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Facebook faces reckoning in Myanmar after being blocked by military

Boycott Myanmar!

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Facebook will have to decide how to play the delicate balance of protecting the democratic politicians and activists versus cooperating with the new regime to …

‘Someone Wanted Me Dead for Just Existing’: Rashida Tlaib Shares the Agony of Going to Work on the House Floor

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Speaking on the House floor on Thursday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib slowly broke down in front of her colleagues as she explained the danger she’s felt since winning her election in 2018. Before she was even sworn into her position, Tlaib said the FBI had received a credible threat against her life. “They had to go to this…

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The Empire State Building and Its Related Buildings Are Now Powered By Wind

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The iconic Empire State Building that has crowned Midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s is now a game changer in American architecture in a different way: by becoming completely powered with renewable energy. The Hill reports: Announced on Wednesday, Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) confirmed that it struck a three-year contract with Green Mountain Energy to power its entire commercial real estate portfolio with renewable wind electricity. This reportedly makes ESRT the largest user of green power in U.S. real estate. Green Mountain Energy, based out of Vermont, is a leading sustainable energy provider, offering plans with public and private real estate groups using solar panels and wind turbines as the source of electricity.

ESRT controls more than 10.1 million square feet of real estate, all of which will be powered by renewable energy for the next three years. This switch will spare about 450 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere. This is roughly the equivalent of every New York State household turning off all of their lights for an entire month. Prior to this partnership, the Empire State Building underwent renovations a decade ago to help convert the building to be more environmentally friendly, resulting in a 40 percent reduction in energy usage prior to the contract with Green Mountain.

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Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Human rights monitors report protest at special detention center where Navalny supporters are being held

Detainees at a special detention center in the village of Sakharovo — where the authorities sent protesters arrested amid the mass demonstrations in support of imprisoned opposition politician Alexey Navalny — staged a protest on the night of February 4. This was reported by Marina Litvinovich, a member of Moscow’s Public Monitoring Commission (ONK). 

Mushroom caviar

We need:

Mushrooms, like champignons (preferably dried) – any, the amount of grams depends on your appetite
Onions – 1-2 pcs.
Garlic – 1-2 cloves
Salt, spices – to taste

  1. If you use dried mushrooms (and I strongly recommend using dried mushrooms), soak them for 2-3 hours. Moreover, first fill them with water, soak for 15 minutes, drain the water. Fill a second time, drain after 15 minutes. Let them stand in the third water for the prescribed time. Then we boil the mushrooms, it is possible in the same water, until tender.
  2. Cut the onion into small cubes and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. When frying, I advise you to add thyme, coriander to onions. When the onion is ready, put finely chopped garlic in a skillet, let it just warm up.
  3. Pass the onion, garlic and mushrooms through a meat grinder. You can be right hot. We mix everything properly, try what is missing – add.

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The post Mushroom caviar appeared first on ForHealth.

Analysts Urge Indonesia to Once Again Nudge Myanmar Toward Democracy

This week’s military coup in Myanmar has prompted calls for Jakarta to again take on the mantle of regional role model to help its neighbor back on the path to democracy.

Myanmar once looked to Indonesia – which navigated its own transition from dictatorship to democracy – for guidance in democratizing after decades of military rule, but those interactions waned after a change of government in Jakarta, analysts said.

The man who played a significant role in Myanmar’s democratic transition was Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, or “SBY,” Indonesia’s first directly elected president, and himself a former general.

Yudhoyono helped mediate conflicts between the Myanmar government and ethnic minorities, provided input on drafting democratic laws and invited officials to learn about democratic institutions, said the executive director of the Bali Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), I Ketut Putra Erawan.

“Under SBY, democracy was high on Indonesia’s diplomatic agenda, which in my view was a very positive thing,” Ketut said.

Indonesia had been a role model for Myanmar, he said.

“Indonesia now has a responsibility to help restore democracy [there].”

When current President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was elected in July 2014, he declared that his focus would be on domestic affairs, according to Aaron L. Connelly, a Southeast Asia expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British research institute.

Jokowi “is new to foreign affairs and seemingly has little interest in diplomacy, a marked contrast with his predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who sought a role as an international statesman,” Connelly wrote in an article for Contemporary Southeast Asia in April 2015.

SBY’s legacy

By most accounts, Yudhoyono made Indonesia a power to reckon with in international affairs by eagerly offering to share his country’s experiences in democratic transition.

For instance, as early as in 2007, he sent retired General Agus Widjojo to attend the funeral of military man Soe Win, who had been Myanmar prime minister.

In the 1990s, Widjojo had urged his erstwhile colleagues to push Indonesia’s military dictator General Suharto to make the transition to democracy. Suharto ruled for almost 32 years, until 1998.

