Fears of Euro Zone Domino Effect
Will Greek Contagion Bring Portugal Down?
By Stefan Schultz
Will the Greek malaise spread to Portugal? Fears of a national bankruptcy are now also growing in Lisbon, even though the country is capable of getting its debt under control by itself. The problem is that markets no longer have faith in the Portuguese to fix their own affairs.
“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world,” wrote the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. The current crisis in Greece shows that the fear of failure can also bring countries to their knees. Greece’s precarious financial situation has brought the state to the brink of bankruptcy in record time.
Portugal could be next. The country is under pressure due to fears that it could be sucked into the Greek maelstrom. In the past few days, the government in Lisbon has experienced the power of international markets. On Wednesday, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s announced it would downgrade Portugal’s credit rating to A- and warned that further downgrades were possible.
The devaluation was partly based on technical reasons. As a result of the Greek crisis, nervousness spread on the bond markets. This increased the interest premiums on Portuguese government bonds. Standard & Poor’s reacted by giving the country a lower rating. But this only accelerates the downward spiral: Investors become even more nervous, the interest rates on Portugal’s bonds rise rapidly and new downgrades become more likely.
This panic mechanism has been influencing the bond markets for months, significantly exacerbating the debt problem in countries such as Portugal. In the case of Portugal, however, the fears are hardly justified. Economically and financially, the country is far better off than Greece:
Although Portugal’s budget deficit skyrocketed up to 9.4 percent of gross domestic product during the global economic crisis, its national debt, at 77 percent of annual economic output, is only slightly higher than Germany’s. Greece’s debt, in contrast, is about 125 percent of GDP.
The government in Lisbon will not need very much fresh money in the foreseeable future. In May, they need to refinance around €7 billion ($9.3 billion), with a total of about €21 billion for the whole of 2010. Under normal circumstances, those sums could be raised in the markets.
Even Standard & Poor’s had a different opinion about Portugal just a few weeks ago. As recently as March 29, the rating agency decided that it did not need to downgrade Portugal’s credit rating. That raises the question of what is supposed to have changed about Portugal’s economic situation since then, apart from the fact that interest rates on government bonds have increased as a result of unrest in the market.
Government Effective Despite Minority in Parliament
Indeed, the crisis that Portugal is facing is mainly a political one. “Early elections and postponed reforms have seriously shaken confidence in the government’s ability to act,” says Pedro Tadeu of the newspaper Diário de Notícias. In addition, Prime Minister José Socrates of the Socialist Party (PS) is head of a minority government, meaning that the opposition can block its reforms at any time.
Currently, however, the government and the largest opposition party, the conservative PSD, are demonstrating unity and determination. On Wednesday, Socrates and opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho stood side by side at an appearance in the Sao Bento Palace in Lisbon, the seat of the Portuguese parliament, and promised decisive action against the “unjustified speculative attacks.”
To achieve that end, Socrates’ “Program for Stability and Growth” (PEC) will be changed. Austerity measures that were originally planned for the coming years will now be introduced in 2010. Tax increases are also planned. The tax rate on incomes of more than €150,000 will be increased to 45 percent, which will bring the state an extra €1.3 billion by 2012, according to the business newspaper Jornal de Negocios. In addition, the government plans to introduce a stock market tax and new highway tolls, and cut back unemployment benefits, before the end of 2010.
Support from the Opposition
The chances of Socrates’ savings package being implemented are good. Opposition leader Passos Coelho, who has only been in office for a few weeks, said his party would support the legislation in parliament. He is generally regarded as more cooperative than his predecessor, Manuela Ferreira Leite, who for a long time refused to cooperate with Socrates’ savings plans. In February, she even supported a regional finance bill, against the will of the government, that allows the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores to accumulate up to €400 million in new debt over the next four years.
On March 25, however, the PSD finally approved Socrates’ austerity package. After the rating agency Fitch downgraded Portugal’s credit rating, the PSD supported the goals of the program indirectly by abstaining in a parliamentary vote.
Socrates and Passos Coelho want to avoid such wrangling this time around. The government’s new savings efforts are expected to be approved by parliament in the next few days. The legislation is considered certain to pass, given that the PS and PSD between them have an almost two-thirds majority in the Portuguese parliament.
Part 2: Austerity Measures ‘Will Crush the Middle Class’
Socrates is getting less support from the unions, however, as the government wants to freeze civil servants’ salaries. There are plans to reduce personnel costs by 10 percent by 2013, which would save the state about €100 million a year. Taxes will also be increased. The only workers who will be exempt are those who earn no more than €518 a month, according to the television station RTP. According to the mass-circulation daily Correio da Manha, Socrates’ austerity program “will crush the middle class.”
Trade unions have therefore let the prime minister feel their power. On Tuesday, Portuguese railway workers went on strike, as did ferry and bus workers. The industrial action led to numerous traffic jams in Lisbon’s metropolitan area as commuters were forced to travel to work by car. “The protests will grow,” threatened Manuel Carvalho da Silva, the head of the largest union in the country, the CGTP.
Observers do not expect many political consequences, however. Angry riots like those in Greece are rather unusual in Portugal.
So the political situation is comparably stable. But the question remains: Is Socrates’ savings plan realistic? Will he be able to save enough money quickly with his plan? Ultimately, Portugal wants to cuts its record deficit of 9.4 percent of gross domestic product to 2.8 percent by 2013. To do so, the country will need to find savings of €13.5 billion.
“It’s ambitious,” said Francesco Franco, an economics professor at the New University of Lisbon. “But not impossible.” Socrates actually has one decisive advantage: He can sell off valuable state holdings to raise money. It would admittedly be a one-time effect, but it would guarantee that the country could quickly eliminate debts.
Debt Reform Is Only the Beginning
The government has said it wants to sell its holdings in 17 firms, including its shares in the energy firm Galp and Portuguese national airline TAP. The sale of these shares is expected to raise a total of €1.2 billion by the end of 2010.
Socrates wants to save further money by delaying previously planned major infrastructure projects. The planned high-speed railway line between Spain and Portugal, for example, is to be delayed by two years. It is also hoped that the economic upswing will increase tax revenues and decrease unemployment and bring further money into the government’s coffers.
So the government has good chances of regaining control of its debt problems. But one still can’t say that the country has been economically reformed. Ever since it joined the euro zone in 1999, Portugal, like Spain and Greece, has had a growing structural problem. “Triggered by the commitment by Portugal to join the euro, a sharp drop in interest rates and expectations of faster growth both led to a decrease in private saving and an increase in investment,” MIT economist Oliver Blanchard wrote in his classic analysis, “The Difficult Case of Portugal.”
For years, this meant that wages grew faster than the economy and consumption also increased. But the growth was deceptive: It was largely driven by an increase in imports. At the same time, Portuguese productivity sank.
“Portugal lived beyond its means for decades,” says Ricardo Reis, an economics professor at New York’s Columbia University. “The crisis has caused this imbalance to become unbearable.” He says that as the country embarks on its austerity course, it must also quickly increase its productivity.
The Portuguese constitution prohibits making cuts to public sector wages, so other solutions need to be found. The bloated public sector needs to be shrunk, competition needs to be boosted and it needs to be made easier for people to set up companies. “Otherwise consumption will collapse in three to five years and the quality of life will decline,” says Reis.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Medicine Prices Falling
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, APRIL 30 — Next Monday prices for medicines in Greece will fall by around 20%, depending on their price. The initiative, ANSAmed learned from sources in the pharmaceutical sector, is part of the Greek government’s measures to mitigate the serious impact of the financial crisis on the population. As an ordinance issued by the Economy Ministry specifies, the new measure — which includes a 10% decrease as of Monday and another 10% after a month — will stay in force until the next assessment of medicine prices, which should be completed within two months. In a letter to Prime Minister Giorgio Papandreou, the Greek association of pharmaceutical companies has condemned the initiative. Regarding the new austerity measures announced by the government in the past days, the same sources reported that the suspension of prescription charge for civil servants, scheduled for tomorrow, has been cancelled. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Italy First to Propose Aid, Mantica
(ANSAmed) — BARI, APRIL 29 — “Italy was the first country to say that Greece should be helped. Tremonti took a strong stance which strengthened our relationship with Greece, and this is a strong signal from Italy,” said Foreign Undersecretary Alfredo Mantica at a meeting of Adriatic Ionian Initiative Parliament speakers. “We are also worried because, after Greece, it looks like Portugal is being targeted. Financial speculation is playing a strong role in this situation. And therefore we are very worried because weakness, of Europe overall in this case, is dangerous to an area that already has many problems to be resolved.” “When we spoke about a macro-European region,” underlined Mantica, referring to the conference taking place in Bari, “we were speaking precisely about this desire to bring this entire area closer to European standards.” “We believe,” he concluded, “that for infrastructure, the economy, rural development and tourism, that procedures should be created “a la Jacques Delors”, therefore we should grow accustomed to reasoning in this way.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
“Inevitable” Oil Slick Will Hit U.S., Obama to Visit
VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) — U.S. officials on Saturday conceded it is “inevitable” that oil from an uncontrolled leak in the Gulf of Mexico will hit the U.S. coast, threatening an environmental and economic catastrophe.
“There’s enough oil out there that it is logical to think it will hit the shoreline. It’s just a question of where and when,” said U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen. “Mother Nature gets a vote in this.”
President Barack Obama will visit the region on Sunday, ramping up efforts to control what has the makings of an environmental disaster and deflect criticism that his administration could have been quicker in responding to the spill.
Coastline from Louisiana to Florida is threatened by the slick, estimated to be some 130 miles by 70 miles in size.
Major shipping channels, key fishing areas, national wildlife refuges and popular beaches are in the path of the oily soup. So far, vital shipping lanes leading to the Mississippi River and huge Gulf Coast ports have not been affected, officials said.
The oil gushing unchecked from a ruptured deepwater well about 42 miles off the Louisiana coast is being pushed northward by heavy but shifting winds. A “sheen” is approaching parts of the Louisiana coast, Allen said.
In the first sign that the spill has affected U.S. offshore energy production, the Minerals Management Service said on Saturday two U.S. offshore Gulf of Mexico production platforms had been shut down and a third was evacuated as a safety precaution. Further shutdowns were possible, it added, but the output affected so far was very small.
The leak, which followed a rig explosion and sinking last week, has forced Obama to suspend politically sensitive plans to expand offshore oil drilling, unveiled last month partly to woo Republican support for climate legislation.
Obama’s administration is piling pressure on London-based BP Plc, the owner of the blown-out well, to do more to plug the flow of oil and contain the spreading slick. The cost of the cleanup, and the potential damage that could be inflicted by the spill, are estimated in the billions of dollars.
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward was traveling to the U.S. on Saturday to oversee the emergency cleanup operation.
BP, the Coast Guard, the U.S. military and volunteers have been trying desperately to disperse, block and stem the oil slick both above and under water.
The various surface dispersal efforts have shown some promise, but “the focus has got to be to stop it at the source,” said Obama adviser John Brennan.
Crude oil is pouring out at a rate of up to 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons or 795,000 liters) a day, according to government estimates, but experts said the quantity of crude escaping was difficult to measure and could be higher.
“Unanswered Questions”
The spill response center staffed by BP and U.S. government officials said crews worked through the night using an underwater robot to aim thousands of gallons (liters) of dispersant at the leaking oil beneath the surface.
Other options to try to cap or seal the well, or even simply reduce the oil flow, are seen taking weeks or months.
Above the surface, several hundred boats and planes were also struggling to contain the slick and the Coast Guard worked to extend long barriers of containment booms in an effort to stop the oil from soiling the shore.
But forecaster AccuWeather.com said deteriorating weather and rough seas were hampering cleanup crews.
A Reuters photographer who traveled in a plane that flew over the Louisiana coast saw some boom barriers broken up by the wind and waves, and the booms washed up on the coast.
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida have all declared states of emergency, and shrimpers, fishermen and local residents in several states have rushed to file lawsuits against the companies that operated the rig.
Obama, no doubt mindful of public criticism of President George W. Bush’s handling of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster, on Friday sent senior officials to check on the efforts to fight the slick.
In an editorial on Saturday, the New York Times said there were unanswered questions about the spill.
“The company, BP, seems to have been slow to ask for help, and, on Friday, both federal and state officials accused it of not moving aggressively or swiftly enough,” it said. “Yet the administration should not have waited, and should have intervened much more quickly on its own initiative.”
Obama and U.S. officials have increasingly stressed the first responsibility lies with BP. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar met with BP executives and said he told them to “work harder and faster and smarter to get the job done.”
“Big Oil on Trial”
Douglas Brinkley, a professor at Rice University in Houston, said he believed the Obama administration was holding back from criticizing BP more because it needed the company to help seal the well.
“Once the hole is plugged you are going to see the federal government rake British Petroleum over the coals … Big Oil will be put on trial in the same way that Goldman Sachs is getting put on trial,” Brinkley said.
BP’s Hayward promised an aggressive cleanup campaign and said the company would compensate those affected.
Officials in Louisiana’s Mississippi Delta said on Friday a thin “oil sheen” had reached barrier islands.
Off the Louisiana coast, miles and miles of boom had been laid. BP, working with the Coast Guard, was also using specialized boats with oil-skimming equipment and private fishermen have been contracted to help with the cleanup.
About 6,000 Louisiana National Guard troops were mobilized and two Air Force planes were sent to spray dispersant.
Experts said there was little hope BP would succeed with a quick fix to cap the well, which is very deep at 5,000 feet down on the sea bed. BP hopes to use a giant funnel that would catch the oil and channel it to a tanker ship.
But that would take four weeks. If the funnel does not work, BP will have to try stemming the flow by drilling a relief well, which would take two to three months.
“At 5,000 barrels a day, in two months’ time it’s going to be a bigger spill than the Exxon Valdez,” said Tyler Priest of the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business. He was making a comparison with the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, the worst U.S. oil spill on record.
The Obama administration has said no new offshore drilling areas would be allowed until after a review of the spill.
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4 Convicted in Holy Land Foundation Case Moved From Dallas Area to Special Federal Prisons
Four men convicted in Dallas in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial have been transferred to special federal prisons where their communications and dealings with the outside world will be more closely monitored.
