Crack down on plant protests

Beijing (CNN) — Demonstrators braved a heavy police presence and the threat of arrest by massing Thursday in the streets of Kunming, China, to protest the planned construction of a chemical plant, they said.
“It was mostly a peaceful protest,” said an activist who asked to be identified only by his family name, Young. “We were singing the national anthem, shouting ‘Get out, refinery!’ together.”
He added, “We were scattered by the heavy police force in the area. I saw locals scuffling with police, people getting arrested and pulled away.”
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The plant is a hot topic in the city, which is the capital of Yunnan province in southwestern China.
“Every Kunming person cares about this issue,” said another Kunming native, a 50-year-old man who said rows of police thwarted his efforts to reach the heart of the protest. “The police kept blocking off the protest, block by block.”
Local government officials did not respond to CNN phone calls for comment.
Photos posted on Chinese social media sites showed uniformed and riot police surrounding groups of demonstrators.
The five activists who spoke to CNN asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from Chinese authorities.
The oil refinery and chemical plant would be built in Anning city, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Kunming, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency.
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Opponents fear the chemical plant would produce tons of paraxylene, a carcinogenic chemical identified by the acronym PX.
Several days after a May 4 protest, the Kunming mayor joined executives from the state China National Petroleum Corp. and the Yuntianhua Group for a joint news conference.
“The government will call off the project if most of our citizens say no to it,” said Mayor Li Wenrong, according to Xinhua.
The provincial general manager of China National Petroleum Corp. has said the refinery will not use the chemical.
“The project has no PX facilities, nor will it produce PX products,” Hu Jingke said, according to Xinhua.
Kunming residents expressed deep distrust of government officials and the state-owned enterprises behind the refinery project.
Several said authorities took draconian measures in the days running up to Thursday’s protest in an attempt to prevent demonstrators from taking to the streets.
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A 25-year-old Kunming native who asked to be identified as Claire told CNN that police detained and interrogated her for more than nine hours after she was caught distributing anti-refinery fliers on a city street Tuesday.
“I understand we need oil refineries,” Claire said in a phone interview. She said she opposed this one because “it’s just so close to the city and the fact that the whole process was not transparent and we’re not allowed to ask questions.”
Claire said police accused her of staging an “illegal gathering.”
As part of the interrogation, she said, police took her to the print shop where she had made copies of her fliers. Then they escorted her to her parents’ home, where they demanded that she erase files about the refinery from her computer. Finally, she said, they threatened her and banned her from attending Thursday’s protest.
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“Basically, they’re saying if I have this on my record, I won’t get any government job or state-owned enterprise job,” Claire said.
Several other Kunming residents said students and employees of state-owned companies had been warned not to attend the demonstration.
“Kunming is a beautiful city, where we have cleaner air than any other cities in this country,” Young said.
“We fear the refinery will destroy the city’s natural environment, and we demanded to see the environmental impact assessment report of this project. But we were rejected by the government who told us it’s a ‘state secret.’ “
An executive from Yuntianhua, which also has a major stake in the chemical plant, told journalists that an environmental impact assessment for the project had not been completed, Xinhua said.
In March, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised that health safeguards would be improved and efforts would be made to control air pollution and make water supplies safer.
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“We should adopt effective measures to prevent and control pollution and change the way we work and live,” Wen said.
The emphasis on environmental and health issues comes as China’s leaders confront growing anger about choking pollution, contaminated food, and water that is unsafe to drink.
The statistics are staggering. China now burns 3.8 billion tons of coal each year, nearly as much as the rest of the world combined. In January, the smog over Beijing was so thick, it could be seen from space.
China’s CO2 emissions rose by 720 million tons in 2011 — a 9.3% increase. Pollution and dust generated in China have been found as far away as California.
Maintaining blockbuster growth has sometimes come at the expense of environmental protections.
The government has made explicit its intention to weigh environmental regulation against the cost to the economy. But analysts say the public outcry over pollution has tipped the scales.
China has already tried to boost the use of alternative sources of power, setting standards for solar energy installation and switching from coal to gas in some cities.
CNNMoney’s Charles Riley contributed to this report.
Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/16/world/asia/china-protests/index.html?eref=edition
Ugandan eco-artist Ruganzu Bruno built an amusement park for children living in one of Kampala’s slums.
Bruno (right) worked with the local community to create the playground in a congested area lacking recreation facilities. “We built the playground together as a team,” he says.
Using thousands of waste bottles, the talented artist turned a school yard in Kampala’s Kireka community into a fun and safe place where children can play and learn.
For his work over the years, the talented artist has won several accolades, including the Ugandan Young Achievers award 2011.
Bruno says the park has had a positive impact on local children. “The attention of children in class has improved; the number of children who are dropping out [is falling] because now they have something to keep them busy there, ” he says.
Other attractions include swings and climbing structures created with recycled materials such as old tires.
Bruno plans to roll out several other eco amusement parks in other parts of Kampala.
A huge board game built inside the school yard in Acholi Quarters, Kireka.
In 2010 Bruno founded Eco Art Uganda, a collective of artists promoting environmental awareness.
He has also developed an eco-artist loan scheme to help the business endeavors of women in Kireka.













