Belgium: Dexia Collapse Unites Flemish and Walloons
De Standaard, 7 October 2011
“Dexia divides Belgium” headlines De Standaard, reporting on the rescue of the Franco-Belgian bank from the verge of bankruptcy. The case represents a new “bone of contention” in Belgian politics, writes the Flemish daily, as it pits the country’s three regions (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels-Capital) against the federal government. Led by the Minister-President of the Flemish Region, Kris Peeters, the regional leaders want Dexia split up into three parts (a Belgian part, a French part and a “bad bank” for “toxic” assets) in order to salvage the Belgian branch, which specialises in financing local governments. The project would have the support of both the Belgian and French shareholders but not that of the federal government, which is pushing for nationalisation of Dexia Bank Belgium. In De Morgen, the head of the politics pages, Steven Samyn, notes that “with us, as usual, the battle is being fought in a shambling fashion,” unlike with the French, who are “generally well organised …. and that’s the case today as well…. The Elysée must be smiling as they listen in on the Belgo-Belgian discussions. They say that unity makes strength [the motto of Belgium]. Today in Paris, though, they’re probably saying ‘Unity makes a farce’“.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece is Planning to Sell Solar Power to Germany
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 27 — Greece is planning to make amends for its multibillion-euro bailouts by providing Germany with the one commodity it has to spare — sunshine. On his visit to Berlin these days for talks on the crisis, as local media report, the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will try to negotiate a huge solar power project to help to fill the energy gap that will be left by Angela Merkel’s decision to phase out nuclear production in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. The Greeks have endured taunts from German tabloids to sell off holiday islands such as Corfu to pay their debts. Project Helios could be the next best thing. Rather than more German towels on Ionian beaches, Teutonic solar panels will cover up to 20,000 hectares of depleted lignite mines near the northern Greek city of Kozani. “We can supply the Germans with 10,000 to 15,000 megawatts,” Papandreou said this month. An average coal-fired power station produces about 500MW. “With Project Helios, Greece will become a pioneer in solar energy production, which will be exported to Northern Europe. Germany has already expressed huge interest in the programme and we expect to attract investments of more than 20 billion euros creating 30,000 to 60,000 jobs,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Role of Libraries in Times of Crisis
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 5 — “Reconsidering library services in times of economic crisis” is the theme of the 7th International Conference of the Organising Committee for the Support of Libraries scheduled in the Greek capital today and tomorrow at the National Research Centre amphitheatre. This conference — according to a statement released by the Italian Cultural Institute in Athens — aims to highlight the modalities through which libraries can continue to offer quality services to the public during the economic crisis. Taking part in the symposium are speakers from Germany, Greece, the United States, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, who will be illustrating the situation and the problems met with in their countries and will mention examples and proposals for “best practice”. The Organising Committee for the Support of Libraries was set up in Greece in 2003 and operates on the basis of fair representation and collaboration between the entities of which it is composed to provide knowledge and support to the Greek library community and to improve its services. The committee is made up of the Athens and Thessaloniki Goethe Institute, the Athens Cervantes Institute, the Athens French Institute, the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens, the Greek Educational Ministry, the Greek Librarians Association, the National Library of Greece, the National Documentation Centre, the National Book Centre, the European Commission-Representation in Greece, the University of Macedonia, the Thessaloniki Technological Education Institute, the Thessaloniki Municipal Library, the American College of Thessaloniki and the American School. This year the Netherlands Embassy in Athens is also taking part in the conference.
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Lucrative Market — Qatar Boosting Islamic Banking
Global Arab Network — The first sale of an Islamic finance portfolio since Qatar’s decision to ban conventional lenders from conducting sharia-compliant banking operations is a harbinger of what’s to come as the Islamic finance sector begins to benefit from the ruling. The domestic segment, however, may have to contend with greater competition from foreign Islamic banks keen to enter the lucrative market, Global Arab Network reports according to OBG. In August the International Bank of Qatar (IBQ) sold its Islamic banking retail operations to Barwa Bank in a sale that included IBQ’s Al Yusr retail loans and deposit account portfolios, the two Al Yusr branches and a transfer of employees to Barwa Bank.
Several of Qatar’s other conventional lenders have already begun talking about what to do with their sharia-compliant operations. Ahli Bank is also considering selling off its Islamic banking arm, according to its chief executive, Salah Murad. “The bank has received interest from Islamic lenders to buy its sharia-compliant unit and the bank will take a decision by the end of this year,” he told the Bloomberg news agency in late July. Commercialbank’s group CEO, Andy Stevens, told media recently that the bank had stopped taking customers’ Islamic banking deposits to prepare to close down its sharia-based operations. “We will not have an Islamic banking proposition in 2012,” Stevens said.
In explaining its decision to ban conventional banks from conducting Islamic financial services, the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) said that conventional banks’ crossover activities were prejudicial to the competitive neutrality between conventional and Islamic banks and also impacted transparency and objective disclosure. This presented a difficult challenge for Islamic banks in terms of maintaining their stability and growth rates, and negatively impacted the stability of the entire system, the bank said. The central bank also said that a clear demarcation on activities in the sector would enable it to have a systematic framework of liquidity management and improve the efficiency of open market operations to best utilise all available monetary policy instruments.
Though the new regulations may make the QCB’s job easier, there are concerns that they will also cause a slump in returns for conventional lenders. Islamic banking activities at non-Islamic banks represent a significant slice of their market, with some lenders seeing 15% or more of their net profits coming from their sharia-compliant arm last year. In a recent note on Qatar National Bank (QNB), international credit ratings agency Fitch assessed the conventional lender as being in good health, with the country’s largest bank having “performed extremely well, with improving core earnings, good cost control and low impairment charges supporting strong profitability”.
To date Qatar’s other conventional lenders have been logging solid earnings performances for the first half of the year. QNB reported a 31% jump in profits, Commercialbank a rise of 17% and Ahli Bank an increase of 28% over the same period last year. To what extent these results will be impacted by the new banking regulations will become apparent a year down the track. Three of Qatar’s sharia-compliant banks have also had a good opening six months to the year, with Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) posting an 18% rise in net profits over the first half of 2010, totalling QR322m ($88.4m); Qatar Islamic Bank’s profits reaching QR703m ($193m), a 17% increase, and Masraf Al Rayan (MAR) seeing profits rise by 14%, booking $189.7m in black ink.
It is difficult to decipher how much of the strong performance by these three Islamic lenders was related to the QCB’s policy decision, or whether or not clients from conventional banks have started to close their interest-bearing accounts and make the move into sharia-compliant banks. Results from the first half of 2012 should help give the sector a better picture of the impact of the regulation.
That image may be clouded somewhat if banking regulators allow more foreign competition into the market. On August 4, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) issued a statement saying it had been granted permission to open a branch in Qatar. Under authorisation given by the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority, ADIB will be able to carry on regulated activities related to deposit taking, providing and arranging financing facilities and managing investments. According to Ibrahim Masood, a senior investment officer at UAE lender Mashreq Bank, others may be tempted to follow ADIB’s lead. “Qatar is seen as an attractive market by most players in the region,” he told media. “The growth in banking is strong in the Islamic space so I would not be surprised to see standalone Islamic banks being more aggressive.”
There is some suggestion that Qatar’s banks may be hoping for the QCB to rescind or defer the implementation of its decision or to amend it in a way to allow conventional banks to retain some of their Islamic financial activities. To date, there has been little to suggest that these hopes will be met, meaning that the whole sector will soon have a very clear delineation between Islamic and conventional banking. (OBG)
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Hour of Our Recapitalisation Has Come
Les Echos, 7 October 2011
“The ECB and Europe have decreed a state of emergency”, announces Les Echos. At his last meeting as head of the European Central Bank, outgoing President Jean-Claude Trichet “yesterday unsheathed a series of ‘unconventional’ monetary policy measures, such as he did during the 2008 crisis,” writes the business daily. The main measure is to allocate liquidity to the European banks most exposed to the debt crisis, for the next year or more. The other operation to address the lack of liquidity is the acquisition by the ECB, from November, of 40 billions euros in bank bonds, for a maximum of one year.
In parallel, the new European Banking Authority (EBA), should be reassessing the need for recapitalisation by including the “haircuts” imposed this summer on some sovereign bond markets, Les Echos adds. For its part, Commission President José Manuel Barroso on October 6 called for a renewed effort to recapitalise the banking sector in Europe. A meeting between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy is scheduled for Sunday 9 to discuss the idea. In the discussions between the heads of state and governments at the European Council on 17 and 18 October, the recapitalisation of distressed banks should also be at centre stage.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
CNN’s Cooper Attacks Increasingly Popular Herman Cain With ‘Keeping Them Honest’ Segment
At the top of Thursday’s Anderson Cooper 360, CNN’s Cooper ran his first critical “Keeping Them Honest” segment on GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain since he is “no longer a voice on the fringe.” Cooper pulled up quotes Cain made months ago, using a “Think Progress” clip, in an effort to hold him accountable for months’ worth of statements on Sharia law and Planned Parenthood, among other issues.
Meanwhile, on the same day, President Obama gave a press conference on his jobs bill that the AP found five factual problems with, but which merited only a brief segment on Thursday’s Anderson Cooper 360.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Worker Sues Secretive US Agency, Alleging Bias
FAIRFAX, Va. — A former employee has sued one of the government’s most secretive security agencies, alleging he lost his security clearance because his wife attended an Islamic school and worked for a Muslim charity. Mahmoud Hegab filed the discrimination lawsuit this week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria against the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at Fort Belvoir.
The Alexandria resident worked at NGA as a budget analyst with a top secret security clearance. But his clearance was revoked in November after he got married. NGA officials told him they were concerned about his wife’s schooling at the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private school in northern Virginia, according to the lawsuit. Officials also cited her employment with an Islamic charity, Alexandria-based Islamic Relief USA, as a reason for revoking the clearance, the lawsuit alleges. Also identified as cause for concern was his wife’s participation in a 2003 anti-war rally in Washington sponsored by the ANSWER coalition, a left-wing group that has worked in conjunction with Palestinian activists at times. NGA also cited her time at George Mason University, when she served as president of a student group called Students for Justice in Palestine. Officials at NGA — which employs 16,000 workers supplying satellite data and other imagery to the military — did not respond to an email seeking comment. All of its employees are required to have a top secret clearance due to the nature of the agency’s work.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hope College Speaker Says Bias Against Islam Prompted by Ignorance, Fear
HOLLAND — Ten years after the Sept. 11 attacks, anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States is at an all-time high. What’s particularly disconcerting, says Reza Aslan, is that such beliefs have become increasingly part of the American mainstream, showing up in comments by members of Congress and commentators on Fox News. “It’s become a receptacle in which Americans are throwing their fears and anxieties about the economy, their fears about the changing political landscape, their fears about the changing racial landscape in this country,” said Aslan, a contributing editor at The Daily Beast and author of the bestselling book “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam,” who spoke this week at Hope College’s Critical Issues Symposium. “Whatever is fearful, whatever is frightening, whatever is uncomfortable, is being tagged as Islam.” This year’s symposium theme was “Exploring Islam.”
