Society's ChildS


Family

Flashback What Turkey really fears? People Power: The unique Kurdish-Syrian experiment in democracy

kurdish democracy experiment
© Carne RossYPJ fighter at a shelter in Rojava, Syria
The Kurds in Rojava are testing a democratic model shaped by the political philosophy of an American eco-anarchist

Perhaps the last place you would expect to find a thriving experiment in direct democracy is Syria. But something radical is happening, little noticed, in the eastern reaches of that fractured country, in the isolated region known to the Kurds as Rojava.

Just as remarkable, perhaps, is that the philosophy that inspired self-government here was originated by a little-known American political thinker and one-time "eco-activist" whose ideas found their way to Syria through a Kurdish leader imprisoned upon an island in the Sea of Marmara. It's a story that bizarrely connects a war-torn Middle East with New York's Lower East Side.

I visited Rojava last month while filming a documentary about the failings of the western model of democracy. The region covers a substantial "corner" of north-east Syria and has a population of approximately 3m, yet it is not easy to get to. The only passage is by small boat or a creaky pontoon bridge across the Tigris from Iraq.

Better Earth

People power: 'Putin's world is open to all who wish to belong'

Putin sculpture
© Sputnik/ Sergey Venyavsky
Regardless of all the Western propaganda, Russians are not the only ones who hold President Putin in high esteem: increasing dissatisfaction with governments in the West and Putin's snap military intervention in Syria, in contrast to the West's perceived passivity, are gaining him surprise support across the globe, according to Western media.

"Vladimir Putin, it seems, is impervious to the woes that afflict normal leaders," laments The Economist.

Even a recession, falling real wages and rampant inflation have barely dented his ratings, adds the London-based weekly newspaper.

Handcuffs

Chicago police arrest teachers at 1000-march protest rally

Chicago teachers
© The Chicago TribuneChicago Teachers Union members protest cuts as they march downtown toward City Hall.
Police in the US State of Illinois have reportedly arrested at least 12 teachers at an anti-austerity rally in Chicago.

The arrests were made Thursday as at least 1,000 teachers and their supporters marched through the Loop, Chicago's financial district, to protest against cuts proposed earlier this week by Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Teachers said they wanted to express anger over CPS's threats to cut $100 million from the budget, which would include layoffs affecting the classroom.

Their rally was organized by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) whose officials blame the financial institution, Bank of America, for bad investments that have helped hurt the shaky finances of the school system, US media reports said.

The march began at Bank of America around 4:30 p.m. local time, where police intervened after people allegedly went inside the bank, sat down and chanted. Afterwards, the protesters, who by some accounts had turned out in their thousands, headed to Congress building. The rally continued south from LaSalle, blocking Congress Parkway before returning north via Dearborn to Daley Plaza. Protests concluded at City Hall.

The protesters held banners reading "Banks rob schools" and "Starving schools to feed the rich" as well as chanting "Save our schools." CPS officials have reportedly expressed hope an agreement could be reached with teachers.


Comment: Bankster manipulations have far-reaching effects that permeate throughout the US into all corners of the society, in this case the quality and standards of a child's education and the livelihood of their teachers. The police are arresting those who protest the financial wrong-doings instead of those who create them.


Eye 2

Not welcomed: Migrants leave Austria and return to Middle East

refugees
© AFP 2016/ JOE KLAMAR
Refugees and migrants in Austria are having second thoughts and making plans to return home to the Middle East, Deutsche Welle reported.Many refugees and migrants have become disillusioned with life as immigrants in Austria and are making plans to return home, Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on Wednesday.

Books

Yemeni scholars aim to save ancient books, the 'heart of Islamic tradition,' from Saudi destruction

yemen
© MSF
Since a Saudi-led coalition last March began its bombing campaign against the antigovernment forces now controlling much of Yemen, more than 5,800 people have been killed. Experts say the bombs have also done irreparable damage to historical sites and precious antiquities, including ancient manuscripts dating back to the 10th century.

Unless action is taken soon, scholars warn, Yemen's rare collection of manuscripts — crucial windows to the region's past — may be permanently lost.

"Within these manuscripts are inscribed the collective memory of a people, a continuous cultural tradition from the 10th century to the recent present. Once this memory is erased, an important chapter of the story of what it is to be human is no longer recoverable," said David Hollenberg, director of Arabic at the University of Oregon.

Comment: Further reading:
What is actually happening in Yemen is pretty much the scenario the USclaims is playing out in Syria; a popular uprising being brutally suppressed. Except, in this case, the US, through its royalist puppets in the region, is playing the role of 'brutal dictator deliberately killing civilians'. Again we see that the truth does not just radically differ from the Western narrative; it's completely inverted. While posturing over the 'democratic legitimacy' of Al-Hadi, Saudi Arabia, a country that wouldn't recognize democracy if it smashed into it in the form of a fiery comet, has used every dirty trick in the book to topple the Syrian government.

Monolithic and Ruthless Conspiracy: The West's Obliteration of Yemen by Covert Means



Question

Backyard in Kaliningrad swamped by unknown acid-green liquid

Acid Green Liquid
© EyeVizor/YouTube
An apartment block backyard in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad has been swamped with an unknown acid-green liquid. Pictures of it quickly spread across social media. Neither the tenants nor the authorities had any idea how it got there.

The mysterious liquid was first noticed on Wednesday, witnesses say. It appeared near a manhole and took over almost all territory near the entrance of the apartment building.

"It has no smell, it appeared yesterday, and it's still there. Everyone who stumbles upon it takes a picture of it," one of the tenants told Kaliningrad.ru.

