The Speaker News Journal

Starvation is preventable: To save one life

February 9, 2015February 9, 2015 by Aliza Baraka

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Starvation is preventable in much of the world, serving as a reminder of the Talmudic teaching, “to save one life is to save the world.” Lily is a 31-year-old woman living in a remote village in Guatemala with earthen floors and no walls. She and her two children, ages 7 and 1, are living in starvation conditions. She is among the more than 1 billion people globally who are malnourished, consuming fewer than the minimum number of essential calories.

Undernourishment causes a negative effect on health, sense of hope, productivity, and general well-being. Without sufficient food, energy is sapped and thinking is slowed, among other factors.

Lily is Maria’s biological mother. Lily was 21, unmarried, and living with a physically abusive boyfriend when Maria was born in 2005. Maria was adopted by a couple in the U.S.

Because Lily had to work as a housecleaner in order to have income, and she had no one with whom to leave the baby, she relinquished the baby for adoption. By Guatemalan law, she received no remuneration, although the baby received excellent prenatal care.

Some who have heard Lily’s story ask why she does not get a job to lift herself out of poverty. Others ask why she chooses to have children that she cannot feed.

In Guatemala, the many years of ongoing discrimination against the Mayan people by those of European descent (ladinos) has led to Mayan anxiety towards modern medical care. They suffered brutal treatment for many years. During the 36-year Guatemalan armed conflict from 1960 to 1996, government troops annihilated 440 indigenous villages.

Deep-rooted ethnic discrimination in Guatemala has fueled many atrocities. Even after the conflict ended, distrust runs high against the ladino government, and this causes Mayan women to hesitate to seek health care services at government-run facilities. Indigenous people are particularly suspicious of government-run family planning programs, which many perceive as part of a ladino “plot” to diminish the indigenous population.

There are many factors that lead to Lily’s circumstances: Lily’s spirit is crushed due to unrelenting poverty, which has led to her illnesses, currently being treated through financial assistance: Helicobacter Pylori, parasites, malnutrition, and depression.

Lily cannot read and is unable to speak the dominant language, Spanish. Her mother died when she was ten years old. She had no source for learning about pregnancy prevention. Moreover, her children are all the resources she has in the world.

To save Lily’s life, and prevent the starvation of her family will take a series of steps that have been outlined by the doctors whom she saw through medical intervention last week.

Of the five causes contributing to world hunger, at least four of them directly affect Lily: These are lack of resources to grow or buy food, historical armed conflict in the region, discrimination of the indigenous in Guatemala, and powerlessness in society.

In Guatemalan rural areas, the level of chronic malnutrition is 52 percent. The situation of children exposed to violence and sexual abuse in Guatemala is dramatic.

In the villages, there are more than 20 recognized native Mayan peoples, identified by their regions and their languages. In Guatemala, the Mayans constitute a majority of the population. There is a vast difference between the current education and health care status of the Mayans and the ladinos. Many factors play into this, including culture, history (which encompasses a degree of trust of outsiders – anyone outside of the specific Mayan group), family finances, and skills.

Indigenous girls are the most disadvantaged group in Guatemala. They lead lives characterized by chronic poverty, social isolation, limited schooling, early marriage, frequent childbearing, and cycles of violence.

Readers may think that it is the government’s responsibility to care for its people. Building the health, economic, and social resources of this large, neglected group is both a moral impera¬tive and essential for reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2015 in Guatemala. However, currently, there is very little incentive for real change in the Guatemalan government, where the majority of the power is in the hands of the few.

Globally, women’s work comprises two-thirds of working hours and women produce half of the world’s food. Yet, women earn only 10 percent of the world’s income. They own less than one percent of property globally.

When women farmers can access the resources they need, their production increases, making it less likely that their families are hungry and malnourished. When women own property and earn money from it, they may have more bargaining power at home. Economic empowerment allows women to raise healthier, better educated families. Empowerment of women allows them to become stronger leaders and to more effectively contribute financially to their families, communities and countries.

Readers may think that their contributing to one woman in such a situation may have only minimal effect. A campaign for Lily’s medical care is being maintained on the crowdsourcing site, GoFundMe. Through this source, Lily has received medical attention this past week for herself and her one-year-old daughter. The next needs for short-term assistance include food on her prescribed restricted diet, medicine, psychological care, and maxillofacial dental care.

