Contributor’s links for July 3, 2019

Daily Links Post graphic

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

82 Replies to “Contributor’s links for July 3, 2019”

  1. “Dr Bill Warner and Graham Moore Talk Sharia”
    Political Islam – Published on July 2, 2019

  2. Black French MP leads fight against racist online trolls (france24, Jul 3, 2019)
    https://www.france24.com/en/20190703-black-french-mp-avia-racist-online-trolls

    “Laetitia Avia, a black French MP whose proposals to tackle online trolling go before parliament on Wednesday, suffers so many racist insults on Twitter that she once thought an abuse-free day was due to a technical problem.

    “It happened once or twice when I really didn’t receive anything and I wondered if there was a bug,” the former corporate lawyer told AFP in an interview.

    “It’s incredibly rare that I don’t get anything.”

    Since swapping her successful private sector career to be part of President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party in 2017, Avia has regularly publicised the most abject abuse and death threats she receives online.

    “It’s to educate people,” explained the 33-year-old who has family roots in Togo in West Africa and grew up in a low-income suburb of Paris. “They can’t imagine what it’s like.

    “I sometimes think that I should lend my Twitter account to people from time to time so they can see for themselves.”

    But her real fightback, which could have consequences beyond France, begins on Wednesday when French MPs start debating a draft law to tackle hate speech online which she has been preparing for the last year.

    Inspired by German legislation that came into force in 2018, she hopes the new law will form the foundation of a wider European push to tackle racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and homophobia peddled by usually anonymous users of social media.

    Cleaning up the internet, she believes, is the responsibility of her generation, which was the first to grow up with the social media phenomenon.

    “There’s a growing awareness in our society at large. No-one wants to accept the status quo,” Avia said.

    “No-one wants to leave the big platforms to regulate themselves. Self-regulation has failed.”

    Abuse button

    Her draft law proposes two main ways to tackle the scourge of what it terms as “obviously hateful content.”

    The first plank will require social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube to create a button that will be “accessible, simple and clear” to report abusive messages.

    The button will be the same across all platforms and should be easy to find — unlike the mechanism to report abuse on German sites, which Avia believes is too difficult to locate.

    “I want to make the user experience easy,” she said, while acknowledging the networks themselves will have to invest in teams of adjudicators to assess, block and remove reported content if necessary.

    “It’s a financial investment, absolutely. That’s what we are asking for,” she said.

    The second major part of the draft law will also increase the liabilities and potential penalties for social networks, who have long argued they are unable to police the billions of people who use their highly-profitable products.

    The draft law proposes creating a new crime — failing to remove abusive content — and the platforms will have just 24 hours to take down “obviously hateful” messages or videos, or face fines of up to 1.25 million euros ($1.4 million).

    Critics

    But critics say the law places too much power in the platforms’ hands by making them arbiters of online speech — which could lead to the closing down of free speech, as well as tackling abuses.

    Avia says the role of the French media regulator, the CSA, will be key because it will assess whether companies are being too lax or too restrictive.

    Offenders could face a potential fine of up to 4.0 percent of global sales.

    Three French tech industry associations warned on Monday that the law was attempting to do too much because it contained measures to tackle offences such as harassment, pimping or condoning terrorism.

    It will also cover search engines, as well as social media.

    “(Our) organisations wonder about the relevance of a law that is now targeting a much wider range of crimes at the risk of compromising its application,” said a statement from Syntec Numerique, Tech in France and ASIC.

    Others including Facebook have questioned whether the 24-hour window to remove hateful content is realistic, saying many postings require careful analysis and tricky legal assessments.

    But Avia is convinced the threat of penalties and demanding deadlines are needed.

    “I flag content as much as possible and I see that the platforms are not doing enough,” she said.

    “Even this last weekend, I flagged a comment that called me a ‘black bitch’ and I got a response saying that it didn’t contravene the platform’s user conditions.””

  3. Migration on the rise across world, new study says (DW, Jul 3, 2019)
    https://www.dw.com/en/migration-on-the-rise-across-world-new-study-says/a-49456942

    “Millions more people will move across the globe in the coming decades, as economic inequality and the effects of the climate crisis take their toll. That’s the conclusion of a new German study.

    Some 10% of the world’s population harbor ambitions to leave their home countries and settle elsewhere, according to a new study by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development.