Ugandan eco-artist Ruganzu Bruno built an amusement park for children living in one of Kampala’s slums.
Bruno (right) worked with the local community to create the playground in a congested area lacking recreation facilities. “We built the playground together as a team,” he says.
Using thousands of waste bottles, the talented artist turned a school yard in Kampala’s Kireka community into a fun and safe place where children can play and learn.
For his work over the years, the talented artist has won several accolades, including the Ugandan Young Achievers award 2011.
Bruno says the park has had a positive impact on local children. “The attention of children in class has improved; the number of children who are dropping out [is falling] because now they have something to keep them busy there, ” he says.
Other attractions include swings and climbing structures created with recycled materials such as old tires.
Bruno plans to roll out several other eco amusement parks in other parts of Kampala.
A huge board game built inside the school yard in Acholi Quarters, Kireka.
In 2010 Bruno founded Eco Art Uganda, a collective of artists promoting environmental awareness.
He has also developed an eco-artist loan scheme to help the business endeavors of women in Kireka.














A rare Apple 1 computer is to be auctioned for up to $400,000. The original Apple was the first computer to be built by the California-based technology company. Up for auction is one of only six surviving “Apple 1″ computers still in working order.
The Apple Lisa, from 1983, was produced for only one year, and was one of the world’s first mouse-controlled computers. It is now extremely rare.
The Scelbi-8H was built around the first Intel 8-Bit microprocessor, and fell within the budget of an average person. It was available either assembled or in kit form. It was regarded as one of the first truly ‘personal computers’.
Three hundred years before the birth of Steve Jobs, the French philosopher, physicist and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, was designing the world’s first mechanical calculator, the ‘Pascaline’.
Like many experimental technologies, though, the Pascaline was expensive and rather unreliable.
An 1895 Ford typewriter with filigree copper grille. The invention of typewriters in the mid 19th century changed the face of professional writing. The QWERTY keyboard is still the most common modern-day keyboard layout.
This portable copying press was devised by legendary English steam-engine inventor James Watt. The copying apparatus, consisting of metal damping box, pressure plate and special moistened copying paper, was housed in an elegant brass-bound mahogany box.
A 1905 L.M. Ericsson Co. desk telephone known as the ‘coffee grinder’ for its circular shape and distinctive lithographed decoration.










A rare Apple 1 computer is to be auctioned for up to $400,000. The original Apple was the first computer to be built by the California-based technology company. Up for auction is one of only six surviving “Apple 1″ computers still in working order.
The Apple Lisa, from 1983, was produced for only one year, and was one of the world’s first mouse-controlled computers. It is now extremely rare.
The Scelbi-8H was built around the first Intel 8-Bit microprocessor, and fell within the budget of an average person. It was available either assembled or in kit form. It was regarded as one of the first truly ‘personal computers’.
Three hundred years before the birth of Steve Jobs, the French philosopher, physicist and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, was designing the world’s first mechanical calculator, the ‘Pascaline’.
Like many experimental technologies, though, the Pascaline was expensive and rather unreliable.
An 1895 Ford typewriter with filigree copper grille. The invention of typewriters in the mid 19th century changed the face of professional writing. The QWERTY keyboard is still the most common modern-day keyboard layout.
This portable copying press was devised by legendary English steam-engine inventor James Watt. The copying apparatus, consisting of metal damping box, pressure plate and special moistened copying paper, was housed in an elegant brass-bound mahogany box.
A 1905 L.M. Ericsson Co. desk telephone known as the ‘coffee grinder’ for its circular shape and distinctive lithographed decoration.