The administrators of GoFundMe are aware that in order for Lily’s condition to change, long-term efforts must meet certain conditions: They must address the root causes, be sustainable (paying for themselves), and be implemented by the people directly and locally affected. Therefore, long-term solutions would include firsthand assessment of the situation and purchase of land so that Lily can plant seeds or have animals for food and income. This will save her life and lead to solutions, preventing her family from starvation.

Letter by Aliza Baraka

Sources:
Olivia’s Medical Care in Guatemala
Primary education for girls and literacy of women and girls in Guatemala
World Hunger Facts
Personal conversations with Dr. William Paredes, OB/GYN, Zacapa, Guatemala and Marta Diaz, Medser Alliance for Health and Well-Being (Medical Services) Guatemala
2011 UNICEF Humanitarian Action for Children
Global Poverty Info Bank
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
Las Cuatro Culturas
Photo courtesy of John Barrie – Flickr license

HSBC affiliate in Swiss Leaks misappropriated €180 billion

February 9, 2015 by Esther Hervy

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PARIS — French newspaper “Le Monde” revealed last night after a large investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that between 2005 and 2007 more than €180 billion would have transited through a private bank in Switzerland, where world leaders, including kings and celebrities, hid their savings. According to the news organization, an HSBC subsidiary would have accepted and even encouraged customers of 200 foreign countries to place their savings there.

That’s a total of over 100,000 international clients who would have been tempted to evade the control of tax authorities by transiting funds through accounts in Geneva. “The World” has access to a list of the names of the bank’s prestigious clients, and shared it with more than 50 other international media bodies, thus mobilizing some 154 journalists.

The analysis of these accounts cover a period from November 2006 to March 2007. The billions were mostly hidden behind offshore structures in Panama and the British Virgin Islands.

Among the famous customers involved in this case of possible mass international fraud are personalities from various backgrounds such as Mohamed VI, the current king of Morocco, Elle McPherson, the famous Australian top model of the 90s, actress Joan Collins, and even Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher. No exception for France — the famous hairdresser Jacques Dessange had an account in HSBC’s Swiss industry, where there would have been up to €1, 6 million between 2006 and 2007, according to the famous “listings Falciani” — named after the employee of HSBC who had stolen his employer’s client lists and details.

Nina Ricci’s heiress also appears on the list: € 18.7 million would have transited through her Swiss account.

“We recognize and assume responsibility for past failures of compliance and control procedures,” the British bank responded in a press release.

According to HSBC, the Swiss subsidiary had not been fully integrated into the group after its acquisition in 1999, and therefore the compliance levels were subsequently “significantly lower” than the norm, and “this could have led to a number of customers who may not have fully complied with their tax obligations.” The bank adds that its Swiss subsidiary had in recent years undergone a “radical transformation” and that such tax evasion practices were outdated.

Gérard Davet, a French instigator and journalist for Le Monde, spoke to BMFTV this morning. “It’s been six years that we are working on this investigation with Fabrice Lhomme, a year that we are in possession of the data, and from the beginning we said that we are facing an absolutely amazing case because of its size, over 180 billion and more than 100,000 clients, in 10’s of thousands of offshore accounts. … We have revealed a big system and we are dealing with an absolutely awesome scanda. … In 2005 there has been a European tax that was put in place and the bank itself has offered its customers to set up offshore structures to hide their money in Panama or Virgin Islands UK. … There was a whole system of HSBC account managers who went canvassing customers in France in prestigious hotels and restaurants, trying to make them believe in very interesting but totally fraudulent investments. People need to understand that 98 percent of persons who used this system are fraudsters.

“All this is only a part of what we have discovered. We have identified the bank’s employees who had opened accounts with millions of dollars in them. Even assuming that these people are paid very well, it is inconceivable that it is not money that they keep their customers. … Dozens of investigations are still in progress.”

Yann Galut, French lawyer and politician, meanwhile said, “Seek reparation from Switzerland, who can’t get away with this.”

By Esther Hervy

A chip could replace animal testing

February 7, 2015 by Esther Hervy

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Animal rights activists will welcome this news with enthusiasm: the Wyss Institute at Harvard University has developed a chip that could save the lives of millions of laboratory animals. The chip would imitate the operation of complete organs and thus predict more effectively the effects of treatment on humans.

Animal experimentation is subject to much debate on the bases of both ethics and quality. Indeed, the results are rarely transferable to humans and therefore become merely the objects of a further set of tests. These experiments often create much unnecessary suffering by animals bred or kept in laboratories.

