1.ACTA locks countries into obsolete copyright and patent laws. If a democracy decides on less restrictive laws that reflect the reality of the internet, ACTA will prevent that.
2.ACTA criminalizes users by making noncommercial, harmless remixes into crimes if "on a commercial scale" (art 2.14.1). Many amateur works achieve a commercial scale on sites like Youtube. ACTA, like SOPA, could mean jail time for the Justin Biebers of the world.
3.ACTA Criminalizes legitimate websites, making them responsible for user behavior by "aiding and abetting". (art 2.14.4). Like SOPA, the founders of your favorite sites could be sued or (worse) thrown in jail for copyright infringement by their users.
4.ACTA will let rightsholders use laughably inflated claims of damages (based on the disproven idea that every download or stream is a lost sale) to sue people. As if suing amazing artists, video makers and websites for millions wasn't hard enough!
5.ACTA Permanently bypasses democracy by giving the "ACTA Committee" the power to "propose amendments to [ACTA]" (art 6.4). In other words, voting for ACTA writes a blank check to an unelected committee. These closed-door proceedings will be a playground for SOPA-supporters like the MPAA.
6.Trade agreements are a gaping loophole, a backdoor track that, even though it creates new law, is miles removed from democracy. It's a secretive process that's tailor-made to serve politically connected companies. And the movie studios behind SOPA? They're experts at it. If we can't make secretive trade agreements harder to pass than US law, our internet's future belongs to the lobbyists behind SOPA.
From La Quadrature du Net
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Here we go again - SOPA / ACTA
More action on that front - read here & do what you need to do.Click here first !
Hi--
Together, we beat SOPA in a huge victory for internet freedom. But this Saturday, internet freedom protests are breaking out in over 200 cities across Europe. Why?
But now the tide is turning. Fueled by the movement to stop SOPA, anti-ACTA protests are breaking out across the EU, which hasn't ratified ACTA. The protests are having an impact: leaders in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have backtracked on ACTA.4 Now a massive round of street protests in over 200 cities is planned for this Saturday February 11th.
1. For more information on ACTA, read these excellent articles from Techdirt and La Quadrature du Net. For information on TPP, read this Ars Technica piece. For video, watch this.
2. Obama's signing of ACTA may have been unconstitutional. See Anti-counterfeiting agreement raises constitutional concerns and Techdirt.
3. Hollywood gets to party with TPP negotiators, public interest groups get thrown out of the hotel.
4. Ars Technica: Czech, Slovak governments backing away from ACTA, too.
Hi--
Together, we beat SOPA in a huge victory for internet freedom. But this Saturday, internet freedom protests are breaking out in over 200 cities across Europe. Why?
SOPA's supporters are pushing two agreements: ACTA and TPP1. ACTA would criminalize users, encourage internet providers to spy on you, and make it easier for media companies to sue sites out of existence and jail their founders. Sound familiar? That's right, ACTA is from the same playbook as SOPA, but global. Plus it didn't even have to pass through Congress2.
TPP goes even farther than ACTA, and the process has been even more secretive and corrupt. Last weekend (we wish this was a joke) trade negotiators partied with MPAA (pro-SOPA) lobbyists before secret negotiations in a Hollywood hotel, while public interest groups were barred from meeting in the same building.3
Trade agreements are a gaping loophole, a secretive backdoor track that--even though it creates new laws--is miles removed from democracy. Trade negotiators are unelected and unaccountable, so these agreements have been very hard for internet rights groups to stop.
But now the tide is turning. Fueled by the movement to stop SOPA, anti-ACTA protests are breaking out across the EU, which hasn't ratified ACTA. The protests are having an impact: leaders in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have backtracked on ACTA.4 Now a massive round of street protests in over 200 cities is planned for this Saturday February 11th.
We're planning an online protest this Saturday to support the protests in the streets. Why? Because together we can drive millions of emails to key decision makers--and start tipping the scales like we did on SOPA.
We just built an ACTA & TPP contact tool, and it's not just a petition. It's code for your site that figures out the visitor's country and lets them email all their Members of European Parliament--the politicians who will be voting on ACTA in June--or the trade negotiators behind TPP. This direct contact between voters and their officials, driven by websites of all sizes, was instrumental in the fight against SOPA.
We can use the same tactics to defeat ACTA & TPP, but we need your help!
This is going to be tough fight. But we need to make secretive trade agreements harder to pass than US law. If we don't, our internet's future belongs to the lobbyists behind SOPA.
This is just the beginning,--Holmes Wilson, Tiffiniy Cheng, Joshua Blount & the whole Fight for the Future team.
P.S. This map of ACTA street protests in Europe is amazing. The largest has almost 50,000 RSVP's!
Sources:
1. For more information on ACTA, read these excellent articles from Techdirt and La Quadrature du Net. For information on TPP, read this Ars Technica piece. For video, watch this.
