Former Obama Adviser: Euro Crisis ‘Could Become a Global Conflagration’
Austan Goolsbee was President Barack Obama’s most important economic adviser until August. He told SPIEGEL that Europe must recapitalize its banks immediately to avoid the risk of a financial collapse. He says that Europe has been far too hesitant in combatting the ongoing debt crisis.
SPIEGEL: Many US economists now say that Europe’s currency crisis could destroy the US economy. Do you agree?
Goolsbee: It is a very serious threat. Though since US banks underwent extensive stress tests in 2009, markets have a good idea of what the capital positions are of the financial institutions here. Also, central banks would step in to try to prevent financial contagion.
SPIEGEL: But that doesn’t protect the US economy from renewed difficulties.
Goolsbee: Certainly people in Washington are very concerned about what is going on in Europe. If the crisis there devolved into banks failing and a run on financial institutions, we saw in 2008 that such a situation could be highly contagious and lead to runs on all sorts of financial institutions worldwide. Also, it seems pretty likely that Europe is going to have a significant economic slowdown from dealing with these issues. If such a large segment of the world economy slows down that much, exports from the United States are going to go down. There would be negative ramifications in America — which is still trying to recover from the last crisis — but also globally.
SPIEGEL: Is Chancellor Angela Merkel up to the task of managing the crisis?
Goolsbee: Her leadership at this moment is very important for managing the crisis that is looming in Europe.
SPIEGEL: President Barack Obama speaks with Merkel often on the phone. What exactly does he expect from Merkel?…
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Church Steps in to Side With People
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 6 — At a time of serious economic crisis, the powerful Greek Orthodox Church has entered the arena siding with the people, who have been hit hard by the severe austerity measures adopted by the government in an attempt to redress the country’s disastrous economy, with some bishops even hoping for civil disobedience. The seriousness of the current situation as discussed during the latest Holy Synod, the Greek Church’s highest authority, which consists of 80 high prelates, which was convened a few days ago by the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Ieronymos II, to discuss the state of the country’s finances.
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos said that Archbishop Ieronymos’s report had “touched the soul” of many archibishops, who have illustrated the difficulties being faced by Greeks and ways in which the Church can help them. Many also appreciated a circular drafted by Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaias and Lavreotiki, in which he strongly condemned the government and its economic policy and called on the faithful “to react if they are unable to pay the tax on their homes”, promising that “the Church will be by their side”.
“I would like to tell those who cannot pay the tax on their property not to despair,” the high prelate writes in his note.
“They must know that they will find us united by their side to cry together “You will take nothing from those who no longer have anything”. They [those in government] must understand that we have no money. We cannot pay. We have reached the limit, but we will not allow them to finish us off. If they cut off electricity to homes, we will cut it off in all churches. We will celebrate weddings by candlelight and mass with our tears”.
“The time has come for the people to show their strength and to take the future into their own hands. For as long as we stand still and remain subjected to unbearable and mistaken choices, we will become ever more compliant in the slow but inexorable degeneration of our being. If we fail to wake up, we are finished. There will be no future for us,” Nikolaos writes, adding that “the time has come for all of the decision makers to understand what is really happening in homes, in streets, in shops and in everyday life”.
“It is time to rise up, everything must change and as they will not change things, we must all play our part. Those who are badly off as a result of the current situation, those who love the truth, have a place in this change. All great changes have come from heroic men, especially the young. We must, we can and we are obliged all together to change our future of our own enterprise. Not with violence, but with strength and determination. Not with nihilistic choices but with purity, heroism and intelligence”. Some high prelates have underlined the fact that the crisis has led to a daily increase in the Church’s social commitment. The Metropolitan of Phthiotis, also named Nikolaos, says that “every day we struggle, we have many people to help and we give out many free meals”. Reacting to the circular from his brother effectively inciting the faithful to rebel, the Metropolitan said that “in general the Church is more moderate, but there is no harm if stronger voices make themselves heard”. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan of Salonika, Anthimos, called the new austerity measures “an unjust and dangerous thing”, and reacting to the circular from Nikolaos, said that “the people can demand what they want, as long as they remain within the law”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Drop in Food Production This Year
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 5 — Food production in Greece is showing a decline in 2011 for the third year in succession, according to data compiled by the Hellenic Statistical Authority and reported by daily Kathimerini. Changes in local food production reflect households’ adjustments to the financial crisis, as well as the expanding exporting activity of the sector’s industries. Food production fell 2.9% in the year’s first seven months, having also shrunk by 1.7% in January-July 2010 compared to 2009. Processed milk production dropped 5.8%, butter and other spreads declined by 13.2%, while ice-cream production suffered a 21.3% meltdown. By contrast, extra-virgin olive oil production rose 24.5%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: One in 10 Italian Workers ‘Irregular’
But numbers fall slightly
(ANSA) — Rome, September 21 — More than one in ten Italian workers do not have a regular contract, Istat said Wednesday.
In 2010 there were 2.548 million irregular workers in Italy, 10.3% of the work force.
This was down slightly from 2009 when there were 2.554 million irregulars.
Overall, in 2010, 24.643 million people were regularly or irregularly employed, 196,00 fewer than 2009, the statistics agency said.
Almost all the drop was in the regular work force, Istat said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Inflation Up to 3.1%: Highest Since Oct 2008
VAT hike starts to kick in says Istat
(ANSA) — Rome, September 30 — Italy’s inflation rate rose to 3.1% in September from 2.8% in August, its highest since October 2008, Istat said Friday.
The consumer price index rose 0.1% from August to September as the effect of a recent 0.1% increase in VAT started to kick in, the statistics agency said in its preliminary estimate.
The final figures, which do not usually vary from the estimate, will be released in mid-October.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Angry Students Storm Moody’s Office in Milan
‘We oppose cuts to education”, says student union
(ANSA) — Rome, October 7 — Angry students tried to storm the offices of Moody’s ratings agency in Milan on Friday in one of 90 student protests held across Italy to protest against government cuts to education.
Students threw paint and eggs at the entrance of the office which has downgraded Italy’s credit rating and the ratings of 30 local Italian administrations and some of the country’s largest companies.
“Forty percent of all schools are without a building safety certificate, 47% of young people have temporary jobs and 29% of young people are unemployed,” the students’ union said in a statement.
“We have taken to the streets to underscore our opposition to a policy of continual cuts to education”.
In Rome students gathered outside the ministry of education to protest and threw paint-filled balloons at police who blocked streets surrounding the building.
Thousands of protesters in the northern city of Genoa carried signs saying “Stand up for your rights”.
“School is not a privilege, but a right,” said Pippo Rossetti. In Palermo students stormed the city’s administration offices and unfurled a banner saying, “You sail on yachts with our money while our schools are falling apart”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Unicredit ‘Plans Staff Cuts in Equity to Focus on Core Markets’
Milan, 7 Oct. (AKI/Bloomberg) — UniCredit SpA, Italy’s biggest bank, is shaking up its equities division as part of an investment banking review to focus on its core markets, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
The lender is cutting jobs in its equity brokerage, including sales and derivatives based in London and Milan, said one of the people, who asked not be identified because the plan isn’t public. Among the options the bank is considering is forming ventures with other firms, according to one person.
UniCredit’s corporate and investment-banking chief, Jean- Pierre Mustier, who previously ran Societe Generale SA’s investment bank, is reviewing the unit as the company prepares a business plan to be presented by year-end. Part of the strategy is to concentrate the equity business in UniCredit’s four key markets of Germany, Italy, Poland and Austria, said one person.
“All banks are reviewing their investment banking in the current environment,” said Wolfram Mrowetz, chairman of investment firm Alisei SIM in Milan, which oversees 200 million euros. “This division costs too much. A lot of banks are refocusing on their commercial activity.”
Roberto Lazzarotto, global head of equity derivative sales at UniCredit, is leaving the firm, according to a person familiar with the matter. Reached on his mobile, Lazzarotto declined to comment.
A spokesman for UniCredit declined to comment.
Mustier, who joined UniCredit in March, has hired former colleagues Olivier Khayat and Patrick Soulard to increase commissions and market share, particularly in advising on mergers and in managing stock sales. The firm in May combined the debt and equity businesses with merger advice and lending to win more deals.
The European sovereign debt crisis will lead banks to rethink their business models, focusing on costs, efficiency and productivity, UniCredit Chief Executive Officer Federico Ghizzoni said in an interview Oct. 4. “Banks have to accept that for the next two to three years their revenue will not grow too much,” he said. “Banks need to be leaner, in their structure and more focused on their core business.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Records & Defects of a Surging Economy
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — According to the main economic indicators and ratings circulating in the press in the recent months, the Turkish economy is undergoing record growth, is a magnet for investments and is well-managed, but it can still be considered ‘poor’, under-competitive and has a massive Achilles heel. Thanks to the record performance in January-March (+11.6%, revised figure), in the first six months of the year the Turkish GDP was the fastest growing economy in the world (10.2%, the only “double-digit” economy), surpassing China. Now it is in a slowdown period and the International Monetary Fund has forecast ‘only’ 6.6% growth for all of 2011, but looking at last year’s situation, the Turkish economy (+8.9%) grew faster than any country in Europe. In absolute terms, looking at the GDP with equal buying power, Turkey is the sixth largest economy in Europe and the 16th biggest in the world, with the aspiration of entering into the top ten in 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the modern Turkish state. Signs of the vitality of the economy include the growth of the number of millionaires and home appliances or announcements of colossal infrastructural works and supremacy in the aviation sector. This is also the result of an economic strategy that is strongly oriented towards privatisations and opening up its markets to attract investments like a magnet. In the 8 years under the government of Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan private investments have almost quadrupled, with staggering growth in foreign direct investments (FDEs, which increased by 324% in the first six months). With risks of bankruptcy far off, the country’s public accounts are in compliance with the Maastricht Treaty (debt to GDP ratio at 48%), and inflation, previous skyrocketing to 70% in 2001, dropped to 6.4% last year, its lowest level in 41 years. Even though GDP per capita has tripled in 8 years, surpassing Romania and Bulgaria, which are already EU members, opponents of Ankara’s path to the EU list a series of ‘buts’. A recurring topic is their current account deficit of nearly 10% of GDP, considered to be the Turkish economy’s Achilles heel, as the country is increasingly starved for raw materials and staple goods which come from abroad. In circles of economic specialists, the monetary policy of the Central Bank is commonly called “unorthodox”. Commonly-cited demons are the backwardness of the southeast provinces in the country, problems regarding competitiveness cited in the World Economic Forum rankings (placing Turkey at 59th worldwide), off-the-books unemployment (20% according to estimates), the illicit economy (traffic reportedly amounts to half of the GDP) and the underground economy (28% of the total, according to a study by the Turkish Ministry of Finance). But the negatives could worsen due to corruption figures (considered to be “widespread” by 77% of Turks according to an Ernst & Young study) and reliable criticism involving bureaucratic obstacles and indirect taxes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: How Climate Change Zealots Are Wrecking Every Last Industry This Country Possesses
The Chancellor acknowledged that a decade of environmental laws had been piling unnecessary costs on households and companies, adding that Britain was not going to save the planet by putting ourselves out of business.
