couple of months.

This move is considered strategic by the Saudis because it directly targets US producers but attempts to not injure its engineers. OPEC nations incur cheaper costs to produce oil because their industry has already been established and the cost of labor is cheaper. This allows these countries to sell oil down to below what US producers can and still manage to turn a profit. A price drastically low, say $40, as some analysts have poorly estimated, would gouge Saudi Arabia’s economy. OPEC and Saudi Arabia can carry out a pinpoint attack on the excess US producers by directly sustaining a moderately low price of oil. It is in the interest of OPEC to allow the price to reach this low point where it hurts US producers, but doesn’t simultaneously destroy its own countries’ exports. An extreme price of $40 per barrel would be nonsensical for OPEC members as it is not sustainable and would put them out of business in the long run. It’s a huge balancing act for OPEC. Fortunately, this magic oil price is calculable. Analysts, who have taken the above factors into calculation and applied the costs of oil production in specific nations, have found that the sweet spot is right around $60 per barrel. The hope for the Saudis and OPEC is that this price drop will force US producers to cut production and restore the global price back to a higher level.

Analysis by Andrew Gehrig

 

Shell rig operator guilty of environmental and health & safety violations

Shell rig operator guilty of environmental and health & safety violations 
Share this
Share

The operator of Shell Oil Corporation’s two Arctic drilling rigs, deployed in Alaska in 2012, has pleaded guilty to eight felony charges for environmental and health and safety violations during its operation of the rigs. Noble Drilling has agreed to pay $12.2 million dollars in fines and community service payments.

According to the judgement by the US Department of Justice, the vessels Noble Discover and Kulluk were involved in operations that contravened federal law thereby committing a series of environmental and maritime offences. These included “knowingly failing to maintain an accurate Oil Record Book and an accurate International Oil Pollution Prevention certificate,” “knowingly failing to maintain a ballast water record book” and knowingly and willfully failing to notify the U.S. Coast Guard of hazardous conditions aboard the drill ship Noble Discoverer.”

Greenpeace has responded to the news by pointing out that this isn’t the first time the global oil corporation has violated the regulations. In April 2014, the US Coast Guard accused Shell of ignoring safety warnings and moving one of its drilling ships in the Arctic, partly in a bid to evade paying tax. The allegation by the Coast Guard was included in its official report investigating why the Kulluck ran aground in December 2012. The most significant factor, said the report, which has been published by the US Department of Homeland Security, was the “inadequate assessment and management of risks associated with a complex vessel movement during the winter in the unique and challenging operating environment of Alaska.”

“Shell has proven time and again it can’t be trusted to manage its contractors safely” said Greenpeace Arctic campaigner Ian Duff. “That Shell engaged Noble Drilling, a company now guilty of eight felonies, is the clearest indicator yet. Letting Shell back into such a precious and risky environment as the Arctic would be sheer madness, yet that’s what Shell wants to do next summer. Surely now President Obama has to think twice about approving Shell’s next venture in the Arctic, which the government’s own scientists say has a 75 percent chance of causing a large spill.”

Conducting operations in these waters at this time of year involves extreme risks from giant floating icebergs and stormy seas. Furthermore, the Arctic region’s remoteness and extreme climate together with dynamic sea ice exacerbate the risks and consequences of oil spills and complicates cleanup operations in the event of a disaster. According to another report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, oil spill contingency plans generally underestimate the probability and consequence of catastrophic blowouts, particularly with regard to drilling in the Arctic Ocean. An oil well blowout in this region could devastate an ecosystem that is already under stress and cleanup technologies and systems are, as yet, unproven in the Arctic Ocean environment.

Despite these concerns, the company has pressed ahead with plans to conduct exploratory operations in the Arctic in 2015.

One senior US politician has recommended that Shell be punished for its ‘reckless’ behaviour.

A Shell spokesman said the company was still reviewing the report but had already implemented lessons learned from an internal review of its 2012 operations.

By Robin Whitlock

Canadian government tables bill to stem “geographic price discrimination” between the US and Canada with “name and shame” law

Canadian government tables bill to stem "geographic price discrimination" between the US and Canada with "name and shame" law
Share this
Share

Canadians have long paid higher prices for goods than they would south of the border, but now the Canadian government is proposing a new “name and shame” law in order to stem unfair “country pricing.” The federal government wants to give new powers to the Competition Bureau to enable it to investigate the price differences for products sold in Canada and the United States and expose companies who take advantage of Canadian consumers by charging them unfair prices.

