Indonesians clean up the beach one sandal at a time

Yahoo – AFP, February 21, 2019

The yearly campaign kicked into action after rubbish was getting trapped in the
fishing nets of locals (AFP Photo/PERDIANSYAH)

Hundreds of people sifted through a vast wasteland of rubbish strewn across a beach in Indonesia on Thursday, underscoring the Southeast Asian archipelago's mammoth marine waste problem

Some 200 students, military personnel and locals scoured a beach on the southern tip of Sumatra island, picking up rubbish as they waded through heaps of plastic, discarded flip flops and other debris.

In just over three hours, the group collected an eye-watering 30 tonnes of rubbish from the coast in Lampung province.

The yearly campaign first kicked into action in 2010 after huge amounts of rubbish were getting trapped in the fishing nets of locals who made their living off the sea.

Most of the detritus had flowed in from the provincial capital.

Other rubbish clearing campaigns have popped up across Indonesia, the world's second biggest contributor to marine debris after China.

In holiday hotspot Bali, the problem has become so bad that officials declared a "garbage emergency" two years ago after a stretch of coast was swamped with rubbish.

Last year, a sperm whale was found dead in a marine park off Sulawesi island with 115 plastic cups and 25 plastic bags in its stomach.

The archipelago of some 17,000 islands has pledged to reduce marine plastic waste by 70 percent by 2025.

VIDEO: Students, military personnel and locals scoured a beach in Indonesia, picking up rubbish as they waded through heaps of plastic, discarded flip flops and other debris. In just over three hours, the group collected 30 tonnes of rubbishhttps://t.co/EFVTAx69EN pic.twitter.com/6zOffnIrjn

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 21, 2019

Japan to recognise indigenous Ainu people for first time

Yahoo – AFP, February 15, 2019

Japan's indigenous Ainu people have long suffered oppression and
exploitation (AFP Photo/TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA)

Tokyo (AFP) - Japan's government introduced a bill Friday to recognise the country's ethnic Ainu minority as an "indigenous" people for the first time, after decades of discrimination against the group.

The Ainu people -- many of whom live in northern Hokkaido -- have long suffered the effects of a policy of forced assimilation, and while discrimination has receded gradually, income and education gaps with the rest of Japan persist.

"It is important to protect the honour and dignity of the Ainu people and to hand those down to the next generation to realise a vibrant society with diverse values," top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

"Today we made a cabinet decision on a bill to proceed with policies to preserve the Ainu people's pride."

The bill is the first to recognise the Ainu as "indigenous people" and calls for the government to make "forward-looking policies", including measures to support communities and boost local economies and tourism.

The Ainu have long suffered oppression and exploitation, and the modern Japanese government in the late 19th century banned them from practising their customs and using their language.

Factfile on Japan's ethnic Ainu people. (AFP Photo/John SAEKI)

The Ainu traditionally observed an animist faith, with men wearing full beards and women adorning themselves with facial tattoos before marriage.

But like many indigenous people around the world, most of Japan's Ainu have lost touch with their traditional lifestyle after decades of forced assimilation policies.

The Ainu population is estimated to be at least 12,300, according to a 2017 survey, but the real figure is unknown as many have integrated into mainstream society and some have hidden their cultural roots.

"It is the first step for ensuring equality under the law," Mikiko Maruko, who represents a group of Ainu people in eastern Japan near Tokyo, told AFP.

"There are lots of things to be done, for example, creating a scholarship for families who struggle to send their children to high schools," she added, a system currently only available to Ainu in Hokkaido.

Under the new plan, the government will also allow the Ainu to cut down trees in nationally-owned forests for use in traditional rituals.

"It is a major step forward on policies towards the Ainu people," said Masashi Nagaura, chief of the Ainu policy bureau of the Hokkaido prefectural government that has spearheaded policies for the ethnic minority.

Facebook bans accounts tied to Indonesian fake news group

Yahoo – AFP, February 1, 2019

Around 170,000 people followed at least one of the pages linked to an Indonesian
group accused of spreading hate speech and fake news (AFP Photo/LOIC VENANCE)

Facebook has shut down hundreds of accounts and pages linked to an Indonesian group accused of spreading hate speech and fake news, the company said Friday.

The world's biggest social network said cyber group Saracen engaged in "coordinated abuse of the platform" by operating a network of hoax accounts that mislead online readers about who was behind them.

"The people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action," Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a statement.

Saracen gained infamy in Indonesia two years ago when police accused it of deliberately spreading untruths via social media.

At least one of its members was jailed following a wide-ranging investigation.

Indonesia is battling its own wave of online hate speech, as conservative groups exploit social media to spread lies and target minorities.

Authorities are worried inflammatory material posted online could crack open social and religious fault lines in the world's largest Muslim-majority country ahead of presidential elections in April.

Some 800 Saracen-linked accounts, 207 pages, 546 groups and 208 Instagram accounts linked to the group have been yanked from the network, Gleicher said.

About 170,000 people followed at least one of the pages, and more than 65,000 followed at least one of the Instagram accounts.

The groups and accounts were shut down "based on their behaviour, not the content they were posting", Gleicher said.

Facebook has moved to stamp out efforts by state actors and others to manipulate the social network using fraudulent accounts.

The US firm began looking into these kinds of activities after revelations of Russian influence campaigns during the 2016 US election, aimed at sowing discord.

"We are constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people," Gleicher said.

Facebook has a fact-checking partnership with AFP in multiple countries.