He was referring in particular to the Climate Change Act, famously passed by the House of Commons in October 2008 by 463 votes to three, even as the snow was falling outside. By the Government’s own estimate, it would cost £404?billion to implement — £760 per household every year for four decades.
The Act included a voluntary commitment to reduce Britain’s carbon dioxide emissions to 80?per cent of their 1990 level by 2050 — a target generally acknowledged to be achievable only by shutting down most of the economy — in an effort to demonstrate ‘global leadership’.
The lunacy of this commitment can be demonstrated by the fact that neither China nor the US — who together produce 40?per cent of global emissions compared with our two per cent — are committed to such draconian reductions.
Instead Mr Osborne suggested last week that we follow the EU, whose members agreed in March 2007 — as one of Tony Blair’s final acts of hubris — to a 20 per cent emissions reduction by 2020. The European Commission is still discussing a ‘road map’ for its 2050 target, putting the UK at a huge competitive disadvantage.
But while Europe is taking a relaxed view of climate change, Britain seems to have excelled in devising more and more bizarre ways of bankrupting the nation.
In December 2008 the Government’s Committee on Climate Change, chaired by Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, recommended that we should switch from eating beef and lamb to ‘less carbon-intensive types of meat’.
Within 11 years, the committee said, it wanted to see 40?per cent of all the cars on Britain’s roads powered by electricity. That very week it was reported that in the first ten months of 2008 just 156 were bought, fewer than half the 374 in the same period of 2007. That made a grand total of 1,100 on the road in Britain.
It also insisted no more coal-fired power stations should be built unless they could be fitted with ‘carbon capture’, funded by a levy on energy bills which would raise £3?billion from hard-pressed consumers.
The overall effect of the unproven and probably unworkable technology to effectively bury carbon dioxide underground would be to double the price of electricity and make us even more dependent on Russian and other imported energy, which already supplies 70?per cent of our needs.
Nevertheless, a mad and ruinously expensive scheme was launched on the European stage. Industries should pay for using fossil fuels, through a ‘tax’ paid on each ton of carbon dioxide produced. Each company would have to buy certificates, known as ‘European allowances’ or ‘carbon credits’ — each representing a ton of carbon dioxide — with surpluses traded as a commodity.
Each year, the total would be reduced and commercial firms, hospitals and even Government offices would have to compete on the open market for enough certificates to enable them to operate.
The theory was that competition for a dwindling supply would force energy users to be more efficient. Instead, commercial users passed on the costs to their customers, with electricity prices rising for the average consumer by as much as £300.
Tens of thousands have been pushed into fuel poverty. Firms that could not pass on their costs moved abroad. Huge tranches of the aluminium industry have disappeared, one major firm having moved to the Emirates in October 2009 — taking 300 workers from Anglesey who had to follow to keep their jobs.
The madness didn’t stop there. In February 2010, Gordon Brown’s cash-strapped Government spent £60??million on ‘carbon credits’ for Whitehall and other Government offices in the UK, as well as British Nato bases in Europe.
Thus while troops were going short of kit in Afghanistan, the defence budget was being raided to buy carbon certificates.
When he became Prime Minister, David Cameron carried on the theme, promptly declaring that he wanted the Coalition to be ‘the greenest Government ever’.
His new Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne added that he wanted to go ‘further and faster than ever before’. Then it was announced that Britain, uniquely, should set a minimum price for carbon credits, instead of allowing the market to decide.
Known as the ‘carbon floor price’ the idea was that firms such as electricity generators would pay £16 per ton of carbon dioxide produced — compared to a market rate of £9 — with the price rising to £70 by 2030.
Announced by Mr Osborne in June’s budget, the Institute for Public Policy Research immediately warned that the policy would cost British industry at least £1?billion and drive manufacturers offshore, while pushing down the price of European permits, giving our EU competitors a generous gift.
And last week, even as Mr Osborne was standing up to deliver his speech in Manchester, Davin Bates, a management accountant at one of Stoke-on-Trent’s remaining successful potteries, was preparing to tell the world how spiralling energy costs — artificially inflated by ‘green’ levies and taxes — were driving energy-intensive companies like his out of the UK.
Particularly affected is the chemical industry, which contributes £30?million a day to the British economy. Major chemical multinationals are now looking to move production to places such as South Africa, India and China. There, under a global carbon credit scheme, we actually subsidise them by giving them credits — which they then sell back to our industries, making huge profits.
I haven’t even mentioned the madness of the wind machines. Subsidies, paid for by consumers, make wind power three times more costly than the normal tariff electricity. But as the pull of the subsidies draws investment away from new conventional plants, the spectre of power cuts looms large.
Caught in this vice of increasing ‘green’ costs and subsidised competition, the manufacturing industries which Osborne hopes will lead the UK recovery simply cannot survive.
Small wonder, therefore, that he bowed to the inevitable and pulled back from the green abyss.
Many believe that Osborne’s conversion is too little too late, but it is some small comfort at least, that we no longer have a Chancellor — or even a Prime Minister — keen to parade his ‘green’ credentials. Perhaps they are beginning to understand that, when the lights go out, all colours look the same: black.
If Britain is to pull itself out of economic crisis, Mr Osborne is going to have to go much further. At the very least, he has to lift this senseless raft of green taxes from industry and the electricity generators.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Stinking Up Wall Street: Protesters Accused of Living in Filth as Shocking Pictures Show One Demonstrator Defecating on a Police Car
[Plenty of photos at the website]
This are the shocking scenes that have led some people to accuse the Occupy Wall Street protesters living rough in New York’s financial district of creating unsanitary and filthy conditions.
Exclusive pictures obtained by Mail Online show one demonstrator relieving himself on a police car.
Elsewhere we found piles of stinking refuse clogging Zucotti Park, despite the best efforts of many of the protesters to keep the area clean.
The shocking images demonstrate the extent to which conditions have deteriorated as demonstrations in downtown Manhattan enter their fourth week. Further pictures seen by Mail Online have been censored, as we deemed them too graphic to show.
According to eye witnesses, when people ran to tell nearby police about the man defecating on the squad car they were ignored.
Standing downwind of the piles of rubbish, bankers walking past the man did a double take before hurrying away.
Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, the site of the New York demonstration, have already railed against protesters, who they claim are creating sanitation problems.
‘Sanitation is a growing concern,’ Brookfield said in a statement.
‘Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every week night. . . because the protesters refuse to cooperate. . .the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16th and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels,’ CBS News reported.
Although many of the protesters are understood to be making strenuous efforts to clean up after themselves, after three weeks of occupation, the strain of hundreds of people living on the street has begun to take its toll.
The authorities today warned of a dramatic crackdown on Wall Street demonstrators, as the protests spread across America.
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has promised that if protesters targeted the police, authorities will respond with ‘force.’
Kelly blamed activists for starting the skirmishes with police that led to 28 arrests yesterday.
Most were arrested for disorderly behaviour, CBS News reported.
‘They’re going to be met with force when they do that — this is just common sense,’ Kelly said.
‘These people wanted to have confrontation with the police for whatever reason. Somehow, I guess it works to their purposes.’
Mayor Bloomberg added his voice to the furore, accusing the Wall Street demonstrators of putting the city’s economy at risk, the New York Post reported.
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg attacked protesters today, saying the demonstrations were harming the city.
He said: ‘What they’re trying to do is take the jobs away from people working in this city.
‘They’re trying to take away the tax base we have because none of this is good for tourism.’
‘What they’re trying to do is take the jobs away from people working in this city,’ the mayor said.
‘They’re trying to take away the tax base we have because none of this is good for tourism.’
‘If the jobs they are trying to get rid of in this city — the people that work in finance, which is a big part of our economy — we’re not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean the blocks or anything else.’
Protests against corporate greed and economic inequality spread across America on Thursday.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, that began in New York last month with a few people, has now swelled to protests in more than a dozen cities.
They included Tampa, Florida; Trenton and Jersey City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Norfolk, Virginia in the East; to Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest; Houston, San Antonio and Austin in Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Los Angeles in the West.
Protesters have raged against corporate greed and influence over American life, the gap between rich and poor, and hapless, corrupt politicians.
‘I’m fed up with the government, I’m fed up with the bailouts. If I fail at my job, I don’t get a bonus — I get fired,’ said Tim Lucas, 49, vice president of a software company, who was protesting in Austin.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in New York since the protests began last month. On Wednesday, the biggest crowd so far of about 5,000 people marched on New York’s financial district, and police used pepper spray on some protesters. But protests for the most part have been non-violent.
Organisers predict momentum will continue to build, as labour movements join the growing numbers.
‘This is the beginning,’ said John Preston in Philadelphia, business manager for Teamsters Local 929. ‘Teamsters will support the movement city to city.’
In Philadelphia, up to 1,000 protesters chanted and waved placards reading: ‘I did not think ‘By the People, For the People’ meant 1 percent,’ a reference to their argument the country’s top few have too much wealth and political power.
In Los Angeles, more than 100 protesters crowded outside a Bank of America branch downtown, while a smaller group dressed in business attire slipped inside and pitched a tent. Eleven were arrested when they refused to remove the tent.
In Washington, protesters carried signs that read: ‘Human Needs, Not Corporate Greed’ and ‘Stop the War on Workers.’
‘I believe the American dream is truly in jeopardy,’ said protester Darrell Bouldin, 25, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. ‘There are so many people like me in Tennessee who are fed up with the Wall Street gangsters.’
In San Antonio, protesters gathered at the city’s Confederate War Veterans Monument and chanted: ‘The banks got bailed out, we got sold out.’
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
200 Suicide Bombers ‘Planning Attacks in UK’
At least 200 potential terrorists are actively planning suicide attacks while living freely in Britain, intelligence chiefs have warned ministers.
A senior intelligence source has revealed that the figure is a “conservative” estimate of the threat facing the country from UK-based Islamist suicide bombers.
The would-be killers are among 2,000 extremists who the security services have said are based in Britain and actively planning terrorist activity of some kind.
The figures are contained within a secret government report on the “enduring terrorist threat” facing the UK from al-Qaeda and affiliated organisations, The Sunday Telegraph has been told.
While the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki may have left al-Qaeda without a charismatic leader, both the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and the Security Service, MI5, believe the organisation remains as dangerous as ever.
The warning comes as Britain begins preparations for next year’s 2012 Olympic Games, which has been described by MI5 as the biggest security operation in the country’s history.
But senior sources believe that rather than targeting Olympic venues, where security will be extremely high, terrorists will be tempted to attack areas where crowds are likely to congregate such as train stations and public events.
If terrorists were to mount an attack in Britain of the kind seen in other countries, by packing a single explosive vest with hundreds of ball bearings then detonating it in a crowded enclosed area such as a station terminus at rush hour, they could kill up to 120 people according to one explosives expert.
The 200 British residents thought to be planning suicide attacks, either within the UK or overseas, represent one in 10 of the wider group of 2,000 terrorist plotters.
