Papua protests: capital Jayapura burns during night of violence

Unrest: Disturbis / Disturbios

Racial slurs: Insults racials / Insultos raciales

Have set buildings ablaze: Han calat foc a edificis / Han incendiado edificios

Have been rack: Ha estat sacsejada / Ha sido sacudida

The unity of the Republic of Indonesia is final: La unitat de la República d’Indonèsia és definitive. La unidad de la República de Indonesia es definitiva

Papua protests: capital Jayapura burns during night of violence

Indonesian president calls for calm after more than 1,000 protesters take to streets amid unrest over racial slurs and calls for independence

Reuters Fri 30 Aug 2019 03.27 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/30/papua-protests-capital-jayapura-burns-during-night-of-violence

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd

Protesters in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua have set buildings ablaze in the provincial capital Jayapura, forcing the state power firm to cut off electricity in some districts, state media and an executive of the utility said.

Police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators who also set fire to cars and threw stones at shops and offices on Thursday, state news agency Antara said. Protesters also torched a local parliament office. “Several public facilities and properties were damaged by rioters,” national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.

In the wake of Thursday’s unrest, Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda called for UN to act on the crisis, the result of related protests about racism, discrimination and calls for independence. “Indonesian security services may turn it into a bloodbath,” Wenda said, referring to the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in which hundreds of mourners at a funeral were shot by Indonesian forces.

The region has been racked by civil unrest for two weeks over reports of racial and ethnic discrimination. Some protesters are also demanding an independence vote – a move ruled out by the security minister on Thursday.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo called for calm on Thursday evening, telling reporters he had ordered “firm action against anarchist and racist actions”. He promised to further develop Papua.

During the riot in Jayapura, the protesters torched a building housing the offices of state-controlled telecoms firm Telekomunikasi Indonesia. The company said in a statement it could not assess the full damage yet.

The utility company PLN has turned off power in areas around the torched building, said regional director Ahmad Rofik, and state energy firm Pertamina said it had shut several petrol stations in Jayapura because of the protest.

National military spokesman Major General Sisriadi said more than 1,000 people had taken part in the protest.

Police spokesman Prasetyo told broadcaster Kompas TV: “The condition is gradually recovering.” News website Kompas.com said demonstrators had begun to disperse.

Gunfire broke out a day earlier between protesters and police in the town of Deiyai, about 500km (310 miles) from Jayapura.

Police said one soldier and two civilians were killed in the incident, while a separatist group said six had been shot dead. The military dismissed that as a hoax.

Police have deployed 300 mobile brigade personnel to the towns of Deiyai, Paniai and Jayapura after Wednesday’s incident, media quoted police chief Tito Karnavian as saying.

A separatist movement has simmered for decades in Papua, while there have also been frequent complaints of rights abuses by Indonesian security forces.

The spark for the latest unrest was a racist slur against Papuan students, who were hit by tear gas in their dormitory and detained in the city of Surabaya on the main island of Java on 17 August, Indonesia’s Independence Day, for allegedly desecrating a national flag. They were later released without charge.

Papua and West Papua provinces, the resource-rich western part of the island of New Guinea, formed a Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised UN-backed referendum in 1969.

On Thursday, chief security minister Wiranto said the government would not entertain any demand for an independence vote, according to Kompas.com. “Demands for a referendum, I think, is out of place. Demands for referendum I think must not be mentioned. Why? Because the unity of the Republic of Indonesia is final,” Wiranto was quoted as saying.

The government has cut internet access in the region since last week to stop people sharing “provocative” messages that could trigger more violence.

Yondr

Cada dia ho flipo més!

Teenage hangups: the drastic plans to keep high schoolers off their phones

Soon more than 1,000 schools nationwide will be using Yondr, a pouch that students lock their phones in during class

Vivian Ho in San Francisco Wed 28 Aug 2019 06.00 BST

Pouch: bossa / bolsa

Put your cellphone away. Stop texting. Stop using the camera as a mirror. Stop looking at Instagram. They’re the familiar commands of teachers and educators in the age of the smartphone.

Most teenagers today have grown up never knowing a world without smartphones, with the Pew Research Center reporting that 95% of all teens currently have access to or own a smartphone, and 45% are online almost constantly. That leaves educators the daunting challenge of teaching those whose attentions are – at least partially – attached to the devices in their pockets.

