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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tensions in South China Sea: US won't take sides, US-Philippines Naval drills, students attack US embassy


 Philippine and Chinese officials are holding talks on the stand-off at the Huangyan Island (Scarborough Shoal)

Dialogue 20120414 China & Phillippines ships standoff CCTV News - CNTV English

The Philippines and China in troubled waters

By CHOW HOW BAN, The Star

China attaches great importance to friendly ties with countries around the South China Sea but a recent altercation between Chinese fishermen and the Philippines Navy in the disputed Huangyan Island may turn into a full-scale war.

TENSION is rising in the South China Sea. China’s navy is ready to hit back if a clash between several Chinese fishing boats and a Filipino naval vessel in the waters of Huangyan Island cannot be resolved diplomatically,

Chinese patriots have been flooding the media with provocative comments stating that they are ready to go to war.

On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in Manila received a report that the 12 Chinese fishing boats that sailed into a lagoon in Huangyan Island (or internationally known as Scarborough Shoal) to shelter from bad weather were challenged by the Warship, BRP Gregorio del Pilar.

Twelve from the navy warship, six of whom were armed, boarded the Chinese vessels and apparently harassed the fishermen. Later, two Chinese patrol ships, Haijian 75 and Haijian 84, arrived and prevented the Philippines navy from detaining the fishermen.

On Thursday, the Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario was quoted by Manila Bulletin as saying that its warship had left Scarborough Shoal back to Poro Point for refuelling and re-provision of food.

Fishing for trouble: An April 10 photo showing members of the Philippine Army inspecting one of the eight Chinese fishing boats in the Scarborough Shoal — Reuters/Philippine Army


However, the Philippines Navy Flag officer-in-command Vice-Admiral Alexander Pama said the vessel was just relieved for operational reasons and would play a supporting role until the Philippines Coast Guard took over maritime law enforcement duties.

He stressed that the departure of the Gregorio del Pilar should not be construed as a retreat on the part of the Philippines government.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said they had sent law-enforcement ships rather than naval ships to back up the existing patrol ships and safeguard Chinese fishermen in the area.

The Chinese government demanded that the Filipino ships leave the area as it violated China’s sovereignty over Huangyan Island.

In a counter-claim, the Philippines accused the fishermen of being there illegally, saying that the area is in its territory by virtue of it being part of its Exclusive Economic Zone as recognised by international law.

A Netizen, on a Chinese forum, said the fact that China was acting too rationally in the South China Sea dispute had led to the intemperate conduct of its rivals.

“A reminder to the Chinese government and military: 1.3 billion people have raised you all but we have lost almost all the islands in the South China Sea,” another Netizen said.

“If you cannot safeguard South China Sea, you will become the culprits in Chinese history.”

A Chinese military fan called La Te wrote in cankaoa.com that in every Chinese mind the war in the South China Sea was inevitable but the question is how to fight the battle if it did indeed takes place.

He said that among the more than 50 major islands in the Spratlys in the South China Sea, China and Taiwan had control over eight while the others were occupied by Vietnam (29), the Philippines (eight) and Malaysia (five).

Although Brunei had sent troops to Louisa Reef in 1990 before, it did not declare its sovereignty over the reef.

In its editorial, Global Times said China had never thought of resolving the South China Sea issue by force and that China had the patience to sort out the matter via negotiations.

“If the Philippines and Vietnam really want to fight this sea battle, then they should fire the first shot.

China will certainly fight to the finish and give them a painful lesson of going to war with China,” the newspaper said.

China Daily said the Philippines and Vietnam had gained considerable economic benefits from the South China Sea by illegally tapping the rich deposits of oil and natural gas in the area since the late 1970s.

It said Manila and Hanoi should stop coveting interests that they are not entitled to.

“China attaches great importance to maintaining friendly ties with countries in the region, including the Philippines and Vietnam, and it has always exercised the utmost restraint as it desires a stable peripheral environment.”

Dialogue 20120416 Philippines-US war games CCTV News - CNTV English


US and Philippines begin South China Sea drills  


Joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines are getting under way in the South China Sea, even as Manila remained locked in a stand-off with Beijing over a disputed shoal. 