2. Obama's signing of ACTA may have been unconstitutional. See Anti-counterfeiting agreement raises constitutional concerns and Techdirt.
3. Hollywood gets to party with TPP negotiators, public interest groups get thrown out of the hotel.
4. Ars Technica: Czech, Slovak governments backing away from ACTA, too.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Racism - not only in Hong Kong......
As the ongoing discussions about the HK people & mainlanders disputes / racial discrimination etc.....dont worry - here a clip from YouTube mentioned at all local HK yellow press - just see it yourself - it is from London. Please be aware all this kind of shootings lets consider them at least a chance to be FAKE - or fabricated:
Here some further info about that from here - just click !
The film shows the middle-aged white woman direct a tirade of abuse at passengers on a Central Line train between St Paul’s and Mile End stations.
She begins by shouting 'all f****** foreign s********' in a shocking seven-minute long expletive-ridden rant in front of stunned onlookers.
The woman - with shoulder-length black hair and a thick Cockney accent - then asks 'where do you come from? F****** like, f****** all over the world'.
Footage of the incident emerged on YouTube on January 24 after a string of similar rants by women were made public last year. It is believed to have been filmed on January 23.
It shows the woman, whose name is not known, sitting between two men.
After saying that the passengers come from all over the world, she asks: 'I'd like to know if any of you are f****** illegal, I'm sure 30 per cent of you are. It's taking the f****** p***.'
The woman then becomes aggressive towards the man sitting next to her. 'I hope they f****** catch up with you and shove you off,' she says.
She adds: 'I shall punch you in the f****** face. Ninety per cent of you are f****** illegal. I wouldn't mind if you loved our country.'
After singing in his language, he defends his country as other passengers on the carriage laugh at his gestures.
The woman then turns her attention to the man who is filming the alleged abuse on his mobile phone, who says he is British.
He tells her to 'watch what you say' but she responds: 'I used to live in England now I live in the United Nations.'
The woman then appears to become increasingly aggressive in an argument that lasts for another four minutes.
At one point she appears to try to attack the man next to her before she is thrown into a seat on the other side of the train.
She gets up and screams: 'As long as you're f****** working, and not claiming benefits.'
A second clip uploaded on the video sharing site shows her standing up as she waits to leave the train.
She says to another passenger: 'This is what we've got to put up with... that's what we don't like about you people. I'll show you what kind of government lets people like you in.'
The video emerged after similar clips were uploaded onto the internet.
One, recorded on a Croydon to Wimbledon tram, showed a woman holding a toddler as she shouted at passengers.
Emma West was charged with a racially aggravated public order offence in connection with the incident in December.
West, a 34-year-old mother from New Addington, Croydon, will appear at Croydon Crown Court at a later date.
Another video called 'Welcome to London' showed a woman holding a pink rose on the London Underground as she abused passengers.
Another was of a drunk woman who tried to punch a black passenger on a London bus, but ended up falling over herself then being thrown into the street.
A British Transport Police spokesman said: 'BTP is aware of the videos posted on YouTube which show a woman making alleged racist comments on board a Central Line Tube train between St Paul’s and Mile End stations during the evening of Sunday, 23.
'Detectives were made aware of the videos on January 24 and immediately launched an investigation.
'Anyone who witnessed this incident, or who has information which they believe can assist police, is asked to get in touch and help us build up a full picture of what took place.
'BTP treats all allegations of racism on the London Underground very seriously and would urge anyone with information about this incident to contact us.'
A woman has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Here some further info about that from here - just click !
Woman filmed hurling 'racist abuse' at Tube passengers in yet ANOTHER video of a vile rant on London transport
- Clip shows seven-minute long expletive-ridden tirade of abuse
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097142/Woman-filmed-hurling-racist-abuse-Tube-passengers-ANOTHER-video-rant-London-transport.html#ixzz1loKZbg6v
The film shows the middle-aged white woman direct a tirade of abuse at passengers on a Central Line train between St Paul’s and Mile End stations.
She begins by shouting 'all f****** foreign s********' in a shocking seven-minute long expletive-ridden rant in front of stunned onlookers.
The woman - with shoulder-length black hair and a thick Cockney accent - then asks 'where do you come from? F****** like, f****** all over the world'.
Footage of the incident emerged on YouTube on January 24 after a string of similar rants by women were made public last year. It is believed to have been filmed on January 23.
It shows the woman, whose name is not known, sitting between two men.
After saying that the passengers come from all over the world, she asks: 'I'd like to know if any of you are f****** illegal, I'm sure 30 per cent of you are. It's taking the f****** p***.'
The woman then becomes aggressive towards the man sitting next to her. 'I hope they f****** catch up with you and shove you off,' she says.
She adds: 'I shall punch you in the f****** face. Ninety per cent of you are f****** illegal. I wouldn't mind if you loved our country.'