Daunting: discouraging

Most schools have put in place policies banning or regulating phone usage during school hours, and teachers now routinely find themselves confiscating devices or writing up students for being on their phones.

Writing up: possant notes / poniendo avisos

Educators are now exploring more drastic measures. This school year, more than 1,000 schools nationwide will be using Yondr, a pouch system that allows students to lock away their phones while they’re in class.

Each morning when students arrive at school, they magnetically lock their devices into their own personal green and gray pouches. They maintain possession of their pouches and devices, but they cannot unlock it until the end of the day, when they tap it on an unlocking magnet station located throughout the school.

The concept is not new. Musicians and performers have been using Yondr to prevent people from filming their gigs since the San Francisco-based company launched in 2014. But in recent years, more and more schools have begun using the pouches to keep kids off their phones during school hours, with dozens in the Bay Area alone. “Demand has tripled this year,” the Yondr spokeswoman Kelly Taylor said.

Allison Silvestri, the former principal of San Lorenzo high school east of San Francisco, implemented the tool three years ago. The results “were tremendous”, she said. The students were paying attention more in class.

The school saw a decrease in referrals for defiance and disrespect. “It was just so powerful to hear students interacting with each other and interacting with adults on campus,” she said.

Edward Huang, 16, was part of a pilot program that tested Yondr at San Mateo high school before launching it this school year. He has mixed feelings about Yondr. He’s noticed a difference in his peers. “People aren’t distracted,” he said. “Even people who were on their phones in minor ways, like checking the time and checking notifications, those minor ways add up and have an effect on how engaged you are. Socially, it has improved us. Even if it’s all of us talking about how much we hate it, having something to hate is a conversation topic.”

But he’s already heard about issues some kids have had because they couldn’t check their phones. Employers have tried to get in touch with students during the day, and couldn’t.

(...)

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/27/highschoolers-phones-yondr-distraction 

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd

Papua merdeka, itu yang monyet inginkan. West Papua protest by Kate Lamb & Ben Doherty

A hores d’ara, sense cap referència ni a La Vanguardia, ni a El País, ni al Ara, ni al ABC…

West Papua protests: Indonesia deploys 1,000 soldiers to quell unrest, cuts internet

Jakarta cuts online access to Papua ‘and surrounding areas’ until the atmosphere ‘returns to being conducive and normal’

Kate Lamb in Jakarta, and Ben Doherty      Thu 22 Aug 2019 06.57 BST

Deploy: Desplegar

To quell: Calmar

Unrest: Aldarulls / Disturbios

Return to be conducive: Tornin a la normalitat / Vuelvan a la normalidad

Indonesia has deployed more than 1,000 security personnel to West Papua and cut internet access, amid days of violent demonstrations in what activists say are the largest protests to occur in the region in years.

On Wednesday, violent unrest occurred in Fakfak, where a market was set ablaze and street battles erupted between police and protesters.

Ablaze: Cremar / Arder

Waving the banned Morning Star flag, a symbol of West Papuan independence, protesters chanted “we are not red and white”, in reference to the colours of the Indonesian flag.

Police fired tear gas after the crowds set fire to a market and destroyed ATMs and shops, local media reported. The crowd dispersed when riot police fired warning shots. Indonesian media reported police arrested 45 people, including some they accused of masterminding the protests and damaging buildings.

Mastermind: Dirigir, ésser el cervell d’una accció / Dirigir, ser el cerebro de una acción

It followed days of large and violent protests across multiple cities in the region, which is divided into the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

The groundswell of anger that has fuelled the demonstrators was sparked by an incident in the Javanese city of Surabaya on the weekend, where nationalist groups goaded Papuan students with racist taunts, calling them “monkeys”, “pigs” and “dogs”.

Groundswell: Mar de fons / Mar de fondo

Goad: Provocar amb insults / Provocar con insultos

The exiled West Papuan leader, Benny Wenda, said the subsequent arrests of the Papuan students in Surabaya had “lit the bonfire of nearly 60 years of racism, discrimination and torture of the people of West Papua by Indonesia”.

Angered by the racist slurs, Papuans began taking to the streets on Monday, first in Jayapura, from where violent protests have since spread to Manokwari, Fakfak, Timika and, on Thursday morning, Nabire, where demonstrators held signs with messages such as: “Papua merdeka, itu yang monyet inginkan,” or “Free Papua, this is what the monkeys want.”

