Uhuru: We want all pupils in school despite challenges of transition

March 17, 2019

President Uhuru Kenyatta said the government wants all pupils to join secondary school despite challenges associated with the 100 per cent transition.

He said the government will do what it takes to expand physical facilities in existing institutions to ensure all pupils successfully transit to secondary school.

The President said the government is already taking stock and assessing existing infrastructure to establish deficits before undertaking a comprehensive program of expansion and addition of new facilities in schools.

“We want all children in school. We shall built new infrastructure and expand existing ones after taking an assessment,” said the Head of State.

He was speaking at the 94 year old Mang’u High School in Thika during the institution’s prize giving and thanksgiving ceremony.

Mang’u High school, one of the best performing secondary schools in Kenya, started in Kabaa High School (Machakos) in 1925 before moving to the compound of the current St Francis Girls’ High School (old Mang’u) and finally finding its current home on Exit 16 along the Thika Superhighway.

Some of the school luminaries include top scholars, doctors, engineers and political leaders including retired President Mwai Kibaki and former VP Moody Awori. Kibaki sent an apology through the former VP during today’s ceremony.

Before the President spoke, the Principal Secretary for Basic Education Dr. Belio Kipsang said the transition rate currently stands at 94 per cent and the number of secondary school students has shot up to 3 million compared to 1.9 learners in 2013.

The President said the ongoing modernization of the education sector includes the implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) which he said grounds the students better academically, morally and socially.

“The Curriculum (CBC) lays emphasis on learners’ ability to process issues as well as their passions and talents. Assessment (under the CBC) will be formative rather than summative so that the skills acquired match what our industries require,” said the President.

As a policy, President Kenyatta said, the government will continue paying examination fees for all students, enhance capitation for secondary school students and provide medical cover to all students under the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), a programme that was started last year.

Presidently keenly pays attention to Mangú student’s presentation | PSCU

“Our aim and the aim of these efforts is to modernize our education and training so that our sons and daughters can acquire the knowledge and skills that they need to efficiently serve this country and leave it better than they found it,”he said adding that the government will continue supporting all students in Kenyan secondary schools.

The President said Mang’u High school has so far received Shs15 million in the current financial year to enhance and improve its classrooms, dormitories and ablution capacity.

“To further improve the learning environment for students, the ministry of education will continue to work with the school management to progressively address the infrastructural needs in the school,” said the Head of State adding that Mang’u will receive another Shs 140 million in the next two financial years for its infrastructural development needs and expansion program to cater for its rising student population that now stands at over 1700.

He also promised the school a new 72-seater school bus on the request of the school captain Kitagwa Powell.

The President advised the students to remain diligent , work hard and devote their lives to the service of the people, community and the country if they hope to match the distinguished careers of the great men who have gone through the school.

He also congratulated the school management under the chairmanship of former Cabinet Minister George Muhoho and the sponsorship of Catholic primate John Cardinal Njue (Diocese of Nairobi) for sustaining the school as a centre of excellence.

Uhuru Kenyatta opening the new hall named after retired President Mwai Kibaki and the modern Captain Ronald Karauri Dining Hall. | PSCU

Earlier, the President officially opened the newly constructed Amphitheatre named after retired President Mwai Kibaki and the modern Captain Ronald Karauri Dining Hall.

Dr Kipsang said the implementation of the CBC is on course and so far the ministry has distributed over 26 million books to ensure its success.

Other speakers included Mr Muhoho who announced his retirement as chairman of the school board after 23 years, Cardinal Njue who also conducted Eucharistic mass for both the parents , the students and invited guests, Moody Awori and Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu among others.

Kenya’s First Lady arrives in the US for the 63rd Session of the UN Commission on Status of Women

Dan Ojumah

March 17, 2019

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta arrived in New York, USA to attend the 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women which is taking place at the United Nations Headquarters.

The meeting which began on 11th and ends on 22nd of this month is being attended by delegations of representatives of member states, UN bodies and the non-governmental organizations accredited to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The theme for this year’s session is: “Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;” while the rallying call is: “Women’s empowerment and the link to sustainable development”.

During the meeting, Kenya will showcase her efforts in developing social protection mechanisms including the First Lady’s Beyond Zero Initiative.

The Beyond Zero side event will be hosted within the United Nations (UN) complex to demonstrate Kenya’s leadership, commitment and investment in gender equality and empowerment of women within the health and social sector.

The event will also be used to demonstrate how women can leverage on their designated strategic positions to propel human development indices that work towards creating an equitable world with dignity and respect.

The focus of the side event is to showcase the leadership, brokering and convening power of Kenya’s First Lady through Beyond Zero interventions.

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta Arrives at UN offices

Speaking briefly before the arrival of the First Lady, Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs, Prof. Margaret Kobia said the Beyond Zero side event will demonstrate how the First Lady has been able to use the initiative to transform lives of the most vulnerable groups in Kenya.