But while in Myanmar, Widjojo didn’t give the military brass a lecture on democracy.

Just the presence of an Indonesian military reformer  “was the message,” according to a paper by Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian politics at Tokyo’s Temple University, cited by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Dipo Alam, a cabinet secretary during the Yudhoyono administration, described how the former president told the United States how to deal with Myanmar.

“The best thing I remember, Mr. SBY drove home the message to the U.S. not to dictate to and hector Myanmar and treat them as a child. SBY explained that democracy took time and asked the U.S. to respect the process,” Dipo told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Yudhoyono went on to closely advise Myanmar’s military, especially after General Thein Sein’s government unveiled a strategy for democratic reforms in 2011.

By contrast, Jokowi took almost two weeks to officially congratulate Myanmar after the 2015 general election.

Jokowi should now appoint Yudhoyono as Indonesia’s envoy to Myanmar, Jakarta Post’s executive editor, Kornelius Purba, suggested in an opinion piece published before Monday’s military coup.

“Myanmar’s generals need to be convinced that a coup could be suicidal for them and that it would derail the country’s path to democracy,” Purba wrote.

“A figure like SBY, known as one of the key figures behind the Indonesian military’s reform, is the right person to approach the generals.”

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A file photo of then-Myanmar President Thein Sein (left) with his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, May 5, 2011.

‘Indonesia does not lecture’

Indonesia, too, has seen democratic backsliding under Jokowi’s leadership, according to a book titled “Democracy in Indonesia: From Stagnation to Regression?” published last year and written by various scholars from Indonesia and abroad.

The Jokowi administration has to a degree suppressed free speech and criticism and also attempted to undermine checks and balances on government power, the scholars argued in the book.

Still, it remains one of the region’s most open countries and must act on Myanmar, said Damar Juniarto, executive director of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet), an NGO advocating for internet freedom.

“Our freedom of expression is not perfect, it is even deteriorating, but compared to other ASEAN countries, we are still better off. We should still be able to play an extra role,” Damar told BenarNews.

For instance, Malaysia has an unelected government and is under its first national emergency in more than five decades.

In Thailand, Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha became prime minister after a coup he engineered, and then retained the post in a 2019 general election widely viewed as rigged.

Opposition leaders in the Philippines say that Duterte has increased the power of the military and police since taking office in 2016. And Brunei is a sultanate.

For Eva Kusuma Sundari, a former lawmaker who chaired the ASEAN Parliamentary Caucus on Myanmar, Indonesia was the only hope as other ASEAN member countries like Vietnam and Thailand have pledged not to interfere.

Non-interference in member countries’ domestic affairs is a foundational principle of ASEAN.

“Indonesia, despite criticism at home, still has leverage because it’s still relatively more democratic than the others,” said Eva.

“We still hope that Indonesia will be at the forefront to influence other ASEAN countries to act.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia did not wish to pontificate about democracy.

“Indonesia does not lecture any country about democracy. Besides, the mainstreaming of democratic values has been a common agenda item at ASEAN,” Faizasyah told BenarNews.

Still, Indonesia expressed deep concern about the military coup in Myanmar in a statement Monday that urged the country to embrace rule of law, good governance, democratic principles and a constitutional government.

Faizasyah said Indonesia was trying to forge a common stance on Myanmar at ASEAN, but he did not elaborate.

Chinese influence

Myanmar could gravitate even more toward China if pressured, said Priyambudi Sulistiyanto, a Southeast Asia expert at Flinders University in Australia.

Myanmar has close ties with China, and relies on it for investment amid international isolation over its treatment of the Rohingya ethnic minority, he said.

“If pressure on this new military regime is too strong, there’s a fear that they will turn to China,” Priyambudi said in an online discussion on Myanmar on Thursday.

“The West may take a harder line on China. But in Asia, we cannot ignore China’s immense power, so there should be more creative measures.”

Indonesia could propose that ASEAN send a delegation to hold talks with Myanmar’s military rulers, IPD’s Ketut said. 

“Don’t isolate Myanmar, because doing so will make China’s influence stronger. And we must remember, for China, democracy takes a back seat to business.”

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Peaceful protests spark in Myanmar after military coup despite junta pressures, fresh arrests

#Myanmar residents are staging further protests just days after the country’s army overthrew #Aung Suu San Kyi’s government in a #coup, a move that sparked international condemnation. Hundreds of Burmese are taking part in peaceful protests, including in the tightly controlled capital as well as the country’s biggest city of #Yangon and elsewhere. The army is nevertheless stepping up its crackdown, arresting further officials.

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