AK Rockefeller

The Jayapura Five: Our Choices and Actions Do Affect the Lives of Others

blakandblack — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:06:42 +0000

The actions of one country can seriously influence lives elsewhere. West Papua is a case in point, a seemingly small and remote area of the world, but nonetheless home to 245 different tribal peoples, each with their own language and culture. The highlands are densely populated regions where bigger tribes such as the Nduga and Amungme live and survive by shifting cultivation and hunting. The Indonesian government has placed and continues to place pressure on indigenous communities and cultures in West Papua. The appropriation of land for new settlements, forestry concessions, mining projects including oil, gas, copper, and gold and farming, as well as military presence has infringed upon indigenous rights to land, resources and culture. West Papua hosts one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines, the Grasberg mine in which US based Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold has a majority stake.
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Papua New Guinea’s Soldiers and Cops exploited

Wantok — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:10:23 +0000

Papua New Guinean film maker Scott Waide’s recent video featuring the squalid living conditions of police in the Madang Province, highlighted the humanity and fragileness of these men in blue in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
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Blue Girl.. .

humphreyking — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:26:48 +0000

'Blue Girl' & 'Lullaby' by Humphrey King
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Kurds: The Muslim World’s “Unworthy” Victims

AK Rockefeller — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:24:56 +0000

2011 marked the shift many Middle East observers had been anticipating. Since their formation, nations stretching between the Maghreb and beyond the Levanthave endured decades of authoritarian rule. Mohamed Bouazizi’s self immolation within the last year in Tunisia was the ground breaking spark - producing an unprecedented defiance to the status quo and has since made revolutionary language requisite to discourse all over the Muslim world – a much needed air of refreshing change. As protesters demanded fair elections, freedom of speech and expression, and an end to emergency laws, police brutality, and corruption, the world watched the Arab Spring unfold with exhilaration as the Middle East began the process of reinventing itself.
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More First Nations Children Removed From Their Homes Than Ever Before

newsgrab — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:26:21 +0000

Three times more First Nations children are removed from their families today than at the peak of the residential school system in 1949. Then, approximately 8,900 aboriginal children were taken from their families and placed in residential schools. Now, more than 27,500 First Nations children are in foster care. According to former auditor general Sheila Fraser, First Nations children are being placed in care at six to eight times the rate of other Canadian children.
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Freeport Indonesia to renegotiate mining contract

AK Rockefeller — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:09:58 +0000

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc will renegotiate their contract with the Indonesian government that allows it to run Grasberg, the second largest copper mine in the world, the energy ministry said on Thursday.
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Unconfirmed reports of imminent major security crackdown in West Papua

newsgrab — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 07:08:45 +0000

Across West Papua, a series of remarkable and disturbing text messages has been circulating the claim that Indonesian security forces are preparing a major security assault across Papua in an operation that allegedly began on February 10.
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Am I not a man and a brother: A campaign for someone else’s rights

blakandblack — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:30:54 +0000

What developed from that faithful meeting held on May 22, 1787 was one of the most ambitious and brilliantly organised citizens’ campaigns of all times. A grassroot social movement, in many ways a viral campaign which owes much the marketing genius of Josiah Wedgwood, the company’s founder, who joined the anti-slave trade campaigners in 1790. Wedgwood had a genius for what is today called product placement. He’d find ways of getting his vases into famous paintings, for example, and figured he could deploy the same techniques in a political campaign. He came up with the anti-slavery logo depicting a chained African with the inscription “am I not a man and a brother?” It was everywhere, from hats to the stamps used to seal wax on envelopes. As Thomas Clarkson wrote: Wedgwood’s design was a precursor of today’s ribbon or wristband. Ladies wore them in bracelets, and others had them fitted up in an ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length the taste for wearing them became general, and thus fashion, which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom. Symbols such as Wedgwood’s give potency to a grassroot campaign, and make it even more contagious.
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What Does Papua Mean for US-Indonesia Relations?

newsgrab — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:02:40 +0000

Against a backdrop of continuing violence and instability, the United States must be prepared to take a stronger stand on Papua. Rising tensions there risk complicating critically significant U.S.-Indonesia relations, unnecessarily distracting from the strategically important “rebalancing” towards the Asia-Pacific recently announced by the Obama administration. By any measure, Indonesia looms large in U.S. foreign policy.
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Vietnam farmer a hero after shootout with police

newsgrab — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:46:17 +0000

Instead of drawing public condemnation, last month’s rare violence by fish farmers trying to hold onto leased land in the northern port city of Hai Phong has made a national hero of family ringleader Doan Van Vuon and ripped open a debate about heavy-handed seizures by local governments.
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Fighting Breaks Out in Shan State

newsgrab — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:53:37 +0000

Clashes have erupted in eastern Burma only weeks after a ceasefire was signed between the government and opposition Shan State Army (SSA). The fighting broke out earlier this week after Shan troops encountered three Burmese battalions. The SSA had been attempting to cross through its own territory northwest of the town of Tachilek, on Shan state’s border with Thailand.
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Guerilla Cultural anti-bank action from Madrid: TapiaBankia

ITS — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:51:43 +0000

De Norte a Sur de Este a Oeste… #TapiaBankia cueste lo que cueste.
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Canada’s Rush for Gold

AK Rockefeller — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:47:41 +0000

Canada may be one of the world's largest gold mining nations, but both its overseas and domestic mining activities are controversial.
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Protesters throw fire bombs at police in Athens

newsgrab — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:15:22 +0000

A total of 100,000 Greeks took to the streets to demonstrate against the government's planned sparepakke Sunday. Several buildings were burned in the capital Athens.
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The Jayapura Five face life in prison in West Papua

AK Rockefeller — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:50:05 +0000

FIVE Papuan independence activists are facing life in prison, with their trial getting underway in Jayapura, Papua, on Wednesday, February 8.
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Reporters Without Borders Concerned by Series of Media Freedom Violations in Indonesia

newsgrab — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:10:09 +0000

Reporters Without Borders is concerned by a series of media freedom violations in Indonesia in the past few days.
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Raver J: Collective

AK Rockefeller — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:38:19 +0000

Art can change our world. I have noticed something within my own life which I call “manifesting my avatar” my art is driving the course of all my life. The Intention behind my art always was that my art would be done for charity, awareness, and activism. The story/ies are fictional but run parallel to my life...
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Bodies of Dead Rohingya Found Floating in Naf River

newsgrab — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:58:37 +0000

The Nasaka is using the policy of “killing two birds in one shot” means the Nasaka is trying to reduce the population of Rohingya community from Arakan soil and earning money by giving permission to go abroad. But, there is no permission for Rohingya community to enter their homeland again.
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Czech Tourist Arrested in Papua For Photographing Protest

newsgrab — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:21:13 +0000

Police in Indonesia’s restive Papua region arrested a Czech tourist Wednesday for taking photos of a pro-independence demonstration. Petr Zamecnik, 35, was detained in the town of Manokwari, around 400 kilometers east of the popular Raja Ampat diving site in West Papua province, Manokwari police chief Agustinus Supriyanto told AFP. Supriyanto said: “We questioned him because his travel permit lists him as a tourist. He has now been handed over to immigration. Zamecnik was supposed to go on a holiday to Raja Ampat but he was found taking pictures of a protest instead.”
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709 Malaysia, This is Our Land

Zashnain — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:37:13 +0000

This video is not meant for create chaos but to unite people who against violence and abuse of power...
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