The intelligence source added that suicide bombers would only be stopped by either a “chance encounter” or by an intelligence-led investigation. But he added that if a terrorist cell was properly organised and secure there was very little the authorities could do to prevent an attack.
The latest disclosure follows the arrest of six men from Birmingham who were remanded in custody two weeks ago over an alleged UK suicide bombing plot.
Two of the six, Irfan Nasser and Irfan Khalid, are accused of preparing for an act of terrorism, including travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, making a martyrdom video and planning a bombing campaign. They are also accused of “being concerned in constructing” a home-made explosive device for terrorist acts and stating an intention to be a suicide bomber.
Earlier this year, classified intelligence documents disclosed by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, showed that MI6 officers believed that Britain was facing a wave of suicide attacks from British-based Muslim extremists who had been trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan.
One report quoted an MI6 officer’s briefing to US officials in which he said: “The internal threat is growing more dangerous because some extremists are conducting non-lethal training without ever leaving the country. Should these extremists then decide to become suicide operatives, HMG [Her Majesty’s Government] intelligence resources, eavesdropping and surveillance would be hard pressed to find them on any ‘radar screen’.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Roma Protests Turn Violent in the Czech Republic
For weeks there have been riots between Czech locals and newly settled Roma in northern Bohemia. What started as a series of brutal but isolated fights has grown into a popular movement in small towns along the eastern German border. Right-wing extremists have fanned the hatred.
No, Jindich Nestler wouldn’t call himself a racist. “The good gypsies can stay,” he says. “But most of them are lazy or criminals or even terrorists. They have to disappear.”
Nestler is a 36-year-old official of the far-right “Workers’ Party for Social Justice,” or DSSS, by its Czech initials. DSSS is a successor party to the neo-Nazi group Dlnická Strana (DS), which was banned a year and a half ago by the highest Czech administrative court. One reason the court gave for the ban was that Dlnická Strana organized rallies that led to pogrom-like riots against the Roma.
For the last several weeks, far-right extremists have been back on the offensive. They’re worried — again — about the Roma minority in the Czech Republic. In a part of Bohemia called Šluknovský výbžek, near the border with the eastern German state of Saxony, a bitter feud is raging between ethnic Czech locals and several hundred Roma. Interior Minister Jan Kubice has sent a detachment of 250 police to the region to quell any more problems, but he’s had to admit that the situation had lurched out of control.
So far, the massive police presence has not calmed things down. One center of violence is Nový Bor. Some 300 neo-Nazis, most of them young men with bald heads and black jackets, marched alone last Saturday through the small town roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the German border. The right-wing extremists chanted “Gypsies must go” and “Free, social and national” — a phrase also used by members of the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).
“We are the voice of the people,” claimed Nestler, the DSSS official. And several hundred locals, in fact, stand by the road to applaud the neo-Nazis.
Machetes in a Bar
Around 600 police officers, many in riot gear, tried to keep the situation under control. Some German police also stood at roadblocks on the road to Nový Bor. “We’re here to give administrative assistance,” one female officer from Saxony said.
By the end of the day, more serious outbursts of violence had been sparked a few kilometers away. Such strong anti-Roma sentiment has generally been associated with other parts of Europe, like Hungary , where for years bloody riots against them have taken place. But the current outbreak started several months ago, when more and more Roma families started moving to Šluknovský výbžek.
Police noticed a sharp uptick in crime — theft above all — and at the start of August, several Roma boys armed with machetes attacked a bar in Nový Bor, where a fight had previously broken out between Roma and some other guests. “You white pigs,” the young men reportedly hollered; three patrons were injured.
The far-right DSSS likes doesn’t mind fanning the fears of ordinary Czechs. Tomáš Vandas, who leads the party, likes to sharpen the tone. He’s declared Nový Bor the site of a “battle for the future.”
Roma representatives, on the other hand, complain of exposure to a constant discrimination which has never been taken seriously by Czech society. Neo-Nazis threw Molotov cocktails at the house of a Roma family in the eastern Czech town of Ostrava, for example. A two-year old girl suffered serious burns.
The Roma in Nový Bor sit in front of a dilapidated barracks on the edge of town. No one wants to talk with journalists. “Please don’t take our picture,” a young woman says.
A social worker, who doesn’t want to be named, points at the house. The living conditions are catastrophic: Some families with two children live in single rooms. “Of course a lot of Roma are criminals,” the social worker says. But she can’t stand the DSSS. “You lock people in a place like this and you wonder why they have social problems.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria: Unrest Over Roma King
Dnevnik, 27 September 2011
For Dnevnik, the clashes between the people of the village of Katounitsa in the south of the country and its large Roma community amount to a “peaceful crisis.” The crisis erupted on September 24 after a minibus carrying relatives of the patriarch of the local Roma, Kiril Rachkov, nicknamed “King Kiro”, ran over and killed a young Bulgarian man. Relatives and friends of the victim then stormed Rachkov’s house, setting it on fire. A second youth who took part in the event died the next day of a heart attack.
The unrest of the past few days has revived tensions between ethnic Bulgarians and the clan of “King Kiro,” whom they accuse of lording it over Katounitsa, having amassed a considerable fortune by not paying any income tax. He is also accused of enjoying the protection of the police, writes Dnevnik. However, the authorities and the local population are avoiding talk of an “ethnic conflict”. Clashes between youths and police also took place on September 26 in Sofia, adds the newspaper, where a thousand people gathered through a Facebook page devoted to “Death to King Kiro” were met by police near Parliament.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus to Allow Armed Guards on Board Ships
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, OCTOBER 4 — Cyprus is preparing legislation that will allow armed guards to board merchant ships to protect the crew, vessel and cargo from pirate attacks.
Details of the new law — as CNA reports — is under discussion at the ‘Maritime Cyprus 2011’ conference in Limassol that has started yesterday where some 700 delegates will also debate on trade issues such as energy costs, environment-friendly transport and the freight markets where costs have risen due to piracy and increased insurance.
With the third biggest maritime fleet in the European Union and the tenth biggest in the world, Cyprus also boasts itself as the world leader in shipmanagement companies, all of whom are concerned about the safety of their ships. The government is at the final stage of concluding the draft bill which, when passed, will make it one of the most comprehensive of its kind and help restore some order in the maritime industry that relies on navies and private security companies for its safety.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Republic: In Varnsdorf, Roma Are Under Pressure
Hospodárské noviny, Prague
About half a kilometre from the German border, for several weeks now Varnsdorf has been the scene of far-right demonstrations against the Roma minority — about 500 people in a town of 16,000. The demonstrations bring into sharp focus the tensions between the townspeople and a community whose integration is still a problem.
Katerina Eliášová
In a ground-floor room of the T.G. Masaryk hostel in Varnsdorf about thirty children huddle on the double-decker bunks. Ondrej, from the nonprofit organisation Hatred is Not a Solution, hands out week-old newspapers full of photos. The photos show the demonstration last week, when local townspeople came out to the streets to mix with a crowd of dozens of skinheads.
“Now we’ll talk about what’s in those pictures,” Andrej encourages the children. “It’s a demonstration against us,” says a girl of about ten. “And what do you think about it?” asks Andrej. “They’re fools,” says a nine-year boy.
Outside, about fifty riot police are getting ready. “I’m here for the fourth time, and I think it’ll be repeated next week,” says one of them. The police are here to prevent a crowd from getting past the walls of the hostel.
Varnsdorf is now seeing a demonstration against the local Roma people every weekend. This time it has been called by Lukas Kohout, who made headlines after travelling round the world pretending to be an assistant to a former Czech foreign minister. In the morning a debate was held in a local cinema between representatives of the town hall and angry local residents who had been at the last demonstration. In the foyer of the cinema two men who had taken part in the last demonstration called out: “We’ve had the Gypsies up to here. We’ll meet them in the square at two and give it to them.”
Miroslav Brož, a spokesman for the initiative Hatred is Not a Solution, accompanied HN reporters to the three-story hostel building. It’s home to people who do not have the money to rent flats, where most of the residents of Varnsdorf live. For each adult the city gets three thousand crowns per month, and per child two thousand.
“It’s not easy to live with them in one place”
“Today we are here to reassure people in the hostel, to keep the kids entertained so they don’t go outside, where something might happen to them,” Brož explains. “The town hall does pay social workers, but they’re not here today,” he sighs.
From out of the rooms peer children and adults. “Lady, when will it end? We want out,” says an angry old woman. She is not a Roma, but she was taken in by the hostel because she was unable to pay normal rent.
“Sure, I understand that people are angry because Gypsies steal and make a mess. And sometimes they kill someone. But they’re not all like that; every coin has two sides,” she explains. “I had a job, a family and a flat, and now I don’t,” she says, explaining why she lives here. Why she lost it all, though, she doesn’t say.
“I’m not surprised that the people of Varnsdorf have issues with the local Roma community,” says a local policeman from the anti-conflict team, describing Varnsdorf’s problem. “It’s not easy to live with them in one place. More and more are moving here, thanks to hostels that entrepreneurs started to set up in a big way.”
A number of local entrepreneurs have started up businesses based on the relocation of social cases. Thanks to the contributions to social housing paid out by the state, they profit, as does the town, which also owns some hostels. The payments are per head, which tends to lead to crowding.
“We’re not just a band of lying thieves”
At the T.G. Masaryk, as the hostel is called, live about a hundred socially disadvantaged people. Most of them are furious that on a sunny Saturday they have to sit indoors, simply not to provoke a conflict.
But a few are scared, too. That was why they did not go to the cinema in the morning to talk over the situation with the rest of the town. “Next time we will have to go and talk about it with those folks. We’re not just a band of lying thieves,” swears a man named Vyskocil and pushes František Godl up to the camera.
“Franta here took a retraining course on basic computer operations. No one took him on. He tried to get on as a field social worker, but failed there too. So here he rots,” Vyskocil shouts in anger…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EIB: 350 Mln to France-Spain Power Interconnector
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 6 — The European Investment Bank (EIB) has undertaken to participate in financing the France-Spain interconnector with a 350 million euros loan to the two operators of the French and Spanish power grids, RTE and REE. This is the first power trans-European interconnector with the ability to convert alternating to direct current very rapidly. This is a major innovative project: the new line will connect the municipalities of Santa Llogaia (near Figueras) and Baixas (near Perpignan) and will be laid entirely underground in 64.5 km of trenches (31 km and Spain 33.5 km in France).
The primary purpose of this new interconnection is to double electricity exchange capacity between Spain and the rest of Europe from 1 400 to 2 800 MW. Specifically, the project will: improve the reliability of the European power supply system; enhance the security of supply for the French and Spanish power grids; at the local level, improve the quality of the power supply for the inhabitants of the Roussillon and Ampurdan regions; promote the production and commercialisation of electricity from renewable energy sources; better integrate the Iberian market into the European electricity market, improving competitiveness and impacting positively on electricity prices in Europe; supply the Spanish section of the future Perpignan-Barcelona high-speed rail line; foster economic and social development in the municipalities either side of the border with substantial benefits for local businesses and employment during the construction of the interconnector. The commercial launch of the interconnector is scheduled for 2014.