“This legislation will not set or regulate prices in Canada,” Industry Minister James Moore said told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.

Instead, the new act–called the Price Transparency Act–which was also tabled Tuesday, will “name and shame” manufacturers and distributors who set prices higher in Canada than the U.S. for the same goods, Moore said.

“It’s called geographic price discrimination. A more blunt way of putting it is to call it … price gouging of Canadian consumers because of where Canadians live.”

Moore announced the filing of the bill in a children’s toy store in Etobicoke, Ontario. He took the opportunity to justify the legislation by what he called “geographic price discrimination.”

He said Canadians pay nearly 15 percent more for products than they would for the same products in the United States.

The minister gave four examples of price differentials to illustrate his point.

A 1.5 liter bottle of shampoo retails for about 30 percent more in Canada than in the U.S.; a 46-inch LED TV is around 13 percent more expensive in Canada; you pay almost double in Canada for an 81 milligrams bottle of aspirin; sports shoes, also, are much cheaper in Buffalo, New York than at the Eaton Center in Toronto. 

The minister said that he recognized that some differences in prices were justified.

It was clear that the prices of certain products sold in Canada were based on legitimate operating costs in force on this side of the border, Moore said. These factors contribute in part to price differences, but they are not the only considerations to be taken into account.

Diane Brisebois, head of the Retail Council of Canada, commented on the proposed bill.

“I can assure you, for the thousands of Canadian retailers we represent . . . [the proposed legislation] is a step in the right direction,” said Brisebois.

However, some observers are sceptical that the bill can make much of an impact.

“No retailer in their right mind would want to have a higher price than their competitor. It’s a highly competitive landscape out there,” said Duncan Fulton, senior vice-president at Canadian Tire Corp.

Tires are among the items most frequently cited as overpriced in Canada.

Fulton said that around 10 percent of the difference in prices could be accounted for by factoring in tariffs, duties, labour prices, and shipping costs.

BMO Capital Markets chief economist Doug Porter was also skeptical in his comments, who commented that the strength of the Canadian dollar would play more of a role in U.S.-Canada buying power than “name and shame” policies.

“With the currency back to 87 cents, a very quick calculation finds that prices are, on balance, about the same between the two countries when you take the exchange rate into account,” said Porter.

By Sid Douglas

Spain at the vanguard of digital currencies

Spain is at the vanguard of digital currencies
Share this
Share

Somewhere in an Anarchist occupied fortress in Barcelona , resides Amir Taaki, a world renowned Cypto-Anachist named one of Forbes top 30 tech entrepreneurs under the age of 30.

Amir Taaki hides out with a merry band of progressive software developers that work under the name Unsystem, developing a project that is both politically incendiary and a potential economic and financial game changer on a global scale.

The project, entitled Darkwallet, is an off the grid money transfer software which uses the Cypto-currency BitCoin to transfer funds anywhere in the world obscuring the user´s identity and circumnavigating central established banking systems.

Darkwallet has the ability to cross frontiers, such as where investment and financial transactions between countries such as the US and Iran are prohibited due to political sanctions.

Amir Taaki and his Unsystem group have found a way to traverse these sanctions by cutting out the middle man, allowing a free market flow of funds. The software works like an anarchist version of Western Union without the exchange rates. The recent release of the software has got governments scrambling to impose regulations and legislation.

However, Darkwallet is a way to move these funds in a completely surreptitious way by grouping together the transactions to a point where they become completely untraceable using a concept called “trustless mixing.”

The advent of digital Crypto-currencies has been a steady and controversial rise which has gradually gained a footfall hold in the foundations of the world economic infrastructure. Amir Taaki from his base in Barcelona has been a global pioneer in establishing the digital currency as a potential and more stable alternative to the current monetary situation.

BitCoin came into existence in 2008, known officially as a Cypto-currency. The word Cypto is based on the cryptography branch of mathematics and signifies the process of writing and programming electronic codes.

BitCoin was created by a mysterious software developer based in Japan that goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto who had the idea of creating a de-centralized digital currency that does not rely on market fluctuations; with an infrastructure that works using peer to peer technology. In other words instead of using a centrally established computer system, Bitcoin uses individual computers so that every BitCoin holder provides a framework for its existence. To be able approve and solve the complex mathematical transactions needed to support a digital currency, The currency uses a mining process which at first used individual computer processors but with the growth of BitCoin it has since evolved into complex sophisticated operation, where businesses have grown up using entire farms of computer chips to process the transactions.

