WHO RAINS ACID?

Who is to blame for the acid rain? There is a tendency to push deterioration of the environment in Pakistan and the Developing World to the collective sphere -by saying-

As I heard many say on the ill-informed media, 'we all responsible'. Not really, it is the government first and last.

Those in power now and in the past, and the permanent government, the bureaucracy, have to be blamed for weak regulation, bad and ineffective policies and wrong development priorities.

It is true, and it is a matter of common observation anywhere in Pakistan that people litter, throw away trash into streets, in green areas, or collect and burn garbage, including cancer-causing polythene bags and wrappings.

These days you may witness stubble burning fires along the motorways. Neither the government nor the agriculture universities have gone with the cheap and affordable alternatives to burning stubble  -the agriculture waste can than be used for organic fertilizer or even for generating power.

Who has the responsibility to educate the public and regulate behaviour causing environmental degradation? None other than the government.

For matters pertaining to governance, Pakistan represents a situation of anarchy.

The public at large has grown very pessimistic of the political class and their style and model of governance. A common dictum for decades has been  'nothing will change'  in Pakistan, so why waste one's time.

The industrialised states have controlled pollution and people breathe in cleaner air because of true democracy.

This is possible here too, but if people elect those who will govern Pakistan better, not the corrupt, and inept political establishment.

The World Students Society appreciates the writings of Professor Rasul Bakhsh Rais, Department of Political Science/LUMS.

His recent book is *Imagining Pakistan : Modernism State and the Politics of Islamic Revival*

CHINA'S KOREAN DIPLOMACY

Beijing hopes that Pyongyang will agree to denuclearisation to maintain peace and equilibrium.

China will send a special envoy to North Korea this week, the government said on Wednesday, days after US President Donald Trump pressed Beijing to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear threats.

The foreign ministry said President Xi's Jinping's special envoy, Song Tao, will travel to Pyongyang to brief officials about last month's Chinese Communist Party congress and ''other issues of mutual concern''.

Ministry spokesperson, Geng Shuang did not say whether the nuclear issue would be discussed but he said China was-

''Committed to do the denuclearisation of the peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability of the peninsula, and resolving the issue through dialogue and consultation.

As Beijing prepared for the mission, Pyongyang maintained its was of words with Trump, saying the  US President deserves the death penalty for insulting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

China's announcement came a day after the end of Trump's five-nation tour of Asia, during which the US leader held meetings with XI and urged him to act fast to rein in North Korea, warning that-

''Time is quickly running out''.

Headline Nov. 20/ ''' INTERNET IN INVERSE '''

''' INTERNET IN INVERSE '''

*FOILING SPIES FORTUNE* on business trips, and in every day struggles, is set to be The World Students Society's-

One very great advance. And never a retreat. 

Governments the world over fear the 'net' and the anarchic freedoms it represents, freedom of speech  and expression that governments find terribly inconvenient-

And seek to constrain and limit, often with considerable success as the citizens of China would- find were they to get the chance to use an Internet free of government filters.

Freedoms Constrained : Proud Pakistan, for one has a tendentious relationship at government level with the 'net' and has at various times over the years blocked access to all or part it for varying lengths of time.

For the sixth year in succession, Pakistan has been found to be 'not free' by Freedom House in its report for 2017 that was researched by the Digital Rights Foundation  [DRF}-

An NGO that is thorn in the side of the administration and rightly lauded outside the country for its efforts.

The overall ranking for Pakistan stands at 71 -with 100 being the worst by way of state interference  or constraint in terms of the 'net'. 

The World Students Society thanks Express Tribune for its editorial insights and commends DRF for its diligence and tenacity, and prays that 'long it may be a thorn in the side of successive governments'. 

To Belgrade, Serbia then and Steven Dojcinovic the editor in chief is one the unfortunate lab rats in yell and scream titled : 

*Hey, Zuckerberg, my democracy isn't your lab*.

'Facebook has made a small but devastating change in Posts made by 'pages' -including those of organizations like mine -had been removed from the  regular News Feed, the default screen users see when they log on to the social media site.

They were now segregated into a separate section called Explore Feed that users have to select before before they can see our stories. {Unsuprisingly, this doesn't apply to paid posts].

It weren't just in Serbia that Facebook decided to try this experiment with keeping pages off the News Feed. 

Other small countries that seldom appear in Western Headlines -Guatemala, Slovakia, Bolivia and Cambodia  -were also chosen by Facebook for the trial. 

And with that I wonder : why This World aren't funny. The World Students Society -for every disciple in the world is probably the best thing that happened to serious comedy in a very, very long time.

COMMUNICATING over the  Internet while abroad can be especially fraught, said Nicole Miller, an independent consultant in San Francisco-

Who helps companies communicate with employees and customers on security issues.

''Assume any data, any information you transmit can be taken by a hacker, nation-state or another business,'' she said. ''These are not pedestrian tools they are using. They are extremely sophisticated.''

Physical security of phones, tablets and laptops is as important as cyberprotection, Ms. Miller said.

''Don't leave your laptop or papers in your hotel room when you go out,'' she said. A hotel room safe should not even be considered secure.

Ms. Miller said she advised travelers to create complex passwords for their devices and all of their online accounts, to use two-factor authentication whenever possible-

And to avoid plugging other people's USB drives or other external hardware into their computers.

Laptop should also be wiped clean of any data and software at the end of the trip, she said. ''Your device could have been altered, your data could have been altered.'' without your realizing it, Ms. Miller said.

Sometimes circumstances beyond travelers' control expose their information, as when custom officers in an another country seize a person's device and copy its contents, she said.

''That's why any information not absolutely required for a trip should remain at the office,'' Ms. Miller said.  