Prosecutors had advocated the transfer of Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain and Mufid Abdulqader from the low-security Seagoville federal prison south of Dallas to one of the Bureau of Prisons’ Communications Management Units.
On April 20, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis dropped a requirement that the men stay close to Dallas in order to aid their lawyers in their appeals.
That cleared the way for them to go to the special prisons, where their calls are limited and monitored, along with all their mail, and they are required to use English when dealing with outsiders.
El-Mezain and Baker are now being housed at the Terre Haute, Ind., facility. Elashi and Abdulqader are at a similar facility in Marion, Ill., records show.
In 2008, a jury convicted all four, along with another fundraiser, Adulrahman Odeh, of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States. Odeh, who is not considered a former foundation leader, is at a medium-security prison in Adelanto, Calif.
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Bomb Scare Prompts Clearing of Times Square
A suspicious vehicle in the heart of Times Square led the police to clear thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening.
Reports said the vehicle contained a package that did not explode, and late Saturday night it was not clear whether the package was a bomb. A federal official said the incident was not considered it a terrorist threat and that the New York Police Department had told the Department of Homeland Security to stand down.
Police officials said they received a report about 6:30 p.m. of smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder parked on 45th Street just west of Seventh Avenue. The authorities found a smoking package in the vehicle. A bomb squad was sent to the scene.
The police were searching for a suspect.
A New York City firefighter who told Reuters he arrived early on the scene said that the vehicle was smoking and that he saw “a flash” from the back of the it. “We put two and two together” and the evacuation was ordered, he said.
Broadway was closed between at least 43rd and 46th Streets, and the police also appeared to be closing off part of Eighth Avenue…
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John McCain Swings Right in Desperate Bid for Political Survival
One-time moderate Arizona senator keeps step with the Tea Party and gets tough on illegal immigration
John Ladd points to the piles of empty water and Coke bottles, a yellow blanket and numerous other bits of debris abandoned on his cattle ranch in Cochise county, near Tombstone, Arizona. The sprawling estate, stretching 10 miles along the US-Mexico border, is a favoured route for those making the illegal, dangerous and often fatal, journey to what they hope is a bright new future.
Ladd recalls waking up one morning in 2004 and finding about 900 Mexicans milling about on his land. “You could not go anywhere without seeing one and the border patrol was screeching around everywhere,” he says.
This is Wild West country, a land of mesquite and sagebrush, of Apache trails and re-enactments for the tourists of the OK Corral shoot-out. The ranch, and other crossing points like it, lie at the heart of the immigration debate that has gripped the US over the past week. That debate is anchored to Arizona’s controversial extension of police powers in dealing with immigrants.
Already the subject of international attention, it is threatening to consume one of America’s best-known politicians, John McCain, former PoW, senator for Arizona, and Republican choice for a doomed campaign against Barack Obama in 2008.
McCain is up for re-election for a fifth term in the Senate and the resurgence of the immigration issue is potentially disastrous. Ladd has met the defeated presidential candidate three times since 2004: on each occasion McCain went to the ranch to see firsthand the disruption caused by the almost non-stop flow of immigrants. “He is a neat guy,” says Ladd. “But he’s done nothing. He tells me, ‘This is terrible, I need to help you.’ And nothing happens.”
Ladd, who voted for McCain in the past, now feels betrayed and is not planning to support him in the Republican primary in August.
For McCain, now 73 and one of the Republican party’s elder statesman, re-election to the Senate might have been routine. Instead he is battling for survival amid a Republican party being forced ever more to the right. In an email this week appealing for donations, he wrote: “I am facing what many have called the toughest political fight of my life.” He is saying it is proving tougher than the 2008 Republican primary race, which saw him resurrect a struggling campaign and beat Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani; tougher even than taking on Obama.
To survive in Arizona, McCain is having to reinvent himself at speed. The straight-talking maverick, who bucked his own party to form alliances with the Democrats, is now portraying himself as a mainstream conservative and courting rightwing talkshow hosts.
Astonishingly, McCain told Newsweek: “I never considered myself a maverick.” Yet, he frequently referred to himself as such in the 2008 campaign and even proudly included the label in the title of a book he wrote, The Education of an American Maverick.
McCain is disliked by the right for his approach to climate change, for restrictions he championed on campaign finance and for his support of the Wall Street bailout. He has now dropped his climate change plan, said he was misled about the bailout, and was muted when the supreme court undid his campaign finance initiative.
The biggest about-turn, however, has been on immigration. In 2007, McCain proposed a joint immigration bill with Ted Kennedy that would have opened the path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants in the US. Other Republicans branded it an amnesty and killed it off.
This time, McCain has taken a hard line. He has described the new Arizona legislation, which requires police to stop all people they suspect of being illegal immigrants, as a necessary tool. The border has to be secured first, before immigration reform is tackled, he says; he proposes a six-point plan which includes sending 3,000 National Guard members to the border, a move not so different from the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association’s 10-point plan.
On the Bill O’Reilly show on Fox News this week, contrary to his previous habit of not demonising illegal immigrants, McCain claimed that “the drivers of cars with illegals in it … are intentionally causing accidents on the freeway”.
His U-turn prompted a New York Times editorial, entitled Come Back, John McCain, that argued that no election was worth winning “if you have to abandon what you believe”. Columnist Michelle Malkin made much the same point in the National Review, saying: “I need a Dramamine to cover Senator John McCain’s re-election bid. With his desperate lurch to the right he’s inducing more motion sickness than a Disneyland teacup.”
McCain has raised and spent $15.8m on his campaign this year. This has gone mainly on adverts, including one by a sheriff, used to patrolling the border, extolling McCain as a man of character.
McCain’s main opponent for the Republican nomination is JD Hayworth, a radio host and former Congressman who has so far raised $1m. Even though Hayworth is a far from formidable candidate — he recently said expansion of same-sex marriage would allow people to marry their horses — and had a poor Congress record, a Rasmussen poll shows McCain on only 47% to Hayworth’s 42%, a significant narrowing over the last few months.
The influential conservative website Red State is referring to McCain as Good and Bad. “Maybe Bad John has given way to Good John in the wake of a strong primary challenge from JD Hayworth? Amazing what a little competition will do.”
Hayworth’s strength is that he is backed by the Tea Party, the conservative grassroots movement. The Tea Party is steadily shifting the Republican party to the right by supporting candidates of a similar persuasion. In Florida, their pin-up, Marco Rubio, forced out of the Republican primary the state’s moderate governor, Charlie Crist, who only a few years back was being touted as a potential Republican candidate.
Wes Harris, one of the founders of the North Phoenix Tea Party, not only voted for McCain in the past but worked on his campaigns. He has shifted his allegiance to Hayworth. Harris, 70, a military veteran, called McCain a hero but a poor senator, and was upset about his immigration plan. He was disappointed too with the campaign against Obama. “If he had exhibited as much zeal against Obama as he has done against Hayworth, he might have won … Everything else you could almost have forgiven him for but the campaign he ran was almost treasonable.” Harris predicts a McCain win, thanks to his well-run political machine and tremendous cash backing.
On Wednesday a meeting of the Tea Party, at Queen Creek, east of Phoenix, attracted about 20 people, a mix of ages with one African-American. Asked how many would back McCain, no one volunteered. The concerns were about Obama being a socialist, about the federal debt, and about immigration.
Obama has promised to reform immigration laws, having classed it as immoral and impractical to expect illegal immigrants to return “home”.
A practical benefit for the Democrats is that this would help them woo Latino voters, the fastest growing demographic group in the US. The Republicans risk alienating Latinos by calling for a crackdown on illegal immigrants in public, while bowing in private to business interests that want cheap workers.
“The Republicans want cheap labour, the Democrats cheap votes, and the American public cheap tomatoes,” says Ladd. But he wants an end to people climbing the border fence and thinks that the new laws, though yet to come into force, have helped. The border patrol too has a bigger presence, using a Stryker, an armoured vehicle usually only seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ladd has not seen a single illegal immigrant for eight days. “That’s a record.”
Sixty-five year-old Ernest Lane, the lone African-American at the Tea Party meeting, seemed the kind of person that would normally sympathise with McCain. But he did not, saying: “He no longer listens to the people.” And he offered one of the deadliest charges in US politics: “He is flip-flopping.” Even if McCain does survive in August, it won’t be with his reputation intact.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Cheating Scandal
PRESIDENT OBAMA has been caught in a shocking cheating scandal after being caught in a Washington, DC Hotel with a former campaign aide, sources say.
And now, a hush-hush security video that shows everything could topple both Obama’s presidency and marriage to Michelle!
A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions.
While Baker has insisted in the past that “nothing happened” between them, the ENQUIRER has learned that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.
Among those being offered money is a limo driver who says that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous where the President was staying.
[Comments from JD: National Enquirer, but remember they were first with Edwards scandal.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Takes Direct Aim at Anti-Government Rhetoric
Associated Press Writers= ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — President Barack Obama took aim Saturday at the angry rhetoric of those who denigrate government as “inherently bad” and said their off-base line of attack ignores the fact that in a democracy, “government is us.”
Obama used his commencement speech at the University of Michigan to respond to foes who portray government as oppressive and tyrannical — and to warn that overheated language can signal extremists that “perhaps violence is … justifiable.”
Just 45 miles from the immense Michigan Stadium, capacity 106,201, the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, told an anti-tax gathering Obama’s policies are “big government” recipes that are “intrusive” in the lives of average Americans.
In Obama’s 31-minute address to what the White House said was his biggest audience since the inauguration, the president made no mention of Palin or the tea party movement. He did say that debates about the size and role of government are as old as the republic itself.
“But what troubles me is when I hear people say that all of government is inherently bad,” said Obama, who received an honorary doctor of laws degree. “When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.”
Government, he said, is the roads we drive on and the speed limits that keep us safe. It’s the men and women in the military, the inspectors in our mines, the pioneering researchers in public universities.
The financial meltdown dramatically showed the dangers of too little government, he said, “when a lack of accountability on Wall Street nearly led to the collapse of our entire economy.”
Palin told an audience at a meeting sponsored by the anti-tax Americans for Prosperity Foundation that Obama is overreaching. “The fundamental transformation of America is not what we all bargained for,” she said.
Obama urged both sides in the political debate to tone it down. “Throwing around phrases like ‘socialists’ and ‘Soviet-style takeover,’ ‘fascists’ and ‘right-wing nut’ — that may grab headlines,” he said. But it also “closes the door to the possibility of compromise…
“At its worst, it can send signals to the most extreme elements of our society that perhaps violence is a justifiable response.”
Passionate rhetoric isn’t new, he acknowledged. Politics in America, he said, “has never been for the thin-skinned or the faint of heart. … If you enter the arena, you should expect to get roughed up.”
Obama hoped the graduates hearing his words can avoid cynicism and brush off the overheated noise of politics. In fact, he said, they should seek out opposing views.
His advice: If you’re a regular Glenn Beck listener, then check out the Huffington Post sometimes. If you read The New York Times editorial page the morning, then glance every now and then at The Wall Street Journal.
“It may make your blood boil. Your mind may not be changed. But the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship,” he said.
The speech was part of a busy weekend for the president: the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday evening near the White House and visit the Gulf Coast on Sunday morning for a firsthand update on the massive oil spill.
Obama’s helicopter landed on a grass practice football field next to the stadium on a damp, overcast day. Students and their families had been streaming in since early morning, many toting rain gear. University officials had distributed 80,000 tickets — but gave up when the supply ran out.
The president’s appearance in Michigan — a battleground in the 2008 White House race that’s likely to play a big role in the fall congressional campaign — comes as the state struggles with the nation’s highest unemployment rate, 14.1 percent. It’s also has an unhappy electorate to match.
In the Republican’s weekly radio and Internet address, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich, said Obama’s visit was a chance “to show the president, firsthand, the painful plight of the people of Michigan.”
Many of the graduates Obama addresses will soon learn how tough it is to find a job in this economy, Hoekstra said, adding that the share of young Americans out of work is the highest it’s been in more than 50 years.
Speaking before Obama was Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who’s known to be on his short list of possible Supreme Court nominees. She said Michigan residents owe him thanks for “delivering on health care reform” and “for supporting our auto industry. General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, they all have bright futures now, where a year ago, much darker clouds than these loomed overhead.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
State Department to Leave Chechen Rebel Group Off Terror List
The State Department’s update of its annual list of official terrorist groups is imminent, but the group that just attacked Moscow won’t be on the list.
The Caucasus Emirate, which has been waging a jihad against the Russian government, is led by Doku Umarov, who calls himself the “emir of the North Caucasus.” He was previously President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, but dissolved that Republic and established the Emirate in its place in 2007 in order to impose sharia law in his territory.
Umarov declared all the way back in 2007 that his group was expanding its struggle to wage war against the United States, Great Britain, and Israel. Last month, he released a video claiming credit for the suicide attacks in Moscow in March that resulted in the deaths of 39 people.
But apparently, the State Department chose not to include Caucasus Emirate in the newest update to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, according to Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-FL, who is calling on the State Department to add the group for the sake of national security and U.S. -Russia relations.
“This is a low profile organization that has continued to carry out high profile acts of terrorism, including the twin bombings in Moscow recently,” Hastings told The Cable in an exclusive interview, “They’ve got a jihad against Russia and the United States. If that ain’t a terrorist organization, I don’t know what is.”
Hastings is introducing a new Congressional resolution Thursday detailing the crimes committed by Caucasus Emirate and urging the State Department to add them to the list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Hastings, who is a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), got involved in the issue after hearing about the group from scores of Russian lawmakers. He said listing the group would be an easy win for U.S.-Russian relations.
“President Obama has pressed the reset button, but too often we find ourselves not trying to do things with the Russians,” said Hastings, “The State Department has the opportunity to amend the report to include this organization.”
Some experts note that there is internal debate within the Chechen rebel community about whether the group’s declarations of jihad against the West is really such a good idea.
“It seems that the Caucasian rebels themselves are frightened by their own ‘war declaration’ against the West,” Andrei Smirnov wrote in an article for the Jamestown Foundation, “The absurdity of the rebels’ declarations lies in the fact that they declare war against the West, and at the same time beg for aid in their anti-Russian struggle.”