Slur: Insult / Insulto

(Per fer-nos una idea de les dimensions, la distància entre Jakarta i Jayapura és la mateixa que hi ha entre Badajoz i Moscou.)

As an additional 1,000 military and police troops were sent in, Indonesia’s communications ministry announced on Wednesday that internet access would be temporarily blocked in Papua and its “surrounding areas” to “accelerate the process of restoring security”.

It followed days of an internet slowdown, and will last “until the atmosphere of Papua returns to being conducive and normal”, the ministry said.

Also on Wednesday, 5,000 people rallied in and around the city of Timika, the closest town to the massive Freeport gold and copper mine, where demonstrators reportedly threw rocks at the local parliament building and tried to tear down its fence.

Hundreds also marched through the streets of Sorong city, where protesters destroyed parts of an airport and about 250 inmates escaped in a prison break on Monday, according to West Papua’s police chief, Herry Rudolf Nahak.

Indonesia’s chief security minister, Wiranto, who goes by one name, headed to Papua late on Wednesday in a bid to quell tensions, while President Joko Widodo was scheduled to visit next week.

Activists criticised the internet blackout, saying it would make it difficult to verify facts and ensure people’s safety, in an area where access by foreign journalists is already restricted. For days, photos and videos posted on social media have provided a rare glimpse at the extent of the unrest. (…)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/22/west-papua-protests-indonesia-deploys-1000-soldiers-to-quell-unrest

“Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”.

Linchamientos en México. Mexican town that lynched alleged kidnappers by Tom Phillips

En la película Vice se nos muestra como Dick Cheney, después de que dos aviones se estrellasen contra la torres gemelas, ve una oportunidad en lo que otros ven como un problema. A partir de ahí, la trama se desarrolla para mostrar como Cheney aprovecha esa oportunidad. Pero la otra cara de la moneda, el problema, también se desarrolla.

Hoy publica The Guardian que, en México, patrullas ciudadanas, hartas de secuestros, han linchado a un grupo de delincuentes. Mientras, Bolsonaro declara que ‘criminals should die in the streets like cockroaches’. El problema de la delincuencia organizada, especialmente al sur de Estados Unidos ha sido la cara B de una oportunidad para muchos gobernantes. Cierto que también es la cara B de la inoperancia de otros con mejores intenciones. Pero sea como sea ese problema ha crecido hasta situaciones insostenibles y, nuevamente, personajes como Bolsonaro o Duterte (la frontera sur de Estados Unidos es muy larga) lo recogen como una oportunidad. En medio, la respuesta visceral y coyuntural de la población que puede ser comprensible –lo comprensible no tiene que ser compartible- pero no deja de ser una evolución de pogromos, quema de brujas, gusto por las ejecuciones y otros divertimentos populares.

'People have had enough': Mexican town that lynched alleged kidnappers

Shocking act in Tepexco is just one example of wider malady blighting countries from Bolivia to Brazil

Tom Phillips in Tepexco

Wed 21 Aug 2019 05.00 BST Last modified on Wed 21 Aug 2019 05.01 BST

Socorro Muñoz fled indoors as the laurel-lined square outside her shop became a public execution ground one sunny afternoon in early August.

Fled indoors: huyó al interior

Laured-lined square: marco adornado con laurel

“I didn’t want to see,” the 62-year-old storekeeper explained as she relived the moment a tide of Latin American lynchings swept into Tepexco’s picturesque Plaza de la Constitución, leaving seven alleged kidnappers dead.

Witnesses say many in this farming community felt differently and had packed the square to watch a massacre they call simply “los hechos” or “the events”.

The dead included three suspected gang members – one a teenager – who were dragged from a local police station, interrogated and strung up from a rusty yellow basketball hoop as the crowd bayed for justice, and for blood.

Strung up: colgado

Rusty: oxidado

Bay: clamar

“My goodness, the 16-year-old kid, they hanged him and then brought him down – but he was still breathing. He was still alive,” Muñoz recounted in horror. “And when the people saw, they started shouting: ‘Put him up again! Put him up again!’ And so they put him up again. It was terrible. We’ve never seen anything like this.”

The lynchings, which took place in the Mexican state of Puebla on 7 August, were the latest expression of a regional malady blighting countries from Bolivia to Brazil, whose far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, recently declared criminals should “die in the streets like cockroaches”.