The total budget is 700 million euros and the power interconnector is also receiving a 225 million euros EU grant under the European Energy Programme for Recovery.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Predators Good or Bad: A Country Struggles With the Return of the Wolf
For a decade now, wolves have been quietly advancing through eastern Germany and may be making inroads across the entire country. But people still haven’t learned to live with the predator. Some glorify the wolves, others demonize them and many are simply afraid.
They are scenes one might normally expect to see in the Serengeti. But Franz Graf von Plettenberg has the privilege of watching them from his elevated hunting stand in the forests of eastern Germany.
In his case, though, it’s a deer (rather than a gnu) that is walking calmly through the heath, even though the evil killer, a wolf (instead of a lion), is within sight, heading for the forest. It’s as though the potential prey can sense that this wolf has already eaten his fill.
Plettenberg, a forest ranger, is responsible for close to 35,000 hectares (86,450 acres) of state-owned forest and open country. His territory also includes a military training area that became famous as the home of Germany’s first wolf pack in 150 years.
Plettenberg likes the wolf, because it helps him deplete game populations, an important service because too many deer damage the forest. They love to eat the shoots of tender young seedlings and peel off the bark of larger trees and shrubs — none of which is good news for someone interested in making money with timber.
There are, however, many hunters don’t share Plettenberg’s point of view. They see the newcomer as a rival challenging them for prey and for control of the forest. “Until now, when hunters have been challenged to justify what they do, they’ve argued that it’s up to them to do the work of wolves that no longer existed in German forests,” says Plettenberg. But now that wolves have returned, hunters are complaining that they are driving away game.
Meet One-Eye and Sunny
It’s been 10 years since the first pair of wolves crossed the border from Poland and appeared in the sandy and isolated heath of the Oberlausitz military training area in the eastern state of Saxony, where they mated and raised their pups. Two females emerged from this family, which in turn found partners and, since then, have reliably produced new litters year after year.
The two females, which were captured, sedated, fitted with transmitter collars and released, were officially named FT3 and FT1. Scientists have given them more endearing names since then. One female, which has a slight limp and, on the blurred images taken by camera traps, has a dark spot where an eye used to be, was named One-Eye. Today One-Eye sports the belly of an older female between her thin legs. Wolves living in the wild rarely live much longer than One-Eye’s 10 or 11 years.
The other female, One-Eye’s sister Sunny, has been equally productive. Sunny and One-Eye will likely go down in history as the primordial mothers of Germany’s new wolf population. Their clan has been largely responsible for a bounty of some 158 pups. Many of them have died, while others have migrated into the wilds of Eastern Europe. Alan, a son of One-Eye, made it as far as Belarus. Nevertheless, some wolves have remained in Germany and established new families.
Today, close to 90 specimens of Canis lupus are roaming through the eastern German states of Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. One female, Zora, made it almost as far as Hamburg, where her trail disappeared…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Great-Grandmother Leads UK Police on 40km Chase … At Just 16km/h
A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER from London will be banned from driving for one year after leading police officers on what had been dubbed “the world’s slowest police chase”.
During the bizarre low-speed chase, an officer ran alongside 76-year-old Caroline Turner’s blue Ford Fiesta and yelled at her to pull over, The Clacton and Frinton Gazette reported.
The incident began after Turner went the wrong way at a roundabout and proceeded to drive down the wrong side of the road, before correcting herself and merging onto a dual carriageway — followed by three police cars, the London Times said.
The 44km chase lasted nearly an hour, finally ending when police closed the road and formed a rolling roadblock.
An officer got out of his car and ran alongside the pensioner, telling her to pull over.
“It was a surprise to me when he knocked on the window,” Turner said.
The widow, whose husband died five weeks ago, was locked up for a night by police who feared she could kill someone if they let her complete the 97km journey home.
She admitted driving without due care and attention and failing to stop for the police.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Crime: Number of Residents in Athens Declining
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 6 — The number of people living in central Athens has declined by 20% over the last 10 years, according to figures from the recent national census reported by daily Kathimerini. Sources said that there are just over 133,000 people living within the boundaries of the Municipality of Athens. Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis recently expressed concern about the number of people leaving the city and particularly the downtown area, which has been plagued by crime in recent years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kerchers Await Justice
‘We’re all in shock,’ Meredith’s father says
(ANSA) — Rome, October 4 — As Amanda Knox flew home to America Tuesday after being cleared of murdering her Perugia flatmate Meredith Kercher in 2007, the Kercher family said they would continue to seek justice for their slain daughter Knox, 24, and her 27-year-old Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were acquitted Monday night and their respective 26-year and 25-year sentences quashed.
The verdict left Rudy Guede, 24, an Italian-Ivorian drifter, as the only person in jail for the murder.
Guede opted for a fast-track trial separately from Knox and Sollecito and was given a 30-year sentence, later cut to 16 years on appeal, a sentence confirmed by Italy’s court of last instance, the Cassation Court.
In the final verdict against Guede, whose DNA was detected all over the murder house, he was found to have committed the crime “with others”, identified at the time as Knox and Sollecito, during an alleged sex game that got out of hand.
Kercher’s family said they were “stunned” by the verdict.
Talking to reporters in Perugia, they reiterated their confidence in Italian justice but asked “who are the other people responsible” for the death of Kercher, who was 20 when she was found stabbed to death on the night of November 1-2 2007. “Our family is not interested in seeing Amanda or Raffaele in jail, or anyone else who has shown they aren’t guilty,” Meredith’s sister Stephanie told reporters.
“But there’s still the question mark over who else (committed the murder) as well as Rudy.
“It’s not a time for forgiveness,” she added, while her mother Arline said: “I’m not interested in Amanda having her show. Either way, my daughter’s not coming home”.
Meredith’s father John told the Daily Mirror that the acquittal had been “grotesque”.
“We’re all in shock. We would have understood a reduction (in the sentence) but not freeing them”.
The Kerchers said they could “not understand” how a 1,000-page case built up at the original trial in 2009 had been overturned, despite a key DNA report that found earlier evidence unreliable.
They said they, like everyone involved, were keenly awaiting the written explanation for the verdict, which by law must be issued within 90 days. British Prime Minister David Cameron voiced “compassion” for the Kerchers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Interior Minister on Milan’s Nomadic Roma Communities
(AGI) Varese — Interior minister Maroni today clarified that provisions for Roma encampments “must apply” across-the-board.
With Milan’s municipal administration at odds with its Roma community, Roberto Maroni said “we [the government] have established plans for Roma encampments and I expect them to be applied.” Maroni also clarified that he is yet to discuss the issue with the mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, and the he is to discuss developments with Milan’s Prefect, Gian Valerio Lombardi.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bongiorno Quits Over Phone Tap Bill — “Law Muzzles News”
Protests at PDL amendment to ban publication of transcripts before filter hearing
MILAN — The clampdown on electronic eavesdropping, or rather on making the contents known to the general public, is in place and the chair of the justice committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Giulia Bongiorno, has resigned from her position as the bill’s presenter. It is a powerful gesture of protest against the government’s decision to approve the People of Freedom (PDL) amendment that forbids publication of phone taps before the “filter hearing” to weed out penally irrelevant gossip. Just after announcing her resignation, Ms Bongiorno said: “This is a law that rules out any possibility of reporting news by extending publication times out of all proportion. It took two years to arrive at a shared agreement and now that agreement has collapsed at a snap of the prime minister’s fingers. As it stands, the law is unacceptable”. Ms Bongiorno went on: “[Justice minister Angelino — Trans.] Alfano does not come out of this undermined but he should have stood firm despite Berlusconi’s demands”. Ms Bongiorno’s somewhat spectacular move effectively distances the Third Pole to which many in the majority were looking for possible support. It could also induce the executive to impose a vote of confidence for the measure to avoid defections that might jeopardise approval. A decision on this could be taken during Thursday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers.
DI PIETRO: “NAPOLITANO SHOULD SPEAK OUT” — The resignation of the Future and Freedom (FL) parliamentarian ushered in a day that culminated in the press federation demonstration at the Pantheon. During the demonstration, Italy of Values (IDV) leader Antonio Di Pietro called on the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, to send a message to both chambers of parliament. “If not now, when?” said the former public prosecutor, picking up a slogan that had served the women’s movement well in February. Mr Di Pietro added that “people are disgusted. There is a very real risk that protests will turn into social rebellion and that is precisely what we do not want”.
COSTA NEW PRESENTER — In the wake of Ms Bongiorno’s resignation, the PDL’s Enrico Costa was elected as the bill’s new presenter, with the votes of the majority only. Opposition parliamentarians immediately protested. For the Democratic Party (PD), the vote signalled a rift, showing that the Centre-right has no intention of discussing the text…
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ferrari Boss ‘Planning to Enter Politics Later This Year’
Brindisi, 6 Oct. (AKI) — Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo is eyeing a move into Italian politics in December, he told is said to have told businessmen during a a recent visit to Italy’s northeast Veneto region, Adnkronos news agency has learned.
Montezemolo told a meeting of local government representatives in Italy’s southern Puglia region Thursday that political forces on the right and the left in Italy told “two equal and opposite fairytales”.
During to his visit earlier this week to Veneto — one of Italy’s industrial powerhouses — Montezemolo told businessmen he was interested in the 40 percent of Italians “who want a fresh start”.
Italy, burdened with the second highest public debt in Europe, and near-zero economic growth over the past decade, has recently been downgraded by Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s credit ratings agencies.
A welter of sex and graft scandals mainly involving the centre-right have also eroded support for the conservative ruling coalition as well as its handling of the chronically stagnant economy.
Last year, Montezemolo quashed speculation he had political ambitions when he told journalists he intended to continue to focus on Ferrari.
Montezemolo is a successful businessman. Under his seven-year chairmanship of Fiat, Italy’s biggest manufacturer rebounded from near bankruptcy in 2004 to become one of the world’s top carmakers.
In July 2009, Montezemolo founded the think-tank Italia Futura, of which he is president. The think-tank is close to Italian lower house of parliament speaker Gianfranco Fini, a former former key ally of Italy’s conservative prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: LNP Senator on Proportional Representation ‘Blackmail’
(AGI) Rome — Years after the enactment of the current electoral law, its lead proponent downplays his party’s contribution. LNP party minister Roberto Calderoli today sought to underscore that the electoral system which he presented in Parliament — involving a complex mixture of proportional and majority representation, criticised for the discretion it grants political parties in appointing MPs — was the result of allies’ blackmail. Interviewed by public broadcasters RAI during the midday edition of the news, Calderoli said “the Lega [Nord Padania party] and myself favoured the [so-called] Mattarellum [majority system].” The minister for simplification went on to submit that his party was “blackmailed” into presenting the electoral reform proposal by former government coalition allies, the UDC, Alleanza Nazionale and PDL parties.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fiat Goes Its Own Way
“Fiat’s split”, headlines Il Sole 24 Ore: CEO Sergio Marchionne announced on Monday that Italy’s leading car builder will break from Confindustria, the association of Italian entrepreneurs. After months of attrition, the last straw was Confindustria’s decision to sideline a recent norm allowing easy firings after the general strike called last September 6th by CGIL, Italy’s largest trade union.