“Whatever the Caucasian rebels say, it is clear that they do not have much in common with the interests of the international Jihadi movement,” Smirnov went on, “This movement has no smaller plans than the Jihadi movement worldwide, but it nonetheless limits itself to activities inside Russia’s borders and has no ambitions to grow into an international problem.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
The Military and the New World Order
Part of this plan to implement a New World Order has already been completed in Europe with the European Union. At first it was designed only as a “free trade” agreement to make Europe more competitive with the larger markets of the United States and China. Since its original formation they have grown to include a political system to govern monetary affairs. They adopted a new currency, a court system, imposed taxes, created a police force, and also a military. It seems like they have all the makings of a United European States government.
Transpose that scenario across the seas to the United States — for the past few decades the federal government has been pushing more and more free trade agreements around the world. Under President GHW Bush we implemented the Security and Prosperity Partnership with the United States, Canada, and Mexico as partners. Under this agreement many goals were established to build cooperation in key areas of security and business to include a single border that encompassed all three countries. Part of this shared border would include integration of police and military command and control, training, interoperability of equipment, and standards.
[…]
The CFR produced a report entitled, “Building the North American Community” recommending the following:
1. That the three nations should cooperate and share responsibility in areas of law enforcement, energy security, regulatory policy, dispute resolution, and continental defense vice national defense.
2. That the countries should rely more on business and less on bureaucracy.
3. To build an area where there is free movement of trade, capital and people. (Apparently border security is out the window.)
4. Security boundaries should be around the continent not around individual nations.
5. They recommend creating a North America security pass. Not only will we have a national ID, we will have a continental ID, which has smart chip technology so we can be tracked wherever we go.
6. By 2010 they wanted to have established a free flow of people across the interior borders of all three countries.
7. They recommend development of a tri-national threat intelligence center and joint training for law enforcement officials.
8. They recommend the development of tri-national ballistics and explosives registration. (Second Amendment, we don’t need any Second Amendment.)
9. Military defense structures are to be comprised of all three countries’ militaries.
10. Combine the intelligence-sharing capabilities at both the military and law enforcement levels.
11. They also want to spread the benefits of economic development. (This sounds a little like socialism — entitlement rights for the poor to narrow the income gap between the three countries. Why don’t they have to work for a living like everyone else?)
12. Pour more money, resources, businesses, infrastructure, judicial reform, and governmental oversight into Mexico to allow them to grow faster than the U.S. or Canada so they can catch up to us economically.
13. They want to create investment funds in Canada and the U.S. to funnel more capital into Mexico.
14. Combine national resources for all three countries to share.
15. They want to create common tariffs for all three nations and allow all ports to be used for all of the nations. (This will require modification of national tax structures, port authorities, Labor Union practices, and security.)
16. Establish a permanent tribunal for dispute resolution. (This is the first step in creating a judicial system. This tribunal will supersede national law and constitutions.)
17. Open skies and open roads. No more borders and check points, we should all trust each other. We’re a partnership now.
18. Increase labor mobility. (Sounds like open borders to me.)
19. They also want us to implement a Social Security Totalization Agreement between the U.S. and Mexico. (What? We can’t make SS work for our own citizens, and they want to add more? It keeps sounding more like socialism.)
20. Next, a full North American education system. (Maybe this will fix our broken education system, NOT.)
21. Create organizations and governmental departments to facilitate a vision-to-action framework. (This, my friends, has already started.)
I did not go into every detail of what the CFR wants in the way of creating this integration, community, union, or whatever you want to call it; but I think you get the picture. Now looking over the list and comparing it to the European structure and SPP goals laid out above, do you notice the striking similarities between the two?
President Obama stated his intent to move forward with advancing the SPP agenda under a less controversial title of “North America Leader Summit.” Navy Vice Admiral James Winnefeld Jr. stated, during his April confirmation hearings to a Senate committee, that if confirmed to head U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, he will work to build and maintain the command’s relationships between the militaries of Canada and Mexico.
We have already integrated the Northern Command with the Canadian Command to aid in missions in support of the civil authorities. This means that the President could call upon foreign troops to operate within the borders of our own nation and for/or against the American people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bouchareb Film Slammed for ‘Falsifying’ History of French-Algerian Massacre
A film picked to compete at the forthcoming Cannes Film Festival, French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb’s Outside of the Law (Hors la loi), has caused a storm following charges of historical inaccuracy.
A film picked to compete at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb’s “Outside of the Law” (Hors la loi), has caused a storm following charges of historical inaccuracy. The flaring tempers come on the heels of another Cannes-related controversy surrounding the inclusion of a film by pro-Putin Russian auteur Nikita Mikhalkov in this year’s selection.
Lionnel Luca, a French deputy from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right ruling party, has accused Bouchareb of “falsifying” history. “Outside of the Law” examines the legacy of the notorious Sétif massacre of 1945: the Algerian uprising against occupying French forces on the day after World War II ended — as well as France’s suppression of the uprising — resulted in mass deaths on both sides. Algerian casualties were estimated in the thousands and those of the Europeans, or “pied noirs”, were estimated in the hundreds.
“I don’t think Mr. Bouchareb is doing a good deed by saying in his film that on one side there were victims, and on the other there were bad guys”, said Luca, a representative from France’s south-eastern Alpes-Maritime region. Luca has not yet seen the film, but he voiced his disagreement with its portrayal of events after reading interviews with writer-director Bouchareb.
A screenplay full of ‘errors and anachronisms’
The film tells the story of three Algerian brothers — and survivors of the Setif massacres — who leave their birth country for France, where they become involved in the movement for Algerian independence. In an interview with Algerian newspaper “El Watan”, Bouchareb said one of the film’s ambitions was to “shed light on this bit of history that the two countries share” and to “restore a historical truth that has been tucked away”.
The film is an Algerian-French-Belgian co-production, but was selected for Cannes as a film representing Algeria, and not France. Luca told FRANCE 24 that he may be responsible for this decision to avoid labelling the film as French, despite the film’s French-born director, actors who are well-known in the French film world, and partial French financing.
After the interviews he read led him to suspect that Bouchareb’s account of the massacre might be inaccurate, Luca asked the Defence Ministry’s historical service to submit a “historical opinion” on the film’s screenplay.
“Mr. Bouchareb has the right to tell the story of what he thinks is true, but I didn’t want the film to be categorised as French,” Luca explained. “His truth is not France’s truth”.
The report from the Defence Ministry confirmed that the film’s screenplay indeed contained “errors and anachronisms so numerous and obvious that they could be seized on by any historian”.
Regarding the portrayal of the Sétif massacre, the report states: “The director wants to suggest that on May 8, 1945, Muslims in Sétif were blindly massacred by Europeans, whereas it’s the contrary that transpired….all historians agree on that….Europeans lashed out against Muslims in response to Muslims massacring Europeans”.
Neither director Bouchareb nor the Cannes selection committee was available for comment on the flap, or the decision to have the film compete as an Algerian entry.
Bouchareb vied for the Palme d’Or in 2006 with his film “Days of Glory” (Indigènes), which told the story of North African soldiers who fought for France in World War II.
Luca told FRANCE 24 that he appreciated that film for its spirit of pacifism.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chasing the UK Vote in Pakistan’s ‘Little Britain’
By Aleem Maqbool
British accents can be heard throughout the Azad Mega Mart, one of the main shopping centres in the town of Mirpur in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
“Most of the customers come from England,” says Imran Javed, the mall’s manager.
“They especially need food items which they use there, but can’t usually get here — like baked beans, Ribena, Red Bull,” he says. “They buy them here, and pay in pounds sterling.”
Some in Pakistan call Mirpur “Little Britain”.
When thousands of residents lost their livelihoods as farmers in the 1960s — when a huge dam was built in the area — there was a mass migration of Mirpuris to the United Kingdom, where there were labour shortages.
As a result at least 70% of the Pakistani diaspora living in Britain today originates from this one small district.
One community
Generations on, they travel back and forth for holidays, work and to see family.
In the centre of town are the studios of the Mirpuri radio station Rose FM. As we arrive, it is airing a phone-in programme, broadcast from Bradford, in Yorkshire, but listened to here in Mirpur.
The callers, discussing social and political topics, come from both the UK and Pakistan.
“It is, in fact not two communities, but the same community living in two countries, the Mirpuris living here, and the Mirpuris in the UK,” says Rose FM’s general manager, Amaar Bilal.
“It’s natural that those here are really concerned about what’s happening politically over there, and that those in Britain are interested in what goes on over here.”
That might explain why Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, a former premier of Pakistani-administered Kashmir and current Pakistani MP for Mirpur, is doing a tour of Britain before the general elections there.
Speaking to us from Manchester, before his latest public speaking event, he said he saw himself as a leader of the Mirpuri community, at home and in the UK.
“I’m here for the 6 May election. I always come during elections,” says Mr Chaudhry. “It’s basically so I can tell people how to vote and who to vote for.
“Most of the Pakistanis here are from Mirpur, and I am the MP from Mirpur, and I know the issues here and who will be the best candidates to help solve the issues in Kashmir.”
But there are those who are angered by what they see as the tribalism of Mirpuri politics being transferred to the UK, where clans stick together and elders make decisions for the whole extended family.
“The vote is a very private and individual matter for any person,” says Khwaja Sohail Bashir, 54, a British Mirpuri businessman and political activist who has recently settled back in Pakistan.
He says only voters themselves can understand the issues that affect them, and questions whether Pakistani politicians would appreciate what is happening with the British economy or the National Health Service and take that into account when trying to influence opinions.
“Every community should maintain its culture, it is what makes Britain such a beautiful society,” says Mr Bashir. “But voting has got nothing to do with culture.”
But others, like Rose FM’s manager, disagrees. “These links cannot be broken,” he says. He talks of the British government itself trying to promote connections between far-flung Mirpuri communities.
“We have had British politicians from various parties come to these very studios in Mirpur, talking about their agendas, so why shouldn’t our politicians go to the UK?” he asks.
‘Everybody does it’
But Mirpur’s influence on this election does not stop at encouraging people to vote one way or another.
Sitting in the garden of a large villa in Mirpur, a British citizen who has been a taxi driver in Halifax in Yorkshire for more than 20 years, talks of a practice which has become widespread here.
For obvious reasons the man, in his fifties, does not want us to publish his name. He describes how people are going door to door asking Britons to blindly sign proxy forms for the upcoming elections, allowing someone else in the UK to vote on their behalf.
“They said I didn’t have to fill in any details, just to sign my name at the bottom of the form,” he says, smiling. “So I signed two.”
He laughed as he told me he had no idea who was going to vote on his behalf, and whom they were going to vote for.
“I personally know 25 other people who did the same thing, lots of people just on this street, but everybody does it.”
Many others, among the contingent of thousands of British citizens thought to be here, have admitted signing proxy forms in this way.
While proxy voting is a mechanism which does allow British citizens abroad to cast their vote, many will undoubtedly look upon this way of doing it as unethical.
But of those we asked who had participated in it, very few said they saw it as undermining the election process.
They said they did it because they thought it was good for their community.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: EU Presidency in 2012 Will Cost Over 60 Million Euro
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, APRIL 28 — Hosting the EU’s six-month rotating presidency in the second half of 2012 will cost an estimated 62 million euro, including the hiring of 3,000 people, Cyprus’ Parliament was told yesterday. The estimate — as Cyprus Mail reports today — was made based on how much it cost the Slovenian presidency in 2008, according to the Secretariat for the EU Presidency, which yesterday informed the House Committee for European Affairs on Cyprus’ strategic plan for hosting the presidency. Committee Chairman, DIKO’s Nicos Cleanthous said the plan was drawn up for the trio of member-states who will be taking up the presidency over an 18-month period. Cyprus falls third at the end of the same 18-month period as Poland and Denmark. Each presidency takes over from where the previous one ended, with the aim of fully implementing a common programme. “We all agree this is a national goal,” said Cleanthous. “The time has come for our small state to pass its exams and become more effective in the European area, depending on how we live up to our duties.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Commissioner Kills Off ‘Undignified’ Rights Charter Poem
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Justice commissioner Viviane Reding has killed off plans to recast the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as an 80-minute-long epic poem.
Concerned about what she viewed as a frivolous waste of time and money, Ms Reding, who is also responsible for fundamental rights and citizenship, has written a tersely worded letter seen by EUobserver to the director of the Fundamental Rights Agency, Morten Kjoerum, lambasting the plans.
“The language of the charter is already clear and direct,” she wrote. “I do not therefore see what is to be gained by running the initiative you have in mind in order to promote its accessibility to citizens. I rather see the counterproductive risk that the dignity of the charter is undermined.”
“This initiative does not provide the added value that is expected from the agency and is not in line with its mandate,” she continued, demanding to know how much time and money had been spent on the poetry plans.
EUobserver reported four weeks ago that the FRA had wanted the EU’s human rights charter recast as an 80-minute-long epic poem.
The Vienna-based agency had opened a process of contracting a poet to devise a composition based on the articles of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and hire a company of performers to accompany a presentation of the poem with music, a dance interpretation of the piece and “multimedia elements”.
The inaugural reading of the poem, whose working title is ‘The Charter in Poems’, was to take place at the bloc’s 2010 Fundamental Rights Conference in December on the tenth anniversary of the signing of the charter.
It is understood that the commissioner was surprised when she read about the agency’s poem project. “It just came out of leftfield. She thought: ‘Is this really how they should be spending their time?” said one EU official.
Ms Reding however said the idea was beyond the mandate of the agency and that it should stick to its main job of analysing the human and civil rights situation in the EU.
“The agency’s communication activities should remain directly linked to its core business of data collection.”
“There is a clear need for objective, comparable and reliable data on the situation of fundamental rights in the member states. The dissemination of such data is the best contribution that the agency can give to raise awareness about fundamental rights.
Directing the agency to keep her abreast of its communications strategies in the future, she added: “I am ready to assist you in prioritising work.”
The ageny’s spokesman, Friso Roscam-Abbing, said that the FRA had responded to Ms Reding’s correspondence “and will continue to mount activities raising awareness of the charter amongst citizens at the December tenth anniversary conference.”
“Our aim is and will remain communicating the charter to citizens, but will not take the form of a poem or any other literary form,” he said.