After singing in his language, he defends his country as other passengers on the carriage laugh at his gestures.
The woman then turns her attention to the man who is filming the alleged abuse on his mobile phone, who says he is British.
He tells her to 'watch what you say' but she responds: 'I used to live in England now I live in the United Nations.'
The woman then appears to become increasingly aggressive in an argument that lasts for another four minutes.
At one point she appears to try to attack the man next to her before she is thrown into a seat on the other side of the train.
She gets up and screams: 'As long as you're f****** working, and not claiming benefits.'
A second clip uploaded on the video sharing site shows her standing up as she waits to leave the train.
She says to another passenger: 'This is what we've got to put up with... that's what we don't like about you people. I'll show you what kind of government lets people like you in.'
The video emerged after similar clips were uploaded onto the internet.
One, recorded on a Croydon to Wimbledon tram, showed a woman holding a toddler as she shouted at passengers.
Emma West was charged with a racially aggravated public order offence in connection with the incident in December.
West, a 34-year-old mother from New Addington, Croydon, will appear at Croydon Crown Court at a later date.
Another video called 'Welcome to London' showed a woman holding a pink rose on the London Underground as she abused passengers.
Another was of a drunk woman who tried to punch a black passenger on a London bus, but ended up falling over herself then being thrown into the street.
A British Transport Police spokesman said: 'BTP is aware of the videos posted on YouTube which show a woman making alleged racist comments on board a Central Line Tube train between St Paul’s and Mile End stations during the evening of Sunday, 23.
'Detectives were made aware of the videos on January 24 and immediately launched an investigation.
'Anyone who witnessed this incident, or who has information which they believe can assist police, is asked to get in touch and help us build up a full picture of what took place.
'BTP treats all allegations of racism on the London Underground very seriously and would urge anyone with information about this incident to contact us.'
A woman has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The legacy of Wukan
This one I just copy in without any further comment from my side. Please read yourself - this is very long - but will help all the outside readers to understand some of the serious challenges CHINA is facing - this is very serious - it is from here - click it !
quote
| Posted on 2012-01-30
quote
| Posted on 2012-01-30
The standoff last December between local authorities and villagers in Wukan, prompted by deep anger among villagers over corrupt land deals and the suspicious death of a protest leader in police custody, was one of the biggest stories of 2011. But the saga of Wukan, which is ongoing despite pledges by Guangdong’s top leadership to meet the demands of protesters, could continue to have an impact this year and beyond.
Some say the Wukan incident, an act of organized civil disobedience that infuriated local Party officials (and, no doubt, quite a few senior leaders as well), has established a “model” for villages facing seizure of their land, one of the most common causes of so-called “mass incidents” (群体事件) in the countryside and in areas outside developing cities. Some have cited Wukan as an example in calling for democratic reforms in China.
But even as international attention gradually shifts away from Wukan, it remains to be seen whether the villagers’ demands will ultimately be met — and whether provincial leaders will live up to their promises.
Discussion of Wukan continues inside China, but public discussion of its deeper implications is a sensitive matter.
A January 27 blog post on Wukan made by lawyer Yuan Yulai (袁裕来) to his blog on the Caixin Media platform was deleted by internet censors. Yuan followed up the same day by posting news of the deletion on Sina Weibo. Including an image file for the post (below), he wrote: “Is there no hope for the Wukan incident? Are leaders now setting the tone? (Why was this deleted? Is this still propaganda policy?)”
Yuan Yulai’s microblog post was also subsequently deleted. But the text-as-image file he posted on Sina Weibo, which we archived, is pasted below. In the file Yuan shares an account of words spoken by an unnamed senior leader at a recent meeting on stability preservation, the mobilization of domestic security forces to combat social unrest:
The following is a partial translation of a review by journalist Chen Jibing (陈季冰) of the Wukan incident published in Outlook China magazine. Chen also posted the article to his weblog at QQ.com.
Some say the Wukan incident, an act of organized civil disobedience that infuriated local Party officials (and, no doubt, quite a few senior leaders as well), has established a “model” for villages facing seizure of their land, one of the most common causes of so-called “mass incidents” (群体事件) in the countryside and in areas outside developing cities. Some have cited Wukan as an example in calling for democratic reforms in China.
But even as international attention gradually shifts away from Wukan, it remains to be seen whether the villagers’ demands will ultimately be met — and whether provincial leaders will live up to their promises.
Discussion of Wukan continues inside China, but public discussion of its deeper implications is a sensitive matter.
A January 27 blog post on Wukan made by lawyer Yuan Yulai (袁裕来) to his blog on the Caixin Media platform was deleted by internet censors. Yuan followed up the same day by posting news of the deletion on Sina Weibo. Including an image file for the post (below), he wrote: “Is there no hope for the Wukan incident? Are leaders now setting the tone? (Why was this deleted? Is this still propaganda policy?)”