“For every dollar spent, we are getting less and less medication on the market,” Geraldine Hamilton, scientist at the Wyss Institute, commented on the current state of animal research affairs.

With the new smart chip, it could be that this waste (financial and in terms of animal lives) becomes a memory.

About the size of a coin, the new chip is composed of the cells of different organs (kidney, stomach, liver) related by small channels acting as blood vessels. In these channels, a nutritional liquid replacing blood is propelled by small pumps, reproducing the actual flow of the heart. It is an electro-organism copying reality very closely, and can therefore be used to test various substances for how they would effect the human body.

The system is not fixed, so scientists can integrate different types of cells according to the research.

The molecule to be tested is introduced into the system as if it were introduced into a body. For now, cell samples used for the first tests belong to men and women of different ethnic groups.

This new system has not yet been used in the development of any new drugs and is still in the control stage.

The research team has been distinguished by the awarding of an Animal Safety Research Prize, which recognizes innovations offering alternatives to animal testing.

In this “win-win” approach to fighting against animal and human suffering, the two are no longer opposed –they are parallel.

By Esther Hervy

“The story of how I managed to escape death” – GBV in Ethiopia

February 7, 2015 by Eden Tadesse

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — After hearing about Hanna Lalango’s story, I immediately joined the #JusticeForHanna campaign and began raising awareness against gender-based violence. I was committed to making Addis Ababa a safer place for everyone. My only problem was that I campaigned heavily for other people’s safety, but I somehow completely forget about my own.

More than 70 percent of Ethiopian women face physical and sexual violence. A majority of this group are females between the ages of 15 and25. Rape stories in Addis Ababa usually take place in the local minibuses. From there, things usually escalate to the rapist’s house or a dark ditch somewhere.

On weekdays, I usually stay late hours at school to study or utilize the school’s resources (e.g. Wi-Fi). My daily routine is that I leave school around 7 p.m. and reach home around 7:30 .pm. – 8:00 p.m. at the latest. Generally speaking, in Addis Ababa female seniors don’t stay out past 5 pm. on a school day. After 6 p.m., every female is a potential victim of rape or molestation.

My parents and siblings have given me multiple lectures about coming home earlier. I’ve always said I would improve my behaviour, but I never did. In other words, I’m a teenage rebel who never listens to anyone but herself. I knew all about rape crimes and sexual assaults happening in Addis Ababa on a daily basis but coming home late from school, that was the last thing on my mind. It might have been pure naivety, but I believed my neighbourhood was completely safe and sound and that nothing dangerous would ever occur. I was completely wrong.

On the 13^th of November, I experienced a near-death experience.

It was a normal evening; I was outside a supermarket near my school at 7:14 p.m., standing and waiting for a minibus to take me home. When a minibus came, I got in and frantically tried to switch my phone on so I could check to see if I had any previous missed calls.

Behind me were two young adults (most probably in their early 20s), slim, light-skinned and tall. They dressed like they were unemployed, high school jocks. I’ve never seen them before in my life; they don’t me and I don’t know them. At first, they began whispering in my ear, “Hey! Do we know each other?” I pretended not to notice. Then they began pulling my hair and tugging at my school bag which was carrying all sorts of heavy and expensive electronics. I turned around and without saying a word, gave them look that told them to back off.

That didn’t stop them. To humiliate me, they began preaching loudly in the minibus saying things like, “Yeah I know this one, I remember because I dated her sister once. Her name on Facebook is Veronica. She tried to kiss me once and I quickly backed away, she has the worst smelling breath ever!?

Immediately after, a handsome young man who was sitting next to me saw that I was frustrated and decided to stand up for me. He turned back at the two young gentlemen behind us and said, “Hey guys, why don’t you grow up? Huh? She’s not interested and you’re clearly embarrassing yourselves.” After that, they didn’t say a word the whole ride.

They paid for my taxi fare…they told the driver not to let me pay. I didn’t care if they were trying to be nice, I didn’t want their money. I tried to pay for myself but the taxi driver refused. He said, “Please stop, they already paid for you.” Angrily, I plonked the money back into my pocket and glared at them. When the taxi reached my neighbourhood, I asked to get off.

Immediately after I exited the bus, the two young gentlemen jumped out after me. They didn’t do anything because I was walking along the prime minister’s house. That area is extremely protected and secured with police officers 24-7. I took a turn and started moving quickly towards my house. Here there were no police officers, just a dark, dim area with strangers shuffling quickly up and down the streets.

