A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• Afghanistan should watch out; vulture capitalists on the prowl Posted: 19 Dec 2011 Although it receives little media coverage, Afghanistan has vast energy reserves. This is perfect for foreign firms to exploit a very vulnerable country. This story on ABC highlights the Australian role in this sordid activity: Afghanistan wants more Australian help – not from the military, but from Australian mining companies – to kick-start a post-war economy with a mining boom. “So far I have not got in touch with any of the major Australian investors – Australian companies like Rio Tinto, BHP and the others – but I’m going to Melbourne to see if there is a possibility of getting those major companies interested,” Afghanistan’s ambassador to Australia, Nasir Andisha, said. Afghanistan, like Australia, is rich in natural resources – iron ore, copper, gold, lithium, coal, uranium, oil and gas. So far Chinese and Indian companies have been given the frontrunning in exploiting these resources. The last mining boom in Afghanistan was over 2,000 years ago in the era of Alexander the Great, when gold, silver and precious stones were routinely mined. Geologists have known of the extent of the mineral wealth for over a century, as a result of surveys done by the British and Russians. In an interesting historical footnote, an American company was offered a mining concession over the entire country in the 1930s but turned it down. Despite this historical knowledge, global interest was only really boosted last year when the Pentagon commissioned a report from the US Geological Survey (USGS). The report spoke of “trillions of dollars” worth of minerals and energy resources in the country. While the US military has been focusing on its strategic security interests in Afghanistan, American companies have expressed concern about being sidelined in the bidding process for mineral and energy licences. A Chinese state-owned company won the rights to one of the largest copper deposits, at Mes Aynak, near Kabul. And an Indian consortium recently won the rights to the enormous Hajigak iron ore deposit. At the Bonn international conference on the future of Afghanistan this month, president Hamid Karzai told the international delegates that his government is working hard to exploit the mineral resources for “long-term growth and prosperity”. But some Americans are questioning the way this underground wealth is being auctioned off. “It used to break my heart sitting in Beijing, the second largest embassy in the world, looking at neighbouring Afghanistan,” former US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman said during a recent candidate’s debate Now a Republican presidential candidate, Mr Huntsman said: “We have 100,000 troops there. The Chinese would move in and take the mining concession”.

  North Koreans weeping hysterically over death of Kim Jong-il Posted: 19 Dec 2011 The reality inside the hermit kingdom.

  Enough with the praise, Hitchens loved the smell of dead Muslim flesh in the morning Posted: 18 Dec 2011 Thank you.

  Privatisation rules; can’t live with them and can’t kill them Posted: 18 Dec 2011 Yet more misery in Australia caused by a privatised detention centre. Another report that will certainly not cause the Federal government to find a way to ditch Serco for its continually poor performance and standards (via the Australian): A NSW coroner has slammed the immigration department and two private contractors for failing in their duty of care to three asylum-seekers who took their own lives over a three-month period in 2010. In an inquest into the deaths of the three men at Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, Magistrate Mary Jerram found the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Serco Australia and International Health and Medical Services had failed to recognise and properly care for the three detainees’ deteriorating mental states. In all three deaths she described the actions of some staff as “careless, ignorant or both”, and found that communications between the different agencies were “sadly lacking”. Ms Jerram found staff were poorly trained and key protocols were not followed, describing the situation immediately prior to one death as “chaotic”, and the actions of one staff member in relation to another as “deplorable”. The three men, Josefa Rauluni, Ahmed Al-Akabi and David Saunders, all took their own lives at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney’s west between September and December 2010, Ms Jerram found. Mr Rauluni, a Fijian citizen, plunged to his death from a balcony after his application for asylum was refused and multiple attempts at appeal had failed. An IHMS officer had identified Mr Rauluni as being at “no immediate risk” of self harm, just days before he told a relative and fellow inmate he would “find somewhere to jump from” if his final appeal failed, and written to the minister stating if he was returned it would be his “dead body”. Ms Jerram found scenes immediately prior to Mr Rauluni’s death were “chaotic”, with people shouting at Mr Rauluni, who was “becoming increasingly upset, stepping up onto the balcony rail and then off again”. A short time later he dived head first onto the concrete and died. At the inquest, psychiatrist Michael Diamond was “highly critical of the management of the entire situation”, describing the lack of coordination between Serco and DIAC officials as a “standout”, and deploring the “absence of basic awareness, training and capability to handle a situation of this nature”, according to Ms Jerram’s report.

  Israeli Amira Hass on her colonial nation at work Posted: 18 Dec 2011 Amira Hass: Israel & Palestine-Fear of the Future from Paul Hamel on Vimeo.

  Afghanistan should watch out; vulture capitalists on the prowl

• North Koreans weeping hysterically over death of Kim Jong-il

• Enough with the praise, Hitchens loved the smell of dead Muslim flesh in the morning

• Privatisation rules; can’t live with them and can’t kill them

• Israeli Amira Hass on her colonial nation at work