Yuan Yulai’s microblog post was also subsequently deleted. But the text-as-image file he posted on Sina Weibo, which we archived, is pasted below. In the file Yuan shares an account of words spoken by an unnamed senior leader at a recent meeting on stability preservation, the mobilization of domestic security forces to combat social unrest:
A certain leader said in an internal address at the CCP Work Conference on Politics, Law and Stability Preservation: Right now there are tens of thousands of mass incidents [in China each year], mostly happening in rural townships and villages and remote regions, the causes being principally economic. These are convenient for us to independently resolve or break up. But if these spread to coastal cities and are transformed into political demands, the result would be unimaginable. Some comrades lack a real sense of the dangers involved, thinking we are over-reacting. It would be better for a clear directive from the central authorities to over-react than to fall short [of what is needed].
. . . The Wukan incident is far from finished. Can challenges to the leadership status of the Chinese Communist Party evade retribution? That is a page we cannot open, that no one dares open.
The following is a partial translation of a review by journalist Chen Jibing (陈季冰) of the Wukan incident published in Outlook China magazine. Chen also posted the article to his weblog at QQ.com.
The Example of Wukan
Chen Jibing (陈季冰)
January 20, 2012
1.
Ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday news came of the latest development in the Wukan story. According to news reports, three special work teams constituted by Guangdong province to explore the issues of collective land [use and appropriation in Wukan], village finances and breaches of law and Party discipline by village officials notified the villagers of Wukan of their findings in the initial phase [of their investigation] on December 30. According to Zeng Qingrong (曾庆荣), chairman of the standing committee of the Guangdong Provincial Commission of Discipline Inspection and deputy-head of the [provincial government's] supervisory office, who is serving as head of the special work team on breaches of law and discipline [in the Wukan case], they have already found that Xue Chang (薛昌), Wukan’s former Party branch chief, former village Party committee director Chen Shunyi (陈舜意) and others did indeed violate [Party] discipline in misappropriating collective assets of the village; a related personnel member in the marketing division of the Cooperative Association of Lufeng City Rural Credit Cooperatives (陆丰市农村信用合作社) pocketed 200,000 yuan in the process of land transfer (土地转让); various personnel in the Donghai Township State Land Office (东海镇国土所) of the Lufeng City Land and Resources Bureau (陆丰市国土局) accepted bribes in processing the transfer of land belonging to Wukan Village. At the same time, it has been initially established that some cadres from the Wukan Village Party Branch and village committee received rewards in the process of authorizing transfer of collective land [belonging to the village], and that some accounting staff in Wukan village are suspected of having personally used public funds [belonging to the village]. The cashier for the village committee, Zou Chai (出纳邹钗), also a committee member of the Party branch, has already been detained pending investigation for discipline violations (两规).
It was not long before this, owing to the direct intervention of the provincial Party leadership in Guangdong, that serious protests in Wukan Village, in [Guangdong's] Shanwei City, finally calmed down in late December. While for reasons known to all newspapers, television and other mass media kept quiet on this incident out of fear, it was the most hotly watched public opinion storm on China’s internet — and particularly on microblogs — for some time.
On December 21, deputy provincial Party secretary Zhu Mingguo (朱明国), who has represented Guangdong province in handling this incident, met face-to-face with the chief acting village representative, Lin Zuluan (林祖銮), and agreed to the principal demands of the protesting villagers, including: to suspend and fully investigate the property development project in which the villagers’ interests were harmed and for which village cadres and the government illegally sold [village] land; to carry out a full and comprehensive investigation of the death of protest leader Xue Jinbo (薛锦波) while in police custody on December 11, 2011, to return his remains, and to release several other villagers who were detained for their involvement in the protests.
What has most unprecedented meaning is that the [Guangdong provincial] authorities also formally acknowledged the “leadership committee” chosen and constituted by the villagers themselves for the purpose of the protests, and that they pledged resolutely that they would not seek to settle scores with villagers involved in the protests at some convenient later date (秋后算账).
[Village representative] Lin Zuluan at least believes that their protest movement has already achieved the things they set out to achieve, and he has told media that he is satisfied with the outcome. “The higher-level government [authorities] have treated this matter with utmost priority, so I have all confidence that we can satisfactorily resolve this dispute,” [he said].
The attitude of the Guangdong Party leadership set the tone for the handling of the incident: “The basic demand of the people of Wukan Village in Lufeng City is fairness, and errors certainly did exist in the work among the masses carried out by the grassroots Party leadership and government, so certain unreasonable actions on the part of the villagers can be understood.” Moreover, Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang (汪洋) pointed out clearly that, “The occurrence of the Wukan incident was both a matter of chance and a matter of necessity. This is the result of paying insufficient attention . . . to tensions building up in the process of economic and social development, and it is a necessary result of our being ‘hard on one hand and soft on the other’ (一手硬一手软).” This hard on the one hand and soft on the other points clearly to the government’s active promotion of economic development while it has been soft on social management (社会管理).
