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Corbyn appoints all roles in Labour shadow cabinet
Jeremy Corbyn, elected leader of the Labour party on Saturday (12 September), has unveiled the first members of his shadow cabinet.
Two of the top jobs went to John McDonnell MP, who ran Corbyn's campaign and has been named shadow chancellor, and Andy Burnham MP, the new shadow home secretary – who came a distant second in the leadership race.
Tom Watson was elected deputy leader of the Labour party on the same day that Corbyn's victory was announced.
These roles mean that the five most senior shadow cabinet roles are now occupied by men, although Corbyn's has committed to give at least half of the positions to women overall.
Jon Trickett MP, who has previously served as shadow minister in the Cabinet Office, has been appointed shadow communities secretary.
Other appointments have so far included Seema Malhotra MP as shadow chief secretary to the treasury; Angela Eagle MP as shadow business secretary and first secretary of state; Hilary Benn MP as shadow foreign secretary; Heidi Alexander MP as shadow health secretary; Rosie Winterton as Labour's chief whip; Diane Abbott MP as shadow international development secretary; and Lucy Powell MP as shadow education secretary.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton will continue as shadow lord chancellor and justice secretary, Vernon Coaker MP becomes shadow Northern Ireland secretary, and Ian Murray MP, Labour's last remaining MP in Scotland, as shadow Scotland secretary.
Following Corbyn's election, in which he scooped 59% of votes, other leadership candidates Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall announced they would not serve in his shadow cabinet – though Cooper will chair a new party taskforce on refugees.
According to Iain McNicol, Labour's general secretary, the party has seen 15,500 new members sign up in the 24 hours following the election results.
Among Corbyn's policies, perceived as hard left by most politicians, was a pledge to reverse the housing crisis through a "radical" systemic reboot.
He plans to give councils the tools to build and provide homes in order to meet their local affordable housing demands.
He was one of 48 Labour members who defied the party whip by voting against the government's welfare reform bill, saying there is "absolutely no reason why anyone should have to live in poverty" in one of the "richest countries in the world".
This also means opposing austerity and planning to bring down the deficit by growing the economy and taxing the rich instead – although he says there is already £120bn in uncollected tax debt, tax avoidance and tax evasion every year that must be addressed.
Corbyn also intends to renationalise energy companies and the railway to bring prices down and back into public hands, dismissing privatisation as a "false market".
His views on privatisation extend to healthcare as he plans to "fully fund" the NHS and integrate its services with social care, as well as tackle the "mental health crisis".
Below is a full list of shadow cabinet appointments:
Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party: Jeremy Corbyn MP
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Party Chair and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office: Tom Watson MP
Shadow First Secretary of State, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills: Angela Eagle MP
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer: John McDonnell MP
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Seema Malhotra MP
Shadow Home Secretary: Andy Burnham MP
Shadow Foreign Secretary: Hilary Benn MP
Opposition Chief Whip: Rosie Winterton MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Health: Heidi Alexander MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Education: Lucy Powell MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Owen Smith MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence: Maria Eagle MP
Shadow Lord Chancellor, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice: Lord Falconer of Thoroton
Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Shadow Minister for the Constitutional Convention: Jon Trickett MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change: Lisa Nandy MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons: Chris Bryant MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport: Lilian Greenwood MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland: Vernon Coaker MP
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development: Diane Abbott MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland: Ian Murray MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales: Nia Griffith MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Kerry McCarthy MP
Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities: Kate Green MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport: Michael Dugher MP
Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Registration: Gloria De Piero MP
Shadow Minister for Mental Health: Luciana Berger MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Lords: Baroness Smith of Basildon
Lords Chief Whip: Lord Bassam of Brighton
Shadow Attorney General: Catherine McKinnell MP
Shadow Minister without Portfolio: Jonathan Ashworth MP
Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning: John Healey MP
(Top image c. Niall Carson, PA Images)
Cllr Nigel Sinden. 14/09/2015 at 12:52
A good team coming together...
Government 'working on' exempting women's refuges from housing cap
Shadow Cabinet in meltdown following Brexit
Labour pushed to third place in Scotland but hold seats in England
Labour to back renationalising railways and vow to end 'top down' politics
Corbyn pledges to reverse housing crisis through radical systemic reboot
Burnham pledges to scrap academies, tuition fees and social care costs
Labour shadow cabinet reshuffle
Tuition fee changes would benefit rich -Centre Forum
Unions put pressure on Labour for strike support
Labour would reduce tuition fees cap
Miliband heckled for opposing public sector strikes
Cameron and Miliband clash after riots


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


That question is being asked once again today following Facebook's disclosure of a security flaw that potentially exposed the public and private photos of as many as 6.8 million users on its platform to developers. The company noted that it first found the flaw two months ago, but did not disclose it publicly in order to assess the impact.
The timing is interesting — Facebook discovered the bug around the time it publicly announced a (different) massive bug that exposed 30 million users' personal information in late September. In October, the scope of the breach widened with reports that the vulnerability exposed not just some users' emails and phone numbers, but profile information including gender, location, birth dates, and recent search history. The FBI is now investigating that breach.
That's two massive vulnerabilities in a matter of months — in the same year as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which also involved millions of Facebook users. Taken together, the screw-ups are mind-boggling in scope, affecting tens of millions of people. They aren't mere email address or password leaks — though emails were certainly leaked — these are breaches of highly personal information: location histories, search histories, photos. In some cases, the information was improperly shared with political consultants potentially to manipulate voter sentiment.
If there's a silver lining to any of this, it's that the parade of privacy scandals have stripped the scales from the eyes of many regular humans. Plenty of less tech-savvy individuals have realized in 2018 that Facebook and other online companies have robbed us of the agency to control what happens with our most personal information. It's slow moving, but it feels that more and more citizens of the internet are having a personal privacy reckoning this year.
Facebook is keenly aware of this — so much so that it's setting up kiosks in green spaces in major cities to answer privacy queries face to face. But the effort, while perhaps admirable in theory, is ludicrous in practice given Facebook's staggering size, scale, and complexity. Setting up a little shack in a New York City park to troubleshoot privacy issues is, at this point, choosing a lone wet wipe to clean up a septic tank spill.
And so Facebook privacy kiosk employees will likely have their hands full. Each breach of our personal information brings about new, often unanswerable questions: Did my data get passed around to data brokers, states, or other companies? Is it being bought or sold elsewhere? Are there other breaches we don't know about? Does Facebook sell my data or just sell ads *against* my data? Just how worried should I be about all of this? Don't you have a responsibility to protect my information?
Facebook will likely have rebuttals for many of these questions. And they will likely be deeply unsatisfying.
But the simplest question at all — the one prompted by Zuckerberg's own newspaper ad — feels the most vexing. By Zuckerberg's own admission, if Facebook can't protect your information, it doesn't deserve it. So, why should we trust Facebook with our data? Why does it deserve our personal information?
An honest and satisfying answer strains the imagination. Because everyone else is here, so why leave? Because you've already given us so much data, why stop now? Or, worse yet: because we've squandered your privacy so badly it no longer exists...so what's the point?


They have been wearing bags over their heads, but hey — at least they were there.
It was the worst of times. It was the worst of times. And it showed in the stands.
It was, as Rovell called it, a noticeable drop, but not nearly as noticeable as you might think after all those 3rd quarter Twitpics of empty student section bleachers and galleries of dudes with bags over their heads.
Even with lower numbers reported by both Auburn and Tennessee, which had a 4.9 percent decrease, the SEC "still had the highest per-game average attendance with 75,538." And even with 3.7 percent fewer people knowing the correct Jordan-Hare Stadium time each Saturday, Auburn fans still managed to be ranked the nation's most loyal.
* Katherine Webb in an Auburn bikini?
Since the university now requires mandatory parking passes on the Auburn campus for game day, the drop in attendance may be permanent.


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Train times & tickets – Kota Bharu to Kuala Lipis
Kuala Lipis is located 287 km South of Kota Bharu on Malaysia's famous 'Jungle Railway'. The journey by train to Kuala Lipis takes 6 hours 45 minutes.
Train Times to Kuala Lipis
There is 1 direct train service a day from Wakaf Bharu to Kuala Lipis. Wakaf Bharu train station is close to Kota Bharu.
Train Wakaf Bharu Kuala Lipis Service
27 18:16 01:01 Ekspress Rakyat Timuran
Wakaf Bharu Railway Station is only 6.6 km from Kota Bharu's city centre bus station. To get from Kota Bharu to Wakaf Bharu either take a taxi or board Cityliner #19 and Cityliner #27 bus services at Kota Bharu's Jalan Pendek bus station. Bus service run from 07:00 to 19:00 everyday and the fare is 1.60 MYR.
Buy Tickets to Kuala Lipis
Use the Search Box below to buy your train tickets from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lipis.
Wakaf Bharu Railway Station
Wakaf Bharu railway station is the closest train station to Kota Bharu.
Kuala Lipis Railway Station
Kuala Lipis train station is located off the Jalan Besar near Kuala Lipis town centre.
About Kuala Lipis
Kuala Lipis is a town located deep into the Cameron Highland and a place where many visitor leave the train to explore the deep jungle of the central Malaysian mainland. Kuala Lipis is also a town rich in history with a range of great buildings, many of which are related to the town's recent history as a part of the British Empire.
Experience the jungle in the Kenong Rimba Park near Kuala Lipis
There are plenty of attractions in and around Kuala Lipis for the intrepid visitor. Not too many foreign visitors make it to Kuala Lipis, but the town and surrounding area is very popular with Malaysian tourists and this in many ways makes a visit here more enjoyable. If you have come to Kuala Lipis to travel to the nature reserves or go trekking we advise you to spend a while explore the town. Although Kuala Lipis is no longer a major administrative centre or commercial centre it was, for a period of time, an important place and the building in the town centre are surprisingly grand:
Kenong Rimba Park: Located an hour's drive away from Kuala Lupis town cente the Kenong Rimba Park is a popular trekking destination with jungles, amazing flora and fauna. To visit you really need to go on a guided tour and the major tour operator in Kuala Lipis is Tuah Travel & Tours whose office is conveniently located in the grounds of Kuala Lipis train station.
Istana Hinggap: Also known of the 'Palace of Kuala Lipis', this splendid building is located on the hill overlooking the train station 700 metres walk away. Built in Moorish style for British Army Officer this building become the office of the state's chief minister when Kuala Lipis was the regional capital.
The Residency Building: Constructed in 1922, this grand building has served many purposes over the years including use as a museum and the home of the British Superintendent, Sir Hugh Clifford.
The Pahang Club: All British colonies had a social club and the Pahang Club, built in 1867, was Kuala Lipis's social club for the region's colonial rulers. The club was famous for exclusivity. After Malaysia gained its independence membership of the club was symbolically opened up to anyone who wanted to join.
The list of great places to visit goes on and on and we suggest that you take a long walk around the town to see them all: Kuala Lipis District Administration Building (1919), Residence of the District Officer (1929), Clifford Secondary School (1913), State Secretary's House (1920), Post Office (1910) and Thean Hou Temple (1898).
Next read about Travel from Langkawi to Penang

