The Speaker News Journal

Shell rig operator guilty of environmental and health & safety violations

July 30, 2016December 10, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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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

Cambodia becoming a popular choice for expatriates living abroad

December 13, 2014December 9, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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An increasing number of people from Western countries are moving around the world to other areas they deem safer, hold better job potential, and are cheaper overall. A large number of these people are moving to Cambodia in search of these things. While it’s very difficult to get an exact number of expatriates coming to Cambodia to live, it’s thought they’re in the tens of thousands.

Many of those that have moved to Cambodia are retired but have found work in their new home country. An expatriate from Canada that wished to remain anonymous told this reporter that while Cambodia is an up and coming country that holds potential for expatriate retirees, it may not be as easy as expected. “The best opportunities are self employment, and to (start off) with a Cambodian partner.” For three years he has been running an online business in Siem Reap that helps expatriates moving to Cambodia find new homes on a tight budget.

Another expatriate, a teacher at one of Siem Reap’s international schools, thinks it’s relatively easy to get a teacher’s job, even with little experience. Nea Techeang, a Khmer American, has been living in Cambodia for two and a half years after living in America for the previous twenty eight years. “I basically walked into the school, met with the owner, and about a week later I had a position teaching kindergarten. It’s much easier to get a good job here than in America.”

Another advantage to living in Cambodia is that English is becoming more widely spoken as education improves, according to the anonymous source. “To live here (Siem Reap) in retirement you do not need to know the language as it is (a) tourist city and many people speak some English and in government offices; dentists (and) doctors etc speak English well.” Mrs. Techeang agrees, but also adds that English is spoken and understood much more in the cities. “The quality of education for the children here is improving, as there are so many international schools in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. However, older people living in the countryside have a basic knowledge of English, as they had limited access to education growing up.”

Some bonuses that the anonymous source stated as to why Cambodia is a nice country to move to is the food and weather. “(The) food is delicious, weather is tropical and (similar) as what you would get in Thailand, Philippines or nearby countries but no typhoons, hurricanes or earthquakes which some other countries may experience.” Mrs. Techeang elaborates on the Cambodian diet. “While many of the dishes revolve around fish, rice, and vegetables, there are many other choices you can make. Chicken and pork are eaten more now, especially in stir fries. If you go to the right markets, they can be bought cheaply too.”

Both of the expatriates agree that for the most part, prices on housing and other necessities are far cheaper than their home countries. Mrs. Techeang says that being Cambodian herself and knowing how to speak Khmer helped when she was looking for a home in Siem Reap. “I was able to speak to the local motorcycle drivers to find some decently priced apartments. There are many apartments, small houses, and rooms for rent here that are quite affordable. My husband and I live in an apartment in a good part of town for under $75.” The anonymous source also said that transportation can be found cheaply. “There’s no need for (a) car here and it’s best to buy a new or used motorcycle (scooter with 100-150 cc) to get around.”

When the source was asked if he had any advice for people looking to move to Cambodia, he said he thought that overall the country makes a great choice. “It’s a good place to retire to if you want (a) low cost of living, it’s safe, and a friendly place to live. I only wish I knew more about living in Asia sooner and made the move years before I did.”

By Brett Scott

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

July 30, 2016December 9, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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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

Doctors found to make more money by ordering more procedures per patient, not by treating more patients

December 9, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

Doctors now make more money by ordering more procedures per patient, not by treating more patients - first

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For the first time, doctors have been found to be making more money by ordering more procedures rather than for providing service to more patients. The results of recent UCLA research, which surprised the team behind the study, have led them to suspect that the pay-for-service system may encourage behavior that is not in the best interest of patients.

“The difference in earnings was highly significant,” Jonathan Bergman, an assistant professor of urology and family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a urologist and bioethicist at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans’ Health Administration, told The Speaker. “This resulted from higher services offered per beneficiary.”

The findings, the researchers reported, were “very surprising.” It was the first time that higher-earning clinicians had made more money because they had ordered more services and procedures rather than because they had seen more patients.

The team examined Medicare bills from the 2012 calendar year and compared this information with amounts paid to clinicians.

“What people can learn is that fee-for-service may not be the most reasonable way to pay doctors. Also, that charges outpace payments by three is like listing $3 as the supposed price of a $1 Coke,” Bergman told us.

Bergman also commented for a press release on some of the possible flaws in Medicare policy.

“Medicare spending is the biggest factor crowding out investment in all other social priorities,” said Bergman.

“Perhaps it would make more sense to reimburse clinicians for providing high quality care, or for treating more patients. There probably shouldn’t be such wide variation in services for patients being treated for the same conditions.

“[The] findings suggest that the current health care reimbursement model–fee-for-service–may not be creating the correct incentives for clinicians to keep their patients healthy. Fee-for-service may not be the most reasonable way to reimburse physicians.”

In order to more conclusively answer whether the fee-for-service system was flawed, Bergman said, more research was needed–particularly an assessment of whether treatment outcomes for patients differed for those who had more or less services ordered. This research could also show how best to use resources to maximize medical benefits for people, he added.

“The most important takeaway is that it is hard to evaluate appropriate compensation for doctors, much like it is for teachers,” Bergman told us. “The answer isn’t to rely solely on services done, which is as problematic as using test scores to identify the best teachers.”

