1 Out of Every 4 Greeks “Suffering”, Poll
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 29 — The percentage of Greeks considering their lives so difficult as to call themselves “suffering” has more than tripled in the past four years, from 7% in 2007 to 24% this year. Currently one out of every four Greeks, on the basis of the definitions used by statistics agencies, is in a state of “suffering”, but what is even worse is that they are certain their situation will not be changing any time soon. This is the result of a Gallup poll which, when carrying out surveys on the economic welfare of a nation, classifies the situation of those interview as “prosperous”, “difficult” or “suffering”. A definition is assigned according to both how they see their current situation and how they see their future one on a scale of 1 to 10 based on a model called “self-anchoring scale” drawn up in 1965 by the US sociologist Hadley Cantril. The current welfare level of Greeks is low and compared to that of other developed countries where the level of prosperity is usually higher than that of suffering. The results in the survey on Greece are based on polls conducted in April and May, the months prior to the most serious street protests against the austerity measures brought in by the Athens government in the attempt to bring about an economic recovery for the country. Even the current assessment of the quality of life for Greeks — “prosperous” for 14%, “difficult” for 62% and “suffering” for 24% — is low compared with estimates this year for other European countries. A larger number of Greeks are today considered “suffering” compared with other European citizens, including those in countries which have also been hit hard by the economic crisis, such as Italy and Ireland. The level of “suffering” is higher only in Hungary (29%), Romania (30%) and Bulgaria (42%). The decrease in Greek welfare — as was underscored by the Gallup poll — reflects the effects of three years of severe economic difficulties for the population. During this period the Greek government approved a series of ever stricter austerity measures in an attempt to manage the crisis. However, the sharp budget and services cuts, an increase in taxes and lay-offs in the public sector have deeply shaken Greek society and are fostering ever more angry public protests. And so, in contrast with those questioned by Gallup in other European and non-European countries, Greeks are more likely to expect a worsening in their quality of life over the next five years. In fact, on the basis of the figures available for 2011, in the average outlook for quality of life, the level of Greeks is not only one of the lowest in Europe but also one of the lowest in the world. While two years ago (in 2009) Greeks were already feeling the effects of the economic crisis and assessed the quality of their present and future lives worse than they had in 2007, a majority of those questioned said that they believed that over the following five years their situation would have improved.
However, last year — reported Gallup — with the worsening of the crisis, Greeks’ expectations for improvement in the near future disappeared and today they are more pessimistic than ever since the quality of their lives is the same as that of much less developed countries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Debt Why Europe is Right and Obama is Wrong
A Commentary by Michael Sauga
US President Barack Obama has recently suggested that Europe must take on more debt to stimulate the economy. Such reliance on cheap money, though, is what got us into the current crisis in the first place — both in Europe and in the US. America’s problem isn’t too little money. It’s a lack of competitive products.
“The Broken Jug” is one of the most frequently performed plays in German theater. With the village judge Adam, who passes judgment on a crime he committed himself, Heinrich von Kleist created one of the classic comedic figures of world literature.
US President Barack Obama currently seems to be portraying a modern version of Kleist’s village judge. He is increasingly vocal in his criticism of Europeans for supposedly having exacerbated the ongoing economic crisis with their caution. His audience, however, seems to sense that the plight Obama is lamenting originated in his own country.
It stems from a doctrine that has dominated economic thought for the last two decades and consists of two elements: turbo-capitalism, whose only tenet is that any regulation of financial markets inhibits growth, and its more accommodating but no less dangerous brother, turbo-Keynesianism.
American economists, central bankers and fiscal policy makers have reinterpreted British economist John Maynard Keynes’s clever idea that government spending is the best way to counteract a serious economic downturn — and have turned it into a permanent prescription. In their version of the Keynesian theory, declining growth or tumbling stock prices should prompt central banks to lower interest rates and governments to come to the rescue with economic stimulus programs. US economists call this “kick-starting” the economy.
Laying the Groundwork for the Next Crash
The only problem is that this method of encouraging growth has not stimulated the US economy in recent years, but in fact has put it on a crash course. From the Asian economic crisis to the Internet and subprime mortgage bubbles, economic stimulus programs by monetary and fiscal policy makers have regularly laid the groundwork for the next crash instead of encouraging sustainable growth. In the last decade, the volume of lending in the United States grew five times as fast as the real economy.
Cheap money created the fertilizer for the excesses of the US financial industry. Low interest rates seduced mortgage providers into talking even the homeless into taking out mortgages. And the same low rates made it easier for investment banks and hedge funds, using increasingly risky loan structures, to transform the once-leisurely insurance and bond markets into casinos.
Now the bubble has burst. This has not, however, prompted the US government to conclude that its prescriptions could have been wrong. On the contrary, now it wants to increase the dose. Obama plans to follow the largely unsuccessful 2008 economic stimulus program with a new program this year. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says that he intends to flood the economy with cheap liquidity — for years, if necessary.
The real problem, though, is a different one. The US economy doesn’t lack money. Rather, it lacks products that can compete in the global marketplace. The country has a deep trade deficit, yet the Obama administration is borrowing money at the same rate as near-bankrupt Greece…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bad News From Athens: Greek Budget Figures Complicate Bailout Efforts
The Greek economy is still shrinking — and will continue to do so through next year, the country’s Finance Ministry announced on Monday. In addition to missing its deficit targets, the continued contraction has multiplied doubts as to the wisdom of saving Greece at all.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Banking Crisis Set to Trigger New Credit Crunch
The global financial system is on the edge of a new credit crunch as the cost of insuring the bonds of banks across the world hits new highs, analysts have said.
Credit default swaps on lenders as far afield as China and Australia, countries that until recently seemed immune to the chaos, have doubled in the last two months to levels not seen since the financial crisis. In Europe, French and Belgian government officials are due to meet on Monday to discuss the crisis enveloping Dexia as speculation mounts about a possible break-up of the Franco-Belgian lender.
Last week, the cost of insuring Dexia bonds hit an all-time high of 900 basis points, nearly double the level just two months ago, meaning the annual cost to insure €10m (£8.59m) of the bonds is £900,000. “The money ran out in June and what you are seeing now is the beginning of a new credit crunch, except this time it will be truly global, not Western,” said one senior London-based credit analyst.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Endangering Europe: Berlusconi Locked in Risky Vendetta With Minister
The Italian government is struggling to fend off a financial crisis but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Finance Finister Guilio Tremonti have descended into a personal feud that is putting not just the country, but all of Europe, at risk. If the minister were to quit, the markets would erupt in turmoil.
“He wants to drag me through the mud,” fumed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, referring to his Economy and Finance Minister, Giulio Tremonti. If it weren’t for this “storm” on the financial markets, he would have fired him long ago, Berlusconi added. “The sooner he leaves, the better!”
A chorus of cabinet ministers loyal to Berlusconi has chimed in to rail against Tremonti, saying it’s impossible to work with him. “He wants to get rid of me?” Tremonti shot back. “Well let him chase me off, see if he manages that!”
Italian newspapers have been giving blow-by-blow coverage of the war raging between the two political heavyweights for weeks, during which time the prime minister and his finance minister have only been talking about — not to — each other. Two versions of the urgently needed growth and reform program are being drafted: one in Berlusconi’s Chigi Palace, the other in Tremonti’s ministry. They aren’t coordinating their work. Neither side knows what the other is up to.
This Roman operetta wouldn’t warrant much attention it weren’t so potentially damaging. But much is at stake, not just for Italy, but for all of Europe. Italy’s debt problems have given the crisis a potentially disastrous new dimension. The country has a gigantic debt burden and its economy is shrinking. The government needs to walk a tightrope between imposing radical savings and boosting economic growth. It if slips up, Italy will suffer a fiasco and pull the rest of Europe down with it. But Berlusconi has chosen this, of all times, to wage a bitter campaign against his finance minister. He is exacerbating the crisis.
Last weekend the long-simmering dispute escalated. Tremonti was attending top-level meetings of the International Monetary Fund and G20 in Washington where officials were looking for ways out of the global financial crisis. But while he was deep in discussion about bailout funds for banks and high-debt nations, his boss back in Rome was lambasting him as “immoral” and “unworthy.” Instead of parlaying in Washington, Berlusconi seethed, Tremonti should have been in parliament in Rome helping to rescue “his friend.”
Tremonti Not Backing Down
Last Friday, the parliament voted on whether an MP, Marco Milanese, a member of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party and a close aide of Tremonti until a few weeks ago, should have his immunity lifted to allow his arrest on corruption charges. In most other European parliaments, a lawmaker accused of such serious crimes would pre-empt an immunity vote and hand himself over. In Rome it was different, as is so often the case. The request by Naples magistrates was rejected by a majority of seven votes.
What, “just seven votes?” roared an outraged Berlusconi, and was quick to find the culprit for the narrow outcome.
“This time he’s got no excuses,” Italian media cited an irate Berlusconi as telling confidants. “We’re here to work and he didn’t even see fit to show up. How can he remain in his job?” As if that weren’t enough, Berlusconi went on ranting, Tremonti had been going around telling people that he had spent three years trying to gain this government some credibility and Berlusconi had ruined its reputation in just three weeks. A monstrous accusation, Berlusconi bristled, and another reason why Tremonti should be chased out of office. If it weren’t for all the trouble with the financial markets, he would have long since told him to resign, said Berlusconi.
But Tremonti isn’t the type to back down quietly. The law professor was one of Italy’s most successful tax lawyers. He has been a member of Berlusconi’s party since 1994 and already served as economy and finance minister in the prime minister’s first cabinet. Former British Tony Blair once feted him as the “best-educated economy minister in Europe.”
His friendship with Umberto Bossi, the chairman of the right-wing Northern League, is one important tool in his political survival kit. It was Tremonti who mended a rift between Bossi and Berlusconi in 2000 and created the foundation for the current ruling coalition…
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: What is a Temporary Suspension From Work
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 29 — At this point there is no longer any doubt that during the period in which the economic crisis hit Greece, the Greek government did not succeed in drafting a valid economic plan to navigate the country towards calmer waters. But that’s not all, all this time — according to the troika (IMF, EU, ECB) — the government did absolutely nothing to move forward with any of the measures included in the medium-term economic programme agreed upon with the troika, which is why the group found itself obliged to leave Athens a month ago. For nearly two years, socialist Premier Giorgio Papandreou and his government did nothing more than chase after the first payment of the 110 billion euro tranche, finding itself forced to adopt new austerity measures every two to three months under the asphyxiating pressure of their creditors. Furthermore, Papandreou found himself forced to meet with small groups of MPs more stubborn than the ones in his own party, PASOK, to convince them to vote in favour of the new measures.
Among the measures insisted upon by troika representatives and included in the medium-term economic programme is also a provision that the government must reduce the state budget by cutting public spending and reducing the number of civil servants. The troika’s proposal involved laying off an unspecified number of government employees (numbers in the order of 100,000 have been mentioned). At this point, PASOK’s government found itself faced with a dilemma: they either had to satisfy the troika’s request or sack a small number of civil servants, leaving the public sector built upon favouritism intact. The government decided to adopt a proposal put forward by main right-wing political party Nea Dimocratia (ND), the so-called “temporary suspension from work” of excess personnel in state-run enterprises. The plan’s first phase involved the suspension of nearly 30,000 employees for a 12-month period. During this span of time, all “suspended” workers would receive 60% of their salary, while those who managed to find a job in another state-run enterprise would have their salary guaranteed, or otherwise would be laid off.
According to initial calculations, about 7500 public sector workers would have lost their jobs over the span of 12 months. According to several dailies, this measure (conceived, as it was mentioned earlier, by ND, which had not included the layoffs added by the government) was not at all to the liking of troika representatives or many ministers in the euroarea because it was seen as “insufficient”. The initiative did not apply the required number of layoffs, and was also seen as an outrageous ruse by the government in Athens so they would not alienate the massive public sector and the reservoir of votes that it represents.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Papandreou Focuses on Privatisation, Energy and East
(ANSAmed) — BERLIN, SEPTEMBER 27 — An ambitious privatisation plan, the development of renewable energy, and an opening up to the east are the strong points for Greece’s future, said the country’s prime minister George Papandreou today in Berlin in speaking at a meeting of the German employers’ union. German chancellor Angela Merkel will also soon be speaking at the meeting, and will be having dinner this evening with Papandreou in the Chancellery to face up to the economic situation in the country. “There are many traditional strong points which have been lost,” the Greek prime minister said, “and the time has come to re-invent them. This year we have seen 5 million tourists, and we are moving forward on an ambitious privatisation programme. “Citing the Athens airport as an example, Papandreou said that “30% of the shares will be put up for sale.” He then insisted on the “Greece’s traditional presence in the naval transport sector,” and noted that Greek ports are “the ideal hubs for going east. China, India, Korea, Australia, Brazil and even Argentina have expressed interest in a partnership. We are also negotiating with a Qatar interested in investment in the banking sector, and in many others.” “In Germany,” he said in addressing the Germans, “you have shown us the way for alternative energy development, and one of our most ambitious programmes is called Helios. Greece can export solar energy to countries like Germany thanks to a factor which is often taken for granted: the sun shines in Greece. This could be a winning project for both.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: 2 out of 3 Greeks Believe Insolvency Inevitable
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 3 — Over two thirds of Greeks (67.3%) believe that Greece will not manage to stave off insolvency. This was shown in a quick poll conducted yesterday evening by Kapa Research immediately after the announcement of the latest austerity measures by the government, including the go-ahead for the placing of 30,000 state employees on the redundancy fund, who in a year are to be laid off. The poll, carried out on behalf of the weekly To Vima (The Tribune), also shows that while two out of three Greeks are pessimistic about their country’s future, 23.3% instead believe that Greece will manage to exit the crisis and 9.4% did not express an opinion. Moreover, 70.5% of Greeks also say they are in favour of keeping the country in the eurozone, compared with the 19.7% who would prefer to go back to the drachma. Were Greece not to manage to avoid insolvency, 62.4% say they would prefer a controlled insolvency while remaining in the eurozone, 15.5% insolvency while remaining in the eurozone and the same percentage (15.5%) total insolvency with an exit from the eurozone. In the eyes of 75.3% of those questioned, the latest tax on real estate is “a mistake”, while 20.9% consider it “unjust but necessary”. Agreeing with the reform calling for restructuring of the public sector and mergers of state agencies are 90.7%, while 83% back the setting up of a single office tasked exclusively with the payment of state employee salaries, According to 81% of Greeks, structural reforms, privatisations and the liberalisation of closed professions must be brought in immediately.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel and the Euro: Is Germany’s Finance Minister Going Rogue?