The annual exercises, called Balikatan, are due to run until 27 April.

This year they are taking place off Palawan, near parts of the South China Sea both Manila and Beijing claim.

Meanwhile Philippine and Chinese vessels remain at the Scarborough Shoal, a week after the deadlock began.

The Philippines said its warship found eight Chinese fishing vessels at the shoal - which both sides claim - when it was patrolling the area on 8 April.

When navy personnel boarded the Chinese fishing vessels on Tuesday they found a large amount of illegally-caught fish and coral, it said.

Two Chinese surveillance ships then arrived in the area, preventing the navy from making arrests.
Incidents in the South China Sea involving fishing boats or energy survey vessels are becoming more frequent, demonstrating the lack of any common rules of the road to resolve competing territorial claims.

China insists that its rights in areas like the disputed Spratly Islands are paramount, despite rival claims from the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries too.

The government in Manila is taking steps to modernise its small naval and air forces. But it is looking to Washington to help balance China's growing power.

Two decades after US forces were evicted from their biggest base in the Pacific, there has been talk of a renewed US military presence. The fact that the joint exercises are being held on the island of Palawan - the closest Philippines territory to the Spratlys - will doubtless irritate China.

But the Philippines government must walk a tightrope here - China is its third largest trading partner. It wants to defend its corner but doesn't want to provoke a crisis with Beijing.

Attempts to resolve the stand-off do not as yet appear to have been successful. 

The Philippine warship has been replaced by a coast guard vessel and the Chinese fishermen are reported to have gone, but two Chinese vessels remain there and a Chinese aircraft overflew the Philippine ship on Sunday, officials in Manila said.

"The stalemate remains. Both sides are in touch with each other," Philippine foreign ministry spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a statement on Sunday.

'New context'
 
The joint exercises are taking place in a different area, to the southwest of the shoal. Some 7,000 troops will be taking part.

A Philippine military spokesman said that the exercises were unrelated to events at Scarborough Shoal.

The focus of the exercises would be on "improving security, counter-terrorism and humanitarian and disaster response", Major Emmanuel Garcia said.

At the opening ceremony, the Philippines' armed forces chief Jessie Dellosa hailed the joint exercise as ''timely and mutually beneficial''.

"The conduct of this annual event reflects the aspirations to further relations with our strategic ally, a commitment that has to be nurtured especially in the context of the evolving challenges in the region,'' he said.

The exercises take place every year but, reports the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus, this year they are different because the context within which they are taking place has changed.

China's maritime power is growing and the Philippines - along with many other small countries in the region - is worried.

It wants to bolster its own defences and underline its growing ties with Washington, our correspondent says, and the US sees these exercises as an opportunity to demonstrate its renewed interest in Pacific security.

Six countries claim competing sovereignty over areas in the South China Sea, which is believed to contain huge deposits of oil and gas.

Along with China and the Philippines, they are Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

China's claim includes almost the entire South China Sea, well into what the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea recognises as the 200-mile-from-shore Exclusive Economic Zones of other claimants.

That has led to occasional flare-ups and to competition to occupy islands, reefs and sandbars.

Map locator 

  Filipino students attack US embassy to protest war games near South China Sea

By Associated Press

Left-wing protesters in the Philippines have splattered paint on the seal of the US Embassy to demand a pullout of American troops taking part in annual war games.

About 70 student activists took police and embassy guards by surprise early Monday when they threw blue-and-red paint at the seaside mission's main gate and scrawled 'US troops out now.' 
They also chipped away letters from the bronze signage and burned a mock American flag.

Vandals
outrage: Students attacked the US Embassy sign in Manila to protest war games the Filipino military is conducting with American forces

No arrests were made as protesters outnumbered police and protestors later walked away.
US and Philippine military officials say nearly 7,000 American and Filipino troops have begun two weeks of major military exercises but they stress that China is not an imaginary target.

Philippine army Maj Emmanuel Garcia said Monday that the annual drills, called Balikatan or shoulder-to-shoulder, will include combat maneuvers involving the mock retaking by US-backed Filipino troops of an oil rig supposedly seized by terrorists near the South China Sea.

US Marine Lt Col Curtis Hill says most other events will focus on humanitarian missions and disaster-response drills.