The FRA is now working on a new concept in concert with the commission directly “on an appropriate format.”
“We were very flattered by the fantastic media interest in the project and we just hope that the media in the future will pay just a little bit of attention to our very important work regarding citizens’ fundamental rights.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fresh Polemics in Premier’s Party
Deputy House whip says Berlusconi ‘asked for his head’
(ANSA) — Rome, April 29 — Polemics flared again on Thursday in Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party after a deputy whip accused the premier of forcing him to resign in a bid to quash dissent in the PdL.
Italo Bocchino, the PdL’s deputy whip at the Chamber of Deputies, said Berlusconi had “asked for his head” because he is out to “sterilise dissent” after last week’s showdown with House Speaker Gianfranco Fini at a party meeting.
Fini and Berlusconi, joint founders of the Pdl, clashed publicly last Thursday after the Speaker accused the premier of stifling party democracy and allowing its coalition ally the Northern League to wield too much power in the government.
The Speaker has repeatedly distanced himself from the League and Berlusconi on a number of issues since the centre-right coalition swept to power in general elections two years ago.
His recent and more centrist stances on these issues, including voting rights for immigrants and criticism of the government’s reliance on confidence votes to push its bills through parliament, have placed him at loggerheads with the premier and the League.
Fini and his supporters say Berlusconi tries to run the PdL as if it were a “barracks”.
Bocchino accused Berlusconi of committing “the serious error of quashing dissent by felling one to set an example for a hundred others.
This won’t take the party too far,” Bocchino said after his resignation.
“Nothing like this could have happened in any other democratic party,” he said, hinting that other Fini aides could also be ousted.
According to Bocchino, the premier blew his top when he refused an order not to take part in a TV talk show and threatening to “run him through”.
During his televised speech at the party meeting, Berlusconi singled out Bocchino and two other Fini supporters for “bringing shame on the party” after a televised row with another PdL MP. Speaking on a late-night talk show on Wednesday Fini said he hoped that Bocchino would not be forced to stand down, stressing that dissenters had a right to be heard.
Both he and Bocchino have said repeatedly they do not want the government to fall but simply want to have a say in shaping party policies. In a televised interview on Sunday, Fini dismissed talk about early elections as “irresponsible” because it would set up Italy “to an enormous risk of ending up like Greece,” referring to the European Union partner’s debt crisis. Long-standing differences between Fini and Berlusconi blew up Thursday when the premier told Fini to resign as Speaker if he wants a more active role in politics or to form his own faction within the PdL.
At that point, Fini got up and yelled: “What are you saying? Otherwise, what will you do? Throw me out?” The shouting match prompted Northern League leader Umberto Bossi to blast the premier for not getting rid of Fini a long time ago and threaten early elections if his party’s pet projects of fiscal federalism are not pushed through.
Bossi said Fini had undermined the coalition and worked for the centre-left opposition by “pretending to create while actually demolishing” the government’s programme.
“Thanks to him the centre left will win the next elections”.
Opposition leader Pierluigi Bersani called the tit-for-tat exchange between Fini and Berlusconi “a disgraceful show”.
“It was an incredible row…which wouldn’t have happened in any other European party,” he told left-leaning daily L’Unita’, voicing fears for the “country’s stability”.
Many opposition MPs also voiced sympathy for Fini and his dissenters, accusing Berlusconi of wanting to run the party as he formerly ran his media empire. photo: Bocchino and Fini
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
MEP Koch-Mehrin Calls for Europe-Wide Burka Ban
After Belgium’s parliament voted to ban Islamic full-face veils, the German vice-president of the European Parliament has called for a ban of the burka throughout Europe.
Silvana Koch-Mehrin called the full-body veil an attack on the rights of women in a guest editorial in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
“I would like to see all forms of the burka banned in Germany and in all of Europe,” wrote the politician, a member of Germany’s pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP).
She called the burka a “mobile prison,” saying that those who veil women take away their faces and therefore their personalities.
“The complete veiling of women is a blatant acknowledgement of values that we here in Europe do not share,” she wrote.
She added that while she believed in the freedom of personal and religious expression, “that freedom should not be used to take away the public faces of people, at least not in Europe.”
She said she found it unsettling to come across fully veiled women on the street, since she could not tell what their intentions were.
“I am not afraid, but it does make me anxious,” she wrote.
Her commentary follows the approval by Belgium’s lower house of parliament of a ban on the full-face veil. That decision has unleashed debate throughout Europe.
It could set the stage for similar moves in other countries, as citizens fear that growing Muslim populations may pose a threat to their liberal and secular values. France is already considering similar legislation.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International said on Friday that the ban attempt was an “attack on religious freedom” and set a “dangerous precedent” that could impinge on the basic rights of women.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Prostitutes Sign Confuses Motorists
A road sign warning of prostitutes is confusing motorists in an Italian town.
The red-bordered triangular sign shows a scantily-clad woman, who is also carrying a handbag, in the city of Treviso in northern Italy.
The sign states ‘Attenzione Prostitute’ — seemingly warning people of prostitutes in the area.
Motorists and pedestrians have complained that the sign is ‘confusing’, saying they don’t know if it means to watch out for crossing hookers or if it means prostitutes operate in the area.
One local Dino Vezino, 34, said: “I was driving in to work and saw this sign and had to slow down to get a proper look.
“I couldn’t believe it — the woman has a mini-skirt and high heels on and very big breasts.
“I just couldn’t work out what it was for?
“Does it mean I have to look out for prostitutes crossing or that they are available around here?”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Opposition Flirts With Single Mums
Sweden’ left-green opposition is pledging to earmark 1.225 billion kronor ($170 million) in benefits for single parents as part of its push to bolster gender equality.
The new single parent schemes are to be spread over two years and form part of the opposition’s shadow spring budget proposal, set to be presented in full on Monday.
The Red-Greens claim a series of “structural reforms” are necessary if Sweden is to close the income gap between the sexes.
“Single women with children are a group in particular need of attention,” according to an opposition statement.
In concrete terms, the Social Democrats, Left Party and Green Party are promising 1.225 billion kronor over two years. This figure is split between three categories: maintenance support, rent allowance, and the provision of childcare services outside of regular working hours.
Firstly, the parties are promising to raise child maintenance payments by 100 kronor in 2011 and 150 kronor in 2012.
“As children tend more often live with their mother than their father when a man and a woman separate, a hollowing out of the maintenance support system has primarily affected women,” they write.
If the opposition coalition is elected, the proposal will cost 250 million kronor in 2011, rising to 375 million kronor in 2012.
The Red-Greens are also vowing to raise housing allowance and access allowance benefits for single parents by 130 kronor per child per month. The proposal would cost an estimated 200 million kronor for each of the next two years.
The three opposition parties have also agreed to set aside 100 million kronor each in 2011 and 2012 for a stimulus package aimed at urging Sweden’s municipalities to provide childcare services outside of regular working hours.
With ever fewer councils offering flexible childcare services, many parents, “particularly single parents, lack childcare services when they work evenings, nights and weekends.”
The parties add that they intend to draft new legislation to ensure single parents have access to childcare services at all times.
Paul O’Mahony (paul.omahony@thelocal.se/08 656 6513)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Church Tends Wounds Caused by Abuse Scandal
The Catholic Church in Europe has finally found its voice after decades of silence over sexual abuse of minors within its walls.
At a public discussion on the issue at Fribourg University on Friday evening, the talk was of pain and shame but also of healing and new beginnings — for the Church, the victims and even those guilty of abuse.
The abbot of Einsiedeln abbey, Martin Werlen, described the shock of hearing the truth about the extent of the crisis: “It was like a man who feels perfectly well going to the doctor and being told he has cancer!”
In Switzerland, around 70 people have claimed to be victims of abuse by priests and Church workers in the past 15 years.
The country’s Catholic bishops last month admitted they had “underestimated” the scale of sexual abuse within churches and called on victims to report crimes to the police.
Werlen — a member of the Swiss Bishops Conference — has become the Church’s unofficial spokesman on the issue, facing media salvoes and taking the flak. But he sees that experience as something positive.
“We as a Church should be glad that the media have helped uncover this [scandal], even if it is painful,” he told the gathering. “We can experience mercy if we admit our faults.”
German psychologist, psychotherapist and theologian Werner Müller felt that lifting the silence was crucial for healing to take place. Müller, whose research has focused on sexuality and Church morality, has written a book about recognising and preventing abuse in the Church.
“Wounds sometimes have to be made deeper,” he told swissinfo.ch. “You have to get deeper to the pain and face the facts,” he said. “Amongst the Swiss bishops and among people in the Church there are a lot who really feel the pain and are no longer in a state of denial.”
After breaking the silence, specific steps had to be taken, Müller said.
“First the victims have to talk, the people responsible in the diocese have to listen and be touched by what they hear. I’ve met responsible people in the Swiss church who are disgusted.
“But to be disgusted and touched is not enough. They also have to look at what they can do for the victims on the emotional, spiritual and financial level.” There was some reluctance to deal with the issue of financial compensation, he perceived.
Abbot Martin Werlen (Keystone)
Warning signs
Müller talked of the need to make selection for the priesthood much more rigorous, and highlighted three risk factors among candidates: sexual immaturity; an inability to form intimate relationships; and the fact of being male, as statistics show that men are responsible for most sexual abuse.
“Letting women into the priesthood would enhance it greatly,” he said, to laughter and applause from the audience.
While keeping quiet on the issue of admitting women to the priesthood, the abbot of Einsiedeln admitted that by ignoring questions of sexuality in the training process, the Church had forced many young men to hide their true feelings.
Hardly any priests with paedophile tendencies sought help.
It was time for a new culture of openness. “In the Church there is no area we should keep quiet about,” he said.
What to do?
The question of how to deal with priests who have committed paedophile acts is one to which the Church is struggling to find answers.
Abbot Martin Werlen spoke of the need to forgive and to develop a culture of dealing with mistakes.
In his abbey, he said, “we stand by brothers who have failed”. One monk who had committed abuse had been invited to rejoin the Benedictine community at Einsiedeln 30 years after the abuse occurred.
Werlen has previously spoken out in favour of a central register of paedophile priests, which would prevent these men from having further contact with children. Swiss President Doris Leuthard has also publicly supported the idea.
But Müller is sceptical about blacklists. “We have to do all we can to ensure priests who have abused children don’t come into contact with them again. But this situation is so new that we don’t know how to do it.
Müller said a priest who was paedophile and had abused children could have his priesthood suspended by the pope. But this was not necessarily the answer.
“Just to take the priesthood off them passes the problem onto society to deal with,” he said.
Despite the damage the scandal had caused to the Church’s reputation, and the stream of people leaving the Church over it, Werlen struck a positive note. The letters and emails he had received had convinced him that the Church still enjoyed much good will.
How it proceeded now was the important thing. “We have a chance to regain our credibility,” he said.
Morven McLean in Fribourg, swissinfo.ch
Grassroots
Swiss Catholics are also calling for change..
In a recent statement issued by a progressive umbrella organisation (Verein Tagsatzung im Bistum Basel), half a dozen Catholic groups demanded that bishops pay more attention to victims of child abuse inflicted by priests.
They also urged the clergy to take a closer look at paedophile priests — in particular those who were protected by the Church.
In addition, they pushed for bishops to re-evaluate mandatory celibacy as well as the role of women in the Church.
————————————————————————————————————————
Martin Werlen
Born 1962.
Became Benedictine monk in 1988.
In 2001 elected abbot of the Einsiedeln monastery.
He is a member of the Swiss Bishops Conference.
————————————————————————————————————————
Dr Wunibald Müller
Born 1950.
German writer, theologian, psychologist and psychotherapist.
Has written more than 60 books on spirituality, psychotherapy and self-help.
His latest book, on recognising and preventing sexual abuse in the Church, is called Verschwiegene Wunde (Concealed Wounds)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Betrayed by the NHS: Doctor Who Gave Her Life to Health Service is Refused Vital Cancer Drugs That Could Save Her
Becky Smith, 30, has been refused a breakthrough treatment which could prolong her life by up to 20 years.
A doctor denied vital cancer treatment said yesterday that she had been betrayed by the NHS.
Becky Smith, 30, has been refused a breakthrough treatment which could prolong her life by up to 20 years.
The drug refusal came after her breast cancer was missed four times.
Without the treatment she may only have 18 months to live, the NHS surgeon has been told.
She said: ‘I feel so let down. I’ve given my all to the NHS and I could give it another 20 years, doing the work I love. I just need this treatment to give me a fighting chance.’
Dr Smith’s NHS trust has refused to pay for the £23,000 treatment, although it is available from 40 others, including one only five miles from her family’s home.
She now faces the agonising decision of whether to cancel her wedding to her childhood sweetheart and allow her retired parents to remortgage their home to buy her the chance of extra years of life.
She said: ‘It makes me so angry when I think of the amount of work I’ve put into the NHS and how little I’ve got back.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Leave Aylesbury After Peaceful Day of Protests
The English Defence League protesters have left Aylesbury following a largely peaceful day.
Only twelve arrests were made during the day and no police officers or EDL members were injured.
Around 800 protesters turned up — with a similar number of police officers on duty in the town to make sure the day went smoothly.
The protest, which only lasted around one hour in Market Square, passed without serious incident.
However, in the closing stages groups of EDL in the crowd surged to the rear of Market Square against the wishes of their stewards, before police officers contained them for a short while and then allowed the groups to move out of the square to the coaches and train station.
Richard List, Local Area Commander said: “On the whole we experienced few problems but are disappointed that there was some public disorder towards the end.
“However, we were able to deploy resources to quickly deal with the situation and prevent it from escalating.
“Thames Valley Police wants to make clear it was the EDL whose actions were disorderly, and we were required to establish control of this group before allowing them to leave Market Square to disperse.
“We are unaware of any police officers or EDL supporters who have been injured as a result of this.
“Most protestors have now left town and we will be working with the local community and our partners to ensure that Aylesbury returns to normal as quickly as possible.
“Today has been a difficult day for the town but I would like to thank the local community and our partners who have worked with us to make sure that the protest has passed of with out major incident.
“Fortunately, community relations in the town are good and we will be continuing our partnership work to make sure that they stay that way.”
He added that the counter demonstration held in Vale Park passed off peacefully and dispersed without any problems.