Aslan, an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside, has been involved in numerous efforts to build bridges between Americans and the Muslim world. A native of Iran whose family escaped to the U.S. during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he says a well-financed campaign involving such organizations as Jihad Watch, headed by Robert Spencer, has fueled anti-Muslim sentiment. Aslan also debunks efforts in more than 20 states to pass laws that would ban the establishment of courts based on Muslim law, or Sharia. He says such courts, which would deal primarily with family matters such as marriage and divorce, should not be seen as a threat on America. “It is literally impossible for Sharia, as penal code, to creep its way into America,” Aslan said. “You’re not going to get to stone people in America tomorrow.”
The answer to change people’s minds toward Islam is not education, despite Aslan’s role as an educator. He says the answer is building relationships with individual Muslims.
“If you know one Muslim, it cuts in half the negativity rating you have toward Islam,” Aslan said. “If you get to know (a Muslim) as a person, as a human being … it’s hard to maintain that idea of otherness.”
Aslan’s address was only part of the two-day symposium Tuesday and Wednesday. Other speakers included Asma Barlas, a professor of politics at Ithaca College in New York and author of the book “‘Believing Women’ in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an,” which addresses violence against Muslim women. Hope has hosted the Critical Issues Symposium since 1980. The college cancels classes for a day to hold the event, which is designed to stimulate thinking among students, faculty and the Holland community on current issues and offer a chance for dialogue with experts. “There’s a cyclical nature to these explosive issues,” said Alfredo Gonzalez, associate provost and director of international education at Hope, who co-chaired the symposium. “Each generation must find their own words to grapple with the consequences of these issues, and more importantly, what to do about it.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Islam Program at the Tom Rivers Branch of the Ocean County Library
From the way we heal the sick to the numerals we use for counting, from the coffee we drink to the first hospital ever built, cultures across the globe have been shaped by the Islamic civilization. Join presenter Mimi Al-Torey on Wednesday, October 12th, at 7pm in the Toms River branch of the Ocean County Library for a journey to explore the true nature of Islam during National Diversity Month. Mimi Al-Torey has Bachelor of Laws from the University of London, United Kingdom. As part of her Law studies she submitted a Thesis titled Islam, Womens Ideal Liberation: The Myth and The Reality where she addressed in a comparative study issues related to the status of women in Islam and historic accounts of the role and stature of Women in early pagan civilizations, scripture and practices of the Judeo-Christian theology.
The program is free and open to the public. Information and registration for the program can be found at the librarys Web site www.theoceancountylibrary.org or by speaking to an operator at (732) 349-6200.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Woman, Douglasville Settle Lawsuit Over Her Hijab
“We think it’s a significant victory for religious freedom,” Azadeh Shahshahani, one of the attorneys representing Lisa Valentine in the case, told the AJC in a phone interview Friday.
“Obviously the manner in which Ms. Valentine was treated was inexcusable and unconstitutional,” said Shahshahani, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. “We hope that through this settlement, no other people will be subject to this same humiliating treatment Ms. Valentine had to suffer.”
Douglasville agreed to adopt a new court screening policy that allows people with religious head coverings the option of being screened in a private area by a person of the same gender, the ACLU said in a news release. Persons with religious headgear will not be forced to remove them in public and can wear the coverings in court. That policy mirrors a nonbinding recommendation to local courts made in July 2009 by the Georgia Judicial Council after widespread news reports of the Valentine incident. “I hope that no person of faith will ever have to experience the type of egregious treatment I suffered at any Georgia courthouse because of the expression of my beliefs,” Valentine said in the news release.
Efforts were being made Friday afternoon to reach a Douglasville city official for comment.
Valentine, an African-American woman who converted from Christianity to Islam about 15 years ago, was jailed on Dec. 16, 2008 after she wore a Muslim head scarf known as a hijab while accompanying her nephew to Traffic Court in Douglasville. When a guard at a court security station told Valentine to remove her headgear, the woman refused, protested aloud and tried to leave. But Municipal Court Judge Keith Rollins ordered the woman arrested and jailed for 10 days for contempt of court. Valentine was released later that day.
In December, Valentine — represented by the national ACLU and its Georgia chapter and the law firm of Carlton Fields — filed suit in U.S. District Court, Atlanta. The suit accused Douglasville and the officers who arrested Valentine of violating her constitutional rights as well as her rights under federal law. While the ACLU hopes all Georgia courts will adopt the Judicial Council’s recommended policy, “unfortunately, we continue to receive complaints about people being denied access to courthouses because of the religious headgear they are wearing,” Shahshahani said. The most recent incident occurred in May in Henry County, when a state judge refused to allow a Muslim man to wear a head covering, a tight-fitting cap called a kufi, in traffic court. The judge later reversed his decision.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Secret U.S. Memo Made Legal Case to Kill a Citizen
The Obama administration’s secret legal memorandum that opened the door to the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric hiding in Yemen, found that it would be lawful only if it were not feasible to take him alive, according to people who have read the document.
The memo, written last year, followed months of extensive deliberations and offers a glimpse into the legal debate that led to one of the most significant decisions made by President Obama — to move ahead with the killing of an American citizen without a trial.
The memo provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war, according to people familiar with the analysis. The memo, however, was narrowly drawn to the specifics of Mr. Awlaki’s case and did not establish a broad new legal doctrine.
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Austria: The Country of 35 Scandals
Falter, 6 October 2011
Not a week passes without yet another revelation: “Having trouble making sense of it? Here is a reference guide to the biggest scandals in Austria,” announces Falter. The Vienna weekly has published a special edition devoted to 35 major affairs that have emerged in the Alpine republic over recent years, which are beginning to undermine Austrians’ confidence in their democracy.
Five ministers in the coalition governments formed by former chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel’s conservatives and Jörg Haider’s extreme right FPÖ party have been implicated. The text book cases include the 2004 BUWOG affair, one of the largest privatisations in the country since WWII, for which the minister of finance at the time was later accused of favouritism. Then there is the 2002 Eurofighter affair, which highlighted the payment of kickbacks from EADS to the minister of defence, who subsequently awarded the largest ever defence contract under the 2nd Republic to the European corporation.
These political leaders “reinterpreted Schüssel’s campaign slogan — ‘less state, more private initiative’ — as an invitation to enhance their personal wealth,” notes Falter. However, the current chancellor, social-democrat Werner Faymann is also under investigation for “purchasing a positive image” in the pages of several Austrian newspapers, notably the all powerful Krone, when he was minister for transport.
“The vast majority of the scandals implicated neo-liberals,” remarks Falter’s editor in chief, who argues that “in an era focused on individual performance, the guys who made it allowed themselves to be tempted to seek personal gain. They were caught red-handed, participating in what was in fact a widespread practice. “
Although it remains pessimistic, Falter calls for Austria’s citizens to take action. However, former leaders from all of the country’s parties, who have launched a “final campaign” in the form of the My Austria initiative, have already come together to address the issue. The retired politicians want to hold a referendum that would pave the way for more direct democracy and political transparency.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Finmeccanica President Not Worried About Sex Probe
(AGI) Rome — Guarguaglini is not worried, although links have emerged between Finmeccanica and arrested entrepreneur Tarantini. “I’m not worried for myself. I’m worried for Finmeccanica, and about the damage they can cause to Finmeccanica. I’m serene” Finmeccanica president Pier Francesco Guarguaglini told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony in Palazzo Farnese during which Confindustria president Emma Marcegaglia was conferred France’s highest civilian honour, the Knight of the Legion of Honour. Asked whether he is considering taking a step back, he replied: “Why? I wouldn’t dream of it”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 16 Farmers Convicted to 5 Years of Jail for Fraud
(AGI) Milan — The court of Milan convicted 16 stock-breeders to more than 5 years of jail at the end of the trial for an alleged 100 million Euro fraud, concerning sums that should have been paid to the State since 2003 by the farmers related to the “La Lombarda” and “La Latteria” cooperatives, for the milk quotas produced in excess with respect to the limits established by the Eu. Besides, the court enjoined a 30 million Euro provisional indemnification to be paid to Agea. 18 million Euros were also confiscated to the two cooperatives.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Chocolate Egg Jams Justice
Trial for €1 theft will cost thousands
TARANTO — “Up till last year, the criminal registry was still paper-based” said the president of the court of appeal Mario Buffo, apropos the Taranto courthouse, at the inauguration of the judicial year, adding, “It’s straight out of the stone age”. Mr Buffo was explaining why the wheels of justice turn so slowly in Taranto.
Now we know there is at least one other reason: the time and energy that goes into to holding trials like the one for the alleged theft of a Kinder egg. We are only in the early stages with the second hearing scheduled for 31 January next year. The value of the stolen goods is €1.04 but the cost of the trial — legal proceedings, notifications, the time and documents required from court clerks, magistrates, lawyers and Carabinieri officers — runs into thousands.
If things go badly for the defendant, a student called Donato who is now 20, he would have a criminal record. And if, for example, he was stopped at a routine police road check and found to have a conviction for theft, he would have to own up, explaining it was just a Kinder egg. Donato’s lawyer, Gianluca Pierotti is confident that “all the premises are there to wrap up this case with an acquittal”. It will, however, take time and this affair has already been keeping Donato’s family on tenter-hooks for two years.
The incident took place on 4 August 2009. Donato, who was 18 at the time, was chatting to a friend at Montedarena on the Salento coast, at an itinerant fruit and sweet vendor’s stall. What is not in dispute is that Donato approached the trader’s — his name is Luciano — Ape Poker truck to get a chocolate egg. At this point, however, the versions diverge. Donato claims that he removed the Kinder egg from the display stand to show it to the trader and pay for it. Luciano maintains that the student pocketed the egg. When he challenged Donato — “I saw you. You were going to steal it” — he received a barrage of insults, which led to the further indictment for uttering abuse. “None of this is true”, responds Donato. “He shouted at me because I shouldn’t have touched the egg. I even apologised”. In other words, there was a lively exchange of views but nothing to get too worked up about. Or perhaps not. The trader called the Carabinieri, Donato was identified and officers interviewed him at the Carabinieri barracks. At two in the morning, his father spoke to the trader and tried to put an end to the business with sincere apologies and a handshake but Luciano would have none of it…
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Orthopaedics Stressed by Complaints, 2,000 Every Year
(AGI) Rome — Orthopaedists are scared because of “stress due to too many complaints”: all over the country more than 2,000 complaints have been filed against 7,000 orthopaedists, who are the medical doctors more often involved in civil lawsuits for alleged medical errors, wrong diagnosis and therapy. In the course of the last 15 years the lawsuits against doctors soared by 255% and every years about 18,000 new suits are filed for professional liability. More than 5,000 Internet web sites offer legal assistance to patients for case of alleged malpractice.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Man Gouges Out His Eyes in Tuscan Church
Viareggio, 3 Oct. (AKI) — A mentally ill man gouged out both eyes during a church service at the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio on Sunday claiming “a voice” in his head had told him to commit the gruesome act.