I heard them getting closer by the minute. One of the guys jumped in front of me and said, “Hey listen, my friend who paid for you is now broke and needs money to go back home.” I looked at him in disgust and continued walking. He started walking alongside me. He said, “Ok you don’t have to give us the money back, but can you at least say Hi to my friend? He really likes you and he’s really nervous.” I began shaking inside. I didn’t know how to get rid of him. I knew he wouldn’t leave on his own.

I didn’t want him to find out where I lived, so instead of going home, I headed towards a shop across the street. It was a bit far so I began walking quickly. He saw that I was terrified and took advantage of the situation. He kept talking to me about his friend but I didn’t respond. He followed me, poked me, got desperately close to me until he could finally touch me then he grabbed my arm violently. “Stop ignoring me!” He exclaimed.

I wanted to scream at that point but I didn’t have the energy or the courage, I was trembling and it was cold. I pulled his hands away from mine and said, “Stop it! Just stop it, OK?” I said “Leave me alone. I have to go home.” “But my friend…” he implored, “Look, he’s coming, just wait here with me and say goodbye to him, please.”

When his friend caught up to us, he leaned his hand forward so I could shake it. When I saw his face, I felt like I knew him from somewhere. He seemed like a decent guy. I had no idea why his friend was pestering me to say goodbye to him. I looked to his friend and said as eloquently as I could: “No! Leave me alone.” He grabbed me by the arm again, and this time more aggressively, “What’s wrong with you? Do you have Ebola or something?” I shrugged away and managed to escape them.

As I walked away, I remember the friend muttering “It’s okay bro, she doesn’t want to talk to me. Let’s go.” They stood in silence for about three seconds when the stalker (the one who was badgering me this entire time) yelled, “No! Why is she acting so ridiculous? She can’t even shake your hand! I’m not going to leave her alone until I get her number.” He jumped with fury and continued to follow me asking his friend to hurry up. I could tell his friend was uncomfortable but he followed regardless. I realized that it wasn’t the nice-looking friend who was into me, but his ferocious, jumpy friend.

I went to the closest shop I could find. The people at the shop were basically my 2^nd family…I’ve known them since I was a little girl. As supportive and helpful as they were, I didn’t want to trouble them at such a late hour. They could see that I was distressed but they kept quiet for some reason.

I asked to phone my mom. Immediately she began yelling at me, “Do you know what time it is? Where have you been? Why is your phone switched off? Where are you calling from?” The guys were standing outside the shop waiting for me. I wanted to play it cool. “Umm… I’m at the shop near our house. Can you please come and pick me up?”

She wasn’t as understanding as I wanted her to be. She kept hanging up on me (and not by accident) – she wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say. I tried her phone a few times. I could hear the stalker whispering to his friend, “She’s calling someone but I don’t know who.”

A few minutes later, my sister called to say that my mom was outside waiting for me. I couldn’t believe the relief. The minute I stepped out of the shop, I saw no one and thought for a moment that they had disappeared. I took a few steps forward, confidently and audaciously, and that’s when they crept out of the darkness like twin gangstas. I was beyond frightened. They began pacing closely behind me. They said nothing and that scared me even more. I continued walking and thankfully…it wasn’t long before I spotted my mom walking towards me.

She was furious but I didn’t care. I was hopeful and so calmed. She saved me! And yes, she might have yelled on and off during her big triumph… but she saved me. That’s all I could think about the rest of the night.

The two young gentlemen disappeared behind us and I haven’t seen them since. Their tenacity wasn’t the only thing that shocked me. In the midst of it all, I remember seeing my neighbour standing in the dark watching the whole thing unfold. He said and did nothing.

The next day I found him, I asked him, “Why didn’t you save me? You knew I was being harassed by that young man.” He was very apologetic and said with a soft tone, “I’m so sorry my dear, but I thought he was your boyfriend when I saw you walking alongside him, yelling at him and him yelling at you. I just thought you were having a heated argument and I didn’t want to intervene.”

For me, that’s not good enough. Even if I knew that young man, he was clearly bothering me and my neighbour stood and watched the entire time.

I realized there was no point in getting upset over it. It’s a societal issue, not an individual one. Even before Hanna was raped, people saw the kidnappers dragging her into their house. They saw her screaming for help but they did nothing to help her. Lying on her deathbed, Hanna asked her father the same thing I asked my mother: “Why didn’t they help me? They knew something was wrong but they kept quiet.” People are selfish; they only thing they care about is helping themselves. I guess it is a dangerous society after all.