Malady blighting: plaga que azota

Most weeks Latin American newspapers feature chilling tales of mob justice, often committed by otherwise law-abiding citizens and increasingly coordinated on social media and filmed on smartphones. In one recent case in the Brazilian Amazon, vigilantes smashed their way into a police station with sledgehammers in search of a suspected killer, before hacking him to death with machetes and scythes.

Chilling tales: relatos espeluznantes

Mob justice: justicia vengativa

Law-abiding citizens: ciudadanos de orden respetuosos de la ley.

Smashed their way: se abrieron paso

Sledghammer & scythes: mazos y guadañas

But Mexico, which last year registered a record 35,964 murders and where only a tiny fraction of crimes are solved, has been particularly affected.

The number of lynchings almost tripled here last year, jumping from 60 incidents in 2017 to 174 – 58 of which resulted in deaths. In the first half of this year that trend has continued with security expert Eduardo Guerrero counting at least 42 killings.

“It is truly alarming,” said Elisa Godínez Pérez, a Mexican anthropologist who studies lynchings. “There are regions like Puebla where the situation is practically out of control.” (…)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/21/they-hanged-him-the-mexican-town-tepexco-that-lynched-alleged-kidnappers

“Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”.

The plastic backlash by Stephen Buranyi

The plastic backlash by Stephen Buranyi

Tue 13 Nov 2018 06.00 GMT Last modified on Mon 26 Nov 2018 12.00 GMT

Microbeads were only the beginning. The public would soon learn that synthetic fabrics such as nylon and polyester shed thousands of microscopic fibres with each wash cycle. After scientists started showing how these fibres ended up lodged in the guts of fish, newspapers ran articles with headlines such as “Yoga pants are destroying the Earth”, while eco-conscious brands such as Patagonia scrambled for solutions. (…) Then tyres, which are about 60% plastic, were revealed to shed plastic fibres while in motion, potentially more than microbeads and clothing combined. (…)

Les mini perles de plàstic (emprades en cosmètica principalment) foren sols el començament. La gent va comprendre ràpidament que les fibres sintètiques com ara el niló o el polièster deixaven anar milers de fibres microscòpiques a cada bugada. Després els científics varen mostrar com aquestes fibres acabaven dins els budells dels peixos i els diaris van començar a deixar anar titulars com ara “Els pantalons de ioga estan destruint el planeta” mentre eco-companyies com Patagonia cercaven solucions (com ara rentadores que evitaven en un 60% el problema de les microfibres). Més tard es va demostrar que els pneumàtics, que estan fets amb un 60% de plàstic, també deixaven anar microfibres en el seu moviment, potencialment més que les mini perles i la roba juntes.

Plastic meant profit. As one researcher from the Midwest Research Institute, an engineering research firm, wrote in 1969, “the powerful motive force behind the development of the throw-away container market is the fact that each returnable bottle displaced from the market means the sale of 20 non-returns”. In 1965, the Society for the Plastics Industry trade body reported that plastics had entered their 13th straight year of record growth.

Plàstic vol dir profit. Com un investigador del MRI, una companyia de recerca, va escriure el 1969, “la principal causa que va portar al desenvolupament del mercat dels estris d’un sol us fou que cada ampolla retornable retirada del mercat era equiparable al cost de 20 sense retorn.” El 1965, la Societat per la Indústria del Plàstic, un organisme comercial, va reportar que els plàstics havien aconseguit el seu 13è any consecutiu de creixement rècord.

But it also meant rubbish. In the US, prior to 1950, reusable packaging such as glass bottles had a nearly 96% return rate. By the 70s, the rate for all container returns had dropped below 5%. (…)

Però també vol dir brossa. Als Estats Units, abans del 1950, els envasos retornables com ara ampolles de vidre arribava ben bé al 96% de retorn. Cap als anys 70, la taxa de tots els contenidors de retornables va davallar fins a un 5%.

From the start, the industry fought hard against all the proposed legislation. The New York City plastic bottle tax was struck down by the state supreme court the same year it was levied, following a lawsuit by the Society for the Plastics Industry alleging unfair treatment;(…) the congressional ban never got off the ground after lobbyists claimed it would hurt manufacturing jobs.