The 46-year-old man, who had attended mass with his mother, was rushed to hospital where surgeons attempted to reattach both of his eyeballs.
Police had recovered the man’s eyeballs from the Sant’Andrea church aisle as horrified worshippers looked on.
The man, who remained conscious throughout, is almost certain to remain blind, according to ophthalmologists.
“It was shocking and happened totally unexpectedly. Just as I was starting my sermon, the man stood up and gouged out both his eyes,” said parish priest Antonio Tanganelli.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Knox Release Sparks Outcry Over American PR and Justice
Rome, 5 Oct. (AKI) — Amanda Knox’s release from a prison in central Italy has sparked a trans-Atlantic spat among many Italians who consider the 24-year-old student’s freedom the product of a slick public relations campaign and pressure from a hypocritical America whose own flawed courts permit it little moral high ground to give lessons on justice.
Other’s, most notably people close to trial-fatigued prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, have used the occasion to launch fresh attacks on the Italian justice system they claim allows biased magistrates to persecute, rather than prosecute, and conduct political witch hunts.
More than 1,000 protesters in the central Italian hill town of Perugia reacted to Knox’s release after four years in prison by chanting “shame, bastards, shame” to protest what they say was an acquittal produced by American’s powerful media and government. The following day in her hometown Seattle Knox broke into tears and told reporters that she gave ‘‘thanks to everybody who believed in me.’’
Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito late Monday had been sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively for the November 2007 murder of English Erasmus student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, a town in central Italy famous for chocolate and its international university.
A third person, 24-year-old African immigrant Rudy Guede is serving a 16-year sentence after being convicted in a fast-track trial for taking part in Kercher’s murder.
Kercher’s lifeless body was discovered in the apartment she shared with Knox on November 2, 2007 — half- naked, throat slit and body riddled with dozens of stab wounds. Prosecutors say she was killed by the trio after refusing to participate in a sex game.
In the latest trial, independent experts testified that DNA evidence used to prosecute Knox and Sollecito was seriously tainted. The reasons for the acquittal must be published within 90 days of the decision.
“I’ve never seen such pressure from the media. It can’t go on like this,” said Guliano Mignini. a prosecutor in the Knox case, and himself no stranger to the television camera. Mignini said he would appeal the sentence.
According to Italian independent online news site Lettera43, the Knox and Sollecito legal team was paid only 100,000 euros for four years of work and happy to earn the rest through the publicity of the international news stories. Influential Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana spoke out for the victim’s family who “wasn’t prepared with a press office like Mr. Knox so its voice wasn’t heard overseas.” The magazine said Italy shouldn’t accept lessons from the US State Dept. on justice, especially in light of the media circus surrounding the jailing and release of former International Monetary Fund president and leading contender for the French presidency.
“Dragging Dominique Strauss Khan off a plane in handcuffs, to later admit was all an error is a demonstration fair American justice,” the magazine asked.
Images of angel-faced Knox breaking into tears at her acquittal after four years of unmerited imprisonment also prompted Berlusconi’s allies to decry a system which currently has put the
billionaire media mogul on trial in four separate cases in Milan for alleged crimes ranging from corruption to paying a minor for sex. He denies wrongdoing and vociferously says he is persecuted by a left-wing magistrate and media.
“If Knox’s jailing was wrong who is going to pay her for unjust imprisonment,” said Italian Justice Minister on Tuesday, in the government’s last attack of Italian magistrates.
In an unusual front page English-language letter to foreign correspondents, the Il Folio newspaper owned and edited by close Berlusconi associate Giuliano Ferrara says that the international media — never short on criticism of the embattled prime minister — has finally come to the realization that “something is seriously defective in the Italian justice system and the Italian media.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The “Lovers of Valdaro”, the 6,000-Year-Old Tragic Italian Couple, Need a New Home
Four years after being discovered in northern Italy, the skeletal remains from six millennia ago have just been displayed in public for the first time. But local officials say tragedy would repeat if they were left without a permanent home, which could attract fairytale and archeology buffs alike
Mario Baudino, Mantua
For 6,000 years, two young lovers have been locked in an eternal embrace, hidden from the eyes of the world. This past weekend, the “Lovers of Valdaro” — named for the little village near Mantua, in Northern Italy, where they were first discovered — were seen by the public for the first time.
The lovers are in fact two human skeletons, dating back to the Neolithic era, which were found in a necropolis in the nearby village of Valdaro in 2007, huddled close together, face to face, their arms and legs entwined. They were displayed this past weekend at the entrance of Mantua Archeological Museum, thanks to the effort of the association, “Lovers of Mantua,” which is seeking a permanent home for the ancient couple.
After the discovery, many thought that the couple had been killed. It would fit in well with the history of an Italian region famous for many tragic love stories. Mantua is the city where Romeo was exiled and was told that his Juliet was dead. The composer Giuseppe Verdi chose it as the location for his opera Rigoletto, another story of star-crossed love and death.
But subsequent research revealed that the skeletons did not have any signs of a violent death. They were a woman and a man, between 18 and 20 years old. Some have wondered if they died together, holding each other in a freezing night. Professor Silvia Bagnoli, the president of the association “Lovers in Mantua,” doesn’t exclude this possibility, but says that more likely the skeletons were laid out in that position after their deaths.
The mystery might never be solved. Still, many want to see the couple. The association “Lovers in Mantua” is campaigning for their right to have a room of their own. According to Bagnoli, 250,000 euros will be enough for an exhibition center, and another 200,000 euros could pay for a multimedia space to tell the world the mysterious story of these prehistoric lovers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Member Gets ASBO for Park Clash
An English Defence League member who become involved with a clash with Muslims in Hyde Park has been banned from attending future marches without notifying police in advance.
Brian Bristow, 38, of no fixed address, was one of three men who admitted threatening behaviour towards a man running a stall providing Islamic literature near Speakers’ Corner, in October last year. The vicim was verbally abused and had his possessions thrown around. Earlier in the day, the men had attended an EDL rally outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington, which ended in a confrontation between EDL members and anti-fascist campaigners in Hyde Park.
At Woolwich Crown Court on August 3, Bristow was jailed for seven days and ordered to pay £400 costs and £10 compensation after admitting using threatening behaviour.
At the same court on Thursday, he was given a conviction-related ASBO (CRASBO) as part of his sentence. The five-year CRASBO prohibits Bristow from attending any EDL march, demonstration or similar event in England and Wales without have notified a specified email account of Westminster police at least seven days before the event.
He must also not use words or behaviour which might cause harassment, alarm or distress, or be in possession of alcohol or controlled substances, in a public place on the day of a notified event. In sentencing the men, the judge condemned the “thuggish behaviour” they had demonstrated. Detective constable Andy Haworth said: “We have to strike a balance between people’s right to protest and the right of individuals to go about their daily business. However, we will not tolerate individuals using protest as a front for committing acts of violence and disorder, and hope the antisocial behaviour order will send a message to others.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Wrath of Plod (Or Ex-Plod Bob Lambert)
On Monday, British Islamists and their supporters under the banner of the Bangladesh Crisis Group gathered at the London Muslim Centre to preach to their flock that Bangladesh was committing serious human rights abuses in their desire to finally try the perpetrators of the genocide of 1971.
This group of supporters of radical Islamism have finally crossed the Rubicon and they have potentially shot themselves in the foot by amassing Jamaat and Muslim Brotherhood leaders together. Strategically, for them, it is bad to inject them into the highly contentious issue of their fellow Islamists committing genocide in Bangladesh. The genocide happened. It’s been well documented. Arguing against it is like trying to push the tide back. It’s irrational. It obviously has Islamist leaders worried. They are claiming there are mass human rights abuses by the Bangladesh government and that there is massive US counter-terrorism involvement in the tribunals as a way of gathering support from useful idiots in Britain’s academia.
Bangladesh does lag behind in human rights, it is undeniable, but it’s usually down to corruption, lack of education on procedure and ethics which is mainly through a lack of finances. They haven’t got the money. It shouldn’t be an excuse, but it’s reality. To think that Bangladesh, which is still one of the poorest nations in the world, can have a model police force beyond reproach is wishful thinking. The scandals around Rupert Murdoch and News International has show that even the highly developed and politically corrected, brow beat Metropolitan Police Force at Scotland Yard aren’t beyond temptation.
Bob Lambert, an ex-Special Branch Officer and ex head of the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) at the Met gave a speech at the event. He has been one of the leading lights, or probably more accurate the last beacon of hope, for Islamists in the remnants of Londonistan. He wants to retain the policy of allowing radical Islamists to have London as their centre of operations away from the Middle East and South Asia. He seems to think there is a wide gulf between Islamists and Salafists, but in reality this isn’t the case. It’s a false debate.
Osama Bin Laden the worlds most celebrated Salafist leader has pumped money into Pakistani political parties in the past. Salafists don’t believe in democracy. They aren’t allowed to have any part in elections. It’s Haraam (forbidden) in Islamic law. Lamberts narrative has major holes in it. This means Bin Laden was a hypocrite or the religious side of Islamist terrorism has been overplayed. Lambert reckons that “moderate” Islamists are an effective counter-balance to Salafists. Has Lambert and other Western academics been sucked into a false and misleading debate and been played for fools? Yes, I would argue they have. Lambert is still trying to cling onto his woeful theory. Islamists and the ignorant are still his major audience. Judging by the content of the speeches at the event on Monday the lack of knowledge on Bangladesh is clearly apparent from the non-Islamist speakers. So, why did they wade into it?
The covenant of security which was believed to have existed between the British Government and Islamists before 9/11 was half torpedoed when Tony Blair joined the US led war on terror. Blair’s bi-polar policy against radical Islamism was half-cocked he believed he could launch dodgy invasions of Muslim countries, yet leave British Islamist figures and institutes that were suspected of supporting terrorism untouched. The British government should have upped its efforts to do its own spring cleaning while the Arab Spring was at its height. They hinted at it with a review of Project Contest, the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. This would have helped to level the playing field for all political parties in the Middle East and South Asia. Londonistan will be important in the future of the Muslim world and will undoubtedly have an impact on which way the wind eventually blows.
Lambert thinks he’s a realist and a good attentive listener: a new breed of copper for a new way of policing. When he worked for the Metropolitan Police he was not the, “lock-them-up-throw-away-the-key” type of law enforcement official. He likes to think he’s a thinker. He rightly believes that crimes, mainly terrorism, often have more complex psychosocial factors. Irish Republicans had legitimate grievances and violence came from it. Talking to Sinn Fein and addressing the issues of Northern Irish Republican was a noble way to end a protracted conflict driven by sectarian hatred and distrust. Conflict resolution and dialogue was a good thing. It wasn’t appeasement. It wasn’t as simple as allowing terrorists to get away with murder. But, there aren’t many parallels between Irish Republicans and Islamists. Hugging an Islamist won’t work. The Pentagon even tried it with the late terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki in the early years. It failed.
