Society's ChildS


Eye 1

Paranoid UK: 4-yr-old Muslim boy who mispronounced 'cucumber' threatened with counter-terrorism program

Cucumber
© Jon Nazca / Reuters
A four-year-old Asian boy who mispronounced "cucumber" as "cooker bomb" was recommended for a de-radicalisation programme by staff at a UK nursery, the boy's family has said.

According to the child's mother, who has not been named, workers at the Luton-based nursery raised the suggestion after the boy drew a picture of a man with a large knife cutting the vegetable.

Alarmed at the sight of the knife, staff asked the child what he was drawing. They heard the child call it a "cooker bomb,"misinterpreting the boy's words as a type of improvised explosive device, when in reality it was a mispronunciation of"cucumber," the BBC reported.

Hourglass

One tribe's war against corporate greed: How the indigenous Penan people of Borneo are fighting to preserve their forest against the loggers

Penan tribe
© www.aljazeera.com
The Penan people of Sarawak state have been pushed out of their forests by dam projects [AP]
With the loss of their land, the Penan fear they will lose their independence.

In the damp, lush and humid rainforest of northern Sarawak, on Borneo, the indigenous Penan tribe who have lived on the island for centuries fight a daily battle against the logging juggernauts who want to raze their homes to the ground.

Living off the land and in tune with their natural environment, 12,000 of the hunter-gatherer Penan remain - some living nomadically, relying on the forest for their existence.

Having suffered decades of logging, plantation developments, massive dams and a government who have not protected their rights, the decimated Penan have finally decided to stand-up to the corporate giants by banding together to stand firm - and they have finally received recognition.

Comment: Good luck to the Penan people. We have seen the horrific destruction done to the Native people and the land they inhabit all over the globe in the name of progress and greed.

See also: Lone Indian man creates lush new forest ecosystem planting 1,360 acre forest


People

Banksy meme exposes divide and conquer tactic, goes viral

divide and conquer
Banksy is an England-based graffiti artist, political activist and film director of unverified identity. A newspaper investigation in 2008 and a study using geographic profiling in 2016 suggest that this highly influential street artist could be Robin Gunningham.

Banksy's work has inspired and uplifted the masses while simultaneously driving the establishment insane. His paintings and quotes have been reproduced countless times and in countless ways, leaving this artist's impression of peaceful political and social commentary on billions.

One particularly powerful quote, which is often attributed to Banksy is more relevant now than ever.
We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us.

Megaphone

Peru tribe frees government hostages after oil cleanup deal reached

peru oil spill hostage
© RPP
An indigenous tribe in Peru's Amazon jungle have released eight hostages and a military helicopter after national government agreed to include them as recipients of cleanup aid.

On Sunday members of the Mayuriaga community in the Datem del Marañon province of Loreto state detained a military helicopter and government officials to protest their exclusion from an aid package to clean up the areas affected by oil spills from state oil company Petroperu's Northern Peruvian Pipeline. The Wampis tribe in Mayuriaga detained eight officials from Petroperu, Peru's environmental protection agency OEFA, the mining and energy ministry and the military.

"We want to see reparations, and the Petroperu president to come and reach an agreement," a Wampis leader told El Comercio.

Arrow Up

Arizona congressman furious he cannot give sacred Apache land to copper mining company

Native American
© Photos Facebook
An Arizona congressman is angry that sacred Apache land will continue to remain listed in the National Register of Historic Places, according to Tucson Weekly.

Republican Rep. Paul Gosar and Sen. John McCain had joined forces with Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick in an effort to sell off the ancestral Native American land, known as Oak Flat or Chi'chil Bildagoteel to the Apache community, to mining firm Resolution Copper, owned by an Australian-British corporation.

The designation of Oak Flat as a National Historic Place could hamper the plan to construct a copper mine on the land. But ultimately nothing "guarantees that a historic property cannot be modified or even destroyed," said Stephanie Toothman, the National Register's keeper, in a letter to the two lawmakers.

Comment: See also: Sold down the river: Navajo activists protest Utah water rights as a bad deal


Attention

Gerald Celente warns to prepare for the panic of 2016, says "history will remember this"

market crash
Earlier this week hedge fund manager Marin Katusa explained that up until the recent stock market hit all the easy money flowing into the energy sector was being exuberantly spent on hookers, blow and fancy toys. Now, as oil prices hover under $40 per barrel, Katusa said more pain is likely coming and oil, along with other asset classes, are going to go "lower for longer."