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BN to empower state govts under 'new deal', says Rahman Dahlan
Durie Rainer Fong
Umno Supreme Council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan (right), with former Perak menteri besar Zambry Abd Kadir (middle), being greeted by Umno members at the recent opening of the Lumut Umno Youth and Puteri wings convention. (Facebook pic)
KOTA KINABALU: Barisan Nasional (BN) will offer more power and autonomy to state governments through a "new deal for the people" if it manages to wrest power from Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the next general election, former Umno minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan said today.
He said the former ruling coalition wanted to improve the present federalism concept, which he described as possessing too much power.
He said under BN and Umno's improved federalism concept, the federal government would offload certain critical responsibilities from its plate to the state governments.
He voiced confidence that the state governments would welcome the opportunity to decide for themselves on issues such as development and taxation as they do not have much say on these matters at the moment.
"The current federalist system in Malaysia needs to be tweaked to empower the state governments. This will be more meaningful for the states.
"I find that too much power and autonomy lies with the federal government under the system now," Rahman told FMT.
Former Umno minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan (seated front, second right) prays before opening the Lumut Umno Youth and Puteri wings convention. (Facebook pic)
Using development in Sabah as an example, he said the central government would eventually decide what sort of development projects would take place despite input from the state government.
The entire planning is undertaken by the federal government, even the monitoring process after the projects are completed, he added.
"I was the minister for the Economic Planning Unit before but at the end of the day, the decisions were made by Putrajaya," said the former Kota Belud MP, who hails from Sabah's Tuaran district.
"For example, I wanted a bridge in my area previously, but Putrajaya decided to build it somewhere else. So having the state government handle these matters will be more effective as they know what's needed by their people."
Rahman said the Cabinet system in Sabah, for example, could greatly complement the federal system but that it was under-utilised as a result of the current federal set-up.
"You have ministers looking after agriculture and rural development, for instance, but there is much duplication of work by the state and central governments due to the present system.
"Even the federal government has complained about this. So why not utilise this? Just give the funds to the state governments and let them decide how to use the money (for development), how and what to plan, and then monitor later."
He said overlapping of work is frequent at department levels as well as with many agencies under the federal watch, including public services. "It's just too burdensome for the federal government," he added.
"We (BN-Umno) are offering more power and autonomy to state governments on development planning and decision making, taxation, and fairer budgets for development and transformation of local governments, among others."
He said the transformation of local governments is also painfully slow, adding that there had been progress at federal and state government levels but that the local government system has not been touched since independence.
"We also have an idea on how to make local governments more accountable, effective and transparent.
"We will articulate this as time goes by. As the rebuilding process takes place, Sabah Umno will have its own convention and forums to relay this new deal to the people of Malaysia."
Abdul Rahman Dahlan
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Great Article For The new Director. That's You Here !
I hope you enjoy it. Welcome to the board !
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Moving offices in Dubai is boxed to being easy.
Setting up an office in a well-established land like Dubai, is a rigorous task. What is more difficult is the relocation of these already set offices. One has to put in double the time and effort, and the tension is almost twice. This is so, for you have to be careful about all the documents and the equipments.
Time is a precious commodity that dares every office move. There is never enough time. Saving time and getting work done is the main purpose and agenda of "The Box" for its customers. We at The Box understand the tension and the importance of such a vital task. We assist you with services like dismantling of your goods, packaging them and resetting your office furniture from the office's old destination to the new one. We have a team of expert and trained workers who keep you updated with all the developments on the relocation of your office. We help you avoid the costly mistakes that can be committed while office relocation. We at box have smarter solutions to your office relocations. Our work and service is what makes us one of the top storage companies in Dubai.
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Mantainence and airconditeonery. Leny and Boris lerned rite real good. And what an economy of words! Oh, and the amazing mathematical formulas. This is advanced real estate calculus, don't even try to comprehend it.
Real estate broker's fee is 5 percent to 7 percent of the sales price. That's pittance for the services provided, wouldn't you agree?
A phrase that I hear a lot these days is "Well he used to be a programmer, but now he is a real estate agent".


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La Crocifissione e santi di Santa Maria Nuova è un affresco staccato (355x285 cm) di Andrea del Castagno, databile al 1440-1441 e situato nell'Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova a Firenze.

Storia
L'opera è ricordata sia nel Libro di Antonio Billi, che da Vasari e l'anonimo Gaddiano, che confermano l'autografia a Andrea del Castagno.

Berti mise l'opera in relazione con gli affreschi di San Zaccaria a Venezia, immediatamente successivi (1442), tanto che ha ipotizzato che all'opera lavorasse lo stesso aiuto del maestro nella chiesa veneziana, cioè Francesco da Faenza

Barucca (1982) ha collegato la presenza dei santi Romualdo e Benedetto a una commissione del monastero camaldolese di Santa Maria degli Angeli, alcuni dei cui ambienti vennero infatti inglobati da Santa Maria Nuova nel 1870.

Durante lo stacco un incendio distrusse la metà inferiore dell'affresco, richiedendo un reintegro che Tintori fece fare usando foto d'archivio anteriori. Si conserva nei depositi della soprintendenza anche la sinopia dell'opera, che è lacunosa.

Descrizione e stile
All'interno di una cornice dipinta che imita un'architettura classicheggiante si trova la Crocifissione di Gesù affiancata dalle figure tradizionali di Maria, Giovanni e la Maddalena inginocchiata, mentre alle estremità si trovano i due santi monaci Romualdo, fondatore dei Camaldolesi, e Benedetto da Norcia, fondatore del monachesimo occidentale.

La linea di contorno delle figure è vibrante e nervosa, ed evidenzia espressivamente le figura, tanto che alcuni hanno parlato di "esasperazione realistica". Nei manti la luce si impasta col colore, con effetti di accentuato luminismo, che arriva ad assomigliare al marmo scolpito nelle vesti bianche.

Il Cristo è raffigurato con un'anatomia perfetta, con la testa scorciata come se si proiettasse coerentemente verso l'esterno. Le aureole, inclinate a seconda della disposizione nello spazio, hanno effetti di lustro metallico che le fanno assomigliare all'oro.

Voci correlate
Crocifissione di Santa Maria degli Angeli

Collegamenti esterni

Dipinti a Firenze
Dipinti di Andrea del Castagno
Santa Maria Nuova
Andrea del Castagno
Dipinti su Maria Maddalena
Dipinti su san Romualdo
Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova

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AFA's 13th Annual Aerospace Summit | PRESENTERS
Home > Meetings & Events > Aerospace Summit 2018 > Captain Linda Orlady
Captain Linda Orlady
President, Orlady Associates
Linda has had a long involvement in aviation, human factors, and safety as a pilot, instructor, safety volunteer, researcher, accident investigator and author. She is a third-generation pilot and most recently served as a Chief Pilot for the Boeing Company. Prior to that, Linda flew for United Airlines (UAL) for twenty-five years, also working in management. She is rated in the Airbus 319 and 320 and Boeing models from the 737 through the 787 and holds a commercial rotorcraft rating.
Linda co-authored a 600-page book, Human Factors in Multi-Crew Flight Operations, which was also translated into Chinese, published numerous articles and book chapters and given many international presentations. She was appointed by the FAA to serve as a chair on the Safety Management System Aviation Rulemaking Committee.
Linda has volunteered in several safety areas. She served on the Board of Governors for the Flight Safety Foundation for ten years and was honored to receive a President's Citation. She also volunteered for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) as the Executive Air Safety Vice Chair and Safety Management System (SMS) Project Director. Linda was appointed by the FAA to serve as one of the Chairs for the SMS Aviation Rulemaking Committee.
Linda remains passionate about the industry, encouraging cross-disciplinary discussions, development of robust safety management systems and communications, and advocating for effective use of voluntary incident reporting. She has worked with the Canadian Women in Aviation and Museum of Flight encouraging young people to enter and explore this wonderful aviation industry.
AFA'S 13TH ANNUAL AEROSPACE SUMMIT
Linda will be presenting at this year's Aerospace Summit. Find out more about the Summit.