Islamists like to latch onto divisive causes and make them worse. Hijacking others causes. Islamists certainly haven’t enjoyed great public support in the Muslim world, even though they have been exceptions such as in Algeria, Gaza and Sudan. It is a bit unfair and premature to say that because democracy hasn’t been allowed to flourish there. There is one thing that Islamists thrive on and that is violence. They, like other extremists, need conflict. Hamas showed that they are perfectly willing to bring pain on their populations if they can get some kind of political reward for it. Get a suicide bomber to attack Israelis, let the Israeli’s respond (mostly, I concede disproportionately) and let your charity fronts help the victims. It proved to be a winning political formula for Hamas. They cynically keep the cycle of the violence going. They use jingoism and violent racist rhetoric to increase hate and ignorance. Then claim they are defending their populations from aggression. Pakistan’s military, religious parties and dreaded ISI have the same strategy.
A major worry for outsiders looking at the event is that speakers and organisers at the event gave thinly veiled threats of pushing Bangladesh into a revolution or their “own Arab Spring” or “Asian Spring” which is highly misguided and dangerous. It’s also a highly undemocratic charge and smacks of irrational arrogance. I wonder what the late Edward Said would have made of it. I bet he would have asked Lambert for a quiet word.
Bob Lambert, Toby Cadman and others should have stayed away from the event as a result of this key demand. The promotional literature clearly pointed this was the conference’s main objective. If I was advising the Government of Bangladesh, I certainly wouldn’t give Toby Cadman a visa to enter the country now he’s spoken on this platform. Islamists and their apologists aren’t democrats. They don’t care about people’s needs or their franchise. They ignore it. The apologists have narrow minded short-term goals which would lock countries like Bangladesh into uneasy alliances and irrational compromises with Islamists. The people of Bangladesh have spoken, they don’t want radicalism in Bangladesh but do people like Bob Lambert and Oliver McTernan ever care to listen to the people?
Bangladesh had elections and the overwhelming majority of Bangladeshis want the end to the “Culture of Impunity” and believe the war crimes tribunals are the start of this process. But, what do you expect from Islamists and their supporters? If the ballot box fails and justice starts to creep up on them, they believe it’s time to pull down civil and political society and rebuild it in their own warped image.
If Lambert and Co want to build lasting bridges they should get their Islamist friends to renounce the worst of their ideology and apologise. They need to take responsibilities for their crimes. It will give them much need credibility and their detractors confidence in the future. Sometimes, only justice can steer you through the complexities of conflict resolution. If you try to subvert that and the truth you will always fail to create a lasting solution. Papering over cracks is often needed in conflict resolution, but in Bangladesh, Jamaat-i-Islami broke the foundations. They are going to have to face reality.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why the Government Should Not Block Our Move to Protect Free Speech
Edward Leigh is the Member of Parliament for Gainsborough.
For centuries, men and women in Britain have fought for the right to express in words what is in their hearts. Freedom of speech is, perhaps, our most precious civil liberty after the right to life itself. But there is a widely held concern that civil liberties such as freedom of speech are being eroded. Many blame the last government for this. Even the current Leader of the Opposition admitted that the Labour government was “draconian” on civil liberties. But it is not just changes in the law that lead to the erosion of freedoms. It is changes in policing practice.
Since the 1930s Public Order law has criminalised “threatening, abusive or insulting” words or behaviour. That phrase is now found in Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.
Threats and abuse clearly ought to be covered by public order law. Insult, however, is a much lower threshold and is open to misuse. Whatever self-restraint the police exercised in the past in applying the law against insults appears to be melting away. No doubt we can blame it on external pressure from activists and internal pressure from out-of-control ‘equality and diversity’ programmes.
The result is that we are witnessing more and more cases of public order law being used to regulate legitimate debate and to silence those who dissent from the nostrums of political correctness. The case of the Christian café in Blackpool that was told by police that displaying the text of the New Testament on TV screens breached public order law is just the latest in a long and sorry line. As events over the summer reminded us, it is very important to have laws that protect public order and public safety. Freedom of speech does have its limits. But it is not legitimate to criminalise words or behaviour that are merely insulting in the ordinary meaning of the word. One man’s insult is another man’s argument. What one person finds insulting may be sacred truth to the next person. If people are allowed to dial 999 every time they feel insulted, the result is a colossal waste of police time and a dangerous chilling effect on freedom of speech.
Tom Watson, Alan Beith and I have tabled an amendment to the Protection of Freedoms Bill — debated in Parliament this week — that removes the word ‘insulting’ from Section 5. It is backed by 65 MPs from across the political parties. It is an amendment called for by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights and backed by civil liberties groups like Justice. It is actively supported by the National Secular Society and the Christian Institute. Such breadth of support shows the strength of the case for change. Indeed, the Minister, James Brokenshire, has conceded that the Government will have to assess the benefits of the amendment.
However, the Government is using a procedural device in the House of Commons to block debate on the amendment — even though it is far and away the most well-supported amendment tabled to the Bill. It is ironic that MPs should be denied the opportunity to speak about the freedom to speak. Nonetheless, we must trust the Government will be true to its word to consider the merits of the argument. But they must not delay. The Protection of Freedoms Bill is the ideal vehicle for this amendment. The opportunity must not be missed.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Huge State Riches, But Poorly Managed
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, OCTOBER 4 — The Croatian state is one of the richest in Europe in terms of the assets and public goods owned by the state in GDP terms, but one of the continent’s poorest performers in efficient management and the yield that it generates from its wealth. This is according to figures by Eurostat, which have been analysed by Zagreb’s public finances institute and published in the Rijeka newspaper Novi List.
The value of assets owned by the Croatian state, in public companies, property, forests, natural resources such as drinking water or gas and other goods, totals 31.4 billion euros, 68% of GDP. The numbers put Croatia in fifth position in the European rankings of wealth of state goods in comparison to GDP, behind Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. The Eurostat figures show that EU countries are on average much less “well-off”, with the value of their goods on average representing a third of GDP, or at least under 50%, as shown by neighbouring Slovenia, where the figure is 44%.
This wealth, however, does not bring as much into the Croatian state coffers as it should. Norway earns 11% of GDP per year from its own possessions, thanks to its oil resources. Even other countries not in possession of oil manage to earn good money from their assets, between 2 and 4%, as is the case for Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. Yet Croatia manages to make just 0.7%, some 300 million euros per year, the eight worst figure in Europe, placing it in the group of countries that do not manage to earn more than 1% of GDP per year from their own assets. Croatia is even less efficient at managing its assets if their volume is taken into account.
One of the heads of the association of Croatian entrepreneurs, Vladimir Ferdelji, says that “if an individual were to manage, for instance, just the company that takes care of the country’s forest resources, which cover 47% of the national territory, the person would be a billionaire”. The company made a net profit of just 4 million euros in 2010, albeit thanks to a tax that all companies are obliged to pay rather than as a result of efficient and competitive management.
Anto Bajo, an expert at the public finances institute, says that the results are even more disappointing considering the work of the 69 biggest public companies, which represent 80% of Croatia’s total state assets. Between 2002 and 2010, these companies paid a little under 700 million euros to the state, 0.2% of annual GDP, while the state gave its own companies a series of restructuring operations and subventions worth a total of 4.2 billion euros. In the last two years, the country’s balance sheet has recorded losses. Bajo believes that the global economic crisis cannot justify these negative results, which are more than anything the result of poor management, investments and unjustified spending, but also of corruption.
After the anti-corruption campaign launched two years ago by the Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor, which involved dozens of politicians and senior managers, the company that produces and distributes electrical energy in Croatia (HEP) announced revenue of 200 million euros in 2010, a tenfold increase on the previous year. The press says that it is revealing that the former director of HEP, Ivan Mravak, is among those under investigation for corruption and misuse of funds.
“The government should improve the management of public companies and sell its shares in those in which it has a minority stake,” Bajo suggests. “The first step for beginning to earn more is certainly to complete the registers of state-owned goods”. The fact that Croatia has not done so for 20 years, Bajo concludes, is “the first indicator of the irresponsibility of all governments towards the huge public wealth entrusted to them”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Assafrica: Support to SMEs Even After Arab Spring
(ANSAmed) — ALEXANDRIA (EGYPT), SEPTEMBER 21 — “This is still the main area for SME development and Assafrica wants to continue with its support policies even and especially after the Arab Spring,” said Pier Luigi d’Agata, general director of Assafrica (an association for the development of Italian enterprises in Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle East) on the fringes of the annual Invest in Med conference which begins today in Alexandria. “This meeting is especially important to take an in-depth look at the problems of businesses in the current situation, since the Arab revolt has led to a change in the presidencies of the local employers’ unions, for example in Tunisia,” d’Agata said. The revolts, first in Tunisia and then in Egypt, have not diminished the interest of Italian enterprises. Far from it. “Those who have already set up plants want to stay and in some cases expand,” said the general director. “Except for Libya, where staff have been evacuated. There is now the desire to go back, and the re-opening of the embassy is the first step.
Assafrica has already noted a few problems, such as the need to find new interlocutors for investment and to set in motion new projects in different sectors. “There is already pressure to organise a mission as soon as possible,” he concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Fisheries: 42,000 Tonnes by 2014 From Aquaculture
(ANSA) — ALGIERS, SEPTEMBER 19 — Thanks to an increase in fish from fish farming, Algeria hopes to meet a high level of its domestic demand and thereby make up for the current imbalance in imports. This was said by Fisheries Minister Abdallah Khanafou, who underscored the target of producing 42,000 tonnes per year by 2014. It is an “ambitious” programme, as was admitted by Khanafou himself in quotes reported by APS, that is based on the creation of 158 aquaculture projects. By next year floating cages will be set up in 60 sites able to raise production to the target levels over the next few years. The ministry has also identified another 450 sites which may potentially be suitable for additional facilities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Govt Agency ‘Gave Millions’ To Organisations Run by Mubarak’s Wife and Son
Cairo, 3 Oct. (AKI) — The Egyptian government allocated millions of Egyptian pounds to organisations run by ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s wife Suzanne Mubarak and her son Gamal, according to documents obtained by Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The payments were made even though the organizations were not among the recipients targeted by Egyptian cabinet’s Social Development Fund, the documents showed.
Suzanne Mubarak’s Heliopolis Association, and Gamal’s Future Generation Foundation (FGF) obtained grants worth 16.8 million Egyptian pounds (2.8 million dollars) during the period 2006-2009.
Neither organisation meets the fund’s declared goals of combatting unemployment and poverty, Al-Masry Al-Youm cited unnamed sources as telling the newspaper. They added that grants were disbursed without squaring earlier allocations given to the same entities.
The documents also showed the fund’s former chairman, Hany Saif al-Nasr, paid monthly sums worth 105,000 Egyptian pounds to the chief editors and board managers of 14 newspapers, seeking to forge good relations with them.
