Amerikanische Spötter sprechen von einem Präsidenten namens Bannon. Der Chef des Nachrichtendiensts Breitbart, Stephen Bannon, ist Donald Trumps engster Berater und angeblich das Gehirn hinter dem Sprachrohr. Ob das stimmt, wissen wir nicht.
Was wir wissen, ist, dass Bannon ein Meteor am Firmament der amerikanischen Rechten ist. Erst 2012 übernahm er die Leitung der Agentur Breitbart und verstand es, den Nachrichtendienst mit echten und gefakten Berichten über Islam und illegale Einwanderung stark in den Vordergrund zu spielen.
Die Geschichte der rechten Internet-Publizistik in den USA ist viel älter. Sie begann 1997 als Joseph Farah, ein Sohn syrischer und libanesischer Einwanderer, eine Plattform gründete, die er WorldNetDaily nannte. WND ist der granddaddy aller rechten und konspirativen Web-Journale. Zu Farahs “Leistungen” als Herausgeber und Chefredakteur zählt die “Birther”-Kampagne, die über Jahre hinweg bezweifelte, dass Präsident Obama geborener US-Bürger und als solcher legitimer Präsident sei.
WND liebt pro-christliche und pro-israelische Themen, kämpft an allen Fronten gegen den Islam, gegen den allgemeinen Sittenverfall und unterstützt die “Preppers”, die sich auf den nahenden Weltuntergang usw. vorbereiten. Farah betreibt dazu einen florierenden Verlag, der die amerikanische Rechte mit einem steten Strom motivierenden Druckmaterials versorgt.
Doch der eigentliche Star von WND ist nicht Farah sondern sein Top-Mitarbeiter Jerome Corsi. Für die Birther-Kampagne reiste er sogar nach Kenia und wurde prompt verhaftet. Wer Corsi über die Jahre hinweg gelesen hat, dem ist nichts Rechtes mehr fremd. Jedes der heute von Präsident Trump und den Seinen verfolgten Themen ist in Corsis Artikeln und Büchern ausfúhrlich abgehandelt worden. Anti-Islam, Anti-Einwanderung, Birth, Anti-Iran, Pro-Israel, Anti-Klima, Anti-UN, auch kurioses wie die Theorie, dass Erdöl nicht organischen Ursprungs sei, sondern mineralisch nachwachse. Man mag Corsi für seine fake stories, seine Übertreibungen und seine Häme kritisieren und belächeln: er hat das Regierungsprogramm der Trump-Regierung massgeblich geformt.
Nach dem Ende einer unrühmlichen, möglicherweise unsauberen Episode als Finanzberater begann Corsi 2004 eine erfolgreiche Zweitkarriere als Bestseller-Autor und tonangebender Redakteur von WND. Er ist Mitglied der kleinen Constitution Party. 2005 plante er, sich um John Kerrys Senatssitz in Massachusetts zu bewerben, was aber nicht klappte. Dann erklärte er sich 2008 als Höhepunkt seiner bisherigen politischen Karriere zum Präsidentschaftskandidaten seiner Partei.
Nun ist Corsi seinem Traum ganz nahe gerückt: er ist bei WND ausgestiegen und wird Washingtoner Chefkorrespondent für Trumps Lieblings-Journal Infowars, das von Rechtsaussen Alex Jones als Elite-Organ seiner Radio- TV und YouTube-Sendungen herausgegeben wird. Als Mitglied des Pressekorps des Weissen Hauses ist Jerome Corsi nun ein weiteres Schwergewicht in der rechten Mediengalaxie Washingtons geworden, mit direktem Zugang zu Stephen Bannon und Pressesprecher Sean Spicer. Er kann sein Glück kaum fassen, dass seine Hasskampagnen und Verschwörungstheorien (mit Ausnahme des Erdöls) nun offizielle amerikanische Politik werden, und er darüber berichten kann.
"Birther gesellt sich zu Birther um über eine Regierung zu berichten, die von einem Birther geleitet wird", spottet MediaMatters.
John Wantock
Written on .
Every January, I do a digital tune-up, cleaning up my privacy settings, updating my software and generally trying to upgrade my security. This year, the task feels particularly urgent as we face a world with unprecedented threats to our digital safety.