Of the 12 people arrested, eight were on suspicion of possessing offensive weapons (two groups of two and one group of four, who were stopped in cars on their way into Aylesbury), three for public order offences and one for being drunk and disorderly.
Two protesters, a 20-year-old man and a 45-year-old man, received medical attention from South Central Ambulance Service after they reported feeling unwell.
The far-right EDL protesters arrived in Market Square at around 2.30 and were kept contained in a ‘pen’ surrounded by hundreds of police officers.
They chanted, waved flags, including an Israeli flag, and held a two minute silence in memory of fallen soldiers.
Around an hour later they were escorted down Great Western Street onto Friarage Road where they boarded coaches taking them home.
By around 5pm most had left the town, and the clean-up operation had begun in Market Square.
Andrew Grant, Chief Executive of Aylesbury Vale District Council said: “Today has required an intensive effort by the police and partners but all the planning and preparation has been worth it to protect the safety of the public.
“Our priority is to now support the town in getting back to normal as quickly as possible.
“I’m sure that’s what we all want. Shops and businesses will open as usual from tomorrow and a range of entertainment has been organised for Monday by the Town Centre Partnership to help welcome people back to the town”.
Sue Imbriano, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Buckinghamshire County Council added: ‘Today has been a good example of partnership planning and working in order to achieve our joint objective, which was about making this event as peaceable as possible for the residents of Aylesbury.’
Apart from New Street, all road access restrictions have been lifted.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gordon Brown Loses Support From the Times and the Guardian
With the Guardian announcing its endorsement of Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats and the Times backing the Conservatives, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is suffering a new blow just one week before the general elections.
AFP — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s slender re-election hopes took a fresh battering Saturday as two top newspapers turned against his ruling Labour party, days before a general election on May 6.
As party leaders entered the last days of campaigning for the knife-edge poll, long-time Labour supporters the Times and the Guardian both announced they were switching away from Brown’s party this time around.
The Times will support the Conservatives for the first time in 18 years because leader David Cameron “has shown the fortitude, judgement and character to lead this country back to a healthier, stronger future,” the paper said.
And the Guardian, seen as the broadsheet of record for the centre-left, said it would back Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, adding in an editorial that it was “hard to feel enthusiasm” at a possible five more years of Brown.
The Sun, Britain’s biggest selling daily newspaper, is already backing the centre-right Conservatives, as is influential current affairs magazine the Economist.
Along with falling opinion polls, the news is the latest blow in recent days to hit the prime minister, who only took over from Tony Blair in 2007 and has never won a general election as Labour leader.
On Wednesday, he was caught offguard calling an elderly widow a “bigoted woman” after meeting her on the campaign trail and the next day, he struggled to make an impact in the final televised leaders’ debate.
“Sometimes you say things you greatly regret. And I have paid a very high price for it,” Brown told the Daily Telegraph Saturday, referring to the incident dubbed “bigotgate” by the media.
He later told reporters he would “never give up” in the election.
Speculation is rife about who could replace Brown as Labour leader if his centre-left party loses the election, with attention focused on Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
Labour, in power for 13 years, began this campaign as the underdog against the Tories. But a surge in Lib Dem support after Clegg’s star turn in televised leaders’ debates unexpectedly pushed them into third place.
A Harris poll for The Daily Mail Saturday confirmed Labour’s difficulties, giving them 24 percent support, down two on the previous week, compared to 33 percent for the Conservatives (down one) and 32 for the Lib Dems (up three).
The results of the poll, taken just after Thursday’s final TV debate, would give the Conservatives the largest number of seats in the House of Commons but not enough for an outright majority, a situation known as a hung parliament.
Clegg’s centrist Liberal Democrats could hold the balance of power in this situation and he indicated Saturday they may be more likely to form an alliance with Labour than the Conservatives.
Clegg told the Guardian there was a “gulf” between what he and Cameron stood for and described the Liberal Democrats and Labour as “two wings of a progressive tradition in British politics”.
He added that Brown’s was a “very dismal, cramped and depressing message. That’s why the polls are putting us ahead of Labour and that will crystallise in the next few days into a two-horse race.”
Out campaigning in his constituency in rural Oxfordshire, southern England, Cameron accused Clegg of “rather arrogant” comments and said the public would “decide how many horses there are”.
“Vote Labour — more of the same. Vote Liberal — complete uncertainty. If you vote Conservative, you get a new government on Friday, a new prime minister, a new direction for our country,” Cameron said.
Blair, a three-time general election winner as leader who made his second campaign appearance to try and boost Brown Friday, warned people against voting Liberal Democrat Saturday.
“The fact that it might seem an interesting thing to do is not the right reason to put the keys of the country in their hands,” he told the Times.
“A hung parliament is a thoroughly bad idea. It will lead to indecisive leadership and horse trading”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: My Bet: The Tories Will Win, But Not by Enough. So is This What We’re Heading Back To?
Today marks the 13th anniversary of when Tony Blair was first voted into No10 Downing Street. On May 1, 1997, the sun shone, the new prime minister enjoyed huge popular support and Britain was booming.
Unemployment was low, the national debt under control and our international credit sky high.
Thirteen years on and we may be about to get a new prime minister. The circumstances, however, could hardly be more different.
Despite a strong performance in Thursday’s TV debate, David Cameron enjoys little of the popularity or public warmth Blair took for granted.
Worse than that, 13 years of New Labour have utterly destroyed Britain’s public finances. The country is borrowing the incredible figure of £500 million a day, with the result that the national debt is set to nearly double over the next four years to £1.4 trillion.
This colossal number, however, gravely understates the scale of the country’s economic predicament.
For evidence is emerging that when Gordon Brown was Chancellor, he was an expert at hiding the true scale of our national debt, by not including it in the auditing of the nation’s books.
[…]
For the opinion polls, while indicating Cameron will become prime minister, strongly suggest he will be the head of a minority government. Though the Tories are expected to be the largest single party in the Commons, they will probably lack an overall majority.
I can reveal this most unsatisfactory prospect has forced Cameron to partially break off from the election campaign in order to hold a series of meetings and telephone conversations with strategists to discuss this contingency.
Advisers have studied the historical precedents — and they make frightening reading. For the truth is that each time there was a hung Parliament in the last century, the result was a nightmare.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Meet the Mid-Ranking Civil Servant Working on it Projects Who Rakes in £500,000 a Year — Three Times More Than the PM
Beaming with delight, this is Ben Grinnell, a mid-ranking civil servant who is supposed to help keep our borders safe.
If he looks pleased with himself, he has every cause to be after being paid around £500,000 of public money last year — more than treble the salary of Gordon Brown.
Mr Grinnell joined the UK Border Agency in September 2007 as an IT consultant and was given responsibility in leading projects including Labour’s notorious plans for national identity cards.
The Daily Mail has learned that as Director of Business Design and Development he was paid a huge daily rate, additional consultancy fees and expenses that amounted to just under £500,000 a year.
But when the UKBA this week advertised the post, the salary had been reduced, albeit to a still generous £100,000.
Staff at the agency say Mr Grinnell, who is also a director of consulting firm Qedis, has used his position to employ around 30 people from his own company on huge salaries.
One colleague said: ‘There is a lot of bad feeling in the agency about Grinnell, not least because he brings in other people from his company who end up in highly paid jobs.
‘Some of these are involved in back office functions — jobs that could be done equally well by much lower paid civil servants.’
Mr Grinnell’s online CV, which includes a personal goal ‘to change the way the world thinks about management consulting’, also states he has a PhD in mathematics.
But Loughborough University was able to say only that he had started a doctorate course and could not confirm whether he completed it.
Doubts have also been raised about statements on his CV that he won the World and European Corporate Games in squash. Although he did win a corporate squash challenge in Swindon in 2006.
The 37-year- old lives in a five-bedroom £700,000 house in Herne Hill, South London, with his wife Yioula and three daughters. Two of his daughters attend exclusive private schools, costing a total of £25,437 a year.
His job at the agency involves all major IT projects — including overseeing plans to issue ID cards for everyone.
The scheme was supposed to be rolled out across the UK in 2008, but has been pushed back to 2014 at a Government-estimated cost of £5 billion.
A London School of Economics study in 2005 put the cost of the ID card scheme, which both the Tories and Lib Dems have pledged to scrap, at up to £19billion.
Lib Dem spokesman for home affairs Chris Huhne said: ‘This is another example of extravagant waste in outrageous consultants’ fees that should shame the UKBA and the Home Office.’
Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Parliamentary Counter Terrorism subcommittee, said: ‘This is yet more money that is being poured into the best-forgotten ID card scheme.
‘The amount of police officers or MI5 operatives we could have bought on his annual salary is astounding. The money would have been far better spent fighting terrorism rather than administering ourselves to death.’
Matthew Sinclair of TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It’s clear that the amount being paid to these consultants is getting way out of hand.
‘Consultants are the key area the public sector can cut back to help ordinary families struggling in the recession.’
Details of Mr Grinnell’s salary come after the Mail revealed last year that his colleague Azad Ootam was paid £310,000 of public money in one year.
His wage of £180,000 was boosted by an extra £128,000 for four months’ ‘consultant services’ and five months of expenses claims that totalled £13,856.
In December, a cross-party group of MPs slammed the UKBA for handing out bonuses of £295,000 to 29 senior managers while still ‘under-performing’.
Last night, Mr Grinnell declined to comment. The UK Border Agency said it paid Qedis for Mr Grinnell’s contract and could not talk about individual cases as it was ‘commercially sensitive’.
It also denied that Mr Grinnell’s ability to hire staff from his own firm was a conflict of interest.
The spokesman added: ‘The use of external consultants provides the UKBA with specialist knowledge, skill, capacity and technical expertise that would not otherwise be available.
‘UKBA continues to up-skill and develop its civil servants with the aim of reducing the cost of using consultants.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Croatia: Few Cases on Recovery of Property Open, Fini
(ANSAMED) — BARI, APRIL 29 — The issue regarding the recovery of property belonging to Italians who left Croatia is no longer part of the bilateral agenda in relations between the two countries, even though it has not been 100 percent solved, pointed out Chamber of Deputies President Gianfranco Fini, while speaking at a meeting of Parliament speakers of the Adriatic Ionian Initiative. “Initiatives have been started both by Croatia and by Italy,” said Fini, “to survey the property and to define the procedures to recover it for the very few cases that were not resolved by the Treaty of Osimo.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Routes to Egypt, Syria From Venice Harbour
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, APRIL 30 — Promoting tourism and further developing commercial exchanges between the Mediterranean’s Southern bank and Europe is the main goal of the new weekly route that will take both goods and passengers from Venice’s harbour to Alexandria in Egypt and Tartous, in Syria, from May 20. The route, managed by Visemar Line, was presented in Milan during a meeting organized by Promos, Chamber of Commerce’s special agency for internationalization. “The ship, explains Visemar Line president Stefano Tositti, will take seven days to travel both ways and will be able to carry 200 trucks and more than 300 passengers.” “Venice, the city’s Harbour General Secretary Franco Sensini states, has always had a privileged relationship with African and Middle Eastern harbours, and we want to relaunch that relationship.” The new route, he remarks, will play an important role for the Northern Italy markets and central European ones as well. “Lombardia and Veneto, he explains, import from Middle East and Northern Africa more than 6.1% of total artifacts and export 9.2%” towards them”. To facilitate goods transportation, from summer 2010 there will also be a further biweekly railway link from Venice to Melzo, near Milan, where goods will then proceed to the local market, while fluvial transportation, possible from Venice’s harbour to Mantova 365 days a year and to Cremona for 220 days a year, is another possibility. “The intensification of relationships between Lombardia’s companies and Venice’s harbour is a very important step to solidify the commercial relationship with the Mediterranean economic area”, Promos general manager Pier Andrea Chevallard remarks. With the explicit intention to monitor the development of transportation between the Mediterranean’s Northern and Southern banks, the Chamber’s agency has also a permanent Observatory for Mediterranean infrastructures. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan: Egyptian Cultural Week Kicks Off
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, APRIL 30 — Moving beyond the stereotypical image of Egypt and contributing to the discovery of the true face of this country, mainly for the new generations of Italians, is the theme of the Egyptian Consulate’s first ‘Egyptian cultural week’ in Milan. Four days of immersion including Egyptian film, literature and music. Inaugurated last night with a performance by an Egyptian artist, Gamal Meleka, who trained at the Fine Arts Academy of Brera in Milan, the event will continue until May 2. “Egypt,” explained the Consul General, Amr Abbas, “is not just the Pyramids and Sharm el-Sheikh, but much more. For example, we have over one hundred years of film history.” Cinema is the focal point of the agenda, which is attracting many Egyptians who belong to a large Arab community in Milan to the Cinema Gnomo, but also many Italians. During the four days of the event, one film will be screened each evening; ‘Fool’s Alley’ filmed in 1955 by director Tawfik Salah and based on the work of Nobel prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz, ‘The return of the prodigal son’ by Youssef Chahine, filmed in 1976, ‘Ghazal el banat’ by Anwar Wagdy (1949) and the contemporary ‘One-zero’ by Kamla Abu Zekry, filmed in 2009. Music will also play a prominent role, with an encounter dedicated to the famous singer Oum Kalthoum, who died in 1975. Cultural and literary events have also been planned. “There are many things in common,” stressed Abbas, “between Egypt and Italy, and the idea of this event, which is taking place thanks also to the contribution of the city of Milan, is to create a form of cultural exchange and cooperation.” On the other hand, he concluded, Egyptians are one of the largest foreign communities in Milan, with over 27,000 people. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: 12 Mln Euro Grant From EU to Reduce Water Loss
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, APRIL 30 — The European Union provided the Government of Jordan with a 12 million Euros grant for a project aimed at reducing water loss and improving water services in the Zarqa Governorate, according to an EU officials. The financing agreement was launched by the EU Delegation to Jordan, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation at a ceremony in the area of Ghweiriyeh in Zarqa yesterday. “The grant will contribute to the efficient and sustainable management of existing water resources in a governorate where living conditions are challenging and where there is tremendous demographic pressure on scarce resources” said an EU statement. Through the EU grant, a safe and efficient supply network will be developed for the densely populated area of Gwaireyeh, a number of small villages in Bani Hashem and Sarrout and Alouk villages in the Beerain Municipality. Additionally, the grant will help protect groundwater resources at the Awajan well field site against contamination, while surface storage capacity will be increased to appropriate standards. Water shortages pose a significant burden on living and health conditions of residents, especially the poorest among them, who cannot afford sophisticated storage facilities or significant high-cost water supplies from private suppliers. In such areas water losses are high due to a weak network and eroded house connections, allowing only intermittent water supply on a rotational basis, with severe strains in summer. The new project in Zarqa complements current EU assistance to the water sector in Jordan, namely through the Al Meyyah project, which since 2005 has been supporting enhanced management of the water services. It also complements EU assistance provided between 2000 and 2008 through the Greater Amman Water Sector Improvement Programme, aimed at reducing water losses, overcoming major structural deficiencies of the water supply network and improving service efficiency. Together with the EU Member States and the European Investment Bank, the European Union assists the Government of Jordan in implementation of key water projects, such as the Disi Water Conveyor and Red-Dead Canal. EU assistance has been instrumental in facilitating important water governance reform and in improving the quality of and accessibility to water sevices in Jordan. Funding for Zarqa is provided by the European Union and six Member States: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Water: Italy-Jordan Partnership to Lead Iraq Resource Plan
(ANSAmed) — VENICE, APRIL 30 — An Italian-Jordanian partnership led by Padua-based Sgi with a participation from Med Ingeneria and El Concordea will implement a project to plan the use of Iraqi water resources, from now to 2030. The project will have to optimise, in particular, the use of the pumped water from the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Middle Eastern country’s main rivers. Studio Galli Ingegneria (Sgi) won a contract worth more than 35 million dollars, after participating in a tender with the 14 most important consulting companies worldwide. According to some forecasts, the implementation of several dam projects in Turkey, Syria, and Iran in the coming years, might cause Iraq to lose half of its available water resources. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Christians Enraged Over Developments in Nag Hammadi Massacre Trial
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — Nearly 2000 Christian Copts staged a sit-in on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 inside the grounds of St. Marks Cathedral in Cairo during the weekly lecture of his HH Pope Shenouda III, protesting against what they termed as the procrastination of the judiciary in the Nag Hammadi Christmas Eve Massacre case, and their fear that it will have the same fate as the previous cases where in the end the Muslim killers were acquitted.