He used to be regarded as Germany’s safest pair of hands when it comes to the euro crisis. Now, criticism of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is growing within the government parties. Some believe that Schäuble wants to exploit the crisis to push through his vision of a United States of Europe.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Welfare Benefits to Cost Councils €669m in 2011
Wednesday 21 September 2011
The total bill for welfare benefits (bijstand) is set to reach €669m this year, well above earlier estimates, according to the local authorities’ organisation VNG.
Local councils are responsible for paying welfare benefits and it had been thought this year’s total would reach €500m. The rise is because the cabinet has underestimated the number of people making claims, the VNG says.
It wants parliament to put pressure on the government to carry out independent research into the size of the welfare budget.
Yesterday it emerged that the number of poor pensioners claiming welfare top-ups has more than doubled in 10 years.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Rescuing the Euro: The Fatal Mistakes of Berlin’s Bailout Strategy
The German parliament is set to approve the expansion of the enormous euro rescue package next week. But this will be a fatal mistake. There is only one reasonable solution to Europe’s debt crisis — and it also happens to be much cheaper.
It was no surprise that Standard & Poor’s downgraded Italy’s credit rating this week. The decision made Europe’s debt strategy only slightly less credible. But does the government in Berlin still believe the European debt crisis can be solved with ever bigger rescue packages?
Seldom have German politicians seemed as directionless as they do in the euro crisis. Never before has Berlin made such serious and costly mistakes, racking up as many errors as they did with their grand plans for Europe.
They want to establish the unity of the continent — but are nurturing fear and anger in donor and recipient countries alike. They want to sustain the homogenous single currency area — but are doing everything possible to deepen the divide in the euro zone. They want to safeguard Germany’s competitive edge — but are undermining its future financial viability with unimaginable burdens.
The first mistake begins with the terminology. The talk is and always has been of a “euro crisis.” The chancellor has even made the nonsensical claim that “if the euro fails, Europe fails.” It is actually possible to talk a currency into crisis and ruin.
Where, pray tell, is this supposed euro crisis? It seems that many politicians, journalists and researchers no longer distinguish between federal budgets and the money supply through issuing banks. What we are seeing is a crushing sovereign debt crisis, not a currency crisis. The intrinsic value of the euro — despite the talk about the dangers of massive inflation — is as stable as that of many other currencies.
The external value naturally suffers from the never-ending chatter about a crisis, though. Some EU investors have fled in panic to the supposed safety of Switzerland, thus providing for a depreciation of the euro against the Swiss franc. But compared to the dollar, still the dominant world currency, the exchange rate has remained stable. Measured in terms of purchasing power, the euro is even overvalued against the US currency.
Acts of Desperation
We are witnessing a debacle of state debt accumulation. And this is not only a European phenomenon, but a global one. For many years, one could only wonder at how private individuals and financial institutions were willing to entrust their money to governments whose debts had long been considered non-refundable. In this debt world, finance ministers were celebrated when the new debt they took on was less than the previous year. That the total debt would continue to rise was, and is, self-evident.
Now the investors — and not sinister “speculators” — are ready to prepare an end to this mismanagement by refusing further credit. Rightly so. We should thank them for this insight, even if it has come rather late.
But what are the self-annointed euro rescuers in the central governments doing? Mistake number two: Those countries which still enjoy good ratings think they need to rescue those with bad credit through fresh lending. They are thus violating the founding treaty of the euro zone, which excludes such aid.
So-called stability facilities are being contrived to communitarize the new debt. Then the European Central Bank jumps in. Likewise, in gross contract violations, it buys government bonds and in doing so damages its most important asset —credibility.
And what results from these desperate acts, which German politicians are actively involved with, or at least accept with a shrug?
In the case of a fundamentally competitive Ireland, they essentially want to build a bridge to better times. But with Portugal, this is already doubtful. And in the case of Greece, according to all financial calculations, it is impossible for the economically moribund country to escape bankruptcy, even with a mixture of new debt and crushing reforms. Meanwhile no one in charge wants to discuss what would happen if investors decide to shun Italy, which is at even greater risk…
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Church and Mosque Join Forces to Feed Flood Victims
ROTTERDAM JUNCTION — There’s been so much hardship and heartache since Tropical Storm Irene.
One silver lining though, the devastation has brought people together in a heart-warming way. We’ve seen signs of this every day since the storm. On Saturday, members of a church and a mosque joined forces to feed people cleaning up in Schenectady County. A little over a month after Tropical Storm Irene wreaked havoc in the Capital Region, residents affected by massive flooding continue to pick up the pieces of their lives and rebuild. The waters have receded in Rotterdam Junction, but help from the community has not dried up.
“The community has been about the best thing going. Everybody has pitched in,” says Jan Hunter, a flood victim.
Hunter has a crew working on her home that was flooded on route 5S. Noon time Saturday and lunch was delivered to her doorstep for everyone. “They brought in lunch today, which has been wonderful.” says Hunter. The delivery came from a group of volunteers, donating their time, trying to make sure those who were affected by flooding, don’t have to worry about putting food on the table. “We have people in need. Some of us who were fortunate we didn’t lose anything, we’re coming together to help those who have,” says Joann canary. Canary started what she called the “Sandwich Brigade” a week ago, delivering fresh sandwiches to homeowners. This weekend, she and her church joined forces with the Bait Ul Noor Mosque in Rotterdam Junction to feed even more people. “How could you look at a neighbor struggling and not want to jump in and help. We’re part of this community and we consider it a great honor that we’re able to do something today,” says Tahira Khan. Khan brought a mixture of Indian food and sandwiches from Subway. The volunteers then filled up four cars with the goodies — driving to four different spots in Rotterdam Junction to hand them out. “It’s tough times around here. I want to see them all get back,” says Canary. As you can tell, it’s all turning personal to the volunteers. While they haven’t been affected, they all know someone who have or have become friends with the victims.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Islam-Inspired Comic Superheroes, Lauded by Obama, Head to US
Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — Even U.S. President Barack Obama took notice of them. Now, New Yorkers may do, too, as the Arab world’s first superheroes make their screen debut at the New York Film Festival. Naif Al-Mutawa yesterday presented “THE 99,” his series starring supernatural characters. His creations have also appeared as comics, alongside Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. They are based on the 99 attributes of Allah mentioned in the Koran, such as wisdom, generosity and tolerance. Batina, which stands for the Hidden, is a Burqa-wearing character from Yemen, while Hazel-eyed Widad, or the Loving, has long lustrous brown hair and originates from the Philippines. The giant Jabbar, or the Powerful, is a native of Saudi Arabia and resembles the Hulk. His sneeze can bring down a house and his touch can shatter a brick. These are some of Al-Mutawa’s heroes on a mission to conquer evil.
“It was about creating positive role models for my kids that are based on our culture but are universal in nature,” Al- Mutawa says in an interview. “It doesn’t matter what religion you are, it doesn’t matter if you have a religion — they are basic human values.” The 40-year-old clinical psychologist from Kuwait says he came up with the idea in 2003 while in a London cab. It’s all about “secularizing religious content”, he says. Western heroes such as Batman and Superman are based on biblical archetypes, and he wanted to create the same from the Muslims’ holy book, he says.
Twin Towers
It was also an attempt to alter the global perception of Islam, following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York in 2001. The comics have made a “dent” in how the religion is perceived globally, he says. “If you get bitten by a snake you become afraid of rope,” Al-Mutawa says. “Our message keeps getting tied to bombs and guns. My thinking was if I go back to the same place where the bad guys pulled their messages and in their place put tolerant multicultural messages, they just become bad guys with bad ideas and you delink them from the religion.” In his April 2010 speech at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, Obama praised “THE 99” and its creator for spreading tolerance, saying the comic books were “most innovative” and “captured the imagination of so many young people.”
Prisoner Torture
Al-Mutawa, who has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University, worked with former prisoners of war in Kuwait and survivors of political torture at in Bellevue Hospital in New York. Helping people who have been prosecuted because of their religious and political beliefs led him to the project. “I heard too many stories of people growing up to idealize their leaders as heroes only to be tortured by them,” Al-Mutawa says in an interview in Dubai before travelling to New York. A total of 26 half-hour episodes was created out of Al- Mutawa’s comics with the help of entertainment company Endemol, a writer in Hollywood, and production by a U.K. company and India’s Sanraa Media. The sequence of four TV series, which are being translated into various languages, is showing in New York. Discovery Channel bought the rights for the series in the U.S., Cartoon Network in Asia and MBC in the Middle East.
Like all superheroes, there’s a big market for merchandise. Al-Mutawa is looking for the right partners to create a feature film and games. The first theme park based on the characters was developed in Kuwait and talks are continuing on a second park in an Arab Gulf country, he says, declining to be more specific. Promoting the series, let alone making a feature film, will not be the easiest task for Al-Mutawa, who said he was accused of radicalizing kids and trying to spread shari’ah law through “THE 99.” Wearing jeans and a black jacket, he speaks at an art gallery showing his TV shows before the festival. With a documentary film on the making of “THE 99” planned for release on Oct. 13 in the U.S., Al-Mutawa says he hopes people will realize “we are not the bad guys.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Marchionne Risks Arbitration With Chrysler Workers
Detroit, 3 Oct. (AKI/Bloomberg) — Chrysler chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne is pressing the United Auto Workers union for a cheaper contract than his rivals, taking a hard-line stance that may push the talks into arbitration.
Marchionne wrote a letter criticizing UAW president Bob King for his efforts. When talks have stumbled, he has declared new deadlines, rather than open-ended extensions. And now, he wants to remove a cap on the number of entry-level workers, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
“He has taken a harder line and Chrysler is in a different situation because their balance sheet isn’t as beautiful and the profits haven’t started to fall in,” said Kristin Dziczek, a labour analyst with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
After winning concessions in Italy at Fiat, which owns a majority of Chrysler, Marchionne is seeking to repeat his success in America — even with the threat of binding arbitration that may increase the automaker’s labor costs. New contracts at General Motors and Ford Motor, whose average pay is already higher than Chrysler’s, may be used as the benchmark in any proceedings, said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
“He’s rolling the dice,” Shaiken said. “There will be a precedent set at two companies with similar circumstances.”
The UAW contracts with GM, Ford and Chrysler have traditionally followed a pattern of wages and benefits set by the first company to reach a deal. The union agreed not to strike Chrysler or GM as part of the U.S. government-backed bankruptcy reorganizations, allowing unresolved difference to be settled in binding arbitration.
GM’s new four-year contract was approved by union members, the UAW said 28 September, and Ford talks have been productive, union leaders have said.
Marchionne took over Chrysler when Fiat gained control of the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based company in the 2009 bankruptcy. Under him, the No. 3 US automaker has lowered its break-even point to 1.5 million vehicle sales and has forecast its first annual profit since the restructuring this year, with earnings of 200 million dollars to 500 million dollars, excluding some expenses.
Marchionne wants to ensure fixed costs don’t increase beyond 2015 by eliminating a cap on the number of workers he can pay entry-level wages, said two people who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. A cap of 25 percent is scheduled to go into effect in 2015. The entry-level assembler wage is 14.89 dollars to 16.28 dollars an hour at Chrysler, according to the company, compared with 28.31 dollars for the so-called tier-one wage.
Under the 2007 contract that allowed for hiring of the lower-paid workers, when an automaker surpasses 25 percent of the workforce on the lower second tier wage, the company must move some to the first-tier wage, Dziczek said. Those workers, however, would maintain their second-tier benefits, which don’t include a defined pension plan or access to retiree health care coverage. The cap was lifted through 2015 as part of the bankruptcy agreement, UAW leaders said.
“The UAW will fight hard to maintain that ladder to the first tier for second-tier workers,” Dziczek said. “That’s key to why the union agreed to the second tier in the first place.”
Chrysler, which had 43 percent fewer hourly workers at the end of 2010 than 2007, cut deeper during the recession than its US competitors and has rehired more people at the so-called second-tier wage.
About 12 percent to 14 percent of Chrysler’s hourly workers are at the entry-level wage while at GM it is less than 3 percent and Ford has fewer than 100.
Eliminating the cap on second-tier workers, as Marchionne is seeking, would get the contract voted down by Chrysler’s workers, said Art Schwartz, president of Labor & Economics Associates in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a former GM labor negotiator.
“The ladder to the first tier is a core issue for the UAW,” Schwartz said. “To wipe out that pathway would not go over well with the membership.”
Chrysler also doesn’t want to give a signing bonus as large as the 5,000- dollar -a-worker payout in the GM-UAW contract, three people familiar with the talks said. Chrysler is pushing for signing bonuses of 3,500 dollars, two of the people said.
“We and GM are completely different,” Marchionne told reporters Sept. 19 in Turin, Italy.
Marchionne is known in Europe for his tough labor stance, often clashing publicly with Italian unions, said Arthur Wheaton, a Cornell University labor expert.
“He is an extremely good negotiator,” he said.
Marchionne is playing the UAW off the Italian unions, who have fought his efforts to implement new cost savings, Wheaton said. “‘Whipsawing’ is the term,” he said. “He can use Chrysler against Fiat.”
Marchionne reached three labor agreements in less than a year as part of his strategy of raising productivity at Turin, Italy-based Fiat’s domestic plants. The deals at all three factories include measures to limit strikes and curtail absenteeism.
Fiat also won the approval to introduce longer shifts and operate the factories on a six-day workweek. In addition to extra hours, workers get shorter breaks and postpone lunch until the end of a shift.
The changes at Mirafiori, Fiat’s oldest plant, in January were won with a 54 percent majority and set a milestone in Italian labor relations.