We are living in an era of widespread hacking and public shaming. Don’t like your political rivals? Beg Russia to hack them, and their emails mysteriously show up on Wikileaks. Don’t like your ex-spouse? Post a revenge porn video. Don’t like your video game opponents? Find their address online and send a SWAT team to their door.
And, of course, the US government has the capability to do even more. It can spy on much of the globe’s Internet traffic and has in the past kept tabs on nearly every American’s phone calls. Like it or not, we are all combatants in an information war, with our data under constant siege.
So how can ordinary people defend themselves? The truth is you can’t defend everything. But you can mitigate threats by reducing how much data you leave exposed for an intruder to grab. Hackers call this minimizing your “attack surface.”
The good news is that there are some easy steps you can take to reduce the threat. Here is what I am doing this year:
Updating Software
Every year, I ditch old buggy software that I don’t use and update all the software that I do use to its most current version. Exploiting software with known holes is one of the ways that criminals install ransomware — which holds your data hostage until you pay for it to be released. (Read the FBI’s tips on avoiding and mitigating ransomware attacks.)
Making Passwords Longer
This year, I’m working to lengthen my passwords to at least 10 characters for accounts that I don’t care about and to 30 characters for accounts I do care about (email and banking). After all, in 2017, automated software can guess an eight-digit password in less than a day.
Most importantly, don’t re-use passwords. You don’t have to think of unique passwords yourself — password management software such as 1Password, LastPass will do it for you. EFF technologist Jacob Hoffman-Andrews makes a very good case for password management software being the best defense against a phishing attack. (Phishing is how the email of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, got hacked).
Securing Communications
The good news is that it’s never been easier to send encrypted text messages and make encrypted phone calls on the phone apps Signal and WhatsApp. However, please note that WhatsApp has said it will share users’ address books with its parent company, Facebook, unless they opted out of the latest privacy update.
Of course, people who receive your messages can still screenshot and share them without your permission. On Signal you can make it slightly harder for them by setting your messages to disappear after a certain amount of time. In WhatsApp, you can turn off cloud backups of your chats, but you can’t be sure if others have done the same.
Protecting Mobile Web Browsing
The websites that you browse are among the most revealing details about you. Until recently, it was hard to protect mobile web surfing, but this year there are a lot of good options for iPhones. You can use privacy protecting standalone web browsers such as Brave or Firefox Focus, or install an add-on such as Purify that will let you browse safely on Safari. In an excess of excitement, I’m currently using all three!
Of course, blocking online tracking also means blocking ads. I hate to deny worthy websites their advertising dollars, but I also think it’s unfair for them to sell my data to hundreds of ad tracking companies. Brave is building a controversial system that pays publishers for users’ visits, but it remains to be seen if it will work. In the meantime, I try to subscribe or donate to news outlets whose work I admire.
Dropping Dropbox
You wouldn’t leave your most sensitive documents in an unlocked filing cabinet, so why do you keep them in cloud services such as Google Drive and DropBox? Those companies have the keys to unlock your files. One option is to password protect your files before uploading them. But I prefer a cloud service that encrypts for me. In my usual overkill approach, I’m using Sync.com to synchronize files and SpiderOak for backup.
Deleting Some Data
Consider whether you really need to store all your old emails and documents. I recently deleted a ton of emails dating back to 2008. I had been hanging onto them thinking that I might want them in the future. But I realized that if I hadn’t looked at them until now, I probably wasn’t going to. And they were just sitting there waiting to be hacked.
Reconsidering Installing Cameras and Microphones at Home
As Internet-enabled devices — ranging from smart hairbrushes to voice-activatedspeakers — invade the home, criminals are finding new ways to penetrate their defenses.
Hackers have spied on women through the womens’ webcams and used networks of online cameras and other devices to bring down the Internet in Liberia. Like many people including the Pope and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, I have covered the cameras on my computers with stickers and magnetic screens to avoid peeping Toms. But until device makers heed the Federal Trade Commission’s security recommendationsfor internet-enabled devices, I won’t introduce new cameras and microphones into my home.
Opting Out of Data Brokers
Fears that President Donald Trump might build a Muslim registry prompted thousands of Silicon Valley tech workers to sign a pledge stating that they wouldn’t participate in building any databases that profile people by race, religion or national origin. But only three of the hundreds of data brokers that sell lists of people have affirmed that they would not participate in a registry. Two other data brokers told a reporter that the price for such a list would range from about $14,000 to $17,000.