The Confindustria owned Il Sole strongly condemns Marchionne’s “political” move and advocates the need to settle with CGIL — “a 6-million strong social force, stronger than any party”. Fiat’s hard line on labour reform could endanger social cohesion, “a key asset for Italy’s competitiveness. If we have not yet seen out-of-control indignados like elsewhere there must be a reason”.
On the other side, Fiat-controlled La Stampa defends Marchionne and warns that bowing to unions’ dictates equates to “choosing international irrelevance, to becoming a museum country. Italy must decide if it still wants to play a leading economic role, and it cannot defend collective rights without sacrificing those of the jobless and the young, as is sadly happening”
Anyway it’s an “historic moment”, according to La Repubblica: “For a century Fiat and Confidustria have been one piece. The first used to choose the second’s president. A solid ‘strong power’ that dictated politics to governments. […] As it walks away from Confindustria, Fiat seems set for another exit, much more relevant: an exit from Italy” that Marchionne has often threatened after his takeover of US carmaker Chrysler’s majority share. “The firm has chosen to bet everything on Detroit’s table, and to deal with domestic competition only by means of production and labour cuts. Divorce is on its way”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Daughter Declares Her Father ‘Will Never Quit’
Milan, 5 Oct. (AKI) — Embattled Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will never quit, declared his daughter Marina Berlusconi in an interview with daily Corriere della Sera.
“My father absolutely doesn’t have to quit and will never quit,” she said.
Critics have called for Berlusconi’s resignation saying as his legal woes are an embarrassment to the country and hamper efforts to pull it out of economic stagnation.
Moody’s rating service on Tuesday cut Italy’s debt rating because of worries about its weak economy.
“He won’t quit for many reasons,” Berslusconi said of her father, “In times like this stability if very valuable and I don’t think there is any alternative to this government.”
“But most of all he won’t quit for the respect and love of democracy.”
Berlusconi and many of his supporters say the 75-year-old premier is the victim of persecution by left-wing prosecutors.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Taste of Winter as Abruzzo is Hit by Snow, Hail and Rain
(AGI) Vasto — Abruzzo is being given a taste of winter with heavy rain on the coast, hail in the hills and snow on higher elevations, giving a feeling that autumn has been bypassed.
Snow, which fell this morning in Aquila, covered the Gran Sasso and the Maiella. Slushy snow covered parts of the A24, the Rome-Aquila-Teramo highway, between Assergi (Aquila) and Colledara (Teramo) and on the A25 between Pescina and Cocullo (Aquila). Snow also made its presence known at Schiavi di Abruzzo (Chieti), a town almost 1,200 meters above sea level.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Special Report: Why Do Intelligent Young Women Who Are Nurses, Teachers and Mothers Drink Themselves to Oblivion Every Night Across Britain?
But as I found out on the streets of Cardiff after midnight, many of these women are — by day at least — well qualified pillars of the community. Among them I met teachers, nurses, occupational therapists, personnel professionals and full-time mothers, all determined to shake off responsibility and have fun in the only way they know how. By getting ‘smashed’.
[…]
New figures show that alcohol misuse costs the nation £7.3 billion in crime and antisocial behaviour and that one woman in five drinks at levels hazardous to health (more than 14 units each week).
I went looking for the answer to the real question: Why? In a series of raw but illuminating interviews, I discovered that beyond the superficial bravado, their nights of booze-fuelled excess make them anything but happy — but they still have no intention of changing.
[…]
Psychotherapist Adrianna Irvine believes that regular binge-drinking feeds on buried feelings of depression. She argues that many of these young women can’t communicate this to me because they are unaware of it themselves.
[…]
Like most women I interview, she is adamant that she ‘deserves’ these Saturday night benders. She adds: ‘I have a dog and a boyfriend so I have to be responsible during the week. I don’t drink during the week. I save it all up for a Saturday night and then I think, “I’ll do what I want.”‰’
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Nuclear Future Could Hinge on Thorium
The Senate votes at the end of the month on the future of Swiss energy — but while the anti-nuclear camp thinks the nuclear option is dead, not everyone is so sure.
A new generation of reactors could be fuelled by thorium, seen by its supporters as safer and producing less of a waste problem.
The disaster at the Japanese nuclear plant at Fukushima earlier this year prompted heart-searching in Switzerland and the government announced in May that it planned to phase out all nuclear power generation in Switzerland by 2034.
The House of Representatives has already agreed, but on Tuesday the Senate Energy Committee modified the proposal, agreeing instead simply to ban the construction of nuclear plants “of the current generation”.
“We are leaving the door open in case new technologies become available in the foreseeable future,” committee president Rolf Schweiger explained to the media.
Social Democrat committee member Didier Berberat is confident that even if the door has been left ajar, there will in fact be no more nuclear power stations in Switzerland.
An expert from the Paul Scherrer Institute — one of Switzerland’s major research centres — told the committee that the technology for the so-called “fourth generation” of nuclear reactors had not yet been mastered, and was unlikely to be available until about 2040-2050.
“Given the time it takes to get plants approved and so on, that takes us to about 2060. In other words, we have buried the nuclear option for 40 or 50 years,” Berberat said.
The modification to the government’s plan was simply “balm to the wounds” of the nuclear lobby to help them “come to terms with the fact that nuclear energy is over”, according to Berberat.
“For us the important thing is that we have to promote renewables and develop an energy strategy without counting on nuclear power.”
Thorium
But Berberat’s assumption that two generations of Swiss will learn to live without nuclear power may not be correct.
One new technology that has leapt into the news in the wake of the Fukushima disaster uses thorium rather than uranium or plutonium as its fuel.
Swiss nuclear expert Bruno Pellaud, a former deputy head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), worked on thorium high temperature reactors (THTRs) in the United States in the 1970s.
“The technology was developed. It was not a dream of the future. Facilities were built,” he told swissinfo.ch.
The method did not take off then for reasons unconnected with the technology, he explained.
In the US, the major problem was that they were not cheaper than the conventional light water reactors (LWRs) that were already familiar. Utility managers balked at committing themselves to paying several billion dollars for something new, when for approximately the same price they could have a plant which they knew would work.
In Germany, where work had been done on the same technology, further development was scuppered by the political decision to phase out nuclear power, he said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tamil Tigers ‘Run’ Weekend Schools for Children in Holland: Police
Front organisations for the Tamil Tigers, the separatist rebel group on Sri Lanka, run at least 21 Saturday schools in the Netherlands, according to a police report.
The report was given to the local authorities organisation VNG earlier this year but has just been made public.
The schools, in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Breda, Eindhoven, Arnhem and Leeuwarden, are ostensibly used to teach children of Tamil origin language, dance and theatre, news agency ANP reports.
Praise
However, the report states the schools also use teaching materials praising the Tamil race, writing about the armed struggle and explaining how humane the Tamils are on the battlefield, ANP says.
The report was aimed at drawing local authority attention to the schools.
The news agency points out that there are similar schools in other countries and private Tamil schools which are not run by support organisations for the terrorist group.
Court
A court in The Hague is currently hearing a case against five men accused of collecting money for the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. They are facing up to 16 years in jail for helping run a terrorist organisation.
The EU put the Tamil Tigers on its official list of terrorist organisations in 2006.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Balkan Delusions of Grandeur
Jutarnji List, Zagreb
In a phenomenon that has emerged in cities as diverse as Skopje, Niš and Split, the states of the former Yugoslavia are been swept by a craze for megalomaniac monuments. Croatian writer Jurica Pavicic examines the vogue for these nationalist monstrosities, and concludes their goal is to rewrite history
Jurica Pavicic
Just a few days before the mayor of Split, Zeljko Kerum, announced the construction of the world’s largest statue of Jesus on the Riva — Split’s seafront boulevard — another local “sherif”, 200 kilometres to the northeast, the Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, accompanied by “his” architect in chief, the illustrious film director Emir Kusturica, officially inaugurated the Kamengrad project in Višegrad, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Kamengrad project will build an ensemble of fake historic buildings in Višegrad, on the banks of the Drina, not far from the landmark made famous in the novel by Ivo Andric (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961), Bridge on the Drina. Like a local Disneyland, Kamengrad is designed to serve as the location for the screen adaptation of Andric’s novel.
Once the film has been shot, the installation, which will cost 30 millions euros, will permanently replace a large section of Old Višegrad, which is so ordinary and Bosnian. “A full gamut of historical periods will be represented, including the Renaissance, which the Turkish invasion prevented from reaching the people of the Balkans,” explains Kusturica, who clearly has his own personal understanding of history.
Sense of brotherhood
Kamengrad and the future statue of Jesus in Split are prime examples of the monument mania that has swept across Balkans in recent times. Now that the guns in this part of the world have fallen silent, architecture has assumed a role in politics, which, by force of circumstance (thank you Europe!), has become less belligerent, but is still imbued with a taste for symbols and outsize proportions.
In Niš in southern Serbia, authorities are planning to build “the world’s largest cross” on a site that is just next to the motorway that traverses the city. In Skopje, Macedonia, work has just been completed on a ghastly piece of kitsch in a similar vein: a forty-metre high bronze of Alexander the Great [which, to avoid further trouble with the Greeks, will officially be called Warrior on a Horse].
In just a few years, the nationalist administration in Macedonia has succeeded in defacing the centre of Skopje, which was a prime example of modern urban planning, designed by Kenzo Tange in the wake of the earthquake in 1960, by transforming it into a park of vulgar sculptures representing “national heroes.” In Split, the mayor has made it clear that he will not be content with his representation of Jesus only, but is also planning to erect statues of Jean-Paul II, and the first Croatian President, Franjo Tudjman, among others.
In western societies monument building, which coincided with the edification of the nation (between the 18th and 20th centuries), aimed to provide the people with an array of images of heroes and myths that would act as a rallying call and help them forget their divisions. Monuments were designed to contribute to a sense of brotherhood that would bind societies and identities together…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes Between Police and Islamists in Tunis
(AGI) Tunis — Clashes have taken place between the police and Islamists protesting against a ban on women wearing the full veil in universities as reported by Reuters. The protest started at the entrance of the capital’s largest university.
The march then moved to the suburbs where clashes took place .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Blogger-Symbol — Arab Spring Ousts Stereotypes
(ANSA) — EVIAN, SEPTEMBER 26 — “They’ve been telling us for years that we weren’t up to it: they were wrong. Now is the time to use the power we already had”. The eyes of Gigi Ibrahim still fire with emotion as the Egyptian blogger and independent journalist, symbol of the revolution, talks about the days of the uprising of Tahrir Square before the amphitheatre of the Evain Global Conference.
The twenty-five-year-old political science graduate, has become, thanks to Twitter, a well-known face of the Arab Spring.
From Al Jazeera to Le Monde, many have told her story and Time magazine has even had her on its cover.
“When an authoritarian regime suppresses the news media, independent journalism becomes a kind of activism,” she explains, reconstructing how the mounting discontent of an entire populace suddenly transformed into an uprising. “When we organised the demonstrations of January 25, to mark the Police Holiday, we weren’t expecting things to turn out as they did.