The movements of BitCoins are electronically recorded in a public ledger known as the Block-Chain which makes sure the transactions are legitimate and the currency cannot be double spent. All transactions are signed off digitally using a private key which belongs to the BitCoin owner which is stored in their virtual wallet on their computer hard drive or smart phone.

BitCoin’s rise to fame has been a controversial one; from the The Silk Road, an internet eBay style market place that allowed people to clandestinely buy and sell drugs and arms via secure web browsers; from here it gained infamy as a quick and easy money laundering tool.

The Silk Road website at its height had an annual turnover of 20 Million dollars. The users would simply purchase the BitCoins in a perfectly legal way via exchange websites. The Silk Road creators have since found themselves on drug trafficking and murder for hire charges, since the closure of the online market place website a multitude of similar sites have sprung up in its place. One such is OpenBazaar which was created by Amir Taaki and his Unsystem team, which does not use centralized servers and therefore cannot be traced and shut down by the authorities. CytoCoin News, an online independent BitCoin news source called it “The unstoppable evolution of the Dark Net.”

Referring to the web space where these pages exist, they need private secure web browsers to access. Only 0.03% of the internet is openly searchable. The rest belongs to the Dark Net.

Despite its infamous roots, BitCoin continues to grow exponentially. In Barcelona a local startup company named BTC Point founded by Borja Rossell and Albert Caus has created one of the world´s first two-way BitCoin cash machines. Which means users can buy and sell BitCoin with local currency.

The ATM works in a way so that people can buy and sell BitCoin with a limit of 2,500 Euros or depending on the amount in amount currently in the machine.

Their first installation was a prototype cash machine installed in Madrid in April 2014 which proved a success and since then the company has gone from strength to strength, Producing ATMs which have been shipped from Washington DC to Equatorial Guinea.

Borja tells me “BitCoin is still in its early stages, the one great strength it has is that it cannot stopped because there is no way lock it down, people will have no choice to but to accept it.”

Borja and Albert are currently pursuing an idea which is already implemented in Madrid called Boulevard BitCoin.

Boulevard Bitcoin is an enterprise to get businesses to accept digital payments. Calle Serrano in center of Madrid has been the starting point of this initiative, more business have increasingly jumped on the bandwagon with more than 20 businesses now accepting payments.

Just recently the Spanish Bank Bankinter invested in a Spanish based Startup Company named Coinffeine that provides an online BitCoin exchange for people wishing to buy and sell their BitCoins, the platform acting as a negotiator for the exchange.

The promotion of BitCoin as an alternative currency has been increasingly at the forefront of global business.

The former executive chairman of Bitcoin Jon Matonis submitted an open letter to Barcelona Mobile world congress in 2014 describing Bitcoin as “Money without Government.”

He went on to say, “BitCoin is a survivable Digital Scarcity. In just five short years, BitCoin has unequivocally demonstrated that we don´t need kings to coin our money and we don´t need central banks issuing debt-based paper notes and deciding what our money should be. Money is anything we collectively determine it to be.”

Banks by large have yet to fully acknowledge the potential of Crypto- currencies while BitCoin still remains the dominant market leader, it is not alone.

BitCoin still reels from the stigma of money laundering and drug association. Some sceptics have referred to it as little more than a pyramid scheme or have pointed out the fact that there are Orwellian connotations to a digital currency. However you see it, BitCoin is a potential stake holder as a future currency and could bring stability to an unfavorable economic climate.

By Anthony Bain

Ukraine begins lawsuit against Russia for terrorism

Share this
Share

Ukraine has begun legal proceedings against Russia for alleged violations of the United Nations convention on terrorism, according to the Ukrainian government.

“National security is protected not only with weapons, but also in the courts,“ said Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk Tuesday.

“We have begun a lawsuit against the Russian Federation in the International Court of Justice concerning the violation by Russia of the [UN] Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism. Russia is financing terrorism, and it must answer for this,” said Yatsenyuk.

The value of the damages being sought by Ukraine was not stated.

“Ukraine has filed a number of lawsuits to the Russian Federation to compensate for losses caused by the Russian military aggression against Ukraine,” continued the prime minister.