Saif al-Nasr also spent the fund’s money on his 2010 parliamentary elections campaign, the documents showed.
Hosni Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal are currently on trial over the killing of hundreds of protesters during the revolt earlier this year that toppled Mubarak after 30 years of autocratic rule.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Political Parties Blast Brotherhood’s ‘Islam is the Solution’ Slogan
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party intention to use the slogan “Islam is the solution” in the upcoming parliamentary elections is causing a bitter dispute between the party and other political forces. Many political forces — including Islamic parties — announced on Thursday their rejection of religious slogans, a move that embarrasses the Freedom and Justice Party. Ahmed Abou Baraka, the legal advisor of the party, said he would use all legal means to defend the party’s candidates in case the High Election Commission annulled their candidacies. He said that the commission has no right to annul the candidacy of any applicant without a ruling from the Supreme Administrative Court. Accusing the High Election Commission of ignoring judicial rulings, Abou Baraka asserted that the slogan is “constitutional and not religious.”
The Egyptian Liberal Current Party announced Thursday that it has formed a legal committee to sue any candidate using the slogan. Reyada Party and the Egyptian Communist Party also rejected the use of “Islam is the solution” slogan on grounds that Egypt does not need religious slogans during this period. The two parties called for banning religious slogans even in places of worship. The Salafi-led Nour Party, the Nahda Party, and Jama’a al-Islamiya said they would not use religious slogans during upcoming parliamentary elections.
Nahda Party said people do not need someone to remind them of their religion.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Salafi Leaders Reiterate Calls for Islamic Sharia
Prominent Salafi leaders on Thursday reiterated calls for applying Islamic Sharia law in Egypt in place of the man-made laws currently governing the country. In a conference held by the Salafi-led Asala Party in Matariya neighborhood in Cairo, Salafi leaders lambasted those opposing the application of Islamic Sharia as “adulterers, thieves and immoral people.”
Sheikh Shehab al-Din Ahmed said that it is time for the Egyptian people to vote for the party and the candidate that seek to apply Sharia, adding that it would be “a shame to ignore Islamic candidates.”
All the Egyptian people want the return of Islamic principles to society in order to spread justice and mercy among the people, Ahmed claimed. Although Prophet Muhammad said that although a person should not demand authority but should be given it without asking, a fatwa issued by Islamic scholars says that it is the duty of leaders to request authority for the purpose of applying Islamic rules. He added that God would punish them on the Day of Resurrection if they did not. He indicated the existence of an anti-Egyptian conspiracy to keep people away from religion.
“The application of the French law in Egypt spread evils and corrupted the country morally, politically and economically, so there’s no other substitute for applying the Sharia,” he said.
Mamdouh Ismail, Vice President of Asala Party said: “The enemies of Islamists in Egypt and abroad are preparing for a war to exclude us from political life so that we don’t apply Sharia.” Prominent Salafi preacher Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud spoke in the same strain. “The people who don’t recognize Islamic Sharia won’t enter paradise,” he said, “because those who object to Islamic law don’t love God. And those who don’t love God don’t enter paradise.” Participants raised banners that read: “With our soul and blood we sacrifice for Islam,” “The people want God’s law,” and “Egypt is Islamic.”
Translated from the Arabic Edition
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mini ‘Big Brother’ Threatens Smartphones
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, SEPTEMBER 29 — Israel also has a problem with wire-tapping. Hundreds of telephone of Israeli citizens may at this very moment be spied on by jealous husbands or wives, envious colleagues or anyone else. A few weeks ago Israeli police arrested 22 people accused of having produced, marketed and used software able to spy on smartphones, the (supposedly) intelligent telephones.
The software has allegedly been used to carry out illegal wiretaps. Among those arrested are a number of private investigators: police investigations found 11 agencies involved.
The news was kept confidential by investigators for several days, and when it was released it led to an uproar within the country. What many found surprising was that the device, called SpyPhone, had been blatantly marketed and sold over the internet. The company website can still be found on the web. The slogans on the homepage are utterly explicit: “What is said about you when you leave the room?”. “How much do you trust your girlfriend?”. “This is your chance to check up on your employees”. At a relatively affordable average cost — between about 310 and 600 euros each — the company promised “professional results”. “Many surveillance shops and private agencies around the world trust our services”, is written on the site. Among the options available to the user was even that of receiving via email a copy of all the messages sent and received by a specific device, in addition to a list of the calls.
“We believe that hundreds of people across Israel are using devices of this sort,” a police spokesman said. Those making use of this sort of portable ‘Big Brother’, added the functionary, “usually want to test their partner’s faithfulness.” However, the inquiry has brought to light another, more disquieting possibility. One of those arrested said that the prime minister’s office had received and installed the spy-software to be able to listen in on the conversations of private citizens. On this subject, the police refused to comment while Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet brusquely (as was to be expected) denied it. It is not the first time that such a case surfaces in Israel.
In 2005 about a dozen hi-tech companies were involved — some as victims, others as instigators — in a case of industrial spying by private investigators who, also through software, infiltrated into the mobile phones of their competitors. A year later, another scandal. It was found that the telephone of the head of the cabinet at the prime minister at that time, Ehud Olmert, had been tapped. “Israel is the superpower of wire-taps” is the headline in the daily paper Haaretz. “Judges and investigators allow a use to be made of it that is of an extent unheard of in the western world,” said the newspaper,” and even if attention has been drawn to the problem by the premier’s secretariat, the fundamental point is the use of wire-tapping by police and security services to keep tabs on common citizens.” For those wanting to protest themselves or at least engage in some damage control, experts say, there is a solution. Dig out of the drawer and recharge one of those old mobile phones used years ago: without all the functions and allurements of the new smartphones, they are however — being ‘blind and deaf’ to certain bait — protected against the most advanced threats of technological spying.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: EU: 12 Mln to Palestinian Refugees Programme
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 21 — A new 12 million euros programme has been launched by the European Union to support the efforts of UNRWA in alleviating the living conditions of Palestine refugees in Lebanon. According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), the programme, financed under the Instrument for Stability (IfS), aims to provide adequate shelter to the most vulnerable families.
“It is our duty — the EU Head of Delegation, Angelina Eichhorst, said — to provide the most vulnerable and neglected groups in society with the minimum standards of dignity, and support to Palestine refugees in Lebanon is therefore of importance to the EU”. The programme will benefit over 3,000 families displaced from Nahr el-Bared Camp, in addition to an estimated 236 families residing in the other 11 Palestine refugees camps in Lebanon, by securing funds for the rehabilitation of shelters and paying cash rental subsidies in 2011 and 2012 to the families waiting to return to their reconstructed houses in Nahr el-Bared. According to a recent survey the majority of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon suffer from dire housing conditions, contributing to the prevalence of chronic illnesses among them. The same study found that over 4,000 shelters across the country are in need of rehabilitation, and that 66% of the refugees live in poverty.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar: Fitness Centres in Office Against Obesity
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, OCTOBER 4 — Qatar, the country with one of the highest obesity rates and fourth in the world on the list of countries with the highest diabetes incidence, is trying to do something against the problem by opening fitness centres in offices for employees. “All employers, public and private, should offer their employees an opportunity to do physical workout in office,” said doctor Ghanoud bint Mohammed Al Thani, director of the health-promotion department of Qatar’s Supreme Healthcare Council.
Seventy-five percent of citizens in Qatar have weight problems, according to the document on national strategy. This problem also affects children, with a 28% obesity rate.
Overweight causes many chronic diseases which are responsible for 47% of fatalities in Qatar. The Emirate also has the fourth-highest diabetes incidence in the world, with a record 16.7% of its population suffering from the disease, against a global average of 6.4%. The causes are clear: a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy food.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
School: UNICEF to Libya & Yemen: Guarantee Education
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, SEPTEMBER 21 — Regimes and the political balance are unstable in the countries of the Middle East that have been overcome by waves of protests , but the school systems are also wavering in the most affected countries and those where violent clashes are still taking place, primarily Libya and Yemen. The situation was denounced in a statement by the Director General of the UNICEF office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Shahida Azfar, who made an appeal to the governments in the area “to guarantee quality education” to the nearly 9 million students in the MENA countries. “In Libya, at least 21 schools were destroyed, many others were occupied by refugees or used as bases by armed groups,” said Azfar, who also pointed out the danger of antipersonnel mines and explosives left in classrooms and school courtyards. A similarly problematic scenario is taking place in Yemen, where on average students missed at least two months of classes last school year. “In addition to the schools that have been bombed or used for military purposes, there are at least another 80 schools occupied by refugees, while at least another 44 are under control of Yemeni government forces,” the statement explained. The appeal by UNICEF is not solely for academic purposes: “education is a force of social change that plays a key role in promoting the principles of peaceful conflict resolution, equality and tolerance,” underlined Azfar, who concluded that these are “principles that are necessary now more than ever during these critical moments”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Is Vladimir Putin’s Eurasian Dream Worth the Effort?
by Mark Mazower
The Russian prime minister’s union plan is not meant as a return to the Soviet past, but he would do well to check precedent
In Eric Ambler’s masterly interwar thriller, The Mask of Dimitrios, the puppet master pulling the strings as a seedy Europe slides hopelessly into war is the shadowy Eurasian Credit Trust. The name was deliberately chosen. For most of the last century, Eurasia was scarcely a neutral term: it evoked the whiff of racial degeneration, the prospect of civilisation overrun by eastern hordes.
But now comes the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, perhaps looking to lift the attention of a restive public at home to something more elevated than a peremptorily staged presidential succession, supporting the idea of creating a Eurasian union of former Soviet-bloc nations that could become “one of the poles of the modern world, serving as an efficient link between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific region”.
Putin explicitly denies that this is about rebuilding the USSR. Nevertheless, there has been a lot of talk of Eurasia since the collapse of the USSR and there is a close connection between the Eurasia concept and Soviet history. Belarus and Kazakhstan have already embarked on commercial integration and the new union will hope to take that further, perhaps attracting other former Soviet republics into its orbit: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are mentioned. And in a world where EU membership is effectively barred to Russia, and where the EU is promoting its own eastern partnership, led by Poland and Sweden to intensify European links with other former Soviet republics — including both Belarus and the Ukraine — one can see the logic in Russian efforts to extend internal markets, remove barriers to labour mobility and at the same time win the fight for the hearts and minds of the inhabitants of its western gateways, above all in Ukraine.
