Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Nepal police disrupt Tibetan elections in Kathmandu

By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala, October 3: Nepal police in Kathmandu on Sunday disrupted Tibetan preliminary polls by confiscating ballot boxes already filled with thousands of ballots just an hour before the polls were due to be closed.
Several armed police arrived at different polling booths located in different parts of Kathmandu valley and confiscated ballot boxes filled with thousands of votes, a Tibetan voter from Boudha, a landmark Tibetan area in Kathmandu, told Phayul.

Hundreds and thousands of Tibetan exiles across the world on Sunday went to polls to cast their ballots to nominate candidates for the post of Prime Minister of the Tibet’s government in exile and members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile for the next year’s general elections.

The voting is to take place simultaneously from 9.am to 5.pm local time around the world.

Around 50 or 60 armed policemen arrived around 4.pm and confiscated all the ballot boxes and put them into police van, the Tibetan voter who identified himself as Wangdu, said.

According to Mr Tsering Dhondup, a local election officer in charge of Boudha-Jorpati area, police took away ballot boxes from at least three polling booths located in areas of Swayambu, Boudha and the main Kathmandu city circle.

“We have been told that the last-minute order was issued directly from the Home Ministry. Otherwise we have duly informed the concerned Nepali authorities well in advance about our poll schedules and at that time we have only been told to restrict our polls within the limit of the approved venues. Other than that there were no other objections from their side initially,” Dhondup added.

According to Dhondup, although no arrests were made, in some cases police even resorted to mild lathi-charge before forcefully taking away the ballot boxes.

He said efforts are underway to talk to concerned higher authorities about the matter.

“We don’t know yet where they took away the ballot boxes and everyone here is looking confused and helpless. Some of the Tibetans at the election scene even decided to stage protests, but the Tibetan elections officials stopped them from doing so,” Wangdu said.

Nepal government has lately vowed to check "anti-China activities" to strengthen friendly ties with China, a major donor for the impoverished country.

The forced disruption of Tibetan polls on Sunday follows a visit by 21-member high-level Chinese delegation led by He Yong, Secretary of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, to Nepal last month.

During the visit, the Chinese delegation reportedly expressed satisfaction over “Nepal’s ‘one China’ policy and the alertness adopted by the country over the Tibet issue”.

Prior to the Chinese delegation’s visit, the governments of the two countries had even agreed to set up a joint mechanism to help share intelligence on "anti-China activities" in Nepal.

Nepal, which is home to some 20,000 Tibetans, has accommodated Tibetan exiles for decades, but has come under increasing pressure from China to crack down on the political protests.

Under Beijing's influence and lack of stable government in the impoverished nation, rights groups say Tibetans refugees in Nepal are increasingly vulnerable and at risk of arrest and repatriation.

Strange Facebook Love Story Is Big Screen Hit

While the upcoming movie The Social Network is offering one view of Facebook, another big-screen release is taking a personal look at the power of internet site on a shoestring.
Low-budget documentary film Catfish has grossed £1m so far after being played at Sundance earlier this year and is predicted to take a whole lot more when it reaches cinemas.

Catfish tells the tale of Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer who develops a close online relationship with three members of a rural Michigan family.

It begins when the young daughter of the family, Abby, starts painting adaptations of some of the photographer's work.

Nev also starts an intense Facebook relationship with Abby's older sister, while conversing with the sisters' mother as well.
Schulman's filmmaker brother, Ari, and his business partner Henry Joost, frequently shot the dull day-to-day doings in the office shared by the three of them.

But when Nev started internet correspondence with an eight-year-old girl, an art prodigy, the filmmakers were intrigued, and began to fix their lenses on Nev's life.

Things soon got more intriguing when they begin to suspect not all was what this "Facebook family" was claiming.

With its story of the possibilities and pitfalls of personal connection through the internet, Catfish is said to play like a scrappy sequel to The Social Network.

"The Social Network is obviously an explanation as to the construction of that world, and into the mind of the man who invented it," Schulman said.

"But Catfish is really a story about where it has taken us, and the real-life implications of what that website has created.

"So, I think they are a terrific double feature. I recommend seeing The Social Network and then going to see Catfish. It is wonderful because it is more than anything the start of a conversation."

Strange Facebook Love Story Is Big Screen Hit

While the upcoming movie The Social Network is offering one view of Facebook, another big-screen release is taking a personal look at the power of internet site on a shoestring.
Low-budget documentary film Catfish has grossed £1m so far after being played at Sundance earlier this year and is predicted to take a whole lot more when it reaches cinemas.

Catfish tells the tale of Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer who develops a close online relationship with three members of a rural Michigan family.

It begins when the young daughter of the family, Abby, starts painting adaptations of some of the photographer's work.

Nev also starts an intense Facebook relationship with Abby's older sister, while conversing with the sisters' mother as well.
Schulman's filmmaker brother, Ari, and his business partner Henry Joost, frequently shot the dull day-to-day doings in the office shared by the three of them.

But when Nev started internet correspondence with an eight-year-old girl, an art prodigy, the filmmakers were intrigued, and began to fix their lenses on Nev's life.

Things soon got more intriguing when they begin to suspect not all was what this "Facebook family" was claiming.

With its story of the possibilities and pitfalls of personal connection through the internet, Catfish is said to play like a scrappy sequel to The Social Network.

"The Social Network is obviously an explanation as to the construction of that world, and into the mind of the man who invented it," Schulman said.

"But Catfish is really a story about where it has taken us, and the real-life implications of what that website has created.

"So, I think they are a terrific double feature. I recommend seeing The Social Network and then going to see Catfish. It is wonderful because it is more than anything the start of a conversation."

China Piracy Makes Microsoft Head Nervous

Illegal piracy needs to be addressed and intellectual property needs better protection in China, the Microsoft CEO has told students in London.
Steve Ballmer said that piracy in China is twenty times worse than the UK and twelve times worse than in India.

That, coupled with the fact that China will soon be the world’s number economy, makes him "nervous".

The Microsoft head was speaking to students, academics and the media at the London School of Economics (LSE) where he gave a lecture entitled 'Seizing the Opportunity of the Cloud: the Next Wave of Business Growth'.

Mr Ballmer said that while consumers had embraced the always-on connectivity that is possible with smartphones and similar devices, business had been slower to see the potential.

He argued that in the field of science, communities of joined-up computer users will be able to achieve far more than one machine of whatever size can alone.

He called on governments to see the potential for efficiencies through the use of cloud based services - something his company will sell you for a price.

And he argued that while there might be some job losses in some areas of IT as a result of better use of automation, there was the possibility of a net increase in jobs with more people designing and managing more services.
Steve Ballmer praised the UK’s role as home to great innovators, both as app creators and as consumers keen to embrace new technologies.

That is one reason why the new Windows 7 phone will have its global launch here, he said.

"We know that this is a place where if we get a product right, we'll get a good early reception," he told his audience.

Mr Ballmer admitted Microsoft had been a little slow to the smartphone market, but promised a real wow factor when new handsets become available later in the autumn.

The Microsoft CEO choose to ignore questions about the future of the operating system (such as XP and Vista, the mainstay of profit for Microsoft) – and the threat from Google’s, proposed, free, Chrome OS.

He also appeared horrified at the suggestion that Microsoft, like so many tech companies, might, one day, fail.

"Very few tech companies have stayed at the top for a long time," he admitted.

But he said that Microsoft would, under his leadership thrive, as long "as we continue to innovate and change".