Category: Civil Society

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Dave Warner: TED Prize of $1M to Anti-Corruption and Transparency Activist

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics
Dr. Dr. Dave Warner
Dr. Dr. Dave Warner

TED Winner Launches Campaign to Unmask Shell Companies

Anti-corruption activist Charmian Gooch launched a new global campaign on Tuesday night to unmask shell corporations and lobby for legislation requiring more transparency, using a newly awarded $1 million TED Prize.

The Global Witness co-founder won the prestigious award to expand on her organization’s work to unmask shell companies used by dictators, criminals and terrorists for money laundering and to hide assets around the world.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

“My wish is for us to know who owns and controls companies, so that they can no longer be used anonymously against the public good,” Gooch said while accepting the award and unveiling her wish. “Together, let’s ignite world opinion, change the law, and together launch a new era of openness in business.”

“This isn’t just a dry policy issue,” Gooch added. “This is a human issue which affects us all. This is about being on the right side of history.”

Shell companies are widely used around the globe by people and entities that want to conceal financial transactions or the true ownership of corporations. Activists have argued that widespread use of shell corporations have made it easier for dictators and criminals to hide money, evade taxes, or illegally transfer assets.

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Richard Falk: Why Do I Persist?

Academia, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Officers Call
Richard Falk
Richard Falk

I have been asked recently why do I persist in working hard for the things that I believe in, knowing that I will die in the next several years, and am almost certain not to be around for the catastrophic future that seems to cast its dark shadow across the road ahead, and can only be removed by a major transnational movement of the peoples of the world.

. . . . . . .

My own reflections on why I persist in doing what I am doing are more simplistic, less sophisticated, and maybe no less trivializing, but also more satisfying to me as explanations that connect with my experience. In contrast to ScheffIer I would emphasize three distinct lines of explanation that are each experiential, and hopefully not sentimental: lifetime habit, being on the right side of history, and the inherent pleasures of intellectual life.

Full presentation below the line.

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Owl: Malaysian Airlines a Practice Run or Real Asian 9/11 Aborted for Reasons Unknown?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military
Who? Who?
Who? Who?

Flight 370: Zio-Al Queda-NeoCon Sequel to 9-11 Aborted, a Practice Run or on Horizon (Literally)?

This article states the piloting of flight 270 involved flying it at very low levels to evade radar:

“As the search for the missing flight MH370 enters its 10th day with few clues as to its whereabouts, the New Straits Times said today the Boeing 777-200ER dropped 5,000 feet (1,500m) to evade commercial radar detection. In an exclusive story, the government-backed paper said investigators analysing MH370’s flight data revealed that the 200-tonne, fully laden twinjet descended 1,500m or even lower to evade commercial (secondary) radar coverage after it turned back from its flight path en route to Beijing. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board. Malaysian authorities said on Saturday the plane was deliberately diverted and its on-board transmission devices switched off to avoid detection. Its last contact was at 8:11am north of the Strait of Malacca. Investigators poring over MH370’s flight data had said the plane had flown low and used “terrain masking” as it flew over the e Bay of Bengal and headed north towards land, the NST reported.”

“Terrain masking” is an interesting term, implying a military aspect:

Continue reading “Owl: Malaysian Airlines a Practice Run or Real Asian 9/11 Aborted for Reasons Unknown?”

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Patrick Meier: Grassroots UAVs for Disaster Response — Actionable Timely Locally-Controlled, Locally-Exploitable

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Drones & UAVs, Ethics, Government
Patrick Meier
Patrick Meier

Grassroots UAVs for Disaster Response

 

I was recently introduced to a new initiative that seeks to empower grassroots communities to deploy their own low-cost xUAVs. The purpose of this initiative? To support locally-led disaster response efforts and in so doing transfer math, science and engineering skills to local communities. The “x” in xUAV refers to expendable. The initiative is a partnership between California State University (Long Beach), University of Hawaii, Embry Riddle, The Philippine Council for Industry, Energy & Emerging Technology Research & Development, Skyeye, Aklan State University and Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. The team is heading back to the Philippines next week for their second field mission. This blog post provides a short overview of the project’s approach and the results from their first mission, which took place during December 2013-February 2014.

Read full post with images.

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Michael Ostrolenk: OpenGov.com Putting City Finances Online — Empowering Citizens to Hold Politicians Accountable for Every Penny…

Civil Society, Ethics, Government
Michael Ostrolenk
Michael Ostrolenk

Imagine every citizen being able to hold politicians accountable down to the penny

By

Against Crony Capitalism,

There is great hope that tech will bring local bureaucrats and crony capitalists if not to heal, at least more into the light in a big way, soon. We are at the beginning of a transformation. (Let’s hope.) As data becomes more and more available, and search engine tools become better and more intuitive, citizens are going to increasingly audit the books of their home towns.

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Peggy Duvette: WISER.org Closes – Social Network for Sustainability

Civil Society, Ethics
Peggy Duvette
Peggy Duvette

Dear Wiser.org friends, members and supporters,

After many months of reflection and extensive feedback from Wiser.org members, editors and our board of directors, we have decided to close and archive the Wiser.org website.

The archiving of the site will take place on April 10th 2014.

It has been an incredible journey and we are so grateful that you have shared part of it with us.
Our priority now is to ensure that all the hard work over the years is nurtured and continues to thrive in the hands of other community leaders in the field.

To this end, we have been working with partners who will help re-purpose parts of Wiser.org's content and support our community. Once our site is closed, the following partners have offered to build upon our data set:

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