Des del començament, la indústria va lluitar amb força contra tota legislació. La taxa de la ciutat de Nova York sobre les ampolles de plàstic fou derogada per la cort suprema el mateix any que havia estat implantada d’acord amb una al·legació de la SPI queixant-se de tractament injust; (el mateix va passar amb una legislació ambiental a Hawaii). Les esmenes al congrés no varen continuar tan bon punt els lobbistes varen queixar-se que es podrien perdre llocs de treball.

Having seen off these legislative threats, a loose alliance of oil and chemical companies, along with drinks and packaging manufacturers, pursued a two-part strategy that would successfully defuse anti-plastic sentiment for a generation. The first part of the strategy was to shift responsibility for litter and waste from companies to consumers. Rather than blaming the companies that had promoted disposable packaging and made millions along the way, these same companies argued that irresponsible individuals were the real problem. This argument was epitomised by a 1965 editorial in a US packaging trade journal headlined “Guns Don’t Kill People”, which blamed “the litterbugs who abuse our countryside” rather than the manufacturers themselves.

Veient aquestes amenaces legislatives, una poderosa aliança d’empreses químiques i del petroli juntament amb les d’envasaments van crear una doble estratègia per aconseguir que tota una generació deixés de tenir un sentiment de rebuig cap als plàstics. La primera part de l’estratègia fou fer anar la responsabilitat i la despesa dels residus de les companyies als consumidors. En lloc de culpar a les companyies que creaven els envasaments i guanyaven milions, les mateixes companyies argumentaven que les irresponsabilitats individuals eren el veritable problema. Aquest argument fou santificat el 1965 en un diari de les empreses d’emmagatzematge en un titular ‘Les pistoles no maten a la gent’ (sí, el mateix que ha fet servir Trump després de l’enèsima matança en l’estiu de 2019), que culpava als porcs que abusen del nostre país molt més que als mateixos productors.

To help push this message, companies involved in plastics and other disposable packaging funded non-profit groups that highlighted the consumer’s responsibility for rubbish. One of these groups, Keep America Beautiful (KAB), founded in 1953 and funded by companies including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dow Chemical and Mobil, ran hundreds of adverts along these lines. “People start pollution. People can stop it”, stated their 1971 Earth Day campaign. KAB also engaged local civic and community groups to organise cleanups and address what it called the “national disgrace” of litter.

Per ajudar a promoure aquest missatge, les companyies vinculades a la producció de plàstics i altres embolcalls d’un sol us varen crear grups sense ànim de lucre que remarcaven la responsabilitat dels consumidors per la brossa. Un d’aquests grups, Manté Amèrica Bonica (KAB) fundat el 1953 per companyies com ara Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dow Chemical (20,000 morts i 600.000 afectats a Bhopal 1964) i Mobil, varen posar milers d’anuncis amb l’eslògan “La gent va començar la pol·lució. La gent la pot aturar” i van instaurar, el 1971, la seva campanya del Dia de la Terra. KAB també engegà grups civils locals i comunitaris per organitzar neteges i resoldre el que anomenaven la ‘desgràcia nacional’ de la brossa.

Framing litter as a personal failing was remarkably successful. In 1988, the year global plastic production pulled even with steel, Margaret Thatcher, picking up litter in St James’s Park for a photo op, captured the tone perfectly. “This is not the fault of the government,” she told reporters. “It is the fault of the people who knowingly and thoughtlessly throw it down.” 

Considerar la brossa com una responsabilitat personal tingué un notable èxit. El 1988, l’any que la producció de plàstic va agafar la del acer, Margaret Thatcher, recollint escombraries a St James Park per una foto publicitària, ho va resumir perfectament: ‘Això no és culpa dels governs’, va dir als periodistes. ‘Es de la gent que, tot i ser conscients, ho llencen.’ (la foto en aquest post és de The Telegraph) 

The second part of the industry’s strategy to allay public concern over pollution involved throwing its weight behind a relatively new idea: household recycling. 

La segona part de l’estratègia de la indústria per calmar la preocupació de la gent per la pol·lució implicava posar el pes sobre una idea nova: el reciclatge domèstic.

I no continuo per no sobrepassar els límits de la llicència d’ús de The Guardian. Podeu llegir l’article sencer a:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/13/the-plastic-backlash-whats-behind-our-sudden-rage-and-will-it-make-a-difference

I escoltar-ho a:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2018/dec/28/discover-the-familiar-the-plastic-backlash-podcast

“Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”.