CS Kobia said the cash transfer programme of the national government is one of the most successful social protection interventions which has helped many vulnerable individuals improve their lives.

Through the cash transfer programme and other social protection programmes, the CS said, Kenya is on course to fulfilling its international obligations in line with the theme of the 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

The Cabinet Secretary invited all attending delegations to the side event which will take place on Monday at 1.30 pm New York time.

On arrival in New York, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta was received by Kenya’s Ambassador to the US, Robison Njeru Githae and Ambassador Koki Muli Grignon who is the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kenya to the United Nations.

Eight must-see films about women – that are all by women

Dan Ojumah

March 17, 2019

Bridesmaids: top comedians on top form. Universal Pictures Emily Spiers, Lancaster University

It is no secret that women are still underrepresented in cinema – whether they work behind or in front of the camera. They are also, as the Independent’s alternative all-female list of nominees for the 2019 Academy Awards shows, under-recognised during awards season.

The latest data from the BBC shows that fewer than half of the 89 films named best picture at the Oscars since 1929 have even passed the measure of on-screen female representation known as the Bechdel Test. For a film to pass the Bechdel test, it must satisfy three criteria: 1) does it have at least two named female characters? 2) Do they have a conversation with each other? 3) Is that conversation about something other than a man?

This only needs to happen once to count as a pass, so it’s even more astonishing that so few films manage it. There are 8,052 movies in the Bechdel Test database, a user-generated archive, of which 4,640 (57.6%) meet the three criteria, 817 (10.1%) meet two of them and 1,781 (22.1%) meet one. Another 814 (10.1%) meet none of the criteria at all. Again, that’s just one single conversation between just two women that is not about a man.

The Bechdel test has been a good catalyst for talking about women’s representation in film. But it is a rough-and-ready measure that doesn’t analyse the quality of the representation of the women or allow for an intersectional perspective on women’s representation, which would consider how gender intersects with race, class, sexuality, religion or ability.

So this is a list that highlights the work of women behind the camera, but that also pays attention to the quality of representation of the women projected onto the screen. It includes a variety of genres, from historical drama to contemporary comedy, but all were written, directed or produced by women and have a sustained focus on women and their lives.

Wanda (1970)

The second-wave feminist movement in North America and Western Europe opened the path for a new generation of female writers and directors in cinema. The first ground-breaking film on the list is Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970).

Wanda trailer.

Loden wrote, directed and starred in this independent film about a woman’s existential crisis in the coal region of eastern Pennsylvania. The film was remarkable at the time for its in-depth focus on the experiences of a single woman. It won the Pasinetti Award for best foreign film at the 31st Venice International Film Festival.

Silkwood (1983)

In the early 1980s, Nora Ephron, one of the figureheads of women in contemporary film, co-wrote the screenplay for Silkwood (1983).

Silkwood trailer.

The drama is based on the real life of Karen Silkwood, a whistle-blower and union activist, who died in a car crash while investigating dangerous practices at the plutonium plant in Oklahoma where she worked. The film is notable for its two female leads, Silkwood, played by Meryl Streep, and her best friend, Dolly Pelliker, played by Cher, who won best supporting actress for her role at the Golden Globes in 1984.

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

The Fool and his money (1912), thought to be the first film comprising only African-American actors, was directed by a woman, Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-1968), the first female filmmaker on record. Then, 79 years later, Julie Dash became the first African-American woman to write, direct and produce a major independent film distributed theatrically in the US. Daughters of the Dust (1991) is set in the year 1902.

Daughters of the Dust trailer.

With beautiful cinematography and innovative narrative structure, it tells the story of three generations of Gullah women from the Peazant family on Saint Helena Island off South Carolina as they prepare to leave the island and start a new life on the mainland.

The Piano (1983)

New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion makes the list for her lyrical masterpiece The Piano, which she wrote and directed. Again, the film focuses on the lives of its two central female protagonists, the mute piano player Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) and her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin), who are sent to live with New Zealand pioneer (Sam Neil).

The Piano trailer.

Key to Campion’s portrayal of the erotic relationship between McGrath and Baines (Harvey Keitel) is that male, as well as female, nudity is shown. This is important because a recent report reveals that female nudity is three times as likely in Hollywood films as male nudity. Campion is the second of only five women ever nominated for the Academy Award for best director (Kathryn Bigelow is the only female director to have won) and is the first female filmmaker in history to receive the Palme d’Or (for The Piano).

I Like it Like That (1994)

Darnell Martin became the first African-American woman to write and direct a film at a major studio.

I Like it Like That trailer.

The film, the comedy-drama I Like it Like That, tells the story of a young Puerto Rican woman struggling to survive in the poverty of New York’s South Bronx neighbourhood.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

As a multi-award winning director, writer and producer, Sophia Coppola has created some of the most compelling cinematic portrayals of young female characters in our time.

Marie Antoinette trailer.