While Marchionne had threatened publicly to shift work overseas, he promised 1.3 billion dollars in investment if the changes were approved. Part of that investment involved building Alfa Romeo and Jeep sport-utility vehicles at the plant.
Fiat is now considering shifting those from its Mirafiori plant to North America and building a small car at the factory instead, a person familiar with the matter said in August.
“My suspicion is that Marchionne is proposing to the UAW to boost car production in North America, possibly moving the Alfa and Jeep SUV planned in Turin, as he can’t match GM and Ford in term of wage increases,” Giuseppe Berta, a professor at Milan’s Bocconi University, said. “He can guarantee continuity of production in the U.S. with new models, initially destined for Italian plants.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Media Silence is Deafening About Important Gun News
Murder and violent crime rates were supposed to soar after the Supreme Court struck down gun control laws in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Politicians predicted disaster. “More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence,” Washington’s Mayor Adrian Fenty warned the day the court made its decision.
Chicago’s Mayor Daley predicted that we would “go back to the Old West, you have a gun and I have a gun and we’ll settle it in the streets . . . .”
The New York Times even editorialized this month about the Supreme Court’s “unwise” decision that there is a right for people “to keep guns in the home.”
But Armageddon never happened. Newly released data for Chicago shows that, as in Washington, murder and gun crime rates didn’t rise after the bans were eliminated — they plummeted. They have fallen much more than the national crime rate.
Not surprisingly, the national media have been completely silent about this news.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Series on Islam, Muslims Continues
AMESBURY — The Amesbury Friends Peace Center is presenting a series of programs on Islam this fall to educate members and the community on the topics of Muslims and Islam.
“We’re very concerned how Muslims are treated in this country,” said member Sam Baily of Newburyport. “Read any newspaper and you’ll see there are issues.” Baily said he hopes the series educates people on what Islam is, so people can have an intelligent response when conversations arise. The Amesbury Friends Peace Center is an outreach project of the Amesbury Quaker Meeting. “We do what we can to further peace,” Baily said.
The series started with a discussion on Karen Armstrong’s book, “Muhammad: A Prophet for our Times,” on Tuesday. The remaining events include a visit to the Roxbury Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center on Oct. 7 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The tour will include a guided tour and talk, the religious service and lunch. Those who are interested should contact Annie Tunstall at 978-388-9774 or atspiralj@verizon.net. On Oct. 23 and Nov. 20, two discussions will be held. The Oct. 23 session, “An Introduction to Islam,” will include Tarek El Heneidy and other speakers. The Nov. 20 session, “Muslims in America Today,” will feature a panel of Muslim men and women. Both sessions will allow plenty of time for questions and answers. Both events and free and will be held at the Amesbury Friends Meeting House on Friend Street.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Soros-Funded Group Behind Course for Journalists That Downplays ‘Jihad’
Program launched to teach press about Muslim sensitivities blames ‘right-wing activists.
A new course on Islam designed for journalists tries to minimize the impact and importance of “jihad” by comparing it to the number of murders in America each year. That same course claims “right-wing activists” tried to tie American Muslims to terrorism and doesn’t mention examples of Islamic attacks on press freedom.
The George Soros-funded Social Science Research Council, which received $50,000 from the Open Society Institute “For Initiative on HIV/AIDS and Social Transformation,” is one of the groups behind the initiative, along with the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.
Besides learning basic facts about Muslims and their history, the course adds ways to put “jihad” into perspective, attack conservatives, and provide a list of liberal groups that can be contacted for expert advice and quotes…
One of the more offensive statements is that “context is essential in covering this global story in a way that does not amplify fears of jihad.” Journalists “are far more likely to report on jihad-related incidents than other violence’ which gives people a “skewed impression of the prevalence of jihad.”…
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgarian Anti-Roma Protests Escalate
Bulgarian riot police were deployed on Sunday (2 October) to disperse protesters asking for the resignation of the interior minister after a week of unrest prompted by the killing of a 19-year old in a Roma village.
Hundreds of protesters rallied by the far-right Order, Law and Justice (RZS) party called for the parliament to be suspended and interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov fired for having failed to cope with the ethnic tensions that flared up after the Bulgarian youngster was run over by Roma ten days ago in Katunitsa, a village in southern Bulgaria. An angry crowd of about 2,000 people then gathered and set on fire three houses owned by the Roma leader in the village. Protests against “government inactivity” followed throughout the week, with some 5,000 football fans and students gathering in the central square of Plovdiv, the biggest town near Katsunitsa on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: New Ministers and Common Policy Presented by Coalition Gov.
Social Liberals stand out as major winners in the coalition’s common government policy
More than two weeks of secret negotiations ended last night when Helle Thorning-Schmidt met with the Queen to ask to form a government. It will be a Social Democrat, Social Liberal and Socialist People’s Party government, with the parties gaining a share of the 23 minister posts roughly according to their relative share of the vote — six each for the Social Libs and Socialist People’s Party and 11 for the Social Democrats.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
‘Dumb’ Neanderthals Likely Had a Smart Diet
Now researchers find evidence that Neanderthals may indeed have dined on a broad menu of plant and animal foods at a cave in the Rhone Valley in France. “We can now move away from this view of Neanderthals as dim-witted big game hunters,” Hardy told LiveScience. The area was excavated by Marie-Hélène Moncel at the French Institute of Human Paleontology in Paris, and her colleagues. Distinctly Neanderthal flint toolsfound at the site called Payre suggest it was used repeatedly by our extinct relatives between 125,000 and 250,000 years ago.
In addition to bones of deer, horses, cattle, rhinos and elephants, in Hardy’s analysis of 182 stone artifacts found there, he also found microscopic residues of fish scales, bird feathers and starchy plants. It remains uncertain what exactly those animals and plants might have been, although edible roots in the area included wild carrots and wild parsnips.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
EU Raid Against Gazprom Partners
Die Presse, 29 September 2011
“Power struggle over gas cartel”, headlines Die Presse on the latest clash between the Kremlin and the European Commission on energy policy. On September 27, EU officials turned up at some two dozens gas companies in 10 EU states to carry out an unusually close inspection. The aim was to reveal how the Russian energy giant Gazprom systematically violates the rules of Europe’s internal market in order to block access to smaller competitors. “To watch EU inspectors take away computers from the hands of Yury Kaluzhsky, the Russian vice-president of the EuRoPol Gaz (owned in 48% by Gazprom)…Priceless”, enthused a source for Warsaw’s Gazeta Wyborcza. If the accusation of market manipulation is confirmed, energy companies like the German RWE, or E.on face a fine of about 10 % of their annual turnover.
“Europe’s dependency on Gazprom grows”, worries GW warning that by the end of the year Gazprom will start pumping gas through Nord Stream pipeline to Germany and may soon seal its “gas monopoly” in Central Europe with the construction of the South Stream pipeline. “Where is the big surprise?”, wonders Die Presse. “For the time being, every alternative is too expensive. Climate policy forces to shut down coal power stations and the Fukushima disaster tempered the ‘nuclear renaissance’“.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Approval to Send Formal Notice Regarding Naples
( ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 29 — The European Commission decided to send Italy a formal letter of notice for the trash situation in Naples. If Italy does not comply, the next step is the EU Court of Justice and pecuniary sanctions. With this strong warning, the European Commission “is applying pressure to Italy to find efficient short and long-term solutions to manage the waste situation in Campania, a region that has been at the centre of repeated crises that have led to many concerns because for several years the situation has been endangering human and environmental health”, explained a statement. It was also mentioned that Italy “needs to conform to the 2010 ruling of the EU Court”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Dean: ‘Blow Up Unused Swedish Churches’
As the number of churchgoers in Sweden dwindles ever further, a former dean has suggested the best thing to do with the almost unused buildings is demolish them. H.B. Hammar, former dean and associate professor of ethics, writes in an opinion piece in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper, that as so many churches are used rarely if ever across the country, pulling them down entirely would cause less uproar than selling them on for speculative redevelopment. The figures are alarming, he writes.
The number of confirmations has dropped from around 80,000 in 1970, to some 35,000 today and over the same period, regular church visitors on a Sunday have slipped from nine million to about 4.6 million. Today, says Hammar of the 3,384 churches in Sweden, many are used at most, once a month. This leaves many lying empty and in great need of repair.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
First French Sentence Against Integral Veil — 2 Women Fined
(AGI) Meaux — A French court in Meaux has sentenced two women to paying a fine for having flouted the integral veil ban. The two women, covered from head to toe, were arrested on May 5 in front of the town hall, whose mayor, Jean-Francois Cope, heads the UMP, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
German Multiculturalists Declare War on Critics of Islam
by Soeren Kern
The German government is debating whether to increase surveillance of German citizens who are trying to prevent the spread of radical Islam in Germany. The move comes in reaction to a three-week-long smear campaign by members of the German mainstream media, who have been relentless in their efforts to discredit the so-called counter-jihad movement in Germany. Opinion polls show that growing numbers of Germans are worried about the consequences of decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged mass immigration from Muslim countries.
Germans are especially concerned about the refusal of millions of Muslim immigrants to integrate into German society, and about the emergence of a parallel legal system in Germany based on Islamic Sharia law. In an effort to reverse this tide of public opinion, the guardians of German multiculturalism have been working overtime to regain the initiative, mostly by trying to intimidate the critics of Islam into silence.
The media campaign has been led by the Frankfurter Rundschau, a financially troubled daily newspaper based in Frankfurt am Main, the Berliner Zeitung, and the leftwing Spiegel, a newsmagazine based in Hamburg that has long served as the mouthpiece for German multiculturalism. A particular object of wrath is a highly popular German-language Internet website called Politically Incorrect (PI), which over the years has grown into a major information resource for people concerned about the spread of Islam in Germany.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
How at Last My Fellow Italians Fell Out of Love With Silvio
di Beppe Severgnini
Italians are fantasists. Reality’s not good enough for them. In his latest novel, The Pregnant Widow, Martin Amis describes Italy in the eventful early 1970s. Forty years later, it may seem that things haven’t changed. We — Italians — have long been escapists, ruled by the ultimate political escape artist. Silvio Berlusconi is not only our longest serving postwar prime minister; he is also an illusionist, who knows his audience well. But he be may be starting to lose his touch.
Mr Berlusconi built his fortunes on our weaknesses. He is a hyper-populist — a combination of Juan Perón, Vladimir Putin and Frank Sinatra. He can sing, he can act, he can be charming and ruthless, and he knows how to talk to people who prefer face-to-face to Facebook. He told us what we wanted to hear. As details surfaced of his wild parties with young girls who used to call him “Papi”“, he explained: “I work hard and in the evening I need to unwind”. This is music to many married men’s ears. In her early days, Madonna screamed: “Papa, don’t preach!”. Well, Papi Silvio certainly doesn’t and never did…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: CEI President Bagnasco Focuses on Morality in Politics Without Naming Berlusconi
Bishops’ Barbs at PM — "More Temperance, Air Needs Purifying"
ROME — Concerning “stories that if proved indicate at several levels lifestyles difficult to reconcile with the personal dignity and the decorum of institutions and public life”, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco pointed the finger at behaviour that is “not just contrary to public decorum but intrinsically sad and vacuous”, and in recent weeks has been the subject of judicial inquiries as well as a large number of newspaper articles. The CEI president made a marked reference to current political affairs in his inaugural speech to the bishops’ permanent council. He named no names, however, nor did he so much as indirectly mention the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, whose doings nonetheless appear to be implicit in the document read to bishops from all over Italy. The cardinal’s reflection was extended to all of Italy’s politicians. “It is mortifying” he said, “to have to acknowledge this” and depressing to note “the deterioration in public behaviour and language, and the systematic reciprocal denigration, since it is public-spiritedness that is corrupted, complicating any possibility of political or any other rebirth”.
PURIFY THE AIR — “Licentious behaviour and improper relationships are in themselves negative, producing social damage quite apart from their notoriety”, Cardinal Bagnasco went on. “They pollute the air and make the common path more wearisome”. For this reason, “the air must be purified so that the new generations growing up are not poisoned”.
NOT THE FIRST TIME — Referring to the inaugural speeches in September 2009 and last January, Cardinal Bagnasco said “this is not the first time that we have had to point this out. Anyone who chooses political militancy should be aware of the temperance, sobriety, discipline and honour that it entails, as our constitution points out”. He noted that “in recent weeks, calls have come from various corners for us to make pronouncements” although in his view “in the past years the responsible voice of the Church’s magisterium has called for, and calls for, life horizons that are good, free of pansexualism and unencumbered by amoral relativism”…
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s PM Berlusconi Revives Wiretap Reform Agenda
(AGI) Rome — Addressing party audiences in northern Italy’s Cuneo, Silvio Berlusconi aired wiretap concerns. Italy, according to Berlusconi, needs to curb police wiretap operations: “if we are going to be a civilised country our citizens need to know that the state protects our privacy. People pick up the phone these days and feel the grip of a police state”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi to be Probed for Allegedly ‘Paying’ For Lies
Premier’s status set to change from ‘victim’ to ‘suspect’
(ANSA) — Rome, September 27 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s status in a case regarding his alleged use of prostitutes appears set to change from victim to suspect after a judge recommended prosecutors to put him under investigation on Tuesday.
The case revolves around large sums Berlusconi paid to Gianpaolo Tarantini, a Bari businessman suspected of providing at least 30 women to attend parties at the prime minister’s homes in Rome, Sardinia and at Arcore outside Milan.
Prosecutors had hypothesized that hundreds of thousands of euros had been extorted by Tarantini to not reveal the details of sex parties Berlusconi allegedly held in 2008 and 2009. But a judge in Naples recommended prosecutors to probe Berlusconi for allegedly inducing Tarantini to lie to magistrates Tuesday.
Berlusconi has said he made the payments simply to help Tarantini and his family in a time of need.
The premier is already under trial in Milan for allegedly paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abusing his power to cover it up.
This is one of four cases he faces in Milan. Two concern accusations of suspected fraud at his Mediaset business empire, while the other regards allegations he bribed a British tax lawyer to give false testimony in a previous corruption trial.
Berlusconi may also face a fifth trial for involvement in the publication of illegally obtained wiretaps in his brother Paolo’s conservative daily Il Giornale.