It’s not easy to remove personal data from the hundreds of data brokers that are out there. Many of them require you to submit a picture of your photo ID, or write a letter. But if you do it — as I did two years ago — it is worth it. Most of the time when a new data broker emerges, I find that my data is already removed because I opted out from the broker’s supplier. I compiled a list of data broker opt-outs that you can use as a starting point.
Taking a Deep Breath
The size of the problem and the difficulty of the solutions can be overwhelming. Just remember that whatever you do — even if it’s just upgrading one password or opting out of one data broker — will improve your situation. And if you are the subject of a hateful, vitriolic internet attack, read Anita Sarkeesian’s guide to surviving online harassment.
Correction, Jan. 31, 2017: This article incorrectly said that Google and DropBox files are unencrypted. The post has been updated to clarify that those services are encrypted, but that those companies have the ability to unlock users’ files.
Il tasso dei laureati italiani che emigrano stabilmente all’estero è oggi al 4,7 per cento ed è raddoppiato tra il 2011 e il 2015. Partono per trovare un lavoro più qualificato. Il problema è dunque la drammatica incapacità del nostro paese di creare opportunità di impiego di alto livello.
Dopo la laurea, l’estero
Hanno fatto discutere le recenti affermazioni del ministro del Lavoro Giuliano Poletti sui giovani italiani che migrano all’estero. Il ministro ha infatti dichiarato di conoscere “gente che è andata via e che è bene che stia dove è andata perché sicuramente il nostro paese non soffrirà a non averli più tra i piedi”. Poletti conosce forse qualche giovane emigrato che – a suo avviso – vale poco, ma le conoscenze aneddotiche non aiutano a stimolare un dibattito serio sulla questione.
Una base di riflessione più solida è invece offerta dai dati Istat dell’indagine 2015 sui laureati italiani. In un nostro lavoro recente abbiamo ricostruito l’identikit di chi emigra e ne abbiamo confrontato gli esiti professionali con quelli di chi resta in Italia. Anzitutto i dati Istat 2015 indicano che un laureato italiano su venti (4,7 per cento) risiede all’estero a quattro anni dalla laurea. Equivale a dire che ogni anno 14mila laureati migrano stabilmente all’estero (peraltro il dato è probabilmente sottostimato perché l’indagine Istat non raggiunge tutti i laureati che migrano).
Ancora più eclatante è il fatto che il tasso di emigrazione all’estero è raddoppiato rispetto alla precedente indagine di quattro anni fa: dal 2,4 al 4,7 per cento. L’Europa continentale (soprattutto Germania e Francia), la Gran Bretagna e i paesi scandinavi sono le mete preferite, mentre la migrazione nel Sud o Est Europa e quella extra-europea restano minoritarie.
I laureati che migrano provengono più spesso da università del Nord Italia e dalle lauree scientifiche, come matematica e fisica, da ingegneria e informatica oppure hanno una laurea in lingue o studi internazionali. Si sono diplomati più spesso in un liceo, hanno ottenuto più frequentemente un voto di 110 e lode e hanno più probabilità della media di aver frequentato programmi di scambio internazionale durante gli studi universitari (generalmente, l’Erasmus). Le differenze rispetto a chi resta non sono molto forti, ma nel complesso è difficile sostenere che il nostro paese esporti laureati di scarso valore di cui non si sentirà la mancanza.
Un lavoro migliore e redditi più alti
Utilizzando la tecnica statistica del propensity score matching, abbiamo confrontato i redditi netti di chi emigra e di chi resta, aggiustati per il costo della vita nei paesi di destinazione. Ebbene, chi emigra guadagna il 36 per cento in più (dato in crescita rispetto al valore del 27 per cento registrato nel 2011). Non è solo una questione di redditi. I nostri modelli statistici indicano che chi emigra all’estero svolge più spesso lavori più qualificati (+6,8 per cento) e percepisce di avere migliori opportunità di carriera (+21 per cento).