If my mother didn’t find me in due time, who knows what could have happened to me. From the look of his face, I would say he was either going to beat me, rape me or stab me. The young man’s temperamental vibe gave me the feeling that I was going to be his next victim. But I wasn’t. I escaped death and agony – and I didn’t do it on my own.

I don’t understand how the society functions. Why bother standing there like a statue when you can call for immediate help? Why pretend not to notice when you can be someone’s hero? Everyone wants to be a hero but nobody has the guts to step up and show the world that they have what it takes. It’s regressive.

Let my story be a lesson for everyone out there.

By Eden Tadesse

Greece: Do elections change anything?

March 13, 2015February 7, 2015 by Konstantinos Koulocheris

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BERLIN, Germany — Two weeks since the coalition of the radical-left Syriza party won the elections in Greece, freshly assigned Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis completed his tour of the European capitals in Berlin last Thursday, Feb 5. In the German capital, Varoufakis’ meeting with his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, in a call for a new deal in Greece’s debt provided no surprises; they both agreed that they disagree.

The mood seemed awkward between the two diplomats from the beginning. The German federal finance minister spoke of European integration and its rules. He also argued that there was no place for renegotiations in the financial plan of Greece. However, he offered to send German tax officials to the debt-wrecked nation, following up on the Greek government’s fight against tax avoidance.

Schäuble however, avoided expressing his view following up on a question about the Siemens’ case involving German coups in corruption scandals that were revealed by Greek officials in 2007 and are on hold. This instance cost the Greek economy an estimated 2 billion euros.

Varoufakis, on the other hand, asked for time. He claimed that his side has proposals for a new reformed plan of repaying Greece’s foreign debt without intense austerity. He also made assurances that Europe should expect nothing but a “frenzy of reasonableness.”

Varoufakis also stressed the humanitarian effects of hardcore austerity forced by Greece’s creditors with reference to the existence of a Nazi movement in the country. This is mirrored in the presence of the far-right Golden Dawn, which is the third largest party in the Greek parliament. The Greek finance minister did not mention anything about a new fiscal “haircut,” whilst he pledged that there is a reachable solution that will give an end to the “Greek saga.”

The outcomes of this meeting brought no surprises as Greek debt has been top priority in the European agenda since the Syriza party won the recent electoral rally in Greece.

The night before Varoufaki’s visit, the European Central Bank announced that it will no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral for lending money to commercial banks. This means that the liquidity for Greek banks will be limited to the Emergency Liquidity Assistance with a higher interest rate of 1.55 percent, compared to 0.05 percent on regular ECB financing.

It is true that the situation in Greece has been intense the last four years since the financial recession stormed, with hardcore austerity and rising levels of both poverty and unemployment. The impact was translated clearly into ballot results of the recent Greek Elections. Greek voters seemed to be largely affected by the impact of the memorandums signed by the pro-european former government, which brought further economical and social depression.

Syriza used to be a eurosceptic party, and it seems ready to play the wild card of the deactivation of Eurozone membership for Greece if things don’t work out. They claimed so in both campaign trails they took part in during the past ten months in the European Parliament and National Elections.

The question that arose in this instance is not what Syriza’s intentions are if things don’t go right, but what the creditors of Greece would decide when faced with a more aggressive negotiator, comparing to their successors. The topic is expected to be discussed in the Eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels next Wednesday, Feb. 11.

Analysis by Konstantinos Koulocheris

Charles Manson and Star: the wedding of the year did not take place

February 6, 2015 by Esther Hervy

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The wedding that was to join one of the most famous American serial killers, Charles Manson, now 80 years old, and 27-years-old Afton Elaine Burton (renamed “Star” by Manson) finally will not take place.

Indeed, after filing a marriage license application last November, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton confirmed this week that the marriage license had expired on Feb. 5 and no wedding vows would be traded within the state prison in Corcoran, where the guru is serving a life sentence.

Charles Manson was sentenced to death (which was later changed to a life sentence) with four of his disciples in August 1969 for the death of seven people, including the wife of director Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, who was stabbed when she was eight months pregnant. In the 1960s, Manson had formed a community known as the Manson Familly, and it is alleged that he thought he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and wanted to provoke the emergence of a struggle between whites and blacks. He thought that the first would emerge victorious.