Read more: Ukraine Suing Russia for 1 Trillion for Crimea

The lawsuit is the third filed by Ukraine against Russia since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine early this year.

”The two lawsuits that are currently before the Court on the Russian Federation will continue to be considered and effectively prosecuted by Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk said.

Read more: Russia is Suing Ukraine for $1 Billion for War Damages

Two preexisting claims were filed with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) already this year. One regards the Russian invasion and illegal annexation of Crimea that began in late February and Russia’s military action in Eastern Ukraine since that time. Another claim regards an alleged abduction by Russia of three groups of Ukrainian orphans and other children and some adults.

The ECHR invited Russia to answer these claims last month.

According to the UN, which conducted an investigation into human rights violations in Eastern Ukraine earlier this year, Russian and pro-Russian forces as well as Ukrainian government forces were guilty of a wide range of abuses against human rights.

Yatsenyuk also spoke of two suits that had been filed with Stockholm for arbitration on alleged crimes committed by Russian gas giant Gazprom.

“Much of it has been completed,” said Yatsenyuk. “The lawsuit against Russia’s Gazprom on gas price revision and the action for a review of the transit agreement will soon be complete… There are two options as usual–deal without trial or [the Stockholm Arbitration Court will] make a final decision on Gazprom.”

By James Haleavy

 

146,000 birds killed in BC to stop the spread of highly virulent strain of bird flu

146,000 birds killed in BC to stop the spread of highly virulent strain of bird flu
Share this
Share

A vast security perimeter around southern British Columbia has been established by Canadian health authorities, in which the slaughter of 146,000 birds at five affected farms has almost been completed. The region is the most recent to be affected by a highly virulent strain of H5N2 avian influenza.

“Those who have put some restrictions on all of Canada will start to look at reducing that to only British Columbia or the Fraser Valley,” Dr Harpreet Kochhar, Canada’s chief veterinary officer, told reporters Monday, referring to the seven countries that have so far imposed trade restrictions on poultry nationally.

The countries include The US, Mexico, South Africa and several Asian countries.

The security zone is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the west, Highway 16 on the north, the Alberta border on the east and the US border on the south. The zone encompasses approximately the southern half of the province.

“The primary control zone is divided into three disease control zones: infected, restricted and security,” the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) stated in the announcement of the ban. “The three zones represent relative levels of risk and movement restrictions vary accordingly. Most of the restrictions apply to the infected and restricted zones because of the greater potential that the virus can spread.”

Because of this highly pathogenic strain–which has a high risk of rapid transmission between animals–and given the large number of breeding poultry holdings in southern British Columbia, the primary control area extends beyond the currently affected areas, which are confined to a much smaller region in the Fraser Valley, according to Kochhar.

The current H5N2 virus is a subtype known to affect wild and domestic birds, and because of its high mortality rate is due to its high pathogenicity, according to CFIA. However, the H5N2 bird flu is very poorly transmissible to humans, unlike the H5N1 virus.

The nearly 150,000 birds will be euthanized and composed, and farmers will be compensated within six to 10 weeks at the full market value of the poultry.

By James Haleavy

Vigilante justice spikes in Chile

Vigilante justice spikes in Chile
Share this
Share


Chile has been experiencing a nationwide surge in what has commonly become referred to as “detención ciudadana” or “civilian detention,” otherwise characterized as vigilante justice.

The phenomenon has been captured on personal and security cameras throughout the country and uploaded to YouTube and other social media in growing numbers. These events span the gamut between pickpockets being caught in the act to groups of citizens disarming assailants and subduing them until authorities arrive. The result is often violent and disturbing for those involved and onlookers alike.

In the most recent and possibly the most highly publicized case, a young, knife-wielding man attempted to rob an elderly woman but was quickly Vigilante justice spikes in Chilebeaten, stripped of his clothing, and cling-wrapped to a metal pole. On Nov. 28 Valentino Abeyta Barrera, 32, found himself on the receiving end of a public flogging and shaming that recalled the stocks and pillory of old. After 20 minutes of sweaty humiliation inside his plastic cocoon, Barrera was released by police officers and walked away without charges being filed because the alleged victim had not made a complaint.

In what may be a symptom of the increasing numbers of civilian detentions, a police spokesperson recently stated, “Unless the man who was tied to the lamppost or his alleged victim want to file a complaint, there’s not much we can do.”