People have been enthusiastic about posting their versions of what the green thing could be online. Theories range from a doctored picture to a marker leak to an alien execution spot.

HAL9000

Tips for trolls: How to stifle critical thought, dissent, and the search for truth

troll
© Gaertringen / Pixabay (CC0 Public Domain)Beware of smiling trolls.
This is Part 2 of a three-part series on the insidious techniques of trolls, spooks, feds, saboteurs, provocateurs, disinformants — whatever you wish to call them.

These techniques were posted anonymously on the Internet some time ago. They appear to have been written by a professional troll for the "benefit" of less experienced trolls on how to prevent the sharing of inconvenient facts on political forums. As we pointed out in Part 1, we would normally not publish such material because we cannot verify any of it.

And yet... we feel we have seen every one of these methods in action.

As you read this, you may have a sense of deja-vu. Or you may have witnessed yet other maneuvers not described below. We encourage you to add your own observations to this ongoing collection. We would love to hear from you.

It is probably unnecessary, but we are obliged to make this statement: Far from endorsing these attempts to hijack free and open discourse, we believe that exposing them can help blunt their power to confuse and control. Forewarned is forearmed.

Comment: Don't miss Part 1 of this series: The art of disinformation and distraction: How trolls control an internet forum


Pirates

San Francisco riot police 'sweep away' homeless protesters ahead of Superbowl festivities

Homeless protest Superbowl
© AP/Eric RisbergPeople hold up signs and a tent during a protest to demand city officials do more to help homeless people outside Super Bowl City, in San Francisco on Feb. 3, 2016.
The priorities of San Francisco city government are being put on stark display as homeless people, and those supporting them in protest, are being cleared out to make way for Super Bowl festivities. The spectacle of American football, and the millions of dollars that come with it, are far more important than the well-being of the city's less fortunate.

On Wednesday, a few hundred protesters showed up at Super Bowl City to bring attention to the homeless population that is being increasingly shoved aside while San Francisco subsidizes the wealthy. Under the name "Tackle Homelessness," protesters set up tents and carried signs such as "house keys not homelessness" and "Hey Mayor Lee, no penalty for poverty."

As this video shows, protesters were met by a swarm of about 100 police officers dressed in riot gear, issuing orders over a loudspeaker to pack up their tents and clear the area within one minute.
"You have one minute to disassemble those tents and put them away. If they're not disassembled, we will confiscate them and we will book them as evidence and keep them as safekeeping."
The heavy hand of the police state demonstrated here is a reflection of what goes on every day in San Francisco. Instead of taking measures to aid the homeless, the city is increasingly penalizing them. According to the organizers of Tackle Homelessness, citations are on the rise for those sleeping in the streets, and there is only one shelter bed for every six homeless people.
"The major freeway arteries, the encampments surrounding them, have been displaced. People have been getting ticketed, getting arrested, having their property confiscated," said Jennifer Friedenbach with the Coalition on Homelessness."

Comment: Mobilizing and coming together in public spaces on issues that matter to a community aren't allowed in a pathocracy. For something more interesting to watch than the Superbowl, check out our latest Earth Changes Summary video to see what's been happening on our planet and what is in store for the future.

SOTT Earth Changes Summary - December 2015: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

See also: San Francisco scrambling to relocate homeless before Super Bowl 50


Megaphone

Anti-TPP protest begins in San Francisco outside US senator's office

Anti-TPP protester sign
© AFP 2016/ Saul Loeb
The US public should reach out to Congress and urge their representatives to block the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Global Policy Analyst Maira Sutton said during a protest against the trade deal in San Francisco, California on Thursday.

Sutton, who rallied in front of the office of US Senator Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco, argued that the TPP agreement threatens Internet users, extends restrictive intellectual property laws, and rewrites rules on its enforcement, among its other controversial aspects.

"We have to preempt this legislation from getting introduced," Sutton stated. "Please call your representatives... call them every day."

Comment: This needs to be done all across the US to let the government know this free trade agreement will not help the people.


Family

UN censures France for children's rights abuse

2 boys
© www.unhcr.orgAsylum seekers braving the cold at the refugee camp in Calais.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has censured France for failing to stop the corporal punishment of children and ill-treatment of Roma and asylum-seeking minors. The CRC issued non-binding recommendations on Thursday, calling on the government in Paris to work more effectively to halt violence against children. "No violence against children is justifiable," said the CRC after a review of the state of child rights in France, urging the government in Paris "to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, including in the family, in schools, day cares and in alternative care."

The UN body also said it was "concerned by cases of ill-treatment of children with disabilities in institutions," specifically urging France to ban "packing," a technique in which children with autistic spectrum disorders are wrapped in cold, wet sheets. The CRC said packing amounted to "ill treatment."

The situation of asylum seeking minors was also of high concern for UN officials, with CRC member Hynd Ayoubi Idrissi particularly raising the plight of those living in squalor refugee camps in the northern port city of Calais. Idrissi said what was happening on the ground in the camps was far distant from the policies of the French Interior Ministry.

"More and more children are being placed in administrative waiting zones, in hotels which don't comply with the minimum child protection standards," she said in at a press conference, adding that those children "had difficulty in exercising their right to access health care services."

The CRC report came a day after French authorities evacuated 400 people from the Roma community from their camps on a disused railway line in northern Paris. The move prompted the Council of Europe to express concern over France's "mass expulsion policy."

Comment: The CRC's recommendations are non-binding, therefore able to be ignored or side-stepped until they are ratified. Recommendations or not, the health and welfare of minors should be on top of every country's list of rights and guarantees.