In The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003) and Marie Antoinette (2006), Coppola provides aesthetically innovative and lusciously filmed depictions of lonely young women who, according to American film critic Roger Ebert, are “surrounded by a world that knows how to use them but not how to value and understand them”.

Bridesmaids (2011)

Written by Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig, this film boasts a predominantly female cast of comic actors at the very top of their game.

Bridesmaids trailer.

At its heart, it is a film about friendship between women, but it is also a key piece of cinematic evidence in the continuing, if redundant, debate about whether women can be funny.

Wadjda (2012)

The first woman to shoot a Saudi Arabian feature film, writer-director Haifaa Al Mansour, earned multiple accolades for the bittersweet tale of a ten-year-old who, in conservative Riyadh, enters a Qur’an-reading competition to raise the funds to buy a bike.

Wadjda trailer.

What these films have in common is their unflinching focus on the choices women are able to make in societies still dominated by patriarchal structures. Some critically examine the fates of those who suffer under the status quo, but others show us ways to challenge it and make choices differently. Here’s to these trailblazers of cinema!

Emily Spiers, Lecturer in Creative Futures, Lancaster University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Why news outlets should think twice about republishing the New Zealand mosque shooter’s livestream

Dan Ojumah

March 15, 2019

Like so many times before with acts of mass violence in different parts of the world, news of shootings at two Christchurch mosques on Friday instantly ricocheted around the world via social media.

When these incidents occur, online activity follows a predictable pattern as journalists and others try to learn the name of the perpetrator and any reason behind the killings.

This time they did not have to wait long. In an appalling example of the latest technology, the gunman reportedly livestreamed his killings on Facebook. According to reports, the footage apparently showed a man moving through the interior of a mosque and shooting at his victims indiscriminately.

Amplifying the spread of this kind of material can be harmful.

Mainstream media outlets posted raw footage from gunman

The video was later taken down but not before many had called out the social media company. The ABC’s online technology reporter, Ariel Bogle, blamed the platforms for allowing the video to be shared.

ABC investigative reporter Sophie McNeil asked people on Twitter not to share the video, since the perpetrator clearly wanted it to be widely disseminated. New Zealand police similarly urged people not to share the link and said they were working to have the footage removed.

Following a spate of killings in France in 2016, French mainstream media proprietors decided to adopt a policy of not recycling pictures of atrocities.

The editor of Le Monde, Jérôme Fenoglio, said:

Following the attack in Nice, we will no longer publish photographs of the perpetrators of killings, to avoid possible effects of posthumous glorification.

Today, information about the name of the Christchurch gunman, his photograph and his Twitter account, were easy to find. Later, it was possible to see that his Twitter account had been suspended. On Facebook, it was easy to source pictures, and even a selfie, that the alleged perpetrator had shared on social media before entering the mosque.

But it was not just social media that shared the pictures. Six minutes of raw video was posted by news.com.au, which, after a warning at the front of the clip, showed video from the gunman’s helmet camera as he drove through the streets on his way to the mosque.

The risks of sharing information about terrorism

Sharing this material can be highly problematic. In some past incidences of terrorism and hate crime, pictures of the wrong people have been published around the world on social and in mainstream media.

After the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, the wrong man was fingered as a culprit by a crowd-sourced detective hunt on various social media sites.

There is also the real fear that publishing such material could lead to copycat crimes. Along with the photographs and 17 minutes of film, the alleged perpetrator has penned a 73-page manifesto, in which he describes himself as “just a regular white man”.

Norwegian extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 69 people on the island of Utøya in 2011, took a similar approach to justifying his acts. Before his killing spree, Breivik wrote a 1,518 page manifesto called “2083: A European Declaration of Independence”.

The public’s right to know

Those who believe in media freedom and the public’s right to know are likely to complain if information and pictures are not available in full view on the internet. Conspiracies fester when people believe they are not being told the truth.

Instant global access to news can also pose problems to subsequent trials of perpetrators, as was shown in the recent case involving Cardinal George Pell.

While some large media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, are under increasing pressure to clean up their acts in terms of publishing hate crime material, it is nigh on impossible to stop the material popping up in multiple places elsewhere.

Members of the public, and some media organisations, will not stop speculating, playing detective or “rubber necking” at horror, despite what well-meaning social media citizens may desire. For the media, it’s all about clicks, and unfortunately horror drives clicks.

Colleen Murrell, Associate Professor, Journalism, Swinburne University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Christchurch mosque shootings must end New Zealand’s innocence about right-wing terrorism

Dan Ojumah

March 15, 2019

Members of the Armed Offenders Squad push back members of the public following a shooting at the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch. AAP/Martin Hunter, CC BY-SA Paul Spoonley, Massey University

Tonight, New Zealand police continue to respond to events following shootings at two mosques in central Christchurch. The national security threat level has been lifted to high. Mosques across New Zealand have been closed and police are asking people to refrain from visiting.