Beijing has protested military drills involving Americans near the South China Sea, where it is locked with the Philippines and four other nations in territorial rifts.

Flag burning
Flag burning: About 100 students turned out to the protest and called for an end to the military relationship between the US and the Philippines 

The standoff escalated as three Chinese fishing boats and one Chinese naval vessel left the disputed area Friday.

Problems began on Sunday when Manila dispatched its largest warship, a US Hamilton-class cutter, to Scarborough Shoal, a group of rocky outcrops off the main Philippine island of Luzon, after it spotted eight Chinese fishing boats anchored in the area.

The shoal, which is crossed by major shipping lanes, is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves as well as fish stocks and other comercially-attractive marine life.
   
On Friday, Philippine officials confirmed that three Chinese fishing boats had left the area, but said five other Chinese boats remained. It was unclear whether they carried illegal catches, they added.
Damage: A student helps deface the seal outside the U.S. embassy building
Damage: A student helps deface the seal outside the U.S. embassy building

Officials had earlier said that giant clams, coral and live sharks were illegally harvested from waters surrounding the Philippine island of Luzon.

'We are watching five fishing vessels that are still collecting coral in that area,' Lieutenant General Anthony Alcantara, chief of the army's northern Luzon command, told reporters on Friday.

Asked if the three fishing vessels which left had carried illegal catches, he said: 'I have no data on that.'

China also withdrew one of its three naval ships from the area on Friday, a day after a Philippine warship pulled out to be replaced by a coast guard vessel. Manila's move had been interpreted as a sign that tensions were easing as diplomats rushed to find a solution to the dispute.

But on Friday the Philippine navy sent a ship into the area to back up a coast guard cutter tasked to enforce the country's maritime laws, suggesting tensions were still high.

'The mandate is to support our coast guard there,' Alcantara said.

'Our mandate is to take care of our own people there and sovereignty.'

US won't take sides in South China Sea dispute

Updated: 2012-05-02 12:24
The United States said on Monday that it would not take sides in the Huangyan Island standoff between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea and reiterated support for a diplomatic resolution to the territorial dispute.

Washington does not take sides on competing sovereignty claims there, but has a national interest in maintaining freedom of navigation as well as peace and stability, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, after meeting top diplomatic and defense officials from the Philippines.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin attended the 2+2 dialogue with their US counterparts, Clinton and Leon Panetta, in Washington.

"The United States supports a collaborative diplomatic process by all those involved for resolving the various disputes that they encounter," Clinton said. "We oppose the threat or use of force by any party to advance its claims."

Gazmin alluded to tension with China over islands in the South China Sea as he called for the need to "intensify our mutual trust to uphold maritime security and the freedom of navigation".

"We should be able to work together to build a minimum, credible defense posture for the Philippines, especially in upholding maritime security," Gazmin said.

The Philippines and China have been embroiled in the Huangyan Island dispute, with both nations stationing vessels there for nearly three weeks to assert their sovereignty.

China on Monday highlighted remarks made by the Philippine president about de-escalating the tension over the island, urging the Philippines to "match its words with deeds" and return to the proper pathway of diplomatic solutions.

Speaking of the tension, Philippine President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III said he had issued instructions to his military, telling them not to intensify the issue.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin stressed that there is no change in China's stance of using diplomatic channels to peacefully resolve the issue, which was triggered when a Philippine warship harassed Chinese fishermen and raised concerns over China's sovereignty of the island.

The Philippine officials also stressed diplomacy when asked what aid they had requested from Washington, saying that Manila sought to bring the South China Sea issue to international legal bodies.

Clinton reaffirmed the US commitment to the 60-year-old Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines, calling the Philippines a country "at the heart" of the new US strategy toward the Asia-Pacific.

Washington would help improve the Philippines' "maritime presence and capabilities" with the transfer of a second high-endurance (coast guard) cutter this year, Panetta said.

The US emphasis on neutrality and a diplomatic resolution would encourage Manila to be more restrained on the Huangyan Island issue, said Fan Jishe, a US studies expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Washington doesn't want territorial disputes between its Asian allies and China to be obstacles to China-US relations," he said.