The demonstrators held banners and chanted slogans showing their anger over the continued deferral of the trial and the continued support of Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) for the ‘real instigators’ behind the massacre. Many observers believe the accused killer Mohamad el-Kamouny was only an object and that the government is shielding high ranking members in the NDP who are behind the massacre.
The media including, Egyptian and Arab TV channels, were prevented from attending the demonstration by the state security and the Cathedral guards, but two reporters managed to slip in.
The protesters criticized the stance of the NDP through chants like “We will not elect the NDP, its members kill Copts” or “a racist party which is promoting discrimination.” They also held banners saying “Shout out loud…the rights of the martyrs will never die” and “Egypt is our homeland and we will not leave it…because Egypt is the land of the Copts” (video of sit-in).
When the protesters called for a Coptic boycott of the NDP in the coming elections, state security moved in and tried to break up the sit in, but their efforts were in vain. The majority of the protesters were young men and women had come from Nag Hammadi, a 12-hour bus journey, were not intimidated and stressed their right to be within the grounds of St. Mark’s Cathedral.
Among those who also came from Nag Hammadi for the sit-in was the father of Abanoub, one of those killed in the shooting. He said the adjournment by the court is having its toll emotionally on him and his wife. “I only want justice for my son from whoever killed him.”
Bishop Kirillos of Nag Hammadi told Freecopts that he fears the case would have the same disappointing fate like the previous cases of El-Kosheh, Abu Fana and others. “I am not reassured at all,” he said
Following the Nag Hammadi shootings, in which six Copts were shot dead as they left church after celebrating Midnight Mass on the Coptic Christmas Eve on January 6 (AINA 1-7-2010), fingers pointed at Abdel Rahim al-Ghoul, MP for Nag Hammadi for being the main instigator behind the massacre, due to a feud going back to the elections for the seat of Nag Hammadi in 2005, when the Copts refused to give him their votes. It was reported that he vowed to take his revenge on them. It is common knowledge in Nag Hammadi that Mohamad el-Kamouny is one of al-Ghoul’s ‘boys’ who intimidate voters to give al-Ghoul their votes.
The MP was interviewed by all TV stations regarding this relationship which he flatly denied until a video surfaced and was brought by “The Truth” TV program, showing al-Ghoul inaugurating a health club belonging to el-Kamouny; the video showed them to be on very friendly terms. (video showing the two together).
According to al Dostour newspaper on January 31, al-Ghoul threatened that if he was to be charged he would “reveal the truth behind the massacre.”
The Egyptian Public Prosecutor asked for the lifting of parliamentary immunity from MP al-Ghoul to question him regarding insulting the Coptic MP Georgette Kellini on national TV by calling her a “criminal.” Kellini was sent by the Egyptian Human Rights Organization to Nag Hammadi following the massacre and came back together with two colleagues with a damning report about the situation which led to the slaying. It was reported that the NDP members in Parliament supports al-Ghoul against Kellini.
What has angered the Copts recently was a visit of support from NDP Secretary Ahmed Ezz to al-Ghoul in Nag Hammadi. This visit was reflected in the chants against the NDP at the sit-in: “al-Ghoul told El-Kamouny, the Big Ones are protecting us.”
Commenting on this visit, prominent Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub, who was among the Cathedral protesters, said “Now everyone knows the true relationship between al-Ghoul and the killer el-Kamouny, by still supporting al-Ghoul the NDP is sending a clear message to the Copts that the instigator of the massacre will escape justice.”
Yacoub added, “We have come to know that there is pressure on two top Coptic lawyers Dr. Ihab Ramzy and Dr. Awad Shafik, to withdraw from the Nag Hammady case under the pretext that they are also representing the Copt Girguis Baroumi, who has been charged with raping a Muslim minor in Farshout” (AINA 4-10-2010).
Surprisingly, Mahmoud Abdel-Salam, who is the judge presiding over the trial of the three suspects of the Nag Hammadi shootings, is also presiding over the trial of Girgis Baroumi.
“We are fed up with government interference in the case, the news black-out by preventing the media and the activists from attending court sessions, and most of all barring the lawyers and relatives of the victims from attending court sessions. This is a scandal,” Yacoub said.
Pope Shenouda recently described the Nag Hammadi massacre as an “international case” and not a local issue.
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
Abbas Asks China to Support Iran Sanctions as Palestinians Would Die in Me War
Chinese president Hu Jintao was taken by surprise by the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’s plea to support tough sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program when they met in Shanghai Saturday, May 1, debkafile’s Middle East sources reveal. He was even more taken aback by the argument that a Middle East war, a realistic peril in the absence of sanctions, would cost the lives of many Palestinians who would find themselves caught between the belligerents.
Hu received the Palestinian leader after the gala opening of Shanghai World Expo. According to Chinese sources, Abbas explained that for once, most Arab nations — and the Palestinians, most of all — are ranged on the same side as Israel and the West in their profound anxiety about Iran’s nuclear program and the threat it poses of regional violence.
Abbas told the Chinese leader that he spoke on behalf of a majority of Arab rulers, in particular, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zaed al-Nahyan and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Palestinian cities have no defenses against their rockets should Iran and its allies, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas wage war against Israel, he said, and thousands of Palestinians in the line of fire would pay with their lives. He therefore pleaded with President Hu to drop his objections to harsh sanctions against Iran at the UN Security Council as the only way to avert a conflict that could spark a Middle East conflagration.
Our sources note that this was the first time a Palestinian leader supported Israel’s position on any Middle East issue, undertaking a mission to China in which several Israeli officials failed earlier this year.
The Chinese leader’s response is not known. However, one of Beijing’s main considerations in opposing painful sanctions against Iran, including an embargo on refined fuel products and arms, is its championship of the Third World nations’ position that Security Council sanctions are a blunt instrument all too often applied by the big powers, especially United States, to bend them to their will.
Abbas’ petition, in fact, complemented and underscored the Obama administration’s case for harsh sanctions against Iran, in terms of economic benefit. Beijing need not fear repercussions from Tehran in terms of its oil supplies, US officials have told Beijing, since Saudi Arabia would be willing to make up any shortfall — and at cheaper prices, to boot.
Abbas’ arguments to Hu reinforced that pledge.
Saturday, too, the Arab League’s monitoring committee was expected to endorse the Palestinian leader’s acceptance of the US plan for launching indirect peace negotiations with Israel. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also voiced confidence Friday, April 30, that proximity talks would begin next week. Next Monday, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu meets Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh, before the return to the region of the American Middle East envoy, George Mitchell later in the week.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Christie’s Beats Record Sale for Painting by Arab Artist
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, APRIL 30 — With its red-ochre tones of the desert sunset captured in the everyday action of a woman drawing water from the Nile, ‘Les Chadoufs’, a painting by Egyptian Mahmoud Said was auctioned off by Christie’s for 2.43 million dollars, the highest price ever paid for a painting by an Arab artist. Presented this week in Dubai by the prestigious London-based auction house among the 25 masterpieces of the private collection of Mohammad Farsi, the mayor of Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) between the ‘70s and ‘80s, the initial bidding price for was 150,000 dollars. Painted in 1934, ‘Les Chadoufs’ is an iconographic tribute to Arab-Egyptian culture. The controlled and coherent composition is reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance, particularly The Martyrdom of San Sebastian by Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo (1475) and Masaccio’s Holy Trinity (1427), but the pyramidal forms, the subject, colours and details — like the white veil of the woman in the foreground reminiscent of the headdress worn by the pharaohs — are a tribute to local life and traditions. Mahmoud Said is considered to be one of the most revolutionary artists of the Arab contemporary arts scene. Born in 1897 into an important family in Alessandria, he dedicated himself entirely to painting after turning 50, introducing a three dimensionality with a sculptured effect unknown in the Middle East, further emphasised by the dramatic contrasts of light and shade. Farsi also studied in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a refined expert of art, and a key figure on the artistic panorama of the oil-producing monarchy. During his time in office, he transformed Jeddah into a sort of open-air gallery, contributing to drawing the attention of collectors to the Middle East. Since its opening in 2006, Christie’s Dubai has sold over 100 million dollars worth of various types of paintings, a testimony to the rich interest in art in the region, both for entirely cultural or more pragmatic economic purposes. However, the record for the Middle Eastern work of art sold for the highest price is held by Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli: Christie’s Dubai auctioned one of his sculptures off for 2.8 million dollars in April of 2008. During this week’s event, the painting, ‘Poet and a Cage’ by Tanavoli was bought for one million dollars, while another of Said’s painting, ‘Soleil couchant a Louksor’, was sold for nearly one million dollars, auctioned for 902,000 dollars. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: We’ll Cut Off Israel’s Legs
Iran on Friday threatened to “cut off Israel’s feet” if the latter attacks Syria, AFP reported.
During a visit to Damascus, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said: “We will stand alongside Syria against any [Israeli] threat … If those who have violated Palestinian land want to try anything we will cut off their feet,” he said.
Rahimi called Syria a “strong country that is ready to confront any threat” and said Iran “will back Syria with all its means and strength.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ENI to Forfeit Iranian Gas Field Over Sanction Threat
Rome, 29 April (AKI) — Italy’s largest energy company Eni plans to end its role as lead developer of a natural gas field in southwest Iran bowing to threatened sanctions from the United States. “We will hand over the field within the next few weeks,” chief executive Paolo Scaroni (photo) said at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Rome on Thursday.
Eni will transfer the Darkhovin gas field to local partners after the US threatened to place sanctions on companies doing business with the energy-rich country which Washington and its allies suspects to be developing nuclear weapons.
“We are aware of initiatives by certain US states and US institutional investors, such as pension funds, to adopt or consider adopting laws, regulations or policies requiring divestment from, or reporting of interests in, companies that do business with countries designated as states of sponsoring terrorism,” Eni said in its 2009 annual report published on its website.
“These policies could adversely impact or limit investment by certain investors in our securities and so possibly impact adversely our share price.”
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in February called for tighter sanctions against Iran and said Italian companies have cut business ties with Iran by a third since 2007.
The Italian government is the largest shareholder of ENI and the energy company signalled it would pull out of Iran after Berlusconi’s pledge.
No new sanctions have been imposed on its Iranian activities, but any new US sanctions rules could pose a risk for the energy giant.
Italy is one of Tehran’s biggest trading partners in the European Union.
Darkhovin is the only activity operated by Eni in Iran, the company said.
The company last year produced a daily average of 35 thousand barrels of oil and gas in Iran, about 2 percent of its output.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey on US Watch List for Violating Religious Freedoms
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 30 — Turkey remains on a US panel’s watch list of 12 countries for its violations of religious freedoms, Today’s Zaman daily newspaper reports. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its annual report on Thursday, designating 13 Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) in terms of such violations while also putting 12 others on a watch list for close monitoring in that regard. Turkey remains on the watch list this year also. It was designated for close monitoring for the first time in 2009. The fact that very little has changed in terms of restrictions imposed on people has resulted in it retaining its status as a violator country in the view of the USCIRF. According to the report, this year’s CPCs are Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. In addition to these 13 countries, designated the worst violators of religious freedoms around the world, the 2010 watch list includes Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan and Venezuela as well as Turkey with respect to “the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments.” The panel’s report also criticized the current and former US administrations for doing little to make basic religious rights universal.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Siirt and the Gender Gap Report
Is it possible to separate the developments we’ve been following in the southeastern province of Siirt and the town of Pervari from the women’s situation in Turkey which has been pushed down over the past few years on the list of the official Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum, or WEF?
Turkey is ranked the 129th in a total of 134 countries in 2009.
Since the report’s first publication in 2006, Turkey has had terrible scores, including many African and Middle Eastern countries.
It is always ranked at the lowest levels.
Although we have an institution called Women’s Status under the Prime Ministry and a minister for women and family, none of these has an urge to question why Turkey is doing poorly on the subject matter.
The WEF report which is taken seriously in almost every country doesn’t ring a bell in Turkey.
But everyone knows how bad women’s situation in Turkey.