But on the other hand, a revolution isn’t something you organise or plan. You can’t create a revolution like a Facebook event, and the people reply ‘we’ll be there”. She smiles, but the message she is aiming to get across is a clear one: “The Egyptian revolution was not the Facebook revolution, the revolution of the social networks or of the Internet. It was the people who regained their power”.
“For years now, the Arab World has been portrayed as slow and backward: they told us we weren’t ready for democracy, as if there were a standard template for it. But we have shown that these stereotypes were false ones”. And now, for the future government, “we are creating a new model: we don’t want to follow the course laid out for us by other countries; we want a country where the people govern themselves on their own.” A country that is “civil, not a military state, nor an Islamic state,” which means now opening to extreme Muslims, with the Muslim Brotherhood in the forefront. “For us they are just the other face of the regime: against the revolution and its values.
Today they are pressing for us to hold rushed elections, before the parties representing the voices of the rebellion have time to organise themselves. This is all to their advantage, given that they are a structured organisation which has been used to influencing opinion for decades”.
The protagonists of Tahrir Square are calling for freedom, for themselves but for their Palestinian neighbours as well.
“If I were Israel, I would start asking myself how I can guarantee the Palestinians their rights. Our revolution can only support the Palestinians and the Palestinian State: the Israelis mustn’t underestimate them otherwise it will end in a head-on clash”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: 3 Soldiers Killed in Copts-Army Clashes in Cairo
(AGI) Cairo — At least 3 soldiers have been killed in clashes between the Christian minority and the army in Cairo. Thirty people were also wounded, including 9 Copts. It was reported by the Egyptian state TV. The clashes are taking place just outside the building of the state TV in the district of Maspiro. The Copts are protesting an arson attack on a church in the province of Aswan last week. Some of them reportedly took some weapons from a military vehicle set ablaze.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Violent Chaos in Cairo
Al-Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said “utter chaos” prevailed in the centre of the capital.
Rageh said: “It was supposed to be a peaceful protest, demanding that Coptic rights should be fulfilled. But it soon escalated into violence, with people on balconies pelting the demonstrators with stones, clearly disagreeing with the cause of the Coptic demonstrators.”
The Christian protesters said their demonstration began as a peaceful attempt to sit in at the television building. But then, they said they came under attack by thugs in plainclothes who rained stones down on them and fired pellets.
“The protest was peaceful. We wanted to hold a sit-in, as usual,” Essam Khalili, a protester wearing a white shirt with a cross drawn on it, said.
“Thugs attacked us and a military vehicle jumped over a sidewalk and ran over at least 10 people. I saw them.”
Wael Roufail, another protester, corroborated the account.
“I saw the vehicle running over the protesters. Then they opened fired at us,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Hundreds of Thousands Still Arriving in Tunisia
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 6 — Hopes that the outcome of the war in Libya would somehow slow the exodus to Tunisia were flatly refuted by figures on arrivals to refugee camps, which in the month of September received at least 10,000 people per day, with a total of over 400,000 at the Ras Jedir border post alone. The situation is putting extreme financial and logistical pressure on Tunisia, which is also organising elections for the Constituent Assembly (October 23), which is taking resources from the state’s coffers as well as manpower from the Ministries of Defence and the Interior. There is currently no official data on the balance between arrivals and departures of Libyans in Tunisia, which can be divided into two large categories: those without any financial problems and those who have serious economic issues. The former are the people who in the first months of the war swarmed the European areas of Tunis, hoarding apartments rented in blocks of four or five and paid at the asking price, essentially without any negotiations. Also part of this group are those who opted to stay in four and five-star hotels, where they live without any worries about expenses, according to staff at luxury hotels, who report lavish dinners accompanied by fine wines. But then there are the “others”, the majority, who as soon as the war started to affect their local areas, loaded everything they own into cars and headed for the Tunisian border. After stays of varying lengths of time, they were hosted — and continue to be hosted — by Tunisian families. Public structures also accepted them with open arms. Free medical care, deals on food and clothing (often given away through donations), classes set up for their kids with specific lessons for Libyan children in order to continue with their education regularly. But the situation, which people hoped would ease with the war’s progression (in either direction), has remained the same and people are arriving continually and en masse. But the systems in place to assist these people are beginning to show their first holes. For example, the military hospital of Camp Choucha, which — built thanks to funds from the United Arab Emirates — treated thousands of refugees and fighters from both sides who arrived in Ben Guardane, closed its doors. And the camps that are operational still have many needs, and Tunisia has had to undertake the construction of a water conduit in an extremely short span of time to provide refugees with better sanitary conditions. Their financial efforts have been considerable, including outfitting accommodation structures with everything needed, including personnel and safety. But for how long can Tunisia continue to shoulder this burden?
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Riots Erupt as Christians Protest in Cairo, 1 Dead
Update: Egyptian TV update now reporting 2 soldiers dead and 30 wounded by Coptic Christians who fired on them — NBC
CAIRO (AP) — Riots erupted in Cairo Sunday night as Christians protesting a recent attack on a church came under assault by thugs who rained stones down on them and fired pellets. Two soldiers were killed in the melee, according to state television, and a number of military vehicles were burning on a scenic street along the Nile.
Gunshots rang out at the scene outside the state television building, where lines of riot police with shields tried to hold back
tried to hold back hundreds of Christian protesters chanting “This is our country.” Thick black smoke filled the air from the burning vehicles. Security forces eventually fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.
An Interior Ministry official at the scene told The Associated Press that two people had been killed, but he did not say who they were or how they died. State television said 30 soldiers were injured.
Thugs with sticks chased the Christian protesters from the site, banging metal street signs to scare them off. One soldier collapsed in tears as ambulances rushed to the scene to take away the injured. Television footage of the riots showed some of the Coptic protesters attacking a soldier, while a priest tried to protect him.
The trouble began when thousands of Coptic Christians protesting the latest attack on a church in southern Egypt came under attack as they chanted denunciations of Egypt’s military rulers, whom they accuse of leniency in dealing with a series of anti-Christian attacks.
“The people want to topple the field marshall,” the protesters yelled, referring to the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi.
The rally began in the Shubra district of northern Cairo, then headed to the state television building overlooking the Nile where men in plainclothes attacked the Christian protesters. It was not immediately clear who the attackers were.
Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority makes up about 10 percent of the country’s population of more than 80 million people. As Egypt undergoes a chaotic power transition and security vacuum in the wake of this year’s uprising, Christians are particularly worried about the increasing show of power by the ultraconservative Islamists.
“Our protest is peaceful and I don’t know why they attack us,” said Rami Kamel, a Coptic protest leader.
In the past weeks, riots have broken out at two churches in southern Egypt, prompted by Muslim crowds angry over church construction. One riot broke out near the city of Aswan, even after church officials agreed to a demand by local ultraconservative Muslims, called Salafis, that a cross and bells be removed from the building.
Aswan’s governor, Gen. Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, further raised tensions by telling the media that the church was being built on the site of a guesthouse, suggesting it was illegal.
Kamal, the protester, said the Copts demand the ouster of the governor, reconstruction of the church, compensation for people whose houses were set on fire and prosecution of those behind the riots and attacks on the church.
Last week, security forces used force to disperse a similar protest in front of the state television building. Christians were angered by the treatment of the protesters and vowed to renew their demonstrations until their demands are met.
In other developments, the ruling military council ordered a halt to trials of civilians before military courts known for swift and harsh verdicts. The military trials have drawn harsh condemnation from protesters and youthful activists behind the uprising, who claim that reform is not coming fast enough or extensively enough.
However, those who violate military laws, such as assaulting servicemen or damaging military installations, would still be referred to military tribunals.
Rights groups say at least 11,000 civilians have been tried before military tribunals since the February ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Tantawi chairs a military council that took control of the country from Mubarak with pledges to return Egypt to civilian rule after a transition period.
The rights groups also claim the military tortures detainees.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Taxi Drivers: Joy for Tunisians, Burden for Foreigners
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, SEPTEMBER 29 — They may be what strikes first-time visitors of Tunis the most: thousands of yellow taxi cabs almost all produced by a couple of manufacturers (the legacy of yet another monopoly of the Ben Ali family), zipping through the streets of the capital, including those least travelled, at all hours of the day and night. The are the only vehicles that manage to cope with the traffic in the old section of Tunis and the tumultuous suburbs, and little does it matter if every so often have their own interpretation of the rules of the road, travelling against traffic on streets and even major thoroughfares, not to mention hair-raising U-turns on the clearway for anyone who is unaccustomed. But while for locals (who jump aboard for short journeys, even just for a few hundred metres) taxi drivers are a part of life and even have an important social role, they often become problematic for foreigners, at times downright worrying, and often a trap or source of distress. This is because when a foreigner hails a cab- especially just after arriving at the Carthage Airport — the use of the metre becomes optional and a surcharge is requested at the end of the ride, a practice that never occurs with locals. And this “surcharge” often doubles the reading on the metre, all with cab drivers who speak almost exclusively Tunisian dialect while throwing in a bit of French. English? Not a chance. Driving a cab is a highly-coveted yet extremely taxing profession, where earnings depend on the number of trips and certainly not on their length, and the “battle for licenses” has made it all the way to the Kasbah, government headquarters, fought by those who see their own future assured inside of those yellow vehicles. The situation is as embarrassing as it is frequent, and even drew the attention of French foreign ministry magazine “Le Moniteur du Commerce International”, which in a story on the North African country included a number of comments that read more like a series of warnings to avoid being scammed. Saying that it’s the same the whole world over is cliché and does not escape Tunisia with its cab drivers who, warned “Le Moniteur du Commerce International”, are extremely skilled with foreign fares and in applying the highest price (from 9pm to 5am) outside of this timeframe with a quick trick of the fingers on the metre to increase the rate. Oftentimes, generalisations can trivialise an existing problem which involves a lack of regulations by the authorities responsible its control. One final piece of news for foreigners getting into Tunisian taxis: no receipts are issued at the end of the trip, with no reimbursements for your expenses in sight.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Government Gives Municipalities Extra Funds
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, SEPTEMBER 28 — In a period in which economic saving measures mainly hit local bodies, Tunisia goes against the trend and allocates extra funds to its municipalities to support their actions. The municipalities will receive a total of 149 million dinars (around 75 million euros), as the general director of Local Communities, Hédi Zakhama, announced.
Part of these funds could be used for programmes against illegal construction, which has become a widespread phenomenon and which municipalities have started to fight. Zakhama has in fact announced that 3476 illegal constructions will be taken down.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: No to Student Wearing Niqab, Hard-Liners Protest
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 7 — The University of Sousse’s refusal to admit a girl wearing the niqab to its Literature Faculty has been violently challenged by a group of people who invaded halls and offices on the site, terrorising teachers, students and staff.
The news was reported this morning by the TAP agency. Students and professors signed a petition against further episodes of religious intolerance in universities, demanding the ban on the niqab to be upheld and the struggle “against all forms of religious fanaticism”.
