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Welcome to @NewsNomad
news and views that excite the imagination 11 June 2015 Thank you for reading @NewsNomad.
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Syria on the brink of regional war?
Bitcoin in Venezuela
Newseum Honour Roll
MasterCard Invades Somalia
Red Cross in Haiti
Crisis at Lake Mead
Latinos and 2016 Election
Ai Weiwei and Laura Poitras
Did the War in Syria Just Become a Regional War?
[CounterPunch]
“There are growing indications that the war in Syria has now entered a new and dangerous phase that threatens to engulf the entire Middle East in a broad regional war. The news that Iran has sent significant numbers of Iranian, Iraqi, and Afghan troops to take active part in defense of Syria has the potential to transform the conflict into one with global implications as Iran’s key regional rivals – Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel – continue to support jihadi factions in their war against the government of Bashar al-Assad…”
Venezuelans Escape Currency Collapse with Bitcoin
[Pan Am Post]
“Bitcoin adoption in Venezuela will explode any time now,” one early cryptocurrency adopter in the South American nation confidently predicts. Bitcoin experts argue that the worse an economy is, the more interest there is about the digital currency’s benefits — and Venezuela is a strong candidate for the next bitcoin boom.+
“Stringent controls on access to foreign currency and runaway inflation — last week saw a sudden jump in the unofficial dollar rate to Bs. 400 per dollar — have led to the number of Venezuela’s bitcoin users doubling since 2014, according to data provided by Bitcoin Venezuela…”
Newseum Honors Journalists Killed In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine
[RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty]
Newseum Searchable Database
[Website]
This searchable database includes all journalists who are recognized on the Journalists Memorial at the Newseum.
“The DC-based Newseum has memorialized 14 journalists killed while working in 2014, including four who met their deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Ukraine.
“Among those honored were Associated Press reporter Anja Niedringhaus, 48, who was killed at a security checkpoint in Afghanistan, and Nils Horner, 51, who was shot in the head while on his way to conduct an interview in Afghanistan…”
MasterCard Taps Into Somalia’s Remittance Money, Battles Visa In Africa
[IBT]
“More than 20 years after Somalia entered a civil war and a downward spiral that turned it into the archetypal failed state, an international banking institution has announced a plan to become the first to enter the African nation. MasterCard says it wants to distribute debit cards to Somali citizens to help them receive money from abroad, something that has been increasingly difficult to do and on which the Somali economy, which would crumble without remittances from emigrants, depends…”
In Haiti, the aid-industrial complex revives colonial stereotypes
[Al Jazeera Ameria]
“Every few months, a disaster strikes some of the least fortunate in the world — an earthquake in Nepal, a tsunami in Thailand, a cyclone in Vanuatu or an Ebola epidemic Liberia… A June 3 report by ProPublica and National Public Radio examines the gory details of at least one such case. Their investigation exposed how the American Red Cross, which collected billions of dollars in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, built only six houses out of the 130,000 it claimed to have erected. In addition to its refusal to provide an accounting for the $500 million raised as part of the disaster relief, the Red Cross spent far more on overhead costs than previously disclosed, by hiding the operating cost of its subcontractors…”
Lake Mead About to Hit a Critical New Low as 15-Year Drought Continues in Southwest
[EcoWatch]
“Lake Mead, America’s largest U.S. reservoir when at capacity, is about to hit a critical new low. The reservoir near Las Vegas on the Colorado River has been in decline for decades because the reservoir and the larger Colorado River system has been over-allocated for many years. As of yesterday, the elevation of Lake Mead was 1,075.96. The reservoir is only days away from hitting 1,075 feet, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s projections. That number is the threshold set in a 2007 agreement as part of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Colorado River Interim Guidelines, which calls for delivery cuts if water levels in Lake Mead drops below that level…”
Civil Rights Activist Dolores Huerta: Latinos Will Be The ‘Deciders’ in 2016 Election, Analyzes GOP Candidates
[Latin Post]
“Regarded as “one of America’s great labor and civil rights icons,” Dolores Huerta has dedicated her life to advocating labor and civil rights, and her work continues as the Latino electorate brave the 2016 presidential election season.
“I believe the Latino community can be the ‘deciders’ and we saw that happen in the 2008 election and the 2012 election. We are so many voters at this point in time even in many states where we have small percentages like in the state of Virginia,” said Huerta. As Latino Decisions reported, the rate of Latino eligible voters in Virginia grew by 76 percent in Virginia between 2000 and 2010, outpacing all other ethnic groups…”
‘The Art of Dissent’ – Ai Weiwei and Laura Poitras
[New York Times]
Laura Poitras: “In April, Ai and Appelbaum met in Beijing to collaborate on an art project commissioned by Rhizome and the New Museum in New York. As a filmmaker, and as a target of state surveillance myself, I am deeply interested in the way being watched and recorded affects how we act, and how watching the watchers, or counter-surveillance, can shift power. I was asked to film their project.”
Original Artwork and Writing
Copyright © 2015
James Porteous
ClipperMedia
@NewsNomad 