On December 22, the People’s Daily ran an article called, “What does the ‘turnaround in Wukan’ clue us in to?” (“乌坎转机”提示我们什么), which called on governments at all levels [in China] to “eliminate the ‘oppositional stance’ in dealing with the masses” (扫除面对群众的‘对手思维’). The article said: “Looking back on many mass incidents over the past few years and assessing their basic character, [one realizes that] the vast majority arise from the fact that the masses, in response to appeals on behalf of their vested interests, have received no satisfaction or relief. This tells us that local government must have a keen awareness of prevailing conditions in facing the interest demands of the masses, even if these involve tension and conflict.”
Zhu Mingguo, who has personally handled this incident, subsequently stated that the villagers of Wukan Village raised two demands in particular. The first concerned the question of land. Wukan Village has 9,000 mu [or 6 square kilometers] of land, and now more than 6,700 mu [or 4.46 kilometers, 75 percent of the total] have been sold, leaving just over 2,000 [mu [or 25 percent of the original land]. But the villagers have not been transformed into city residents [of Lufeng City], nor has the issue of basic living allowances from the city been resolved [CHECK]. The demands of the villagers are reasonable. The second issue raised by the villagers was that the affairs of the village were not handled openly. They said that village cadres were corrupt, and that they were not consulted over the issue of land sales. “The villagers said to me that under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party they had farmed the land without paying taxes and also enjoyed subsidies and free education. We do no oppose the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party is good! What we oppose is the village selling the land without telling us,” [said Zhu Mingguo]. Zhu Mingguo added: “If these demands had been satisfied earlier, would this matter have built up to such an extent?”
I’m confident there is a great deal of truth to these words. But the heart of the problem is the question of how the ruling Party and government can create a system for themselves in which they must resolve demands of this kind. Perhaps there is nothing better than external pressure to bring people to their senses, and competition offers the best instruction. [CHECK]
2.
The so-called “Wukan incident” originated back in March 2011, at which point the villagers, who had suffered in silence for more than a decade, finally united in action. It is alleged that after local officials were involved in one particular corrupt land deal, furious villagers assaulted the village Party branch, and in the three months that followed numerous conflicts erupted.
The incident suddenly escalated in mid-December. On December 13, 42-year-old Xue Jinbo — who according to some accounts was 43 years old — one of several representatives chosen by Wukan villagers, died of heart failure while in [police] custody. Official media denied that wounds were present on Xue Jinbo’s body, [a claim made by Wukan villagers]. Reports said that on December 10 fellow detainees reported that Xue Jinbo was in a poor condition, and Xue Jinbo was then dispatched immediately to a nearby hospital, where he died after 30 minutes of emergency treatment. Reports also said that Xue Jinbo had a history of asthma and heart disease. [According to the reports], certification issued by forensic specialists at Guangzhou’s Sun-Yatsen Hospital shows that Xue Jinbo had no clear visible external wounds aside from bruising on his knees and wrists. The reports quoted the deputy director of this [forensic] center as saying that in his estimate the bruises on Xue Jinbo’s wrists had been caused by handcuffs, and that the bruises on his knees had been caused by kneeling on the ground.
Xue Jinbo and two others were detained on December 9, the justification being that they they were charged with destroying public financial affairs and jeopardizing public affairs. According to statements by local police, Xue Jinbo had led the unrest in Wukan due to tensions over land, [village] finances and issues with local election of [village] officials. At the time, [said police], he and other villagers had forced their way into the local government office and police station, and had destroyed six police vehicles. Police claim that these accusations were confirmed in two interrogations on September 9 and 10.
Xue Jinbo’s family has come to the conclusion that he was beaten to death. It is said that Xue Jinbo’s mother, wife and older brother went to view his body and discovered numerous wounds and bruises, including three points where his bones had been broken.
The anger of villagers then ignited and they openly opposed the local government. They organized large-scale demonstrations, and after cadres from the village Party branch and village committee deserted the village, they organized the village to govern itself, even setting up barricades and organizing hundreds of armed deputies to prevent violent suppression by police.
On December 15, acting Shanwei mayor Wu Zili (吴紫骊) gave a harshly worded denunciation [of the villagers]. He traced the incident back to two villagers who had been chosen to represent the villagers in negotiating with the government, Lin Zulian (林祖恋) and Yang Semao (杨色茂). He vowed to strike out firmly against “those principal figures who had planned and organized the inciting of villagers to smash and destroy public property, impede public affairs and other illegal and criminal activities.” He urged these people to turn themselves in. In a video appearing online on December 18, Shanwei Party Secretary Zheng Yanxiong (郑雁雄) harshly accused the villagers for using foreign media to invite the attention of the outside world to this local situation. Zheng Yanxiong said that the villagers had not sought the government but had instead sought out “rotten” foreign media, and “these media will only be happy when our socialist nation is broken and divided.”