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Keep uncensored news alive!
You are at:Home»Western Europe»Anarchy threatens France and within five years the situation could be irreversible – Ex-Minister
Anarchy threatens France and within five years the situation could be irreversible – Ex-Minister
By Voice of Europe	 31 October 2018 No Comments
Riots in Paris - Image: Alexandros Michailidis / shutterstock.com
Tugdual Denis, editor in chief of French news outlet Valeurs Actuelles, tweeted a picture of an interview transcript where Gerard Collomb, France's ex-Interior Minister, predicts France's dislocation due to immigration.
Here's the translated interview:
"- It's really worrying. What I read every morning in police reports reflect a very pessimist situation. Relationships between people are very hard, people don't want to live together…
– What is the responsibility of immigration?
– Huge. That's why we've tried to change the law with Emmanuel Macron.
– Your law only attacks illegal immigration. The legal law allows the entry of 200,000 people in the territory each year.
– It's true. We're doing it step by step. But it's still a problem.
– Do you think we don't need immigration in France anymore ?
-Yes absolutely
– You were talking of the "vivre-ensemble" earlier (French expression for multiculturalism). What is happening?
– Communities in France are fighting each other more and more and it's becoming very violent…
-What are you afraid of? A splitting? A secession?
– Yes, I'm thinking of that, that's what is worrying me.
– How much time before it's too late?
– I don't want to scare people but I think soon.
– It's difficult to estimate but I would say that five years from now, the situation could be irreversible. Yes, we have five, six years to avoid the worst. After…"
Gerard Collomb expressed the same feelings during his leaving ceremony, when he predicted a civil war happening in the near future in France.
Anarchy France Gérard Collomb Voice of Europe
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New patriotic Greek party wants higher birth rates and to protect Europe from Islamic colonisation – Interview
Uncensored news from the heart of Europe.
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Business, News
Beyond Ventures leads US$3m investment in Mapxus – a promising start-up in the nascent indoor-mapping industry
HONG KONG - Hong Kong-based venture capital fund Beyond Ventures is spearheading a US$3 million investment project to benefit Mapxus, one of Apple's Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) platform service providers.
Founded by an impassioned team of professors, tech professionals and entrepreneurs, Mapxus contributes to the development of a smart city by making indoor mapping simple for all stakeholders.
The funding will serve the start-up company's research and development (R&D), sales, marketing and operational functions, while facilitating expansion from Hong Kong into Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Solutions from Hong Kong-based Mapxus produce digital and panoramic indoor maps to facilitate a cross-platform indoor-positioning capability. This helps enterprises to benefit from the full potential of applications via use of the Mapxus Software Development Kit. Mapxus also provides a seamless data integration service, and updates Apple Maps using the Apple Indoor Map Data Format (IMDF).
Mapxus founder and CEO John Chan said: "We have a clear vision of how to create a smart city by working closely with government bodies, shopping malls, transport utilities, hospitals and other entities. The idea is to facilitate creation of a barrier-free smart city and catalyse a variety of stakeholders to develop meaningful mobile applications that will solve problems for people with, and without, disabilities."
He explained how the company integrates technologies such as universal WiFi-fingerprinting, sensor fusion and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop smart city solutions for citizens requiring facilities typified by easy access for the visually impaired.
Lap Man, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Beyond Ventures, said: "Mapxus holds great potential and its management team possesses exactly the kind of skillsets required to help transform Hong Kong into a smart city. This fits well with the Beyond Ventures mission to invest in start-ups that will have positive impact on society locally."
He explained how indoor mapping represents a nascent market and believes the concept of "an indoor version of Google Maps" envisioned by Mapxus holds the potential to become a global brand, once accepted by government bodies and the commercial sector.
Lap Man added: "The software-based infrastructure and hardware-free solutions crafted by Mapxus are able to bring together an indoor mapping community of government bodies, commercial organisations and social enterprises. The way the company already harnesses the capabilities of existing Wi-Fi infrastructure is able to reduce deployment costs by up to 90%."
As well as being one of Apple's Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) platform service providers, Mapxus also developed and owns a compatible solution for the Android operating system and web Interface.
John Chan said: "We are thrilled to be partnering with a like-minded investor such as Beyond Ventures. Apart from providing us with financial support, they offer strategic advice and refer us to prospective clients, as well as other potential partners – all to help grow our business and serve the community using smart methodologies."
About Beyond Ventures
Beyond Ventures is a Hong Kong-based venture capital fund established by eGarden Ventures in partnership with locally-grown serial entrepreneurs. eGarden Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on technology, media and telecoms (TMT) and holds an 18-year investment track record in MainlandChina. The fund is also supported by leading investment company, Hony Capital, which manages more than US$10 billion in assets.
Adopting the slogan "From Hong Kong. For Hong Kong", Beyond Ventures seeks to revitalise Hong Kong's innovation ecosystem by bringing experienced venture and private equity funds together with successful entrepreneurs able to provide start-ups with mentoring support.
Running the fund is a trio comprising Alex Fang, a seasoned venture capitalist in Hong Kong and MainlandChina and co-founder of eGarden Ventures; Lap Man, Founder and former CEO of DYXnet Group; and Marvin Hung, Vice Chairman of Hung's Group and Executive Director and CEO of Hop Hing Group Holdings Limited (stock code: 47).
Beyond Ventures is the only venture capital fund focusing solely on Hong Kong. It aims to help start-ups grow and extend their business networks throughout and beyond Hong Kong by drawing on vast experience accumulated by the founders, as well as the extensive resources held in MainlandChina and elsewhere by Hony Capital and eGarden Ventures.
For more information about Beyond Ventures, please visit the official website at www.beyondventures.hk