So far, 49 people have been killed. According to media reports, 41 people were fatally shot at the Masjid Al Noor mosque on Deans Avenue; others died at a second mosque nearby.

Four people, three men and a woman, have been taken into custody in connection with the shootings. One man in his late 20s has been charged with murder.

In the hours after the attacks, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern made it clear this was a terrorist attack of “extraordinary and unprecedented violence” that had no place in New Zealand.

She said extremist views were not welcome and contrary to New Zealand values, and did not reflect New Zealand as a nation.

It is one of New Zealand’s darkest days. Many of the people affected by this act of extreme violence will be from our refugee and migrant communities. New Zealand is their home. They are us.

She is right. Public opinion surveys such as the Asia New Zealand Foundation annual surveys of attitudes tend to show that a majority of New Zealanders are in favour of diversity and see immigration, in this case from Asia, as providing various benefits for the country.

But extremist politics, including the extreme nationalist and white supremacist politics that appear to be at the core of this attack on Muslims, have been part of our community for a long time.

The scene of the mass shooting, Masjid Al Noor mosque on Deans Avenue, in Christchurch. AAP/Martin Hunter, CC BY-SA

History of white supremacy

I completed research in the UK on the National Front and British National Party in the late 1970s. When I returned to New Zealand, I was told explicitly, including by authorities that were charged with monitoring extremism, that we did not have similar groups here. But it did not take me long to discover quite the opposite.

Through the 1980s, I looked at more than 70 local groups that met the definition of being extreme right wing. The city that hosted many of these groups was Christchurch.

They were a mixture of skinhead, neo-nazi and extreme nationalist groups. Some were traditional in their ideology, with a strong underpinning of anti-Semitism and a belief in the supremacy of the “British race”. Others inverted the arguments of Māori nationalism to argue for separatism to keep the “white race pure”.

And yes, there was violence. The 1989 shooting of an innocent bystander, Wayne Motz, in Christchurch by a skinhead who then walked to a local police kiosk and shot himself. The pictures of the internment showed his friends giving nazi salutes. In separate incidents, a Korean backpacker and a gay man were killed for ideological reasons.

Things have changed. The 1990s provided the internet and then social media. And events such as the September 11 terror attacks shifted the focus – anti-Semitism was now supplemented by Islamophobia.

Hate speech online

The earthquakes and subsequent rebuild have significantly transformed the ethnic demography of Christchurch and made it much more multicultural – and more positive about that diversity. It is ironic that the this terrorism should take place in this city, despite its history of earlier far right extremism.

We tend not to think too much about the presence of racist and white supremacist groups, until there is some public incident like the desecration of Jewish graves or a march of black-shirted men (they are mostly men) asserting their “right to be white”. Perhaps, we are comfortable in thinking, as the prime minister has said, they are not part of our nation.

Last year, as part of a project to look at hate speech, I looked at what some New Zealanders were saying online. It did not take long to discover the presence of hateful and anti-Muslim comments. It would be wrong to characterise these views and comments as widespread, but New Zealand was certainly not exempt from Islamophobia.

Every so often, it surfaced, such as in the attack on a Muslim woman in a Huntly carpark.

Families outside following a shooting at mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. AAP/Martin Hunter, CC BY-SA

An end to collective innocence

It became even more obvious during 2018. The Canadian YouTuber, Stefan Molyneux, sparked a public debate (along with Lauren Southern) about his right to free speech. Much of the public comment seemed to either overlook or condone his extreme views on what he regards as the threat posed by Islam.

And then there was the public protest in favour of free speech that occurred at the same time, and the signs warning us about the arrival of Sharia law or “Free Tommy” signs. The latter refers to Tommy Robinson, a long-time activist (cf English Defence League leader) who was sentenced to prison – and then released on appeal – for contempt of court, essentially by targeting Muslims before the courts.

There is plenty of evidence of local Islamophobic views, especially online. There are, and have been for a long time, individuals and groups who hold white supremacist views. They tend to threaten violence; seldom have they acted on those views. There is also a naivety amongst New Zealanders, including the media, about the need to be tolerant towards the intolerant.

There is not necessarily a direct causation between the presence of Islamophobia and what has happened in Christchurch. But this attack must end our collective innocence.

No matter the size of these extremist communities, they always represent a threat to our collective well-being. Social cohesion and mutual respect need to be asserted and continually worked on.

Paul Spoonley, Pro Vice-Chancellor, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The internet is now an arena for conflict, and we’re all caught up in it

Dan Ojumah

March 15, 2019

Tom Sear, UNSW

This article is part of our occasional long read series Zoom Out, where authors explore key ideas in science and technology in the broader context of society and humanity.

Most people think the internet operates as a kind of global public square. In reality, it’s become a divided arena where conflict between nation states plays out.

Nation states run covert operations on the same platforms we use to post cat videos and exchange gossip. And if we’re not aware of it, we could be unwittingly used as pawns for the wrong side.