The Naples judge released from custody Tarantini, who is suspected of having recruited the women in a bid to exchange sex for public contracts after being convicted of cocaine trafficking in June, and transferred the case to Bari.
The judge also ruled that an online magazine editor, Valter Lavitola, who is abroad, should also be probed for allegedly inducing Tarantini to lie to magistrates.
Eight people have been charged for supplying prostitutes to Berlusconi in the hope of gaining jobs, contracts or other favours.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Versace Leaves PM’s Political Party in Protest
‘It’s my birthday gift to Berlusconi’, he says
(ANSA) — Rome, September 29 — One of Italy’s famous fashion names, Santo Versace, on Thursday said he had quit Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party after his coalition’s decision to back a minister with alleged links to the mafia .
“This morning I left the PDL (People of Freedom party). It is my birthday gift to Berlusconi,” Versace said in an interview with state broadcaster Radio Due.
He was referring to Berlusconi’s 75th birthday on Thursday.
“This decision was made today but it was coming for some time,” he said. “I like to work and the PdL doesn’t need anyone who works.
“On the other hand I began working in 1950, you can see I have less experience than them”. Versace, who was elected to the lower house as a PDL member in 2008, said he would now take his seat in parliament as an independent.
On Wednesday, Versace refused to back the governing coalition when it rejected an opposition no-confidence motion against Agriculture Minister Francesco Saverio Romano, who is under investigation for links to the Sicilian Mafia, the Cosa Nostra.
The motion presented by the centre-left opposition was rejected by 315 votes to 294. “I don’t want to accuse anyone and I hope he will be cleared,” Versace said. “However my Sicilian friends said to me: do what we would do, support the no-confidence vote”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Acquittal Rumours Shock Meredith’s Mother and Sister
(AGI) Perugia — “They are shocked by the insisting media rumours of a possible acquittal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito”. That’s what Francesco Maresca, lawyer of Arline and Stephanie Kercher (mother and sister of murdered student Meredith Kercher), said. Arline and Stephanie will be in Perugia tomorrow to attend the verdict of the appeal trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. Francesco Maresca pointed out that “these insisting rumours carry on, despite the fact that the Court of Appeals will decide in chambers in a few hours”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Amanda Knox Acquitted of Murder
PERUGIA, Italy — American student Amanda Knox, who was convicted by an Italian court for the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, was acquitted today by an appeals court.
Her murder conviction in the 2007 slaying of her roommate Meredith Kercher was thrown out by the jury, and she was ordered immediately released from prison.
Knox collapsed in tears after the verdict was read out Monday.
Her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was also found not guilty.
Knox and Sollecito had been convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher, who was stabbed to death in her bedroom. She was found in a pool of blood and covered by a duvet the following day.
Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25. Also convicted in separate proceedings was Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivorian man. They all denied wrongdoing.
Earlier Monday, as hundreds of reporters and cameras filled the underground, frescoed courtroom, Knox tearfully told the Italian appeals court she did not kill her British roommate, pleading for the court to free her so she can return to the United States after four years behind bars. The court began deliberations moments later.
Knox frequently paused for breath and fought back tears as she spoke in Italian to the six members of the jury and two judges in a packed courtroom, but managed to maintain her composure during the 10-minute address.
“I’ve lost a friend in the worst, most brutal, most inexplicable way possible,” she said of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old Briton who shared an apartment with Knox when they were both students in Perugia. “I’m paying with my life for things that I didn’t do.”
“She had her bedroom next to mine, she was killed in our own apartment. If I had been there that night, I would be dead,” Knox said. “But I was not there.”
“I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there at the crime,” Knox said.
| [Return to headlines] |
London to Sydney in Just Two Hours? By 2030 Travellers Will Jet the World on a 13,750 Mph Spaceship
A Formula One motor racing tycoon has teamed up with an airline to develop a spaceship that could mean every city on the planet is just two hours away. Imagine Sydney and Tokyo becoming short-haul destinations as passengers jet on a spaceship travelling at 13,750 mph. That’s the dream of India Force co-owner Michiel Mol and Dutch airline KLM who this week will announce the first British space tourist to buy a £60,000 ticket for sub-orbital flights in 2014.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Wilders’ Islam Book Set for US Launch
Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam Freedom Party, is currently working on a book about the history of Islam. Press agency Novum has announced that the book will be launched in the US in late April 2012 and then published in other countries.
The work will examine the “true nature of Islam” and the worldwide battle against Islamisation. The populist politician claims Islam is not a religion, but an ideology:
“An ideology of hatred, of destruction, of conquest. It is my strong conviction that Islam is a threat to Western values, to freedom of speech, to the equality of men and women, of heterosexuals and homosexuals, of believers and unbelievers.”
The book on Islam will be Mr Wilders’ second major publication. In 2005, he wrote a short autobiography, entitled Kies voor vrijheid (Choose Freedom).
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Muslim Leader Opens Scandinavia’s Largest Mosque
LONDON, October 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — The Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad officially inaugurated the Baitul Nasr mosque in Oslo on 30 September 2011 with his Friday Sermon. The mosque is Scandinavia’s largest and has a capacity of 4,500 worshippers. Visible from a great distance, the mosque has already established itself as a national landmark and a symbol of peace.
To mark the opening the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat hosted a reception attended by over 120 guests. The guests were welcomed by the President of the Ahmadiyya community in Norway, Zartasht Munir Khan, who informed that the mosque had been funded entirely by the community itself. He said that thousands of Ahmadi Muslims had contributed towards this project including a person who sold his house and a person who sold his car to raise funds. The country’s Defence Minister, Grete Faremo, attended the event on behalf of the Norwegian Government and also presented a message on behalf of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. She said: “The new Norway also has a central role for religion. So we must open all our doors and invite all others as we are seeing here today. This is not my place of worship but irrespective of this I still feel real warmth here.”
During the keynote address Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad spoke of the terrorist attack in Norway on 22 July 2011. He said “From the perspective of our community, every Norwegian Ahmadi Muslim, from whichever country they originate, feels the utmost pain and grief in their hearts over this horrifying incident. As we reflect on the abhorrent tragedy, let it be clear that it is not only the Ahmadis here in Norway who have felt this devastation and grief, but in fact all Ahmadi Muslims throughout the world feel your loss and share in your grief. I would like to take this opportunity to express the heartfelt condolences of myself and every Ahmadi Muslim throughout the world, to the families of the victims, to your Government and indeed to the entire Norwegian nation.” His Holiness concluded by saying: “Rest assured that every Ahmadi Muslim who enters this mosque will have a true and deep love for mankind and will also fully comply with the laws of this nation. Rest assured that every Ahmadi Muslim who enters this mosque will be at the forefront of trying to eliminate cruelties wherever they occur.”
[JP note: His Holiness?]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Spain:14-Year Old Girl Excluded From Exam for Islamic Veil
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 3 — A 14-year old Muslim girl was excluded from the re-take of an exam in a state school in Madrid a few days ago for refusing to remove her hijab, the Islamic veil that does not cover the face. The incident, which featured in the media today, has been reported to the Defender of Minors of the Community of Madrid by the girl’s lawyer, Ivan Jimenez Ayabar, an expert in similar matters. The young girl, who has Spanish nationality and recently turned 14, last summer made the spontaneous decision to begin wearing the hijab, to the surprise of her father, an employee at a Madrid hospital originally from Ceuta, and her mother, who works and does not wear the veil.
The girl claims that upon arriving at the school in September for a re-take in mathematics, the only subject in which she did not pass first time, she was sent out of the examination hall and then the school for violating internal rules. Her parents, outraged by what they call “mistreatment”, have complained and reported events to the Defender of Minors. The girl has been re-admitted for lessons pending a decision by the school’s board of directors. The Spanish federation of Islamic religious bodies (FEERI) has said that the hijab is not a simple veil but an expression of religiousness and, as such, must be respected in line with the law on religious freedom.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Inmate Beats Female Prison Guard to Death
A female guard at a jail south of Stockholm was killed on Monday after being beaten by an inmate, police have confirmed. Police received a call shortly before 11am on Monday that the 25-year-old female guard had been severely injured in an altercation with an inmate at the Flemingsberg remand facility south of Stockholm. Exactly what sparked the fight remains unclear, according to police. According to the Aftonbladet newspaper, the attack occurred when the prisoners were on their way out to the prison yard for recess. The paper cited unconfirmed reports that the guard was beaten with her own baton. She was taken to hospital and died less than an hour later.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anjem Choudary Leads Muslim Protest in Luton
EXTREMIST preacher Anjem Choudhury led a protest outside Luton Police Station against what he has called the mistreatment of Muslim women.
Counter-terrorist officers from the Metropolitan Police recently raided the home of Mona Thwany, widow of Stockholm suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, and another women.
Extremist group Muslims Against Crusades distributed a leaflet prior to the demonstration saying the women were strip searched during the raid.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Umberto Eco Takes a Stand for Italian Universities, Which Annoys Berlusconi
L’Espresso 21.09.2011 (Italy)
Umberto Eco takes a stand for the universities, which in his opinion are being subjected to an unparalleled defamation campaign by the head of government, Silvio Berlusconi. “If you want to see how much the universities annoy the premier you should take a look at www.governoberlusconi.it. There the Italian government vehemently rails against the university, an institution that, after all, does at least partly rely directly on the government. It’s as if the government were to attack the military…The debates on the particulars of the reforms of (Education Minister) Maria Stelli Gelmini and the incomprehensible but nevertheless daily attacks on the courts by Berlusconi have made us forget that Berlusconi is also waging battle against the universities, refuges of critical thinking that bother him. The budget cuts are crippling the universities, and everywhere they are bombarded by terrible reports about professors who give good grades to the students they are sleeping with, while others are putting their sisters, wives, and lovers at the head of the lecture halls. This is accompanied by international rankings in which Italian universities are dropping to the level of Burkina Faso.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican’s Pact With Islam
Ynetnews special: Italian journalist examines Vatican’s submission to political Islam
It has been five years since gave his controversial lectio about Islam at the German University of Regensburg. On September 12th, 2006, Joseph Ratzinger claimed that the god of the Muslims is both transcendental and unreasonable and he severely condemned jihad and the use of violence in the name of Koran. It was the only public event in which a Pope told the truth about some aspects of Islamic religion.
Benedict XVI made himself a central player in the post-9/11 era: His speech against the link between religion and violence, typical of Islam today, was not a mistake or a false step, as some observers wrote at that time. It was, rather, a vigorous attack against certain aspects of Islamic fanaticism.
The reaction to the Pope’s speech was a familiar spectacle: Threats, riots, and violence. From the religious leaders in Muslim majority countries to the New York Times, all demanded the Pope’s apologies. In the Palestinian areas, churches were attacked and Christians targeted. In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, an Italian nun was executed. In Iraq, Amer Iskander, a Syrian Orthodox priest, was beheaded and his arms mutilated.
In Islamic forums, Ratzinger was depicted like Dracula. He received many death threats: “Slaughter him”, “pig servant of the cross”, “odious evil”, “Allah curse him”, “vampire who sucks blood” and so on. The highest Islamic representative in Turkey, Ali Bardakoglu, declared that Ratzinger’s speech was “full of enmity and hatred.” The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood pledged “reactions worst of those against the Danish cartoons”.
Iran’s Supreme Ayatollah, Ali Khamenei, accused the Pope of being part of “the conspiracy of the Crusaders.” Under pressure, and aiming to stop any further violence, the Pope apologized.
Benedict XVI recently visited again his native Germany, but this time with a different agenda. Five years later, the Vatican adopted a pro-Islam course and has capitulated to fundamentalists. In a recent book written by German journalist Peter Sewald, Pope Ratzinger expressed “regrets” about the Regensburg lecture. The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, buried the Pope’s lesson about Islam as “an archaeological relic.”
“The default positions vis-à-vis militant Islam are now unhappily reminiscent of Vatican diplomacy’s default positions vis-à-vis communism during the last 25 years of the Cold War,” writes George Weigel, a leading US writer about the Vatican. The Vatican’s new agenda seeks “to reach political accommodations with Islamic states and foreswear forceful public condemnation of Islamist and jihadist ideology.”
Appeasement agenda
After Regensburg, the Vatican adopted an appeasement agenda. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is known for having a pro-Islam position, was appointed by the Pope as the head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
Indeed, Dialogue with Iran’s mullahs is pivotal in the new Vatican agenda. Recently, a delegation of clergy members of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly visited the Vatican, meeting with top Catholic officials.
In June, the Vatican sent Archbishop Edmond Farhat, who is the official representative of Vatican politics, to Tehran to attend an “international conference on the global campaign against terrorism.” Last autumn, Vatican representatives met with Muslim leaders from around the world in Tehran for “a three-day interreligious dialogue.” In Tehran Cardinal Tauran praised Iran’s “spirit of cordiality” and “the friendly Ahmadinejad.”
Last month, the Vatican published a letter written by Tauran, addressing his “Dear Muslim friends.” In the letter, Tauran asked for Islamic help to form an alliance against atheism.
In 2008, the Vatican promoted “Love of God, Love of Neighbor,” the first three-day forum with Islamic leaders. The Pope agreed to meet one the most dangerous Islamist in the Western world, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, Tariq Ramadan — the Swiss scholar who denies Israel’s right to life and who has been banned from entering the US because of his alleged association with extremists.
Last May, Bishop Mariano Crociata, secretary general of the Italian Episcopal Conference, announced that the Vatican is in favor of building new mosques in Europe. A month later the European Bishops met with European Muslims in Turin (Cardinal Tauran was also present) to proclaim the need for the “progressive enculturation of Islam in Europe.”
In Rimini, a seaside resort on the Adriatic coast, the Comunione e Liberazione movement, one of the most powerful in the Catholic Church, holds its massive annual “meeting” that usually draws some 700,000 people. The Catholic movement last month hosted the president of Al Azhar, the most important Islamic university in Cairo, and a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the fact that for the first time the US Commission on Religious Freedom recommended that Egypt be placed on a list of the “worst of the worst” countries for persecution of Christians.