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RIchardson Post
News HOW ANGLO AUSTRALIA WAS STITCHED UP WITHOUT A CRIMSON THREAD
HOW ANGLO AUSTRALIA WAS STITCHED UP WITHOUT A CRIMSON THREAD
Frank Salter
The following is the transcript of a talk, which was recently given by Dr Frank Salter to an audience at the "the Sydney Traditionalist Forum" . It was originally posted on their website here:
It is a tad long and intellectual but I felt it was a very important lecture and so I wanted to share it for any who have the desire to read it. I would advise you to make the effort as the ideas and contents are worth taking the time. I don't think you will be disappointed.
Let me begin by acknowledging our nation:
I acknowledge the British and other European philosophers, explorers and pioneers who predicted the existence of a great South Land, then discovered, mapped, named, settled, and developed it to create the historic Australian nation. Long live Australia!
Sir Henry Parkes (1815-1896) – the Father of Australian Federation – was the son of an English farmer in Coventry who completed his apprenticeship to become a turner of bone and ivory.
Though largely self-educated, in his spare time he showed a flair for poetry. In 1839 at age 24 he and his wife emigrated to Australia, where he found his way to journalism and politics.
Parkes was a "radical patriot", the organizing secretary of the tradesmen's committee who agitated for universal suffrage and land reform.
It was during this period that Parkes joined the Australian League, which advocated amalgamating the colonies into a Great Federal Republic.
The League also campaigned for ending transportation and imperial patronage. Parkes opposed aristocracy in Australia, in particular the policies of William Charles Wentworth.
But he was not a communist or anarchist. He criticised the excesses of the 1848 uprisings in Europe. Parkes served as premier of the colony of NSW eight times between 1872 and 1891.
Paul Kelly, Australian journalist.
While premier of NSW he initiated the conventions that negotiated and drafted the federation of the colonies in 1901, though he did not live to see that momentous event.
His vision of a federal Australian state consisted of two frames. One was Australia as a New Britannia, a British ethnic nation that would share in the identity and history of Britain and its dominions.
The second was compatible with the first, but different. Parkes and the other federalists wanted Australia to retain the advances in liberal democracy of which they were proud.
Not just rule of law and the division of powers, but an expanding franchise and a flatter class structure than Britain's.
Compatible with the liberal sentiments was dignified wages, an aspiration that attracted the support of the rising labour movement, to complete what Paul Kelly calls the Australian Settlement.
All three premises have been subsequently confirmed, either scientifically or through experience. Let's begin with wages.
I) Dignified Wages.
The early Labour movement's contention that non-European immigration depresses wages has been confirmed by the experience of the United States and Australia since traditional restrictions began to be lifted.
The original research was done in the U.S. by George Borjas at Harvard University.
By the 1990s Borjas had shown that contrary to claims by immigration enthusiasts, mass immigration reduces wages due to excess supply.
Immigration does benefit some interests, especially employers and the building industry.1
Skilled immigrants can help the economy as a whole by overcoming bottlenecks. Furthermore, they integrate more quickly into the economy and draw less on government support.
But it is also true that they reduce the wages of native skilled workers and undercut the motivation to train native workers. Skilled immigration actually contributes to the de-skilling of the economy.
George Jesus Borjas, Prof. of economics, Harvard University.
After immigration to the U.S. was slashed by the 1921 and 1924 restriction acts, low-wage immigrant labour was replaced by a surge in capital investment in manufacturing equipment.2
That is old knowledge. In Australia, Borjas's findings have been confirmed by Judith Sloane, an economist and journalist.
Sloane has criticised the pro-immigrant rhetoric about "growing the economy" by pointing out that the relevant metric is per capita income, not gross income.
Governments and big business want tax revenues and profits to grow ever-larger and therefore seek to increase the population.
But an individual is affected by his slice of the pie, which is narrowed by mass immigration. Australians are also suffering from the congestion and culture shock afflicting the large cities.
The main beneficiaries of non-Western immigration to Western economies are the immigrants themselves, not the receiving nation.
Overall wages have stagnated in America and Australia since the introduction of large-scale non-white immigration.
II) Ethnic Nationalism.
The ethnic component of Parkes's nationalism is well known. In his great 1890 speech before the first Constitutional Convention, he spoke of "the crimson thread of kinship [that] runs through us all".
He made it clear that he meant British ethnicity though the term "ethnicity" had not yet been invented.
Parkes continued: "Even the native-born Australians are Britons, as much as the men born within cities of London and Glasgow.
We know the value of their British origin. We know that we represent a race." Furthermore, "[our] population, all of British origin, many and many thousands unified to the soil by ties of birth, by ties of parentage, by ties of friendship and love, as well as by ties of marriage and ties of children […]"
Judith Sloane, Australian economist, Fellow at Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research of the University of Melbourne.
Other speeches at the 1990 convention also emphasised shared British identity as a strong facilitator of federation.
This claim of ethnic kinship might have been mistaken. After all, genetic analysis was primitive in 1890.
Moreover, it is a mainstream leftist opinion in the social sciences that race, and ethnicity have no genetic existence beyond skin colour.
Another possibility is that ethnic descent, though detectable in the genes, is vestigial.
That is also a mainstream academic position originated by Harvard geneticist and Marxist Richard Lewontin in the 1970s.
In fact, modern genetics shows that ethnic genetic kinship can be substantial. Many biologists contributed to this knowledge, and here I mention just three: English ethologist William Hamilton, the Italian population geneticist Luigi Cavalli Sforza, and American anthropological geneticist Henry Harpending.
Routine genetic tests, for example that are sold by Ancestry.com, reveal customers' ancestral populations and their proportions of the genome.
Ethnic kinship is almost as close as that between grandparent and grandchild when comparing Europeans and Chinese.
It is even greater when contrasting Europeans and sub-Saharan Africans.
Because ethnic groups can be large populations, ethnic kinship aggregates to very high numbers.
In the context of the Han people of China, Australia's white population of about 19.5 million is the equivalent of a super family greater than 8.5 million children.3
In the context of sub-Saharan Africa, our ethnic family swells to the equivalent of about 12 million children.4 That precious reproductive interest is shared by every individual white Australian.
Richard Charles Lewontin, American evolutionary biologist, mathematician and geneticist.
The abstractness of these concepts can lead some to think that genetic continuity doesn't matter.
But ask yourselves the following. Men, is it reasonable to be angry to discover you are being cuckolded by your wife?
Women, should you care if your baby is switched at the hospital? What's the problem?
Sex is sex and babies are babies, according to mainstream wisdom.
Another fallacy is to evaluate ethnic interests as always taking precedence over family interests.
That is an easy mistake to make, because millions of children are obviously more than any marriage can produce. It is an error that leads to collectivism and fascism, which I shall discuss presently.
Despite such caveats, Parkes's metaphor of the "crimson thread" seems inadequate to grasp the enormity of ethnic kinship.
A better metaphor might be "rivers of blood", though I think that is already in use.
No wonder ethnicity continues to affect social behaviour around the world despite relentless indoctrination in the West denying its importance.
III) Liberal Nationalism
Less well known is Parkes's liberal convictions. The content of his writing on the national question reveals respect for the great liberal philosopher, John Stuart Mill.5
Liberal nationalism takes an Olympian perspective on nations, noting that they possess significant advantages over other forms of government.
Here I take "liberalism" to have its original meaning, current in Parkes's day – rational approaches to national policy that emphasise individual rights and individual conscience.
Anglo liberals of that period could not imagine their countries being ethnically transformed.
The issue of the day was individual rights and thus the British political inheritance – rule of law, separation of powers, representative democracy, and institutional pluralism.
John Stuart Mill (b. 1806 d. 1873)
In a publication of 1861, Considerations on Representative Government, Mill posited a connection between democracy and ethnic homogeneity.
His theory became popular in literate circles well before the constitutional conventions of the 1890s and remained influential into the twentieth century.
His main policy conclusion was that social cohesion necessitates assimilation, and therefore ethnically selective immigration.
Mill posited a connection between national identity, homogeneity and democratic values. He concluded:
"Where the sentiment of nationality exists in any force, there is a prima facie case for uniting all the members of the nationality under the same government, and a government to themselves apart […] One hardly knows what any division of the human race should be free to do if not to determine with which of the various collective bodies they choose to associate themselves."6
Elsewhere Mill concluded that "the boundaries of governments should coincide in the main with those of nationalities".7
Far ahead of his time, Mill argued that representative institutions are "next to impossible in a country made up of different nationalities".
Democracy depends on citizens being educated and cohesive. As Mill thought that ethnic diversity reduced social cohesion, he concluded that diversity should be minimised.
His argument concerned ethnicity, of which race is only one component.
"The sympathies available for the purpose are those of race, language, religion, and, above all, of political institutions, as conducing most to a feeling of identity of political interest."8
Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Austrian ethologist.
Here Mill anticipated by more than a century the biosocial science of ethnicity, especially that of the ethologist Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt in his 1970 book, Liebe und Hass (Love and Hate) and anthropologist Pierre van den Berghe in his 1981 book, The Ethnic Phenomenon.
Their theories described ethnic markers that elicit in-group recognition and solidarity.
This idea was applied to the history of ethnicity and nationalism by Anthony D. Smith, a central figure in the London school of ethnic studies.
His 1986 monograph, The Ethnic Origins of Nations, was a blow against the Marxist approach to ethnicity which was then, and now, dominant in the universities.