Vigilante justice spikes in Chile
Victor Garrido Inzulza

“It’s a combination of the lack of faith in the criminal justice system in Chile and the fear of reprisals that keep many crimes from going unpunished,” said Victor Garrido Inzulza, a 31 year-old from San Pedro de la Paz. “The judicial system meters out what amounts to a slap on the wrist and victims are genuinely scared that these criminals will circle back when they find out the name of the person who files the complaint. The criminals fear nothing in Chile and are usually back on the streets the same day even if a victim is brave enough to file a complaint.”

Until recently, that is. With the rise in civilian detentions, would-be robbers and thieves have far less certainty guiding the fate of their actions. These “detentions” are often marked with brutal violence coupled with public humiliation, flipping roles between victims and victimizers. Many alleged criminals find themselves stripped of their clothing, hog-tied, beaten, slapped, spanked, and verbally abused by a group of people recording video and taking pictures of the entire incident. The nature of the internet makes this public embarrassment rife with lifelong consequences.

Vigilante justice spikes in Chile
“Any person who has been caught committing a crime, there will be community justice because there is no security provided by the authorities. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.”

The group dimension adds another element to these events. Once captured, escaping crowd sourced justice is like an insect trying to free itself from the web of a spider. Almost without exception, the alleged criminal is pinned to the ground by a group of civilians until police arrive, and then they are handed over to the authorities. This new form of vigilante justice in Chile seems to have circumvented two perceived impediments to curbing Chilean street crime: lack of punishment and fear of reprisals. After receiving a thrashing, usually accompanied by some form of public embarrassment immortalized by uploaded images, the alleged criminal is hard-pressed to exact revenge against an anonymous crowd of participants and onlookers.

Many argue this phenomenon is a type of crime deterrent. However, any hope of remaining innocent until proven guilty is significantly reduced by the long memory of the internet and emotional response of the mob mentality–a problem easily over-looked in country where street criminals have, until recently, felt safe and emboldened.

“I feel safer in public now,” said Inzulza, referring to growing numbers of civilian detentions, “because I know people are going to help me if something happens to me. At the same time, I don’t think Chile is safer, in general, because the same criminals are still free and will look for more private settings for their illegal activities.”

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ8VDnD6ZXo”][su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KTpIHL6FgE”]VIDEO[/su_youtube]

See more: Selected Detención Ciudadana YouTube videos

Analysis by Jay Verkamp

China promises end of organ harvesting from prisoners by Jan. 1

Share this
Share

China has announced that it will cease the controversial practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners. China, which harvests over half of all its donated organs from executed prisoners, has set a new deadline for the policy change–the beginning of 2015.

Chinese officials have promised to end organ harvesting from prisoners by Jan.1. China “will completely stop” using the organs of executed inmates, according to the head of the Chinese Committee of Organ Donation, Huang Jiefu, as reported by the Southern Metropolis Daily.

Ninety percent of Chinese organ transplants from deceased donors come from those executed in prison. And China consistently has the highest numbers for executions worldwide. China executed approximately six times as many people last year as the next highest ranking country–Iran–and about three times as many people as the rest of the world combined. The numbers for Chinese executions are not exact, however, because China has made executions state secrets legally, and rights group Amnesty International, which keeps track of executions globally, was forced to abandon efforts to record executions in the Asian nation.

Read more: China Executed Three times More People Last Year Than Rest of the World Combined – Report

Over half of all organs used in transplants in China come from executed donors.

China promises end of organ harvesting from prisoners by Jan. 1Human rights advocates claim that at least 65,000 such donors were executed for political crimes between the late 1990s when the practice began and the current day. These include Uighur activists, Tibetan monks and protesters, and primarily Falun Gong adherents.

Human rights groups have expressed concern that the organs have been harvested without prior consent or after pressuring prisoners to sign a release, and that a black market for human organs exists in China.

Due to Chinese beliefs about death, China experiences a chronic organ shortage. Chinese tradition has it that a corpse must be buried without mutilation, and very few Chinese accept the removal of organs when someone in their family dies. Of each million Chinese, only 0.6 percent agree to donate an organ.

Around 10,000 organ transplants are completed in China annually–well below the 300,000 transplants required. The costs are significant. A liver transplant, for example, may cost around $81,000 and a kidney transplant around $40,000.