Targeting Israel
The State of Israel is easily expendable in the new pro-Islam policy. In January 2009, thousands of Muslims marched in front of Milan’s Duomo to protest against Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. They burned Israeli flags and chanted anti-Jewish slogans. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, John Paul II’s spokesman for 22 years, defended the “freedom of expression” of the Muslims who burned the Star of David…
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‘Ethnic’ Attack Shot Dead a Kosovo Serb
A Kosovo Serb was shot dead and his son seriously wounded on Sunday, and the local Serb mayor said the killers were from Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority.
“The two persons were in a restaurant owned by an Albanian and after they went out someone was waiting for them, killing one and injuring another,” said Hazir Berisha, Kosovo police spokesman. “We don’t know the motives, the police have carried out raids in some regions but we have not arrested anyone yet.” But the Serb mayor of the southern town of Orahovac, where a Serb enclave is surrounded by Albanian communities, blamed Albanians and called the attack ethnically motivated.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
EuroMed: Conference on Present and Future of Arab Spring
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 3 — Experts from the main research centres on Mediterranean politics and security will meet to analyse the Arab Spring at the annual conference of the EuroMeSCo network, which will be held on October 6 and 7 at the headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean, in Barcelona’s Pedralbes Palace. So announced IEMED, which is coordinating the conference entitled “A new political landscape in the Mediterranean? The Arab Spring and Euro-Mediterranean relations”, which will be attended by speakers from 17 of the 35 Euro-Mediterranean countries, who are part of the network of policitcal and security research centres in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Jordan, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium.
The annual EuroMeSCo conference, a key event for the main trends and debates ongoing on Euro-Mediterranean relations, is geared towards defining new policies in the area. As a result, the conference is also attended by representatives of the governments that belong to the network, political bodies and international organisations, including members of Tunisia’s National Council for Liberties, the European Commission and the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM). The UFM’s secretary general, Yussef Amrani, will open the conference with a speech at 15:00 on Thursday October 6.
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Egypt: The New Electoral Law Benefits Former Regime and the Muslim Brotherhood
The army reserves 1 / 4 of the seats in parliament for individual leaders without a party. The Egyptian political movements threaten to boycott the November elections. The struggle for power crushes the ideals of the jasmine revolution.
Cairo (AsiaNews) — The Egyptian political parties have threatened to boycott the elections next November if the electoral law is not changed. Launched four days ago by the Supreme Council of the military, it reserves 1 / 4 of parliamentary seats for individual candidates without a party. This favours the former members of the Mubarak regime, but also the richest political parties, who will have the opportunity to nominate more than one person, crushing the movement born after the fall of the Rais.
In an attempt to force the military council to change the law, 59 political parties and groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, have called for new demonstrations and threatening a boycott of elections on 28 November. A part of the Muslim Brotherhood has, however, dissociated itself from the protest. According to some officials a further delay to the elections would be a tragedy for the country.
During the Mubarak era parliamentarians were elected based on a mixed system: 2 / 3 of seats by proportional representation, 1 / 3 with a single-member system. This allowed wealthy people to be elected, however, forcing them to be part of a party. The new law passed by the military council increases the number of MPs elected by proportional representation (3 / 4 of the seats), but reserves 1 / 4 of the seats to individual leaders without a party.
Fr. Rafiq Greich, spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, points out that this system allows wealthy people outside the political landscape to compete in elections, influencing their party of choice. The main favorites are former members of the regime, hated by all the parties after the fall of Mubarak, but with large financial resources and means of propaganda. “This — the priest says — has pushed for democratic movements to demand the expulsion of former regime members from politics for at least 6 years.”
But the ambiguity of the new system also benefits the most organized and wealthy groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood. They will have the opportunity to compete as a party and with individuals affiliated to them able to sustain a campaign. In this way the youth of the revolution are effectively excluded from the election race.
For the priest, the picture is bleak. The ideals of the jasmine revolution have now been crushed by the struggle for power. “Unfortunately young people of the revolution are very divided — said Fr Greich — and o their own they are in danger of being crushed by strong formations, but they have no real political vision. “ “During the Revolution — he continues — the goal was to topple Mubarak with the hope of change. Now, these ideals have been destroyed. No one knows what to do. “ (Sc)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Flight From Egypt: Christians Emigrate for Political Reasons
Over 100 thousand people have emigrated since March. Meanwhile Copts are fighting against Salaphite violence
Since March, increased religious tension in Egypt has led to the emigration of about 100 thousand Christians. The Egyptian Union of human rights organisations has spoken out against this, saying that this mass exodus could alter the Country’s demography as well as its economic stability.
The main catalyst for this emigration can be found in the conflict between Salaphites and Copts, the organisation stressed.
According to analysts, this high rate of emigration is mostly a consequence of the Arab Spring revolts which began in December 2010 and are supposed to have boosted the power held by the Islamic component within Egyptian society.
The “Christian Post” has said that traditionalist fiction between Muslims and Christians are now translating into a willingness felt by the former, to push out the latter, considered by some to be invaders of a land that is predominantly Muslim.
Moreover, the Salaphites who have been playing an active role in the Egyptian revolts are now seeing their political influence rise.
According to Naguib Gabriel, director of the Egyptian Union of human rights organisations, Copts are not abandoning Egypt because they want to, they are forced to flee from the Salaphites who use aggressive tactics against them.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gaddafi Like Elizabeth II But Cameron Wanted War
(AGI) London — Muammar Gaddafi informed London he was ready to relinquish power and assume a formal role only, like the queen.
David Cameron set aside the skepticism shown by some of his ministers and the MI6 (the UK intelligence) about the campaign and the change of guard in Tripoli and pushed for the NATO raids. This backdrop will be exposed in tomorrow’s edition of the UK paper The Guardian.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: ‘Past Errors Can Provide Post-War Insurgency Prevention Map’
(AKI) — The end of Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule offers opportunities to stem a possible insurgency, argues counter-terrorism expert Brian Fisherman. According to his recent essay posted on the Foreign Policy Magazine website, history provides plenty of lessons that can keep the rebels’ triumph from devolving into fresh violence.
“The narrowness of Gaddafi’s power base should not obscure the fact that there are losers in this revolution — enough of them to plunge Libya into a protracted insurgency if the post-war period isn’t handled properly,” Fisherman wrote.
Iraq was a case study of what not to do. Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2 put 250,000 soldiers and police out of work and added to a base of trained potential insurgents. “This not only undermined one of the few national institutions in which Iraqis took great pride, but also immediately created a large cadre of disillusioned and reasonably well-trained young men primed for criminality and insurgency,” according to Fishman.
Gaddafi’s fighters should be included in post-civil war Libya to “be offered a place in Libya’s future, serving side-by-side with rebel forces.
“Moreover, individuals with specific technical skills — budget experts, petroleum engineers, port managers, and the like — need to be identified and offered a paycheck,” the essay said.
Libya’s new leadership must curb revenge, which “can motivate a war” but “is less valuable when building peace,” Fishman said, citing the example of Afghanistan.
Following the defeat of the Taliban, Afghan officials often tormented their former tormentors, further motivating the vanquished rulers to turn toward violence, and thus fuelling an insurgency, Fishman said.
“Officials guilty of crimes should be charged, tried, and punished transparently (and in some cases, severely), but other bureaucrats must be allowed to normalise their life. This is not solely a matter of human rights, but of future security as well.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Soldiers Clash With Armed Group
(AGI) Tunis — A Western diplomatic source has reported that six people were killed in Wednesday’s clashes in Southern Tunisia between Tunisian soldiers and an armed group from that entered the country from Algeria. “According to information available the six attackers were killed, but the Tunisian Ministry of Defence Ministry has said that for the moment they have only one body accounted for,” explained the source. According to a local security officer, the armed group was part of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gourmand Time in a Country Previously of Kibbutzim
(ANSAmed) — CAESAREA (ISRAEL), OCTOBER 3 — Israeli chefs have discovered the recipe for success, and 2011 was the internationally recognised (even at the Verona Fair) year of Israeli wineries due to the ever higher quality of their wines.
The year 2012 could bring more widespread success of the local culinary scene, which until only a few years ago was rather modest or underappreciated. The groundwork is entirely in place.
Back in 2010, Food and Wine Magazine indicated Yonatan Rosenfeld — owner of two successful restaurants in Tel Aviv — as an internationally emerging chef. “The multiculturalism typical of Israel helps me to create combinations of spices and styles,” the chef told the newspaper. The country has long been — and is still — the destination for the immigration of Jews the world over. And it is the wide variety of different culinary cultures which Israeli-American expert Anne Kleinberg — author of gastronomy books and curator for many years of a pioneering column on gourmet living in the Jerusalem Post, as well as author of the novel ‘Menopause in Manhattan’, all the rage in New York bookshops — points to as the distinctive feature of Israeli cuisine, which is in any case difficult to label.
“In Israel there are 60 nationalities,” she said, “with everyone bringing their own recipes with them. More than typical dishes I would speak about shared ingredients. One example is the pomegranate (the use of which in cooking Anne has dedicated an entire book): Jews around the world eat it on New Year’s Eve.
Olives are also frequently used due to the influence of Sephardic Jews.” In general, however, it can be said that there are two fundamental roots of Israeli melting pot cuisine: the gastronomical traditions of Eastern Europe and those of North Africa. “The first waves of immigration were from Eastern European countries, such as Poland and Hungary, and then, after 1948, from Arab states.” Later Jews came from Ethiopia as well as over a million Russians, while the past few years a large number of French Jews have come to the country. It is a blend with makes for a greater variety of products on supermarket shelves. “When I arrived in Israel in 1992,” said Kleinberg from Caesarea, where she now lives, “I had to go all the way across Tel Aviv to make to find a bottle of balsamic vinegar.
Now different types can be found everywhere.” And so now — in addition to falafels (or, in the worst cases, the old gelfilte fish engraved in Ashkenazi memory) Israel offers much more. But what is the reason behind this progressive acceleration in the culinary field which is happening now? “It is the same reason for what is happening in architecture.
Only now,” replied Anne Kleinberg, “are Israelis beginning to build beautiful houses. Before the most important thing was to erect a building as quickly as possible and fill it with numerous families of new immigrants. We were involved in building a state for ourselves and time and resources were invested in survival. Now, on the other hand, while still being targeted, Israel has consolidated its place in the world and its citizens want to enjoy life. Moreover, Israelis travel a lot and discover food abroad. Some of the most highly-rated chefs, for example, studied in France.” In a context like the Middle Eastern one, food can also act as a “common denominator”, a factor for dialogue. “I know of many mixed projects focused on food,” said the expert, “in which both Jewish and Arab women take part.” With the times being what they are, who knows whether even this might help us out.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Mosque Torched in Apparent ‘Price Tag’ Attack
A mosque in northern Israel was torched overnight with slogans scrawled on its outside walls, in what police on Monday denounced as “a very severe price tag incident.” Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told that a number of suspects entered the mosque in the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangaria in the Upper Galilee and set fire to it, causing heavy damage to the carpets and walls.
On the outside of the mosque were scrawled the words “price tag” and “revenge” in Hebrew, Rosenfeld said.
They also wrote the word “Palmer,” in an apparent reference to Asher Palmer, an Israeli settler who died with his infant son in the southern West Bank on September 23 after his car was hit by stones thrown by Palestinians, causing it to crash.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Kaniuk Gains Right to Register ‘Without Religion’
(AGI) Jerusalem — Israeli courts have granted writer Yoram Kaniuk the right to register as without religion. The 81-year-old’s court petition comes in response to the Israeli interior ministry’s May rejection of a similar request. Kaniuk has thus gained the right to be registered as ‘without religion’ instead of ‘Jewish’. Interviewed by daily Ha’aretz, the writer hailed the decision as “historic.” The court ruling submits “freedom from religion is a freedom derived from the right to human dignity, which is protected by the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom,” and that “The only question that must be weighed is whether the plaintiff proved the seriousness of his intentions.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Battle for Soul of Islam Follows Arab Spring
ANALYSIS : Puritanical Islamists are vying with more liberal ones to impose their vision of the world on the Middle East
BY FORCE of this year’s Arab revolts and revolutions, activists marching under the banner of Islam are on the verge of a reckoning decades in the making: the prospect of achieving decisive power across the region has unleashed an unprecedented debate over the character of the emerging political orders they are helping to build. Few question the coming electoral success of religious activists, but as they emerge from the shadows of a long, sometimes bloody, struggle with authoritarian and ostensibly secular governments, they are confronting newly urgent questions about how to apply Islamic precepts to more open societies.
In Turkey and Tunisia, culturally conservative parties founded on Islamic principles are rejecting the name “Islamist” to stake out what they see as a more democratic and tolerant vision. In Egypt, a similar impulse has begun to fracture the Muslim Brotherhood as a growing number of politicians and parties argue for a model inspired by Turkey, where a party with roots in political Islam has thrived in a once-adamantly secular system. Some contend that the absolute monarchy of puritanical Saudi Arabia in fact violates Islamic law.
A backlash has ensued, as well, as traditionalists have flirted with time-worn Islamist ideas like imposing interest-free banking and obligatory religious taxes and censoring irreligious discourse.
The debates are deep enough that many in the region believe the most important struggles may no longer be between Islamists and secularists, but rather between the Islamists themselves, pitting the more puritanical against the more liberal. “That’s the struggle of the future,” said Azzam Tamimi, a scholar and the author of a biography of a Tunisian Islamist, Rachid Ghannouchi, whose party, Ennahda, is expected to dominate elections next month to choose an assembly to draft a constitution.
The moment is as dramatic as any in recent decades in the Arab world, as autocracies crumble and suddenly vibrant parties begin building a new order, starting with elections in Tunisia in October, then Egypt in November. Though the region has witnessed examples of ventures by Islamists into politics, elections in Egypt and Tunisia, attempts in Libya to build a state from scratch and the shaping of an alternative to Syria’s dictatorship are their most forceful entry yet into the region’s still embryonic body politic. “It is a turning point,” said Emad Shahin, a scholar on Islamic law and politics at the University of Notre Dame who was in Cairo.