Politicians like the occasional grand vision, especially one with historical resonance. Yet will all this be worth the effort? The precedents are not reassuring. If the EU’s eastern partnership smacks of an effort to reshape the region in the image of the early modern Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth — a time of Polish and Swedish regional power when merchants and ideas travelled easily between the Baltic and the Black Sea — Putin’s Eurasian union seems stuck in the Soviet era. Of course, Soviet ambitions went far beyond Eurasia; they wanted influence in the Middle East, Africa and south-east Asia. And this became clear after 1945, when Stalin’s Russia really did become a world power thanks to its defeat of Nazis and the Kremlin got its chance to build a second world of socialism around the globe that united eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Soviet republics with other socialist partners further afield. Ideas and technology — above all, ideas about technology and the modernisation of peasant societies — circulated across the borders of the countries in this second world, as far away as Cuba, Angola, Ethiopia and North Korea. Today some historians remind us that the “third world” was so called precisely because of the sustained tussle for its allegiances in the 1950s and 1960s between the first and second worlds. Yet all of this can be exaggerated. The second world was concentrated on eastern Europe, and other member states came and went. The rise of China weakened the ideological prestige of Moscow. And none of it was ever a match in purely economic terms for the astonishingly powerful global alliance system put together by Washington, linking the powerhouse economies of western Europe and east Asia with the oil-producing states of the Middle East.
The first world definitely won that particular struggle and globalisation — by which I mean the extraordinary combination of industrial productivity growth in American partners such as Japan and South Korea with the financial flows that reshaped finance after the 1970s — ultimately brought the Soviet second world to its knees, both because it simply could not compete internationally and because much of eastern Europe had become addicted to western debt. Overall, the effort of sustaining this vast sphere of influence probably cost the USSR far more in purely economic terms than it got back. It had one great achievement to its credit — the industrialisation along late 19th-century lines of its own backward periphery, but by the late 20th century, that was not enough.
There is a lesson here to be learned, surely, from an earlier foray into a kind of Eurasianism by Turkey. In the early 1990s, the then president Turgut Özal imagined a coming “Turkish century” based on a new union among the Turkic-speaking states of the Eurasian heartlands. After his death, it became abundantly clear that the choice between orienting the Turkish economy east or west was no kind of choice at all. Having learned that lesson, the Erdogan government is pursuing a sort of post-imperial foreign policy of its own. But what makes it much more powerful than the earlier Özal model is not only that it is oriented to the former Ottoman lands in the Balkans and the Middle East rather than to the post-Soviet Black Sea and Caspian republics, but more importantly that it is intended as a complement rather than an alternative to the increasingly European and global orientation of the Turkish economy.
In short, it is no wonder Putin stresses his new vision of deeper integration is not meant as a return to the Soviet past. The question is whether there is any alternative model that makes sense for his proposed union. If the coupling of the Russian economy to the southern Stans brings with it a decoupling from the more powerful regional dynamos to its west and east, it will end up as a drag, not a spur, to growth and Russia will pay a heavy price for an old-fashioned dream of imperial glory.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Yogyakarta: Overnight Terrorist Attack in the Heart of the City
The target was the headquarters of a bank, the BIS ATM, in the central Gejayan area also home to several universities, including two Catholic ones. The early morning explosion did not cause casualties or injuries. Police have arrested a suspected terrorist, and seized leaflets claiming responsability.
Yogyakarta (AsiaNews) — An explosion occurred last night in front of a bank in Yogyakarta (Central Java), in Affendi street in the central Gejayan district, the commercial heart of the city. The police found leaflets that accused the police and the army of being “real terrorists” and inciting to rebellion against the power, on the spot of the attack. “The state finance corporations, the police, the military are the real terrorists. There will be a popular revolt as long as the sun shines, “ the leaflets found at the explosion read:” We declare that what we have done here is the culmination of our long major concern and our hatred against the running system exercised in the country. “
A resident of Yogaykarta, interviewed by AsiaNews, said that the police have arrested a potential “terrorist”, but gave no further details on the arrest or the identity of the accused. The blast, which damaged the outside of the BRI ATM bank, occurred shortly after 2 am local time (9pm Italian time) did not cause casualties or injuries. Gejayan is one of the busiest districts in the center of Yogyakarta, and in particular with students. Several universities are located in the area, including the University of the Holy Dharma, run by the Jesuits, the University of Yogyakarta, the oldest and most famous of the universities the Gadjah Mada and the Catholic University of Atma Jaya Yogyakarta.
The police are interrogating the suspect author of the explosion, and have seized various types of material found on the site of the attack. According to investigators these unknown terrorists are targeting a system they perceive as “evil” and identify with the liberal economy, a society influenced by television, hedonism and consumerism.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Ahmadis Expelled From School
FAISALABAD: At least 10 students, including seven girls, and a female teacher were expelled from Chenab Public School and Muslim Public School, Dharanwali area of Hafizabad, for being Ahmadis.
“It is extremely unfortunate that my daughters are being deprived of the most basic and fundamental human right such as education … all because of religious intolerance,” Khalil Ahmad, whose three daughters were expelled, told The Express Tribune. “I have no alternative to ensure that their education continues,” he added. What about the constitutional provisions which ensure equal rights for all? What about the rule of law that says no discrimination can be made on the basis of faith, race, cast and creed, he questions. “I’ve never seen Christians and students belonging to other religions ever having to deal with such restrictions,” the distraught father says.
“I personally opposed the expulsion on the basis of faith,” Muslim Public School Principal Yasir Abbas responds when contacted by The Express Tribune. “This is not my decision … the entire village unanimously pressed me to expel all Ahmadis from the school, or else they would forcibly shut the school down,” he added. A public meeting held in Dharanwali recently was spreading hatred against Ahmadis, Jamaat Ahmadiyya Pakistan spokesperson Saleemuddin says, adding that expulsion came in the aftermath of the intolerance that some religious preachers were bent on evoking amongst locals in the area. “They went so far as to say that they would never allow for an Ahmadi to be buried in their graveyard, let alone allow an Ahmadi to study in a school with their children,” Saleemuddin alleges.
Soon after the hate speech, ten Ahmadi students and a teacher were expelled from local schools. The Punjab government’s initiative allowing people to register for schools online makes it mandatory for one to disclose their religion — whether they are Muslim or Non-Muslim. “This was never the case previously. It’s very simply a calculated move to subject the Ahmadiyya community to discrimination and deprive them of their right to education,” Saleemuddin says. Ahmadis never refer to themselves as “Non-Muslim”, but that doesn’t keep them from being kept away from educational institutions. Similarly, for the first time ever, they’ve introduced this system where religion is displayed on the Roll Number slips. “It’s like they’re making a conscious effort to mentally torture us,” he says.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkmenistan: President Prepares New “Holy Book” To Replace the Ruhnama
Berdymukhammedov writes a text to take the place of a handbook which became the basis of a personality cult introduced by his predecessor Niyazov .The new book may be titled “Book of Turkmen “ or “Book of Humanity”.
Ashgabat (AsiaNews/Agenzie) — The President of Tyrkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is about give his nation a new “ handbook” . The volume is to replace the Ruhnama (Book of the Soul) written by his predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov and became basis of a personality cult imposed by the deceased Central Asian leader. The news was reported in the Turkmen edition of Radio Free Europe. Local reliable sources in Turkmenistan, asking not to be named, told the radio that the new “holy book” will be entitled Turkmennama (The Book of the Turkmen) or Adamnama (Book of Humanity). Both titles were leaked last May in an article published in the government controlled daily Turkmen Dili. The article was about the need for a new guide for “the new period of Turkmen history “ following the “age of gold” represented by the Niyazov epoch.
Self-proclaimed Turkmenbashi — Father and Guide of all Turkmen — Niyazov governed the country for 21 years, until his death in December 2006. His power was so absolute that he was referred to as the “last pharaoh” and had installed an exasperated personality cult. Besides statues and ever-present posters bearing his portrait, state propaganda glorified him as a “prophet”. His Ruhnama — published in 2001 — a “revision” of Islam, became compulsory literature in all schools and mosques and was even found in internet cafes.
Since his election, Berdymukhammedov has gradually “replaced” with himself the object of that personality cult: gradually distancing himself from Ruhnama, eliminating it from all public ceremonies, removing it from compulsory university curriculum. State media no longer promotes the “holy book” as it did under Niyazov, while giant poster of his predecessor along the streets are being replaced with Berdymukhammedov’s own pictures.
A former dentist, Berdymukhammedov has never published anything before becoming head of State. The contents of this new work have not be revealed, nor has the date of the official publication, Eurasianet affirms.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Water and Dams, China’s New War Path
Beijing, ignoring international conventions, is exercising dissolute rule over even international rivers. It is building dams angering its own minority peoples as well as those of neighbouring countries as they see themselves deprived of an essential basic good. Before it becomes the boss of water taps all over Asia, China must be halted. This is the analysis and warning of an Indian professor.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — China has aroused international alarm by using its virtual monopoly of rare earths as a trade instrument and by stalling multilateral efforts to resolve disputes in the South China Sea. Among its neighbours, there is deep concern at the way it is seeking to make water a political weapon.
At the hub of Asia, China is the source of cross-border river flows to the largest number of countries in the world — from Russia to India, Kazakhstan to the Indochina peninsula. This results from its absorption of the ethnic minority homelands that make up 60 per cent of its land mass and are the origin of all the important international rivers flowing out of Chinese territory.
Getting this pre-eminent riparian power to accept water-sharing arrangements or other co-operative institutional mechanisms has proved unsuccessful so far in any basin. Instead, the construction of upstream dams on international rivers such as the Mekong, Brahmaputra or Amur shows China is increasingly bent on unilateral actions, impervious to the concerns of downstream nations.
China already boasts both the world’s biggest dam (Three Gorges) and a greater total number of dams than the rest of the world combined. It has shifted its focus from internal to international rivers, and graduated from building large dams to building mega-dams. Among its newest dams on the Mekong is the 4,200 megawatt Xiaowan — taller than Paris’s Eiffel Tower. New dams approved for construction include one on the Brahmaputra at Metog (or Motuo in Chinese) that is to be twice the size of the 18,300MW Three Gorges — and sited almost on the disputed border with India.
The consequences of such frenetic construction are already clear. First, China is in water disputes with almost all its neighbours, from Russia and India to weak client-states such as North Korea and Burma. Second, its new focus on water mega-projects in the homelands of ethnic minorities has triggered tensions over displacement and submergence at a time when the Tibetan plateau, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia have all been wracked by protests against Chinese rule. Third, the projects threaten to replicate in international rivers the degradation haunting China’s internal rivers.
Yet, as if to declare itself the world’s unrivalled hydro-hegemon, China is also the largest dam builder overseas. From Pakistan-held Kashmir to Burma’s troubled Kachin and Shan states, China is building dams in disputed or insurgency-torn areas, despite local backlash. Dam building in Burma has contributed to renewed fighting, ending a 17-year ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army and government.
For downriver countries, a key concern is China’s opacity on its dam projects. It usually begins work quietly, almost furtively, then presents a project as unalterable and as holding flood-control benefits. Worse, although there are water treaties among states in south and south-east Asia, Beijing rejects the concept of a water-sharing arrangement. It is one of only three countries that voted against the 1997 UN convention laying down rules on the shared resources of international watercourses. Yet water is fast becoming a cause of competition and discord between countries in Asia, where per capita freshwater availability is less than half the global average. The growing water stress threatens Asia’s rapid economic growth and carries risks for investors potentially as damaging as non-performing loans, real estate bubbles and political corruption.