The evolutionary psychologist Philippe Rushton showed that Smith's theory was compatible with biosocial science.9
Historian Henry Reynolds has called Mill's theory "liberal nationalism". That was meant as a damning epithet because Mill's analysis favoured majorities as well as minorities.10
Indeed, many Australian leaders, including Parkes, were convinced by Mill's argument and used it to create policies that perpetuated and built the modern Anglo nation of which Reynolds disapproves.
Should Parkes and other leaders have accepted Mill's theory? Did the theory deserve to have such influence on immigration law?
One might guess not, because his theory was conceptually inadequate and empirically weak. But again, his core ideas have been confirmed.
Cross-national research in economics, sociology, political science and anthropology indicates that, other factors being equal, more ethnically homogeneous societies are better able to build public goods.
They are more democratic, less corrupt, have higher productivity and less inequality, are more trusting and care more for the disadvantaged, develop social and economic capital faster, are more resistant to external shocks, and are better global citizens, for example by giving more foreign aid.
Pierre van den Berghe, Prof. Emeritus of sociology and anthropology at the University of Washington.
There is further support for Mill's theory. Global comparison of societies around the world finds that democracy is relatively unstable in societies with substantial degrees of economic inequality, which ethnic diversity promotes.11
Numerous studies also find that public altruism ("sympathy" in Mill's writing) and thus social cohesion decline as ethnic diversity rises.
Diversity is the second-best predictor of civil war after weakness of democracy12
Mill's and Parkes's concern with diversity is vindicated by extensive research, which helps explain the durability of the assimilation paradigm.
Democracy is diminished in other ways by rising ethno-religious diversity. Race relations boards and anti-free speech legislation such as the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) were established early in Australia's experiment with unrestricted immigration.
From the start, it was obvious that growing ethnic diversity caused social tensions, as predicted by Arthur Calwell, Labor leader and the architect of post-WWII immigration.13
The bottom line? It's just good government to keep diversity low and pursuant to that to preserve the majority ethnic group's control of immigration.
Strictly speaking, liberal nationalism need promote no national sentiment at all, only policies for making society cohere within the frame of representative democracy and individual liberty.
The policies that yield this outcome are ethnically selective but not necessarily the motives for advancing those policies.
The starting point of Mill's analysis of nationality is not loyalty to a particular tribe but universals of social behaviour, conflict avoidance, and civil liberties, especially freedom of speech and association.
These liberal goals imply nationalist policies when viewed through the lens of reason.
Liberal nationalists see identity as a means rather than as an end. They seek the universal public goods of community and social cohesion and the multiple benefits that result.
Anthony David Stephen Smith, Prof. Emeritus of Nationalism and Ethnicity at the London School of Economics.
Another strength of liberal nationalism is its recognition of plural interests, most importantly the family.
From a biological perspective, liberal nationalism has the great advantage that it provides freedom to individuals to make families and raise children in their religious tradition, the centrepiece of the human life history strategy and building-block of society.
Liberalism protects investment in family from interference by the state.
In contrast to this, ethnic nationalism has the advantage that it facilitates an individual's investment in ethnic kin, who collectively carry many more copies of his genes than does his family.
Should family or ethny be prioritised? Again, I think Parkes got the balance right.
He praised the "crimson thread" of ethnicity but also emphasised love of family and homeland. He recognised a number of ties, of which ethnicity is just one.
That is prudent because investment in ethnic kin carries risks due to reliance on culture, which is more prone to error than the instinct-laden bonds of family.
In his book, Imagined Communities, the Marxist historian Benedict Anderson argued convincingly that national communities are perceived indirectly through cultural channels, such as stories, books, films, press reports, memorials, and so on.14
The same goes for events that are perceived to enhance or threaten the nation. The sense of fellowship can be extended through cultural devices to elicit bonding with hypothetical kin.
Likewise, the realm of antagonisms, of distrust, hatred and combat, can be hugely inflated in scope and intensity in the ethnocentric mind.
Anderson concluded that nations are imagined, when in fact they are real but have images that can be manipulated by those who influence culture.
Arthur Calwell, former leader of the Australian Labor Party
This reliance on culture makes it risky to show solidarity with a whole population. Ethnic solidarity can easily become costly to the family because of leadership errors and elite free riders.
The prudent strategy is not fascist obsession with the ethny but a conservative balance of genetic interests, with family at the heart.
The nation should come after family and community except in times of dire emergency. It is relevant that classical liberalism minimises warfare.
A related advantage of a hybrid liberal-ethnic nationalism is that the dispassionate liberal stance is better placed to acknowledge excesses of identity politics, while the ethnic stance is sensitive to excessive individualism; insistence on identity would be a check against a renegade liberal state.
Examples of convergence between liberalism and ethnic nationalism are not hard to find. Hans-Hermann Hoppe's recent enunciation of libertarianism overlaps classical liberalism in emphasising the need for freedom from coercion and conflict.
Hoppe concludes that immigration to Western societies should mainly consist of people descended from ethnic Europeans – "Western, white candidate immigrants" – not because of any ethnic preference but in the interests of social harmony, neighbourliness, and economic equity.15 At the same time Hoppe criticised the goal of white solidarity.16
Mill's type of nationalism is supported by the fact that criticisms of ethno-religious diversity have come from very different perspectives.
In the early noughties, colleagues and I hypothesised – and found – numerous costs of ethnic diversity in the social, political and economic spheres.
We derived our hypotheses from biosocial, especially evolutionary, theory.
Around the same time the progressive intellectual David Goodhart17 in London published his notorious article – notorious to fellow Leftists – "Too Diverse", in which he reached the same general conclusion.
Goodhart calls himself "post-liberal". He is a Remainer and shows little attachment to English identity.
He is repelled by the very notion of ethnic attachment. But he sees that diversity degrades social cohesion and public altruism and therefore hurts the welfare state.
He therefore advocates slowing immigration and criticises globalist elites.18
Benedict Anderson, Chinese-born Anglo-Irish political scientist and historian.
Liberal nationalism can also debunk much of the nonsense spoken in defence of open borders.
Consider ex-prime minister of Australia John Howard's argument in favour of admitting large numbers of non-European immigrants.
This has become mainstream among conservatives with access to media platforms such as Andrew Bolt, Tony Abbott and Greg Sheridan.
Howard maintains that Australia is not multicultural but that it is multi-racial. We are such a harmonious society because people come from around the world can quickly adopt Australian values.
It is those values (mateship and democracy, perhaps) that bind us together.
Howard and likeminded conservatives are proud of the non-discriminatory immigration policy that is rapidly consigning white Australia to minority status, though not sufficiently confident to put this policy to the vote.
Howard and company tacitly agree with the Marxist view of ethnicity and the irrelevance of human biology.
But this concession is no guarantee of immunity. In the 2007 elections Howard was voted out of parliament by Chinese and Korean electors responding to an explicitly racial appeal from the Rudd-Labor campaign.
For them multi-racialism meant particular kinds of mateship and democracy, namely the right for minorities to assert their tribal interests without criticism – ever.
People bound together by their crimson threads of kinship mocked and kicked aside someone who had cut his own.
The key question, and one apparently that never occurred to Howard – or Fraser, or Hawke, or Keating et cetera – concerns loyalty.
How many of those Chinese electors who dispensed with Howard on the basis of ethnic motivation, feel they belong to the greater Chinese nation that is mocking and attempting to kick aside white Australia as a whole?
Mr. Howard's notions would have been dismissed at their first airing in a society governed by rational discourse, where the social sciences and humanities had not been hijacked by influences allergic to truth.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, German libertarian thinker and author.
Despite its advantages, Parkes's liberal-ethnic nationalism has failed, and done so spectacularly.
His precious Anglo nation is on the skids, well along the path to becoming a minority, and a harried, persecuted one.
I am not aware of any complete theory that explains why this has happened. So, let me explore some likely causes.
One is contradictions between Parkes's two nationalisms. [— This paragraph was emphasise by Dr. Salter during his presentation (eds.)]
Ethnic nationalism typically involves a powerful state that favours the founding ethny.
But this can work to suppress individual liberties and harm families, for example by sending sons off to die in unnecessary wars, by driving the founding religion out of public life, and by overdoing the redistribution of family incomes.
On the ethnic side, it makes sense for identity groups to influence or capture the state and turn its incomparable power to securing their interests.
That is the path towards the nation state followed by emerging nations especially after the French Revolution.
The process disadvantages minorities and dissidents. In recent decades the same path has been trodden by minorities in diverse societies.
They have allied with globalist elites to steer the state towards privileging them against the founding ethnic group.
That is why all multiculturalist states suppress majority ethnic identity and open their borders to immigrants from non-majority cultures. This aggressive multiculturalism is evident in Anglosphere countries.
Liberalism has its limits. Universalism risks drifting too far from local interests. Liberal nationalism begins to lose efficacy as an ethnic strategy when deprived of information, and can become a feel-good blend of fairness, privacy and equality.
For example, Hoppe's rejection of ethnic solidarity misses the fact of ethnic kinship, which leads him into inconsistency because he does not criticise family solidarity. Why should we care about one set of kinship bonds but condemn another?
David Goodhart, British journalist and author.
One problem with liberal nationalism is its cold abstractness, its etic over emic voice.