È possibile che i differenziali non discendano solo dalla scelta di migrare: ad esempio chi emigra potrebbe essere mediamente più capace e motivato di chi resta (un’ipotesi che forse sorprenderà il ministro Poletti ma che è spesso menzionata in letteratura). La pur lunga lista di variabili di controllo dei nostri modelli sulla carriera scolastica e universitaria potrebbe non catturare pienamente queste differenze. Tuttavia ci sembra molto probabile che le differenze riflettano, in misura rilevante, anche le differenti opportunità di realizzazione professionale che vengono offerte a chi decide di spendere la propria laurea in un altro paese, al confronto con chi resta in Italia. Del resto, nove laureati emigrati su dieci (89,6 per cento) dichiarano di essere partiti proprio per trovare lavori più qualificati.
Ci pare, insomma, che i dati raccontino qualcosa di significativo sulla drammatica incapacità del nostro paese di creare opportunità di lavoro qualificato, un problema che ci auguriamo appassioni il ministro del Lavoro almeno quanto i giudizi sul valore di chi abbandona il nostro paese.
Ein neues Gesetz verspricht Ausländern die türkische Staatsbürgerschaft, wenn sie wenigstens 1 Million Dollar in türkische Immobilien investieren, berichtet Hürriyet Daily News (26-1-17).
Ein Akt der Verzweiflung: wer will die Staatsbürgerschaft eines Landes erwerben, das in Rechtlosigkeit und Islamismus abgleitet und dessen Bürgern in grosser Zahl die Reisepässe entzogen werden, damit sie nicht fliehen können? Und wer möchte schon 1 Million Dollar in einem Land investieren, dessen Wirtschaft im Krebsgang geht, dessen Währung schwächelt und dessen Touristen-Hotels in grosser Zahl zum Verkauf stehen?
-- ed
Written on .
Il a fait le tour de la terre, comme tatouage, mana, tabou et bien d’autres. Ce mot magique fait partie du patrimoine mondial. A Tahiti, il est au-delà des modes, des sexes, des classes sociales, au-delà du temps. Le paréo, pāreu de son appellation d'origine tahitienne, c’est le vêtement dans sa plus simple expression.
photo: Creative Commons
Un tissu d’environ 1m80 sur 1m10, savamment enroulé autour du corps, la tenue idéale pour tous les moments de la journée. Avant l’arrivée des Européens en Océanie, les pagnes des premiers Polynésiens étaient faits de tapa. Cette étoffe fabriquée à partir de fibres végétales tirées de l’écorce de certains arbres ou arbustes, assouplies par macération et battage, était utilisée comme tissu.
Ces pāreu anciens étaient décorés avec des pigments naturels, de dessins à main levée figurant des motifs géométriques ou végétaux ou bien souvent unis et sans décoration. Les cotonnades européennes ont d’emblée séduit les Polynésiens et ont été mises au goût du moment. Dessins et couleurs sont devenus les symboles des archipels qui les avait adoptés : les chemises sont hawaïennes, les pāreu sont tahitiens.
Toutes les splendeurs du fenua, la terre polynésienne, sont représentées sur ce merveilleux vêtement. Les fleurs aux couleurs éclatantes, les poissons aux reflets étincelants. Les motifs de tatouage s’y étalent ainsi que les cartes des îles et des atolls aux noms évocateurs. Les pāreu sont à la mode et se parent de franges, de broderies, s’enrichissent de sequins tintant à chaque mouvement. Le pāreu est unisexe.
Les hommes le nouent à la façon d’un short moulant qui leur permet de nager ou de monter aux cocotiers pour y chercher les précieuses noix. Les femmes l’adaptent à tous les moments de la journée et le gardent même quand la fraîcheur de la nuit se fait sentir. Il y a de multiple façons de s’en draper. Des livres entiers sont consacrés à cette savante opération.
Le pāreu se porte serré autour de la taille ou sur les hanches, drapé et noué derrière la nuque, attaché sur une épaule lorsqu'il devient robe longue. La coquetterie et l’ingéniosité sont infinies. Mais il se noue sans boucle, sans épingle, sans système d’aucune sorte. Il est serré et ajusté au rythme des mouvements durant la journée et il est mis à rude épreuve quand vient le soir et que toute l’énergie est dédiée à la « bringue » et à ses tāmure endiablés.
Les tableaux des peintres, les photographies, les cartes postales le mettent toujours à l’honneur tant il est présent dans le quotidien et évocateur de bien-être, d'aisance, de volupté et d'élégance.