How did we get here? It’s complicated, but let’s walk through some of the main elements.

The age of entanglement

On the one hand, we have an information landscape dominated by Western culture and huge multi-national internet platforms run by private companies, such as Google and Facebook. On the other, there are authoritarian regimes such as China, Iran, Turkey and Russia exercising tight control over the internet traffic flowing in and out of their countries.

We are seeing more cyber intrusions into nation state networks, such as the recent hack of the Australian parliamentary network. At the same time, information and influence operations conducted by countries such as Russia and China are flowing through social media into our increasingly shared digital societies.

The result is a global ecosystem perpetually close to the threshold of war.

Because nations use the internet both to assert power and to conduct trade, there are incentives for authoritarian powers to keep their internet traffic open. You can’t maintain rigid digital borders and assert cyberpower influence at the same time, so nations have to “cooperate to compete”.

This is becoming known as “entanglement” – and it affects us all.

Data flows in one direction

Authoritarian societies such as China, Russia and Iran aim to create their own separate digital ecosystems where the government can control internet traffic that flows in and out of the country.

The Chinese Communist Party is well known for maintaining a supposedly secure Chinese internet via what is known in the West as the “Great Firewall”. This is a system that can block international internet traffic from entering China according to the whim of the government.

For the majority of the 802 million people online in China, many of the apps we use to produce and share information are not accessible. Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter are blocked. Instead, people in China use apps created by Chinese technology companies, such as Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu.

Traffic within this ecosystem is monitored and censored in the most sophisticated and comprehensive surveillance state in the world. In 2018, for example, Peppa Pig was banned and the People’s Daily referred to her as a “gangster” after she became iconic of rebelliousness in Chinese youth culture.

Complete blocking of data is impossible

A key objective of this firewall is to to shield Chinese society and politics from external influence, while enabling internal surveillance of the Chinese population.

But the firewall is not technologically independent of the West – its development has been reliant upon US corporations to supply the software, hardware innovation and training to ensure the system functions. And since the internet is an arena where nations compete for economic advantage, it’s not in the interest of either side to destroy cyberspace entirely.

As cyber security expert Greg Austin has observed, the foundations of China’s cyber defences remain weak. There are technical ways to get around the firewall, and Chinese internet users exploit Mandarin homophones and emoji to evade internal censors.

Chinese economic and financial entanglement with the West means complete blocking of data is impossible. Consistent incentives to openness remain. China and the United States are therefore engaged in what Canadian scholar of digital media and global affairs Jon R Lindsay describes as:

chronic and ambiguous intelligence-counter intelligence contests across their networks, even as the internet facilitates productive exchange between them.

That is, a tension exists because they are covertly working against each other on exactly the same digital platforms necessary to promote their individual and mutual interests in areas such as trade, manufacturing, communications and regulation.

Since Russia is less dependent upon the information technology services of the United States and is therefore less entangled than China, it is more able to engage in bilateral negotiation and aggression.

Different styles of influence

If the internet has become a contest between nation states, one way of winning is to appear to comply with the letter of the law, while abusing its spirit.

In the West, a network of private corporations, including Twitter, Google and Facebook, facilitate an internet system where information and commerce flow freely. Since the West remains open, while powers such as Russia and China exercise control over internet traffic, this creates an imbalance that can be exploited.

Influence operations conducted by China and Russia in countries such as Australia exist within this larger context. And they are being carried out in the digital arena on a scale never before experienced. In the words of the latest US Intelligence Community Worldwide Threat Assessment:

Our adversaries and strategic competitors […] are now becoming more adept at using social media to alter how we think, behave and decide.

The internet is a vast infrastructure of tools that can be used to strategically manipulate behaviour for specific tactical gain, and each nation has its own style of influence.

I have previously written about attempts by China and Russia to influence Australian politics via social media, showing how each nation state utilises different tactics.

China takes a subtle approach, reflecting a long term strategy. It seeks to connect with the Chinese diaspora in a target country, and shape opinion in a manner favourable to the Chinese Communist Party. This is often as much as about ensuring some things aren’t said as it is about shaping what is.

Russia, on the other hand, has used more obvious tactics to infiltrate and disrupt Australian political discourse on social media, exploiting Islamophobia – and the divide between left and right – to undermine social cohesion. This reflects Russia’s primary aim to destabilise the civic culture of the target population.

But there are some similarities between the two approaches, reflecting a growing cooperation between them. As the US Intelligence Community points out:

China and Russia are more aligned than at any point since the mid-1950s.

A strategic alliance between Russia and China

The strategic origins of these shared approaches go back to the early internet itself. The Russian idea of hybrid warfare – also known as the Gerasimov Doctrine – uses information campaigns to undermine a society as part of a wider strategy.

But this concept first originated in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In 1999, Chinese PLA colonels penned a strategy titled Unrestricted Warfare, which outlined how to use media, government, pretty much everything, in the target country not as a tool, but as a weapon.

