Key Players – Page 78 – Public Intelligence Blog

ECUADOR INITIATIVE: Transition Proposals Toward a Commons-Oriented Economy and Society

Sponsored by the National Institute of Advanced Studies of Ecuador, carried out by the Free/Libre Open Knowledge (FLOK) Society.

John Restakis and Michel Bauwens on the FLOK Society Transition Project in Ecuador

My talk for the democracy conference in Amsterdam, Crosstalk 2013 | Borders to Cross, on the p2p transition process in Ecuador.

It is followed by the first installment of a diary by co-researcher John Restakis.

Watch the video here:

John Restakis writes:

“It is now six weeks since I arrived in Ecuador as part of an international team of researchers and activists that are working with the government to radically transform the nation’s economic model.

John Restakis

In what may be one of the most innovative change programs in Latin America, the administration of Rafael Correa is proposing to transition from a neo-liberal, free market economic model to what they are calling a social knowledge economy based on a combination of commons-based economics and the promotion of open knowledge systems. It’s heady stuff and the project is placing Ecuador at the forefront of global efforts to advance human knowledge as a commons and to apply this knowledge to the creation of a new economic model based on the commons, co-operative models of production, open-source systems of sharing, and free access to information.

Continue reading “Ecuador Initiative: Going Open Source Everything”

2014/02/092014/02/09

4th Media: US “Regime Change” Makes US “Great Satan”

02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War

US Dirty Modus Operandi in Middle East: “Regime Change” Everywhere It Can

The 9/11 incident has polarized global politics into two distinct eras: pre-9/11 period and post-9/11 period with the latter wreaking havoc on the entire world, particularly on the Muslim world.

The pre-9/11 era witnessed terrorism, carnage, and mass murder across the globe on the part of the US government. Their atrocities ranged from the Philippines to Vietnam and Japan and any mentionable places on the planet.

However, the post-9/11 discourse changed drastically. The US emerged as the victim and the entire Muslim world was shown to be the guilty party.

In other words, the post-9/11 era provided the US government with a pretext to wage a war on terror or to put it more precisely, to wage a crusade against the Muslim world and to accelerate and vindicate their efforts in destabilizing regional strategic governments, thereby drawing nigh to their monstrous objectives.

In point of fact, the Muslims are bearing the brunt of a tragedy carefully choreographed by Washington with the express intention of spearheading a sinister agenda in the Middle East which is evidently ‘regime change’ on a massive scale.

Continue reading “4th Media: US “Regime Change” Makes US “Great Satan””

2014/02/05

NIGHTWATCH: Foolish US Statements on Syria

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence

Syria: Special comment. The Ba'athist government in Damascus appears to be holding its own. The best indication of increased stability is that the focus of most combat reports is the city of Aleppo, most of which has been under opposition control. This means the government and its allies are taking the fight to the anti-government fighting groups.

The security situation generated [foolish] comments by two senior US officials.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Foolish US Statements on Syria”

2014/02/042014/02/04

Berto Jongman: Radioactive Mass Murder — Fukushima Impact Classified by Japanese Government, Nuclear Industry in Cover-Up Mode

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

Radioactive ‘mass murder': nuclear industry keeps Fukushima impact in secret, worst to come

Radiation is a rather tricky enemy. You cannot see it, you cannot smell it yet it’s harmful for our ecosystem, our markets and our bodies. The Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster is still making headlines but no one knows the full truth about the ultimate impact of this accident. We should prepare for the worst case scenario, writes American democracy activist Harvey Wasserman in his article “50 Reasons We Should Fear the Worst from Fukushima”.

Impact of Fukushima a serious problem and deserves serious discussion and action however it is being kept out of the public eye thanks to Japan’s censorship and a global corporate media blackout, writes Mr. Wasserman in the first of his two part series at EcoWatch. The “see no evil, pay no damages” mindset dates back from the Bombing of Hiroshima.

Nuclear industry is a big business which doesn't want anyone to know what is happening at Fukushima in specific and whole “nuclear” cycle as a whole, underlines the activist.