The Jan. 1 deadline is not the first such promise China has made. China previously promised to end the practice by last November. There have also been concerns expressed with regard to loopholes in the Jan. 1 ban.

By James Haleavy

Maldives declares state of emergency as disaster deprives entire population of water

Share this
Share

The state of emergency has been declared in Male, the capital of the Maldives island chain, much of which has been deprived of drinking water since Dec. 5 when the city’s sole water and sewage treatment plant burned.

“I think the situation is more serious than the government admits” one resident, who requested anonymity, told local news agency Minivan News.

The Maldivian government announced Monday that there could have been no fall back plan for such a disaster.

Male is one of the most densely populated places in the world at a rate of 130,000 people in an area about two kilometers square. Faced with the shortage, people attacked shops selling mineral water, according to local media reports.

According to Maldivian Minister at the President’s Office Mohamed Hussain Shareef, Maldives 130,000 Male residents of Malé consume around 14,000 metric tonnes of water a day. The water treatment plant, when fully functional, was able to produce 20,000 tonnes, Shareef said.

The Maldives has appealed for aid from India, Sri Lanka, the US and China.

Indian authorities transported water in by air this Friday, and dispatched a Navy ship with two water purification systems on board, capable of producing 20 tons of drinking water per day.

Water was also provided by aircraft from neighboring Sri Lanka, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives, as reported by the news website Minivan News. An American ship is en route with drinking water, and China has promised to help, the ministry said.

A Chinese vessel is carrying 960 tonnes of fresh water is en route, according to the Chinese Defense Ministry. China’s Foreign Ministry has also stated that 20 tonnes of bottled water was sent on two civilian flights Saturday.

For their part, Maldivian authorities tried to revive the activity of the plant, but according to Minivan News, repairs could take up to five days.

“We had water on tap for about an hour this morning, and it is hardly enough,” added Minivan’s source. Water was distributed free to residents by security forces, but only those able to show a Maldives ID card could benefit, thus excluding foreign workers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan or Sri Lanka. This limitation was denounced local political activists.

By James Haleavy

Is central bank stimulus actually good for you?

Share this
Share

It was announced in November that the Japanese Central Bank would ramp up its Quantitative Easing Program (QE), bringing its yearly expansion of the money supply up to $682 billion. The end of the United States’ QE program was very well documented, as was the substantial rise in asset prices which were a result of the program. The European Central Bank also is leaning towards a similar policy. QE was touted as a huge innovative success for the Federal Reserve, even though many of its effects are still left unmeasured.

Quantitative Easing is an indirect expansion of the money supply by the central bank. The bank’s objective is to lower interest rates, increase asset prices, stimulate demand and boost economic growth. By the very nature of expanding the money supply, QE can do all but one of those things rather easily. Buying up bonds and other securities immediately decreases interest rates, the effects of the government spending spill over into other markets and when exacerbated by the decline in value of the currency that all assets are measured against, asset prices immediately soar. This jump in asset prices theoretically creates the wealth effect, which shows up as increased spending by those whose assets recently appreciated.

Conversely, the boost to economic growth is under debate. Some even suggest that it undermines economic growth for the overall economy and most citizens. As an intrinsic result of the QE, the purchasing power of the currency decreases dramatically. Therefore prices rise accordingly. In the United States for example, when using the CPI to calculate inflation, one would see that since 2007, average prices have risen 15%. This 15% figure excludes food and energy, which happen to be a very large part of a family’s budget. So the real amount of inflation is much higher. Wages have remained relatively stagnant, and many say that the average standard of living has gone down. This is the undermining of purchasing power while providing the illusion of economic growth. Inflation can lead to false economic growth, because rising prices lead to larger dollar figure corporate earnings and temporarily better economic data but when it’s all said and done, the structural problem may remain the same.
Even more alarming are the implications for Non-US residents. One would assume that money printing in the United States would not affect people abroad, but that may be as much of a fallacy as guaranteed economic growth from QE.

People all around the world have had to face the effects of a cheaper dollar. Though the dollar has been on a bull run over the past months, due to other countries cheapening their currencies, it has lost more than half its value since the 1980s. Since the US dollar is the primary trading and reserve currency, changes in its valuation has direct impacts to foreign economies. Rises in the prices of food, and other basic necessities have led some countries into uncertain times and even in extreme cases, revolutions. As the issuer of the world reserve currency the United States must keep the interests of other countries at hand when deciding whether to debase the currency. In 2012 Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff affirmed that the world is engulfed in a currency war that “cannibalizes emerging markets”, and the poor.