Despite this psychopathic portrait, Burton said that her love for Manson had nothing to do with the horrible acts, which she denies.

“Sharon Tate was not a movie star,” stated Burton. “Even now, no one has ever really heard of her, even if she is supposed to have been killed by Charlie, the most famous guy in the world. And that’s the only reason people know who she is.”

Burton said that she fell in love with theories of environmental protection advocated by the killer. Manson named this theory ATWA (air, trees, water and animals), the main idea of which was, according to Manson “the air is God, because without air we do not exist.” According to him, killing “to get more air” is required. “Without murder, we just have no chance.”

All parole applications requested by Manson (a dozen) have been denied.

His next hearing will take place in 2027. Charles Manson will be 92 years old and will have spent 56 years behind the bars.

By Esther Hervy

The vaccination conundrum: collective irrationality

February 5, 2015February 5, 2015 by Milad Doroudian

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To vaccinate or not to vaccinate is a choice which is undoubtedly the right of every person in the “free world.” Yet, when the discussion of the anti-vaccination movement comes up it becomes immediately obvious that we are not talking about individuals. At least not people who are able to make individual choices. Rather, we see collective asininity, new forms of group-think, and irrational mob-parentage.

The measles outbreak which has made headlines across the United States and in Canada has been worrying those of us whose rationality goes beyond the idea of what is “green” and what is not. Those of us who have an infinitesimal amount of knowledge of basic 6th grade science are able to discern that not vaccinating your children is a bad thing. History is our proof.

Prior to the invention of the vaccine, people were dying, and they were dying in egregious numbers. The number of children affected by polio, influenza, and who knows what other ghastly pestilence before the vaccine was exceptionally worrying. People actually died. Many children would not see the age of 10.

Parents in those days also lived in fear, yet they did not live in fear of a scientifically inconclusive study that vaccines might have a side effect, whose rarity is so wide it is laughable. No. They lived in real fear that something like a fever could kill their son or daughter. They, whose level of education was probably lower than the average person today, lived in reality, while parents today live in asinine foolishness.

Yet what could account for such lack of reason? Collective mentality, not so different from the environmental movement, vegans, and so on. In fact many of these parent put their children at serious risk, only to feel welcomed part of some sort of perverse community where parents just “know better” not to vaccinate their children.

When you ask these people the simple question of “Why?” they will give you the same reasons in repetition. They are in an essence unable to think for themselves, but follow some sort of trend believing that they are doing their children good. Not so different how the mysticism in a community in Canada led to the death of a child because they refused chemotherapy, and rather took on “natural” forms of medicine.

The irony behind all of this is that we live in an age where anyone can access studies by scientists and doctors, yet so many people chose irrationality over reason, they choose collective bromides over individual thought. The fact that they are able to make such choices puts them amid those who are lucky enough to do so, all the while thousands die of influenza in some African countries, would they opt out from a chance to save their children?

Once reality hits, these “health-conscious” parents and children will begin to get sick — something which is already happening, and the most unthinkable — and as children begin to die as a result of their need to “feel welcomed” by the mob or “feel” as they are part of some greater collective group. perhaps they might see the error of their ways. This is a conflict of delusion, and reality.

Rant by Milad Doroudian

Image By NIAID

TransAsia Airways: crashed plane in Taiwan results in 31 victims [video]

February 5, 2015 by Esther Hervy

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According to the latest information from authorities, 31 of the 58 people who were on board (53 passengers and five crew members) died in the crash of TransAsia Airways Flight GE 235 Wednesday morning, 11 a.m local time.

The plane left the capital towards the small island of Kinmen, next to the Chinese mainland but controlled by Taiwan. The plane carried Chinese and Taiwanese tourists.

After the takeoff, the aircraft soon stalled and hit a raised highway before crashing into a river.

On an impressive video made by a non professional cameraman, we can see a taxi hit by the wing of the plane.

The pilot is considered to have done everything possible to avoid populated areas and avoid casualties on the ground. He has been hailed as a hero by aviation experts. Both the pilot and co-pilot perished in the accident.

In a recording broadcast on local television we can hear a member of the crew screaming, “Mayday, Mayday, engine flameout!”

An engine flameout is an engine failure that results from an interruption of the fuel supply or from faulty combustion. Twin-engine aricraft like GE 235 usually can continue to fly even if one engine fails, however.