By having its hand on Asia’s water tap, China is therefore acquiring tremendous leverage over its neighbours’ behaviour. That the country controlling the headwaters of major Asian rivers is also a rising superpower, with a muscular confidence increasingly on open display, only compounds the need for international pressure on Beijing to halt its appropriation of shared waters and accept some form of institutionalised co-operation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sudan: Strife Threatens to Spark Crisis in South Warns UN
Rome, 5 Oct. (AKI) — Urgent action is needed to prevent a looming humanitarian and food crisis in two strife-affected regions on the border between Sudan and the newly-independent nation of South Sudan, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation warned today.
FAO said food supplies in in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states are expected to be “significantly reduced” following renewed fighting between government troops and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which has disrupted the major crop season.
Southern Kordofan lies south of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum and borders the war-ravaged region of Darfur to the west. Blue Nile state lies south east of Khartoum and borders Ethiopia to the east.
The fighting has coincided with the region’s lean season and at least 235,000 people in both areas need help according to FAO.
Blue Nile and South Kordofan are two of Sudan’s main producing areas of sorghum — a Sudanese staple that has more than doubled in price due to the shortage of food stocks.
The latest fighting coupled with erratic rainfall means next month’s harvest is expected to generally fail.
FAO expects prices will continue to rise steeply.
In South Kordofan, people fled at the start of the planting season, so were unable to sow seeds. In Blue Nile, fighting erupted later in the season so seeds were planted but people were forced to abandon their crops, the UN agency said.
Seasonal livestock migration has also been disrupted in both states causing large herds to be concentrated in small areas along the border.
“This is causing overcrowding and could lead to outbreaks of livestock disease,” said Cristina Amaral, Chief of FAO’s Emergency Operations Service.
“Tensions between farmers and nomadic herders over water and land access may also be exacerbated,” she warned.
All international aid agencies have been barred from Blue Nile, so the true scale of the situation there is unknown, but FAO is try to supply 15,000 families there with seeds.
A small FAO team of national staff is currently on the ground in South Kordofan and has distributed seeds and tools to 20,000 of the most vulnerable households in the calmer areas.
FAO is trying to reach a further 20 000 households in South Kordofan and 15,000 in Blue Nile with seeds to grow winter vegetables in place of this year’s sorghum harvest.
The UN is seeking some 3.5 million for its operations.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sudan: State Islam According to Al-Intibaha
by Magdi El-Gizouli
Late in August the Just Peace Forum (JPF) led by al-Tayeb Mustafa had cuddled up to the extra-Turabist if not the anti-Turabist forces of the Islamist scene in Sudan, the Ansar al-Sunna, the remnant non-Turabist Moslem Brotherhood, the aggressive Moslem Clerics Association, the Moslem Forces Union, and a set of even smaller groups, to form the single theme Islamic Constitution Front (ICF), an umbrella format akin to the Kauda alliance, but arguable more focused. Beginning on 3 October al-Intibaha, al-Tayeb Mustafa’s toxic newspaper, started publishing a draft constitution for the rump Sudan crafted by the ICF brothers in faith. Pushing the contestation of Islam and the state forward as the ultimate political question in the country the text reads like somebody’s fantasy and by definition another’s nightmare.
The draft, in the tradition of Sudanese precedents, begins with a series of definitions: “Sudan is a united Islamic state that exercises sovereignty over all the regions within its territory, and where the dictates of Dar al-Islam apply”; “Islam is the religion of the state, a faith, a path and a way of life”; “Arabic is the official language of the state”; “Sudan is part of the Moslem Umma and a member of regional and international organisations”. Sovereignty, according to the draft, is exercised by Allah alone, while shari’a rules supreme and the Umma enjoys political authority, three variations on the theme of the ultimate source of political power in Islamic jurisprudence. After fitful experimentation with the same abstractions Hassan al-Turabi has lately declared society sovereign, the implied condition being that Moslems constitute a majority. To qualify shari’a for his rediscovered passion for parliamentary democracy Turabi argued that the elected representatives of the nation may choose to uphold or drop articles of shari’a at will, since the consensus of the Umma constitutes in itself a source of legislation next to the Quran and the traditions of the prophet. The revisionist Turabi of today would probably rubbish the constitutional propositions forwarded by the JPF et al as an instance of infantile Islamism, further evidence of the chronic decay of Moslem societies.
To illuminate the abstractions above one has to read further into the draft constitution. Legislative authority in the Islamic state of Sudan is the due of an elected shura (consultative) council; the members of the council are nominated for election from five colleges: scholars of shari’a, specialists in the natural sciences, professionals, leaders and notables, and individuals with considerable experience and knowledge. To qualify for membership of the council a nominee has to be Sudanese, at least thirty years old, of sound mind, of fair standing, capable of ijtihad, and of reasonable opinions, in addition to satisfying the conditions of inclusion in one of the five colleges as stipulated by law. The draft details ‘fair standing’ with the qualifications of Moslem, male, sane, and evidently pious. The head of state is elected by popular vote from three nominees not younger than forty years old handpicked by the shura council. The draft lists the same set of conditions for the office of the president with the addition of the necessary power to confront the enemy and wage jihad, as well as sound organs and senses.
Essentially, the Islamist margin is spelling out its version of a WASP oligarchy so to speak, free of camouflage. Naïve as it may appear the ICF’s draft transpires of the post-colonial quest to mould the state rather than reject it. The ICF is demanding a state with which a fantasized pious Moslem can easily identify. The irony being that power, albeit congruent with an imagined tradition of Moslem statehood, has to be guarded from the same Moslem plebeians by an elite corps of shari’a fellows, distinguished effendiya of the professions, and revered notables. In the absence of a credible left capable of transcending the divide between urban and rural struggles in Sudan this utterly modern frustration with the shortcomings of the state as it exists cannot but translate into ethnic fission in the peripheries and its Islamized rearticulation in the heartland.
The author is a fellow of the Rift Valley Institute. He publishes regular opinion articles and analyses at his blog Still Sudan.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Migrant Repatriation Program Completed
(AGI) Rome — With the repatriation of the last 50 Tunisian migrants from Palermo airport, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni’s Sept. 12 agreement with the Tunisian interior minister was completed. Following the agreement, 1,490 Tunisian illegal migrants were sent home in 30 charter flights. In all, with the application of the April 5 agreement, 3,385 Tunisians were sent home.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK Failing to Share Burden of Migration Crisis, Says Southern Europe
Italy and Greece demand help from northern Europe in dealing with surge of refugees since the Arab spring
Italy and Greece have accused Britain and its northern European neighbours of not sharing the responsibility for a crisis in migration that has left them struggling to cope. During a year in which the Arab spring has accelerated migration to Europe and the economic crisis has made it harder to deal with people who arrive, Italy and Greece are seeking a suspension of the EU’s so-called Dublin system — under which Britain deports hundreds of immigrants to southern Europe — because they claim it unfairly compounds their burden.
A special Guardian investigation has discovered that some of those deported from Britain have ended up destitute on the streets of Rome. Under the Dublin rules, now facing a series of legal challenges, EU countries have the right to deport migrants back to the country in Europe in which they first arrived and were fingerprinted.
David Cameron, whose government has promised to cut UK immigration to “tens of thousands”, has backed the Dublin system. Other northern European states are reluctant to change it. But the Italian immigration minister, Sonia Viale, told the Guardian that Europe had failed to give her country enough support. “Italy has been left alone now, for more than eight months, to cope with the exceptionally large flow of migrants from North Africa to Europe. I think it is a duty of all EU member states to support the countries under a strong migration pressure. Immigration is a European issue and requires a European response.”
In Rome, the Guardian found widespread destitution among asylum seekers and refugees, many of whom were returned from other EU countries, including Britain. Refugees, some of whom had tried to burn off their fingerprints, described being locked in an impoverished limbo. Since the beginning of this year more than 60,000 migrants have landed on the Italian coastline. The Italian ministry of the interior says at least half are asylum seekers. Last week the port of Lampedusa was declared an unsafe port by Italian authorities. Officials say the number of people being returned from other EU countries is also increasing. Viale described many of those returned as vulnerable.
The UK is one of the staunchest defenders of the Dublin system, which was signed in 1990 but became law in 1997. In June, Cameron challenged plans by the European commission to amend it. Speaking after an EU summit, he said: “Britain and Germany together made sure that those proposals aren’t even referred to in any way in the council conclusions.”
The Home Office points out that the UK, France and Germany all received more asylum seekers last year than Italy.
The UK sent back just under a thousand asylum seekers under the system last year, but that power is currently being challenged in British and European courts. The Tories have the backing of Nick Clegg in their hardline approach. In May, the Liberal Democrat leader backed the home secretary, Theresa May, when she refused to take part in a “burden-sharing” scheme suggested by the EU that would have allowed migrants fleeing Libya and north Africa to come to Britain.Clegg described the idea as “some sort of version of pass the parcel” and said a better solution was to offer practical assistance to Italy.
Next week, the high court in London will hear evidence that asylum seekers and refugees face severe destitution in Italy. Lawyers for an asylum seeker, known as EM, will argue that although he passed through Italy on his way to the UK, he should not be sent back, as conditions there are a breach of his human rights. James Elliott of Wilson Solicitors, representing EM, said poor conditions in Italy go beyond anything caused by the current crisis. “I don’t think it’s just down to numbers, it’s down to political will in Italy and attitudes. People cross the Sahara and the Mediterranean on a raft and they get to Italy and are put out on the street.”
Returns to Greece from the UK were suspended in September last year, pending a decision from the European court on whether Britain — and other members states — are obliged to consider conditions in other EU countries when deporting people back under Dublin. The Home Office is arguing that EU states can be assumed to be safe and to offer adequate reception conditions. However, this position was undermined by a ruling in January from the European court of human rights that conditions in Greece are inhumane and degrading.
The Greek government told the Guardian that the country needs “a fairer distribution of the weight of illegal immigration in the EU”. They are lobbying for reform of Dublin based on principles of “solidarity and common responsibility”.
The minister for protection of citizens, Christos Papoutsis, said Greece cannot cope alone financially: “In a time when the Greek government is asking its people to make sacrifices which reduce massively their income in order to save the country from the financial crisis, it would be a paradox, and practically impossible for Greece by itself, to fund the impovement of reception conditions for illegal immigrants in the country.”
Sonia Viale also blamed economic difficulties for some of the problems refugees might face in Italy: “The current emergency may enhance social and economic needs — and this may affect also people with international protection.” But she insisted Italy is meeting its international obligations to asylum seekers and refugees. Although Italy has a high asylum recognition rate, its system of housing and integration has been severely criticised by human rights groups. There are only 3,000 spaces for refugees and asylum seekers in the official integration system, while in 2009 and 2010 there were nearly 30,000 asylum applications.