Buenos Aires judge bans delivery apps after road accidents spike by Amy Booth

Buenos Aires judge bans delivery apps after road accidents spike

Ruling also raises concerns over workers’ rights, and orders credit card companies to block transactions made via apps

Amy Booth           Fri 16 Aug 2019 06.00 BST

When a courier delivering a takeaway in Buenos Aires was hit by a car, the company’s response was not to check how he was, but to ask: “How is the order?”

Courier Ernesto Floridia, 63, was run over on 27 July while delivering pizza ordered through Glovo, an on-demand courier service. When he texted the company about the accident, the co-ordinator replied: “How is the order. It is in good or bad condition to be delivered?” When he said he couldn’t move, the coordinator messaged: “Ernesto can you send me a picture of the products please?” Journalist Yanina Otero tweeted a photo of the exchange in which Floridia’s phone appears to be smeared with blood.

The tweet went viral, andwas retweeted more than 60,000 times, with social media users outraged at Glovo’s response. A judge has now taken it to a provocative conclusion: he has ordered the suspension of delivery apps after finding that major players Rappi, Glovo, and PedidosYa, failed to comply with the law – which the companies deny.

(…)

On 2 August, Judge Roberto Gallardo ordered the suspension of the apps in the city over concerns that the companies don’t satisfy transport and labour laws. They are banned until they start following the law. His ruling applies to all companies that fail to comply with the law, but specifically mentions major delivery apps Rappi, Glovo, and PedidosYa.

Gallardo, who interrupted the mid-year judicial recess in order to handle the case, later said: “The situation described entails a foreseeable and immediate risk to frustrate the rights to life, physical integrity and work.”

He has ordered credit card companies to block transactions made via the apps. Delivery companies will also be fined ARS10,000 (£149.35) each time police checkpoints catch a courier breaching health and safety requirements.

(…)

Juan Manuel Ottaviano (no relation), a labour lawyer and assessor at the Association of Platform Workers, drew parallels with Uber. The ride hailing app is fighting a legal battle with the City of Buenos Aires about whether the law should treat it as a technology company or a taxi service. Drivers are left in a legal grey area, but keep working because they need the income.

“Instead of discussing working conditions, it’s about the legality or illegality of the workers,” Juan Manuel said. “It generates underground work, means more precarious working conditions.” He said app work is not characteristic of self-employment because it’s most couriers’ sole source of income, they receive direct orders, and can be disciplined.

While many people in the city rely on this work to make a living, the drawbacks of these apps are becoming increasingly apparent. “If the most important thing is how quickly the pizza gets there, more guys are going to die,” said Gonzalo.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/aug/16/buenos-aires-judge-bans-delivery-apps-after-road-accidents-spike

“Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”.

In the same Yanina's twitter we can read: 

The fashion line designed to trick surveillance cameras by Alex Hern

The fashion line designed to trick surveillance cameras by Alex Hern

Adversarial Fashion garments are covered in license plates, aimed at bamboozling a device’s databases

Alex Hern in Las Vegas      @alexhern            Wed 14 Aug 2019 06.00 BST

Garment: Ropa, vestido

Aim: Destinada

Bamboozling: Engañar.

Automatic license plate readers, which use networked surveillance cameras and simple image recognition to track the movements of cars around a city, may have met their match, in the form of a T-shirt. Or a dress. Or a hoodie.

Hoodie: Capucha / Robin Hood /

The anti-surveillance garments were revealed at the DefCon cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas on Saturday by the hacker and fashion designer Kate Rose, who presented the inaugural collection of her Adversarial Fashion line.

Rose credits a conversation with a friend, the Electronic Frontier Foundation researcher Dave Maass, for inspiring the project: “He mentioned that the readers themselves are not very good,” she said. “They already read in things like picket fences and other junk. I thought that if they’re fooled by a fence, then maybe I could take a crack at it.”

Picket fenced: Valla, cerca

They already read →adverbio antes del verbo

Crack at it →Preposición at

To human eyes, Rose’s fourth amendment T-shirt contains the words of the fourth amendment to the US constitution in bold yellow letters. The amendment, which protects Americans from “unreasonable searches and seizures”, has been an important defense against many forms of government surveillance: in 2012, for instance, the US supreme court ruled that it prevented police departments from hiding GPS trackers on cars without a warrant.