Maureen Sharma travels regularly to Asia as part of her work for Mullaly International, a small product development company in Seattle.

Some unsettling incidents, she said, have made her more cautious when she travels abroad.

''I often get more spam and strange emails that look like they are from me with attachments,'' when returning from her business trips. 

Once, Ms. Sharma said, she received an email that looked as if it were from a Chinese factory she was working with, asking her to send the next payment to new bank account.

''Luckily, I called to confirm, because the factory had not sent that email,'' she said.

Ms. Sharma said she makes sure never to bring sensitive information to her laptop and changes all  her passwords every time she returns home from any trip abroad.

When the Chinese company purchased the Waldorf Astoria in New York, President Barrack Obama stopped having meetings there over cybersecurity concerns.

Businesses, military and government information is being targeted for industrial espionage, said Evan Anderson, chief executive of Invnt/IP, a group dedicated to-

Combating nation-sponsored intellectual property theft, who writes about intellectual property security for the Strategic News Service website.

''So shouldn't we take the same precautions at home as we would abroad?''

Ms. Anderson said he created a map of Chinese-owned hotels around the world in 2016 and was surprised by how many they were, including some in Silicon Valley where technology companies hold meetings.

''Most people don't realize that an individual Four Seasons hotel, Ritz-Carlton, or many other brands can be owned by a Chinese company with close ties to the  Chinese government,'' he said.

Of course, listening, spying and hacking can happen no matter who owns a hotel or where a meeting is.

''The Internet has no borders,'' Ms. Miller said.

''You could be hacked in another country or the U.S.. and you have no idea where that person is.''

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Democracy & Drumbeats '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

Serena Williams Marries Alexis Ohanian

Tennis superstar Serena Williams married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in a “Beauty and the Beast”- themed wedding at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans on Thursday.

Williams wore a magnificent strapless gown by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen teamed with a glittering cape and a traditional veil while Ohanian wore dresses by Galia Lahav with capes matching Serena’s. After exchanging their vows, Serena changed into a Versace number for the reception.

Each table at the reception - gold-draped and covered in yellow, coral, and blue-and-white flowers -  was named after one of Williams’ Grand Slam titles. The guests were also given replicas of her trophies which held their place cards.

The wedding estimated to have cost more than £2million had 250 guests which included Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, Eva Longoria, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Serena’s sister Venus, their mother, Oracene Price and Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki and her NBA beau David Lee.

The couple have now left for honeymoon after they were seen boarding a private jet with their baby daughter, Alexis Olympia, on Saturday.

MALI'S ELEPHANTS MAPS

Mali's elephants, Africa's northernmost herd and adapted to life in the country's hard desert, were in desperate need of protection.

The elephants live in an unforgiving landscape southeast of Timbuktu, enduring sandstorms and blistering temperatures.

To survive, they trek in search of food and water across what is thought to be- The biggest migratory range of their species, 12,400 square miles.

But it wasn't only climate change endangering the elephants. It was also poachers.

They were being slaughtered in staggering numbers as ivory traffickers took advantage of a security vacuum in the region, with 163 killed since 2012, said Susan Canney, director of the Mali Elephant Projecct-

An institute of the Wild foundation and the International Conservation Fund of Canada.

The situation was so  dire that in January 2016, Dr. Canney predicted that all of Mali's elephants would be killed within three years if poaching continued unabated.

''They're probably among the most extremely endangered of Africa's elephants, said Ian Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of Save the Elephants, a wildlife advocacy group.

''I am extremely worried.''

To defend the 300 or so elephants that remain, Mali has formed an anti-poaching brigade to patrol a Switzerland size area called the Gourma-

With the force deterring poachers and assisting isolated communities along the elephant's migratory route.

The brigade combines rangers and army forces.

POLAND"S HATE MARCH

HATE ON THE MARCH IN POLAND:

It seemed like an echo of a more sinister time on Saturday, when 60,000 far-right nationalists from Poland and all over Europe-

Marched through Warsaw with red flares and racist signs like : ''White Europe of brotherly nations''  and ''Clean Blood''.

Poland's Foreign Ministry condemned racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic remarks at the event, but the more salient point was the ministry's defense of the demonstration as an outpouring of patriotism.

The only people arrested were some pro-democracy counterprotestors.

Even more troubling for Americans, and perhaps for the world, was that the words from an old Polish nationalist song that were the march's slogan :

''We want God'' -were cited by President Trump to huge applause on his visit to Warsaw in July.

Neo-fascist and white-supremacist groups have become more visible and assertive in Europe and the  United States as a sense of alienation in a globalized world has taken hold, and as-

Middle Eastern and North African refugees have flooded Europe. But these extremists appear to feel energized and legitimized by populist political leaders.

The right-wing ruling party in Poland, Law and Justice, has wantonly assailed the courts and the news media while railing against immigrants, Islam, the European Union and Liberals.

These far-right passions have little basis in reality. Poland's economy has made great strides since Communism's fall, and unemployment is at a record low, 5.3 percent.

As for threats to Polish identity, the country of 38 million has taken a total 1,474 asylum-seekers this year  -18 of them from Syria, the rest mostly from Russia or Ukraine.

The ugly nationalism sweeping through the Western world, and especially Central Europe, may be a passing phase in a difficult world and confusing world.

It can be countered by common sense, as France showed in the resounding defeat of the far right last spring.

But the disgusting slogans in display in Warsaw and the  fictions and paranoia behind them must be relentlessly exposed for what they are and condemned, and-

The right wing, populist governments that condone them must be censured, not embraced.

The World Students Society Thanks, admires and totally support the The NYT's insights.