For instance, I visited Vienna for an award ceremony in which businesswoman Güler Sabanci was honored with a medal by the Austrian government last week. Some of the questions reporters asked Sabanci about women in Turkey.
Resemblance with the Liverpool incident
If we go back to the latest developments in Siirt and Pervari, four girl students were allegedly raped for one-and-a-half years, according to news reports though some media groups do not even bother to highlight the incident.
Among the rapists are friends of the victims, civil servants, even relatives of several parliamentary deputies as well as craftsmen.
The girls, who belong to poor families, were too scared to speak up.
They surrendered to the rapists for a few Turkish Liras or candies or chocolate bars at times.
Another sexual assault case took place in Pervari last year but was revealed with last week’s incident in Siirt.
In Pervari, two children, 2- and 3-years-old, were raped.
Eight boys in a regional boarding school, or YIBO, blackmailed a girl student to bring them a few children. After the rape, boys injured one of the two children and killed the other.
Both cases give a shiver to any human being. There were attempts in both to push the matter under the rug.
As some of our colleagues remind us, the second incident in Pervari resembles the one that took place in 1993 in Liverpool, Britain, in which a toddler was kidnapped and raped.
The Pervari mayor, however, said: “We’re all relatives. We, as families, have a truce among ourselves and the case is closed.” But the baby in Liverpool, James Bulger, was tortured and killed. The incident caused an uproar.
Playing the three monkeys
During the murder case, the 10-year-old torturers were sentenced and released eight years later on probation.
Though years passed, the James Bulger incident is still being talked about in Britain.
If it had not been pursued by the media, the play of “three monkeys” in Siirt and Pervari could’ve continued.
Thank God that they were brought to daylight and discussions have emerged since then.
Now we are talking about education on children’s rights and new courses in schools for sex instruction for children and youth.
UNICEF-Turkey demands a “national strategy” against child abuse.
In the regions heavily under tribal influence, women are treated like second-class citizens, victimized in honor killings; they are raped but incidents are not punished. In a country where no one questions why we are ranked at the bottom in the Gender Gap Report, how could we make progress in the absence of political determination?
As the two incidents were uncovered in Siirt and Pervari, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan, along with a full entourage, were visiting the European Parliament. Ironically, he delivered a speech on the situation of women in Turkey.
A twist of fate!
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Founder of Stalin Museum Killed in Russia
A Russian businessman who set up a Josef Stalin museum in the city once named after the Soviet dictator has been beaten to death by attackers.
Vasily Bukhtienko was attacked by three men on a tennis court in Volgograd (formerly known as Stalingrad), in southern Russia, officials said
They say the men used electric shock devices and then repeatedly hit Mr Bukhtienko on the head.
He later died from his injuries. The motive for the attack is not known.
In 2005, Mr Bukhtienko founded a Stalin museum near an imposing monument commemorating the 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad, which is considered by many historians as a turning point in World War II.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Muslim Allegedly Beats a Christian Employee to Death, Injures His Brother
Washington, D.C: April 29, 2010. International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on April 21, a Muslim employer allegedly beat two Christian siblings with an iron rod killing one and seriously injuring the other in Sargodha, Pakistan
The Muslim owner of ‘Five Star Switches’ company, Shafiq-ur-Rehman Khan, allegedly killed Waqas Masih, 14, and seriously injured Zeeshan Masih, 12, after they extended their leave from work for one more day without his permission.
Before beating them, Khan contemptuously called the two Christians ‘choora’ (a derogatory word frequently used to insult Christians in Pakistan, which literally means sanitary worker). He also told them that because they were Christians, they were not suitable for learning to make switches; instead they should clean the streets and manure.
Waqas Masih and Zeeshan Masih had been working as apprentices at the company for the last two years. Zeeshan informed ICC that Waqas suffered injuries over his head and spinal cord and died on the spot. Zeeshan was later taken to a clinic for medical treatment.
ICC spoke with Shafiq-ur-Rehman Khan (the alleged perpetrator). He denied the allegations and claimed that the victims had fallen from the roof of the factory.
Family members of the victims have asked the police to apprehend Khan for his alleged crimes. ICC also spoke with the police in Sargodha. They told ICC that up until now, they have not brought a case against Khan but they have questioned him. The police said that a fair trial would be conducted, the killer would be properly punished and justice would be served for the Christian family.
ICC’s Regional Manager for South Asia, Jonathan Racho, said, “We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of Waqas and injuries sustained by Zeeshan. We call upon the Pakistani Police to seriously investigate the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. We call upon the international community to pay attention to this and other plights of Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Okinawans’ Anger Against Tokyo Boils Over
As islanders become increasingly unwilling to put up with US base, the crisis deepens. Some 90,000 people rally against the installation. The Japanese prime minister’s plan for the base faces major hurdles. The situation has major domestic and international implications.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) — The US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa continues to be front-page news. The already critical situation has gotten worse with four people taking top billing in its unfolding. A major rally (pictured) that took place last Sunday on Okinawa Island highlighted the issue. The four main players are Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Okinawa Prefecture Governor Hirozaku Nakaima, Nago City Mayor Susumu Inamine and US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell.
Okinawans playing referee with Tokyo
Football (soccer) is popular among Japanese. ‘Yelo kado’ or ‘yellow card’ (as it pronounced in Japanese) is a well-known expression. When 90,000 residents of the island came together last Sunday to demonstrate against the government, they all wore yellow, symbolically telling Prime Minister Hatoyama that he had one last chance before he would get a ‘red’ or ‘penalty card’, which would throw him out of the game. Many of the protesters were clear about that, as they carried banners that said, “Is the Hatoyama government betraying us?”
Opposition lawmakers and 39 of the 41 island mayors joined the demonstrators. Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima was there as well, a remarkable turn of events since he had always refused to join anti-base demonstrations in the past. Elected in November 2006, he had accepted the 2006 agreement to move the base from Futenma to Henoko, near the city of Nago, in the northern part of the island. Political realism most likely is behind his presence. In his address, he told protesters that he had asked the government to do away with the dangers of the US base as soon as possible, freeing the island from its burden.
Susumu Inamine, the new mayor of Nago City, which is close to Henoko Bay, the location for the new US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma according to the 2006 agreement, came out swinging at Tokyo. “Though [Hatoyama] pledged to relocate the air station outside Okinawa Prefecture, the government has been wavering on this issue. There are even signs [the government will proceed with the initial plan] to relocate functions of the air station to the Henoko district. These haphazard measures and the unscrupulous approach simply mock residents of the prefecture.” The applause he got from 90,000 protesters could be heard across the island.
Pent up anger boils over
For Okinawa Governor Nakaima, the problem affects more than islanders’ lives since the security of every Japanese is tied to the island. Ultimately, it is about the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security signed by the United States and Japan in 1960, which gave the Americans six bases in Japan, one in Okinawa and five elsewhere. In fact, 75 per cent of the land and half of the 50,000 US soldiers stationed in Japan are in Okinawa.
Tokyo paid for these bases in money; Okinawans paid for its base in human costs: noise, accidents and loss of dignity. Two years ago for example, three US Marines raped a 12-year-old girl.
If we keep in mind that in April 1945, about 150,000 civilians died on the island when the United States used the island as its jumping point to invade the Japanese heartland, we can understand so much anger. Okinawans no longer want to bear such a burden any longer.
Diplomatic fast track between Tokyo and Washington
The basic problem is the relationship between Okinawans and the Japanese government. It is also about Washington because of its bases. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs Kurt Campbell is directly involved in the matter. Before leaving for Tokyo a few days ago, he held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Okada in Washington. On the plane, he told Japanese journalists that Washington had received “serious proposals from the Japanese government that included promising elements”. The 2006 plan agreed by the two sides is the best way to proceed, he said, but the United States is ready to work constructively with Japan on the elements the Japanese government considers important. In other words, Washington appears unwilling to give up its base on Okinawa.
A slow Hatoyama risks missing the deadline
Hatoyama’s silence and slowness is not going down well with Japanese media or public opinion. Something about the “promising elements” has emerged. The prime minister appears to be favouring a giant floating platform off Henoko Bay for a heliport that would be at the disposal of US Marines. The Japanese government had proposed something similar back in 1996-1998. If implemented, it would remove objections based on fears concerning potential pollution in the bay.
Yesterday, Hatoyama announced plans to move between 1,000 and 2,500 US Marines from Futenma Base to the island of Tokunoshima, south of Kagoshima on the southern tip of Kyushu.
Both proposals are unrealisable according to critics: the first one because most Okinawans simply do not want any US base on the island, the second one because Torao Tokuda, a former lawmaker with strong influence on Tokunoshima, has rejected the idea.
Hatoyama has, for his part, reiterated his plan and is preparing for a confrontation with the governor of Okinawa. Time is running out and everything must be settled by the end of May, Japan’s self imposed deadline for solving the long-simmering dispute. However, the prime minister’s silence and his slow action have irritated the press and the local population. For this reason, he runs the risk of missing the deadline.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malawi Move to Ban Polygamy Angers Muslims
Muslims in Malawi have been angered by government plans to ban polygamy.
A spokesman for the Muslim Association of Malawi told the BBC the proposed law would discriminate against the country’s Muslim minority.
He said with about 6% more women than men in Malawi, if polygamy were banned, many women would be left without a husband and become prostitutes.
The gender minister said the ban was necessary to prevent women from being abused in polygamous relationships.
She said problems occurred because men could not give their full attention to more than one woman.
“When a man has two, three, four wives, they are not co-operative — one will be the loved one,” said Gender Minister Patricia Kaliati.
It had not been a hasty decision and there had been wide consultation about the matter, she said.
But Imran Shareef Muhammed — secretary general of the Muslim Association of Malawi — disputed this.
“The minister is lying — she didn’t consult the Muslim community,” he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
“We are totally rejecting it. There are also other ethnic groups [who practise polygamy] and they also totally reject this,” he said.
“If these people go ahead banning polygamous marriages it means many women will go into prostitution.
“Every woman has the right to be under the shelter of a man.”
He said under Sharia law, polygamy was optional.
“I have only one wife, my dear wife… but the moment they proceed with this, I will take a second wife,” he said.
Should the ban come into affect, those already in polygamous marriages would not be affected, but those who flout it could face imprisonment, the minister said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Arizona Deputy Shot — Illegal Immigrants Suspected
Officer who encountered group transporting bales of marijuana hit with AK-47 fire
PHOENIX — Law officers backed by helicopters hunted gunmen in Arizona’s desert early Saturday after a sheriff’s deputy was wounded by suspected illegal immigrants believed to be smuggling marijuana, officials said. The violent episode came amid nationwide debate over the state’s tough new immigration law.
Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll was patrolling alone Friday afternoon in a rugged area near Interstate 8, about 50 miles south of Phoenix, when he came upon a band of suspected smugglers, authorities said.
At least one of five suspects opened fire on the 53-year-old lawman, tearing a chunk of skin from just above his left kidney. The officer was found after a frantic hourlong search, Pinal County sheriff’s Lt. Tamatha Villar said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Catalonia Approves Reception Law
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 28 — The Immigrant Reception law today got the go ahead from the Catalan Parliament with 87% of votes in favour and with opposition from the Catalan Popular Party and the Ciutadans party. The two parties were against the article that establish Catalan as the “common language” and strengthens the learning of it by foreigners, as an instrument of integration, considering that the knowledge of the language “cannot be the toll” that immigrants must pay to obtain a permit for residence, according to the online edition of El Pais. The law implements the competencies established by the Statute of Autonomy on the issue of immigration and gives the regional government the authority to draft the preliminary report for the “Certificate of Reception” or social rooting, which will allow immigrants to become regularised. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Malmstrom: Common Asylum System Soon
(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 29 — “We will soon achieve a common system of European asylum” for asylum seekers from developing countries, according to Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, who was speaking to the Chamber of Deputies in Rome. Malmstrom said that a “common” policy is needed by member-states to tackle the problem of asylum seekers. Such a policy should also make use of “cooperation between countries of origin, ensuring the protection of immigrants arriving and avoiding ambiguous regulations” between various European countries. For the common European regime, due to come into force in 2012, Malmstrom announced the decision to create “a support office for European asylum that can give technical and administrative assistance” to countries most exposed to migratory patterns. A first office “will be opened in Malta”, the EU Commissioner said. Security, immigration and the need for a “global approach from the EU” were the issues at the centre of today’s meeting between Malmstrom and the Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini. “We are some way off an agreement with Libya” on immigration, but a potential agreement between the EU and Tripoli “would not follow the model of the agreement between Italy and Libya”, the EU commissioner said in a press conference. Malmstrom explained that, although it is “important to try and begin dialogue” with Tripoli, “if there is an agreement, it is clear that the fundamental condition for Libya must be adherence to the Geneva Convention or the equivalent among African states “on the rights of political refugees”. After the Italian leg of her journey, the EU Commissioner will be in Malta tomorrow. Malmstrom will discuss with authorities in Valletta today’s announcement that Malta would be leaving the 2010 Frontex mission in the Strait of Sicily. A decision that, according to Malmstrom, “will be a disadvantage for Malta because it will lose the ability to manage its border” with the influx of migrants arriving from North Africa. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Illegal Immigrant Worked on Hazel Blears’ Campaign
Former Cabinet minister Hazel Blears has confirmed that an illegal immigrant had been working as a volunteer on her election campaign.
The Sun newspaper reported that Nigerian national Rhoda Sulaimon was due for deportation after the general election, having overstayed her visa.
The Labour candidate for Salford said she told the unpaid worker to leave the campaign as soon as she found out.
Ms Blears said she informed the Borders Agency immediately.
Student visa
“I had absolutely no idea of this woman’s immigration status until she informed me… yesterday afternoon.
“As soon as I was made aware, I took immediate action to instruct her to leave the campaign and I got in touch with the Borders Agency and told them about it,” she said.
“Neither I nor any candidate from any other party would be in a position to vet the immigration status of the hundreds of people who come in through the door to offer to stuff envelopes or deliver leaflets.
“I had never met this person before she came in and offered to help. She was not a campaign worker, she was a volunteer and she was not paid.”
Ms Sulaimon had overstayed a student visa issued five years ago, it was reported.