“The pilots were highly trained and could face a possible failure of the motors,” said Daniel Tsang, an expert in aviation. This indicates that the causes of the accident are probably more complex than simple engine failure.

For the time being, no comments have been made about the causes of the accident, but the black boxes were recovered and should be analyzed quickly. Two French experts belonging to the civil aviation investigation office are also scheduled to arrived soon in Taiwan to meet Canadian counterparts there.

The aircraft that was less than one year old was in working order ten days ago, said the director of the Taiwanese civil aviation.

The crash is part of a black series for Asian airways. Not to mention Malaysia Airlines, TransAsia Airways already had a plane crash last July. A domestic flight crashed with 54 passengers on board. The aircraft was caught in a typhoon.

By Esther Hervy

Taiwanese citizen’s video, obtained by Reuters

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The Self Immolators (pdf eBook)

January 2, 2021February 5, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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“The Self Immolators,” written in 2013 under the pen-name Day Blakely Donaldson.

Rights and permissions to use material in this book: the text, including translations, can be used under the Creative Commons licence. You can reprint sections of this book, but include a line noting the source and link the text “The Self Immolators” back to this page.

To read this book online, click this link: “The Self Immolators.”(same link as above) To download the book (in .pdf form), right-click the link and select “Save link as.”

Please comment on the subject below.

This book is looking for a publisher. Stipulations: in publishing and selling this book, no monetary gain will ever go to the writer or to The Speaker. It would be preferable if the publisher also did not profit from the book, but I understand this is unlikely to be accepted by publishers.

“The Self Immolators” was independently printed and distributed in a small limited edition free in 2013.

The Self Immolators (2013) - Day Blakely Donaldson

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Dark matter may interact with light, creating glow around galaxies and offering opportunity to “see” the elusive matter

January 26, 2021February 4, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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The prevailing assumption about dark matter is that has no interaction with light, but European physicists who investigated a possible signature of dark matter at the edges of theM101 Pinwheel galaxy now believe that light may be interacting with dark matter to produce “light halos” — detectable glows around the edges spiral galaxies.

“Dark Matter can be a lot more interactive than previously thought,” Dr. Jonathan Davis of the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, an author of the report, told The Speaker. “So people usually think of Dark Matter particles as neutral and so devoid of any interactions with light, but we show that this need not be the case. Also, that it is important to be creative with ways of looking for Dark Matter as no one really knows how it should behave, or where a signal will show up first.”

“I think the idea of Dark Matter interacting with light is quite an exciting new field,” Davis told us. “Some people have looked on the effect of these interactions on the early universe. I think it would be interesting if there were future studies looking at other wavelengths of light with sensitive instruments, particularly the longer wavelengths where background light from stars should be less bright.”

The team observed the diffuse halos of light that are apparent at the outer edges of spiral galaxies — particularly the M101 Pinwheel galaxy, which they used as an example in the report.

The team theorized that light radiating from stars in that galaxy, if it was bouncing off dark matter on the outer periphery, would scatter around the galaxy in a particular way. An example used to convey the idea is that of a lamp glowing in fog.

“[The light] should be visible everywhere,” Davis stated. “The reason we focus on the edges of the galaxy is that this is where the light from stars should be dimmest. So although the DM glow is everywhere, it’s easiest to see at the edges as there is less competition with star light.

Scientists do not possess information by which the theory could be proven as of yet, and the observable patterns could also be explained as coming from other sources, Davis noted.

“At the moment there is no way of knowing if any glow is due to DM or stars. So we’re not claiming to have discovered anything yet. The galaxy we look at in our paper has a halo of older stars which make looking for a DM glow halo difficult. Indeed the glow in this case is probably due to those stars, but then you can’t rule out a DM contribution, which is what we show. However I think the emphasis should be on future dedicated searches for this light from DM scattering. If a dedicated search can separate the DM glow from other sources then they can really look for this signal, if indeed it’s there.”

There are several possible ways that the theory could be proven in the future, Davis explained.

“There are a few ways one could actually discovery DM-photon interactions for sure. Just through observations of galaxies if we saw a signal which had a very different dependence on the wavelength of light, compared to from stars or gas, then that would be interesting. Additionally if we discovered a signal of Dark Matter at the Large Hadron Collider or in Direct Detection experiments, that would be a big step forward.”

The report, “Glow in the Dark Matter: Observing Galactic Halos with Scattered Light,” was completed by Drs Jonathan Davis and Joseph Silk, and was published in APS Physics.