At the centre of the debates is a new breed of politician who has risen from an Islamist milieu but accepts an essentially secular state, a current that some scholars have already taken to identifying as “post-Islamist”. Its foremost exemplars are prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in Turkey, whose intellectuals speak of a shared experience and a common heritage with some of the younger members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and with the Ennahda party in Tunisia. Like Turkey, Tunisia faced decades of a state-enforced secularism that never completely reconciled itself with a conservative population.
“They feel at home with each other,” said Cengiz Candar, an Arabic-speaking Turkish columnist. “It’s similar terms of reference, and they can easily communicate with them.”
Ghannouchi has suggested a common ambition, proposing what some say Erdogan’s party has managed to achieve: a prosperous, democratic Muslim state, led by a party that is deeply religious but operates within a system that is supposed to protect liberties. “If the Islamic spectrum goes from bin Laden to Erdogan, which of them is Islam?” Ghannouchi asked in a recent debate with a secular critic. “Why are we put in the same place as a model that is far from our thought, like the Taliban or the Saudi model, while there are other successful Islamic models that are close to us, like the Turkish, the Malaysian and the Indonesian models, models that combine Islam and modernity?”
In Libya, Ali Sallabi, the most important Islamist political leader, cites Ghannouchi as a major influence. Abdel Moneim Abou el-Fotouh, a former Muslim Brotherhood leader running for president in Egypt, has joined several breakaway political parties in arguing that the state should avoid interpreting or enforcing Islamic law, regulating religious taxes or barring a person from running for president based on gender or religion. A party formed by three leaders of the Brotherhood’s youth wing says that while Egypt shares a common Arab and Islamic culture with the region, its emerging political system should ensure protections of individual freedoms as robust as the West’s. One of them, Islam Lotfy, argues that the strictly religious kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where the Koran is ostensibly the constitution, was less Islamist than Turkey. “It is not Islamist; it is dictatorship,” said Lotfy, who was recently expelled from the Brotherhood for starting the new party.
Egypt’s Centre Party, a group that struggled for 16 years to win a licence from the ousted government, may go furthest here in elaborating the notion of post-Islamism. Its founder, Abul-Ela Madi, has long sought to mediate between religious and liberal forces, even coming up with a set of shared principles last month. Like the Ennahda party in Tunisia, he disavows the term “Islamist” and, like other progressive Islamic activists, he describes his group as Egypt’s closest equivalent to Erdogan’s “neither secular nor Islamist. We’re in between.”
It is often said in Turkey that its political system, until recently dominated by the military, moderated Islamic currents there. Lotfy says he hopes that Egyptian Islamists will undergo a similar, election-driven evolution. But, compared with Turkey, the stakes of the debates may be even higher in the Arab world, where divided and weak liberal currents pale before the organisation and popularity of Islamic activists.
In Syria, debates rage among activists over whether a civil or Islamic state should follow the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, if he falls. The emergence in Egypt, Tunisia and Syria of Salafists, the most inflexible currents in political Islam, is one of the most striking political developments. (“The Koran is our constitution,” goes one of their sayings.) And the most powerful current in Egypt, still represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, has stubbornly resisted some of the changes in discourse. When Erdogan expressed hope for “a secular state in Egypt”, meaning, he explained, a state equidistant from all faiths, Brotherhood leaders immediately lashed out, saying that Erdogan’s Turkey offered no model for either Egypt or its Islamists.
A Brotherhood spokesman, Mahmoud Ghozlan, accused Turkey of violating Islamic law by failing to criminalise adultery. “In the secularist system, this is accepted, and the laws protect the adulterer,” he said, “But in the Shariah law this is a crime.” As recently as 2007, a prototype Brotherhood platform sought to bar women or Christians from serving as Egypt’s president and called for a panel of religious scholars to advise on the compliance of any legislation with Islamic law. The group has never disavowed the document. Its rhetoric of Islam’s long tolerance of minorities often sounds condescending to Egypt’s Christian minority, which wants to be afforded equal citizenship, not special protections. Indeed, Tamimi, the scholar, argued that some mainstream groups like the Brotherhood were feeling the tug of their increasingly assertive conservative constituencies, which still relentlessly call for censorship and interest-free banking. “Is democracy the voice of the majority?” asks Mohammed Nadi, a 26-year-old student at a recent Salafist protest in Cairo. “We as Islamists are the majority. Why do they want to impose on us the views of the minorities — the liberals and the secularists? That’s all I want to know.” — ( New York Times )
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: ‘US Averse to Accepting Islam’s Power’
Iran’s Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani says the United States does not want to accept the power of the Muslim world in resolving regional and international issues. “The US is averse to accepting the potential power of the Islamic world in resolving different regional and international crises,” Larijani said at a Saturday meeting with his Qatari counterpart Muhammad bin Mubarak al-Khalifi on the sidelines of the 5th International Conference on Palestinian Intifada in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
The senior Iranian legislator hailed the wide participation of political and parliamentary officials from different Muslim and non-Muslim countries in the conference as the sign of the importance of the issue of Palestine, IRNA reported. The two-day 5th International Conference on Palestinian Intifada, which opened in Tehran on Saturday, focuses on the restoration of Palestinians’ rights, including their right to return to their land, determine their fate as well as the liberation of the territories occupied by Israel.
The conference indicates the resolve of the Islamic Ummah to restore the rights of the Palestinian nation and to put an end to the decades-long oppression by Israel, Larijani pointed out. Qatar’s Parliament Speaker Muhammad bin Mubarak al-Khalifi, for his part, underlined the importance of the Intifada conference at the current point in time and praised the speech by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei at the inauguration of the event.
During his speech at the opening ceremony of the conference in Tehran, the Leader urged Muslim countries to end all ties with Israel, rejected any plan seeking to split Palestine and called for the liberation of all lands belonging to Palestinians. The Leader said that a solution suggesting the existence of a Palestinian state along an Israeli one amounted to the violation of Palestinians’ rights, adding that any plan needed to be based on the principle of “All of Palestine for all Palestinians.” Representatives, parliament speakers and scholars from different countries as well as a number of Palestinian leaders are attending the 5th International Conference on Palestinian Intifada in Tehran.
The conference has chosen “Palestine, Homeland of Palestinians” as its motto.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Ahmadinejad: Israelis Should Go Back to Original Homes
Iranian president at ‘Intifada Conference’ says Palestinians should also “go home” and this would provide “simple solution” to solve conflict.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that in order to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the “Palestinians should go home,” and “those that were brought [to Israel]” should as well, AFP reported. Ahmadinejad said that this program would provide a “simple solution” to the “Zionist regime” should it wish “to solve the issue.” The Iranian president made the comments during a two-day International Conference on Palestine, attended by diplomats from more than 20 nations. Earlier on Sunday, Ahmadinejad asked whether the Palestinian issue was an Arab issue or a problem between the Arab nations on the one side and some western countries on the other side, according to the IRNA news agency. He then questioned whether it “was a problem between Arab nations on the one hand and some Jews who have occupied the Palestinian lands on the other.”
Ahmadinejad’s comments a day after Iran’s supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came out against a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while speaking during at the conference. Khamenei said that the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel amounts to a renouncement of the Palestinian rights, asserting that any solution to the conflict must be based on a principle of “the whole Palestine for all Palestinians,” PressTV reported.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Where Are the British Protests Over Pastor Nadarkhani?
The brutal regime in Iran continues to inflict appalling levels of barbarity upon its own citizens. A Christian pastor, Youcef Nadarkhani, aged 35 and the father of two children, has been sentenced to death for apostasy, a crime for which he was jailed two years ago. But this savage punishment is far worse even than it seems. For Nadarkhani is deemed to have committed apostasy merely because he has Islamic ancestry. Whether he was ever actually a practising Muslim was not even established. The Washington Post reported:
‘The 11th branch of Iran’s Gilan Provincial Court has determined that Nadarkhani has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith in Jesus Christ. Iran’s supreme court had previously ruled that the trial court must determine if Youcef had been a Muslim before converting to Christianity. However, the judges, acting like terrorists with a hostage, demanded that he recant his faith in Christ before even taking evidence. The judges stated that even though the judgment they have made is against the current Iranian and international laws, they have to uphold the previous decision of the 27th Branch of the Supreme Court in Qom.’
Now the Iranian authorities have claimed he is to be executed not for apostasy at all but for a slew of other crimes. As CNN reports:
‘Gholomali Rezvani, the deputy governor of Gilan province, where Nadarkhani was tried and convicted, accused Western media of twisting the real story, referring to him as a “rapist.” A previous report from the news agency claimed he had committed several violent crimes, including repeated rape and extortion. “His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,” Rezvani told Fars. “He is guilty of security-related crimes.” In a translated Iranian Supreme Court brief from 2010, however, the charge of apostasy is the only charge leveled against Nadarkhani. “Mr. Youcef Nadarkhani, son of Byrom, 32-years old, married, born in Rasht in the state of Gilan is convicted of turning his back on Islam, the greatest religion the prophesy of Mohammad at the age of 19,” reads the brief.’ ‘… “No one is executed in Iran for their choice of religion,” [Rezvani] added. “He is a Zionist and has committed security-related crimes.” ‘
It is obvious that, faced with mounting outrage around the world — there have been protests from the White House, for example — the Iranian regime has resorted to trumping up spurious accusations against a man they are persecuting on account of his Christian faith. By seeking to deny the verdict of apostasy that was handed down two years ago, they are trying to conceal above all that Pastor Nadarkhani has been imprisoned for two years and is sentenced to hang because of an Islamic religious precept. In other words, this barbarism is yet another religious crime being perpetrated by the regime against an Iranian citizen for no reason other than he has transgressed the laws of Islam enforced by a fanatical regime of religious zealots.
Pastor Nadarkhani is but the latest victim of outrages against Christians and other faiths inside Iran. He has twice refused to recant his Christian belief; apparently he is to be asked to do so for a third time on Tuesday, and if he again refuses he could be hanged any time after that. It is still possible to save this man’s life if enough protest is made. British political leaders should be making their voices heard very loudly against this barbarity by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Have you been hearing them? No, nor have I.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Pastor Faces Execution. Why the Silence From the Holy See?
The Iranian Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was originally condemned to death for apostasy. Then, when that didn’t play too well with international opinion, Tehran turned him into a “Zionist” who committed “security-related crimes”. Now, apparently, he’s a rapist, too. Is anyone taken in? Not the British and American governments, which have loudly condemned this proposed murder.
Yet we hear nothing from the Holy See. Why? Behind-the-scenes diplomacy? Has the Secretariat of State’s 20-year-old fax machine broken again? In this country, the “Catholic Communications Network” is, as usual, too clueless to provide information. Anti-Catholic propagandists are having a field day, but that’s not what should concern us. If the Church has still not intervened publicly when this Christian minister swings from a rope, then it will have some explaining to do — not least to scandalised Catholics.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Double Targeted Killings Against the Christian Community in Kirkuk
Yesterday in the district of Muthana, an armed group assassinated the 30 year old Catholic Bassam Isho. October 1, Emmanuel Polos Hanna, was found at the edge of the road to Baghdad shot to death. Christian sources in Kirkuk: “The attacks continue, in the total silence of the world.”
Kirkuk (AsiaNews) — A double murder has marked the Christian community in Kirkuk this weekend. In the northern Iraqi city, considered strategic for the huge oil fields in the center of a bitter political and economic dispute between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds, Christians continue to die in the complete indifference of the authorities. Kidnappings for extortion, assassinations and attacks on churches and Christians are now episodes of daily life, and the local and national government seem incapable of defending them. AsiaNews sources in Kirkuk, anonymous for security reasons, denounced that “the attacks on Christians continue and the world remains totally silent. It’s as if — he continues- we’ve been swallowed up by the night. “
Yesterday afternoon, Bassam Isho a 30 year old Catholic restaurant employee in the district of Muthana, was shot dead by a group of strangers. After the murder, the band scattered covering their tracks and, so far, there is no further information. The young man will be buried in Telkef. On October 1, on the outskirts of Kirkuk, the corpse of a second Christian was found, also shot to death. The body of Hanna Polos Emmanuel, born in 1951, lay sprawled on the edge of the road that leads from the city to Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.
The weekend killings are only the latest in a long trail of blood and violence: on August 15 last a few bombs exploded against the church of St. Ephrem in Kirkuk. The Syriac Orthodox Church is a few hundred meters from the Chaldean cathedral in the center of the city. Again, August 2 a car bomb exploded in front of the Syrian Catholic Church of the Holy Family, injuring 15 people. On the same day, another car bomb, parked next to a Presbyterian church, was defused before it exploded.
Christians in Iraq have increasingly become the target of Islamic fundamentalism which is still active. At the same time, they are also targeted in local feuds. Kirkuk, with its 900 thousand inhabitants, and most important deposits of oil in Iraq, has long been the center of a political-ethnic conflict between Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds. The latter want it annexed to the Kurdistan region, while both Arabs and Turkmen want to maintain links with the Iraqi central government. (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon — Turkey: In a Letter to Erdogan, Aram I Says the Armenian People Still Waiting for Justice
The Armenian Orthodox Catholicos of Cilicia says returning part of the assets seized from Churches by the Turkish government after 1936 is not enough. He wants the return of everything seized and lost after the genocide as well as the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — Recent steps by Turkish authorities to return properties seized from religious minorities after 1936 are “incomplete”, Catholicos Aram I Kechichian said in an open letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
For the head of the Armenian Orthodox Church, whose titular see is located in the Turkish province of Cilicia, justice for the Armenian people will come only when Turkey acknowledges the genocide of 1915 and when private and Church assets seized at the time are returned.
Here is the text of his letter (translated by AsiaNews):
By way of the press, we have learnt that your government plans to return properties seized from religious minorities after 1936. Such a decision undoubtedly stems from recent rulings by the European Court of Human Rights as well as inquiries by the US Congress into Turkish pressures on Christian minorities (See Nat de Polis, “Historic decision: Erdogan returns seized property to religious minorities,” in AsiaNews, 29 August 2011).