A few days ago, the Forum of Tunisian university students made a similar appeal after an increasing number of demonstrations of intolerance by Islamic fundamentalists.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Secular-Islamic Clash Shifts to Universities
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 7 — Signs hinting that the counterposition in Tunisia between those strongly supporting the secular nature of the State and those advocating an immediate Islamicisation of the society is approaching a delicate moment are more than simply that. The clash — clear in the political sphere — has found potentially explosive new ground in universities, where the country’s future managerial class are being formed, as well as professionals from all fields. To sum it up, the country’s future. The spark may seen trivial — the freedom of women to wear a niqab in the university halls — but is paving the way for a potentially extremely dangerous conflict, since the ‘spirit’ who should be watching over the State’s secularity is the one seemingly absent from the scene, the one not intervening despite the fact of being strongly called upon to do so.
What happened yesterday in the Sousse university is emblematic. The rejection of a girl wanting to sign up at the Languages and Humanities Faculty because she was wearing a niqab sparked a wild reaction by dozens of fundamentalists who broke into the university, threatening and sowing panic. It is an act which, though seemingly caused by a contingent incident, is but the latest seeing extremists using force to support what they believe to be right. At stake is not only the freedom of the individual to do what they want with their body, hiding it as do girls wearing a niqab, as much as the fact of it being seen by the secular part of society as an insult to women’s conditions in Tunisia, the latest confirmation of there being underway a clear attempt to prevent taking any steps backward, as well as a clear turnaround compared with Tunisian legislation which — first in the Arab world — introduced gender equality in the 1950s. The Sousse “expedition” into a humanities faculty is no coincidence either, since walking the walls of Tunisia’s scientific and technical faculties there are very few veiled women, and the few who are simply use a headscarf to cover their hair but not their faces. It is a situation which led the Forum of Tunisian University Students to launch an appeal to the authorities to guarantee that Islamic extremism remain outside places of study. The reason is simple enough, since secular students support — with the grounds to do so — that the use of the full veil is not part of Tunisian traditions, history, or culture, and that those wanting the green light for the niqab are influenced by foreign ideas. In this way they are confirming that political “players” on the country’s political and social scene are not all Tunisian. This, on the eve of the incredibly important election set for late October, is triggering an exponential rise in fears for the future.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Salafi Fundamentalists Attack Private TV Station
(AGI) Tunis — A group of 300 Tunisians — allegedly Salafis — attacked the premises of private TV broadcaster Nessma in Tunis. According to the station’s chief, Nebil Karoui, the mob tried to set fire to the premises in response to the channel’s airing of of the movie ‘Persepolis’ last Friday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Video Shows Egyptian Police Beating a Christian Protester
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — On October 4 thousands of Copts staged a peaceful rally to protest the September 30 torching by Muslims of St. George’s Church in Elmarinab, Edfu, Aswan province. They marched through the streets of Cairo, passing by the High Court and ending outside the state TV building in Maspero, where they intended to stage an open-ended sit-in, as announced by the Maspero Coptic Youth Union and Copts without Barriers, which organized the rally.
After a couple of hours, the military and police, together with Central Security personnel brutally forced the eviction of the protesters. The forces fired gunshots in the air to terrorize the protesters, who were beaten with batons. A priest, Father Mattias Nasr, was pushed to the ground and beaten. Mobile phones and cameras were confiscated from anyone trying to take photos of the assault.
Video footage taken from the balcony of a nearby building surfaced later on youtube, it showed the military and police beating 28-year-old Copt Raef Anwar Fahim, who had the misfortune to stumble while fleeing and was left behind by his colleagues who were being chased by the police in the surrounding streets.
“I was the last one behind, a policeman hit me with a baton on the shoulder and I fell,” he said. “They were firing live ammunition. In a manner of seconds over 15 policemen attacked me.”
The video shown by most media in Egypt. The clip showed 15-20 officers and policemen beating, dragging, kicking and swearing at Raef. They were shouting anti-Christian slogans and curses at him, such as “You infidel, son of a bitch.”
“I could feel their anger. They beat me like I was an enemy, as if I was an Israeli soldier,” Raef told The Way Christian TV.
Father Filopateer Gamil, one of the organizers of the rally, said “having lost consciousness because of the beating, the police thought Raef was dead, so they left him in the street.” He was later found and transported by some Coptic youths to the Coptic Hospital.
He had thirty stitches in his head, a broken arm and lacerations caused from being dragged along the streets.
It was reported that an officer in civilian clothes named Mohamad Ismail led the beating campaign against Raef.
“The video is a clear depiction of the brutality and religious intolerance, not to say deep hatred by the forces against a peaceful unarmed Christian demonstrator,” commented activist and writer Nabil Abdelfattah..
Dr. Naguib Gabriel, head of The Egypian Union of Human Rights Organization, will file a court case against the Prime Minister, the Interior Minister and those in charge of the military police, on charges of torturing Raef, “whose only crime was that he was a Coptic young man peacefully protesting the torching of his church.”
Father Mattias Nasr, who was also beaten, has filed a complaint against Major El-Tamaty, assistant to the chief of the military police, who had witnessed the assault on the priest.
Attorney Karam Gabriel filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General against Field Marshall Tantawi as Minister of Defense and the Minister of Interior, accusing them of willful torture of an Egyptian Christian citizen. He also demanded the involved officers to stand trial before a military court..
A million-man rally is planned for tomorrow by Copts and supporting parties.
Raef has vowed to be present at the rally, whatever the consequences.
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
Fincantieri: Contract Signed With UAE Navy
(ANSAMmed) — DUBAI, OCTOBER 03 — Fincantieri and the United Arab Emirates Navy signed an additional contract during the visit by Italian Economic Development Minister Paolo Romani. The new contract includes extra tests and upgrades for the surface and subsurface weapon systems of the anti-submarine corvette of the Cigala Fulgosi class of the Italian navy, and two Stealth patrol ships that are under construction at the group’s shipyard in Liguria. The three ships, ordered in 2009 and 2010, will be delivered between the second half of 2012 and the beginning of 2013. The order includes has an option on a second corvette and four more patrol ships, with logistic support.
“Fincantieri represents the best of Italian industry and I am pleased to witness this new success,” said Minister Romani. “I ask the company to continue its ongoing search for higher efficiency, in order to reach new goals in an ever more competitive market.” The group led by Giuseppe Bono, who has been working successfully with the UAE Navy for three years now, has also created a joint venture in the country with the Al Fattan shipyard. Goal of this move is to increase the company’s chances of penetrating the Gulf area markets by building ships locally, and at the same time supplying support services to the Navy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: EU Financing Project for Palestinian Refugee Homes
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, SEPTEMBER 30 — Angelina Eichhorst, who is leading the EU delegation to Beirut, and Filippo Grandi, the general commissioner of the UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, have signed an agreement that will see the EU provide 12 million euros for improvements to the homes of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
The project, which will last two years and runs until 2013, is financed with funds from the Stability Instrument, which allows the European Union to respond to crises. The same method was used by the EU between 2008 and 2009 to finance the reconstruction in the north of Lebanon of the Nahr el Bared refugee camp, which was destroyed in the summer of 2007 during fighting between Al Qaeda-linked fighters from Fatah Al Islam and the Lebanese army.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: EU Criticises Fine for Womanising Sultans on TV
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 5 — The European Commission has reportedly criticised the limited freedom of expression in Turkey, referring to a well-known Turkish television serial that was fined for depicting the Ottoman sultans the country is so proud of as drunks and womanisers. The news is reported by the much-read Turkish newspaper Milliyet, which cites the chapter on Turkey of the report the European Commission is preparing to release on the EU enlargement process. The dossier, according to the newspaper, claims that despite some changes to its laws, Turkey has made only partial progress in protecting freedom of expression. The report mentions the example of the fine that was given to the producers of the popular series “Muhteshem Yuzyil”, the “Magnificent Century”. The serial was launched last year and has led to heated debate because it describes the life of Ottoman sultans as “lovers of alcohol and women,” Milliyet writes today. The first series started in September 2010 and was about harems, and people drinking heavily: too much for a “99% Muslim” country, as the Islamic-moderate Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan likes to underlined. Erdogan is known for not drinking alcohol, and he has dedicated part of this year’ electoral campaign to running down the erotic affairs of members of a competing party who were caught by illegal wire taps. After the fine, the bearded protagonists of the serial continue to fill the screens with their tents and horses, but they are no longer drinking and the women are fully covered and keeping a low profile. The fine is part of a “neo-Ottoman” revival, mainly exhibitions, accompanying a trend in foreign policies that makes Turkey’s influence felt in countries it considers to be allies, because they were once part of the Sublime Porte Empire: from Algeria to Iraq, from Somalia to the Balkan area and the steppes of the former Soviet states. However, protecting the image of the Ottoman sultans on television, according to officials in Brussels, harms people’s freedom of expression, one of the various points of weakness in the Turkish democracy. This problem has already been addressed several time by the European Commission, the European Council, Amnesty International and the Turkish social-democrat opposition. Censorship on internet and the dozens of imprisoned journalist only confirm the criticism that is denied by the government. The government on the other hand claims that internet filters are needed to protect children from pornography, and that the reporters in prison have collaborated with military coup attempts against Erdogan. The Commission has taken the liberty of passing judgment on Turkey because the country has been a candidate to join the EU since 1999. Negotiations with Turkey were started in 2005 and immediately broken off, because of Cypriot vetoes and French-German objections, despite the fact that Italy and the UK believe Turkey can give a strategic contribution to the European construction.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Beer Sector Adds 1.6 Bln Euros to State’s Budget
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 7 — The beer sector contributed 1.6 billion euros to Turkey’s public revenues in 2010, representing a 23% increase from 2009’s 1.3 billion euros in revenues, according to a report released Wednesday and published by daily Hurriyet. The figure is calculated as the sum of revenues after corporate tax, value added tax, special consumption tax, social security contributions and taxes on wages paid by the sector, according to the report on the “Contribution of the Beer Sector to the Turkish Economy,” which was conducted by the Beer and Malt Producers’ Association, or BMUD, and prepared by Ernst & Young. The public revenues collected from the beer sector in Turkey are much higher compared to those in other European countries, according to the report.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Catholic Jailed in the Maldives Over a Bible and a Rosary
Shijo Kokkattu, a 30-year-old teacher, was betrayed by his colleagues because he accidentally left a picture of Our Lady and some Marian songs on a school computer. Islam is state religion in the Maldives, where there is no freedom of worship. For Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, religious intolerance and injustice are the “worst form of persecution”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Shijo Kokkattu, an Indian Catholic from Kerala, has been languishing in a Maldives prison for more than a week because he had a Bible and a rosary at his home. Both items are banned on the archipelago.
“The lack of justice and the degree of religious intolerance” on the islands “are reflected by the actions of the Maldives government,” said Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). “This is the worst form of religious persecution. The Indian government should demand an apology for the shabby treatment inflicted on one of its citizens.”
Islam is state religion in the Maldives. There is no freedom of worship. In 2008, a constitutional amendment denied non-Muslims the right to obtain Maldivian citizenship.