Xinhua and Reuters contributed to this story.

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Monday, April 16, 2012

Cyber addicts, angry mum sets up ‘rehab’ centre for you!



KUALA LUMPUR: She was furious to find her son at a cybercafe, engrossed in his game, when he was supposed to be at rugby practice in school.

But what shocked Zaridah Abu Zarin, 39, even more was seeing children, some as young as four, completely absorbed in playing online games.

Sunday matinee: Zaridah (left) and Wong (right) watching a movie with youths at their centre in Bandar Sri Damansara Sunday.
 
Moved by what she saw, Zaridah decided to set up a centre with her business partner, Michelle Wong, to help youths and children overcome their addiction to Internet games for free.

“There were also four children, squeezing in one seat, just so that they could share the computer in the cybercafe,” said the KidQ daycare centre director at Bandar Sri Damansara here.

Wong, who is also a director at KidQ, said the centre, named “U”th Community Centre, that started yesterday, would be a place for children to participate in enjoyable and productive activities.

"There's more  meaning to life than going to the cybercafe. One of our immediate steps is to conduct an intervention for children addicted to the Internet at cybercafes.

"Since we run a daycare centre, we have the facilities to allow youths and children to conduct activities," said the 47-year-old.

Wong said she and Zaridah would ask the children about their interests and match them with suitable activities.

"With our background in childcare,k we can also find professionals to coach them and help them with job placements in future," she said.

Zaridah said if things went well, they would like to expand the centre to reach out to children in different areas.

By YUEN MEIKENG meikeng@thestar.com.my

Google's latest wheeze: Work out these blurry house numbers for us

Google, the pride of open everything, uses real blurry house number images as its Captchas, so that the general public can tell them what the number really is.


An openly available image of Sergey Brin in the open air.
(Credit: Google+,Sergey Brin)
 
I have spent much of the day blurry-eyed, moved by Google's Sergey Brin declaring his company the only great defender of the open Web.

The tears have, it has come to my attention, mainly emerged from laughter at Google's sweet, thoughtful gall that everything it claims the world desires just happens coincidentally to benefit it commercially.

Still, no sooner had my eyes dried a little when the Telegraph offered me Google' latest exemplar of sheer, beautiful openness.

For it seems that Google is using real images from Street View as security checks. Yes, if you want to access your own Google account, the company is asking you to decipher a slightly blurry image of a real house number.

It seems that if enough people decide on a particular number, then Google sharpens up the image on Street View.

Yes, you are being asked to work for Google, Openly. For free. And if you don't, well, you may not be able to access your own Google account.

The Telegraph naturally declares that certain privacy groups are foaming at the lips on hearing of this little scheme -- which, according to a Google spokesman, only occurs in 10 percent of security questions.

But surely some people, on hearing of this and Google being fined $25,000 by the FCC for, um, non-compliance with its inquiry into Wi-Fi eavesdropping, might feel that openness has a highly subjective definition in Google's complex collective cranium.

Google's version of the open Web seems very simple: let us get at everything. Whether it's books, streets, houses, Facebook accounts, iPhoto accumulations or perhaps even the remains of your spaghetti bolognese.

Something is open if Google can see it and scrape it. And when Google sees it and scrapes it, it can create a fuller picture of every element of your life -- just in case, you know, some lonely advertiser might pass by and show interest.

Some might call this freedom. There again, doesn't freedom sometimes entail being free not to let rapacious, baby-faced organizations peer into your life?

Chris Matyszczyk
by  
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
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Teamwork made Man brainier, say scientists

Learning to work in teams may explain why humans evolved a bigger brain, according to a new study published on Wednesday.

Compared to his hominid predecessors, Homo sapiens is a cerebral giant, a riddle that scientists have long tried to solve.

The answer, according to researchers in Ireland and Scotland, may lie in .



Working with others helped Man to survive, but he had to develop a brain big enough to cope with all the social complexities, the experts believe. – Reuters Photo

In a , the team simulated the , allowing a network of to evolve in response to a series of .

There were two scenarios. The first entailed two partners in crime who had been caught by the police, each having to decide whether or not to inform on the other.