    But, the authors of the study hastened to add, that doesn’t mean they actually do up sticks and leave.

    “Only a fraction of those people actually make concrete preparations for a migration and go somewhere,” institute director Reiner Klingholz said as the study was presented on Wednesday. That, the study found, is because they either can’t afford to move, or they don’t have the right information.

    Does Europe have a ‘pull effect?’

    Adrian Heiermann, one of the authors of the report, told DW that the reasons why people migrate had become more and more diverse.

    Whereas the primary reason used to be to “occupy new territory,” now people might move for any one of a number of reasons: “On the one hand we have what would be considered humanitarian movements. That means that such people are fleeing persecution, war, or similar; on the other hand we have migration that happens for educational purposes or so that families can be reunited. Increasingly there are mixtures, where it is unclear in what field they should be categorized.”

    The globalized economy has also made people more mobile in general, he added. This last factor is exacerbated by the inequality between the developed and the developing worlds, which has a particular effect on the 20-39 age group, the study concluded. Young people in countries where they are struggling to find work are more likely to want to move.

    In 2017, 258 million people lived outside the country of their birth, according to United Nations figures. This includes around 68 million people who have either fled conflict or made asylum applications in other countries.

    Those numbers are only likely to grow. US-based polling firm Gallup recently estimated that some 750 million people could imagine moving to another country, which would be 15% of the world’s adult population.

    Climate crisis a key factor

    According to the Gallup study, some 33% of people in sub-Saharan African countries want to move elsewhere, while in Latin America and the Caribbean the figure is 27% and the Middle East 24%. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently experiencing a population explosion at the same time it is being hit by more pressure on resources caused by a climate crisis.

    But that, Heiermann clarified, does not mean the European Union is necessarily the main magnet for all these people, despite that perception in some parts of Europe. For one thing, many Africans simply move to a neighboring country if they find better opportunities there.

    In fact, the US remains the guiding target for potential migrants across the world: some 21% said they would like to head there, according to Gallup, a figure that equals 158 million people. Germany, France, and the UK were named as attractive destinations for 42 million, 36 million, and 34 million respectively.

    EU economies need migration

    At the same time, the Berlin Institute found that the major influx of refugees into Europe in 2015 had had an effect on migration policy in the EU. Many European governments moved to limit migration, which then meant that the “the number of people seeking protection and dropped significantly.”

    This, it seems, has proven to be a popular among the people of Europe. According to one European Commission study from 2018, around 53% of EU citizens are “skeptical or negative” about immigration form non-EU countries.

    But, according to Heinemann, this is bad for the EU’s demographic situation. The expected aging of societies across Europe means that migration will become necessary for economic development. Almost everywhere in Europe, more and more people are going into retirement, which means fewer people are paying into health and retirement insurance schemes while more people draw on those funds. China, Japan, and South Korea are heading towards a similar problem, the study pointed out.

    The costs of health care across Europe are expected to increase massively. Meanwhile, according to the Berlin Institute, the number of people in employment age (that is, between 20 and 64 years old) is likely to shrink across the continent by some 7% by 2030.

    This is changing a little in Germany, where the government has introduced a new migration law, designed to attract more qualified migrants, (while at the same time the government works to push out more asylum-seekers).

    For Heinemann and the other authors of the study, the United Nations migration pact agreed in December last year was a first step towards creating a global framework by which to regulate and cooperate about the issue.”

  4. ’60 million more Egyptians by 2050′: UN report (ahram, Jul 3, 2019)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/337249/Egypt/Politics-/-million-more-Egyptians-by–UN-report.aspx

    “Egypt, already the most populous country in the Middle East region, is expected to see a population boom during the coming 30 years, with a recently released UN report expecting the number of Egyptians to increase by 60 million by 2050.

    The annual increase will be by two per cent, it said.

    World Population Prospects, the UN study, highlights a comprehensive set of demographic data to assess population trends at the global, regional and national levels and many other key indicators commonly used by the UN system.

    With a projected addition of 1.1 billion people, the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa could account for more than half of the growth in the world’s population between 2019 and 2050, the study says…”

  5. Italy in demographic decline – ISTAT (ana, Jul 3, 2019)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/07/03/italy-in-demographic-decline-istat_3c1ff1c3-716b-4320-8c65-7b93aec9dd3f.html

    “The population of Italians in Italy, not counting foreigners, fell between 2015 and 2018 marking “a demographic decline for the first time in 90 years”, ISTAT said Wednesday.