As spiritual and lawful head of the Holy See of Cilicia (Armenian Orthodox), which was uprooted from its historic see and installed in Lebanon, and as representative of the children of the Armenian Church who were exiled from Turkey and dispersed throughout the world, we consider your decision of 27 August 2011 to be incomplete and unjust.
The Holy See of Cilicia remains the lawful owner of numerous buildings, churches, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, cemeteries and other properties that belong to the church, seized by Turkish authorities at the time of the Armenian genocide of 1915.
The same is true for the children of the Armenian people, who are the lawful owners of houses, businesses, estates and other assets passed down from their ancestors and lost during the genocide planned and executed by the Ottoman Turkish government.
Your government’s decision may meet the requirements of the European Union, but it may never be considered as just or legally relevant.
Mr Prime Minister, although taken in the name of justice, your decision is biased and selective and denies history and democratic values and principles.
Of course, international institutions like the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament and its parliamentary bodies are tasked with defending democratic principles and values and ensure that they are respected; however, the people is the conscience and memory of such principles and values.
As League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Nobel Peace Prize winner for 1922 Fridtjof Nansen said in Armenia and the Near East that the Armenian people never lost hope, bravely working and waiting. “They continue to wait,” he wrote.
Allow me to add that the Armenian people will never cease to demand justice from Turkey for the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian people will never cease to demand the restoration of their human rights.
Mr Prime Minister, your attachment to justice and human rights will gain in credibility only when you recognise the Armenian Genocide.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
MENA: Stagnating Economy in 2012, IMF Forecast
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, SEPTEMBER 22 — The 2012 economic outlook for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region is a stagnating economy with a slightly falling growth rate, according to a report drafted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The report on the global economy was presented in Washington. It indicates fluctuating oil prices and the social upheaval staged in the past months as reasons for the uncertain economic situation in the area. Despite the decrease in growth by an estimated 0.1 point, the region is still expected to grow by 4%.
Qatar will record the sharpest growth thanks to its increasing gas exports: +6% in 2012 according to the IMF estimates, after a solid +18.7% in 2011. Saudi Arabia, the largest economy in the MENA area, will see a 6.5% growth this year, which will fall to +3.6% in 2012. Inflation is also expected to decrease, from 10.75% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2012. The report warns that the region is also open to risks from the outside, for example “the weakening EU and US economy which could further slow down the growth” of the MENA countries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Erdogan and the Hospital Diplomacy
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 30 — The first could have happened by chance, the second a coincidence and the third a trend. But at the fourth, one begins to suspect there may be a strategy behind what might be called “hospital diplomacy”: a series of announcements of healthcare-related aid and investment in areas and countries raising the interest of Turkish foreign policy in a clearly Neo-Ottoman manner (Gaza and Libya) or in an extended radius (Somalia and Afghanistan). Much has been said of Turkey’s current foreign policy, proud of its “model” of democracy, Islam and economic growth proposed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his recent tour of North African Arab Spring capitals. A policy which is also prepared to use its muscle to safeguard its own interests, like in the case of the gas fields south of Cyprus. In a less obvious manner than speeches in public squares and the mobilisation of its warships, Turkey is making its influence felt through other means as well. This is the case of the numerous Turkish initiatives reported in Somalia, the Horn of Africa country devastated by the Islamic fundamentalism of the Shabaab and now hit by the worst drought in 60 years. In addition to Erodgan’s historical visit, on-site inspections by technical-ministerial delegations and millions of dollars in financial aid, 55 tonnes of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment have been sent as well as seven ambulances. The field hospital set up by Turkey has treated almost 15,000 Somalis in a month. Still under construction but fully functional as a way to prepare the ground for a future, triumphal visit by Erdogan in the Gaza Strip is “the largest hospital in Gaza”, under construction since May by a Turkish company, Aker, the only foreign one working in the construction sector in the Palestinian enclave choked by the Israeli blockade inflicted to prevent weapons from getting into the hands of Hamas fundamentalists. Another similarly popular initiative is the construction of an orphanage which a Turkish association has been tasked with. In another corner of the Turkish geo-political chessboard is Afghanistan, where Turkey has 1,800 troops in the NATO mission, agreements to train police and intense diplomatic activities (a conference on the war-torn country has been announced in Istanbul for the beginning of November). However — also in this case — Ankara has planned a hospital: the reconstruction of the first hospital in Kabul, created in 1926 by a directive under the founder of modern Turkey Kemal Atatutk but mostly destroyed by decades of war. And finally, though the list is by necessity only partial, Libya: in this land formerly ruled by the Ottomans, which almost slipped from Erdogan’s hands due to the much-praised mediation with the regime under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi which eventually failed, the regaining of influence is mainly sought through the construction of schools and hospitals as well. This was underscored recently by an official source from the National Transitional Council referring to the sector in which Turkish enterprises were, and presumably will be, very strong in Libya.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Moluccas: Explosive Devices Found in a Church
Ambon police also discover bomb in the local bus station. Hand of Islamic extremists from other parts of the country suspected. The discovery comes after clashes between Christians and Muslims last September 11. Fear of renewed interfaith conflict.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Tensions remain high in Ambon (Maluku) scene of fighting between Christians and Muslims last September 11. Yesterday, police discovered three pipe bombs inside the Maranatha Protestant church and near the local bus station. According to authorities the current tensions are the work of Islamic groups from outside the region.
The strategy of placing bombs in crowded places like markets, religious buildings, bus and train stations is typical of Islamic extremist groups active in the area of Poso (Central Sulawesi). From 1999 to 2001, Poso and Central Sulawesi province were the scene of bloody clashes between Christians and Muslims that claimed more than 2 000 victims.
Yesterday, several Muslim and Christian groups and organizations have asked the authorities to stop all those who come to Ambon without a specific reason. In a statement the youth of Mujammadiyah, a moderate Islamic group, said: “We strongly reject the arrival of people from outside because it could increase tension in the region.” Young Muslims appeal to all the people of Ambon, Christians and Muslims, to find a solution to the fighting through local values and traditions.
Meanwhile, after the suicide attack last Sept. 25 against Bethel Christian Church in Kepunton Indonesia (Solo, Central Java), the police have deployed thousands of agents across the country and increased controls to protect churches from further attacks. Moderate Muslim groups like Nahdlatul Ulama have offered their help to protect Christians.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Muslim Extremists and Authorities Shut Down Protestant Church in West Java
The village chief in Mekargalih, along with members of the Islamic Defender Front, expels Christians from their place of worship for allegedly engaging in “proselytising” in a predominantly Muslim area. A Christian woman complains, “Police have no guts against this radical group.” Pancasila principles are violated.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — A group of extremists from the Islamic Defender Front (FPI) have shut down a Protestant church in Jatinangor, in Bandung sub district, last Friday, the Muslim day of prayer. As in previous occasions in which Christian places of worship were seized and religious activities interrupted, the fundamentalists were aided and abetted by the local administration.
Recently, rumours spread according to which the Protestant church was a haven for a “community of newly baptised”. Extremists also accuse Rev Bernard Maukar, head of the Christian community, of engaging in proselytising in a predominantly Muslim area.
Arief Saefolah, village chief in Mekargalih (where the church is located), said he had the right to close down the place of worship as “illegal” because it was within his jurisdiction. “This area is under my authority,” he told the Christian community. “Please, get out as soon as possible.”
Tensions had been rising until last Friday’s showdown. Saefolah and other local security officials (Satpol PP), plus 30 FPI members, seized all Christian properties, including chairs, musical instruments, tables and cars.
A Christian woman from the community, known only by her nickname Pur, lamented the fact that police did not lift a finger to stop the “vandalism”. In her view, “police have no guts against this radical group.”
The village chief denied claims that he brought in FPI fundamentalists to shut down the church. However, he did urge Christians to “go elsewhere” to worship their faith.
Outraged, Christians had rejected the proposal because it would force them to undertake long trips. Besides, they note that Arief Saefolah’s orders violate the principles of Pancasila, which define modern Indonesia, based on pluralism and freedom of worship.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Muslims, Extremists and Others, Oppose Death Penalty for “Hero” Mumtaz Qadri
Street demonstrations and burning tyres mark the sentence against Salman Taseer’s murderer. Muslim leaders celebrate Qadri, “full of Noor” (heavenly light). Rawalpindi mufti justifies the murder and pledges the same for the “Christian blasphemer”, Asia Bibi. Minorities welcome the verdict, even though they stress the sacredness of life.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — “Release Mumtaz Qadri the Islamic hero”, “a true worrier of Islam”, “By punishing one Mumtaz Qadri, you will produce a thousand Mumtaz Qadris!” are some of the slogans uttered by Pakistani (and non-Pakistani) Muslim extremists as they protested against the sentence inflicted upon Salman Taseer’s killer.
On Saturday, the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) handed down the death sentence to Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the self-confessed murderer of the governor of Punjab Salman Taseer, who was killed by his bodyguard on 4 January for defending Asia Bibi against charges based on Pakistan’s blasphemy legislation. Taseer had described the latter as a ‘black law’.
At the end of the proceedings, judge Syed Pervez Ali Shah was escorted out of the Adyala Jail, where the trial was held, through a side gate to avoid Qadri’s supporters who had gathered outside the facility (see Jibran Khan, “Pakistan: death sentence for Salman Taseer’s assassin Mumtaz Qadri,” in AsiaNews 01 October 2011).
During the weekend, Islamic extremist movements and fundamentalist groups demonstrated in Pakistan’s main cities, including Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.
Despite the massive police deployment and the presence of security forces, protesters blockaded roads and burnt garbage bins and tyres. In Rawalpindi, the Benazir Bhutto monument in Liquat Bagh was damaged.
Officials from the Sunni Tehreek movement said the verdict was passed to “please the Jewish lobby”. Demonstrators also shouted slogans and waved their party’s green and yellow flag.
Members of the Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat (TNR) also called for the sentence to be rescinded.
Among Muslim extremists, there is virtual unanimity condemnation for the sentence. The judge himself has received threats for sentencing a “hero of Islam.
Mullah Abbas Qasim, TNR leader in Karachi, said Mumtaz Qadri’s face was “full of Noor” (heavenly light) because he killed a man “who was supporting the repeal of the blasphemy law.” For this reason, he called on “all Muslims” to “save our brother”.
Mufti Hanif Qureshi of Rawalpindi added that as a Muslim, “Taseer committed blasphemy” and for this reason Qadri was “justified”. The same fate will “fall on the Christian blasphemer, Asia Bibi”.
The sentence against the murderer of Punjab governor was welcomed among Christians, even though they all insist on the sacredness of life.
Mgr Rufin Anthony, bishop of Islamabad, stressed the importance of the separation between “state and religion” because Qadri’s defence was based on the “flaws of Pakistan’s constitution, which is based on a specific religion.”
“Death is not something to celebrate,” said Haroon Barkat Masih, president of the Masihi Foundation. Instead, “we should celebrate justice” and “support the work of the judiciary”.
In commenting the sentence, he added that no one should “rejoice in the pain this man shall suffer;” however, “let’s rejoice over the fact that for once, at least, justice has prevailed”.
Fr Francis Xavier, a priest and activist in Lahore, said that Qadri wanted to “become a hero, and in Pakistan, all you have to do “is commit some violent act in the name of Islam”.
The murder “is already a hero, a murderer raised to the level of a saint, respected by prison guards,” the clergyman explained. “Imagine what would happen if he should be released” from prison.
For Anglican Bishop Alexander John Malik, the court reached a “good decision”. Although “I am against the death penalty,” sometimes it is necessary “to take courageous decisions to ensure respect for the law.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Tells Foreigners: “Go Home”
QUEENSLAND’S biggest public hospital has secretly banned some treatments for non-Australians in a bid to save money.
The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital recently began rejecting overseas students and visitors from certain countries, telling them to find a private hospital or go back to their own country.
The so-called “ineligible patients” are those from countries not listed among the nine nations with which Australia has reciprocal healthcare agreements allowing costs to be recovered.
Those exposed to the ban include all Asian, American and African nations and many across Europe.
Queensland Health yesterday refused to say whether other hospitals were implementing the edict but defended the decision as a measure to ensure taxpayers were given priority.
The ban only applies to non-emergency maternity and gynaecological procedures but would have applied to 116 ineligible patients in the previous six months.
But the Opposition said rejecting patients based on country was a “slippery slope” even if it did not amount to racism.
In a leaked August 12 memo, RBWH Women’s and Newborn Services executive director Ian Cooke said the budget was 6 per cent over last financial year and this year had to be on-budget.
“On average only 50 per cent of costs incurred are recovered and this recovery itself often costs time and money to achieve,” Prof Cooke wrote.
“In the current climate this cannot continue. Their options for maternity care if they are living in our catchment area are to either seek private obstetric care, or return to their own country for care.”
The revelations further highlight the budget strains on Queensland Health exposed in recent weeks as department chiefs look for ways to save.
Opposition health spokesman Mark McArdle yesterday said it was not a good look as a “compassionate” country to be choosing patients by origin.
“I wouldn’t say it’s racism but it is a slippery slope when public health starts choosing patients on the basis of their home country instead of the type of operation required,” Mr McArdle said.
But Metro North Health Service District chief Keith McNeill said overseas visitors did not have automatic entitlement to care in public hospitals under the Medicare scheme.
“This isn’t about cutting costs,” he said. “Our first priority must be to provide health services to Australians.
“However, RBWH will not deny anybody, regardless of their nationality or residency status, access to urgent or emergency medical care.”
Countries not affected because of their agreement with Australia are the UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, Malta and Italy.
After weeks of revelations about hospital cuts across the state, it emerged yesterday that health staff were being told to find savings to fund their own wage rises and sick children were waiting days for beds at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Mauritania: Algerian Al Qaeda Members Arrested
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, SEPTEMBER 22 — Three Algerians whose identities have not yet been released were arrested the day before yesterday (the news was published this morning by the Le Temps d’Algerie site) in Mauritania on charges of being members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Algerians, stopped along the border with Mail, have been transferred to the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott to undergo interrogation by security services which, reports the paper, “acted on the basis of information received”. The three had been carrying a large amount of money in foreign currency and had entered Mauritania on a tourist visa. They deny any link to AQIM. For months an agreement has been in place between Algeria, Mauritania, Niger and Mali to halt the activities of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is very active in the border area of the four Sahel states.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Zambia: The New President Calls for Respect, Acknowledgement of Locals’ Rights, From Chinese Firms
The new president Michael Sata revises relations with China, after over 20 years of a privileged relationship. Backed by the youth, the unemployed and trade unions, he promises to crack down on corruption and “illegal” work methods in Chinese mines. Beijing is the largest investor in the country rich in copper and raw materials.