These statements roused even greater feeling among the opposing [villagers]. After the above-mentioned language by Wu Zili, 8,000 of the villagers in a village with a total population of 20,000 again held demonstrations, the numbers double that of the previous day.
In fact, the full story of the Wukan incident is not all that complicated. When villagers attacked the offices of the village Party branch back in September last year, they accused the [local] government of selling off agricultural land in the village to a development company for a price as high as one billion yuan, and without providing villagers with reasonable compensation — and after [the transaction] pocketing 70 percent of the income [from the sale] for themselves.
As for the full and accurate situation in Wukan, perhaps we will have to wait patiently for the results of an independent and credible investigation. But cases like this of conflicts over interests emerging as a result of land appropriations (征地) are something that can be found everywhere in China today. According to research by Chinese Academy of Social Science professor Yu Jianrong (于建嵘), this sort of dispute over land accounts for two-thirds of all of all “mass incidents” in the countryside. Yu Jianrong estimates that since 1990 local officials in China have forcibly taken farmland totaling 6.72 million hectares, and owing to the gap between the actual market value of land and the amount of compensation for land actually given to farmers, [Yu estimates that] farmers have [collectively] lost around 2 trillion yuan (US$316 billion) in rights and benefits.
While the central Party leadership has said again and again that it will take concerted action against illegal land use, and has created new regulations prohibiting forced land seizures, demanding that farmers be compensated according to market value . . . and in fact this year’s No. 1 Document (一号文件) points out clearly that the portion of income from land appreciation given to farmers needs to be raised, all of these measures have met with fierce opposition from local governments. This is because at present the normal operations of local governments rely to a high-degree on so-called “land financing” (土地财政). According to a report released by the National Audit Office of the PRC in June [2011], local government debt nationally in China reached 10.7 trillion yuan, and of this 2.5 trillion yuan (or 23 percent) was guaranteed (担保) by land sales. By contrast, the estimate of total land sales income for local governments nationwide in 2010 was 2.9 trillion yuan. Which is to say that total income from land sales by local governments in 2010 is probably only sufficient to pay back the debt that will come due for the next few years.
All of this means that if the current trends do not change, standoffs like that at Wukan will most likely only increase steadily.
unquote
Monday, February 6, 2012
One more on KIM DOTCOM........
please read here:
quote
Megaupload founder to try and get assets back
From: AAP
February 05, 2012
KIM Dotcom is to try and regain control of his assets in court next week.
The 38-year-old Megaupload founder, who was again denied bail on Friday, will fight to get back millions of dollars seized in worldwide raids late last month.
Papers have been filed in the Auckland High Court which say the freezing orders used to seize Dotcom's fortune have gone too far and the money should be returned, the Herald on Sunday reports.
His lawyer, Paul Davison, has said Dotcom was disappointed with the outcome of Friday's High Court bail hearing, which challenged a North Shore District Court decision to keep him in custody.
Justice Raynor Asher agreed that Dotcom posed a flight risk.
A further application for bail can be made if there are new circumstances or the decision can be appealed.
Dotcom and three other men were arrested on January 20 after Dotcom's $30 million rented mansion in Coatesville was raided.
Dotcom's security chief alleges the arrest was a "home invasion by New Zealand police at the urging of the US Government" and that help was slow to arrive when Dotcom's wife Mona became ill but police are satisfied with their tactics.
More than $10 million from financial institutions, and assets, including luxury cars worth $6 million and expensive art works, were seized.
The men face charges in the US of racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering. Extradition papers are expected to be filed on February 22.
Bail has been granted to two of Dotcom's co-accused, Finn Batato, 38, of Germany, and Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, 29, who holds New Zealand residency.
The other accused man is Mathias Ortmann, 40, of Germany.
It is alleged the group amassed $NZ216 million in criminal proceeds through the website
unquote
quote
Megaupload founder to try and get assets back
From: AAP
February 05, 2012
KIM Dotcom is to try and regain control of his assets in court next week.
The 38-year-old Megaupload founder, who was again denied bail on Friday, will fight to get back millions of dollars seized in worldwide raids late last month.
Papers have been filed in the Auckland High Court which say the freezing orders used to seize Dotcom's fortune have gone too far and the money should be returned, the Herald on Sunday reports.
His lawyer, Paul Davison, has said Dotcom was disappointed with the outcome of Friday's High Court bail hearing, which challenged a North Shore District Court decision to keep him in custody.
Justice Raynor Asher agreed that Dotcom posed a flight risk.
A further application for bail can be made if there are new circumstances or the decision can be appealed.