One might prove theoretically that genetic survival depends on ethnic continuity; that it is adaptive and natural for people to care about their ethnic and cultural groups; that most people want to be part of the majority, a situation only possible in a world of nation states; that a moderate and rational nationalism should acknowledge ethnic sentiment as a matter of free choice and dignity, and so on.
One might be intellectually convinced along these lines yet fail to be moved emotionally because they do not cry out with the voice of the people. Too much head and not enough heart.
Liberalism's cold-bloodedness also reduces its ability to defend national interests in times of war, whether cultural or physical.
For that it needs heroes who give their all. The supply of heroes will be limited if all are domesticated souls devoted to their families and the shire.
It is doubtful that any human is able to portion-out his efforts in an optimal way, recognising emerging needs and responding appropriately.
Realistically, that requires a division of labour, with some diffuse in their efforts, most focused on family, but some heroes focused on the population.
These types need to work together, such that leadership is exercised by one or the other type in different circumstances.
For these reasons it is prudent for ethnic nationalists to take their liberal cousins with a grain of salt. After all, to reiterate, most liberal states are failing to prevent, or are actually promoting, the swamping of their founding peoples.
Prof. Keith Windschuttle, author and editor of Quadrant Magazine.
Why are the views on the national question enunciated by Parkes and other leaders of the time so resolutely repudiated by the political class of today?
The premises of their positions are generally sound. Those familiar with my work will guess my answer to that question: the collapse in reason we have seen since the 1960s has been caused by the capture of our universities and much of the media by the intolerant Left.
It began a century ago with a campaign to expel human nature and biology from anthropology, sociology and other social sciences and humanities.
A contributing cause has been forgetfulness. The founding fathers failed to perpetuate public memory of the logic of the White Australia Policy.
Even before the advent of unpatriotic radicalism, the first history of that Policy, published in 1923, failed to record the essential rationale of the policy.
Myra Willard's influential text, History of the White Australia Policy to 1920, did not quote Parkes's use of the term "crimson thread" or mention John Stuart Mill.19
However, the connection was made by Marxist historian Phil Griffiths in 2002, and by historian Ann Curthoys in 2003 as recorded by Keith Windschuttle in his book, The White Australia Policy (2004).20
IV) Fighting Back.
How might we restore liberal-ethnic nationalism? A core strategy of the culture wars is to undercut the premises of the opposition.
If prudent, rational discourse had to be compromised to open the way for massive indiscriminate immigration and to install a minority-dominated ethnic hierarchy, then it is sensible to promote truth in public discourse.
That will involve dismantling or bypassing political censorship, such as found in the mainstream media, big social-media companies, and the so-called Human Rights Commission and its enabling legislation.
Alfred Deakin, Second Prime Minister of Australia.
But even if Mill-style liberalism were restored, it would be insufficient to correct the situation.
An identitarian component must be introduced and protected. Perhaps constitutional reform is needed to give the historic nation robust legal protection?
This is the approach adopted by multiculturalists in the name of their clients. Examples include demands for an anti-racism clause to be inserted in the Constitution.
Another is the call for a constitutional acknowledgment that Aborigines were here first, a demand now superseded by the Indigenous Voice, a racial third chamber mandated by a proposed amendment to the Constitution.
Perhaps the appropriate response to these demands is to go beyond merely saying "No!", and to make demands on behalf of Anglo Australians.
We need to push back. An example would be calls for recognition in the Constitution that Anglos created the colonies and federation.
Another would be protection against Anglophobic and anti-white and anti-Christian legislation and government decisions.
Why not an Anglo Voice, with its own dedicated bureaucracy, representative chamber, and mandatory consultation by government? This might seem problematic. But it should be given serious consideration if an Aboriginal Voice is in prospect.
Whatever new scholarship unearths and whichever paths of fight-back gain traction, they will be profoundly influenced by the dual vision of the Australian nation projected by the self-taught poet, journalist and statesman, Sir Henry Parkes.
Alfred Deakin, Australia's second prime minister, wrote in his obituary:
"[T]hough not rich or versatile, his personality was massive, durable and imposing, resting upon elementary qualities of human nature elevated by a strong mind. He was cast in the mould of a great man and though he suffered from numerous pettinesses, spites and failings, he was in himself a large-brained self-educated Titan whose natural field was found in Parliament and whose resources of character and intellect enabled him in his later years to overshadow all his contemporaries."21
George J. Borjas, Heaven's door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy (Princeton; Princeton University Press, 2001).
John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism: 1860-1925 (New Brunswick, NJ; Rutgers University Press, 2002 [1955]).
Assuming 26 million Australians, 75% white in 2016 according to the Human Rights Commission. See further: Leading for Change: A Blueprint for Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Leadership Revisited (Australian Human Rights Commission, April 2018).
Based on a formula provided by: Henry Harpending, (2002). "Kinship and Population Subdivision" Population and Environment Vol. 24 No. 2 (2002) pp 141-147, with data provided by E. Elhaik, "Empirical distributions of Fst from large-scale human polymorphism data" PLOS ONE Vol. 7 No. 11 (21 November 2012). White-Chinese Fst = 0.11; White-Sub-Saharan African Fst = 0.153. Number of child equivalents = Population x Fst x 4.
Phillip Griffiths, "Towards White Australia: The shadow of Mill and the Spectre of Slavery in the 1880s Debates on Chinese Immigration" Paper presented to the 11th Biennial National Conference of the Australian Historical Association, Brisbane, Queensland (4 July 2002).
John Stuart Mill, Representative Government. Three Essays by John Stuart Mill (London; Oxford University Press, 1960). See specifically Chapter XVI: On nationality and specifically p. 381.
Kieth Windschuttle, The White Australia Policy (Sydney; Macleay Press 2004) pp. 18-19. Windschuttle notes that in 2003 Marxist historian Alistair Davidson saw the liberal contribution to immigration restriction, when he quoted Mill making that comment.
John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government (South Bend, Ind.; Gateway Editions, 1972 [1861]) p. 298.
Phillip Rushton, "Ethnic Nationalism, Evolutionary Psychology, and Genetic Similarity Theory" Nations and Nationalism No. 11 (2005) pp. 489-507.
Henry Reynolds, (1997) "Racism and Other National Discourses" The Resurgence of Racism: Howard, Hanson and the Race Debate, G. Gray and C. Winter (eds.) (Clayton, Victoria; Monash Publications in History, 1997) pp. 36-37; cited by Griffiths (4 July 2002) p. 10.
Tatu Vanhanen, The Limits of Democratization: Climate, Intelligence, and Resource Distribution (Augusta, Georgia; Washington Summit Publishers, 2009).
Frank K. Salter, "Ethnic Nepotism as Heuristic: Risky Transactions and Public Altruism" Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, R. I. M. Dunbar and L. Barrett. (eds.) (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2007) pp. 541-551.
Arthur Calwell, Be Just and Fear Not (Adelaide, South Australia; Rigby, 1978) p. 118.
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London; Verso Editions, 1983).
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "Libertarianism and the 'Alt-Right'", Address to the 12th Annual Conference of the Property and Freedom Society, Bodrum, Turkey (14 to 19 September 2017), c. 45 minutes.
Ibid., c. 42 minutes.
Goodhart discusses his Jewish ethnicity dispassionately at: David Goodheart, "David Goodheart: How my Lehman Brothers Ancestors Shaped America" The Times (online) (15 July 2018, 12:01BST) <thetimes.co.uk> (accessed 4 December 2020); see also Goodheart's tweet and surrounding discussion: @David_Goodheart (22 March 2018 @ 8:54PM) (accessed 4 December 2020).
David Goodhart interviewed by Peter Whittle, New Culture Forum (online) (13 July 2019) <youtube.com> (accessed, 2 December 2020).
See generally: Myra Willard, History of the White Australia Policy to 1920 (London; Frank Cass, 1923).
Griffiths (4 July 2002) op. cit.; See also: Keith Windschuttle (2004) op. cit. p. 18.
M. Martin, "Sir Henry Parkes, (1815-1896)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 5 (Melbourne, Victoria; Melbourne University Press, 1974).
Dr. FRANK SALTER spent most of his career at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology in Germany. Frank has taught in Britain, the US, Central and Eastern Europe. He is an author who has published widely on subjects related to the Biosocial Sciences.
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The California Film Commission this week announced that 19 films have been approved conditionally for $52.2 million in tax credits. This is the fourth year of the tax credit program.
A total of 43 film projects applied for tax credits during the June 18–22 application period.
According to the commission, these films will generate an estimated $258.2 million in qualified expenditures (defined as wages to below-the-line workers and payments for equipment/vendors) and spend a combined 602 shoot days across the state. Based on data provided with each tax credit application, they will employ 869 cast, 2,357 crew, and 23,000 extras (including stand-ins measured in man-days).
In September 2014, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed bipartisan legislation to more than triple the size of California's film and television production incentive, from $100 million to $330 million annually. The credits are aimed at retaining and attracting production jobs and economic activity across the state.
The California Film and TV Tax Credit Program 2.0 also extended eligibility to include a range of project types (big-budget feature films, TV pilots and 1-hour TV series for any distribution outlet) that were excluded from the state's first-generation tax credit program.
In June, Governor Brown signed SB 871 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) which extends California's tax incentive for motion pictures and television productions for an additional five years.
SB 871 included provisions from California Chamber of Commerce-supported job creator bills AB 1734 (Calderon; D-Whittier) and SB 951 (Mitchell; D-Los Angeles). This tax incentive has proven effective in maintaining jobs in California and growing jobs in this industry.
The current program has a sunset date of July 1, 2020. However, planning for both motion picture and television productions typically occurs several years in advance, and productions rely on the certainty that the incentive will be available, as location decisions are made.
The next application period for feature film tax credits will be held October 15–19.
More information about California's Film and Television Tax Credit Program, including application procedures, eligibility and guidelines, is available at http://www.film.ca.gov/tax-credit/.