It recommended not just cyber attacks, but also fake news campaigns – and was the basis for information campaigns that became famous during the 2016 US presidential election.

In June 2016, Russia and China signed a joint declaration on the internet, affirming their shared objectives. In December 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on a new Doctrine of Information Security, which establishes how Russia will defend its own population against influence operations.

Observers noted the striking similarity between the Russian document and Chinese internet law.

Russia and China also share a view of the global management of the internet, pursued via the United Nations:

[…] more regulations to clarify how international law applies to cyberspace, with the aim of exercising more sovereignty – and state control – over the internet.

The recent “sovereign internet” bill introduced to the Russian Parliament proposes a Domain Name System (DNS) independent of the wider internet infrastructure.

If the internet is now a site of proxy war, such so-called “balkanization” challenges the dominance of the United States.

Nations are competing for influence, leverage and advantage to secure their own interests. Russia and China don’t want to risk an all out war, and so competition is pursued at a level just below armed conflict.

Technology, especially the internet, has brought this competition to us all.

We’re entering turbulent waters

Despite its best efforts, China’s leaders remain concerned that the digital border between it and the rest of the world is too porous.

In June 2009, Google was blocked in China. In 2011, Fang Binxing, one of the main designers of the Great Firewall expressed concern Google was still potentially accessible in China, saying:

It’s like the relationship between riverbed and water. Water has no nationality, but riverbeds are sovereign territories, we cannot allow polluted water from other nation states to enter our country.

The water metaphor was deliberate. Water flows and maritime domains define sovereign borders. And water flows are a good analogy for data flows. The internet has pitched democratic politics into the fluid dynamics of turbulence, where algorithms shape attention, tiny clicks measure participation, and personal data is valuable and apt to be manipulated.

While other nations grapple with the best mix of containment, control and openness, ensuring Australia’s democracy remains robust is the best defence. We need to keep an eye on the nature of the political discussion online, which requires a coordinated approach between the government and private sector, defence and security agencies, and an educated public.

The strategies of information warfare we hear so much about these days were conceived in the 1990s – an era when “surfing the web” seemed as refreshing as a dip at your favourite beach. Our immersion in the subsequent waves of the web seem more threatening, but perhaps we can draw upon our cultural traditions to influence Australian security.

As the rip currents of global internet influence operations grow more prevalent, making web surfing more dangerous, Australia would be wise to mark out a safe place to swim between the flags. Successful protection from influence will need many eyes watching from the beach.

Tom Sear, Industry Fellow, UNSW Canberra Cyber, Australian Defence Force Academy, UNSW

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Three charged for conspiracy to aid the Dusit D2 terror attack

Dan Ojumah

March 15, 2019

BY PRUDENCE WANZA – Three more people have been arraigned in court for allegedly providing property and services to terrorists to facilitate the Dusit D2 Complex terror attack that left at least 14 people dead.

The three namely; Mire Abdullahi Ali, Hussein Abdille, and Mohammed Hassan appeared before chief Magistrate, Francis Andayi, at the Milimani Law Courts pleaded not guilty.

Mire Abdullahi Ali, is accused of providing Internet Services through a company called Sahal Telecommunication Limited in Jilib, Somalia to the coordinators of the Dusit D2 hotel complex.

He is also alleged to have bought an Internet Kit which was used to offer Internet services in facilitating the terror attack. Mire is also accused of acquiring a Kenyan ID knowing very well he is not a Kenyan Citizen and also producing it before the Anti-terror police unit in Mandera.

Hussein Mohamed is said to have used a Facebook account in which he identified himself as Prince H. Ahmed to transmit information in preparation to undertake the DUSIT attack.

He is also accused of being in possession of a Safaricom SIM card that had been used to facilitate the collection of an unknown parcel at Makkah Bus office in Mandera sent by a Dusit D2 attacker by the name Ali Salim Gichunge, which was used in facilitating the commission of the terror attack.

The three have been in police custody since January and will now be jointly charged of conspiring to carry out the DUSIT D2 terror attack.

Kenya hailed for its strong stand against trade in ivory

Dan Ojumah

March 14, 2019

Kenya’s strong stand against trade in ivory is drawing global attention.

Top officials of the global Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI) today said Kenya has done well in drawing world attention on why trading in elephant trophies must be stopped in all the remaining markets especially in Europe and Japan.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Stop Ivory co-secretariat of the EPI John Stephenson said previous destruction of ivory stockpiles by Kenya had sent a strong message worldwide over the need to save the diminishing animals that form an important part of our natural heritage.

He spoke when the EPI team paid a courtesy call on First Lady Margaret Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi.

The First Lady is passionate about the saving the jumbos and is the patron of the Hands Off Our elephants campaign.

Aims of EPI include providing both immediate and longer-term funding to implement the African Elephant Action Plan and closing all domestic ivory markets.