The impacts of radiation emissions on human and ecological health are unknown primarily because the nuclear industry has resolutely refused to study them.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Radioactive Mass Murder — Fukushima Impact Classified by Japanese Government, Nuclear Industry in Cover-Up Mode”

2014/02/012014/02/01

4th Media: China as Financial Stabilizer for Latin America?

01 Brazil, 02 China, 03 Economy, 07 Venezuela, 08 Wild Cards

“China Has Good Reason to Help Stabilize Latin American Economies”

Although these alliances will primarily be closer to home, most of Latin America is a naturally ally not only because of its increasing trade and commercial relations with China, but because of its common interest in an international political order that favors respect for national sovereignty and independence over unilateral intervention and military force.

In the last week or so much of the international business press has been focused on the problems of financial stability in developing countries, some of whom have recently become more vulnerable to capital outflows.

The main cause is that investors are trying to get the jump on possible moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve to allow U.S. interest rates to rise, which will draw capital from developing countries and cause their borrowing costs to rise.

Argentina has gotten some of this attention, as it allowed the peso to fall by 15 percent in one day and increased some access for Argentines to dollars on the official market.

Venezuela is not so much affected by these market developments, but is always negatively portrayed in the international media, and more so in the last year since its exchange rate system problems have caused its inflation to rise to an annual rate of 56 percent over the past year.

The two countries face different sets of problems, but they will both likely have to stabilize their exchange rates in order to resolve them.

This is where international help can make a big difference, and there is one country that has both the ability to help and a compelling interest in doing so: China.

China has already helped Venezuela with tens of billions of dollars of loans – much of which has already been repaid – as well as investment.

It has also provided significant lending and investment in Ecuador, Cuba, Brazil, and other countries. But there is more that they could do at this moment.

Continue reading “4th Media: China as Financial Stabilizer for Latin America?”

2014/01/31

Yoda: Israel Fears Exponential Growth of Boycott, Disvetment and Sanctions (BDS) — Good, This Is…

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice

Fear, evil should…

Why Israel Fears the Boycott

By OMAR BARGHOUTIJAN. 31, 2014

JERUSALEM — IF Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempts to revive talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority fail because of Israel’s continuing construction of illegal settlements, the Israeli government is likely to face an international boycott “on steroids,” as Mr. Kerry warned last August.

These days, Israel seems as terrified by the “exponential” growth of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (or B.D.S.) movement as it is by Iran’s rising clout in the region. Last June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively declared B.D.S. a strategic threat. Calling it the “delegitimization” movement, he assigned the overall responsibility for fighting it to his Strategic Affairs Ministry. But B.D.S. doesn’t pose an existential threat to Israel; it poses a serious challenge to Israel’s system of oppression of the Palestinian people, which is the root cause of its growing worldwide isolation.

Read full article.

2014/01/312014/01/31

Chuck Spinney: Is US Starting a New Cold War in the Ukraine? At What Cost to Our Future?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards

WEEKEND EDITION JAN 31-FEB 02, 2014

Fanning the Fires of Chaos in the Ukraine

What is the Real Price of Starting Another Cold War?

by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch

In the late 1980s, the leaders of the West promised Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev that they would not expand eastward if the Soviet Union pulled out of Eastern Europe and ended the Cold War. That promise was not kept. A triumphal West stuck it to the Soviet Union’s greatly weakened Russian successor by incorporating the former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO and the EU. But that was not enough to sate the lust of the neo-liberal triumphalists in search of a new imperium. Their next move tried to incorporate the Caucasus country of Georgia — a country more a part of Central Asia than of Europe — into the West’s sphere of influence. That turned out to be a bridge too far; the Russians intervened militarily to put a stop to the lunacy.

But events in the Ukraine suggest that stop may have been viewed as a temporary speed bump on the pathway to rolling back Russia’s geography to the years of Ivan the Terrible.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Is US Starting a New Cold War in the Ukraine? At What Cost to Our Future?”