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The first part of this study was about measurement of dosimetric parameters for small photon beams to be used as input data for treatment planning computer system (TPS) and to verify the dose calculated by TPS in Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) procedure. The beam data required were percentage depth dose (PDD), off-axis ratio (OAR) and scattering factor. Small beams of 5 mm to 45 mm diameter from a circular cone collimator in SRS were used for beam data measurements. Measurements were made using pinpoint ionisation chamber (0.016cc). In the second part of this study, we reported the important of carrying out quality assurance (QA) procedures before SRS treatment which were found to infl uence the accuracy of dose delivery. These QA procedures consisted of measurements on the accuracy in target localization and treatment room laser alignment. The calculated TPS dose for treatment was verifi ed using pinpoint ionisation chamber and thermoluminescent detector (TLD) 100H. The deviation mean between measured and calculated dose was -3.28%. The measured dose obtained from pinpoint ionisation chamber is in good agreement with the calculated dose from TPS with deviation mean of 2.17%. In conclusion, pinpoint ionisation chamber gives a better accuracy in dose calculation compared to TLD 100H. The results are acceptable as recommended by International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) Report No. 50 (1994) that dose delivered to the target volume must be within ± 5% error.


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China's Censorship Supremo is Gone, But Little Will Change
Posted: July 8, 2016 | Author: hongkongblogger | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: beijing, censorship, charlie smith, china, china censorship, chinternet, circumvention central, communist party, great firewall, greatfire.org, internet freedom, lu wei, Shigatse, UN, VPNs, xi jinping, Xu lin | Leave a comment
China's head honcho when it comes to censorship recently stepped down. This being China, no-one seems to know whether he was effectively sacked, or asked to move to a new bigger and better role. But what we do know is that things aren't going to get any better for those inside the Great Firewall.
Over the past three years, Lu Wei has been a constant thorn in the side of rights groups, diplomats and Silicon Valley bosses. His aggressive defence of China's sovereign right to do with its internet what it sees fit – most notably at the laughably titled World Internet Conference in Wuzhen – has been jarring at times. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) he headed up also runs root CA and .cn operator the Chinese Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). As such, it was blamed by Google last year for issuing unauthorized TLS certificates for several of its domains, which were subsequently used in man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.
Even more damning, the CAC was accused of launching Man in the Middle attacks on Outlook users last year in response to its migration to HTTPS, which the authorities can't monitor. And then it was pegged for a DDoS attack on anti-censorship organisation Greatfire.org – a constant thorn in the side of the authorities in Beijing.
I spoke to Greatfire.org co-founder Charlie Smith about the reasons for and implications of Lu's departure.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? We probably just had the quietest anniversary of Tiananmen [Square massacre] yet, in terms of online dissent and discussion. There is more censorship in general. Less circumvention because of a crackdown on VPNs. And fewer foreign companies are trying to challenge the status quo," he told me via email.
"We know controlling the medium is pretty near the top of [president] Xi Jinping's agenda. So why make a change now? The timing likely indicates that this was a planned and not a rash decision. There was no need to unsettle things before the 4 June anniversary and the change happens well before the next 'World' Internet Conference in Wuzhen."
Smith went on to argue that, even though Lu presided over an unprecedented crack down on internet freedom – primarily through a new regulation banning the spread of "rumours" online – he didn't go far enough.
"Lu was not perfect. As we have shown, it is impossible to completely block all information for those inside China," Smith continued. "Maybe in this regard, Lu was being blamed and Xi decided he wanted somebody who can get the job done. Maybe Xi was upset about being 'vilified as a murder suspect' and could not comprehend why Lu Wei was unable to scrub information from the Chinese internet."
Lu's removal, if that is what it was, may also have been an attempt by Xi at curbing his growing influence – after all, propaganda is at the heart of the Party's power and everyone inside knows it. His replacement, Xu Lin, is a Xi Jinping acolyte and one time deputy secretary of Tibet's Shigatse Prefecture who will certainly toe the presidential line.
As Smith put it, "if Xu Lin fails to quell 'rumours and slander' Xi does not have to second-guess whether or not Xu is doing everything within his power to stop these attacks."
So what prospects for the future? Pretty grim if you're inside China and are a fan of human rights and internet freedom.
Beijing was one of a few countries – Russia, India, Indonesia included – that voted against a non-binding resolution at the UN this week stating all individuals must be afforded the same rights online as offline and that the universal right to freedom of expression should be upheld online.
As Smith said, if Xu Lin "handles information control on the Chinese internet the same way the authorities handle information control in Tibet then the situation could even get worse."
There is some hope for businesses and individuals which need to leap the Great Firewall.
Greatfire.org itself this week launched Circumvention Central, a new site designed to provide real-time info on which VPN is the best performing and most stable in your area.
The hope is that it will encourage greater use of VPNs and help developers improve their circumvention products, as well as provide a much needed additional source of revenue for Greatfire.
The concern is that if it gets popular enough, Beijing will do all it can to put it out of action.
Will Apple's China pivot come back to haunt it?
Posted: May 1, 2015 | Author: hongkongblogger | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: android, apple, apple watch, apple watch china, backdoors, censorship, china, cyber security, financials, IDC, idg connect, iphone 6, nsa, snowden, tim cook | Leave a comment
Apple had a rip-roaring second quarter, as I've just reported here for IDG Connect. But the financials were about more than putting yet more dollars in the bank. In years to come, the quarter may well be seen as a tipping point – the point when the Cupertino giant came to rely way too much on China.
Although sales in China have yet to surpass the Americas, that point is not too far away. But the quarter did see iPhone sales from the Middle Kingdom overtake the US, and it also witnessed total revenue from China leapfrog that of Europe – two pretty significant milestones.
Apple is in a position that its American rivals and counterparts – Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook etc – would dearly love. They've all been either banned or investigated for anti-trust dealings – in other words harangued by the authorities. These firms face an uncertain future in the world's soon-to-be largest technology market. But while Apple is largely loved by consumers still in style-obsessed China, its days too could be numbered.
Certainly the government has been making life difficult for US tech firms over the past year or two. The revelations from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has given it the perfect excuse to request stringent security checks on products destined for the public sector market. It's a de facto ban for many providers. Beijing is trying to do the same with the banking industry. And it will get its way, eventually.
Kowtow time
What does it mean for Apple? Yes the firm is a large investor in the country. But that won't count for much if or when Beijing wants to apply some pressure. Apple has already been forced to comply with its unpalatable censorship demands, withdrawing apps from its store. It was notably silent when the authorities launched a Man in the Middle attack on iCloud last year. And CEO Tim Cook was forced to make a grovelling apology when a state TV-led witch hunt found issues with its customer service in the country. Cook has reportedly also agreed to give the government access to its source code in a bid to pacify regulators and ensure its devices are approved. This in itself could backfire if Beijing uses that intelligence to create backdoors to spy on Apple users outside the country.
Then there's the issue of growth. China is not necessarily the license to print money many think it is for Apple.
IDC analyst Xiaohan Tay told me smartphone growth will begin to slow in the country over the coming years.
"Most of the growth in the smartphone market will come from the lower end segment of the market. As Apple is a high-end product in the China market, most of its growth will come from replacement users which are the Apple fans, as well as those who may be using the higher end Android phones at the moment," she added.
"The new iPhones were a hit in the Chinese market as consumers were awaiting the release of the larger screen sized phones from Apple for the longest time, and this helped to drive growth in the past two quarters since the new iPhones were launched in China."
Growth will continue, but at a slower rate, although the Apple Watch represents a great opportunity to arrest that slide, she added.
"The die-hard Apple fans as well as the middle and upper-middle class consumers in the cities will help to sustain the growth," said Tay. "I believe that Apple's high prices actually makes its phones more desirable for the consumers. Owning an iPhone represents a status symbol that the average consumer wants to work towards."
Plenty of positives for the future for Apple in China, then. But what the Middle Kingdom giveth it can also taketh away. In my opinion, Cupertino had better disperse its eggs into other BRIC baskets if it wants to avoid a nasty surprise down the road.
Censor much? What to expect from the Great Firewall in 2015
Posted: November 21, 2014 | Author: hongkongblogger | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: akamai, beijing, censorship, china, communist party, edgecast, google, great firewall, greatfire.org, hsbc, hsbc outage china, https, icloud, infosecurity magazine, man in the middle | Leave a comment
I've been speaking to anti-censorship organisation Greafire.org about online freedoms in China and what we're likely to see in 2015. It makes for pretty depressing reading.
First of all, the app market will see an ever-tightening regulatory regime following new regulations passed in October, according to co-founder Percy Alpha.
"I fear that in the future, apps will be like websites, i.e you have to get a license before publishing any," he told me by email.
Then there's the current trend for Man in the Middle attacks as a way to monitor and block access to various online services and sites.
The Great Firewall has already tried this tactic on Google, Yahoo and iCloud to name but three. It's the only way the authorities can see what people are up to once a site switches to HTTPS.
The smart money is apparently on more of these attacks in 2015, but increasingly focused on smaller sites so as to not arouse much media attention.
The Chinese authorities have also been going after Greatfire itself of late, proof the anti-censorship group must be doing something right.
Their mirrored sites, which allow users behind the Great Firewall view blocked content, have been a minor irritant to the authorities until now. But since last week Beijing upped the ante in two astonishing moves against the content delivery networks (CDNs) Greatfire uses.
The first resulted in EdgeCast losing all service in China – which could mean tens of thousands of sites affected. Then another swipe took out an Akamai subdomain also used by HSBC. The result? Its corporate banking services became unavailable. It just shows the lengths the Party is prepared to go to control the flow of information.
The last word goes to co-founder Charlie Smith:
"I think we will continue to see the kinds of crackdown we have seen this past year. I think that for a long time, many optimists have said, give the authorities some time, restrictions will loosen up and information will flow more freely. If anything, the exact opposite is happening – I'm not sure why people seem to make comments otherwise.
If anything, I think the authorities will take censorship too far in 2015. They will push the Chinese over the limit of what they are willing to tolerate."
LinkedIn and the cost of doing business in China
Posted: April 28, 2014 | Author: hongkongblogger | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ai weiei, censorship, china, chinese censorship, facebook, facebook ban china, great firewall, greatfire.org, human rights watch, IHRB, linkedin, social neworking, twitter, twitter ban china | Leave a comment
A few weeks ago I covered the launch of LinkedIn in China. It's been available in English there for a while now and has even managed to amass around 4 million users, I'm told, but this was a big deal because it could give the firm access to up to 140 million Chinese professionals.
That said, many questions remain unanswered about the move, and I've been doing a bit of digging to explore them.
The most important centre around exactly what LinkedIn will have to sacrifice to remain unblocked by the Great Firewall. We all know the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been forbidden for years by China's censorship apparatus, but is the cost of doing business there actually worth the potential damage to reputation and bottom line?
Well, CEO Jeff Weiner had this to say about the compromises it has had to make:
As a condition for operating in the country, the government of China imposes censorship requirements on internet platforms. LinkedIn strongly supports freedom of expression and fundamentally disagrees with government censorship. At the same time, we also believe that LinkedIn's absence in China would deny Chinese professionals a means to connect with others on our global platform, thereby limiting the ability of individual Chinese citizens to pursue and realise the economic opportunities, dreams and rights most important to them.