The candidates announced for Salford are:
Labour: Hazel Blears; Independent: Richard Carvath; Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition: David Henry; English Democrats: Stephen Morris; UK Independence Party: Duran O’Dwyer; Liberal Democrat: Norman Owen; Conservative: Mathew Sephton; British National Party: Tina Wingfield.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Great Disconnect: After the Economy, Immigration is the Issue That Worries Voters Most. So Why Won’t Our Politicians Even Discuss it?
Having spent the past few weeks speaking to countless ordinary people, I can report that the gulf is very great indeed — something I call The Great Disconnect — and that, after the economy, immigration is THE issue that worries people most.
This is not some random theory. It’s based on the experiences of real people. People like Dave, who I recently met in a cafe in Hastings, East Sussex.
Dave is 22, with cropped hair and a diamond stud in one ear. He yearns for a ‘decent job’ and a home for his girlfriend and baby daughter. Like over half of young white males from a poor background, Dave has trouble with reading. It means he is only qualified for a menial job.
Thirty years ago, he would have still got work in a factory, married his girlfriend, raised a family and contributed to society. Now, those factory jobs no longer exist and menial jobs are monopolised by skilled and hard-working Poles who have not suffered the handicap of a British state education.
This means that Dave, like one in five of young people, cannot get on that first step of the employment ladder.
He explains: ‘When the council advertised two dustmen jobs, there were 100 applications.’
The local job agencies told him he had no chance because he was English. They only took Poles on to their books. When Dave finally did manage to secure a job, he encountered another problem facing young people — our welfare system hands out more in benefits than can be earned on the minimum wage.
The Centre for Social Justice has pointed out that welfare claimants are no better off — and sometimes poorer — if they come off the dole and take up jobs paying anything less than £15,000 a year.
But who is going to offer Dave that kind of money? That’s why the financial adviser at Dave’s Job Centre actually told him not to take the job he had been offered.
‘I would have been £30 worse off,’ he says.
Under Labour, immigration has risen dramatically. In 2007, more than half a million migrants arrived in this country — more than one a minute.Dave described his despair at the prospect of a life on benefits. ‘I know men of 40 doing nothing but drink and drugs all day. I don’t blame them.’ He shook his head angrily. ‘I don’t want to be beat like that.’
Dave’s situation is far from unique. There are currently 5.9million people of working age claiming out-of-work benefits — costing £74.4billion a year in welfare payments.
The life of this young man has not been wrecked by disadvantage — but by government policy on immigration, education and welfare.
Nor does it end there. Because of immigration, the lack of jobs for the likes of Dave has a direct impact on the rising numbers of single mothers and thus the increase in child poverty — another burden for the taxpayer.
New research by Geoff Dench for the Centre For Policy Studies (CPS) describes the change in single motherhood.
Thirty years ago, a typical single mother was on her own because she had separated from her partner. Now, more than half say they have never lived with a man. And, once more, male joblessness — to which mass immigration has contributed — is at the heart of the issue.
‘I would love to get married,’ a single mother in Brixton told me during my own research.
‘But all the men I know are in prison or deal drugs. I don’t know one man with a job.’
Instead, she has married the State — she’s one of the millions dependant on welfare. The statistics tell their own story: 72 per cent of children of single mothers grow up in poverty.
Children of single mothers are more likely to run away from home, have behavioural problems, do less well at school, take to drugs and get involved in — and society picks up the bill.
This is why the electorate is right to be exercised by these issues.
They understand better than our political elite the relationship between immigration, male joblessness, child poverty and an exploding benefit bill.
It is only in this context that the full, devastating toll of the Labour government’s immigration policy is exposed. Instead of getting young men like Dave into work, the Government has done the opposite.
Under Labour, immigration has risen dramatically. In 2007, more than half a million migrants arrived in this country — more than one a minute.
According to the Office for National Statistics, of the 1.7 million new jobs created since 1997, 81 per cent have gone to foreign workers. These are extraordinary figures.
Behind them lie wrecked lives and a continuing cycle of disadvantage and child poverty.
As one exasperated man asked: ‘Why are we not training our young people to be as skilled and educated as the immigrants now taking their place?’ What a transformation to society if we did.
Why, then, is none of our political parties offering radical solutions? The answer is, they are fearful of being branded ‘bigots’ — just like Gillian Duffy recently was.
Yet the immigration crisis has nothing to do with class, colour or religious background. During one week of my research, a white chef, a black manicurist and an Iranian minicab driver all voiced fears to me about the new influx of immigrants.
What they fear is not so much the foreignness of these incomers, but his or her rights to share their welfare benefits — because they know that they are a limited resource.
They cannot — or rather, should not — be for everybody. After a year working in this country, certain EU migrants qualify for the full range of benefits enjoyed by a UK citizen.
Which is why an unemployed Pole explained to me that he is hardly likely to return home if he finds himself out of work. Not when benefits in Poland are half what they are in Britain.
Politicians treat the welfare state as if it is an elastic band, able to stretch to fit all newcomers. They have not appreciated a fact understood by the ordinary voter: this elastic band has a painful twang.
One person’s gain is another’s loss. And this loss is being felt right across Britain’s overstretched public services.
For example, one school I visited used to boast an excellent initiative for its white working-class boys — the lowest achieving group in the country. The boys responded enthusiastically.
Even so, the scheme had to be scrapped. The number of immigrant children arriving in that school had shot up in two years from 0 per cent to 10 per cent of the school population.
Money and time spent on those local boys now had to go on language lessons for the new arrivals. Nor is this a unique case. The Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration has found that councils around the country are struggling to cope with a surge of applications to primary schools ‘as a direct result of mass immigration’.
Local authorities in parts of London, the West Midlands and south-west England were forced to install mobile classrooms and educate children in church halls last year because of the shortage of space.
One caller to a recent radio phone-in described the choice facing her daughter in their West London catchment area — one school where one-third of the pupils are refugees, one school where up to a quarter have learning difficulties and one school where Arabic is the first language.
There is an excellent Church of England school, but that is monopolised by middle-class families.
Then, there is the effect immigration has had on the NHS. Of course emergency treatment should be available to anyone in this country. But immigration has placed an intolerable pressure on healthcare.
First, it is the sheer numbers of people who have become entitled to treatment — not only those on work permits and student visas of more than six months, but their dependents, too.
Anyone — ranging from a grandmother, parent or spouse — that an immigrant student or worker can support is entitled to free healthcare. To make matters worse, a large number of immigrants come from countries where TB, hepatitis B and HIV are endemic.
They are contagious, life-threatening diseases. HIV and hepatitis B require expensive treatment for life.
A shocking 70 per cent of all cases of TB occur in immigrants, at an estimated cost to the NHS of £42million a year. And 95 per cent of all new cases of hepatitis B in this country came from abroad.
Yet not one of the party leaders has been prepared to raise immigration during the election campaign — and when the three party leaders tackled the issue during Thursday night’s TV debate, there was very little honesty.HIV, too, has become a disease that is affecting one part of the community far more than others.
As one doctor in a sexual health clinic remarked, ‘95 per cent of our patients are now heterosexual and from Africa’.
Faced with this unprecedented demand on resources, doctors complained in a report to Parliament that all patients were waiting ‘unacceptably long’.
Yet the NHS makes little attempt to check if people are entitled to free healthcare, as I discovered when I spent a morning sitting with the A&E receptionist of an inner-city hospital.
Receptionists are supposed to ask every new patient if they have lived in the UK for more than 12 months. But few I witnessed bothered.
One official, whose job it is to try to recoup payment from those not entitled to free care, admitted: ‘Half of my receptionists feel uncomfortable asking where a patient has come from.’ I told him: ‘I bet, though, that they wouldn’t feel awkward standing at Gatwick Airport, for example, and handing £1,000 to every foreign visitor?’ ‘No, they would not!’
An A&E manager pointed out: ‘Relatives of families already living here fly over and use their uncle or cousin’s address to gain free NHS care. Some with chronic conditions come backwards and forwards on six-month visas for treatment. The abuse is blatant.’
A second A&E manager explained the consequences: ‘At the same time as so much money is being spent on treating foreigners, I can’t afford to take on more nurses or even an extra porter because there is not enough in the kitty. It’s a can of worms that no one wants to deal with.’
Indeed it is. But the problems caused by immigration do not stop with its effect on employment, schooling and healthcare.
Social housing is another area of tension. Like welfare payments, social housing is a scarce resource. The number of council homes has actually decreased from 4.4 million to 3.9million in the past ten years.
Over the same period, immigration has added three million to the population. Yet the Government has made no provision for this increase. The result is predictable. The waiting list for social housing has shot up in the six years to 2008 by 80 per cent.
By 2011, an estimated two million will be waiting for a council home. According to the pressure group MigrationWatch, the proportion of foreign-born people in social housing has increased by 54 per cent.
This is because qualification for social housing is based on need — and this is often judged by the size of families. Families with more children get higher priority — regardless of how long they’ve lived in the community. According to the Office for National Statistics, women born in Pakistan and now living in the UK have an average of 4.7 children.
Mothers born in the UK have on average just 1.6. This is the reason why social housing appears to favour recent immigrants. What all this has done to communities is clear from a report from the Young Foundation — a Left-leaning group who repeated a social study they had first conducted in Bethnal Green, East London, 50 years ago.
In 2006 they returned to the area and were taken aback by the changes. A social housing policy, introduced in the Seventies on the basis of ‘need’, had replaced the white working-class family structures with Bangladeshi families.
Instead of living close to their parents, white families had to move out to Essex, where social housing was available. I saw the effects of this government policy when I visited a primary school in the area.
On the wall hung school photos, past and present. There was one glaring difference.
All the children 50 years ago were white. All the children in the recent photo were not.
Where had the descendants of those white children gone, I wondered? In another country, one would presume some terrible ethnic cleansing had taken place. In the UK, it goes by another name — multiculturalism.
It is certainly not the immigrants themselves who are to blame — the majority have come here to work and are contributing to this country — it is the sheer numbers who have been allowed in thanks to New Labour’s border policy.
What’s worse, as a Freedom of Information request recently uncovered, this policy was implemented in the hope that it would have a direct political benefit to Labour, since first-generation immigrants are more likely to vote with the Left.
In other words, Labour has put party interests above the very people it is meant to represent — the working-class voters, like Gillian Duffy, who were once the backbone of the Labour movement.
Yet not one of the party leaders has been prepared to raise immigration during the election campaign — and when the three party leaders tackled the issue during Thursday night’s TV debate, there was very little honesty.
Otherwise, all debate about this profoundly important issue has been stifled. In this political vacuum, radio phone-ins and online forums are one of the few outlets where open discussion on immigration is taking place.
Take the following contribution to a newspaper website discussion. ‘Why am I anxious about being English in England? Maybe it’s because I feel my culture no longer exists
‘It has been replaced by a concoction of foreign cultures, of which English is only a small part. Maybe it’s because it makes me feel my culture has no worth or place any more. Like it’s illegitimate. Someone has to do something.’
No doubt Gordon Brown would dismiss the author as a Right-wing bigot. In fact, it was left by a Guardian reader.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
USA: Catholic Church Facilitates Foreign Invasion
The controversy over Arizona’s immigration law should be used to highlight the shameful role of the Roman Catholic Church in facilitating the foreign invasion of the U.S. This scandal deserves as much attention as the seemingly never-ending cases of sexual child abuse involving priests.
In a major embarrassment for followers of the U.S. Catholic Church, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles compared Arizona’s new law to “German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques.” He actually wrote this on his personal blog, under the headline, “Arizona’s Dreadful Anti-Immigrant Law.”
Mahony is described by the Los Angeles Times as “a nationally influential figure who heads the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese with 4.3 million members.” In other words, he is not a fringe player. Indeed, he is typical of Catholic Church leaders.
Why do Catholic officials want to encourage illegal immigration? The answer is quite simple. Most of the illegal aliens are Catholics. Plus, the church makes lots of government money by hosting and serving the immigrants.
These facts are considered by some to be anti-Catholic, which is why you seldom read or hear about them in the major media. But the fact is that millions of American Catholics are disgusted and outraged by the Catholic hierarchy’s statements and antics on this issue. They are organizing across the country.
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In a major decision this week, the Supreme Court ruled that a Christian cross could remain on public land, despite the so-called separation of church and state. It has become a national controversy. But where is the debate or discussion over the Catholic Bishops getting $51 million a year from the government? A lot of that money is being used to cater to immigrants, legal and illegal. These immigrants, in turn, go to church, contribute to the collection plate, and vote the way the liberal priests and bishops dictate.
In short, the evidence shows that the Catholic Church hierarchy has become an agent of the government in facilitating a foreign invasion of the United States. There is no other way to describe it.
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Russell makes the case that current religious attitudes toward immigration “did not evolve slowly and authentically from traditional Christianity, but rather have been assiduously advanced by radical intellectuals, both Protestant and Catholic, whose goals have been primarily political, and have run counter to the best interests of the vast majority of native-born American citizens.”
The hijacking of the Catholic Church by Marxist elements is now front and center. Who in the major media has the courage and guts to write about it?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
USA: Amnesty Agenda Exposed
Tom Tancredo talks of 2 lies perpetuated in wake of Arizona illegals law
Today is May Day, a traditional day of celebration for Marxists and leftists around the world. The Soviet Union used to have a big parade of military might on May Day. The American left is holding rallies across the country to denounce the racism and bigotry of an entire state, Arizona.
Arizona is again leading the way in efforts to control illegal immigration, and once again, the amnesty lobby is having a nervous breakdown.
This isn’t the first time we have witnessed such obnoxious and arrogant behavior by the amnesty lobby. In 2004, Arizona passed a law by a referendum ballot to deny welfare benefits to illegal aliens. We saw the same slanders and name-calling directed against it. But the clamor slowly evaporated as the new law was upheld in state and federal courts. In that 2004 ballot election, neither the critics nor the media bothered to mention that 56 percent of Hispanic voters in Arizona supported the measure.
So, here we go again. While the protest scenario is familiar, this time the protests are even more hysterical because this time the stakes are higher. The Arizona law has been adopted at the same time the Obama administration is backpedaling on its promise of amnesty legislation in this session of Congress. The amnesty lobby sees its opportunity slipping away, and they are throwing a hissy fit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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