Shijo, 30, has taught at Raafainu School on Raa Atoll for the past two years. Recently, whilst transferring some data from his pen drive to the school laptop, he accidentally copied Marian songs and a picture of Mother Mary into the system. Some teachers reported the matter to the police who raided his home and found a Bible and a rosary in his possession.
Shijo Kokkattu’s case shows the paradox of the Maldives, a nation that “claims to be a major tourist destination, yet arrests innocent people,” George said. “This shows its intolerance and discrimination towards non-Muslims as well as its restrictions on freedom of conscience and religion.”
“Religious freedom remains a taboo on the archipelago,” the GCIC president explained. “Muslims refuse all other forms of worship other than the one approved by the state. Doing the opposite means arrest. Kneeling, folding one’s hands or using religious symbols like crosses, candles, pictures or statues can lead to government action.”
For George, “All this is a clear violation of universal human rights. If Muslims living in non-Muslim countries can enjoy religious rights, the spirit of reciprocity should apply to countries like the Maldives and Saudi Arabia.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Karnataka: Police Force Closure of Two Pentecostal Churches
It happened in the districts of Hassan and Bangalore. Behind reports from Hindu extremists, local police accused the pastors of not having permission to worship and of practicing forced conversions. Since the beginning of 2011, 36 anti-Christian incidents in Karnataka. Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC): “Reign of terror against the Christian minority continues.”
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Out of a population of 52.8 million people in Karnataka, Christians are little more than a million. Yet “Hindu extremists with the complicity of the authorities continue their reign of terror against defenseless a Christian community”, says Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). His comments come on the heels of the closure of two Pentecostal churches in the districts of Hassan and Bangalore, on 25 September. In both cases, the police intervention followed complaints from radical Hindu groups. With these latest episodes, the number of anti-Christian attacks in Karnataka in 2011 alone now stand at 36.
Since 2008 the Government of Karnataka is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ultra-nationalist party that supports groups and movements of Hindu extremists belonging to the Sangh Parivar, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or the Bajrang From.
In the district of Bangalore, the police took into custody Hulimavu the pastor of Church of God Full Gospel, based on numerous complaints that accuse him of not having permission to carry out regular worship and of practicing forced conversions. According to the president of the GCIC, during the interrogation the police inspector Balram Gowda “threatened the pastor in a clear fashion and ordered to close the church or he would be arrested.”
The same day in Bagesafleshpur (Hassan district), Hindu extremists stormed the Pentecostal Church End Times Full Harvest Church, beating Pastor John Frederick D’Souza and some ladies who tried to intervene, ripping Bibles from the hands of those present and throwing them on the ground. Then, the attackers called the police, who on arriving ordered the pastor to end the prayer service and close the church. Again, the police claimed a lack of regular religious practice permits and forced conversions.
“The Pentecostal pastors were systematically beaten and threatened — Sajan George charges — dragged into police stations with false accusations; arrested and locked up. Often without even the option of bail. And now, the followers of these churches have no Sunday service. “
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: President Asks Army to Work With Police to Combat Terror
Jakarta, 5 Oct. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked the Indonesian military (TNI) to cooperate with national police in efforts to combat terrorism.
“The TNI must develop a synergy with the police to fight terrorism in our country. The TNI has a duty as stipulated in the law to support the police in tackling terrorism,” Yudhoyono said.
He made the remarks in his speech during celebrations of the 66th anniversary of the Indonesian Military, in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Yudhoyono added that he had instructed security officers to take action immediately, including through preventive measures, to curb terrorism.
“Prevent another terrorist attack from occurring,” he said.
A suspected suicide bombing occurred at the a church in Surakarta, Central Java in September, in which dozens were injured. Police suspect the bombing was linked to previous suspected terrorist attacks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepali Muslims Ask Christians for Help Against Hindu Extremism
Catholics express full solidarity but Muslim leaders opt for silence. Faizan Ahmad’s widow slams her community for its fear to talk about her murdered husband’s case. Nepali Islamic Sangh President Najrul Hasan Falahi calls for “a fair and immediate investigation”. Christians are committed to minority rights.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — “I call on Catholics and all Christians in the country to join us in fighting for minority rights and a secular state,” said Najrul Hasan Falahi, president of the Nepali Islamic Sangh. He also wants a fair and immediate investigation into the murder of Faizan Ahmad, his organisation’s secretary general.
On 26 September, two unidentified men shot dead the Muslim leader as he left a mosque (see Kalpit Parajuli, “Nepal, Muslim leader shot to death while leaving a mosque,” in AsiaNews, 27 September 2011). Catholics and other minority groups responded to the act by expressing their full solidarity and publicly calling for minority rights to be enshrined in the new constitution.
Ahmad’s widow, Meher Banu Faizan, slammed the silence of Muslim leaders and of her community over her husband’s death.” They are afraid to talk, but I don’t care about my life if no one can help me.” She said. “I don’t care if my husband’s murderers also kill me. I want to bring them to justice.”
According to her, police is feeding the fear because instead of trying to find the culprits they are trying to lay blame on party insiders.
Former Nepali Islamic Sangh president Gulam Rasul Miya said that police should focus on the investigation rather than interrogating party members and complicating things.
“Five innocent Muslim leaders have been arrested and tortured by police because they demanded a fair and immediate investigation.” For him, “all minorities must fight together and protect one another.”
Meanwhile, Catholic leaders are engaged in special initiatives to protect religious minorities. They want changes to certain parts of the new civil and penal codes, if not their outright removal.
Parliament must still debate a bill that would impose heavier penalties on evangelical activities in the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Fear Grips Satellite Town Schools as 60 Men Beat Up Students for Dressing ‘Inappropriately’
RAWALPINDI: In a first for the garrison city, sixty masked men carrying iron rods barged into a girls’ school in Rawalpindi and thrashed students and female teachers on Friday.
The gang of miscreants also warned the inmates at the MC Model Girls High School in Satellite Town to “dress modestly and wear hijabs” or face the music, eyewitnesses said.
Fear gripped the area following the attack and only 25 of the 400 students studying in the college were present on Saturday. The school employs 30 female teachers.
Attendance in other educational institutions also remained low. After hearing about the attack, all schools in the city shut down, an official of the Rawalpindi District Administration (RDA) told The Express Tribune.
A student of the girls’ school managed to inform the administration of the nearby boys’ high school of the attack. “[However,] the armed gang was so powerful that we could not rescue our teachers and colleagues over there,” Noail Javed, a grade 10 student, said.
In-charge of MC High Schools in Rawalpindi issued a notification to the heads of all girls’ schools to take pre-emptive measures to avoid such incidents in future. According to the notification, a gang comprising 60 to 70 miscreants entered into the school from a gate that was “strangely open”.
All the MC school heads were assigned the responsibility of protecting the students by the notification. A school headmistress wishing not to be named said, “How is it possible for us to protect the students from such elements. The city administration should review its security plan.”
The notification also suggested that the heads should not inform the students about the situation, so that they are not alarmed into skipping school. “Police is investigating the matter,” the notification said. Following the notification, the heads of the schools also shared the numbers of relevant police stations with the teachers in case of any untoward situation in future.
Asjad Ali, a student of class 9 at the nearby boys’ high school, said that his younger brother Awais, a student of grade 5, was also among those who were brutally beaten by the miscreants with iron rods. “The police did not come,” he said.
A police official of the New Town Police Station, asking for anonymity, told The Express Tribune, “We were under strict instructions to do nothing.”
District Education Officer Qazi Zahoor and Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed were not immediately available for comments.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Pope Urges Freedom for Indonesia’s Christians
Vatican City, 7 Oct. (AKI) — Pope Benedict XVI on Friday appealed for religious freedom and tolerance for Christians in Indonesia, where Muslim extremists have carried out attacks on churches, opposed their construction and tried to shut them down.
“Indonesia’s constitution guarantees the fundamental human right of freedom to practice one’s religion,” the pontiff told a delegation of Indonesian bishops visiting the Vatican.
“The freedom to live and preach the Gospel can never be taken for granted and must always be justly and patiently upheld. Nor is religious freedom merely a right to be free from outside constraints,” Benedict said.
“It is also a right to be authentically and fully Catholic, to practice the faith, to build up the Church and to contribute to the common good,” he added.
The pope urged the bishops to foster inter-religious dialogue in overwhelmingly Muslim Indonesia, where Christians are a religious minority.
“Your country, so rich in its cultural diversity and possessed of a large population, is home to significant numbers of followers of various religious traditions”, he said.
Muslims form 86.1 percent of the population , protestants 5.7 percent, Roman Catholic 3 percent, Hindus 1.8 and other religions 3.4 percent of the population in the ethnically diverse nation of 245.6 million people, according to the last census in 2000.
“By doing everything possible to ensure that the rights of minorities in your country are respected, you further the cause of tolerance and mutual harmony in your country and beyond,” Benedict concluded.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Pro-Immigration Mayor Resigns Over Threats
The mayor of a small town in northern Switzerland has left office after positive comments he made about immigrants were met with insults and threats directed at his family.
Josef Bütler, the mayor of Spreitenbach, made the decision after he discovered that defending the integration of immigrants in Switzerland can turn into a nightmare. More than half of the town’s 11,000 inhabitants are of foreign origin.
On August 24th, Bütler participated on the TV show Schweiz Aktuell. Asked about the high proportion of foreigners in Spreitenbach, the Christian Democract praised the coexistence of Swiss and foreigners and said that for him immigration represented a “challenging enrichment.”
It was this remark that provoked an anonymous campaign of hate against Bütler. After his appearance on TV, he received several insulting phone calls and had threats made against him and his family.
No longer able to resist the pressure, he made his resignation official late last week. Bütler had been mayor of Spreitenback since 2006.
“As a father, I must and will protect my private environment,” he said on Monday, again on the show Schweiz Aktuell. He also explained that his decision had come after long and intensive reflection.
February 29th will be his last day heading Spreitenbach. Council members across the political spectrum condemned the anonymous threats and expressed their dismay over Bütler’s resignation.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PD Programme to Include Vote for Immigrants and Gay Unions
(AGI) Rome — PD leader Pierluigi Bersani has presented his party’s programme. “The PD will run for the next elections presenting a programme with clear contents and points. I’m thinking about the approval of a law against homophobia and transphobia, the recognition of gay unions, granting the right to vote to newly arrived citizens, a good law on living will that may prevent distorting the rights of the sick person and a serious enforcement of laws supporting disabled people”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
The "intelligent" young women drinking themselves senseless in Britain are Western women of prime child-bearing age.
One has to wonder how this trend affects the incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome in Britain?!
And then, of course, abortion....
I am an ardent "feminist" BUT this behavior appears to be the direct result of modern Western societal devaluation of full-time wife and motherhood as a valued profession.
I believe that the depression of these women stems from the Peter Pan men who refuse to commit to a sensible family life because the state will subsidize the children who result from their profligate sexual affairs.
So, we see the ugly result of the death spiral of Western society from the stable nuclear family to public sex with strangers on the sidewalk.
Claiming a nebulous benefit to "stigmatized" children, Western society now refuses to judge or penalize loose morals - with the result that loose morals are now the standard of Western society!
How do Western children benefit from this societal change?!
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