    As of December 31 2018 the population of Italian origin was 55.104 million, 235,000 or 0.4% lower than the previous year, the statistics agency said.

    With respect to 2014 the drop is equivalent to the population of a large city like Palermo, at 677,000.

    2018 was the fourth straight year that there was a decline in the population, ISTAT said.
    Births were down 4% to 439,747, a historic low since Italian unification.

    ISTAT said there were 60,359,546 people in Italy at the end of last year, of whom 8.7% are foreigners.”

  6. If necessary we’ll act like Sea Watch did – NGOs (ansa, Jul 3, 2019)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/07/03/if-necessary-well-act-like-sea-watch-did-ngos_7afc60fe-a89c-4e21-9372-c8fc6e743cd4.html

    “A group of NGOs including Mediterranea Saving Humans told a Rome press conference Wednesday that if necessary they would act in the future like the German NGO Sea Watch which picked up 42 migrants off Libya and took them to Italy despite an entry ban.

    “We monitor the Mediterranean,” said Mediterranea Saving Humans member Alessandro Metz.

    “If we found ourselves in a situation in which we are the only vessel that can carry out the rescue, we will act as the law of the sea lays down.

    “We will do what is laid down by the norms that oblige us to behave in a certain way, as the Sea watch did.

    “That’s what we have done and what we will do”.”

  7. Turkish spox slams Washington Post for PKK propaganda (aa, Jul 3, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/politics/turkish-spox-slams-washington-post-for-pkk-propaganda/1522693

    “Turkey’s presidential spokesman on Wednesday slammed the U.S.-based Washington Post newspaper for publishing an article by so-called leader of the PKK terror organization.

    The Washington Post, which provided space for a terrorist that is on the list of terror organizations of the U.S. and the EU as well as awarded a prize by the U.S. administration, openly makes propaganda for terrorism and violates the U.S. laws, Ibrahim Kalin said in a written statement.

    Asserting that this article did not come into the fold of freedom of press and expression, Kalin said the daily’s actions were tantamount to publishing an article from a member of the Al-Qaeda or Daesh terrorist organizations.

    To portray the head of a terrorist organization as the representative of the Kurds is, above all, an insult to the Kurds, Kalin said.

    He stressed that Turkey would pertinaciously continue to fight against all forms of terrorism and its supporters.”

  8. Pakistan announces terror finance crackdown on banned militant group (saudigazette, Jul 3, 2019)
    http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/570864/World/Asia/Pakistan-announces-terror-finance-crackdown-on-banned-militant-group

    “Pakistani authorities announced a crackdown on Wednesday against Hafiz Saeed, leader of the group blamed for deadly attacks on Mumbai in 2008, amid growing international pressure to act against militant groups.

    Pakistan’s counterterrorism department said it had launched 23 cases against Saeed and 12 aides for using five trusts to collect funds and donations for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed by India and the United States for the attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

    Two banned LeT-linked charities, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), were also targeted, the department said in a statement.

    “All the assets of these organizations and individuals will be frozen and taken over by the state,” said a counter-terrorism senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

    The counterterrorism department said the action was in accordance with UN sanctions against the individuals and entities.

    The move follows pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which last year placed Pakistan on its “gray list” of countries with inadequate controls over money laundering and terrorism financing.

    The international watchdog gave Pakistan an October deadline last month to improve its efforts against terrorism financing. The FATF has said Pakistan could end up on the black list when it reviews progress in a meeting later this year.

    Hafiz Saeed, designated a global terrorist by both the United Nations and the United States, is one of the founders of LeT, or the Army of the Pure. The United States, which has pressured Pakistan to crack down on militant groups, has offered a $10 million reward for evidence leading to his conviction.

    The LeT has been banned in Pakistan since 2002 and the charities since last year. Saeed, who denies involvement in violence or funding militants, has been freed by Pakistani courts after being detained at his home several times in the past.

    Pakistan has long faced international pressure to shut off financing to militant groups operating from its soil and has repeatedly pledged action but results have been patchy and have failed to satisfy critics.

    Pakistan has long denied accusations from Washington, New Delhi and others that it nurtures and supports Islamist militants in line with foreign policy goals in neighboring Afghanistan and the disputed Kashmir region. — Reuters”