Analysis by Andrew Gehrig

DRC: 36 dead overnight, slain with machetes and axes

DRC: 36 dead overnight, slain with machetes and axes
Share this
Share

Overnight in the Democratic Republic of Congo 36 people were killed with machetes and axes, despite the efforts of the national army and UN peacekeepers to halt the series of massacres attributed to Ugandan rebels. Between Saturday to Sunday in the eastern DRC, deaths attributed to the rebel militants since October rose to over 250.

The attacks took place on the edge of the city Oicha, about 30 kilometers northeast of Beni city in the province of North Kivu and in two nearby villages, Manzanzaba and Mulobiya. The assailants killed men, women and children.

The attackers killed 36 people, injured two, and kidnapped two, according to Jean-Baptiste Kamabu, head of the city Oicha and Colonel Célestin DRC: 36 dead overnight, slain with machetes and axesNgeleka, spokesman for the DRC’s Congolese operation against the armed groups in the north of North Kivu. 

According to Kamabu, the attack took place between 20:00 and 01:00 local time, while the area is under night curfew.

The DRC’s Sokola 1 operation has reportedly dislodged the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) from most of their strongholds in the foothills of the over 5,000 meter tall Ruwenzori massif on the border between Congo and Uganda, but the mission stopped abruptly in late August with the death of the general in command. Sokola 1 was then relaunched in November after the massacres began in Beni territory.

None of the massacres committed since October in the Beni region have been claimed by the militants, and although most authorities believe they are responsible, what goal the ADF has in perpetrating the killings is considered to be unclear. The DRC government, the UN and experts have have stated that they see in the killings a continuation of the killings perpetrated by Muslim rebels in the eastern DRC since 1995 and opposed to President Yoweri Museveni.

In a statement, the head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), Martin Kobler condemned the violence of the night.

“The proliferation of joint actions by MONUSCO-FARDC is of vital urgency, and I call on all partners to strengthen cooperation to enable more immediate interventions and increase preventive patrols,” Kobler said, addressing both the staff of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and the command of the military forces for MONUSCO.

A recent report by a parliamentary fact-finding mission sent to the region stated that the situation was a “crisis of confidence between the security services, the political and administrative authorities and the population.”

The ADF have not always been hostile to the local population, according to several experts, who have noted that the ADF have longstanding relationships with the locals due to years of commercial and matrimonial ties. The rebels derive their resources from trade with the locals, including various trafficking activities, especially in wood.

By Dan Jackson

Anarchist 18-year-old in Ixtapa lit on fire by comrades in act of civil disobedience [video-warning: graphic]

narchist 18-year-old in Ixtapa lit on fire by comrades in act of civil disobedience [video-warning: graphic]
Share this
Share

Agustin Gómez Pérez, 18, was lit on fire by comrades in an act of civil disobedience against the Congress of Chiapas, which, the anarchist group Frente Ricardo Flores Magon alleged, was responsible for the arrest of a comrade in May. The group is demanding the release of their comrade, one Florentino Gómez Girón, an indigenous leader who was arrested on cattle theft and robbery charges.

Demanding Florentino’s release, Perez lay motionless as his comrades doused him in flammable liquid and lit him on fire.

Perez stood up and ran burning, flailing his arms for approximately 20 seconds before being extinguished. He was taken to hospital and is being treated for third-degree burns. His situation is critical.

It was reported that the accusation against Florentino was made by Aquiles Espinosa of the political party Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) as part of a campaign to intimidate dissent in the Ixtapa region before the 2015 elections.

Members of the Ixtapa anarchist organization Frente Ricardo Flores Magon had been protesting for nearly a month in front of Congress in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez for the release of their comrade.

The group also conducted an act of civil disobedience Dec. 2 when they sewed their lips shut and performed a symbolic crucifixion.

The group has so far procured a promise from the state government that Florentino’s case would be reviewed.

After the burning of Perez, the anarchist organization stated that if Florentino was not released, three more people would be lit on fire, including two indigenous women.

(Warning: this video is extremely graphic and The Speaker does not wish you to watch this if you are sensitive to depictions of human suffering. This video may be very emotional and effecting.)

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv34A0YojmU#t=50″][su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KTpIHL6FgE”]VIDEO[/su_youtube][/su_youtube]