To me this seems a little disingenuous. Would Chinese citizens' lives really benefit so much from a local language version of LinkedIn, or is this all about the money?
"I think the CEO should be more upfront about what exactly he is talking about in this situation," Charlie Smith, co-founder of anti-censorship body Greatfire.org, told me. "What he means to say is that in order for them to get a business license to operate in China so that they can start to sell advertising and recruitment notices, the Chinese authorities insisted that they self-censor."
The problem is we still don't know exactly what LinkedIn has agreed to censor. Surely a pre-requisite for getting the green light from Beijing's censors is having a plan on exactly what will be monitored, and how many resources will be spent on human censors, filtering technologies, etc? Well, LinkedIn told me the license is still pending, and so it can't be more specific on the details.
But it gets more complicated. Will, as Smith asked me, the profiles of certain rights groups or individuals be removed by LinkedIn, if requested? What if a Chinese user wants to connect with a rights group or dissident outside China? One presumes the firm will have to create some kind of internal firewall between Chinese users and those outside the Chinternet. Aside from the cost to the bottom line, this has all the ingredients for a potential PR disaster.
"How are they going to 'protect' Chinese users from seeing content that is being posted by people outside of China that they are connected with? When this kind of censorship comes to light, many people will start testing the LinkedIn platform to see how far this censorship will go," Smith argued.
"Most people only use LI when they are looking for a job, so I would imagine that many professionals, upon hearing about this complicit censorship, will simply leave the platform and use traditional job boards for their employment search."
I also spoke to Lucy Purdon at rights group the Institute for Human Rights and Business, which urged more transparency from LinkedIn and encouraged the firm to reach out to the ICT industry and civil society as a member of the Global Network Initiative.
Purdon added:
LinkedIn should learn from the experience of other ICT companies operating in China, especially where government requests for user details present particular risks to users and conflict with the company's commitment to respect internationally recognised human rights.
In the post-Snowden fallout, LinkedIn has filed legal challenges in the US, seeking permission to provide greater transparency of the number of national security requests they receive from the US government. Given that, at the very least we would expect LinkedIn to push for the greatest transparency in China and include requests from the Chinese government in their transparency reports, which provides a country by country breakdown. In addition, LinkedIn should consider expanding the categories to include censorship requests.
Now this is just the opinions of two organisations. But they're valid ones and highlight the problems facing any social media or user-generated content-heavy company trying to do business inside China. It'll be very interesting to see just how LinkedIn handles these issues as it expands its beta service behind the Great Firewall.
China's mobile cyber crime underground…and me on the Beeb
Posted: March 7, 2014 | Author: hongkongblogger | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: android, apple, bbc, bbc newsday, beijing, censorship, china, china malware, communist party, iOS, mobile cybercriminal market in china, mobile malware, trend micro | Leave a comment
I was on BBC Newsday, a World Service breakfast programme, on Wednesday talking about the Chinese cyber mobile underground story I wrote up for The Reg this week.
It's based on a Trend Micro report – The Mobile Cybercriminal Underground Market in China – published this week by its Forward Looking Threat Research Team, which reveals once again the sophistication and commercialisation of the underground networks via which cyber criminals trade goods and service.
Although the report itself doesn't throw up a huge amount of new data it's interesting to see evidence that such networks exist in China, selling common attack kits like premium service abusers, SMS Forwarder Trojans and spam.
Typically, being broadcast journalism we were kept strictly to 5 minutes of short, sharp soundbursts by the BBC which allowed for little meaningful discussion of the topic besides "what's the Dark Web"? "How do I get on it?" and Who's behind these attacks?". I had a better chat with the researcher the night before.
That said, it's an important topic to air publically.
Although we didn't cover this in as much detail as I'd have liked, the real message to listeners of the program – which apparently has among the highest audience numbers on the planet – is to be more vigilant when downloading apps online and make sure they install basic AV on smartphones.
In China, where unregulated third party Android stores are the norm and mobile AV is rare, the cyber criminals have it made.
The only light I can see on the horizon in this part of the world is for the government to follow through with its planned regulation of the mobile app space. This would force industry to self-regulate and clamp down on malicious apps either pre-loaded onto phones or uploaded to web stores.
The only problem is that any new regulations are also likely to restrict content deemed "offensive" to Beijing – in other words censorship by the back door.
Decrypt Weibo: new tool promises a censorship-free Sina Weibo
Posted: October 3, 2013 | Author: hongkongblogger | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: censorship, china, communist party, decrypt weibo, freeweibo, great firewall, greatfire.org, online freedom, sina weibo, the register, weibo | Leave a comment
GreatFire.org, a not-for-profit calling for an end to China's repressive censorship regime, has launched another tool designed to bring transparency to the Chinternet and no doubt some consternation in Beijing.
I covered the Decrypt Weibo announcement over at The Register. It pretty much does what it says on the tin, allowing users who see a post on Sina Weibo that has been blocked by the censors, to retrieve that message.
The founders of GreatFire have been mapping the censored Chinese internet for over two years now and last year launched FreeWeibo, a tool which allows users to conduct uncensored searches of Sina Weibo – by far China's biggest weibo platform.
However their work so far seems to have flown under the radar, which probably comes down simply to user numbers.
"We've been operating FreeWeibo.com now for almost a year and they have not done anything to try to block that service," co-founder Charlie Smith told me. "It may be that we are just a small blip on their radar. But we think that we are making things difficult for them and we are going to continue to makes things difficult."
The big worry for internet freedom advocates is that China's latest attempts to suppress online free speech have edged the closest yet to an Orwellian "thought police" model.
In attaching severe jail terms to any popular online message subsequently deemed to be a harmful "rumour", the government will slowly and insidiously create a nation where all but the bravest are afraid to say anything mildly controversial online, for fear of reprisals.
That's the worry anyway, as GreatFire alludes to in its post explaining the launch of Decrypt Weibo, although it's good to hear that Smith and his team are undimmed in their fight.
"Sina's likely reaction to our new service will be to inform the authorities about our presence … and put the matter in the hands of the police. The police won't find us and won't be able to shut us down which means that they would have to shut down the entire Sina Weibo service to stop us doing what we are doing. This would lead to a massive public outcry," he said.
"Of course, we hope that they just decide to end online censorship voluntarily."
In the end, the only way this could happen is if the Communist Party realised that its demand for indigenous innovation-based economic growth (rather than one reliant on copying and stealing IP) is doomed if it continues to suppress debate online and place such a heavy burden on web companies for self-policing their platforms.
Unfortunately I don't think this will happen anytime soon, so in the meantime let's hope Decrypt Weibo finds its way into the hands of as many Chinese netizens that need it as possible.
China ready to lift the Great Firewall. Maybe. In part of Shanghai
Posted: September 24, 2013 | Author: hongkongblogger | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: censorship, china, facebook, great firewall, hong kong, li keqiang, shanghai, shanghai free trade zone, twitter | Leave a comment
Reports emerged from China today that at first sight seem almost unbelievable: the Communist Party about to lift the Great Firewall and unblock access to Facebook, Twitter and a host of other banned sites.
Then the small print. If the anonymous government sources are speaking the truth, it will be only be relevant to Shanghai Free Trade Zone, a 28 sq km pilot project designed to encourage greater foreign investment in China and open its economy up to the international markets.
"In order to welcome foreign companies to invest and to let foreigners live and work happily in the free-trade zone, we must think about how we can make them feel like at home," one government source told the South China Morning Post.
"If they can't get onto Facebook or read The New York Times, they may naturally wonder how special the free-trade zone is compared with the rest of China."
Now while that seems fair enough, the Communist Party isn't known for its love of unfettered access to the internet – after all the free flow of information online is precisely the sort of thing which it knows will lead to its demise.
So what's this all about? Well, a few things sprung to mind:
China is in the middle of one of the worst crack downs on online freedom anyone can remember, so don't expect this localised liberalisation to spread anywhere else in the Middle Kingdom. The party is very much still for the suppression of any discussion it deems "harmful".
Even if the Great Firewall is lifted in the Shanghai zone, doing so from a technical standpoint will take time, according to Forrester analyst Bryan Wang.
"The network within the free trade zone will exist something like an intranet, which is connected to the international backbone without going through the Great Wall firewall," he told me. "Current infrastructure will not be enough to support the future development. China Telecom or Unicom will need to lay out new fibre in the free trade zone."
The Party giveth and it taketh away. Nothing is confirmed yet, and until state-run media reprint the story, we can probably take it as just a rumour, possibly one designed to increase international publicity for the zone, which is a pet project of new premier Li Keqiang.
The whole free trade zone itself is only a pilot, so we can expect Beijing to bring the Great Firewall crashing back down on the region if its censorship-free internet policy backfires.
On a side note, how will Hong Kong react to the free trade zone?
If the Shanghai pilot is successful, more of them could spring up across China, effectively stealing its thunder as the only truly outward facing, economically liberalised, online censorship-free region in the Middle Kingdom.
Although a free and unfettered internet may soon no longer be a differentiator for Honkers, however, it's likely that its superior IP protection regime, rule of law and business friendly visa system will still tip the balance in its favour for most MNCs.
Bruce Schneier: the internet is not doomed, but it is fragmenting
Posted: November 21, 2012 | Author: hongkongblogger | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: balkanisation, bruce schneier, BT, censorship, chief security technology officer, china, cryptography, great firewall, infosecurity, music industry, piracy | Leave a comment
I had the pleasure of en evening with Bruce Schneier last night. Let me re-phrase that: I attended a BT event yesterday entitled "A Private Dinner with Bruce Schneier".
Schneier, if you haven't come across him, is BT's chief security technology officer, author, cryptographer extraordinaire and philosopher-cum-infosecurity out-of-the-box-thinker.
Basically, what he says in info-security circles is usually listened to, although his propensity to tackle the subject more from a socio- or even biological perspective than a mere discussion of bits and bytes can make quotable extracts from a conversation with him pretty thin on the ground.
That said, Schneier was on form last night, focusing on the topic of trust and the notion that all systems, be they sociological, biological and so on, need co-operation to work. These systems also feature, inevitably, 'defectors', who don't obey the rules and require security to keep their activities to manageable levels.
All fine and dandy, but what about the future? Does Schneier think we're all doomed?
Well he certainly believes that the gap between the bad guys profiting from new technologies and the good guys catching up is greater than at any point in the past thanks to the sheer volume of new tech and the huge social change it is spurring, which is somewhat worrying.
However, there is hope that all is not lost. For one, he declared the bad stuff that happens online still a "tiny percentage" of the whole.
"I'm a short term pessimist but a long-term optimist," he added.
As the older generation dies out things will gradually change too, he explained, as new norms around things like privacy come into play, and even the music industry is eventually be forced to change.
"The internet is the greatest generational gap since rock n roll," he declared.
"People stealing music now are doing what will be normal in ten years' time, they just figured it out first. The business model of scarcity doesn't work."
In less reassuring news, he argued that the balkanisation of the internet is likely to continue as national governments seek to establish their own controls – particularly appropriate given we were sitting in the Conrad Hong Kong, just a few miles from mainland China and the Great Firewall.
"It turns out the internet does have boundaries," Schneier concluded. "Governments are enforcing their rules more and more and it makes for a less stable internet but it is the geopolitical future."