Dotcom and three other men were arrested on January 20 after Dotcom's $30 million rented mansion in Coatesville was raided.
Dotcom's security chief alleges the arrest was a "home invasion by New Zealand police at the urging of the US Government" and that help was slow to arrive when Dotcom's wife Mona became ill but police are satisfied with their tactics.
More than $10 million from financial institutions, and assets, including luxury cars worth $6 million and expensive art works, were seized.
The men face charges in the US of racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering. Extradition papers are expected to be filed on February 22.
Bail has been granted to two of Dotcom's co-accused, Finn Batato, 38, of Germany, and Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, 29, who holds New Zealand residency.
The other accused man is Mathias Ortmann, 40, of Germany.
It is alleged the group amassed $NZ216 million in criminal proceeds through the website
unquote
And here is the song about that LOCUST story ........
enjoy it:
Here another version in Cantonese only - but different video:
Here another version in Cantonese only - but different video:
About That Hong Kong ‘Locust’ Ad…
....here a little bit more info about that topic - this is from here !
Hong Kong’s latest fissure with China deepened Wednesday after a popular local newspaper published an advertisement slamming mainland Chinese as “locusts” who swarm the city and drain its resources.
“Hong Kong people, we have endured enough in silence,” said the ad, which ran in the Apple Daily, a Chinese-language paper with an average daily circulation of about 288,000 in the first half of 2011, according to Hong Kong’s Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The full-page ad, which shows a locust looking at the Hong Kong skyline, was paid for by an online fund-raising campaign on Facebook and local site Hong Kong Golden Forum, which received more than 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$12,900) from 800 donors in a week.
A man who identified himself over the phone as “Mr. Poon” and goes by the name of Yung Jhong online said he organized the campaign. He said he was inspired to act after seeing news stories about mainland Chinese mothers who crossed the border to bear children in Hong Kong so that their offspring could obtain Hong Kong citizenship and the benefits that come along with it. Local authorities say that some 40,000 mainland Chinese mothers gave birth in Hong Kong hospitals last year, straining the local health-care system.
“People want to protect the city for their kids, protect the education and health-care system,” he said. “Hong Kongers are welcoming to everybody, even those from China, to come and visit and shop. But they have to follow our rules, which is why we feel like we have to say something.”
See more on this story at Scene Asia
unquote
One comment from my side:
The issue of mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong is a serious problem. You need to know that if the baby is born in Hong Kong it will be automatically a "permanent resident".
If the baby gets older - becoming an adult - this "baby" easily can apply for dependent visas for the parents, means the parents can permanently stay in Hong Kong. Do the math yourself - we are talking about an increase of several 100,000's of people living in Hong Kong within the next 20 years.......
quote
A Hong Kong newspaper ad decried Chinese visitors as ‘locusts.’ The text asks, ‘Are you willing for Hong Kong to spend one million Hong Kong dollars every 18 minutes to raise the children born to mainland parents?’ Hong Kong’s latest fissure with China deepened Wednesday after a popular local newspaper published an advertisement slamming mainland Chinese as “locusts” who swarm the city and drain its resources.
“Hong Kong people, we have endured enough in silence,” said the ad, which ran in the Apple Daily, a Chinese-language paper with an average daily circulation of about 288,000 in the first half of 2011, according to Hong Kong’s Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The full-page ad, which shows a locust looking at the Hong Kong skyline, was paid for by an online fund-raising campaign on Facebook and local site Hong Kong Golden Forum, which received more than 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$12,900) from 800 donors in a week.
A man who identified himself over the phone as “Mr. Poon” and goes by the name of Yung Jhong online said he organized the campaign. He said he was inspired to act after seeing news stories about mainland Chinese mothers who crossed the border to bear children in Hong Kong so that their offspring could obtain Hong Kong citizenship and the benefits that come along with it. Local authorities say that some 40,000 mainland Chinese mothers gave birth in Hong Kong hospitals last year, straining the local health-care system.
“People want to protect the city for their kids, protect the education and health-care system,” he said. “Hong Kongers are welcoming to everybody, even those from China, to come and visit and shop. But they have to follow our rules, which is why we feel like we have to say something.”
See more on this story at Scene Asia
unquote
One comment from my side:
The issue of mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong is a serious problem. You need to know that if the baby is born in Hong Kong it will be automatically a "permanent resident".
If the baby gets older - becoming an adult - this "baby" easily can apply for dependent visas for the parents, means the parents can permanently stay in Hong Kong. Do the math yourself - we are talking about an increase of several 100,000's of people living in Hong Kong within the next 20 years.......