The organization also campaigns for a continued moratorium on any consideration of future international trade for a minimum of 10 years and thereafter until African elephant populations are no longer threatened.

The EPI team included Executive Director for Wildlife Trafficking and Conservation Keith Roberts and Senior Technical Advisor Wilfred Kiiru.

Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala who accompanied the EPI team to State House said Africa needs to have one strong voice to lobby against all markets in Europe and Japan where trade in ivory still thrives.

Later, the First Lady also met with top officials of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) who briefed her on the forthcoming global trav summit.

The WTTC is a membership organization representing over 160 CEOs, Presidents and chairs from the world’s largest travel brands across the world.

Aims of the WTTC include promoting awareness of travel and tourism’s economic contribution, expanding markets in harmony with the environment and reduce barriers to growth.

The WTTC team that met with the First Lady included its President and CEO Ms Guevara Manzo, International Liaison Manager Ms Eliza-Rose Dendle and Mr Javier Esteban Molina who were also accompanied by CS Balala.

The WTTC CEO said Kenya is among countries doing well in the growth of its tourism sector.

This year’s WTTC Global Summit will take place in Seville, Spain on April 3 to 4.

At another function at State House, the First Lady hosted her Madagascar counterpart Mialy Rajoelina who paid her a courtesy call.

They two First ladies discussed matters of mutual interest including women empowerment, health, unemployment, gender issues, conservation, family, conservation and agriculture.

President affirms Kenya’s commitment to achieve 10% minimum forest cover

Dan Ojumah

March 14, 2019

President Uhuru Kenyatta today affirmed Kenya’s commitment to achieve a minimum of 10 percent forest cover by 2022 as part of the country’s efforts to address the challenge of climate change.

The President said his Administration has identified forestry as a key sector of investment in the realization of the country’s development agenda and is implementing the national green growth strategy that has set clear restoration targets aimed at achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Today we are here to show commitment and on behalf of our government and our people, I am pledging that by 2022, we want to reach a minimum of 10 percent forest cover in our country as a way of also ensuring that we play our part both as a government and as members of the global community,”
President Uhuru Kenyatta

The President called for concerted efforts towards environmental conservation, saying forests like the oceans are the lungs that keep the planet alive.

“Investment in sustainable management in the conservation of our forests is one of the most effective interventions to combat climate change in Kenya,” the Head of State added.

The President was speaking at UNEP in Gigiri, Nairobi when he and French President Emmanuel Macron officially opened the One Planet Summit, also attended by Deputy President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga among other local and international leaders.

President Macron commended President Kenyatta’s commitment to environmental conservation and praised Kenya for hosting the One Planet Summit.

The French leader said the Nairobi summit was special because it proved that it was not only the Western world that was concerned about climate change and environmental conservation but also Africa.

“Africa is key in this project because it bears the first direct impact of climate change,” President Macron said.

President Kenyatta said the One Planet Summit which builds on two previous summits held in Paris and New York signals a strengthening of cooperation in scaling up environmental conservation and climate action.

He pointed out that deforestation and degradation of the environment ultimately undermines biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation as well as adaptation.

“This, without doubt, leads to loss of economic productivity and has destroyed means of livelihood for many communities across the world. It has also reduced the ecological integrity of our ecosystems,” President Kenyatta said.

The President said the loss of forest cover exacerbated the impacts of climate change leading to natural hazards such as droughts, fires and floods.

At the One Planet Summit, big financial pledges to support environmental conservation and address climate chance were made.

Interim World Bank President Kristalina Georgieva said her institution pledged $ 12 billion to fund adaptation and resilient climate smart projects in Africa over the next five years.

She assured President Kenyatta that the World Bank will support Kenya’s efforts to increase its forest cover by funding the restoration of at least 60 million hectares of forest land.

“We will invest heavily in smart agriculture and in the restoration of degraded land,” the World Bank boss said.

African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina said his bank commits to provide $25 billion towards climate finance over the next five years to address the problem of climate change.

The One Planet Summit was followed by the official opening of the Fourth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA4) whose theme is ‘Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Production and Consumption’.

Addressing the UNEA4, President Kenyatta called for integrated climate action and innovation in sustainable development efforts.

The President noted that climate change continues to be a major threat to sustainable development worldwide and its impact places a disproportionately heavy burden on the poor and vulnerable.

“It calls for practical and creative solutions. Countries must embrace a culture of innovation and invest in education and capacity building to facilitate the transition to a knowledge society,” President Kenyatta pointed out, saying finance and technology remain crucial in this regard.

He welcomed the participation in the Assembly by traditional and spiritual leaders as well as representatives of councils of elders drawn from different regions of Kenya.

“I appreciate the role that traditional and spiritual leaders play in environmental conservation; resolution of resource-based conflicts and as custodians of our traditional indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage. I urge us all to learn from these traditional practices worldwide for the benefit of mankind,” President Kenyatta said.

