Swazi Media Commentary: A new book on the struggle for freedom in Swaziland is out now. Download it for free here.
Government is broke, so University of Swaziland fails to open this semester: here.
Swazi Media Commentary: #Swaziland police torture student leader Maxwell Dlamini: here.
SOUTH Africa’s trade union movement Cosatu gave a warm welcome this week to a unity initiative in neighbouring Swaziland that saw the birth of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (Tucoswa): here.
This video from February 2011 is called Protesters killed as police storm Bahrain demonstration camp.
Bahrain Protests: Thousands Demand Government Resign; here.
Demonstrators calling for reforms in Bahrain on Friday staged a sit-in at a roundabout in a Manama commercial district, but security forces broke it up, a human rights activist and a protester said: here.
Bahrain’s February 14th movement has become a symbol of resistance and fortitude…and the most powerful political force in Bahrain today: here.
This video is about a great billed heron on Timor beach.
From BirdLife:
Timor Bush-warbler rediscovered
Fri, Dec 30, 2011
There had been no confirmed field observations of Timor Bush-warbler Bradypterus timorensis since two specimens were collected on Mount Mutis, West Timor, in 1932. A paper published online in BirdLife’s journal, Bird Conservation International (BCI), reports the rediscovery of the Timor Bush-warbler in Timor-Leste (East Timor) in 2009, prompted by the discovery of a previously unknown population of bush-warbler on the island of Alor, Indonesia, to the north.
Timor Bush-warbler was first recognised as a full species in 2000, when along with Russet Bush-warbler B. mandelli and Java Bush-warbler B. montis it was split from Benguet Bush-warbler B. seebohmi. The authors of the BCI paper assign all these species to the genus Locustella.
On Alor, at least 13 male bush warblers were heard singing from shrub and grass beneath woodland and forest edge at 859–1,250 m. On Timor, at least 40 males were heard from tall grassland at 1,720–2,100 m.
The songs are loud and can be readily heard from at least 100 m. However, the birds on both islands were skulking and hard to observe, even while singing. Brief direct views on Alor noted a large, buff-brown, long-tailed bush-warbler. Birds were observed to walk or scurry, mouse-like, on the ground on thin shrub and grass stems. Although they can fly, they do so rarely and probably mostly under cover.
There were substantial differences in habitat use by bush-warblers on Alor and on Timor, presumably resulting from island-specific differences in habitat availability, elevation and land-use pressure. High grazing pressure and repeated fires ensure that there is little or no suitable habitat over much of Timor’s montane habitat, except on steep slopes. There are few known threats to bush-warbler habitat on Alor, but ongoing assessments are needed.
Timor Bush-warbler is considered Near Threatened by BirdLife on behalf of the IUCN Red List, but will now require re-evaluation. The Alor population is currently well isolated from Timor (c.100 km between sites), and these islands have never been connected. The populations have little chance of interbreeding and the authors of the BCI paper say they should be considered as independent, evolutionarily significant units. Further field surveys are needed on both Timor and Alor to capture birds, clarify taxonomic relationships using molecular approaches, and further define habitat use and conservation status.
William Rivers Pitt | The Rain and the Reckoning. William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: “Occupy is not over. We come now to another winter of our discontent, and though the tents and signs and shouts of the movement have been momentarily subdued, they will return. Spring is coming, the rocks are already rolling down the mountainside…. Sooner or later, those rocks will reach the reckoning that has been so long in coming, and when that happens, nothing in this country will be the same again”: here.
The Belittle Big Bodies Banzai: A Year-End OWS Salute and Immune Key to 2012. W. David Kubick, Truthout: “After a lifetime clashing with monstrous corporate bodies in the US, India and Japan, I hobble into the Occupation arena with a grateful hallelujah and some wild reconnaissance. The hallelujah is a chorus, by the way. It also arises from countless other US expatriates who have long lived abroad and prayed for signs of a Yankee spring, i.e. any American uprising against the rampant, corporate coup that’s beggared the nation at home and scarred its honor overseas”: here.
Why a Woman of Color Risked Her “Honorary White Man” Status to Blow the Whistle at EPA. Evaggelos Vallianatos, Truthout: “I met Marsha Coleman-Adebayo in 1990 in Washington, DC. She was working for the World Wildlife Fund, an international environmental organization…. She sued EPA for racism and retaliation – and she won…. It is an interesting, inspiring and well-written book; the story it tells is revealing of larger national environmental and political issues. It is a microcosm of racism in American society, callousness and imperialism in foreign policy, and corporate domination of the government and the world”: here.
The Port Shutdown Controversy: Corporate Profit vs. the Right to Protest. Jack Heyman, Truthout: “Once again, the Bay Area is at the forefront of social protest…. San Francisco longshore Local 10 is organizing a caravan of Bay Area workers and Occupy activists to travel to Longview to greet the ship upon its arrival in two weeks. If an agreement is not reached with EGT and angry longshore workers view this dispute as a threat to all their jobs, then it’s possible for the first time that ports on the West, East and Gulf coasts may be shut down”: here.
Ten Ultra-Rich Congresspeople Who “Represent” Some of the Most Financially Troubled Districts. Sarah Jaffe, AlterNet: “The hard times that most Americans continue to experience don’t seem to be making an impact on their representatives in Washington. Now a new report might shed some light on why. According to a Washington Post story this week, ‘Between 1984 and 2009, the median net worth of a member of the House more than doubled, according to the analysis of financial disclosures, from $280,000 to $725,000 in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars, excluding home equity'”: here.
Wall Street Attacks Occupy Movement with Support of Religious Right: here.
On New Year’s Eve, New York City police arrested dozens of people, including passersby, during an Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Manhattan: here.
New Zealand: Occupy Auckland evicted from city square: here.