In a recent interview with Future Money Trends, trend forecaster Gerald Celente echos Katusa's concerns. Having accurately predicted the Crash of 2008 nine months ahead of the bottom falling out on a global scale, Celente says another panic is coming this year.

But if you thought 2008 was bad, says Celente, this crash will be so severe it'll be one for the history books:

Comment: Celente has a nose for the truth. Do not miss the following (very edifying) interview with him which, interestingly, goes some way towards clarifying his insights into the coming economic turmoil.




SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: The Truth Perspective: What is radicalization?

Orthodox Jews
© Reuters / Toby MelvilleA group of Orthodox Jews attend an anti-war demonstration in central London.
This week, the Truth Perspective hosts were joined by Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley from Behind the Headlines.

If you read the papers or watch the news, you probably 'know' that radicalization is the biggest threat to human civilization and values the world has ever seen. But is it really? The phenomenon of radicalization is much discussed, but ill-defined and not thoroughly understood. The word itself has become a convenient catch-all for individuals and groups with a variety of goals and motivations. Whether religious, social, political, or economic, radicals can be either a force for positive change, or personal and social degradation. We need new words if we want to understand what's really going on.

Moving in that direction, we discussed radicalization in general, the history, goals, and influences on "radical Islam", and how the science of ponerology provides the only comprehensive understanding of what's really going on, and the real threats facing humanity. Relevant topics included: the Iranian revolution, the colonial history of the Middle East, the creation of Israel, the occupations of Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq, the nature of resistance movements, the varieties of 'conversion' experiences, and more.

Running Time: 02:27:03

Download: MP3


Books

Standardized teaching and testing reduces students to cogs in a machine

Testing, standardized tests
© Alberto G. /Flickr
Teaching is more than just assembling a series of best practices that are expected to lead students to perfect standardized test scores.

According to an article published by Florida International University curriculum and instruction professor James Burns, teachers should be lifelong learners who inspire their students to take a critical view of the world around them.

Teachers and teacher educators can do this by:
  • Developing an understanding of teaching and learning as a lifelong process
  • Focusing learning on critical thinking, curiosity, sharing ideas and igniting emotions
  • Relying less on routine, formulaic ways of teaching
  • Focusing less on teaching students to "bank" knowledge
  • Developing a culturally sustaining curriculum that encourages community building, dialogue and democracy

Comment: What passes for education in the US, is little more than an indoctrination system that aims to churn out authoritarian followers who lack critical thinking skills which might enable them to challenge the elite control system. They are dumbed-down by design so they willingly acquiesce to their roles in an increasingly mechanized and controlled environment. Many teachers have become fed up with the current system and are leaving the profession in droves, but there are some who are fighting back and initiating change.


Handcuffs

Prison for profit: Overcrowded jail leads to lawsuits between city and county officials

crowded prison
The epidemic of mass incarceration is coming back to bite authorities in one American city. Because the Greene County jail is completely full, Springfield (pop. 165,000) is unable to arrest more than 12,000 people accused of crimes such as traffic infractions and misdemeanor assaults.

Missouri's third-largest city has lost almost half a million dollars in less than a year from unpaid fines and fees. These lost extortion fees are likely the biggest concern to city officials.
"Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams said offenders are thumbing their noses at police.

"They're tearing tickets up in front of people," Williams said. "Officers are frustrated because they can't arrest anyone, judges are frustrated that they can't see people, prosecutors are frustrated. It has just kind of spun out of control.""

Nuke

5 years later: Why you should still be paying attention to Fukushima

fukushima
March 11th marks the five-year anniversary of one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history, which triggered an unprecedented melange of disasters of human and natural causes — including the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl in 1986: Fukushima.

Five years ago today, as Popular Mechanics summarized, the "earth moved more than 20 meters over a 500-mile zone and the resulting earthquake released as much energy as a 45-megaton hydrogen bomb (to put this in perspective, this is 30,000 times more powerful as the bomb that leveled Hiroshima). It was the fourth-strongest earthquake recorded since 1900 and the strongest earthquake to strike Japan in recorded history. The quake shifted the Earth's axis by somewhere between 4 and 10 inches, altering the length of a day by nearly 2 microseconds."

Comment: No bliss in this ignorance: Fukushima the great nuclear cover-up