President Kenyatta also spoke on the Kenya Cleaner Production Strategy 2000 that encourages resource efficiency and cleaner production in manufacturing.

“It embraces the “5 R’s” philosophy of Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, Reformulate, and Re-manufacture, cutting emissions into the environment to acceptable levels,” President Kenyatta said.

He said his administration has put in place several policy and legal instruments to control environmental pollution including imposing a ban on single use plastic carrier bags.

Other dignitaries present at the assembly included President Andry Rajoelina (Madagascar), President Maithripala Sirisena (Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka), President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente (Rwanda).

Others were the President of the UNEA4 Mr. Siim Kiisler, UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohamed, the Acting Executive Director of UNEP Joyce Msuya, Acting Director-General of the UN Office in Nairobi and Executive Director of UN-HABITAT Maimunah Mohd Sharif, and the Executive Director-designate of UNEP Inger Andersen.

Careful how you treat today’s AI: it might take revenge in the future

Dan Ojumah

March 14, 2019

We might not like the way future AI responds to us. Shutterstock/Mykola Holyutyak Nicholas Agar, Victoria University of Wellington

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are becoming more like us. You can ask Google Home to switch off your bedroom lights, much as you might ask your human partner.

When you text inquiries to Amazon online it’s sometimes unclear whether you’re being answered by a human or the company’s chatbot technology.

There’s clearly a market for machines with human psychological abilities. But we should spare a thought for what we might inadvertently create.

What if we make AI so good at being human that our treatment of it can cause it to suffer? It might feel entitled to take revenge on us.

Machines that ‘feel’

With human psychological abilities may come sentience. Philosophers understand sentience as the capacity to suffer and to feel pleasure.

And sentient beings can be harmed. It’s an issue raised by the Australian philosopher Peter Singer in his 1975 book Animal Liberation, which asked how we should treat non-human animals. He wrote:

If a being suffers, there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering – insofar as rough comparisons can be made – of any other being.

Singer has devoted a career to speaking up for animals, which are sentient beings incapable of speaking up for themselves.

Speaking up for AI

Researchers in AI are seeking to make an AGI or artificial general intelligence – a machine capable of any intellectual task performed by a human being. AI can already learn, but AGI will be able to perform tasks beyond that for which it is programmed.

The experts disagree on how far off an AGI is. The US tech inventor Ray Kurzweil expects an AGI soon, maybe 2029. Others think we might have to wait for a century.

But if we are interested in treating sentient beings right, we may not have to wait until the arrival of an AGI.

One of Singer’s points is that many sentient beings fall far short of human intelligence. By that argument, AI doesn’t have to be as intelligent as a human for it to be sentient.

The problem is there is no straightforward test for sentience.

Sending a human crewed mission to Mars is very challenging, but at least we’ll know when we’ve done it.

Making a machine with feelings is challenging in a more philosophically perplexing way. Because we lack clear criteria for machine sentience, we can’t be sure when we’ve done it.

Look to science fiction

The ambiguity of machine sentience is a feature of several science fiction presentations of AI.

Niska (Emily Berrington) in Humans (2015). Kudos, Channel 4, AMC (via IMDB)

For example, Niska is a humanoid robot, a synth, serving as a sex worker in the TV series Humans. We are told that, unlike most synths, she is sentient.

When Niska is questioned about why she killed a client she explains:

He wanted to be rough.

The human lawyer Laura Hawkins responds:

But, is that wrong if he didn’t think you could feel? … Isn’t it better he exercises his fantasies with you in a brothel rather than take them out on someone who can actually feel?

From a human perspective one could think sexual assault directed against a non-sentient machine is a victimless crime.

But what about a sex robot that has acquired sentience? Niska goes on to explain that she was scared by the client’s behaviour towards her.

And I’m sorry I can’t cry or … bleed or wring my hands so you know that. But I’m telling you, I was.

Humans is not the only science fiction story to warn of revenge attacks from machines designed to be exploited by humans for pleasure and pain.

In the TV remake of Westworld, humans enter a theme park and kill android hosts with the abandon of Xbox massacres, confident their victims have no hard feelings because they can’t have any feelings.

But here again, some hosts have secretly acquired sentience and get payback on their human tormentors.

We’re only human

Is it only science fiction? Are sentient machines a long way off? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

But bad habits can take a while to unlearn. We – or rather animals – are still suffering the philosophical hangover of the 17th century French thinker Rene Descartes’ terrible idea that animals are mindless automata – lacking in sentience.

If we are going to make machines with human psychological capacities, we should prepare for the possibility that they may become sentient. How then will they react to our behaviour towards them?

Perhaps our behaviour towards non-sentient AI today should be driven by how we would expect people to behave towards any future sentient AI that can feel, that can suffer. How we would expect that future sentient machine to react towards us?

This may be the big difference between machines and the animals that Singer defends. Animals cannot take revenge. But sentient machines just might.

Nicholas Agar, Professor of Ethics, Victoria University of Wellington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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