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) — President Michael Sata invites Chinese investors to respect workers, to benefit both sides. Yesterday, speaking at a conference, the newly elected head of state stressed that “once Zambia and China were close allies, but over the years there have been worrisome incidents requiring a correction of relations.” According to Sata, investment from Beijing must bring wealth also to the citizens of Zambia, and not only to China.
Sata, 75, won the elections on September 23 with 43% of the votes, beating incumbent President Banda, who took 36.1% of the vote. Ruphia Banda led Zambia for over 20 years. Since 1992 he has allowed foreign companies, particularly from China, to exploit the country’s large mineral resources and the entry of migrants to be employed in the most underdeveloped sectors. The continuing cases of exploitation and low wages offered by Chinese companies have caused growing resentment towards Beijing.
Michael Sata is supported by the youth, the unemployed and unions and has exploited the anti-Chinese resentment that is widespread among the poorer classes of the country, who are convinced that they have been exploited, because they receive only subsistence-level wages. The country, of barely 12 million inhabitants, is rich in copper (which is 80% of its exports) and other raw materials, but 70% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day.
In Zambia there is a strong presence of Chinese firms, which here have invested over 2 billion dollars and say they have created 20,000 jobs. About two-thirds of new construction works involve Chinese companies or are run by Chinese. But critics respond that Beijing is principally concerned with seizing the country’s raw materials, that jobs are mostly those of workers and miners led by Chinese engineers and managers, that the Chinese model of development has brought corruption and uneven development, exacerbating the gap between rich and poor.
Sata’s party has long accused China of treating Zambian miners as slaves with exhausting shifts, no security measures and starvation wages. There have been repeated violent protests by workers and miners against the “masters” and last year in a coal mine the Chinese managers fired on the miners in “self-defense”, wounding 13: the executives did not end up in prison, and in compensation the wages of miners were brought to the legal minimum (AsiaNews 16.12.2010, Exploitation of African miners by the Communist China).
The new President last week said he would maintain strong diplomatic and trade relations with China and promised not to introduce new taxes on mines, but has repeatedly warned that foreign firms must “respect the law” and criticized the “illegal” work methods in Chinese mines. There is great uncertainty about his policy, especially towards China and the other big mining companies. Also yesterday, after the announcement of his election, financial markets reacted negatively and the local currency lost 2% on the South African marketplace.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
World’s Most Complex Radio Telescope Snaps Stunning 1st Photo of the Cosmos
After years of planning, construction and assembly, a gigantic observatory billed as the world’s most complex array of ground-based telescopes has opened its eyes in South America and captured its first image. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, is now officially open for business high in the Chilean Andes. The huge $1.3 billion radio telescope, a collaboration of many nations and institutions, should help astronomers explore some of the coldest and most distant objects in the universe, researchers said.
“We went to one of the most extreme locations on Earth to build the world’s largest array of millimeter/sub-millimeter telescopes having a level of technical sophistication that was merely a dream only a decade ago,” said Mark McKinnon, North American ALMA project manager at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Va., in a statement. “This truly is a great occasion!”
Observing in these long wavelengths will allow ALMA to detect extremely cold objects, such as the gas clouds from which stars and planets form, researchers said. The observatory should also be able to peer at very distant objects, opening a window in the early universe.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
75 Tunisian Migrants Escorted to Porto Empedocle
(AGI) Agrigento — According to Coast Guard sources, 75 Tunisian migrants landed in Porto Empedocle at about 5:30. They arrived on a motor boat escorted by Coast Guard patrol boats. This is the first landing after the authorities decided to close the harbor of Lampedusa to migrant arrivals, in view of the local holding center recent devastation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Five Steps Towards Proper Control of Immigration
This essay from James Clappison MP appears in the new book published this week by ConservativeHome, entitled The Future of Conservatism. We published a recommendation for a flat tax yesterday, from Edward Leigh. […]
There are few greater challenges for the present government than restoring confidence in Britain’s immigration system. To do it, we need to regain control of our borders and give more encouragement for migrants to feel part of British society. While large sections of the political class and broadcasting establishment regard the subject as untouchable, the depth of public concern about immigration is clear. Gordon Brown’s encounter with “bigoted woman” Gillian Duffy during the last general election campaign neatly encapsulated the clash of mindsets and cultures.
So how did we get here?
In the 1980s net immigration was on average under 50,000 a year. In the mid 1990s it increased to around 60,000. There were problems with the asylum system, but immigration scarcely registered among the public’s main concerns. Then, in 1997, New Labour won power. Their manifesto promised voters “firm control over immigration” but within five years Labour more than doubled the number of work permits issued to non-EU workers. Net immigration rose from 50,000 in 1997 to 245,000 in 2004. In May 2004, the Eastern European ‘A8’ countries, including Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, joined the EU. Labour predicted only 15,000 A8 nationals would arrive in Britain each year seeking work. Just two years later, 600,000 migrants from A8 countries had come to these shores.
Labour claimed immigration helped the economy. An authoritative report by the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs disagreed. There is much we can learn from economic migrants who travel long distances in search of employment and work hard once they have found it. However, it is at least highly debatable that high levels of migration bring significant economic benefits. What is beyond doubt is high levels of migration contribute to population growth. More than two thirds of Britain’s population growth is attributable to immigration. We now face the prospect of the UK’s population reaching 70 million within 20 years. It is very hard to believe this would have anything other than a dramatic effect on quality of life, the environment, transport infrastructure and public services.
So what should we do about it?
The Conservative Party was right to make immigration a priority following the formation of the Coalition. Now it must stick to its aim of reducing net migration to the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands we saw under Labour. The cap of 21,700 on migrants who can come to Britain from outside the European Economic Area is a good start.
Similarly, the Government is right to announce its intention to break the link between employment-related migration and settlement. The fact someone is permitted to work in the UK should not necessarily lead to settlement and citizenship. The Government’s review of the graduate visa system, used by overseas students as a route into the UK, is also sensible. However, we could go further. In addition to caps on non-EU migrants and better enforcement of existing restrictions on visas and bogus marriages, we should consider the following measures.
First, the Government must rule out future amnesties for illegal immigrants. Migrants must of course receive fair treatment under the law, but blanket amnesties undermine the credibility of the immigration system and have a history of failure.
Second, we should repeal human rights laws which override fair immigration policies. Under the Human Rights Act, there has been an growing tendency for dangerous foreign criminals to avoid deportation on human rights grounds. In this way the public interest plays second fiddle to questionable interpretations of human rights legislation. It will be difficult to win public confidence in our immigration system unless and until the government addresses this.
Third, the government should restrict migration from new EU countries. This and future governments must learn from New Labour’s mistakes. It should demand not just temporary, transitional restrictions but permanent control of labour movement from any new EU Member State. If the British government is unable to agree such measures, then it should be prepared to veto the accession of any country to the EU.
Fourth, we must keep work permits out of free trade agreements. As part of a proposed EU-India free trade deal, the European Commission wants to offer 50,000 EU work permits a year to Indian nationals. Around 20,000 of these would be UK work permits — that’s three times as many as Germany and seven times as many as France would grant. It is vital the Government resists any such move, as it would make reducing net immigration to the tens of thousands very difficult.
Fifth, the government should plan for the size of population it wishes to see, ideally as close to the current population as possible. Any government which permits the UK population to rapidly increase towards the 70 million mark and beyond as a result of immigration will have failed to discharge its responsibilities.
As well as controlling Britain’s borders, we need to ensure migrants feel part of British society. To do this we must recognise that state multiculturalism has failed. Where we should bring people together, multiculturalism keeps them apart. We need a better model for integration to promote integration and a sense of unity. This should emphasise the strength of our national traditions as something that unites us and in which we can all take pride. Existing traditions should be celebrated, not displaced.
Labour lost public confidence on immigration. The challenge for the Conservative Party is to earn public trust. That is why we should not regard immigration as taboo. We should be prepared to take a lead, to speak about immigration and to show we understand the depth of public concern and will translate this into decisive action. We in the Conservative Party appreciate the Liberal Democrats have different views on immigration and we will need to work constructively with them on this issue. However, the Conservative Party must show it understands the importance of immigration policy to a large section of the electorate, who are entitled to have at least one of our political parties stand up for their interests. To neglect their concerns would be a colossal mistake.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Frontex Accused of Mistreating Immigrants
Created six years ago to strengthen EU border control, Frontex is now targeted by human rights organisations for mistreatment of illegal immigrants in its detention centers, Lisbon daily i writes. According to a report based on conditions provided by detention facilities for immigrants in Greece, published September 21 by Human Rights Watch, Frontex activities fail to comply with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. At the immigrants’ holding center of Fylakio, Greece, for example, unaccompanied children are placed in cells overcrowded with adults, where the smell is excruciating and guards enter passageways wearing surgical masks. “It is a distressing contradiction that, while the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) clearly rules that the transfer of migrants to Greek detention centres violates their fundamental rights, Frontex — an executive agency of the EU — is knowingly sending them there”, explains Bill Frelick, manager of the Refugee Program of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants: More Than 4 Mln and a Half in Italy
(AGI) Rome — There are 4,570,317 foreign residents in Italy since January 1st 2011, 335,000 more compared to 2010 (+7,9%).
Istat reports that this increase is slightly less than that registered in 2009 (343,000). The number of foreign residents in 2010 have risen above all due to the number of migrants coming to Italy (425,000).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: SVP Launches New Foreign Criminals Plan
Switzerland’s far-right SVP has launched a new initiative calling for the deportation of foreign criminals at the same time as a pre-election projection suggests the party will retain power later this month. The ultra-conservative party, Switzerland’s largest, added fresh impetus to its election campaign this weekend by bringing up its favourite topic: immigration.
At a conference in Aargau on Saturday, party leaders said the objective of the second deportation initiative is to force the Federal Council to put into practice a constitutional amendment that was previously supported by a majority of Swiss in a November 28th 2010 referendum. But Social Democratic Party justice minister, Simonetta Sommaruga, and the study group she commissioned, rejected the inclusion of “automatic deportation” for criminal foreigners when they passed the initiative into law. The new text proposed by the SVP initiative will be clearer and more direct, making it impossible for the consequences to be disputed once written into the constitution.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Goodbye, Mother and Father! Now Parent 1 and Parent 2 Appear on PC Passport Form
For decades, passport applicants have been required to provide details of their mother and father.
But now, after pressure from the gay lobby, they will be given the option of naming ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’.
The change, which is due to take place within weeks, has been made following claims the original form was ‘discriminatory’ and failed to include same-sex couples looking after a child.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Are Aliens Part of God’s Plan, Too? Finding E.T. Could Change Religion Forever
The discovery of intelligent aliens would be mind-blowing in many respects, but it could present a special dilemma for the world’s religions, theologians pondering interstellar travel concepts said Saturday (Oct. 1). Christians, in particular, might take the news hardest, because the Christian belief system does not easily allow for other intelligent beings in the universe, Christian thinkers said at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to discuss issues surrounding traveling to other stars. In other words, “Did Jesus die for Klingons too?” as philosophy professor Christian Weidemannof Germany’s Ruhr-University Bochum titled his talk at a panel on the philosophical and religious considerations of visiting other worlds.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Death of Winner Throws Medicine Nobel Into Confusion
The death three days ago of one of the three winners of this year’s Nobel prize for physiology or medicine has thrown the award into confusion. Ralph Steinman of The Rockefeller University died on Friday after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer, but was awarded the prize today because the Nobel awards committee were unaware of his death. The committee’s rules state that “work produced by a person since deceased shall not be considered for an award”. However, it continues, “if a prizewinner dies before he has received the prize, then the prize may be presented”. The outcome could come down to how strict the committee is about the precise timing of the decision to award someone the prize. First reports from the Nobel Institute suggest that the committee will meet and come to a decision within the next few days.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Life-Like Cells Are Made of Metal
Could living things that evolved from metals be clunking about somewhere in the universe? Perhaps. In a lab in Glasgow, UK, one man is intent on proving that metal-based life is possible. He has managed to build cell-like bubbles from giant metal-containing molecules and has given them some life-like properties. He now hopes to induce them to evolve into fully inorganic self-replicating entities. “I am 100 per cent positive that we can get evolution to work outside organic biology,” says Lee Cronin (see photo, right) at the University of Glasgow. His building blocks are large “polyoxometalates” made of a range of metal atoms — most recently tungsten — linked to oxygen and phosphorus. By simply mixing them in solution, he can get them to self-assemble into cell-like spheres.
Cronin and his team begin by creating salts from negatively charged ions of the large metal oxides bound to a small positively charged ion such as hydrogen or sodium. A solution of this salt is squirted into another salt solution made of large, positively charged organic ions bound to small negative ones. When the two salts meet, they swap parts and the large metal oxides end up partnered with the large organic ions. The new salt is insoluble in water: it precipitates as a shell around the injected solution. Cronin calls the resulting bubbles inorganic chemical cells, or iCHELLs, and says they are far more than mere curiosities.
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Moon’s Shadow Makes Waves in Earth’s Atmosphere
Like a gigantic boat plying the heavens, the moon’s shadow creates waves in Earth’s atmosphere that travel at more than 200 mph, a new study reveals. This effect was predicted back in the early 1970s, but researchers were only finally able to observe it during the total solar eclipse of July 22, 2009. The researchers discovered that acoustic waves, also known as sound waves, in Earth’s upper atmosphere pile up along the leading and trailing edges of the moon’s shadow as it moves across Earth, like the waves produced when a ship plows through water.
“We not only find the feature of the predicted bow wave but also the stern wave on the equator side of the eclipse path, as well as the stern wake right behind the moon’s shadow boat,” researchers write in the study, which was published Sept. 14 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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