The letter on the research was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

By Cheryl Bretton

Fracking and the future – shale gas in the UK

December 13, 2014December 9, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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The debate about hydraulic fracturing for shale gas exploitation (fracking) has been raging constantly in the UK since 2007 when the prospect of drilling for shale gas was first proposed. Since then, the British government, having looked at the US experience and decided that it wants a piece of the action, has embraced the idea.

Swiss chemicals giant INEOS has recently announced their intention to invest £640 million in shale gas exploration in the UK, a figure that is considerably larger than any of the budgets proposed by the other companies interested in this sector. The company is planning to substantially increase its shale gas interests in a bid to become one of the biggest players in the UK shale gas sector.

Fracking is potentially even more controversial in the UK than it has been in the US. Environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are directly opposed to the process and have rapidly moved to denounce INEOS plans. The prime reasons for environmentalist opposition to shale gas include, as they do in America, environmental damage, effect on climate change, water depletion, seismic effects, the pollution of groundwater by methane and fracking fluids and the impact on neighbouring communities, given the density of the population in the UK. This is essentially why, at present, official estimates of UK gas reserves do not include shale gas.

Then there are the issues concerning distraction from the longer term task of replacing fossil fuels with renewables. Despite its view that shale gas will play an important role in the UK energy mix, the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWM) argues that shale gas should not undermine the drive for energy efficiency or renewable energy because sustained investment is required in those sectors in order to decarbonise the electricity sector. It additionally warns that shale gas extraction will act to exacerbate the UK’s difficulties with regard to meeting its climate change targets.

Those environmental concerns aside, the really big question for the average citizen in the UK, concerned about energy bills, is whether shale gas really will help to lower energy prices. The available evidence suggests not.

Despite the British government’s enthusiasm for fracking, which is based on the positive US experience in which shale gas extraction has helped to turn around the country’s economic fortunes, Deutsche Bank pointed out in 2011 that the US has been in a far better position to recover shale gas than the UK, due to advantages in equipment, drilling services, infrastructure, mineral rights legislation and population density. This means that in Europe and the UK, the process of extraction, assuming there are significant resources to be had, will be drawn out over a much longer term and will impose far greater costs than those the US has had to meet.

The really fundamental problem with shale gas in the UK is that no-one is really sure just how much of it exists. Cuadrilla believes, on the basis of its two test drills conducted so far, that the Bowland Shale covered by its licence is around 1,000 metres thick, as opposed to just 90 metres thick in most of the areas covered by US operations. Based on the data from its activities up to September 2011, the company estimated a figure of 5,660 billion cubic metres (bcm), of which 20 percent would be recoverable, thus a final recoverable amount of 1,132bcm. Island Gas meanwhile estimated 131bcm incorporating a risk factor of 50 percent while Composite Energy estimates 34bcm in their PEDL 1333 area. GreenPark Energy focuses mainly on coal, although it has been test drilling in Canonbie, Dumfries and Galloway since 2009.

This means that out of the four companies operations, only Cuadrilla has presented measured data. Under their commercialisation scenarios, recoverable shale gas from their licences peaks in 2026 and then declines, providing an amount equivalent to about ten months of UK consumption. A report produced by the Tyndall Centre estimates that over a 20 year period, between 2,600 and 3,000 wells would need to be developed in order to achieve a sustained annual output of 9bcm per year. This would require an average of 130 to 150 wells developed per year.

The BGS/DECC Shale Gas report of 2010 warned that US analogies used to generate current estimates may be invalid and that the gas content of UK shale remains unknown. The BGS (British Geological Survey) does concede that there is a substantial amount of shale at depth, but the shale gas potential it represents is unclear.

In this same report, updated in 2012, DECC (The Department of Energy and Climate Change) further concludes that “it is far from certain that the conditions that underpin shale gas production in North America will be replicable in the UK.” Meanwhile the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research points out that hopes of shale gas acting as a ‘bridging fuel’ while renewable energy infrastructure is developed in the UK cannot be realistically assumed. Even more damning is the conclusion by the government’s own Climate Change Committee (CCC) that shale gas produced either in the UK or in Europe is unlikely to reduce natural gas prices. In this respect, the US experience is unique.

It is highly unlikely therefore that shale gas will have any impact on rising energy bills in the UK. Given that it can hardly be considered a low carbon fuel, one then has to ask why on earth fracking was considered as a viable energy measure in the country in the first place.

Analysis by Robin Whitlock

Spain at the vanguard of digital currencies

December 9, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

Spain is at the vanguard of digital currencies

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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

December 9, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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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.

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.

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

December 8, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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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

December 13, 2014December 8, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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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 beaten, 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.”

“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.

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

Selected Detención Ciudadana Youtube videos

December 8, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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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.

Read more about this trend in civilian vigilante justice: Vigilante justice spikes in Chile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NN458BxTCk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ8VDnD6ZXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm_H6ZnFXN8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVAE2oGabGg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c141O-8rU1Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgaYI9jUabk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYaeDnOW_tA

Selected by Jay Verkamp

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

December 8, 2014December 8, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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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.

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

Human 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

December 8, 2014 by The Speaker Editors

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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