                        On cars → El GPS se instala oculto dentro del coche

But to an automatic license plate reader (ALPR) system, the shirt is a collection of license plates, and they will get added to the license plate reader’s database just like any others it sees. The intention is to make deploying that sort of surveillance less effective, more expensive, and harder to use without human oversight, in order to slow down the transition to what Rose calls “visual personally identifying data collection”.

To make deploying that sort of surveillance: Hacer que el desarrollo de este tipo de vigilancia.

                        To slow down → Ralentizar

“It’s a highly invasive mass surveillance system that invades every part of our lives, collecting thousands of plates a minute. But if it’s able to be fooled by fabric, then maybe we shouldn’t have a system that hangs things of great importance on it,” she said.

Rose likens her work to that of other security researchers at DefCon. “If a phone is discovered to have a vulnerability, we don’t throw our phones away. This is like that, disclosing a vulnerability. I was shocked it was so easy, and I would call on people who think these systems are critical to find better ways to do that verification.”

Liken: Conecta

(…)

The anti-ALPR fabric is just the latest example of “adversarial fashion”, albeit the first to be targeted against car trackers. In 2016, the Berlin-based artist and technologist Adam Harvey worked with international interaction studio Hyphen-Labs to produce the Hyperface textile, fabric printed with a seemingly abstract pattern designed to trigger facial recognition systems.

Albeit: Aunque

On Monday, the owners of the King’s Cross development in central London were revealed to be applying facial recognition without consent on any visitor to the 67-acre estate. The UK’s Information Commissioner warned the landowners that such use may not be legal under existing law.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/13/the-fashion-line-designed-to-trick-surveillance-cameras

“Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”.

Wallmart & Amazon

Incalculable effort went into making Walmart absolutely world-class at merchandising. Walmart’s buyers became gatekeepers for access to the largest marketplace on the planet. The buyer’s job was to identify high-quality merchandise that the customer might want, and then negotiate the best possible price. As Claude Harris put it, “I always told the buyers: ‘You’re not negotiating for Walmart, you’re negotiating for your customer. And your customer deserves the best price you can get. Don’t ever feel sorry for a vendor. He knows what he can sell for, and we want his bottom price.’”

What is Amazon? by Zack Kanter 13/03/2019 

https://zackkanter.com/2019/03/13/what-is-amazon/

La idea de l'article, citat per John Naughton en The Guardian,  és que Wallmart és el precedent d'Amazon. El punt comú de les dues marques és el benefici del consumidor final sense cap consideració pel que hi ha darrera del mínim preu possible: "Don't ever feel sorry for": No tinguis cap mena de compasió.

La compasió, etimològicament és equivalent a simpatia en el sentit de considerar a l'altri, de sentir-se part del tot. Just el contrari del number one, american first o similars.

Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices

Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices

Gethin Chamberlain            Thu 8 Aug 2019 23.37 BST

Leaked documents show children as young as 16 recruited by Amazon supplier Foxconn work gruelling and illegal hours

Leaked / liːkt /: Made public

Gruelling: A gruelling activity is extremely difficult and tiring to do. (agotador)

Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted in to make Amazon’s Alexa devices in China as part of a controversial and often illegal attempt to meet production targets, documents seen by the Guardian reveal.

Draft in: If people are drafted into a place, they are moved there to do a particular job. If you are drafted, you are ordered to serve in the armed forces, usually for a limited period of time. If people are drafted into a place, they are moved there to do a particular job.

Interviews with workers and leaked documents from Amazon’s supplier Foxconn show that many of the children have been required to work nights and overtime to produce the smart-speaker devices, in breach of Chinese labour laws.

Breach of: The act of breaking

According to the documents, the teenagers – drafted in from schools and technical colleges in and around the central southern city of Hengyang – are classified as “interns”, and their teachers are paid by the factory to accompany them. Teachers are asked to encourage uncooperative pupils to accept overtime work on top of regular shifts.

Some of the pupils making Amazon’s Alexa-enabled Echo and Echo Dot devices along with Kindles have been required to work for more than two months to supplement staffing levels at the factory during peak production periods, researchers found. More than 1,000 pupils are employed, aged from 16 to 18.

Chinese factories are allowed to employ students aged 16 and older, but these schoolchildren are not allowed to work nights or overtime.

Foxconn, which also makes iPhones for Apple, admitted that students had been employed illegally and said it was taking immediate action to fix the situation.

(…)

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/aug/08/schoolchildren-in-china-work-overnight-to-produce-amazon-alexa-devices

“Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”.