The second had two individuals trapped in a car in a snowdrift and having to weigh whether to cooperate to dig themselves out or just sit back and let the other do it.

In both cases, the individual would gain more from selfishness.

But the researchers were intrigued to find that as the brain evolved, the individual was likelier to choose to cooperate.


"We cooperate in large groups of unrelated individuals quite frequently, and that requires to keep track of who is doing what to you and change your behaviour accordingly," co-author Luke McNally of Dublin's Trinity College told AFP.

McNally pointed out, though, that cooperation has a calculating side. We do it out of .

"If you cooperate and I cheat, then next time we interact you could decide: 'Oh well, he cheated last time, so I won't cooperate with him.' So basically you have to cooperate in order to receive cooperation in the future."

McNally said teamwork and bigger brainpower fed off each other.

"Transitions to cooperative, complex societies can drive the evolution of a bigger brain," he said.
"Once greater levels of intelligence started to evolve, you saw cooperation going much higher."

The study appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a journal published by Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.

Commenting on the paper, Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary anthropologist at Oxford University, said the findings were a valuable add to understanding brain evolution.

But he said there were physiological limits to cooperation.

Man would need a "house-sized brain" to take cooperation to a perfect level on a planet filled with humans.

"Our current brain size limits the community size that we can manage ... that we feel we belong to," he said.
Our comfortable "personal social network" is limited to about 150, and boosting that to 500 would require a doubling of the size of the .

"In order to create greater social integration, greater social cohesion even on the size of France, never mind the size of the EU, never mind the planet, we probably have to find other ways of doing it" than wait for evolution, said Dunbar.

By Mariette le Roux AFP

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Give but be gracious in receiving as well


IT'S a common enough scene at restaurants, diners fighting to pay the bill. Some say it's a Malaysian thing.

We also know that some people give the impression of wanting to pay and are able to cleverly ensure that the wallet would conveniently stay in the pocket when the bill arrives.

I was having lunch with my wife at a restaurant recently and two gentlemen at an adjoining table, after finishing their meal, did just that. It was quite a scene, though in a good-humoured way, with the waiter caught in the middle.

I was quite tempted to tell them that if they were both so keen about paying, how about settling my bill as well.

I am not sure who paid in the end but it got me thinking about the joy of giving and receiving.
You cannot have one without the other.

And while we may say that it is better to give than to receive, without the act of receiving, you cannot let the other person experience the joy of giving.

Let me be clear here that I am not talking about bribery where it is absolutely wrong to be either the giver or the receiver, even if the corrupt think there is much joy in the process.

It is part of our human nature to give, be it of our time or our money. We feel good when we help someone who is going through a bad patch, donate to a charity or volunteer to teach at an orphanage.

And it is even better when we do all this without drawing attention to ourselves.

A wise saying puts it this way: “When you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

But what about receiving?

People who are very generous in their giving are sometimes highly uncomfortable when it comes to receiving.

Perhaps they think there is an ulterior motive involved.

So, instead of simply saying thanks, they give us the impression that the reason for our giving is suspect.

And then there are those who, even if they receive your gift, will take the next opportunity to give you something back, often of equivalent value.

So, the true spirit of giving and receiving is totally lost here.

A general rule of thumb when we are blessed by someone is to pass on the blessing, not to reciprocate or pay for it.

Because of my stints as a full-time househusband and also working for a charity organisation, it is quite normal for my friends to pay whenever we have a meal together.

Perhaps, out of habit, they still do so and I have to remind them that I can now afford to pay the bill.

Normally, to avoid a scene, I would leave my credit card or money with the waiter ahead of the meal.

Last Sunday, I was having breakfast with two dear friends when an elderly man at the next table recognised me although we had never met before. He was reading The Sunday Star and we had a nice chat.

He said goodbye and then the waiter came up to us and said our bill had been settled. Thank you Mr Wong, I certainly receive this breakfast treat from you with a grateful heart.

So, friends, today as you go out for a meal, remember this. Though it is better to give than to receive, be gracious in receiving as well. You could make someone really happy. There really is no need to fight over the bill.

> Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin appreciates being on the receiving end of kind words, sincere fellowship and heart-to-heart conversations, underscoring the fact that the best things in life are not only free, but priceless.

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