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Hong Kong 'locust' ad angers Chinese web users
During being away the debate got somewhat more heated........Now see this ------ bloggers from China recommend China Shoppers not to go Hong Kong for shopping.......please be aware how much MONEY Hong Kong people spend on the mainland for travelling, entertainment (whatever category.......) + besides the Hong Kong tourism - how much Hong Kong investments are pouring into China since more than 3 decades. So you better shut up - you penny-picking mainland tourists spending your BLACK MONEY in Hong Kong......Besides this we dont care if LV, Gucci or Prada will lose some turnover because of you not coming here. Because besides of this stupid LV + Chanel shopping everything else they are spending here is very LOW BUDGET !
Read this - from here - just click:
Hong Kong 'locust' ad angers Chinese web users
SHANGHAI — Chinese netizens voiced anger Thursday over a Hong Kong advert portraying mainlanders as "locusts", sparking a call for calm in a state newspaper after an increasingly bitter exchange of words.
The advert was published in Hong Kong's widely-read Apple Daily Wednesday by an anonymous group in retaliation for comments made by Chinese professor Kong Qingdong, who called locals of the former British colony "dogs".
"How dare Hong Kong people have the courage to say we are locusts. No one should go to Hong Kong," said Reneeshou on Sina's popular microblog service.
"This shows a limited sense of appreciation (towards China) and a lack of tolerance of an international city," another commented.
The full-page advert demanded action to stop mainland Chinese "infiltration" of the territory, showing a huge locust overlooking Hong Kong's skyline with the words "Hong Kongers have had enough!" and "This city is dying, you know?"
Mainlanders are a key source of revenue for Hong Kong, but there is growing discontent over the thousands of mainland women who come to give birth in the territory every year, taking up limited beds and pushing up costs.
Many Hong Kongers also dislike the shadowy role that Beijing plays in local politics and the flashy displays of wealth by mainland Chinese tourists.
Mainlanders, for their part, complain people from Hong Kong -- which is part of China but enjoys more economic and political freedom -- look down on them.
Kong made the comments in an online, broadcast interview last week after a video of Hong Kongers scolding a mainland woman for disregarding rules and eating on a train went viral on the Internet.
"Originally, I didn't agree with Kong Qingdong, but after seeing the Apple Daily ad, I just want to say that these people really are mad dogs," one outraged web user wrote.
However, others admitted the behaviour of mainland Chinese travellers in Hong Kong could be improved.
"I do not like the Apple newspaper ad, but I think people who have been to Hong Kong should reflect on what they did. The quality of behaviour should be improved," another comment read.
The recent, barbed exchanges have prompted the official Global Times newspaper to call for calm.
In an editorial Thursday, the newspaper said China and Hong Kong should grow closer on the basis of a "shared identity".
"The mixed mutual feelings are making things more complicated. More efforts are needed from both the mainland and Hong Kong," it said.
Read this - from here - just click:
Hong Kong 'locust' ad angers Chinese web users
SHANGHAI — Chinese netizens voiced anger Thursday over a Hong Kong advert portraying mainlanders as "locusts", sparking a call for calm in a state newspaper after an increasingly bitter exchange of words.
The advert was published in Hong Kong's widely-read Apple Daily Wednesday by an anonymous group in retaliation for comments made by Chinese professor Kong Qingdong, who called locals of the former British colony "dogs".
"How dare Hong Kong people have the courage to say we are locusts. No one should go to Hong Kong," said Reneeshou on Sina's popular microblog service.
"This shows a limited sense of appreciation (towards China) and a lack of tolerance of an international city," another commented.
The full-page advert demanded action to stop mainland Chinese "infiltration" of the territory, showing a huge locust overlooking Hong Kong's skyline with the words "Hong Kongers have had enough!" and "This city is dying, you know?"
Mainlanders are a key source of revenue for Hong Kong, but there is growing discontent over the thousands of mainland women who come to give birth in the territory every year, taking up limited beds and pushing up costs.
Many Hong Kongers also dislike the shadowy role that Beijing plays in local politics and the flashy displays of wealth by mainland Chinese tourists.
Mainlanders, for their part, complain people from Hong Kong -- which is part of China but enjoys more economic and political freedom -- look down on them.
Kong made the comments in an online, broadcast interview last week after a video of Hong Kongers scolding a mainland woman for disregarding rules and eating on a train went viral on the Internet.
"Originally, I didn't agree with Kong Qingdong, but after seeing the Apple Daily ad, I just want to say that these people really are mad dogs," one outraged web user wrote.
However, others admitted the behaviour of mainland Chinese travellers in Hong Kong could be improved.
"I do not like the Apple newspaper ad, but I think people who have been to Hong Kong should reflect on what they did. The quality of behaviour should be improved," another comment read.
The recent, barbed exchanges have prompted the official Global Times newspaper to call for calm.
In an editorial Thursday, the newspaper said China and Hong Kong should grow closer on the basis of a "shared identity".
"The mixed mutual feelings are making things more complicated. More efforts are needed from both the mainland and Hong Kong," it said.
Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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