This year’s new arrivals enter an already fragile system. In 2009, Italy received 2,705 people sent back under Dublin rules. Staff working at Rome’s Fiumicino airport told the Guardian they were seeing between 10 and 20 returnees a day at their airport alone. They described cases including asylum seekers who were seriously ill, some who were shackled, a woman who was hooded, and another who was in a wheelchair, handcuffed and sedated. They said the UK has sent people back in a fragile state, in particular an HIV-positive girl who had been detained for two months and was psychologically distraught. Switzerland alone has already sent back more than 1,600 asylum seekers to Italy this year. On Tuesday, the Guardian reported on the case of a Nigerian woman who was allegedly assaulted by escorts on a flight to Italy.
The EU commissioner for home affairs, Cecelia Malmstrom, is trying to push through reforms to Dublin, including the emergency suspension mechanism that Italy and Greece are asking for. But at a recent meeting of home affairs ministers from across the EU, the plan was met with strong resistance from a majority of member states. The UK is playing a leading role in blocking all discussion on reform to Dublin. The EU justice and home affairs council is due to meet at the end of October, and ministers will be looking at efforts by Greece and Malta to cope with the current migrant numbers. The EU human rights commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, told the Guardian that David Cameron’s failure to engage in discussion about reforms to the Dublin system is damaging to EU solidarity. “I was disappointed by that,” Hammarberg said. “He is actually one of the northern representatives in this unfortunate discussion who has created a gap between north and south. Dublin doesn’t work, it must be reformed. There are objective and good arguments why people may not want to stay in Italy or Greece; they may have family or work in another country.”
A UK Border Agency spokesman said: “The Dublin regulation is a simple way of ensuring that the first safe country an asylum seeker reaches takes responsibility for their protection. We will not support measures to abolish this system or suspend transfers under it.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cat Row Immigrant ‘Planning to Tie the Knot’
The Bolivian illegal immigrant allowed to stay in Britain because of his cat is planning to tie the knot with his male lover, it emerged last night.
Camilo Soria, 36, will have a strong case to remain in the country if he enters into a civil partnership with his British partner Frank Trew, a 49-year-old librarian and Oxford graduate.
The couple’s joint ownership of a cat called Maya helped persuade judges that Mr Soria should stay, in a case that sparked a row between Tory ministers Theresa May and Kenneth Clarke. Maya is one of eight cats now reportedly owned by the couple who live together in a rented flat in south London and plan to enter into a civil partnership in May or June next year. Mr Soria’s current leave to remain in Britain expires in 2012, the Daily Mail reported, but the partnership will significantly boost his chances of staying on. The case came to light at the Conservative party conference after Mr Clarke, the Justice Secretary, ridiculed a claim by Mrs May, the Home Secretary, that he had been allowed to remain because of the cat.
The row reflected their opposing views on the future of the Human Rights Act. Mr Soria, who overstayed his student visa in Britain, did not come to the attention of immigration officials until he was arrested for shoplifting and received a police caution. But a judge ruled in 2008 that he could stay in the country after suggesting that separating him from the cat could cause “mental distress”. Mr Soria had argued his right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights because he had been with his boyfriend for four years. Judge James Devittie said their joint ownership of the cat reinforced the quality of their family life and suggested that separating them could cause the man emotional trauma.
Following an appeal by the Home Office, a second judge ruled that the main reason that the Bolivian could stay was because of a technical error by officials. Maya, who wears a pink collar bearing her name, could be seen stalking the window sills of her owners’ home last night. The couple declined to comment. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last night stepped into the row between Mr Clarke and Mrs May over the Human Rights Act and a pet cat, and insisted they were both right. He said he fully supported the Home Secretary’s attempts to deal with the problem of deporting foreign prisoners, but he also attacked right wing Conservatives for using the issue to blame human rights.
“I actually support what the Home Office is trying to do, which is issue guidance under immigration rules to clarify the interpretation of a particular article, Article 8,” Mr Clegg said.
“I totally, totally get people’s dismay and anger when they read in newspapers ‘the Human Rights Act has stopped…’ — it just so happens not to be true. It is not the Human Rights Act that is stopping us deporting people who shouldn’t be here and for whom we have no obligation to keep. The issue which we are trying to deal with as a Government, and I fully support this, is the Article that has been invoked by some British judges in some British courts. It needs to be clarified in the way it is dealt with. The idea that there is some new fangled Act which is stopping us is simply not the case. I think defenders of human rights like me should welcome this. In fact in Government I have been pushing for it harder than anyone else. I think its potty when people misinterpret or misrepresent something which is much more common sense than often appears.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Dawkins Attacks ‘Alien Rubbish’ Taught in Muslim Faith Schools
Richard Dawkins has attacked Muslim faith schools, saying that they teach students ‘alien rubbish’. The noted atheist claimed that pupils were being taught to ignore scientific evidence in favour of following the Koran. He said that he had even met a science teacher who believed that the earth was only 6,000 years old. Mr Dawkins, a former Oxford professor who found fame as an evolutionary biologist before becoming a vocal opponent of religion, is a longstanding critic of all faith schools. But he has said that Islamic schools are worse than others, as their teaching is more likely to be influenced by a religious agenda. Talking to the Times Educational Supplement, he described a trip he made to an ‘utterly deplorable’ Muslim school in Leicester.
According to the Daily Telegraph, he said: ‘Every person I met believes if there is any disagreement between the Koran and science, then the Koran wins. ‘It’s just utterly deplorable. These are now British children who are having their minds stuffed with alien rubbish.’
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gay Marriage is Not as Simple as David Cameron Believes
Government diktat should not be used to alter the basics of human society.
For the entire history of civilisation, marriage has been defined as being between a man and a woman. Throughout that history, almost all civilisations have regarded marriage as central to their survival. So if you say that marriage should, in fact, be differently defined, you are saying something very big and bold. The onus of proof should surely not be on those who justify the status quo, but on you. You must show that you are right and that everyone else, for thousands of years, has been wrong.
One hopes that the Coalition can make a go of government in these difficult times. One understands why each partner needs to find issues that it can concede to the other. One also understands why David Cameron wishes to “rebrand” his Conservative Party. But can one feel completely easy when, driven by his political civil partnership with Nick Clegg, he tries to change the nature of marriage for ever?
In Manchester on Wednesday, Mr Cameron reminded his party’s conference that they had clapped him five years ago when he had said that “it shouldn’t matter whether commitment was between a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, or a man and a man”. So, he effectively commanded them, they should clap him now when he announced that he favoured legalising gay marriage. They clapped, obediently if not enthusiastically.
In arguing for gay marriage, Mr Cameron was not so foolish as to take his stand on equality alone. What mattered, he said, was the commitment: “Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other.” So his belief was part of his politics: “I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative.”
This is, undeniably, a strong argument. Sensible conservatives (and Conservatives) are always looking for ways in which affections can be strengthened by society. The homosexual lifestyle, they may reason, is often even more chaotic and lonely than the heterosexual one. If it can be helped to become more stable, they argue, why not? Theirs is a modern version — though they would not want to put it like that — of St Paul’s idea that it is better to marry than to burn.
In recent years, this way of thinking has gained ground. As homosexuals have declared themselves, people have come to recognise that they are no better or worse as friends, neighbours, colleagues, teachers, police officers or Members of Parliament than anyone else. Women have probably been the key factor in this social change. Fifty years ago, few women knew any man who said he was homosexual. Now they do, and they often say that they prefer them to the rather more exhausting company of straights.
So if homosexuality is accepted, there is an apparent logic — and political prudence — in allowing homosexual people to do whatever everyone else does. Everyone else is permitted to marry, so why not gays? Well, I must admit that social change has made me see more sense in this way of thinking than I did 20 years ago. But I still believe there is “just cause and impediment”.
Part of the problem lies in the way “rights” now work. Take the notorious example that set Ken Clarke against Theresa May this week. Mrs May protested that it had been impossible to deport a Bolivian man suspected of shoplifting because a judge had decided that his human right to a family life would be violated by separation from Maya, his cat.
Actually, it was a bit more complicated than that. The point was that Maya was shared between the Bolivian and his boyfriend. He and the boyfriend had been together for four years and the boyfriend’s father was seriously ill. This persuaded the judge to uphold the Bolivian’s right to family life, against the interests of the British taxpayer and criminal justice system. Perhaps Mrs May was frightened of saying this, but surely the widespread feeling would be that Maya the cat, the boyfriend and the boyfriend’s sick father do not really amount to what most people would call a family for the Bolivian. If the definition of family can be almost anything, and if your human right to one gets you “out of jail free”, then a real family life — marriage, children, that sort of thing — gets devalued.
And human rights, so ludicrously inclusive on one side of the argument, are fiercely strict on the other. Not only does the Government decide, for example, that homosexuals may adopt children, but it also makes it illegal for agencies that do not accept gay parents to continue with their work. Human rights forbid bed-and-breakfasts to refuse a night to a homosexual couple, even though there is supposed to be a human right to freedom of conscience. Anglican churches can marry people with the force of law. How long, if we have gay marriage, before they are compelled to marry homosexuals too?
The word “tolerance” is used, but it is not what is actually being proposed. Anything that the authorities call “homophobic” will be treated — is already being treated — with the same intolerance that was directed, half a century ago, at anything that was called homosexual. In politics, such issues, as with capital punishment, euthanasia and abortion, have long been matters of conscience. Mr Cameron is entitled to argue that, for him personally, gay marriage is a Conservative idea, but if it becomes Conservative policy, whipped in the lobbies, that is something else. Anyone who followed the mainstream teaching of his own Church, synagogue or mosque, for instance, would either have to disobey his conscience or be kicked out. If you are not careful, you bring about a situation where traditional religious belief excludes you from the Conservative Party.
To a good many people today, the fact that some homosexuals want to marry will overwhelm all other arguments. What you want, you should have, they believe, so long as the other person wants it too. Is this as true or as simple as it seems? There are, for example, roughly as many Muslims in Britain as there are homosexuals. Muslims believe in polygamy — for men only, up to four wives. Muslims insist that women, just as much as men, welcome this rule. Suppose that Mr Cameron had got up and told his conference, “it shouldn’t matter whether commitment is between a man and a woman or a man and four women”, would he have been able to make the audience clap? Mightn’t they have recognised that a situation in which men were now permitted to marry four women would damage a society in which, until now, one man could only be married to one woman at a time? Wouldn’t they have said that the consent of those involved was not the only issue at stake? Wouldn’t they have been right?
Arguments on these subjects are tricky to make, particularly in the rough world of politics. They touch on deep feelings, deep beliefs and thousands of years of searching for the best way to live. Gay marriage is not a simple issue of fairness for all. The obsession with defining an individual’s identity by his or her sexual desires, and putting the fulfilment of those desires above everything else, is only about 100 years old and will, I suspect, pass. The need for men and women to have children, bring them up and look after one another is much more important. So Mr Cameron should tread more carefully.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
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