Images: from Davis’ report and from “First results from the dragonfly telephoto array: the apparent lack of a stellar halo in the massive spiral galaxy m101“

Two jihadists executed by Jordan after the murderer of a military pilot

February 4, 2015 by Esther Hervy

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After the Islamic State released a video showing the execution of a Jordanian pilot Tuesday, Jordan’s responded by executing two jihadists imprisoned since 2006 for acts of terrorism. One woman and one man were hanged early Wednesday morning.

The woman, Sajida al-Rishawi, a 44-year-old Iraqi designated a “sister imprisoned” by Daesh, had carried out attacks in the Jordanian capital a year before her arrest. Sixty tourists, diplomats, and expatriates were killed in suicide attacks committed in three hotels. Al-Rishawi was sentenced to death in 2008 for her participation in the attacks.

The man, Ziad Karbouli, was part of al-Qaeda. He had also been sentenced to death in 2008.

The two executions have been interpreted as Amman’s response to the appalling murder of Maaz Al-Kassasbeh, a Jordanian pilot captured on Dec.24 by the Islamic State after the crash of his plane in Syria, where he participated in air strikes for the international coalition against the Islamic State.

The barbarism of the execution of the pilot (burned alive in a cage) raised the emotions of well-known figures in the world of politics.

“This Sunni group is the embodiment of evil,” said David Cameron, British Prime Minister, while François Hollande, the French President, condemned the act as a “barbaric murder.”

In a unanimous statement, the 15 member countries of the UN Security Council also “strongly condemned” a “barbaric and cowardly act which once again shows the brutality of the Islamic State.”

The Islamic state had demanded the release of Sajida al-Rishawi in exchange for the Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, who the Islamic State had held hostage. The transaction had not taken place and the Japanese journalist was beheaded.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had described the killing of Goto as a “vile and unforgivable act.”

In Karak, the hometown of the pilot, some people protested outside a local administrative building. They felt that the government had not done enough to obtain his release.

In the most recent video release by the Islamic State, representatives also list names and display photographs and addresses of soldiers from countries participating in the international coalition, and claim to offer a reward of “100 gold coins” to those who would kill one of them.

Analysis by Esther Hervy

Photo by mhlradio

Islamic terrorists have committed 25,000 separate violent acts worldwide that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in last 15 years

January 26, 2021February 3, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

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The number of Islamist attacks since 2001 when the World Trade Center’s twin towers collapsed has reached 25,000, according to terrorist watch group The Religion of Peace. The attacks currently occur regularly at a rate of over 200 per month around the world, so that the time at which the 25,000 mark would be reached was able to be predicted by TROP.

In January, Islamist terrorists committed 266 jihad attacks in 28 countries, including 43 suicide attacks. These attacks resulted in 2,998 deaths and 2,261 injured, not counting deaths and injuries that occured after the time the reports were published.

The numbers were almost the same over the past several months, so that when in early January The Speaker asked the editor of TROP, Glen Roberts, about the date at which the number would reach 25,000, he was able to predict that it would occur in February.

“It looks like there have been only 12 days since the beginning of 2005 without at least one Islamic attack,” said Roberts.

The TROP editor, who has maintained a record of Islamist attacks since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, noted that the number of attacks is the only figure they calculate. They do not calculate the number of people killed by Islamists, which would be many times higher than the 25,000 figure. The 25,000 does not include regular killings by Muslims such as honor killings, murders, or executions, but measures only killings deemed by TROP’s editors to have been motivated by the perpetrators’ interpretation of religious duty.

Roberts also told us that the rate of attacks since 2001 should in no way be considered an increase in such attacks.

“The rate at which people died from Islamic violence was probably much greater prior to this,” said Roberts. “There was less attention focused on terror campaigns in places like Algeria and East Timor, for example, even though the loss of life was staggering. Another example is Bangladesh, where several million people lost their lives in the early 1970’s during independence, a great many of whom were Hindu.”

According to TROP, Islam is unique among the world’s biggest religions in that killing is widespread and continues regularly. Roberts believes that the killing has to do with the scripture and history of the Islam.

“The people who know Muhammad best – his companions – were extremely prolific in waging war against non-threatening populations under the rationale that Islam is meant to be supreme,” Roberts told us. “There is nothing in the Quran that discourages this. In fact, verse 9:29 says that Christians and Jews are to be killed if they resist subjugation. Verse 9:123 tells Muslims to ‘fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness.’”